OUTSOURCING / OFFSHORING: TWO CARTOONS

 

 This first cartoon introduces the idea of Outsourcing and Offshoring, two current issues in our nowadays societies. This two notions are presented through the figure of Mitt Romney (as we can see on the treasure full of money) who's explaining what outsourcing and offshoring are. To offshore is a mean to earn more money when you establish a western country's company in a third world country in order to pay less the workers and benefits. To outsource is almost the same but it's when you set up a not really lucrative part of a firm in an other country. It's a way to get money really fast for developped countries as United States and what they usually do is that they deposite their money in a tax haven as Cayman Islands drown in the foreground next to "Believin' in America" big boat which reflects the richness of America. But there are many tax havens like Bermuda or Switzerland that we can make out in the background.

 

The second document also tackles the current issue of offshoring. It's atempting to "simply explain" what offshoring means thanks to two banal characters who're having a conversation. They are speaking about the financial situation of their country and the first character says to the other that this would be better if they moved in the other country because there are jobs there. He also says something funny when he tells the other that the people want even more than their jobs. The other asks what and the first answers : they want to be paid. They thinks that it is unbelievable and they are kind of right beacause when a country ofsshores is to get money on the back of a cheap labor. This document is interesting because it shows how bad the situation is nowadays. Indeed, western country people are losing their jobs because some business companies are offshoring to get a cheaper labor. But this labor also wants to be paid.

To put it in a nutshell, these two cartoons raise the controversial issue of offshoring that is creating poverty in both sides, in western countries as well as in third world countries. It also shows that rich people are getting richer and they don't hesitate to hide their money in tax havens in order to not pay taxes even if they should. In fact they are preying on cheap labor to earn as much money as they can. That's awful because nowadays western countries are suffering of a massive joblessness.

R.E.M - EVERY DAY IS YOURS TO WIN

1) SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Though R.E.M. formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980, Mike Mills (born December 17, 1958) and Bill Berry (born July 31, 1958) were the only Southerners in the group. Both had attended high school together in Macon, playing in a number of bands during their teens. Michael Stipe (born January 4, 1960) was a military brat, moving throughout the country during his childhood. By his teens, he had discovered punk rock through Patti Smith, Television, and Wire, and began playing in cover bands in St. Louis. By 1978, he had begun studying art at the University of Georgia in Athens, where he began frequenting the Wuxtry record store. Peter Buck (born December 6, 1956), a native of California, was a clerk at Wuxtry. Buck had been a fanatical record collector, consuming everything from classic rock to punk and free jazz, and was just beginning to learn how to play guitar. Discovering they had similar tastes, Buck and Stipe began working together, eventually meeting Berry and Mills through a mutual friend. In April of 1980, the band formed to play a party for their friend, rehearsing a number of garage, psychedelic bubblegum, and punk covers in an converted Episcopalian church. At the time, the group was played under the name the Twisted Kites. By the summer, the band had settled on the name R.E.M. after flipping randomly through the dictionary, and had met Jefferson Holt, who became their manager after witnessing the group's first out-of-state concert in North Carolina.

R.E.M. marked the point when post-punk turned into alternative rock. When their first single, "Radio Free Europe," was released in 1981, it sparked a back-to-the-garage movement in the American underground. While there were a number of hardcore and punk bands in the U.S. during the early '80s, R.E.M. brought guitar pop back into the underground lexicon. Combining ringing guitar hooks with mumbled, cryptic lyrics and a D.I.Y. aesthetic borrowed from post-punk, the band simultaneously sounded traditional and modern. Though there were no overt innovations in their music, R.E.M. had an identity and sense of purpose that transformed the American underground. Throughout the '80s, they worked relentlessly, releasing records every year and touring constantly, playing both theaters and backwoods dives. Along the way, they inspired countless bands, from the legions of jangle pop groups in the mid-'80s to scores of alternative pop groups in the '90s, who admired their slow climb to stardom.

Unexpectedly, in September 2011, the band announced its amicable breakup after 31 years together. Immediately after the split, the band issued a double disc compilation entitled, Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage: 1982-2011, covering both their years at IRS and Warner. 

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/rem-mn0000325459/biography

2) SONG REVIEW

Righting themselves via their long-awaited return to rock Accelerate, R.E.M. regrouped and rediscovered their core strengths as a band, strengths they build upon on its 2011 sequel, Collapse into Now. Cautiously moving forward from Accelerate’s Life's Rich Pageant blueprint, R.E.M. steer themselves toward the pastoral, acoustic moments of Out of Time and Automatic for the People without quite leaving behind the tight, punchy rockers that fueled Accelerate’s race to the end zone. This broadening of the palette is as deliberate as Accelerate’s reduction of R.E.M. to ringing Rickenbackers, and while it occasionally feels as if the bandmembers sifted through their past to find appropriate blueprints for new songs, there is merit to their madness. R.E.M. embrace their past to the extent that they disdain the modern, reveling in their comfortable middle age even if they sometimes slip into geezerhood, with Michael Stipe spending more than one song wondering about kids these days. He’s not griping; he’s merely accepting his age, which is kind of what R.E.M. do as a band here, too. Over a tight 41 minutes, they touch upon all the hallmarks from when Bill Berry still anchored the band, perhaps easing up on the jangle but devoting plenty of space to rough-hewn acoustics and mandolin, rushing rock & roll, and wide-open, eerie mood pieces that sound like rewrites of “E-Bow the Letter.” Any slight element of recycling is offset by craft so skilled it almost seems casual. This may impart a lack of urgency to Collapse into Now but it also means that it delivers R.E.M. sounding like R.E.M., something that has been in short supply since the departure of Berry.

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

 http://www.allmusic.com/album/collapse-into-now-mw0002073023

3) MY OWN REVIEW

When I watched this video for the first time, I have to say I found it strange. It wasn't what I expected. But now I can admit that this video is positively surprising. I really like the editing because it is teasing. When you watch a succession of short shots it's maybe confusing but it's really interesting at the same time because you try to make a link between each image. As I said, the editing is very well done, indeed the videoclip begins with the image of an eye looking at every directions and it ends with the image of a computer recording its image in the miror, we have the impression to get lost in the computer. The person who was staring at us is now watched by us, this is quite funny. From the beginning to the end we can see Amateur extracts videos in which people have shot themselves dancing, disguising, making up etc., but also people have filmed their diary life like the striking moment when birds were enclosed in a living room, or when a cat was jumping on a wall... Sometimes we see the same persons two or three times, it gives us the impression of the crescendo and decresendo heard in the song. I believe that this is a good illustration of the song itself. Because the song is full of strange metaphors - as weird as the images are - and more over the melody makes me trip to a dreamy world with all these extravagant people.

4) INTERPRETATION OF THE SONG

We can relate this video to the Idea of Progress because thanks to new technologies we can have an access to these videos directly on our computers. People can share their lives thanks to it and it's a really good progress in my opinion.

We can also make a link between this videoclip and the notion Space & Exchanges, indeed, nowadays Internet is considered as a virtual space in which every user is free to share whatever he wants to and interact with other users. Moreover this is a powerful (Location and Forms of Power) place, nowadays most of our diary life is related to the Internet, we can do almost whatever we want. Personally it makes me feel stronger. 

There is a reference with the notion Myths & Heroes. As we can see in the different shots, people are playing, they are disguising, becoming a new person, they are a kind of a character, an new heroe through their point of you. The magic trick can be judged as a myth if we think that this is a fake one.

 

INTO THE WILD (2007)

The movie Into The Wild released by Sean Penn in 2007 seems to be about a young adventurous man who wants to break up with his actual life. He needs something more exciting, something different because he doesn't feel satisfied yet. The movie tackles the current issue of leaving your life behing to start a new one : "There are people in this world who go looking for adventure"...

I think this movie deals with the notion MYTHS & HEROES because the main character is braver than ever. He breaks away from his former life to face the Nature. He is searching for himself, it's a kind of a quest in which he doesn't want to feel strong, he wants to be strong! He decides to face the danger of the Nature by living with nothing else than by his own means. He surely doesn't feed himself correctly but it's nothing compared the hurdles he has to overcome : in the trailer, we can see that he is beaten by someone else.

Besides, this film refers to the notion IDEA OF PROGRESS, but in an original way. Indeed, this film is a criticism of consumer society. The main character - the heroe - takes the decision to live with nothing in an opulence world. Therefore, he cuts his credit cards and burn his money before going towards Alaska.

MYTHS & HEROES

Here is the link to my worksheet: MYTHS & HEROES

STROMAE

Originally known as Paul Van Haver, Stromae was born on the 12th March 1985 in Brussels. He is a writer-composer-performer of hip-hop and electronic music.

His mother is Belgian while his father came from Rwanda where he got killed during the genocide. His mother raised her 4 sons and her daughter on her own in the capital city.
When he was only 11, Stromae attended to music theory and drums at Musical Academy of Jette.

In 2000, he takes the pseudonym Opsmaestro to launch his career in hip-hop. But then he changes his nickname to become the most famous ever Stromae. (Maestro in backward-slang)

CHEESE, 2010
He begins by releasing some lessons on the internet to teach people how to compose electronic songs.
Then, he releases his first single Alors on danse in 2009, thanks to it he wins NRJ Award and he also attends to MTV Europe Music Awards 2010 on the 7th of November in Madrid.

RACINE CARRÉE, 2013
The first song of this new album was released in May 2013. Papaoutai quickly became a hit.
His second album is as famous as the first one or maybe more because Stromae is now getting known by the whole world!
This year he won the award of the Best Belgian Artist at MTV Europe Music Awards.

I really love his songs because he is avant-garde and I love the way he blends electronic music with powerful and meaningful lyrics. Moreover he is really gifted to perform, he was impressive in Le Grand Journal where he performed his new song Tous les mêmes few days ago.

THE READER BY STEPHEN DALDRY

The Reader is a movie released in 2009 by Stephen Daldry. Originally based on German writer Bernhard Schlink's novel (Der Vorleser), the movie is about a relationship between a woman and a younger boy.

The movie is actually divided in different parts.

          Neustadt, West Germany, 1958.
Mickael is getting back from school and his whitish face makes the member of the audience that this young boy is sick. Few minutes later, he just vomit on the floor before taking refuge in block of flats hall. Hanah rescues him and take him to her appartment, then she leads him to his house when his conservative family is waiting for him.
The doctor comes, Mickael must keep into his bed for three months because he's contagious. After his quarantine he brings flowers to Hanah, to thank her but she's distant... But in the end, they kiss each other and make love. The young boy can't wait to see her again and he goes very often to her home, she decides that before making love, he has to read her a part of the book he's studying.
They go on trip together, it's an idyllic relationship but Hanah gets a promotion and she leaves without telling him. He's totally upset and destroyed by his Passion.

This part deals with the power of Love. Indeed, we can see the genesis of love through the character of Mickael, he's totally in love with her, he's burning of Passion whereas she feels less passionated than him. She's older and more mature. We realise that love is not easy at all, Everything is not black or white but on the contrary, love is a mix of different shades.

          Heidelberg, Law School, 1966
Mickael is now studying law, he has forgotten, he has tried to...
With his class, he goes to a Court of Justice of 6 women accused to have sent to death hundred of women in concentration camp. Hanah is part of them, she joined the SS because they were looking for guards. Each guard had to choose 10 women each week, Hanah chose differently, she chose the weaks, the sicks and asked them to go to her room to read her books...
During the Trial, the 5 others convicted denounce Hanah and tell that she is the culprit because she's her who wrote the reports. The judge want to check it, he gives Hanah a piece of paper and a pen and request a handwriting sample to check. Hanah refuses to give it, she says it's true she's guilty. But in fact, Mickael understands that Hanah is illeterate that's why she asked him to read her book etc. She's sentenced to prison for life.

In this part the reference to Judicial Power is more than clearer thanks to the trial and jail. But this power is controversial because we can discuss the sentence. It's easy to sit in judgement on someone when you don't know the truth. The judge only based his judgement on one source, the one of the 5 others culprits. It's certainly an error among many in Justice. Moreover this court wouldn't have taken place if there wasn't Hitler's totalitarian government led by Nazism ideology which is another form of power.

          Neustadt, West Germany, 1976
Mickael is older now but he's still thinking of her. He decides to record his voice and send Hanah some tapes of him reading. On her own, she booked The lady with a little dog and starts learning how to read and write.

We can link this part to the power of language, the power of words. Thanks to this movie I got aware of how important to be literate is nowadays. It's natural for us to read and write everyday during class but for some people it's difficult and they feel ashamed of it. What's more, some bad persons abuse of their power and prey on these illeterate persons like the 5 women did with Hanah Schmitz. We can related this form of power to the power of honnor because even if she risks the prison for life, Hanah keeps quiet about her illeteracy instead of proclaimig her innocence. That's a deseperate act of courage.
I also realised that, nowadays, we are not aware how lucky we are to be able to communicate throught any support we want to. The fact of speaking, of singing is beautiful on his own but we can't see it if we are not "disabled"...

         West Berlin, 1988
Hanah will be revealed and Mickael is the only one she knows, he finds her a job and a place to live in but she hangs in prison.

         January 1995
Mickael brings her daughter where he went when he was younger with Hanah, she's buried there.

By bringing his daughter on Hanah's tomb, Mickeal perpetuate Hanah's Memory. Obviously, the power of Memory is important to not forget our past but also to consider the future in a better way!

THE NOTION OF POWER as exemplified in Brian De Palma's Redacted movie.

Redacted (2007), released by Brian de Palma, aims to make people aware of what the situation was in Irak. Indeed through hard realistic pictures, Brian de Palma tells us how the real situation was in the country. He shows how scared the soldiers were about dying, they are even wondering what they're doing there in Irak. We can hear screams and shots in addition to watching horrible things like dead corpses, raping scenes... The director makes people see what they don't want to see.

The intervention of USA soldiers in Irak tackles the controversial issue of the reasons which justify the war. George W Bush sent million of solidiers in Irak in order to pacify the situation. He said he wanted to fight against the spread of terrorism but actually he just wanted to impose American supremacy to have an access to oil wells in Irak. Therefore, we can see that there are economic reasons to the war. And these reasons are the main motives of the Military intervention. That's what we're used to calling an abuse of power. So we can say that the USA is as guilty as Irak.

A Review by Derek Armstrong :

In the years following the start of the second Iraq war, numerous filmmakers tried to grapple with the thorny issues at play there. But few made quite so clinical an approach as Brian De Palma in Redacted. Since many of those films were considered misfires, a different approach might not be such a bad thing. De Palma presents an array of media -- a French documentary, an al-Qaeda website, a blog by a soldier's wife -- as if stockpiling evidence for a trial designed to determine some kind of universal truth. The story's backbone is the amateur footage shot by a soldier named Angel (Izzy Diaz), who hopes to parlay his observations into acceptance at film school after returning home. Through this we meet the five central characters. All of this is fictitious, of course, leaving Redacted in the category of "fictional documentary." The results can feel simplistic and on the nose, but that's partly intentional. De Palma's scenario is constructed specifically to have an every-soldier feel to it, dealing primarily with the brutal rape of an Iraqi teenager and the killing of her family. In this way, De Palma indicts all American soldiers in all wars (accusations of such behavior ran rampant in Vietnam), and even the very mentality engendered by invasions and occupations, regardless of who's doing the invading/occupying. Nor does he let the locals off the hook, intimating that they look the other way when roadside bombs kill American soldiers. De Palma's serious purpose doesn't mean he's overcome by sobriety, however. Some of the camaraderie among soldiers is disturbing, but some is downright funny. In all, the cast of unknowns convinces us they're real grunts just caught up in a cycle far bigger than they are, one that has repeated down through the decades, where no one is really innocent.

from www.allmovie.com