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PROGRESS IN SCIENCE

Im going to talk about the notion of progress and more precisely about progress
in science. We can wonder why progress in science is a controversial topic. In
order to illustrate the notion I have chosen 3 documents which I think best
explain the progress in science. To my mind, the document that seems to best
illustrate the notion are The Odd man out, the trailer of My Sister Keeper and The
text A of Design your baby.
The Odd Man Out raise the problem of human cloning. It shows 5 clones, built like
a tank on a conveyor belt. Theyre all the same they all have the same grin,
theyre tall, muscular and brown-haired. All, but one who seems to be defective.
We can say that the man in the middle is defective because he isnt as flawless
as the others. Contrary to the other ones, hes not muscular at all, hes regarded
as a defective clone and will be put into a dumpster.
This cartoonist opposes cloning. We cant play god, human lives are not to play
with. Nobody is perfect so we should be tolerant with people who are different
from us. If cloning existed we would all look like robots and it would be
dehumanize mankind. This cartoonist wants to draw our attention to cloning
human beings is risky and more harmful than useful because anyway there are
already too many people on Earth and cloning is unethical. However, clones could
give us an organ in case we have a life-threatening disease or they could keep
company to elderly people, which Is a boring stiff thing to do.
The trailer of My Sister Keeper indicates the job of a person whose must look
after someone. This trailer shows Annas life and her sister who is bald and elder
contrary to Anna who has long brown hair and who is healthy. Her sister has a
serious disease. Some babies are accident, but not Anna. She was born to save
her sisters life. If she hadnt been conceived her sister might be dead now.
Annas sister must have spent 13 hours a week in hospital and been missing
school a lot. So Anna is a designer baby.
The text A of Design your baby describes the imaginary processes to choose your
future babys traits. A customer is speaking, but its also a mother to be. It
reminding of a fast food restaurant because the customer passed a command but
he is speaking to a geneticist or a fertility expert. He wants to choose what the
twins will look like or choose his baby from the A la carte menu. It can also
protect his baby from life-threatening diseases thanks to PGD ( pre-implantation
genetic diagnosis) or make sure that the embryo is healthy, but in reality its to
choose physical characteristics or the baby, IQ or for a gender selection. The
consequence of this could lead to rise of such individuals becoming 2 nd class
citizens. But, choose the characteristics of our baby is not possible now, its
science fiction.
I have the feeling that progress in science is important to save lives, protect the
health of people and discovered the disease faster and more precisely. But we
mustnt forget that progress in science can make improbably things like cloning,
which can be frightening.

PLACES AND FORMES OF POWER


Im going to talk about the notion of places and forms of power and more
precisely about the power of money. We can wonder what the excesses of our
consumer society are. In order to illustrate the notion I have chosen 3
documents. To my mind, the document that seems to best illustrate the notion
are The Confessions of a Shopaholic, The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic and
the song Ka-Ching.
The trailer of the confessions of a shopaholic talks about Rebecca Bloomwood.
When she was 7 she believed credit card were magic. Now when she sees a store
her heart goes like warm butter sliding down a hot toast. Rebecca has a problem.
Shes too extravagant. She cant resist the temptation of spending money on
very expensive clothes. Her handbag is a Gucci. Shes addicted to shopping,
shes a shopaholic. Now her credit card is declined. She will have to stop treating
herself to new clothes or else she have to go to rehab if really she cant refrain
from spending. She can also find a rich boyfriend who would be ready to support
her. So she wrote an article about handling your money and her best friend thinks
it is ironic that Rebecca should advise people on how to handle their money
because she cant handle her money. For stopping consuming, she put her credit
card in the deep-freezer, so she hasnt the temptation of using it.
The secret dreamworld of a shopaholic is the book on which the movie is based.
The author is Sophie Kinsella, who is famous for writing chick lit. In this extract,
Rebecca is at work in an office which is located in Oxford Street which is a
shopping street in London. Shes about to open her visa bill but she doesnt really
want to open it for fear it might be huge so she feel nervous, worried sick and
freaked out. In this extract she has spending money for a dinner with her friend
Sue, for a red and yellow rug and for new contact lenses. But she justifies her
purchases, the dinner its because she was hungry, the rug because it was worth
it and the contact lenses because she cant see without. Now she may feel guilty.
Becky is comparing their colleague. Shes a secretary but messy and shambolic
contrary to Clare who is tidy and orderly. Becky may feel jealous of her. She
wishes she was an old lady so that she wouldnt have to worry about clothes. If
only she neednt pay for her clothes. When she sees the visa bill she cant believe
she
has
spent
all
this
money.
This extract is humorous and serious. The topic which is addiction to shopping Is
a serious topic but the tone is humorous.

The lyrics of the song Ka-Ching by Shania Twai dates back to 2002. The main
activity described this song is shopping which seems to be a hobby. In this song,
Shania Twain denounces the people who are superficial and materialistic. A
materialistic person is more interested in objects than in people or relationships.
She criticizes the people who think that money is what matters most. This song is
about the excess of our consumer society urges us to consume more and more
even if it doesnt make us happy.
I have the feeling that money is not a very important thing, because money cant
buy happiness. Money can hit and can separate a lot of people; we can have a
disease and be alone.

SPACES AND EXCHANGES


Im going to talk about the notion of Space and exchanges and more precisely
about the exchanges between the Mexico and US border. We can wonder why the
border is so busy. To my mind, the document that seems to best illustrate the
notion are The Tortilla Curtain, US border: Keep out and Keep out/McDonald.
The tortilla curtain is a cartoon which shows a border patrol officer who is trying
to prevent Mexicans from crossing the border but hes alone and he cant cope
with this massive flow of immigrants. They all want to go to the USA in order to
make their American Dream come true. Most time, Mexicans immigrate because
they want a new life, more decent and be away from the poverty of Mexico. Some
Mexicans have theirs dreamt place in California, not far away of the border. They
want either work in the USA but they need a green card, which theyll probably
never get. This place is nicknamed The tortilla Curtain.
US Border: Keep out is a cartoon which shows 2 men, one who want immigrants
and one who want not. The man who wants immigrants is ridiculously smaller
than the other man who is oversized. The big one is judging from the striped
trousers hes wearing his bow-tie and his hat, he must be Uncle Sam contrary to
the smaller who wears a suit, a tie and a white-collared skirt which represent the
employers. The smaller is welcoming contrary to the other who doesnt look
nice, is in a bad mood and he wants Mexican to keep out. This cartoon shows the
position of the USA about immigration is contradictory because many employers
prefer Mexicans to Americans because some Mexicans are desperate so they
accept any jobs, even if its bad paid, theyre cheap labor force so that can take
advantage of them. On the other hand most Americans want to keep out as they
believe that Mexicans take jobs away from them so they want to keep out.
The Cartoon US Border: Keep Out / McDonalds shows a big city in the
background with skyscraper, we can see that its the American side. In the for
ground we can see the Mexican side because we see a man whos wearing a

Sombrero. We can suppose that the man in the wall is for consumption society
because next to him we can see the golden Arch that stands for Mc Donalds.
Americans doesnt want Mexican in their country. We can see an American flag on
the wall. The Mexican is desiderated because he is sweating. He feels like
drinking. We can see a skeleton on the Mexican side which can represented that
the social life in Mexico or the work is dead. The Americans have mixed feeling
about immigration. Indeed, they dont want Mexicans to live in their country but
the just want them to consume. In other words theyre just interested in selling
their goods no matter if the Mexicans are legal or illegal.
I have the feeling that Americans dont want admit that they need Mexicans
people for the American economic growing.

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