Entries from January 2009 ↓

Nous sommes invités ce matin de méditer sur le baptême de Jésus. St Marc, l’évangéliste nos raconte cet événement, succinctement dans son style, tout au début de son récit car nous sommes au premier chapitre de sa bonne nouvelle. Est-ce que c’est bien pour poser la base de son enseignent ?

Pourquoi faut t il Lui, le sauveur être baptisé? Que signifie cette action de notre Dieu, Jésus ?

Le témoignage d’humilité de Jean Baptiste cadre la dimension de la personne annoncée qu’il annonce. Le grand, le tout puissant, l’être suprême. Notre Dieu créateur nous arrive. Le saint homme, Jean Baptiste, lui-même n’est pas digne de courber à ses pieds pour défaire la courroie de ses sandales. Et moi, qui ne suis un pauvre pécheur, quelle révérence devrais-je avoir rien qu’en pensant et de s’approcher de notre Seigneur Jésus ? Je suis en émoi d’y penser de l’écart qui me distance de Jésus et qui pourtant par son amour infini, Dieu le Père, et Jésus me traitent de frère et à parité avec Jésus pour être comme Lui fils de Dieu. Il vient pour me montrer la voie, l’exemple à suivre : mon modèle.

Comme Lui, il m’appelle d’être baptisé dans l’eau. Ce passage dans l’eau vive pour être lavé des mes souillures, de ma condition d’homme pour rejaillir comme dignes fils de Dieu. Le baptême est ainsi pour moi, cette invitation de me laver de mes fautes pour rejoindre mon sauveur, Jésus, le bien- aimé de tous les fils de Dieu.

Si je m’identifie avec Jésus et que j’ai le souhait et la volonté d’être comme lui, mon baptême sera une éternelle répétition du baptême de Jésus. Chaque fois que je reconnaitrai ma condition l’homme, j’accepte de me laisser plonger dans l’eau du Jourdain pour être ravivé et purifié de mes écarts, mon baptême d’eau se changera en baptême d’Esprit. Je sortirai de l’eau pour vivre le moment que le ciel se déchire et que la colombe, l’esprit m’infuse. J’aurai droit á l’amour eternel.

Merci mon doux Jésus, fils du Dieu vivant, de m’avoir donné la béatitude de méditer avec toi ton baptême à travers les écrits de ton apôtre Marc. Pour quelques instants, j’étais submergé de ta présence au bonheur infini … Accorde moi de rester en éveil de Ta présence pour toujours….

Je vous livre une interview du professeur José María Simón Castellví, président de la Fédération internationale des associations des médecins catholiques (FIAMC) que je trouve très éclairant. Outre les considérations morales ou religieuses, l’impact sur la nature et l’écologie m’inquiète.

ZENIT – Les détracteurs de l’encyclique Humanae vitae soutiennent que contraceptif rime avec émancipation de la femme, progrès, santé médicale et environnementale. Mais selon vos recherches, tout cela est faux. Pourriez-vous nous expliquer pourquoi ?

Simón Castellví – Les contraceptifs ne sont, ni pour les femmes, ni pour la planète, un véritable progrès. Je comprends, et je suis solidaire des femmes qui ont donné la vie à beaucoup d’enfants, mais la solution ne réside pas tant dans la contraception que dans la régulation naturelle de la fertilité. Elle respecte la femme et les hommes. Selon des recherches scientifiques, la pilule pollue et dans beaucoup de cas elle empêche la nidation, et est donc abortive.

ZENIT – Les recherchent soutiennent que la pilule appelée « anovulatoire », la plus utilisée, qui contient de faibles doses d’hormones oestrogènes et de progestogènes, a souvent un effet anti-nidation, c’est-à-dire abortif. Est-ce vrai ?

Simón Castellví – C’est vrai. Actuellement, la pilule contraceptive appelée « anovulatoire » a souvent un effet anti-nidation, c’est-à-dire abortif, parce qu’elle expulse un petit embryon humain. Et l’embryon, même les premiers jours, est différent d’un ovule ou d’une cellule germinale féminine. Sans cette expulsion, l’embryon deviendrait un ou une enfant à tout point de vue. L’effet anti-nidation de cette pilule est reconnu par la littérature scientifique. Les chercheurs le savent, on la trouve dans les notices des produits pharmaceutiques visant à éviter une grossesse, mais cette information n’est pas connue du grand public.

ZENIT – L’étude en question soutient que la grande quantité d’hormones relâchée dans la nature a un effet grave de pollution environnementale qui a une influence sur l’infertilité masculine. Pouvez-vous nous expliquer pourquoi ?

Simón Castellví – Les hormones sont relâchées et diffusées dans la nature. Elles ont un mauvais effet sur le foie, et sont ensuite dispersées dans la nature où elles polluent. Durant toutes ces années d’utilisation de la pilule contraceptive, des tonnes d’hormones ont été relâchées dans l’environnement. Plusieurs études scientifiques affirment que cela pourrait être une des raisons de l’augmentation de l’infertilité masculine. Nous souhaitons que d’autres recherches, plus poussées, soient menées sur les effets polluants des hormones dispersées dans l’environnement.

ZENIT – L’étude élaborée par la FIAMC reprend les préoccupations de l’Agence internationale de recherche sur le cancer (International Agency for Research on Cancer), de l’agence de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) dont le siège est à Lyon, selon lesquelles les pilules qui combinent oestrogènes et de progestogènes peuvent avoir des effets cancérigènes. Pourriez-vous nous parler de la gravité de ces implications ?

Simón Castellví – Il est grave qu’un produit non indispensable à la santé et qui pourrait être cancérigène soit distribué. Ce n’est pas une opinion de médecins catholiques mais de l’agence de l’OMS qui se bat contre la diffusion du cancer. Nous n’avons fait que rapporter leurs préoccupations.

ZENIT – Avec l’association que vous représentez, vous soutenez le caractère prophétique d’Humanae vitae qui a proposé l’utilisation de moyens naturels de régulation de la fertilité. Pouvez-vous nous expliquer pourquoi ?

Simón Castellví – Le pape Paul VI fut prophétique aussi d’un point de vue scientifique. Dans cette encyclique, il a mis en garde contre les dangers de la pilule contraceptive comme le cancer, l’infertilité, la violation des droits de l’homme, etc. Le pape avait raison et beaucoup n’ont pas voulu l’entendre… Pour réguler la fertilité, le recours aux moyens naturels est bien meilleur. Ceux-ci sont efficaces et respectent la nature de la personne.

ZENIT – Dans un article publié dans L’Osservatore Romano (« L’encyclique Humanae vitae Une prophétie scientifique », en date du 4 janvier), vous soutenez que les moyens de contraception violent les droits de l’homme. Pouvez-vous nous préciser lesquels et pourquoi ?

Simón Castellví – Alors que nous fêtons le 60e anniversaire de la Déclaration des droits de l’homme, nous souhaitons montrer que les moyens de contraception violent au moins cinq droits importants :

Le droit à la vie, puisque bien souvent il s’agit de pilules abortives et à chaque fois, un petit embryon est éliminé.

Le droit à la santé, parce que la pilule contraceptive ne sert pas à soigner et a des effets secondaires importants sur la santé de la personne qui y a recours.

Le droit à l’information, parce que personne n’informe sur les effets réels de la pilule. Par exemple, les risques pour la santé et la pollution de l’environnement ne sont pas pris en compte.

Le droit à l’éducation, parce qu’il n’y a pas beaucoup de personnes qui expliquent comment pratiquer les méthodes naturelles.

Le droit à l’égalité entre les sexes, parce que le poids et les problèmes des pratiques contraceptives retombent presque toujours sur la femme.

ZENIT – Humanae Vitae soutient que les contraceptifs influencent négativement les relations de couple, séparant l’acte d’amour de la procréation. En tant qu’homme de science, pouvez-vous nous expliquer cela ?

Simón Castellví – La relation entre les époux doit être d’une confiance et d’un amour total. Exclure la possibilité de procréer par des moyens impropres ternit la relation du couple. Se donner l’un à l’autre devrait être un don total enrichi de la capacité de la transmission de la vie.

ZENIT – Finalement, Humanae vitae est un document qui unit et renforce les couples. Alors pourquoi tant de critiques ?

Simón Castellví – Beaucoup de critiques sont relatives aux intérêts économiques qui sont sous-jacents à la vente de pilules contraceptives. D’autres critiques proviennent de ceux qui veulent réduire et sélectionner la fertilité et la croissance démographique. Enfin, certaines critiques proviennent de ceux qui entendent limiter l’autorité morale de l’Eglise catholique.

After writing on Howard Gardner yesterday,I got so excited when I went back to the website of the Learning Revolution to read the Foreword and introduction of the new book: Unlimited.

I wished that our  Mauritian educationists would read about the happeings in the world of learning as described in this new book by Gordon Dryden & Janette Vos.

How do we get our responsible parties of learning to espouse the new ideas and to join the band wagon to make our nation ahead of the heap? Does any one of you my blog readers have any ideas to propose?

Here is my last night’s interesting and somewhat lenghty  reading:

The more the new technology soars,

the more the need for holistic balance

Even thirty years ago, most teachers were taught that intelligence was fixed and

could be measured from early childhood by standardized I.Q. tests.

Even today, in the country where I have spent most of my adult life, almost the

entire American schooling system is based around standardized tests of standardized

knowledge as if all children were the same. They are not.

Some of the world’s best neuroscientists have proved for over two decades that all

of us are smart in different ways. We each have a different learning style, a different

thinking style, and different ways of studying and working. So the school of the future

will be personalized for every individual learning style.

We also learn best in a happy, safe environment, with good diet and nutrition, in

caring, loving families, and in schools where lifeskills and holistic learning are even

more important than learning to master the new tools of high technology.

So capitalizing on the new world of instant information and interactive technology

is only one side of the path to a potentially unlimited future. Every good parent and

teacher knows the other side involves the whole person, in a caring home and a caring

community—with brain, mind and body acting together in balance.

At its simplest, you cannot learn well if you’re hungry or fearful. You cannot learn

well if your brain has been stunted from birth because you’re under-nourished. You

cannot benefit from a world of potential plenty if you live in a country with polluted

water, unsanitary sewerage, without adequate food, clothing and security; in world

where sometimes obscene wealth is surrounded by overwhelming poverty.

An over-riding message of this book is that all of us can also learn best when we

use the whole world as a classroom  especially when that world is a welcoming,

caring, sharing one. But even in the world’s most affluent countries in North America,

western Europe, Australia and New Zealand many are handicapped by poverty,

emotional stress, bad nutrition and poor family environments.

We also all live in a series of interlocking eco-systems, where pollution, environmental

degradation and climate change are crying out for new solutions. We live,

too, in a world where a $600-billion-a-year pharmaceutical drugs industry is mistaken

for a real health policy. Often where inadequate schooling is mistaken for real-life

education. Where inefficient bureaucracy is mistaken for social innovation.

As we two co-authors have travelled to many parts of the world, we have seen the

positive, holistic alternatives that can match the new digital wealth-producing revolution

with an equal balance of social, emotional, mental and cultural enrichment.

❏ Children of poor parents in developing countries, like India, have filled schools

whenever daily meal programs have been introduced.

❏ Entire school-age populations have prospered as in Finland when the government

provides high-quality teachers and teacher training programs.

❏ The soaring world population, in over-crowded poor countries, is matched by a

growing environmental crisis and equally successful sustainable technologies.

❏ Small nations like Singapore, Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and

New Zealand have shown that size is not important for national success.

❏ The enormous cost of the war in Iraq proves that money is not the problem. Nobel

prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates that war will end up costing at

least $3 trillion.1 So even a tiny fraction of that, invested in the right way, would more

than solve the world’s problems of poverty, malnutrition, poor health—and provide a

decent basic education for all.

❏ Ideally, too, we now know that well-prepared parents are the world’s best first

teachers. A happy, healthy home is the world’s best school. A healthy, caring community

is the world’s best playground. A secure, ecologically balanced world is the

planet’s best classroom—that unlimited global classroom we all share together.

History’s newest revolution

and the seven keys to unlock it

All of us, together, are surging through the most profound revolution in human history.

Its impact is personal, national, global and, in many ways, unlimited.

At its core are seven catalysts, now converging and fusing to change the way we

live, work, play, learn, teach, think and create at any age.

This new networked age makes it urgent to rethink entirely what we mean by education,

learning, teaching and schooling. For education is changing more than it has

since the invention of the printing press over 500 years ago and compulsory classroom

schooling 300 years ago. Now the world is your classroom and learning is lifelong.

Already two billion students spend four-fifths of their waking hours outside school,

in an iPod, YouTube, Google, Bebo, Facebook, MySpace, Wikipedia, Skype and Sim-

City world so different from yesterday’s deskbound classrooms.

Business Week magazine says lifelong learning will soon be the world’s greatest

growth industry, with $370 billion a year in sales as millions learn online. And

Google CEO Eric Schmidt predicts that before long all the world’s information will

be instantly available on pocket computers like the Apple iPod. Then students will

be able to find answers quicker than professors can ask questions.1

The keys to unlock the future are simple but revolutionary. Once unlocked, that

revolution has the power to unleash the combined talents of millions:

1. It’s PERSONAL: where information and learning programs can be personalized and tailored to your own passions, talents, interests and needs. And where you

can share your own talents and skills with millions—for both fun and income.

2. It’s INTERACTIVE: with new digital platforms and templates to make it easy,

simple and fun to learn by doing, playing, creating, producing and interacting a new

world of creative experiences.

3. It’s GLOBAL: the ever-expanding world-wide Internet owned by no one, used

by everyone; where the combined knowledge of humankind is now available to virtually

all at the tap of a digital keyboard or a touch screen.

4. It’s INSTANT: for the fi rst time in history, the ability to learn anything “just in

time”, when you need it, as you need it, at your request, and in your own way.

5. It’s MAINLY FREE: or nearly so—one low-cost click-at-a-time. The World

Wide Web, browsers, search engines and digital platforms make it easy to access

much information free, and to download other information for a few cents. Even free

international phonecalls.

6. It’s EASILY SHARED: the new world of collaborative networks to share your

abilities with anyone, anywhere. To store free online and on community websites

your family photographs, videos, music and even your digital multimedia portfolios

to demonstrate what you know and what you can do.

7. It’s CO-CREATIVE: if we can dream it, we can now do it together with millions

around the world. Now we can merge our own talents into multi-talented global

teams, to produce new innovative answers to major global problems.

These seven keys have already unlocked new doors to transform industries, countries,

communities, commerce, communications and companies. They have the power

to reinvent every aspect of lifelong learning, teaching and schooling. But when these

“tipping points” link with other sweeping changes, the impact will be even greater:

❏ The neuroscience revolution: our new-found abilities to unlock the incredible

potential of the human brain and mind, and shatter many of the myths on which much

of “education” is based. That research shows that everyone can learn anything faster

and more efficiently. That learning starts in the womb and flowers through life.

❏ The genetic revolution: the knowledge that “all life is one”: that all living things

are made from the same genetic code where we’ll soon have access to our own.

❏ The demographic revolution: in which, of all people who have ever lived

longer than sixty-five years, two-thirds are alive today—while two billion, mainly in

the poor world, are under age twenty. But now the wisdom of age and experience can

link, in new ways, with the soaring hi-tech skills of children and grandchildren.

❏ Above all, the new Open Revolution: at long last the chance to find a genuine

new way to reinvent society. Not only a choice between free-enterprise capitalism and

state-controlled socialism. But a new unlimited choice of cooperative enterprise and

collaborative co-creativity.

For global education the need has never has been greater.

❏ As Philippe Legrain summarizes it in Open World: The truth about globalization:

“One in five of the world’s 6.6 billion people live on less than a dollar a day almost

half on less than two dollars a day. More than 850 million cannot read or write. Nearly

a billion do not have access to clean water, 2.4 billion to basic sanitation. Eleven million

children under five die each year from preventable diseases.”

But already the tools exist to share some of the world’s best and simplest learning

and health programs with billions of poor people: to provide them with most of the

unlimited opportunities that today only rich countries and people enjoy.

❏ Those wealthy countries are already spending billions on these new tools that

have the power to reinvent education. But most are “doing it wrong”.

Very simply, they are trying to patch the technology of the twenty-first century on

to a classroom system invented for a bygone age: a school system gradually conceived

after the invention of the printing press in Europe more than 500 years ago.

❏ Where kindergartens, schools, colleges, universities and organizations are “doing

it right”, the results are remarkable. This book abounds with them. They start

with individual brainpower and the seven keys to unlock the future that are already

transforming nearly every other aspect of society. Together they provide the catalyst

to reinvent education itself: personally, locally, nationally and globally.

1. It’s PERSONAL

For everyone, everywhere, any time, in your own way

Two years ago, Time magazine named its Person of the Year simply: YOU.

Its cover subtitle puts it succinctly: “Yes, you. You control the Information Age.

Welcome to your world.”2 That cover story simplifi es its main message: “This was the

year that the people took control of the media. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web

2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it’s really a revolution. It’s

a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making

them matter.”

Time calls it a massive social experiment: “an opportunity to build a new kind of

international understanding, not politician to politician, great man to great man, but

citizen to citizen, person to person.” In some ways it’s a “new digital democracy”:

❏ Blogs or Web-logs: More than 100 million of personally-written websites flooding

the Internet for anyone to share not counting 72 million in China alone.

❏ Mobile phones: soaring to 3.3 billion in use around the world in 2008, predicted

to rocket to at least four billion before the end of 2009.

❏ eBay.com: the world’s biggest online auction site where 200 million registered

users each day trade goods and services worth $100 million: a new global community

“flea market” where anyone can sell to anyone anywhere.

❏ MySpace.com: a new online community of over 100 million active users.

❏ Flickr.com: which hosts two billion photos in the world’s biggest album.

❏ Facebook.com also with more than 100 million registered users by mid-2008,

growing by 25,000 a day, and 65 billion “page views” a month as friends share their

experiences, videos and photographs.

❏ YouTube.com the video-sharing phenomena where visitors to the site can

choose from 83.4 million video-clips. YouTube is the forerunner to a completely new

form of international online television. Only a few years back such videos would have

been shot by professionals on expensive cameras and edited by other experts. Todaythey’re even shot by young children, edited on home computers and viewed on a new

breed of digital pocket-phone-computers the size of a pack of playing cards.

No longer is education a one-way presentation process, with students as passive

receivers. Now you can co-create your own lifelong learning plan and keep on expanding

your individual talent with new skills throughout life.

2. It’s INTERACTIVE

Easy-to-use templates make it simple at any age

In yesterday’s world, one-year-olds loved to see and hear their parents read colorful

nursery-rhyme books.

Today’s one-year-olds still do. With the help of their parents, they can now also

flop their tiny hands anywhere on to a computer keyboard, and see shapes, numbers

and colors and hear them in eight languages: on BabyWow software, invented by a

parent for his new baby.

Yesterday, four and five year-olds loved to color-in scrapbooks, with crayons and

finger-painting. They still do. They can also now create brilliant and colorful digitized

artwork on such programs as Kid Pix Deluxe.

Yesterday, children went to the movies. They still go. They can also use Microsoft

Movie Maker and Apple iMovie software to professionally edit videos they have shot

themselves or in teams.

In many New Zealand public schools, six-year-olds, from their fi rst day in grade

one, start using video cameras to explore their world and record it. They quickly learn

to edit video and compose music.

In yesterday’s world, seven-year-olds lucky enough to live near the sea loved to

swim and build magic sand castles. They still do. They can also now download free

software from the Web to make their own three-dimensional animations.

Great teachers have always involved their students in interactive learning. Now we

can each use twenty-first-century tools to create an entire new world of interactive

experiences: our own Disneylands if we wish.

3. It’s GLOBAL

The Web owned by no one, but used by almost everyone

Better still, we can go on learning and sharing new skills throughout life: we can

co-create the future together.

Says Canadian researcher and author Don Tapscott in The Digital Economy:

“We are at the dawn of a new Age of Networked Intelligence an age that is giving

birth to a new economy, a new politics and a new society.”

Says British scientist and author Matt Ridley, in his book, Genome: The autobiography

of a species: “I genuinely believe we are living through the greatest intellectual

moment in history. Bar none.”

Says Dee Hock, the founder of Visa International and author of Birth of the Chaordic

Age: “The undeniable fact is that we have created the greatest explosion of capacity

to receive, store, utilize and transform information in history. There is no way to turn

back. Whether we recognize it or not, whether we will it or not, whether we welcome

it or not, whether it is constructive or not, we are caught up together all of us and the

earth as well in the most sudden, the most profound, the most diverse and complex

change in the history of civilization. Perhaps in the history of earth itself.”3

Says Professor Michio Kaku, author of Visions: “Since the 1950s, the power of our

computers has advanced by a factor of roughly ten billion. By 2020, microprocessors

will likely be as cheap and plentiful as scrap paper, scattered by the millions into the

environment, allowing us to place intelligent systems everywhere.”4

Says Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the Web: “The vision I still have of the Web is

about anything being potentially connected with anything.”5

And from Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page, on its mission: “To organize the

world’s information and make it available to anyone.”

But the new co-creative learning revolution will be equally astounding.

❏ The Hewlett Foundation, inspired by the life of Silicon Valley pioneer Bill Hewlett,

has invested $68 million charting precisely how it will come about: led by some of our

best universities in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. ❏ The International Baccalaureate movement already provides a global curriculum

to 539,000 students, aged from three to nineteen, in 2,051 schools in 125 countries.7

❏ SUN Microsystems’ co-founder Scott McNealy has set up Curriki as The Global

Education and Learning Network, to work towards a worldwide online curriculum for

K-12 schools.8

❏ John Seely Brown, former head of the Silicon Valley Palo Alto Research Center

that invented the personal-computer age, has spelled out how young students themselves

are already leading that revolution.9

And brilliant schools, like Singapore’s Overseas Family School, Britain’s Cramlington

Community High School, Mexico’s Thomas Jefferson Institute, and The Master’s

Academy in Canada, are pioneering new ways to globalize lessons.

4. lt’s INSTANT

Just in time, when you need it, as you need it

For most of the last century, the assembly lines of Ford and General Motors typified

the mass-production revolution.

Then Japan’s Toyota introduced just-in-time mass-production, with all the hundreds

of car-parts delivered each day as needed, where needed. Soon Japan and its methods

dominated the world’s car industry.

Then in the early 1990s a small band of computer-science students and graduates

started to use online digital and interactive technology to reinvent the entire world:

❏ Tim Berners-Lee invented the tools for the World Wide Web.

❏ Mark Andreessen and his fellow Illinois students linked with fi nancier Jim Clark

to produce Netscape, the world’s fi rst real browser—to instantly surf the Web.

❏ Then students Sergey Brin and Larry Page invented Google, with the incredible

ability to soon scan billions of Web sites and fi nd answers in under half a second. Now

with more than 300 million visitors every day.

❏ Atomic Learning,10 a company set up by ex-teachers, offers 35,000 instant, ondemand

personalized video tutorials to provide any subscriber with easy-to-followgraphic instructions to learn more than 100 computer programs: from editing video to

making three-dimensional animations.

But probably the greatest early impact has been with music: and the power to allow

fans anywhere in the world to download their favorite tracks, instantly and on demand,

from a variety of online libraries, generally for under $1 a track.

The most popular service is Apple’s iTunes, which by early 2008 offered a library

of more than six million tracks. That links directly to Apple’s other major twenty-fi rst

century innovation, the iPod. A brilliantly-designed personal music library, it’s also

only the size of a pack of playing cards, yet able to hold up to 15,000 personally-chosen

tracks on the most expensive iPod.

And if students can download their choice of music instantly on demand, why not

the same access to instant learning programs?

5. It’s MAINLY FREE

Or nearly free: often one low-cost click at a time

Imagine any sales manager twenty years ago deciding to give away millions of copies

of his company’s main product absolutely free. The result: probably instant dismissal

or referral to a psychiatrist. But that’s what Netscape did in 1994 when it launched its

fi rst Navigator browser. Within a few weeks forty million computer buffs around the

globe had downloaded it free. Soon Netscape was selling other advanced copies to

business. And when their company “went public” in 1995 it turned fi nancier Jim Clark

into an instant billionaire. It also made multimillionaires out of Marc Andreessen and

his fellow young Illinois college developers. Since then that’s been one of the keys to

the Web-based revolution: give away instant service free—and sell the extras.

But the new ingredient: sell those extras “one low-cost click at a time”—on some

sites as low as 5 cents a click—just like Google does with its sponsored advertising

links. Millions of people can now turn their own highly-specialized talents into saleable

products or services. They can give away millions of free summaries on Google,

and then sell the extras for a few cents or dollars on every click.

Now an entirely new marketing concept has soared into prominence. Chris Anderson, the Editor in Chief of Wired magazine, calls it “the long tail”.11 Up till recently,

he says, we lived in “the age of the blockbuster”. Only the world’s top-selling books

or long-playing records featured in most bookstores or radio-station play-lists.

Now, as Apple has proved, if only ten copies each of fi ve million songs are sold, on

average, at under $1 each, that would achieve sales of $50 million. Apple has made

big profi ts from that.

But Apple has made even bigger ones by selling more than 140 million iPods in six

years. In that time iTunes has sold over four billion songs, 50 million TV shows and

1.3 million movies. That’s the kind of impact that Google’s Schmidt is talking about

when he says “we should think of all the world’s information being available in the

equivalent of an iPod”.

And Harvard Business Professor Clayton M. Christensen—an expert on “disruptive

innovation”—predicts this revolution will go further. No later than 2014, he says, 25

percent of all high school courses will also be available online—later personalized to

each student’s preferred learning style. By 2019 that will be 50 per cent.12

6. It’s EASILY SHARED

The new world of collaborative networks

All seven “keys” are of vital importance for education. But none more so than the

new world of cooperative networks of teachers and students.

Wikipedia is the ideal example.13 Ten years ago it didn’t exist. Other encyclopedias,

such as Britannica and World Book, sold for $1,000 or more. Microsoft’s Encarta

soon surpassed them in popularity, given away free or sold cheaply on a CD-rom to

encourage sales of Windows. But Encarta was based on an inferior printed encyclopedia,

with only 4,500 articles.

Now Wikipedia is by far the world’s largest encyclopedia. It has around 2.5 million

English entries, with over ten million in all its 252 languages: instantly available, free,

on the Web. All are contributed free by more than 75,000 volunteers.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales states his aim succinctly: to give “every single person

free access to the sum of all human knowledge”.14 Now apply that same principle tolearning and schooling. The world currently has around 59 million K-12 (kindergarten

to twelfth-grade) teachers, with about 1.5 billion students.

Silicon Valley researchers say around 2 percent of adults are innovators and another

13 percent “early adopters”. Simple arithmetic shows 15 per cent of 59 million equals

8,850,000 teachers. Imagine each of those contributing only one favorite teaching or

learning idea in a year, and sharing it with teachers around the world. Now imagine

one each a month!

Britain’s Promethean company already provides a model. It makes some of the

world’s best interactive digital whiteboards (at right), with built-in touch-screen software

to teach mathematics, science, geography and other subjects. Promethean also

coordinates collaborative online classrooms. In them, science and other teachers at

every level can share their best lesson plans online with teachers around the world.

7. It’s CO-CREATIVE

To link your unique talents with multi-talented teams

As we’ll explore in later chapters, everyone has a talent to be good and probably

great at something. The trick is to fi nd that something, and now to blend it together

with the talents of others—anywhere.

Most people—if provided with the opportunities—probably have a passion for

something. And when both passion and talent are unleashed, those opportunities are

virtually limitless. Great schools are already achieving this by enthusing students to

set up their own personalized learning plans. And to keep on upgrading them, and their

skills, throughout life”: to be self-directed, self-motivated lifelong learners.

Many brain researchers, such as Harvard’s Professor Howard Gardner, have argued

for more than twenty years that intelligence is not fi xed and that each of us is smart in

different ways. Many schools now include Gardner’s theory of “multiple intelligences”

into their daily program—so that students can build on their own strengths and learn

from the strengths of others.

But the new twenty-fi rst century world of digital multimedia means that students,

even from early elementary-school age, can blend their own talent into semi-professional multi-talented teams. Scripting, shooting, editing and providing music and props

for school videotape, for example, requires many different talents: technical, visual,

musical, graphic, linguistic and animation.

Wikipedia provides a brilliant one-dimensional model for cooperative sharing and

co-creation. But leading American digital games producer Marc Prensky has an even

better idea.15

Like the co-authors of this book, he wants the world’s students to reinvent education,

reinvent schooling, reinvent the way the world learns and teaches.

And he wants them to do it by cooperatively building digital learning games with

the same appeal that Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo and Microsoft interactive games

already have for tens of millions of children in every continent. Kids love them because

they’re interactive fun.

Now imagine tens of thousands of individual colleges, schools or millions of classrooms

each taking responsibility for becoming the expert on one “subject” or aspect

of each subject. The goal: the best learning software, produced by the students of the

world, and shared freely with all other students around the world—on every aspect of

every “subject”. Welcome to the real Free World. Linux, the open-source computer

operating system inspired by Finnish student Linus Torvalds, was co-created by thousands

of computer-science students around the world. You can now download it free

from the Web, like you can download low-cost or free software or music.

“Linux,” says Eric Raymond, “was the fi rst project to make a conscious, successful

effort to use the entire world as a talent pool.”16 A small group of students on the new

Web fi rst proved this by together co-designing a complete computer operating system.

Now one million are working together on other digital projects—and a new business

model: instead of the winner-takes-all—all can be winners.

In pockets around the planet, talented school teachers have also started the reinvention.

All great teachers involve their students in challenging, interactive projects.

Some of their interactive classroom innovations are brilliant, but serve only twenty

to forty students. We’ve called that The Learning Revolution 1.0.

Now the overwhelming need is to “scale up” their efforts—to make them available

to hundreds of millions—to use the whole world as this new talent pool. And this is

The Learning Revolution 2.0.

Just as genius students like Google’s Brin and Page can turn their combined talents

into a company valued at $170 billion—so too can the world’s greatest teachers and

other bright students share their talents with millions—some free and others as incomeearners.

❏ At Singapore’s Overseas Family School, with international students from

seventy-four countries, teachers and students have digitized most of their lesson plans,

for sharing with others. And they’ve also used their own excellent computer network

to provide individual learning programs for all 3,500 students.

❏ At Mexico’s K-12 Thomas Jefferson Institute, highly creative students from its

high schools and middle schools each produce one Broadway musical a year to professional

standards: from The Disney High School Musical to Cats and Wicked. And

the Institute has ongoing global relationships with MIT’s MediaLab, NASA, Apple,

Microsoft and top-tier schools and universities around the world. Their high school

students even take the Harvard Business School’s business courses.

❏ In New Zealand, the Government abolished its national Education Department

almost twenty years ago and replaced it with a much smaller policy-recommending

Ministry. Since then all schools, public and private, have been charter schools, run by

local boards. Innovation has soared.

At two new special-designation schools in Christchurch, students use the entire city

as a classroom. Each student has a personalized learning plan, worked out in partnership

with parents and learning advisers. Each plan starts with the student’s own passions,

talents, interests, vision and drive. The very names of the schools—Discovery One

(for primary students) and Unlimited (for high school)—echo the emphasis.

New Zealand’s new national curriculum guidelines are also being hailed as an international

model for K-12 education.17 The vision is for young people who are confi

dent, connected and enthusiastic lifelong learners, with goals to achieve excellence, innovation and diversity as well as twenty-fi rst century literacy and numeracy.

A completely new approach is also about to revolutionize university life. A group

of educational leaders have used a $68 million fund from the Hewlett Foundation to

show how the world can build a new online Global Cyberspace Learning Web. This

will be co-created by all, shared by all, expanded by all.

But we stress that this is not a book that recommends interactive technology and

the Internet as new all-embracing “magic bullets” to transform education. Only a fool

worships his tools. But over centuries dramatic new disruptive technologies—from

the wheel to the plow, sail-power to steam-engines, printed books to electric power,

automobiles to television—have ushered in great social changes.

Those changes transcend the technologies themselves. And this new revolution is

more about the social and personal changes than the technologies that spur them.

Link those new innovations with the incredible powers of the human brain—and

the new breakthroughs to unleash the unique power of the human mind—and the

scope of the new revolution is truly unlimited.

As Gary Hammel summarizes it in Leading The Revolution: “We are now standing

on the threshold of a new age—an age of revolution. Change has changed. No longer

is it additive. No longer does it move in a straight line. In the twenty-fi rst century,

change is discontinuous, abrupt, seditious. In a single generation, the cost of decoding

the human gene has dropped from millions to less than a hundred bucks. The cost of

storing a megabyte of data has dropped from hundreds of dollars to essentially nothing.

The Web is rapidly becoming a dense global matrix of connections between people,

their ideas and their resources.”18

In this new world, says Hamel, the future is not something that happens to you, but

something you create.

And now we can co-create that future together, wherever we live.

The Mauritian education systems seem to measure only 2 intelligence centers.This is not the case only for Mauritius, it is the sin of most non progessive nations.  What about the other intelligences? Is it time for a reform? Do we have the political guts to undertake such reforms for the betterment of our nations?

Howard Gardner, world renowned educationist has more to say based on the new discoveries on the human brain.

Your many different “intelligence centers”, what are they?

Ask Harvard psychologist Professor Howard Gardner, and he’ll tell you that visual ability is only one of your many “intelligences”. He’s spent years analyzing the human brain and its impact on education. And his conclusions are simple but highly important.
Gardner says we each have several different types of intelligence. Two of them are very highly valued in traditional education.
He calls the first one linguistic intelligence: our ability to read, write and communicate with words. Obviously this ability is very highly developed in authors, poets and orators.

The second is logical or mathematical intelligence: our ability to reason and calculate. This is most developed in scientists, mathematicians, lawyers, judges.
Traditionally, most so-called intelligence tests have focused on these two talents. And much schooling around the world concentrates on those two abilities. But Gardner says this has given us a warped and limited view of our learning potential. He lists the other main distinct intelligences as:
Musical intelligence: obviously highly developed in composers, conductors and top musicians, from Beethoven to Louis Armstrong;
Spatial or visual intelligence: the kind of ability used by architects, sculptors, painters, navigators and pilots – what the current authors would argue are, in fact, two separate forms of intelligence.
Kinesthetic intelligence or physical intelligence: very highly developed in athletes, dancers, gymnasts and perhaps surgeons;
Interpersonal intelligence: the ability to relate to others – the kind of ability that seems natural with salesmen, motivators, negotiators.
And intrapersonal intelligence or introspective intelligence: the ability of insight, to know oneself – the kind of ability that gives some people great intuition. The kind of ability that lets you tap into the tremendous bank of information stored in your subconscious mind.
But these are not merely arbitrary functions that Professor Gardner has invented for a Ph. D.dissertation. He says brain surgery and research have shown that some of these “intelligences” or abilities are located in distinct parts of your brain. Severely damage that part and you could lose that ability. That is why strokes can affect the ability to walk or talk, depending on which part of the brain is affected.
Professor Gardner now considers there is another intelligence: “naturalist”: the ability to work with and harmonize with nature. The two current authors consider this might better be grouped with several other types of learning styles, which we cover in the book: the Learning Revolution.*

* Professor Gardner’s model does not cover what we consider one of the most important “intelligences” of all: the ability to create totally new concepts by linking together information from different parts of the brain. Many modern thinkers, such as British Professor Charles Handy, say there are several other intelligences, such as plain common sense. But Professor Gardner’s research is a brilliant starting point for designing schools that cater to different abilities and learning styles.

2009 seems to be more  challenging than ever before, the world environment financial and else does not predict  very favourably to growth. As a retiree just like any entrepreneurs I have to take extra care and to ensure that my beams are counted and monitored. In these instances, watching the financials, having a close monitoring of the people who are responsible of the ventures and the observations of the climate of enterprise are daily tasks. Here are some generic strategies which I have assembled today and which would be applied in most enterprises.

Financials
1. Move quickly to reduce costs and control spending by narrowing focus. Winners in a downturn focus on a few critical priorities where they can develop a clear lead, and they walk away from bad business. Losers chase unprofitable sales in an attempt to hold their top line.

2. Refrain from across-the-board cutbacks. Preserve areas that customers value most. Businesses that uniformly cut costs often find that they end up damaging their ability to sell and deliver their products and services. How do you find out what customers value most? Ask them.

3. Consider alternatives to layoffs. Downsizing tends to bolster the bottom line and stock price in the short term but often creates long-term negative repercussions. Alternative strategies include cutting management bonuses, freezing salaries, and reducing compensation options. It’s critical to clearly communicate the rationale and impact to employees.

4. Invest in opportunity. A bad economy can present bargains, both in new assets and in new talent. Good areas to invest in are R&D, marketing, and customer-perceived quality. By contrast, investing in working capital, manufacturing and administration doesn’t pay off as well.

People
5. Retain and develop top talent. High-impact workers are often more susceptible to being poached by a competitor in a downturn. Organizations that provide development experiences and rotational assignments have better employee retention rates.

6. Make sure everyone’s on the same page. When alignment on key goals is absent, performance suffers, according to studies on strategy execution. Top leaders frame an agenda and meet with key stakeholders to gain support and build commitment to overarching goals and values. Ineffective leaders let interoffice politics fester and hidden agendas dominate.

7. Encourage questions and new ideas by making it safe for employees to raise them. Leaders who admit they don’t have all the answers and ask for input empower their people to contribute their best ideas.

Climate
8. Manage the heat. Leaders are often tempted in difficult times to relieve the organization’s stress by making unilateral, tough decisions. That’s often a mistake. Leadership by dictate often doesn’t take because it lacks a broad base of support, and it often eliminates constructive conflicts that challenge the status quo and fuel good decision making.

9. Communicate authentically. Strong leaders acknowledge the challenges they struggle with and, by doing so, build trust among followers. Rather than being a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength.

10. Create a positive vision and attitude that acknowledges reality. Businesses at the top of their markets often fall while “sleeper” companies sometimes jump to the top in a tough economy. When leaders exercise discipline and focus by mobilizing employees to respond to customers’ interests and values, they increase the chance that, when the downturn ends, they’ll come out on top.

Applying these lessons promises a tremendous upside: uncovering new competitive opportunities that result in a stronger business when the economy improves.

For more information, visit www.forum.com

In their dwellings, they love the earth.
In their hearts, they love what is profound.
In their friendship, they love humanity.
In their words, they love sincerity.
In government, they love peace.
In business, they love ability.
In their actions, they love timeliness.
It is because they do not compete
that there is no resentment.

Those who know others are wise.
Those who know themselves are enlightened.
Those who overcome others require force.
Those who overcome themselves need strength.
Those who are content are wealthy.
Those who persevere have will power.
Those who do not lose their center endure.
Those who die but maintain their power live eternally.

The more restrictions there are, the poorer the people.
The more sharp weapons, the more trouble in the state.
The more clever cunning, the more contrivances.
The more rules and regulations, the more thieves and robbers.
Therefore the wise say,
“Do not interfere, and people transform themselves.
Love peace, and people do what is right.
Do not intervene, and people prosper.
Have no desires, and people live simply.

These are wise words from the Chinese philosopher from  Sanderson Beck

I have been reading on the example of Sweden in its will to be Independent on fossil source of energy and its progress. I was really in awe in seeing the wind power plant field which I saw last year when I passed through the Baltic seas near Malmo.

What can we learn from the Swedish example in Mauritius?

Can of our Mauritian government be inspired by the example?

Has any one of us read the Energy plan from our Minister of Energy?

Document from Wikipedia:

In 2005 the government of Sweden announced their intention to make Sweden the first country to break its dependence on petroleum, natural gas and other ‘fossil raw materials’ by 2020. In making this decision, four reasons were cited by the Government:

• The impact of oil prices on Swedish economic growth and employment;
• The link between oil, peace and security throughout the world;
• The great potential to use Sweden’s own clean renewable energy resources in place of oil;
• The threat of climate change resulting from the extensive burning of fossil fuels.

As of 2005, oil supplies provided about 32% of the country’s energy supply, with nuclear power and hydroelectricity providing much of the remainder. Although it was not proposed to end the use of oil entirely, the 2020 date was seen as a marker on a continuing process of the “oil phase-out in Sweden”.

To make recommendations on how dependency on oil should be broken, the government created a Commission on Oil Independence (Kommissionen för att bryta oljeberoendet i Sverige till år 2020), headed by the then Prime Minister Göran Persson, which reported in June 2006.

In their report, the Commission proposed the following targets for 2020:

• Consumption of oil in road transport to be reduced by 40-50 per cent.
• Consumption of oil in industry to be cut by 25-40 per cent.
• Heating buildings with oil, a practice already cut by 70% since the 1973 oil crisis, should be phased out
• Overall, energy should be used 20% more efficiently

Power plant in Malmö, 2006.

Replacing oil with renewable energy sources and energy conservation measures to cut total energy use was envisioned. This is also expected to result in cuts in carbon emissions and to strengthen the country’s role in sustainable development technologies as well as increasing its international economic competitiveness.

Energy sources

Technical solutions under consideration include the further development of domestically grown biofuels, solar cells, fuel cells, wind farms, wave energy, a major increase in district heating schemes and greater use of heat pumps. It is expected that research, development and commercialization of such technologies should be supported by government.

The Commission is also recommending that the government should not sanction the creation of a national natural gas infrastructure, on the belief that this would inhibit the development of biofuels and encourage the use of gas in place of oil.

Energy use

Gothenburg tram system, 1999.

To cut energy use, the commission anticipates that by 2020 at least 75% of all new housing would use low-energy building techniques similar to the German Passive house standard, and that it will also be necessary to modernize the existing housing stock, including replacing direct electric heating systems (with systems heated by district heating, biofuels or heat pumps).

They also expect there to be a greater use of teleworking, video conferencing and web conferencing, public transport, sea transport, hybrid vehicles, and smaller, lighter, biodiesel cars.

As part of reducing industrial consumption, it is proposed that carbon allowances issued in Sweden under the European Union Emission Trading Scheme should be cut to 75% of their initial levels by 2020.

The taxation system is also likely to be used to influence energy choices, together with education and public awareness initiative

On their release, the Commission’s proposals were supported by the national automotive industry association, BIL Sweden. It was, however, opposed by the timber industry, who fear that land producing profitable exports may become used for low-income domestic biofuel production^[2]. As of 2008, 43% of the Swedish primary energy supply comes from renewable sources, which is the largest share in any European Union country.

Le peuple d’Israël attendait un messie. D’ailleurs à aujourd’hui les juifs attendent toujours. Comment se fait il, que les érudits du temps n’ont eux pas vu l’étoile ? Comment expliquer que des mages venus d’orient trouvent l’étoile avant le peuple choisi ? Suffit-il d’être en éveil ou en attente pour percevoir ? Et ces pauvres bergers qui étaient présents pour l’événement, sont ils dotés d’une intelligence supérieure pour voir l’étoile ? Oui, nous savions que les mages scrutaient les astres pour rechercher les grands événements et qui sait, ils recherchaient également une manifestation de Dieu ? Ils avaient certes de la persévérance dans leurs recherches et osent braver des frontières physiques et culturelles pour parvenir à leurs fins. Il avait surtout de l’inspiration dans leurs cœurs. La grâce leur fit accorder. Par contre la grâce fut également accordée aux humbles et pauvres bergers n’ont pas par leur science mais surtout pour tout pour leur disposition de cœur : dans leur humilité, ils sont toujours accueillants. Les mages et les bergers avaient tous une lecture et vision des événements par leur cœur. Pour les érudits de l’époque, pouvons nous conclure que leur sciences et leur trop plein de soi auraient ils aveugler leur perception ?

À la présence du signe qu’il leur donnait au-dehors, Dieu les toucha au-dedans par cette inspiration dont Jésus a dit : « Nul ne vient à moi, si mon Père ne le tire » (Jn 6,44).

L’étoile des mages est donc l’inspiration dans les cÅ“urs. Je ne sais quoi vous luit en dedans : vous êtes dans les ténèbres et dans les amusements, ou peut-être dans la corruption du monde : tournez vers l’Orient, où se lèvent les astres ; tournez-vous à Jésus Christ qui est à l’Orient, où se lève comme un bel astre l’amour de la vérité et de la vertu.

Ouvre Seigneur mon cÅ“ur pour être touché par toi et que je Te vois dans les signes extérieurs que Tu m’offre tous les jours. ‘Je serai avec vous jusqu’à la fin des temps’. Tu nousl’ a promis et pourtant mon cÅ“ur reste hélas trop souvent inaudible et aveugle de Ta présence surtout à travers mon prochain. Je Te demande Seigneur Dieu : tire moi vers Toi.

Gravelux de Saumon

Salade  de Crevettes aux méduses a l’orientale

Salade Verte et composée

Porc a la broche et son G raton

Canard Rôti

Couscous

Cerf Rôti

Jarret de Porc braise

Salmis de poulet

Bêche de mer

Légumes Sautes

Dessert

Bavarois

Gâteaux aux 3 chocolats

Glaces & Kulfi Malai

Plateau de Fromages

et Champagne pour accueillir la nouvelle Année 2009.

Qui parlent de recession, d’inflation !! Amise dimin nou a guetter! A voir le ciel de Roches Brunes le 31decembre!!

For every dreams in our heart, God gives us inspiration
For every hope we seek, God gives us unexpected miracles
May you feel God blessing everywhere

To your enemy, forgiveness
To an opponent, tolerance
To a friend, your heart
To all, love
To every child, a good example
To the world, peace

God Bless
Happy New Year

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