Poster Contest

The Academic Council on High-School Life (or CAVL) is an organization composed of twenty elected high-schoolers, whose job it is to draw up proposals on all kinds of topics affecting the daily lives of students in a particular school district ("académie"). There are also councils within each individual high school, as well as a national council. Thus these organizations operate on three different levels. While I know of nothing comparable in the U.S. we do have student governments in most high-schools.

The CAVL of the school district of Paris ("Académie de Paris") has come up with an idea to promote an acceptance of "vivre ensemble" or "living-together" (this refers to living side by side with those who are "different".) The touchy-feely slogan "vivre ensemble" has been used to the saturation point by government agencies as part of the plan to force the French to accept the unacceptable, i.e. multiculturalism, "métissage", immigration, and the attendant consequences: national dissolution, crime, broken families. Political pressure groups in France, as in the U.S., seek to train minds as early as possible, often from elementary school. Now the high school students of France are sufficiently indoctrinated to promote the official doctrines of 21st century France.

Their idea is to hold a contest for the best poster, photograph or video clip illustrating the theme of the fight against discrimination and negative images of the Other. To advertise this contest a high school student created the poster above, which I feel needs no further explanation (except to say that "concours lycéen" means "high-school contest"). At their website the students announce:

"The fight against discrimination and negative images is one of the priorities of our school district. Moreover, learning to live together, to respect each other mutually and to enrich ourselves from these differences is also one of the missions assigned to our schools."

Further down their text reads:

" (...) the high-school students of Paris will promote a positive vision of living-together and of tolerance."

Note: Not only is this government propaganda, but one can almost feel the pressure being exerted on the students to word their message within the narrowest range of vocabulary. For example: "the mission assigned to our schools"; it sounds as if they have received orders from the high command. It could of course mean that this is how they themselves perceive their mission. Also, "the students of Paris WILL promote a positive vision (... ) of tolerance"; but we know what this means. It means that white Frenchmen of European stock had better change their ways and become "tolerant". The use of the future tense indicates there is no choice, and the word "positive" eliminates any possibility of criticism of the Other. There is no indication that respect and tolerance and living-together are two-way streets at best, and even then, only when the parties concerned are compatible AND subject to the laws of the ORIGINAL culture.

At his blog, Yves Daoudal notes:

On this poster we see the equality between normal and homosexual couples. Equality implies homosexual "marriage", which is still illegal.

One of his readers noted another detail:

- For shame! The woman in the poster is smaller than the man, and she's wearing a dress to boot - a sexist cliché if ever there was one!