Australian vitocultural innovation has brought new world practices to old-world Europe.

On the other hand, tradition is important, and Bordeaux is a blend of European tradition & innovation. Have a look, it’s an interesting video.

Climate change may also effect wine-growing regions & the massive wine industry.

Standing on level 5 of Georges Pompidou, you can see the whole of Old Paris, laid out before you. I did this last in April 2007, and was mesmerized.

And New Paris: Office district on the other side of Paris; La Défense. This modern office block tower district, is really an additional side to the old Paris not a central part of Paris.

The new 300 metre tower by Jean Nouvel is part of a bold ambitious plan to change this. The plan is to make La Défense, Manhattan-sur-Seine. A 24 hour, modern office district on the outside of Paris, potentially an alternate centre as an adjunct to the ‘old Paris’ of the Left Bank, Invalides and Notre Dame.

M. Nouvel is famed all over the world as an architect, since his 1987 project for the Institut du Monde Arabe and is the 2008 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate.

There is some concern over how this may effect Paris, and perhaps lead to an exodus of office rentals in Paris proper. But I believe the French will resolve this, as the competing forces and interests in Paris often negotiate compromise outcomes.

Modern French architecture in France has recently been eclipsed by some London, German and Catalan designs. This seems part of a practical plan to preserve the centre, yet modernize Paris.

Some related plans by the Mayor of Paris, include spreading the ‘mini-Manhattan’ theme, but given French activism and an entrenched coalition of opposition, these seem less likely.

In the end, a positive development for Paris, the city of Paris is ranked #3 in the world for innovation in the Global Innovation Review 2007, by 2thinknow.

“French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced the killing off of the English-language news channel France 24, barely a year after it first hit the airwaves. ”
> De Spiegel: Sarkozy To Axe France 24

This is not how you win others over to your culture. It seems to play into the hands of further cultural homogenization.

The decision to cut France 24, seems a bleak decision for France, and Francophiles globally.

By axing France 24 Sarkozy takes an axe to a bridge between English and French thinking.

This is a bad thing for multi-lingualism, a cultural idea by 2thinknow.

Wither Multi-lingualism?

As has been noted in the past, the 2thinknow position is support of multi-lingualism, and the strongest possible support for the spread of the French language and culture.

I make this position clear in both our flagship annual review of innovation and culture, The Global Innovation Review, and also in this blog, the Global Innovation Conversation.

See > Why you can (and should) learn French

(This comment was the single most read analysis we have posted online, although posted 4 months ago, it still daily attracts global viewers.)

Intelligent people globally don’t want a mono-culture of English.

Why Sarkozy’s decision is enemy of cultural innovation

Because, by cutting ties between French and English you cut down one more avenue of exposure English-speaking people’s have to another culture.

Many people in English speaking countries won’t seek out French you know. Well except the culturally minded, like you and me, dear reader. But we are all time poor.

As I have repeatedly said, the French language is superior in contexts such as diplomacy and poetic expression to English in the hands of an average person.

The French language is magnificent at expressing ideas of art, culture and society.

We need to build bridges not ct ties between France and UK, America & Australia.

If France wants to be one of the key languages, this cannot be done by fiat.

It must be done by dissemination of the languages. And an English-language channel, with French ideas and views, is an effective alternative to the BBC or CNN.

BBC or CNN are certainly not value-neutral. Kosovo-bias is a good example.

So by axing France 24, Sarkozy takes an axe to one more tenuous link between English and French culture.

And French culture and language has a lot to offer.

Our only explanation?

Perhaps Sarkozy is practicing government by theatre, not by principle.

Take care,

Christopher

How do I know?

Well simply, the most popular ideas 2thinknow tested online in 2007 were also the most intelligent. Not more Paris or Britney.

Readers, I’m proud of your intelligent choices…

The 9 Most influential Ideas 2thinknow posted online in 2008 were:

9. Drugs are a Major Problem

They are everywhere. Especially UK & Australia. There is now no cut-off point and drug use causes mental health issues. Mental Health is a critical area of our health.

> Illegal Drugs Scourge of Australia & UK

8. The Creative Generation -

The Young ones are not just Gen Y, X — they are the Creative Generation, as termed by 2thinknow.

> Creative Generation, not X & Y

7. American-Australian Exchange

Massive Interest in Australian politics economics environmental leadership, and more mundanely just getting here. Reinforcing 2thinknow position that long haul flights are a disincentive to cultural exchange.

> Flying from USA to Australia – the Easy Way

6. Return of Figurative Art -

Innumerable posts on art attracted much attention. Postmodern Art and Figurative art alike were popular, but always the figurative attracted the most attention. (Proving that what we are told to like and do like are different.)

> Top 7 European Art Galleries You Must Visit

> 7 Paintings You Must See in Paris, France

> Understand Moder Art, Understand Innovation

5. Satire is news -

When you don’t have real news, just Cele-britney and propaganda; satire becomes a way of speaking truth to power.

Like John Stewart & the Daily Show, or Australia’s Chasers.

> Satire As News – Daily Show & Chasers

…or the fun new office battle sport of Corridor Running.

4. End of cheap goods.

The time has come to end disposable thinking and oil-based goods.

> Cheap Goods the End Is Near

> Easy Enough with Less Energy & Oil

3. Generation Change in Politics – Kevin Rudd’s Victory in Australia.

Intransigence and John Howard are out. Bush is next. Kyoto was ratified by Australia. And Bush turn off the lights.

> Kevin Rudd – Australia’s New PM

> More Rudd-related posts

2. Learn more than One Language or Culture.

Almost our single Most popular Idea, on the basis you can and should learn French as as an example. This article is still be read, and yes Francophiles, most readers are from the USA.

> Why You can & Should Learn French

1. Europe’s importance in Future Innovation

As outlined in the Global innovation Review 2007 (revised recently) and numerous online mentions, mass media and articles.

The Review analyzed and ranked globally innovation cities, and provided other indexes for ranking innovation. The world’s first authoritative publication to do so.

Despite our anti-Kosovo independence piece attracting controversy, always those pieces on Vienna and Paris (#1 and # 3 global innovation cities, in 2thinknow rankings) attracted a great deal of interest. As did our pieces on Boston.

> The Review can be ordered from 2thinknow here

Who Read Innovation Ideas ?

USA. As some surprise to those who think the USA media-readers only seek sensationalism.

We had readers from small towns and big cities in States like Texas, California, Illinois, Oregon, Michigan, the Carolinas, and of course New York. Almost all 50 states.

So, in my experience, intelligence doesn’t conform to media stereotypes.

But also Paris, Vienna, Brussels, Frankfurt, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Rome, Tallinn, Edinburgh, London, Bratislava, Turkey’s cities, Perth, Milan, Budapest, Bucharest, Sofia, Oslo, Dublin, Auckland, Chennai, Singapore, and cities deep inside mainland China or Russia.

To be precise people from 2,638 cities/towns worldwide.

Although our readers average around people in 975 different cities/towns per month.

Most readers of tabloid journalism simply don’t read where we post online.

But intelligence does not conform to stereotypes. And that may be the most important lesson of all.

The media choose to show ‘rubbish content’. We don’t all choose to read or watch it.

So if you’re trying to get intelligent ideas started in 2008, take heart.

Bonne Année!

Christopher

Please be aware this content is proprietary. I hate seeing my writing or ideas rehashed under your name in major media. (You know who you are). I am happy to be quoted. So please behave responsibly, and do so. Or else.

Why is this important? It shows direction in art. Away from post-modernist ‘I am a painter so why do I bother to paint?‘ thinking that typified the 90s. The 90s were however that kind of decade perhaps…!

Even moreso it shows a return to seeking meaning. It’s tiring looking at noir films, drinking black coffee and talk about meaninglessness.

Remember the artist is always the avant-garde on the Innovation curve…

The Zeitgeist is the human figure and here’s why…

The Figure is the Zeitgeist of Modern Art

Now the figure is returning to art. I was in Leipzig last year. (and I might add Leipzig was our “Most improved innovator” in the Global Innovation Hub City Rankings).

Neo Rauch and the Leipzig School have been marking a return to the figurative.

Viewing art is very much one of my interests, but I was there for research.

The so-called Leipzig School learnt to draw under communism, so weren’t subject to the same ‘non-instruction’ many modern artists get. Brilliant draftsmen, but without the leash of communism, now masters of narrative.

Some have said that one should be able to draw the human figure before deconstructing it, like Picasso. This is controversial in some art schools globally!

In a sense the new-new is a modernized reconstructed figure.

Further in sites like stumbleupon (SU), this is what gets voted for. SU contains a large artists sub-community; selectors of art like WasChabad (http://waschabad.stumbleupon.com/) and Clovia (http://clovia.stumbleupon.com/)

One of the strengths of Web 2.0 (’users creating content and communities’ the 2thinknow definition) is that communities decide what they like. It gives freedom to viewers and consumers, in this case, artists and art-lovers.

Artists can choose their taste rather than a limited pool of critics selecting who is shown. It allows once again artists to build followings and sell now internationally without such a long process or wait.

I also saw this figurative art in the West Coast USA, where it is a secondary art capital after New York. Wow! Some of the figurative artists in San Francisco. Undiscovered knock-outs.

Back to Web 2.0 — sites like DeviantArt.com are also forming international artist communities. Even myspace is ‘in’ on this.

I had written quite a lot in the limited distribution review on ‘cultural relativism’, but it now seems superfluous. The headspace I was at almost a year ago, artists have been capturing and creating works about in the major international Arts centres.

So I have decided to update some of that writing, and include it here.

The Roots of Figure in Art

This is not unusual as the human figure is a source of countless artworks in countless forms. In Paris, the powerful Raft of Medusa by Géricault or Manet’s works in the Musée d’Orsay; in Munich Rubens or Raphael; in Rome Rubens or most critically Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel; in Melbourne Tiepolo’s stand-out Banquet of Cleopatra.

Wander through the sculpture garden of any truly international art gallery in a major city, and it is to wander through a waltz of human forms.

Culture relativism, or equivalency of cultures, where no culture or artistic endeavour is considered any better than any other, is difficult to reconcile with this tide of human forms, often naked or mythically dressed in the finest Renaissance sense.

It is hard to defend cultural relativism once you have seen the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. Duchamps’ urinal becomes an amusing distraction. Fine for the time, but now somehow a forlorn museum piece for those on the avant-garde.

And the best art is on the edge, and the edge is now figurative. Notice I did not say literal. I did say figurative.

There is Other Art of Course…

The problem is just the ‘equivalency’ idea. Concepts of equivalency are fine, but if all pictorial representations were equal people would be queuing to see the covers of magazines in the newsagent, or soup can labels in the supermarket.

Some modernist artist will one day set-up a ’supermarket gallery’ — and auction real soup cans!

Our love of art is often based on ‘aha’ moments it creates. The Pompidou in Paris does that for me in modern terms, but no more than the Louvre.

And before we dismiss any modern art, it is important to see great art in great galleries. Melbourne just hosted a Guggenheim exhibition I wrote about here; as well as some great UBS works at the current time. Not all of this was figurative…

Most importantly, these ‘inspiration’ moments where something strikes one as ‘obvious and true’. Figurative art has something to say about our lives and our humanity…

But often judgment of artistic merit is an instinct, and it is important that culture and art elevate; and bring out the higher elements of our nature; art that demonstrates a single idea to the point of repetition is an art of the mundane, for the mundane.

The new, the memorable in art, is the figurative. Grids and dots are fine museum pieces, but their time has passed as avant-garde or the zeitgeist.

And it is not innovation to equate the ugly, desperate and forlorn mass-produced as equal to the beautiful and elevating objet d’art. We have accepted the points of pop-art and abstract expressionism, and the ‘American Century’ and a new one is dawning.

Even in in Architecture the figurative, the sculptural, the curved is returning.

In architectural terms no person can visit the Austrian National State library and say with a straight face that this is the cultural equivalent of the Melbourne Museum or Federation Square in Melbourne. But some modern works are trying to extract themsleves from modernism, gleaming steel and the tyranny of the straight line.

Want to Get involved in Figurative Art?

Join StumbleUpon.com and select arts or painting as your interest.

Stumble-Upon selects pages related to an interest you may have, as bookmarked and voted by other users. It works because SU has a good community…

Enjoy the figure in art. It’s time is with us again.

Take care,

Christopher

(I am going to wade into the historical and allegorical, into 2 centuries past. By doing this, I hope to shed some light on some alternate views on prediction of change events, and the differences in viewpoint between myself and Nassim Taleb, and his book ‘Black Swans’ on predicting change and usefulness of prediction.)

There was a problem if you lived in France predicting the revolution of 1789. Some signs were there in hindsight. But the reality is predicting such an unpredictable event was difficult… especially, if you were going ‘present forward’.

Do you think the King’s (Louis XVI) Scientists and his advisors may have been in trouble after that event?

I wonder what government predictions in 1938 in Poland looked like?

And Herbert Hoover suffered the anonymity of a president best remembered for a concrete dam, any work he did overshadowed by the 1930s Depression. (The full extent of the Depression actually took a while to unfold, like the French Revolution)

More on the French Revolution shortly. Let’s start with the present.

Past forward predictions

Most people, including a large number of analysts, start predicting from a ‘present forward model’.

A lot of planning is done using a spreadsheet moving ‘present forward’…

A lot of analysis contains assumptions about ForEx, oil or commodities prices. Assumptions which are wrong.

Who accurately predicted the price of any of the major currencies? You can’t. Well not over a significant time frame with current methods.

We need to acknowledge that. We need to acknowledge that a series of models on which we base forecasts can not predict factors over which we do not have control, or which there is a market basis.

Markets can and do act in pretty volatile ways.

Citizens, most especially the French, can act in volatile ways. It has a lot to do with the geography and centralisation tensions of Paris.

Louis XVI learnt that, but no royal court in Europe would have known the outcome in 1789.

So am I saying is prediction useless? Yes and No.

Some do say prediction is pointless. I disagree.

Predictions set benchmarks and influence outcomes

In shares for example: Prediction often informs a market and becomes set as part of a market. Insights form part of the price in a market whose conditions are known.

On the other hand, in the late 1990s I said initial dot-com valuations were inflated not on the strength of numbers, but on the strength of value delivered to customers of dot-coms. But of course, as so often, ‘niche-expert voices’ said otherwise and were ‘priced in’.

Predictions that are publicised often become part of the information that shapes an outcome. A feedback loop. The eventual adjustment in dot-com share prices arose from the excluded information of traditional business indicators being ‘re-priced in’.

And, a projection often sets the benchmark for ‘over or under’. They set the parameters.

So predictions often act to cause, or be involved in causing events.

It was John Kennedy prediction of a man on the moon, which acted as a declaration of priorities and set the course for the actuality.

But Kennedy started future-backward, declaring a simple future goal. Sometimes a prediction can become an actuality by the declaration and support of its achievement.

Innovation: Future Backwards Planning

But you can predict the possible range of future possible events, and perhaps we could have predicted the French revolution as one possible outcome among others.

How?

France 1780s

The American revolution of the 1770s was largely backed by the involvement of the French. Some historians say Ben Franklins’ calls on the Kings Purse were so frequent that they nearly bankrupted the King.

But the Franklin knew about grandeur, and was according to many historians, more popular in Paris at the time than he was in the Americas.

(His co-signers of the Declaration of Independence were often suspicious of his loyalties given his stints in London, and it has been suggested with some basis more than a little jealous of his fame.)

Of course the French involvement in an American Civil War (after all they overthrew the government) was a lot about beating England, a response that could have been predicted.

Louis XVI paid a heavy price, and the French armies were influential in the war. But as with so many wars, his citizens paid for it, and some well-informed citizens were perhaps more than inspired by its example.

Food supply issues and excesses of leadership, as well as financing the removal of another ‘sovereign power’ led to the events of 1789-1792.

The revolution was pre-cursed by artworks like David’s Oath of the Horatii.

There was long grumbling about food and rotten food.

The First and second Estate were more interesting in preserving their power-base.

The Third Estate (everyone except the Royal Court and Catholic Church) now formed a large group. The enlightenment and various inventions and ideas of the time had created a climate that gave the bourgeois middle class the ability to remove the King.

And, the American Revolution potentially formulated the idea.

Yet a planner sitting anywhere in Europe in 1788 would not have foreseen it.

In the end the First French Republic was declared in 1792. Napoleon arose out of the bloodthirstiness of Robespierre and wavering of others. The Royal backlash across Europe arose from that; and Bismarck, the creation of nation states of Germany, and later Italy, arose from that. World War II arguably rose from the 1870s and 1910s.

But predicting the events of 1792 in 1788 would have been impossible. Let alone World War II.

So what could a planner have foreseen in 1788?

Well, he could have foreseen risk factors. Indicator Flags.

• Middle class mobility
• Disquiet over food
• The American Example
• The rise of science and reason
• Faster spread of information

He could have counselled the king to avoid the grounds for a revolution. He couldn’t have been specific. Machiavelli wrote some excellent words on this.

We don’t know when we get prediction right, because we often avoid the events predicted. But this doesn’t mean its not useful.

We can predict risk factors and indicators of change. And that is useful in many instances and circumstance.

Finally, A Thank you

So here’s a thank you to all those nameless faceless men of government and beyond: who avoided wars, plagues, famines and revolutions.

Yet the French Revolution, and the American before it, led to many positive social changes, and directly or indirectly much of the modern world.

So a thank you to those who took charge of the events of the day and shaped great modern cities like Paris and Boston.

History is what happens when you are making other plans.

Take care,

Christopher

TRAVEL, France

As Ruskin said:

“Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.

“Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last.”

For me that sums up art and history. And more than a little, human nature.

These paintings, and a proper commentary, will help you understand modern France and attributes of the French character.

Whilst at the the Musée du Louvre:

The Oath of the Horattii

Jacques-Louis David shows the Horatii men as strong Roman gladiators swearing to defeat their enemies or die for their country.

A political painting of 1784, in the tempest before the revolution of 1789, and part of the birth of the neo-classical style. Defend the Republic, the State. Also notable for the French ideas of the strong masculine and weak feminine.

Napoleon Bonaparte Visiting the Plague-Stricken in Jaffa

Antoine-Jean Gros.

The first masterpiece of Napoleonic painting, painted in 1804. General Bonaparte visiting and seemingly healing plague-stricken French troops in a Jaffa mosque in use as a military hospital. Bonaparte risks catching the plague to heal victims.

Bonaparte is hinted as having almost divine powers, as well as his bravery.

This painting shows the French need for strong leaders such as kings, Napoleon (later Emperor) and the modern President.

This previews the different version of democracy as seen by the French, when compared with the US model.

The Raft of the Medusa

Théodore Géricault.

Intensely political, based on passengers lost at sea from a large ship. Amidst rumours of cannibalism, and other sensational allegations, they were ultimately rescued.

Painted in 1819 of an incident in 1816. This period was recently post-Napoleon. An incompetent captain was to blame, it was seen by some a symbol of a failing system and preceded the July revolution of 1830.

It was also one of the first direct paintings of modern history, not ancient metaphors.

Liberty Leading the People.

Eugene Delacroix.

Another classical 3 + 1 layout, symbolically significant. All classes of French citizens charge the barricades in the July Revolution of 1830 removing restored Bourbon king, Charles X.

Significant as France was becoming less a series of regions, than a nation whose power was centralized in Paris. Also a significant reminder that in France, a protest can overthrow an unpopular government, despite a seemingly less democratic model.

A symbol of a unified France behind the female mythical symbol of liberty, and the infamous tricolore.

Paintings at the Musée d’Orsay:

Even more recent artworks here, pre-dating modernism.

The Artist’s Studio (L‘Atelier du Peintre)

Subtitled; A Real Allegory of a Seven Year Phase in my Artistic and Moral Life

Gustave Courbet. 1855. This painting predated ideas leading to photography, and the death of traditional mythical and allegorical painting (until recently, in my view).

The painting contains people from all walks of all life, equal on the flat surface composition. Note the artist is of equal interest to the model.

Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde is also worth a look. It’s small, obviously confronting, and always seems to have a crowd around. Personally I find it comforting!

Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe

Édouard Manet predated modern relationships in the 60s, the 1860s that is. A modern non-metaphorical nude, shows a naked woman relaxing in the company of men.

In addition, one woman is bathing, which could be inferred to mean after sex.

This paintings previews male and female relationships of the twentieth century, and the casualisation of nudity and sex. It hints at some French attitudes, although Napoleon III (nephew of the original) refused to show it in the official salon of 1863.

Instead shown in the Salon des Refusés along with many paintings previewing modernist thinking. Manet’s controversial Olimpia is also worth a look.

Painting at the Musée de l’Armée:

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1806.

Although this one is an earlier painting, being from the coronation of late 1804.

The French love of the grand gesture has not changed.

This one is often overlooked as it is in the army museum. But really worth the visit.

Getting to the 3 museums in Paris

Allow at least 2 days to see all museums. The Louvre could be a 5 day exploration in itself. however, 1 day allows you to see major works.

Depending on your interests, the Orsay and Army museums could be viewed in a single compressed day.

These works are all very large format, so best enjoyed in the real size. Many are life size. Reproductions do not do them justice.

All museums are in reasonable walking or close subway distance. Just cross from the right-bank Louvre, to the left-bank Orsay & Army museums.

Personally, I prefer to eat lunch on the Left Bank.

Enjoy!

Christopher

COMMENT, USA & Australia — The modern world of business and politics run on words. It has ever been thus.

The importance of words will only increase in a world of information, services, creativity and increasing automation of the means of production.

It has been my experience dealing with governmental and business leaders that the primary separating factor between those who got the ‘good’ jobs, and those who didn’t was self-expression with words. (Remember I have consulted or educated people at all levels of government and business life.)

[ratings]

Your child needs mastery of words and ideas.

Why Words, why now?

But the critical importance of words is truer than ever. Especially as a multi-national globally-connected world of business and politics is evolving.

Your child will grow up into this world.

A multi-lingual world. Most importantly a world of words.

For your child to prosper in this world, they must be a master of words and ideas!

Quite possibly and preferably in more than one language.

This is a new world where creativity, artistry and all other forms of self-expression will form part of the business and political process.

For most of us except a few artists and performers, this is a new world of words.

To Maximize Your Child’s Opportunities Teach them Words!

Self-Expression is what made the USA powerful, and self-expression is what Australians are learning to grow in international stature. (And remove the dreaded cultural cringe).Words and expression are what the post-Napoleonic French and Victorian English used to rule their Empires.

What is self-expression with words?

Part of this is confidence. Most people intrinsically get this.

But a confident child without connections (generally by birth) will struggle in the fields of business or politics.

The reality is a mastery of words reinforces confidence and self-expression in all situations. It is the confidence to choose the right words in any situation. Few are born with it.

This is a truth covered with euphemisms in job ads.

What then is more important than any other single factor in the success of your child, in business or politics?

Words.

If you want your child to have the best possible chance in the worlds of business or politics, then the secret is to ensure their grammar and vocabulary is rich and layered.

Not only with words, but ideas.

Big ideas.

The biggest ideas of all are Plato, Locke, Hume, Milton, Adam Smith and later Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, Keynes, and so on.

This is what makes a child a great thinker, but also allows them to shine above those born in even the richest families.

Big ideas are what the rich try to give their children.

Words are an advantage that can be improved by almost any child.

Intimate knowledge of words and ideas.

It is in my experience expression of big ideas with words is the major edge that wealthy children who are less bright, have over those who are very bright but from average backgrounds.

This eloquence with words is the single biggest determinant of political or business success. This applies to parliamentary staffers, CFOs, CEOs, politicians, ministers, more especially ministerial staffers, and assistants to top people.

It matters less the idea than how you say it.

A brilliant idea said badly or not heard will get nowhere. Great ideas do not win alone.
To some extent Tier 1 universities and private schools automate this process.

But I have met many brilliant PhDs driving taxis because they could not get a job, because of their lack of expression in the language of the country they call home. The world runs on words.

America, especially, is a country of words… being a country created on big ideas, and ruled by laws.

Sadly a bad idea, said eloquently and forcefully will likely be adopted over a better idea.

But a few leaders mangle English?

Some leaders may mangle the English language, but often have the advantage of a well-connected father.

For example, Bill Clinton has had less advantages than many other leaders. He is well regarded globally because of his sheer eloquence and command of words.

Also some CEOs are so great they make it regardless of grammar. In some industries,like manufacturing, big words can be a handicap to success.

However, we are entering a world of creativity, big ideas and design. Those diamond-in-the-rough success stories will become rarer than they already are.

Why learn self-expression with words?

If your child is bright, in the top third of his or her class, it is a pity not to maximise his or her opportunities. Many other children who have simply not had opportunities, suddenly spark when fed big ideas. Many children are simply bored.

All children should have the best possible opportunity.

For your child to get a seat at the table, in one of the better universities or to have a better life, they will need good command of language.

More importantly to be a well-rounded person, it is important to read intelligent works such as Adam Smith, Locke, Hume, Mills, Ben Franklin and others.

In other words the Enlightenment leaders that US, French and other countries history were profoundly affected by.

Grammar is a secret!

But more than that, if your child wants a chance of a legal, consultancy or other well-paid job, they will be continually constrained by poor grammar.

Poor grammar prevents otherwise good ideas being expressed well.

Poor grammar is the number one barrier to command of language. Not only native English languages, but foreign languages that may become increasingly required later in life in this new type of global world.

Unfortunately many schools these days have reduced the importance of grammar, and in some cases eliminated it completely.

The French and Europeans are generally far better placed to profit from a multi-lingual world. Grammar is taught to rich and poor alike in France.

7 ways to insist on Grammar and ‘narrow the gap’

• Insist on grammar in your schools
• Insist on spelling and grammar from your child’s teachers
• Write your congressman or elected representative and tell them why
• Go to the library and privately teach your child grammar
• Insist your child study spelling and grammar
• Give them books of big ideas to read
• Read aloud to them big ideas from adult books at an early age…

Surely there’s another way?

A few leaders may have poor grammar, but were more often than not born with connections. Few have had to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

A few are lucky. But luck is fickle.

For our children luck can be improved with preparedness.

The single biggest difference between rich and poor, recognized intellect and wasted intellect is language and vocabulary.

Grammar is the first rung on the ladder of lifelong learning.

Take care,

(feel free to comment below!)

Christopher

Thanks to Wikipedia Commons for the baby image

Our sleep and lives cannot help be impacted by the people around us who work night-shifts.

Society’s need some standards. Rampant individualism impacts the whole.

In last nights hotel I was woken by round-the-clock traffic not there 10 years ago.

At home, in the space of 3 years, there has been a rapid increase in the amount of traffic going to and from work at all hours. Our formerly quiet place is now noisy.

24/7 cities and 24/7 work

Sydney and London are 24/7 cities. Melbourne is becoming one.

New York is also. But not every city can be a New York. Nor should they be.

24/7 has a social cost in terms of accidents caused by broken sleep, depression, families and other social costs.

Studies of night-shift workers are beginning to show the true cost of workplace flexibility.

Depression. Anxiety. Accidents. Colds & flu through lowered immunity.

The night shift destroy people’s lives, and with the exception of a few people; most find it difficult.

But digital device mean even 9-to-5 people are contactable 24/7.

We need some limits. And a government not afraid to consider thoroughly and address quality of life rather than gross-GDP.

Wage slaves with rising rates of clinical depression and broken families are not what we need more of. I agree with the unions on this work-life balance.

Personally, I now won’t answer any call after before 9am or after 6pm.

Why do 24/7?

Money for that mortgage. Habit. Peer pressure. Competition. Politics.

The extra money is only good whilst it is not factored into the cost of everything, which in expensive Sydney and London it already is.

It’s the old story. Wealth is only relative. Advantage is only relative.

Now in some cities you have to work 60-80 hour weeks just to pay the bills, let alone get ahead. Like the Syrian taxi driver I spoke to yesterday.

Whatever happened to equity and fairness? The Common Good?

The work life balance has gone too far towards work.

Mea culpa on working 60-80 hour weeks. Until recently.

Night Shift Worker Story

One couple I know have two high-paid shift jobs, allowing them to pay off their mortgage fast.

They take shifts mainly so they can stay home with their children (dad stays home will mum works and vice versa).

Of course given this also involves complex rosters and weekends, they rarely do anything as a family.

So their kids benefit to some extent (parents home), but the parents may not. Parents need rest too.

The father started a job with better hours, less pay. But soon he was back chasing the money of the 24/7 lifestyle again.

Flexibility is often an over-used word for poor social outcomes. They shouldn’t have to do that. We should be able to do better.

Innovation is a return to 9 to 5

It may be unfashionable to say so for some, but the real innovation would be a recognition that most of us still live 9 to 5.

The 24/7 cities are fine if you like that, but we should not be forced to live the 24/7 life.

And the social cost of 24/7 should not be underestimated.

I like France. The 35 hour week. And the up to 7 weeks holiday per year.

Sometimes protectionism has a benefit.

More on this later…

Take care,

Christopher

[ratings] TRAVEL COMMENT, PARIS

These are French people’s Paris hotels, as far as I can tell, and if you like a Marriott or other US chain instead stay there.

I don’t always stay in these kind of luxury places, I often find stars a poor guide to how nice a hotel is, and 5 stars often disappoint, especially in places like London.

Stars are not as important as the hotels’ attitude, as my many hotel horror stories will attest, but in some cities of the world the rankings of where you stay is important.

Paris is where you most definitely get what you pay for and where the ranking 4-star deluxe means something. (it’s the highest, same as 5 star). Rankings in Paris & France are government controlled.

So in Paris from time-by-time, I’ve stayed personally in the Prince De Galles on a couple of occasions, which is one of my very favorite hotels, primarily for sentimental reasons.

But here’s a list of 4 of the best Parisian hotels…

George V Four Seasons

On George V, right off the Champs Élysées.

Popular with rap/pop stars, celebrities and the like. Considered a top Deluxe hotel for Americans. Can’t afford this one.

It is slightly more modern amenities than the Prince De Galles, so if you are used to American chain hotel with luxury amenities this is number one.

Prince De Galles, Paris

My favorite, this is where I prefer to stay in Paris. Right off the Champs
Élysées, also on George V next door. (I don’t like celebrities much).

I was there when French president Sarkozy ate his election victory dinner across at Fouquet’s, which should give you an idea of the location.

The one thing I will say about Sarkozy, he walked the street like a man, even with heavy security. That’s something you do not see in the US presidency these days.

Actually I rather like the West Bank more as a location to walk around, especially Montparnasse, St Germain des Prés and the areas around the Musée d’ Orsay.

But the Prince De Galles is grand old style European luxury, many windows open, comfortable rooms.

A little run down in parts, but I call that charming, so you may want to pay more, or travel off-peak to get a larger room here. The suites are small but beautiful.

If you prefer modern with functioning heating and like amenities instead of old European luxury, many so-inclined Americans prefer the Westin Paris (former Intercontinental) which I have found more modern, still beautiful, but far less charming.

Hotel Meurice

A favourite on the Rue de Rivoli, with a great fine dining restaurant, and not far from the Musée du Louvre, the worlds finest art collection in one place.

In addition there are many great less formal restaurants within a short stroll, and much better selection of small shops, as well as great subway connections to the main La Defense line.

Whilst being Right bank, this is a short bridge walk across into the Left Bank, so is very well positioned. If you cannot afford, try the Westin Paris.

But Le Meurice is a byword for less ostentatious luxury, I have been told. A small boutique, yet establishment discreet luxury hotel. Favored by the more discreet celebrity.

The Ritz Paris

You know where this is. This is only if you can afford it.

Never been there, even in the door… because if I did I’d want the Chanel Suite, and I can’t afford it so until then… (I have seen photos… Ouch.)

Complaints in Paris

One of the top complaints US visitors have to Paris is the air conditioning / central heating. I don’t like air con, I prefer opening windows.

But if you are a modern amenities kind of person, and you expect service like that found in chain hotels, go to an American chain. Luxury in France is more old world, similar to Vienna, and some European capitals.

It’s basically a culture clash sometimes.

A tip on Paris

One tip, you should try and learn some basic French. And politely ask if the Parisian parlez-vous Anglais? before launching into English.

Most young French people speak French and English, but they may be put out if you randomly start asking questions in English just because you feel nervous.

Many French feel nervous about their English too. Your bad French is better than no French, just to get the ball rolling.

Take care,

Christopher