crystal ball for the future

This is the last blog for my eculture subject. I have to write about my prediction for the future. So let’s take the crystal ball out of the closet and check what the future has for us. What do I see for the future?



I would like to talk more generally of the possible overtaking of the Internet by the governments or the big multinationals. For the moment, in the year 2007, it is still possible for anyone to touch any subject and to write nearly anything on the Internet. This can be any subject like those we talked about during the lecture: extremists, cybersex, representation of war, and so on. Everyone have different opinions of what is acceptable or not, and some people will find the extremists world or the cybersex appealing while some others will find these are subjects that should not be allowed on the Internet.

It does bring me to the big question: should we allow our government or upper power to have a say of what should or should not be written on the Internet? We are - in Australia, America, Europe and other countries around the world - in what our governments are proud to call (it sells positively the country abroad!) a democratic country where everyone should have the freedom of speech. So even if we are often disturbed with some of the things written or showed on the Internet, should we allow our government to take away our freedom of speech, our democratic rights by allowing them to have a say in what is and what is not allowed on the Internet?



I believe the word ethic still counts a lot in the modern world of today. They are forbidden subjects, subjects that no one should take lightly, like the extremists and their unilateral view of the world, or like the world of sex and the use of children for the only purpose of the pleasure of some adult’s viewers. These areas should be controlled, like the use of the children for the sex industry totally banned, not only on the Internet, but also outside the Internet area.

Unfortunately, by allowing governments to have a total control, to edict laws for the Internet users, to tell us what THEY think is right or wrong, we have the risks of loosing what we have fight for, our freedom of speech, our democratic rights. How can we be sure that if we were allowing the people on the power then would not in a near future arrest whoever they want, citizen that simply do not always agree with their governments, citizens that are trying to make others see another side of the story.

In fact, we could say that the world of extremist is pretty similar to the world of the government. They both want citizen that only see their points of views without asking questions, without thinking critically.

So I would say that we should think ethically to the question of what can be and what cannot be written and shown on the internet, like children used in cybersex, crimes against minorities shown on the internet by extremists groups like KKK in order to show the world how powerful they are. These are definitely things that should never appear anywhere, in flyer, newspaper, magazine or the Internet. But we should not forget that most importantly we should protect our democratic rights and freedom of speech like we would protect our own child. If we don’t and let go than we will have left an opening for powerful people to have a say to whatever we think, whatever we write on the Internet or anywhere else, even perhaps arrest us and put us in prison, or more extremely kill us if we think we are dangerous to them. We can think to the Nazis, China and other horrors stories we have heard or read on people having their rights stripped by the government at the power at a specific period.

The Internet has opened many possibilities and they have the most time been used with a positive approach but as always they are some that will use the Internet negatively. Only the future will tell us what have been done of this marvellous encyclopaedia, this marvellous knowledge that is the Internet. I hope one day our future generation will be proud of the advance of the technology the ancient did and not be ashamed of the negative use and repercussion the past generations have made of the Internet. I hope in the future, there will still exist people that can openly critically see, think, and tell about important subjects, on the Internet and more generally in every aspect of life on earth.


But I must say I am a bit of a pessimist on this subject and I do believe that in a nearer future than what we think, we will have slowly given to the power of governments and big enterprise and their will be only a handful of critical thinkers that will be afraid for their life as they will disturb the right order of the non-thinker citizen of the internet generation.

The way wars are reported and its repercussion.

A very difficult subject for me to write about this week as I believe that we should be, in our modern world of usually educated and informed people, able to avoid wars and that wars, for whatever reasons they are happening, are usually bringing nothing else than destroyed and lost lives.



Wars have often been misrepresented to citizen of a country. We always want to believe that our country, the one that is at war with another, has the right to do it in order to save us and will often believe whatever is reported to us. Many German people felt that the 2nd world war was the fault of Jews. Journalists were working for Hitler, for Germany, to misrepresent the horrors the Jews were living, the horrors of the war. But since the Gulf war - this war were the US were going to save the world against the horrible people they were saying are the Arab people - the way war is reported has changed. As written by Jordan Crandall, during the Gulf war they were around 600 journalists assigned to give us all ‘front row seats to the war”.


By reading this fact, my question is why did we always see the same images, the same reporting? With so many journalists someone would expect a variety of views regarding this war, a variety of images. As we can read in http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/international_security_bt/102.php?nid=&id=&pnt=102&lb=brusc , a reading I would greatly recommend to people interested in the impact of misrepresentation of wars, we can see that many people do not really know the real reasons behind a war and have a wrong impression of this war with the program and newspaper they are reading, listening and viewing everyday. The world has mainly seen what is convenient for the American government to show: they are the good one and the others are the bad one. The same can be said today with the second Iraq war. The difference being that many viewers are aware of the biases of the war reporters or journalists with the knowledge of what happened during the Vietnam and the gulf wars but do not, usually, mind – as they often don’t ask themselves if this is a true presentation of this war - that they have a unique view of the war, the one that the respective country government allows the journalist to project their readers or viewers.

I am still bothered to see that a wide number of people do not care if the War reportages do no really represent 100% what is happening in a special war. Today we, as viewers, are in search of more sensational images that will give us the impression we are viewing the war in direct, like a reality show. In fact, I would go further to say that the war does not interest many if it is not presented as a reality TV show.

Then we can wonder why do we rarely see the disturbing images I have found on the Internet. Is it because it would make the US citizens or other country citizens think a bit more about the reasons of a specific war, the fatalities and horrors that are going on in the other country, the cost of this war.




This is unfortunately the world we are living in, a world were we, as viewers and readers are asking more reality programs, more sensational stories and images that are given to us by journalists. It is a pity that we cannot find more journalists that are ready to work as independent, without the pressure of bigger company or of the government. It is sad to see that we are now in a world where the hyper reality is more important than the reality. It is natural to want to put all faults on the other country we are against to, the one we are at war with, but it is not normal not to try to understand what sort of war conditions are living the citizen of the other country.

We can also ask us the question why do we often hear about the war on Irak but not about so many others going on in the world, like the one in Darfur (http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0819-26.htm). I like what is written on this website to make the readers better understand the way war are reported and when they are good enough to be reported.

• Invisible because it is happening in Africa. Invisible because our mainstream media are subsidized by the petroleum industry. Think of all the car ads you see on television, in newspapers and magazines. Think of the narcissism implicit in our automobile culture, our suburban sprawl, our obsessive focus on the rich and famous, the giddy assumption that all this can continue indefinitely when we know it can't -- and you see why Darfur slips into darkness.

• “Why is it, I wonder, that when a genocide takes place in Africa, our attention is always riveted on some black American miscreant superstar? During the genocide in Rwanda ten years ago, when 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered in 100 days, it was the trial of O.J. Simpson that had our attention.”

It Does look to me that hyperreality and entertainment are only about what many wants to hear and see to the detriment of so many important subject to learn and hear about.



We had the Vietnam war, then the gulf war, now Iraq (http://www.historyguy.com/War_list.html#warlist13a ) and one would believe that we would have learnt with these experiences to be more careful with our thoughts on what is represented to us by journalists and governments. But it looks like the human being will never learn from his mistakes and continue to do them for at least many more years to come. So my last question I ask myself is: when eventually the actual war going on between the US and the middle East (this war that the US wants so much to win to whatever cost) will be finished, if it ever does, what will the US fight or try to empower? Australia, China, Europe?!? And will we, as citizen of a country, believe whatever is presented to us without questioning if this is the truth, a true representation of an event, or just what someone want us to believe it is.

new puppies

I had to tell the good news we had in our family and put some picture of the new puppies we have.

Noisette, our beautiful gorgeous chocolate labrador, had six little puppies. 3 males and 3 girls. it took 12 hours and since last Sunday we take shift with my husband to always be with them. That means we only get each of us a maximum of 3.5 hours sleep every night (I am the kind of person that will never leave the puppies by themselves until they are big enough!!!), and this for the next three weeks at least.

So everyone is really tired in my house, noisette too. But it is all worth it when you look at those six beautiful little ones. So we have chubby or momy boy as he always, I mean really always, shout, pancacke- the smallest (we will keep him), pinky (boy but marked him in pink and saw after he was a boy, cute name no?), princess, muffin, whity. Everyone is doing fine.

So the family have grown pretty quickly in only a day. We are now two adults, one child, one bearded dragon, two cats, one mouse, a dog, and six puppies. I still want one day a goat but I would have to move as we do not have an acre!

Enjoy your days and sleepy night, I know we will enjoy our days and nights but not sleep!!!


Coucou tout le monde, noisette a enfin eu ses bebes. Ils sont trop beaux.

Donc, Noisette notre superbe chienne labrador chocolat a eu six petits. 3 males et 3 femelles, cela lui a pris 12 heures et depuis dimanche passe on fait le tournus avec mon mari. Nous ne dormons donc en moyenne que 3.5 heures par nuit et on est creves.

Les petits sont superbes et cela vaut la peine tout le boulot que cela demande. Il y a donc chubby, pancake, pinky, princesse, muffin, whity. Tout le monde se porte bien.

La famille s'est donc agrandi tres vite en une nuit et nous comptons donc pour l'instant six nouveaux arrivants que nous adorons bien sur.

Apreciez vos nuits de sommeil pour nous!

culture and internet

This week blog will be about some sentences I found really interesting in the reading ”E-scaping Boundaries. Bridging Cyberspace and Diaspora Studies through Nethnography”. I must say this week subject was really touching me, as I am one of those that left their own country to migrate in a new one, I am one of those that lost a bit of their own culture and history on the way of their new life.

On page 183 of “critical cyberculture studies” it is written that “many people wish to learn about their culture because they want to recapture the power to name themselves. That is, they need an identity, not only so they know their own roots but also so others can learn of their roots”.

I personally can see that after more than ten years away from my birth country, I am finding difficult to not have a real identity, I am Australian citizen but I am equally a Swiss citizen, and I am finding it more difficult as the years pass, for many not to know anything about my past and my roots. I am proud to be Australian but I am also proud to be Swiss. I am proud of my personal history but it is a history that only my own family and really closed friends now, not anyone else. I can now with my personal experience understand how so many cannot really speak about their adoptive country as the one they really feel their own because they are still considering their birth country as part of them (often it is the country where they have spent their youth and grew man or woman). I had a chat one day with someone that came in Australia 20 years ago from Bulgaria and had four children born here in Australia. He told me that even if he was calling Australia home, that he loved this country and it was where he would finish his life, his heart was still in Bulgaria. I believe this is often what could be named as your roots. I read on the page 196 about who could be a Diaspora in Modern society and I have seen that It was funny to see that I could put a tick to all six qualification to be a classic exemple of the conventional understanding of Diaspora and I suppose so many migrant would be part of it too.

The Internet has allowed many in our world of today to be aware of so many different cultures other than their own and so in fact often think other cultures are better than theirs. But as we can read on page 184 “this return to the homeland is also desired by some people who reside within the homeland and who believe globalisation has destroyed their motherland and culture” (Ignacio 2005). I do personally think that in a way the Internet has allowed us to have the knowledge of so many different cultures to the detriment of our own culture. We are often more aware and more interested to hear about what is going on in the US or other countries than what is going on in our own countries. We are often more aware of the American culture than our own.

Having migrated in Australia nearly five years ago, I am still able to continue to follow what is going on in Europe via the Internet. I can follow everyday the news of Switzerland and Australia, exactly at the same time by simply opening two windows on my computer. But I have also seen that in fact the Internet is just making it harder to accustom myself to this new country that is Australia by in fact allowing me to have one foot in my birth country and another foot in my adoptive country. As we can read on page 184, “ these imaginary returns to either a home never seen or a home never experienced …”(Ignacio 2005). It does not always need to be a home never seen or experienced but it can also be that the internet help to imagine a life that would have been in the other country than the one we are living in, whichever. Again I believe you can really understand this idea if your are a migrant, not if you are an expatriate, a visitor, an exchange student, or anyone that is for a short term in a country. Having loved to be in every countries I lived before, I was often judgmental of people thinking like I do now. I did not really think of the loss of their history, the loss of part of their culture. I could not understand their feelings before, as all the countries I have been before where not for long term, for life.

I can understand that many will have imaginary ideas of what would go on in a country where they never lived. I had some. Often the reality is far from what we thought or what other people told us. The Internet should normally help us see what is really going on in a country but it does not as someone often see or understand what he wants to see or understand. The United States of America is a good exemple of so many wanted to live there, this democratic country where everything can be possible, where everyone can be successful and can become rich. Although they coud easily find out about this country, almost as if they were living in this country, find out about all the not-so-nice-things happening there, find out about how not so democratic this country is, where not everyone becomes rich and famous, they still wants to go there.

So for me, yes the Internet is an excellent information library, newspapers, news and I often feel so much more informed than before the arrival of this Internet. I am lucky to have lived in Japan from 1991 to 1993 and then from 2000 to 2002. I have been able to see the differences, good or bad, that the internet has made in my daily life and how it changed my way of seeing not only Switzerland, Australia or Japan, but also the rest of the world. I still believe we should not think the Internet is the answer to everything and that without it we could not survive. Before the internet we were able to learn from other cultures from stories from travellers, from stories from migrants and we should use the Internet to help us to continue to have more knowledge first on our own culture and than on other. Not the contrary.

Cybersex

Oh god, this week lecture has been a really interesting experience. We have first definitely seen that sex does sell more than other subjects, with around three times more students in the lecture than usual and we can better understand why do so many enter in this very lucrative market that is the porn or sex industry. As written in www.orroz.net (sexual phantasms and reality), in the USA, the porn industry has a revenue between 4 to 6 billion dollars per year (2001). Why would you open a company that will not be assured of having success when you can open a sex enterprise with a very good probability of success?

(Cybersex is sometimes so real!)

I will for this week lecture base my written opinion on what happens in France or Switzerland and the researches I have done on the Internet. I am not really an expert on Australia and its sex industry!

I am not sure how many have read “The Marquis de Sade”. This is an old book about his life (the marquis de Sade was born in 1740 and died in 1814), and it shows that already in what would some call ancient time, they were people with sex desires that not everyone could understand and that they were willing to do anything in order to satisfy their sexual phantasms. Also, in the 80’s in France and Switzerland you could buy magazines only related to sex and rent porn videos directly from the video shop if you where eighteen (they did not always ask for ID though). One of the most famous magazines was Union Magazine with real or fake sex stories, soft or harder pictures and different possibilities of contacting people with same sex liking than them. If you wanted sexy lingerie or other sex toys you had to enter a sex shop and look and/or tell what you were looking for to a salesman or saleswoman.

Nowadays we have the Internet and what is called cybersex. What is so different to what is written in the “Marquis de Sade” or a Union - or other like it - magazine, is that you do not need anymore to be eighteen to have access to whatever domain of sex you are interested in. The Internet has allowed anyone to have access to millions of different sex websites, with or without accident, and their anonymity is nearly always assured.

I have done some research, from home as I was not allowed to enter any of the sex websites from Swinburne (I wonder why?!?), and those searches and readings have been sometimes funny (have a look at some pictures I have put on my blog), sometimes scary and disturbing (paedophilia, zoophilia, …). I would also call some of the pictures of computerised women an oeuvre d’art. So I have to say that if before doing those researches on the Internet about cybersex I did not think cybersex does change human sexuality I could have absolutely no doubt after those readings that it does definitely change human sexuality and will even further change it in the future as many will not know when hyper reality begins and reality stops. The frontiers are already blurred and the technology will make even more difficult to differentiate reality from hyper reality. We can already see that many images of computerised women on the Internet look like certain real models in magazines. Or is it that certain real models in magazines are so retouched that they do look like the computerised images of women on the Internet. Not sure we can always see the difference, that we can see what it is real and what is unreal.

In the beginning of 1980, promises were made that we would all lived in a virtual word created by computer (we can think to the Terminator) and that we would even make virtually love in the virtual world. These ideas were shocking at that time but look now pretty realistic in the sex domain of 2007.
We can read on http://www.croixsens.net/sexe/cybersexe.php that cybersex has four factors to help it become so tempting - and addicting - for millions of people around the world. Those factors are:
1. It is cheap; the only thing needed is an Internet connection.
2. It is in general anonymous and you can hide cybersex dependence even to your nearest friends, family or even your spouse.
3. Everything is found really quickly, just a few seconds and clicks of the mouse, not so much time to change idea.
4. Every little emotional discomfort is hidden by the sexual excitation, exactly like would a powerful drug act.

So who are those people accessing sex websites? They can be anyone and this is the danger of cybersex. There is, usually, only one button to press: “I acknowledge that I am more than 18) and here you are, entering the doors of a sex website and having the possibility to satisfy all your weirdest sex phantasms and desires.

As we can read on http://www.orroz.net/ (sexual phantasms and reality) so many try to find excuses to their abuse of internet sex websites. Some of those excuses are that it is virtual, not real so it cannot be dangerous or addictive, that the women are all agreeing to be there and all love sex, that looking at some nude pictures of children on porn websites is not that bad as there is no sexual act included and it is for the beauty of the body, and anyway those children are smiling so they must be happy, and we can go on and on about excuses. Those excuses are always untrue. It is not because it is virtual that it is not dangerous. Usually but not always, the women in porn sites are paid for it and do not like to do it. Enjoying looking at nude pictures of children is horribly wrong and this is called paedophilia, with or without sexual activities with children and finally children do not enjoy being part of the porn industry and being used by adults for their own personal phantasms.

(A life destroyed in a click)

The problem with cybersex is that often the ones that are looking and enjoying porn websites will want to access harder porn websites and in higher quantity, and this will include paedophilia and zoophilia porn sites and this is when I think the limits are reached and phantasms should remain phantasms, and people doing/showing these things should be stopped.

Cybersex does not especially annoy me if it does only concern willing adults and does not hurt anyone. But it does disturb me that often it helps paedophiles or other whacko of sex and the porn industry to use children and even animals for their personal pleasure. Children are the one that pay the hard price of the cybersex and porn industry. I am wondering how many children around the world are being used and abused for the pleasure of so many adults that use the Internet and its anonymity in order to satisfy their sexual phantasms (http://www.technewsreview.com.au/cat.php?cat=11). And of course by allowing someone to have access to so many different porn websites can give them the impression that they are not abnormal, that they are in fact totally normal, as so many others do it.

Have al look at this video about cybersexe on http://www.nouvo.ch/95-1

I do believe that cybersex is addictive, like alcohol or drug, exactly because of this virtual reality, a better reality than many live or see (better body, better skin, better sex, women that are not bickering or having a headache when the men wants to have sex, impression that the other sides of the camera wants the same than you do, and so many other reasons). I do not believe that we can, or should stop cybersex as many adults do enjoy it and do not abuse it and especially do not click on paedophilia or other unethical websites. But I would like to believe, that one day it will be possible to totally stop the use of unwilling children, adults and animals that are hurt and abused by the sex industry. The sex industry did not wait for the internet to be one of the most lucrative industry and have always used not only willing but also unwilling people to satisfy other people sex phantasms so I do not believe that the problems is cybersex and the internet, but more who is using it and for what.

Not really necessary to translate, image pretty powerful

the fear of extremists

This week’s question was about e-extremist. I know that extremist parties have strongly over-used the Internet, the possibilities given to them by forums, and the help the Internet gave them to to reach millions more of potential future partisans. They will continue in the future to use whatever technology can help them to continue their propaganda. I have decided to speak more of the extremism world in general because I am still puzzled at the reasons why so many extremists parties still exist in 2007 (with members from different parts of the society: poor or rich, young or old, educated or not, …) with the history knowledge everyone has nowadays. This subject is for me on an equal level to the GM technology, I could talk about it during hours as I feel strongly about it (family in law from Germany, own family from France, my grand-father was in the French Resistance so you can imagine the reasons of my strong interest), and it has been extremely hard not to write more about it.

Extremism parties have since a long time existed and nearly everyone in the world knows about one of the most famous extremist party “The Nazi” and its repercussions, the second world war and the extermination of so many Jews, gays, mentally ill people, and many other people that are not fitting in the correct society. This is one of the common and main traits of nearly every extremist group: “faithfulness to racial purity” (Ray and Marshall, 2001;2). We, or I at least, would think we would have learnt with history that this is something we do not want to happen again.

But we should think again to the light of what is happening in the world and the list we can find on http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?sid=354. Some recent events can be frightful and so similar to what was happening in the Reich Era from 1933 to 1945. Except this time we are in a global international world and aware of it via the Internet and the TV. I must personally say I always taken the United States and the horrible stories I could hear on TV about the extreme and astonishing acts (hanging and killing families of black people, dragging them behind a car until they die, stories often heard on American Channel while in Japan) of the KKK as something that could only happen there, especially in 2007, and could not happen in Europe or Australia. I am a bit of an utopist and one event that is still shocking me is the event of Cronulla in Australia, where a few extremists have been able to reach, with the help of mobile phone, many more and have led to the event we know. Australia, this country formed now largely of migrants with only a few aboriginals left. One of the only country in the world were something like what happened in Cronulla should never happen, where everyone should accept everyone, regardless of their race or of their ancestors. Another more recent event is what is happening right now in France. It is now in France the election time to name a new president and it is well know that Mr Sarkozy will perhaps win with the help of the vote of the extreme right party of Jean Marie Le Pen. Mr Sarkozy is going against Mrs Segolene Royal but she does not have much chances against him and the help of Mr Le Pen hundred of thousands followers will help him to perhaps win. Jean Marie Le Pen has tried since many years to be elected without success and I was hoping that the French people were clever enough not to make the same mistake that was made in Germany in 1933 with the election of Hitler. It looks like perhaps I will be proven wrong.

Thinking a bit to the future and looking at the history of the Nazis on http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/index.htm we could argue that if Mr Sarkozy win the election and become the president of France, events like the one happening during the Nazi Era could happen in what we would like to believe to be an educated world. Why is it that after so many years those extremism parties are still going on strong?

Extremists use the natural fear many have and also the natural protection we have in trying to put problems on the count of others. Some of the extremists’ ideas look pretty serious and credible. As we can read in the Australia First party website, rebuild Australian Manufacturing Industries or strengthen the family looks as credible ideas until you read further.


But do we think about the future, to what would happened if a majority of voters would allow some extremist powerful people to take the reign of our country. In the case of the Nazis, people were often obliged to do what was simply told to them in order to save their family. In today’s world, do we think it would be so much different and were would it stop? What would you do if someone was telling you “you have to get rid of that person because she is not white or because she does not believe in our government? If you don’t do it, we kill your family”. Would anyone be sure that he or she would refuse to arm someone if their children life was at stake? I hope I would never be put in front of such an horrible choice, I hope no one will ever live again what happened with the Nazis.

Extremists exist in many different countries of the World, not only the so-called white countries. We do not want to allow extremists group like the talibans, KKK, Japanese Extremists (http://www.nieuwsbank.nl/en/2007/04/20/r016.htm ), to take over and be in charge of their country so how can we accept a party like the Australia First Party or the French Front National (FN) to try to gain votes without doing even half of the action we would against the talibans for exemple. Are they better because they are white. …like the majority of us.

By searching and reading information on a lot of extremist websites I was shocked to think to what would happened to us if we would allow someone like Sarkozy or Le Pen to govern us, especially with the advance that cloning has made (cloning in extremists hands would allow them to make the humanity at the image they think is the only possible). We are fighting the cloning advance being afraid to what will stop the keeper of the power of cloning to make the world to their perfect view of it, but we do not fight as much extremist parties.

To give an exemple, my friend Ann’s family is from Germany. Her mother in law is what you would call perfect Aryan, white, blond, blue eyes. So if Ann were living during the time of the Nazism, the family would be safe with their really white skin, blue eyes and dark blond hair. Think again, their child is like her husband (he has also 100% German blood but looks more like a Muslim, which is funny. Especially to see the way people act at the airport custom for exemple). So her daughter has darker skin, dark blond hair and brown eyes. What would you do if someone were telling you she does not pass the test, she has to go. Anyway, she would not have been born in the Nazi era as her husband would not have passed the test either and would have been a reject. I am horrified to see that this is exactly what could happen in a perhaps not too far future if we do not stop extremism to take the power to govern our countries.

Our world is exactly that, a world made of different countries, with different races, different people, different languages, different cultures. That is what exactly gives our world this interesting place to live. Extremist parties would like the world to be at one image, in the case of Australia or the United States, to the white Anglo Saxon image, with the same culture, the same goals. It does not look too interesting does it? This should be one good reason to stop them to propagate their “one race only” policy.

So to finish this week’s blog, I would say that I strongly believe we will for a long time have to fight the extremists’ parties, and they will, if not for ever, at least for a long time, continue to make their propaganda with the technologies at their disposal (internet, or in the future perhaps other technologies). Perhaps one day will we be able to eradicate extremists parties, but again, we will have to be careful not to eradicate every little extremists (I could be called an extremist as often I am not really easily ready to accept to change my ideas on a subject that is dear to my heart, so does this mean I should be eradicated and if so how?!?) as this will in the end also give one only thought, race. We have to accept perhaps that not everyone sees or accepts things the same, that they are crazy people everywhere that will commit horrible things we could not even think about, and that we have to live with this idea and try more to lower, as I do not think it is possible to totally eradicate those actions, the violence and crimes that are parts of the extremist world and part of the majority of their members.

what is left to the youth

While listening to the lecture this week about alternative eculture and the youth subcultures and also reading the recommended reading and searching internet websites, I wanted to look at the reason of why I think it is so difficult today to pinpoint some alternative or sub cultures that are only, or especially, parts of the youth.

To tackle the question I had to go back to my personal youth and think a bit to these years. In the late 70 and late 80’s, in Switzerland, being part of the youth movement was being between 17 to 25 years old. Before 17 years old you were considered as a teenager and after 25 a young adult. Young people had their own music. In Switzerland, The 70”s were the time of French singer like Johnny, Dalida, Claude Francois, Eddy Mitchell, Julio Iglesias (Enrike Iglesias Dad) or France Gall. In the English department it was the time of Grease, the 80’s were the time of Renaud, Jean-Louis Aubert, Julie, Duran Duran, Madonna, Michael Jackson or Boy George. Young people or group had their own way of wearing clothes and dancing depending of which “group” they were part. Personally, that meant, black long coats and black clothes (no emo sort of feeling involved, just a way to differentiate you from others), cool way of dancing in group (would love to do it again), special “pub” or bar where we were hanging between friends. That was our own personal culture that we were thinking and hoping no older generation would understand. Not so much different than the youth of today.

Still something was different, so different than today. Our parents were considered by us as “old”. Less than our grandparents but still in the old department, out of fashion, and we strongly believed that they were not knowing what was going on in our life, our group of friends, or brain. The usual family was composed of a working dad, the king in the house, a mom at home and the children. Parents were acting like parents, like older people, and if they were not it was not in the front of their children. Our parents could not buy us many things as only one of them was working at that time, money was often really tight and material things were expensive. We could not get a new cd or a new video every week. We did not pass as much time in front of the tv or playing computer games as they was usually only one tv (still black and white) per family and no or only a few computer games in the house and so were often not as aware of what was going on in the countries next to ours as we are now, also not so aware at all of what was going on in the rest of the world.

Today, in the 2000 something, we live in a total different world than many generations have. The technology has made so much progress that we have access to many things from all around the world without even travelling. We are inundated by ads, messages, and ideas in our everyday life. We do not have so much time to think of what we really do want personally, it is more we want what we have seen or been told about it. Our parents do not really act as old people, not even our grandparents. We do know that they have already lived many interesting years like the 60’s freedom (sex, drug, rock and roll) time or the 80’s weird clothes and hair time. The 90”s can be remembered as being the time of Aids, 9/11. Not really exciting for youths. Parents of today are often acting like if they were still in their teenager’s period. They do not feel old and do not want to be viewed as such. As written by Steve Colins in Small Fire (May 2002), nobody is a teenager anymore, because everybody is”.

What does it leave for the youth to be different than their parents? Youths have always needed to differentiate from adult. This is part of the process to enter in the adult life. There is the need for youth to be different, to be better than previous generations. There is this need of wanting to be different than your parents, not making the same mistakes than they did, being able to have a better future.

But in today’s world the lines have been blurred and many things have already been lived or done by precedent generations. From 1995 to 2007 whatever has been taken by the youth movements as alternative cultures has quickly be taken by industries to make it a lucrative object. And these alternative or sub cultures will be shown all over the world – with the help of the radio, TV or the Internet, as being something new and trendy where in fact they only are the same old thing as last xx years ago, but repackaged with a lot of merchandising around.

So in the end, what can we find these last ten years that have been left for teenagers to be different from their parents? Not a lot, the big companies are constantly brainwashing our kids and trying to put them in the mold of conformity. But there is an unease feeling in the air. And we have seen the extent of it in the last years with the filming on their mobile of other youth to be bashed by many, killing others students. This is a very worrying thought to see that for some, the only things left for youth to be different than the majority of the older generations is to be violent, violence often used against their own peers. They are looking at being different and being violent may be one of the only things that was left to them by the main part of the adult world.

I would personally say that we, as parents, should not forget that we are our children parents and not their mate. We must act as a parent, caring, understanding and friendly and leave them the right to be young, to experience their own culture and to try to leave the youth this culture, their own, without always trying to take this for us, often in order to stay young and look cool. If the youth of today feels there is still a bit of place left for their own personal, not lucrative, new cultures, than they will perhaps believe in their future, believe in themselves.