The Comenian

Dongen - So here it is the first edition of The Comenian, a paper made by and for European students. Just three weeks after the Comenian conference we’ve got our first paper. I want to thank you all for your contributions and I hope that together we can make this paper work as a means of communication between our four countries and hopefully other countries to come.

In this first edition you will find different opinions about what happened in the French banlieus some weeks ago, an article about Sinterklaas in Holland and a schoolday in a French boarding school.

The next Comenian will be a Christmas edition, so I invite you to write an article about how you celebrate Christmas in your country. And if you don’t like Christmas, why not? A personal Christmas story is also welcome. You can send your articles untill 15 December. Pictures of yourself and other illustrations are also welcome.

Mail to w.teurlings@cambreurcollege.nl

LES INCENDIES DANS LES BANLIEUES FRANCAISES

Vouziers - Depuis trois semaines, dans plusieurs départements de la France, des adolescents de 10 à 20 ans se révoltent en brûlant des véhicules, des immeubles, des entreprises, etc… Pour eux, c’est une façon de s’exprimer par rapport à l’emploi en France. La plupart des français ne comprennent pas cette attitude violente et provocatrice qui les terrorise. Beaucoup ont peur de sortir seul, ou encore de découvrir leurs biens incendiés. En ce moment, ce problème est pris en charge par la justice. Certaines propositions de lois ont été faites. Exemple : le couvre feu, l’exclusion des étrangers qui commettent des actes interdits en France.

Par ailleurs, ce n’est pas encore une guerre civile comme les médias peuvent le sous entendre. Par exemple, à Vouziers, dans notre petite ville ardennaise, il n’y a aucun acte de ce genre.

Que pensez vous de ces évènements ?

Jean Marie Cahart, Sabrina petit, Tony Braconnier, Olivia Gillet (élèves de BEP 2 Carrières Sanitaires et Sociales)France

French Riots in Britain

Stockport - As many of us watched France descend into chaos thanks to the “clichy” race riots, a huge violent uprising that brought France to a stand-still for almost two weeks, our collective thoughts turned to whether these unbelievable scenes could occur in Britain.

On the face of it, Britain does not have half of the integration problems that France has; just last year Jacques Chirac’s conservative government banned all religious symbols causing scorn amongst the Muslim community, and in the Afro-Caribbean-dominated urban ghettos of Paris, crime, unemployment and gun crime are all at astronomical levels.

But are we really that far away from France’s troubles?

This year alone, there have been numerous race-related killings on our streets. In the last few weeks, racial tensions in Birmingham reached straining point when Black and Asian gangs erupted into violence. What followed was a night of violence, based on gang-rivalry, resulting in one man’s death, and damage worth thousands of pounds. But what should we expect? Britain is a multi-cultural society.

This phrase is often misused; you may believe it encourages cultural diversity, which in a way it does, but it really only results in separate, often isolated communities. The following is a huge generalisation, but on the whole, the Asian community sticks together, the Black community sticks together and the white community sticks together; our cultures and traditions are only upheld within our narrowly confined groups. This can inspire racial violence due to ignorance and the lack of understanding between communities, which results in fear and distrust for other communities.

Only when Britain develops an intercultural society where everybody celebrates their individuality together, we can possibly see an end to these tensions.

Chris Verity, Aquinas College, England

OLD CAUSES, NEW PROBLEMS

Arad - The last month represented for France and its inhabitants a period marked by violence and chaos because of the problems the country has with the immigrants. The official cause of these attacks: the death of two young immigrants who, trying to escape from the French police died electrocuted in Paris, the city which has the biggest concentration of immigrants of all the country. Personally, I think that the real cause of these conflicts is one that dates from a long time ago: the lack of integration politics of the French government. Through the past

decades we noticed a permanent change in the state’s politics in what concerns the immigrants. During the first decades, the state encouraged the entry of foreign workers and it even accepted their families. But the situation changed after the ’70’s when, on account of the economical crises that affected France, the government started fighting the clandestine immigration and it made efforts to deport the immigrants that were staying illegally in France. Because of the lack of support from the French people, the immigrants were isolated by the society, in the periphery of the big cities. Even if the foreigners have a diploma, the majority can’t find a job, because the people who can hire them have discrimination problems. Without a job, the immigrants live in improper homes and their children suffer because of the school segregation.

We have all seen the consequences of these problems. But what I noticed is that these problems don’t affect only France, but the other countries of Europe, too. In Belgium we could see violent acts which copied the French pattern. The countries that did not come in contact with this chaos fear the expansion of these violent acts, and people who do not live in France fear visiting it. In the case of the Romanians this fear is motivated by the death of a Romanian citizen who was killed by some persons who are considered to be immigrants.

The situation France is going through is understood by the Romanians, who have problems with the integration in the society of the gypsies. We cannot compare the severity of the France situation with the Romanian one, but it is safe to say the solution which can end these problems is the same.

It is obvious that we need to create a plan so we can integrate the immigrants, because,

even if the conflict stopped for the moment in France, the danger it will appear again in the future (but in another form) still exists.

Adela Pintea, Romania

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Dongen - St. Nicholas is a great celebration in the Netherlands.

Everyboby loves St. Nicholas, especially the kids.

Every once in a year in the last week of November St. Nicholas comes from Spain to the Netherlands with his steamboat and celebrates his birthday here.

But the thing is, his doesn’t get presents himself but he gives presents to the childeren in the Netherlands.

During three weeks the childeren get to place there shoes underneath the heater at night and then when they wake up there is candy or all little present in there shoes.

The story goes that St.Nicholas his horse Americo and his black helping hands ‘zwarte Pieten’walk on the the roofs of the houses, and that the helping hands go through the chimneys to put candy in the shoes of the childeren.

But there is more on the 5^th of December it’s St.Nicholas’ birthday and as we have told you he doesn’t get presents but gives them to the childeren.

So at that night all the little childeren are waiting in stress for St. Nicholas to come and give them presents.

But you’ll only get a present if you have been a nice kid for the whole year. St Nicolas has a book with the names of all childeren in the Netherlands. In this book he writes down which children have been good and which haven’t. The kids that didn’t behave well are put in a big bag by the ‘zwarte Pieten’and taken to Spain where they will have to work hard for a whole year.

On 6 December very early in the morning

,when everybody is asleep, St. Nicholas will sail back to Spain together with his ‘zwarte pieten’ and his horse only to return next year November.

Do you know that St. Nicholas has a brother who lives somewhere near the polar circle? No, well his name is Santa Claus.

Lotte, Aniek, Nicky and Jaap Cambreur College The Netherlands

A day at a French boarding school

What’s life like at a French boarding school? Three students from Vouziers wrote the next article about their daily routine.

The morning

We ge up at 6.50 am

Breakfast at 7.10

The lessons start at 8 o‘clock

Break from 9.50 – 10

Lessons from 10 – 12

Lunch from 12 – 1.25 pm

The afternoon

Lessons from 1.25 – 3.15 pm

Break from 3.15 – 3.25 pm

Lessons from 3.25 – 5.00

The evening

Break from 5 – 5.30. The students can go to their room or go to the village.

Studying from 5.30 – 7.00

Dinner from 7.00 – 7.30

Recreation from 7.30 – 9.00. The students have to stay at their school, but they can take a shower, smoke a cigarette, call their parents or watch television. Those who want can go to their room. At 9.45 everyone has to be in his room and at 10.30 everyone sleeps.

Julie Coutiez, Stephanie Pawleniak, Aurelie Blanchemanche. BEP1 Carrieres Sanitaires et Sociales.

Language barrier

As you may have noticed , some articles in this paper are in French some in English. We have writers from different counries but I will trie to translate or have the French articles translated into English and the English into French. Of course the Romanians and the Dutch speak both languages so for them it’s no problem.

WT

PARIS EN FLAMMES

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Arad - Des voitures incendiées, des magasins dévastés, des immeubles en feu, des gens enragés – voilà quelques éléments de ces tableaux parisiens de cauchemar que la télévision roumaine nous a présentés au cours du mois de novembre.

Ce qui m’a choqué a été l’ampleur de ces événements qui ont déterminé, comme dans un jeu de domino, d’autres incidents pareils tout d’abord dans différentes villes de France (Nantes, Rennes, Rouen, Toulouse, Lyon) et puis plus loin à Lisbonne, à Berlin, à Bruxelles.

Des centaines de personnes ont été interogées même arrêtés sans pouvoir mettre fin à ces actes de violence. C’est que ce mal du XXI-ème siècle- la condition des immigrés- a des racines profondes. Une inadaptation due probablement aux différences fondamentales de mentalité, de religion de coutumes etc. Tous les droits obtenus dans le pays d’exil n’ont pas suffi à rendre plus doux le processus d ‘adaptation aux règles de vie trop dures et exigeantes peut-être des pays développés de l’ U.E.

Ce qui vient de se passer et qui a laissé des blessures profondes dans l’économie des pays affectés et dans la memoire collective de leurs habitants constitue une leçon ou un avertissement adressé aux gouvernements et aux pouvoirs publics responsables de cette situation. C’est en même temps un signal d’alerte qui nous invite tous à réfléchir à la

tolérance, au bien-être de nos semblables, à la

paix et surtout à ce que va être l’Union Européene de demain.

Alexandra Popovici

Lycee Moise Nicoara Roumanie

How very British

Stockport - I sometimes ask myself: “What is it to be British?” A question so vast requires almost as complex an answer as “What is the biological importance of water?” or “How is grammar used in the English language?” So where do I begin?

If I were to ask someone from another country what they thought of when asked about Britain, the’d probably say “dull weather”, “the monarchy” and “bad cooking”. But is that all Britain is about? Yes, the weather is horrible most of the time, and we are one of the few nations left to have a monarchy, but I’m sure Jamie and Delia would have a thing or two to say about “bad cooking”.

So what is it to be British? Take literature; Shakespeare is one of the most famous Britons to have lived and is known worldwide. Although he died hundreds of years ago, his plays and sonnets are still being studied today. However, even Shakespeare was influenced by other countries. Would Romeo and Juliet have been quite so romantic if “Fair Verona” had been swapped for Stockport town centre?

What about religion? We live in a multicultural society, so what was a predominantly Christian nation has been enriched by the traditions of several other faiths, moulding and flourishing Britons into being a more educated and tolerant bunch. Even among just the few of my college friends I asked, there are mixes of Italian, French and in my own case Maltese (both my parents are Maltese); yet somehow I still feel completely “British”.

The English language has been affected by many different languages; for example, take words such as “rendezvous”, “arachnaphobia” and “kaput”. Even Britain’s native language has been and still is being influenced by other languages.

How about our cuisine? Can we honestly say “Fish and Chips” or “Roast Beef” is the food of our land, when many people would rather have “Spaghetti Bolognaise” or “Chicken Tika Masala”? The truth is, thanks to our multicultural society our food is a pick-and-mix of Chinese, Indian, Greek, Italian, Japanese and Thai, amongst others!

Even our music is influenced by other nations; all you have to do is flick to MTV and see the European Chart Show, or wait for the dreaded Eurovision Song Contest!. British bands have been major influences on all kinds of music movements, but we can’t forget the influences of American artists like

“Muddy Waters”, “Elvis Presley” and “Nirvana”.

What is it to be British? Answer: A big mixing pot of many nations in aspects such as its religion, culture, language, food and music. This is my opinion, makes being British today the most unique experience.

Stephanie FalzonAquinas College

Stockport, UK.

CAUSES ANCIENNES, PROBLEMES ACTUELS

This is the French translation of the article

‘Old causes new problems’.

Vouziers - Le dernier mois a représenté pour la France et ses habitants une période marquée par la violence et le chaos à cause des problèmes du pays avec les immigrants. Le motif officiel de ces attaques :la mort de deux jeunes immigrants qui, essayant de se cacher de la police française, sont morts électrocutés dans la ville de Paris,la ville avec la plus grande concentration d’immigrés.

Personnellement, je crois que la cause réelle de ces conflits est une plus ancienne :le manque d’une politique d’intégration de la part du gouvernement français. Le long des dernières décennies on a pu voir un permanent changement dans la politique de l’Etat envers l’immigration. Pendant les premières décennies on a encouragé l’entrée des travailleurs étrangers et on a même accepté leurs familles. Mais la situation a changé après les années’70 quand, à cause de la crise économique par laquelle la France passait,on a commencé à lutter contre l’immigration clandestine et on a fait des efforts pour éloigner les immigrés en situation irrégulière.

A cause de ce manque de constance, du manque de soutient de la part du pays, les immigrants ont été marginalisés par la société, dans les banlieues des grandes villes. Même si les étrangers ont des études, ils ne

peuvent pas trouver un lieu de travail,parce que les embaucheurs font des discriminations. Sans un lieu où travailler,les immigrés habitent dans des lieus sales et leurs enfants souffrent à cause de la ségrégation scolaire.

Les conséquences ont les a tous vues. Mais ce que j’ai observé est que ces problèmes n’affectent pas seulement la France, mais aussi les autres pays de l’Europe. Des actes de violence qui imitent le modèle français ont été saisis dans la Belgique. Les pays qui n’ont connu directement ce chaos ont été frappés par la peur de l’extension de ces actes, mais aussi par la peur de partir pour la France. Dans le cas des Roumains cette peur est une justifié, parce qu’un citoyen roumain qui travaillait en France a été tué par des personnes qui l‘ont considère être un immigré.

La situation de la France est une connue en Roumanie,qui a eu des problèmes avec l’intégration des tsigans. On ne peut pas comparer la gravité de la situation actuelle en France avec celle de la Roumanie, mais on peut dire que pour les deux pays la manière dont on peut résoudre la situation est une commune.

Il est évident qu’il y a besoin de concevoir un plan pour l’intégration des immigrés, parce que,même si le conflit est maintenant éteint dans la France,le péril qu’il apparaisse dans une autre forme dans l’avenir existe encore.

Adela Pintea Arad,Roumanie

Suggestion box

So this was the first Comenian. I hope you liked it. Of course a lot of things can be changed so if you have good ideas how we can make this paper better please let me know.

WT

If you have some spare time crayons and give this drawing of St. Nicholas some colour. Maybe he or his brother will visit you and give you a present. That is only if you have been good this year!