How Facebook affects us - PAU 2015

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Two recent studies have revealed amazing facts about how Facebook affects its users. The first study, carried out by researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has shown that being envious of Facebook friends can cause depression and that looking through the site to compare achievements with those of friends can have a very detrimental effect on a person`s mental health. Margaret Duffy explains, "Facebook can be a fun and healthy activity if users take advantage of the site to stay connected with family and old friends and to share interesting and important aspects of their lives. However, using it to see how well an acquaintance is doing financially or how happy an old friend is in his relationship can lead to feelings of depression."

Duffy and a colleague based in Singapore surveyed 700 students for the paper, published in the journal ‘Computers in Human Behaviour’. She went on to say, "Facebook can be a very positive resource for many people, but if it is used as a way to compare your own accomplishments against others, it can have a negative effect. It is important for Facebook users to be aware of these risks so they can avoid this kind of behaviour when using Facebook."

A second study, completely independent from the first, has shown that a computer can be better at assessing someone’s basic personality than close friends or family. A study of more than 86,000 users of Facebook has demonstrated the power of intelligent machines to predict an individual’s character based on what they have listed as their “Likes.”

Researchers said that the day when computers are able to judge a person’s personality accurately has almost arrived and even suggested that science fiction films like “Her”, based on a man’s emotional attachment to an intelligent computer, are closer than we think. In the future, computers could be able to infer our psychological characteristics and react accordingly in an emotionally-intelligent way. “People may choose to change their own intuitions and judgements with this kind of data analysis when making important life decisions such as choosing activities, career paths or even romantic partners,” said Wu Youyou of Cambridge University.

The Independent, 12 January and 4 February 2015 (Adapted)

Do young people care about learning foreign languages? - PAU 2015 inglés Cantabria

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Do young people in the UK care about learning languages? Fewer students than ever are choosing to study a language degree at university, and since 2004, taking a language at GCSE* has not been compulsory, so the simple answer would seem to be no. This is disconcerting news for a country which is not exactly famous for its multilingualism.

However, research conducted by the organisation ICM paints a far more complex picture of youth attitudes in the UK. Those choosing to study languages may have dropped, but of the 1001 young people between the ages of 14-24 interviewed in the survey, almost 20% already speak another language at home with their family, and 70% would be interested in learning another language in the future.

When asked to pick the three main benefits of learning a language, students said that job prospects at home and abroad were both key incentives. Learning about another culture and the experience of communicating also scored highly in this section. So if languages offer you the ability to make new friends and work abroad, why are young people put off? Asked to pick the three main downsides of learning a language, the difficulty of the learning process was an important reason but the idea that they were less interesting than other subjects came top for our young interviewees. Interestingly, low confidence levels in speaking another language also played a role in this decision.

Asking interviewees to comment on their ability in the language they had studied at school provided perhaps the most revealing piece of data from the survey. For most of the languages, students don’t perceive themselves to be progressing past basic language levels. The survey suggested that the opportunity to use a language outside the classroom and communicate with native speakers would make language learning more attractive. As for teaching inside the classroom, young people want more interaction, and more technology.

November 2014, The Guardian (Adapted).

• *GCSE – General Certificate of Secondary Education (in the UK)

Imaginary friends – Why more children have one now - PAU 2015

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

When journalist Eleanor Tucker was at primary school in the 1970s, she had a friend. He wasn't a child and he wasn't a girl. He was in his 30s, he had a beard and his name was Klas.

She explains: “Klas was my imaginary friend. He wasn't about all the time, because he lived near my grandmother in a white house by the station, about half an hour's drive from ours. But as I grew up, he was often mentioned and even blamed for some mistakes I made. If I talked when nobody was around, it was to Klas. If I sometimes played without my sister, I was playing with Klas. It seemed quite normal at the time to have an imaginary friend but lots of things pass for normal when you're a kid. By the time I went to secondary school, Klas had stopped visiting. I filed him away under “the past” and forgot about him, until a book I read recently made me think of him again.”

The author of the book is Nikki Sheehan, and as part of her research, she discovered that rather than being an outdated phenomenon, imaginary friends might actually be more common nowadays. But why? First, it's probably just a more accurate representation of the way that children play. “For most of the 20th century the general idea was that imaginary playmates were a sign of insecurity, so people may have been less inclined to admit to having an imaginary friend.” Sheehan also suggests that within smaller family units, children these days are more likely to play in a certain solitary way, which creates an environment that is welcoming to imaginary friends.

Imaginary friends come in a huge range of guises, as educational psychologist Karen Majors discovered.

They might be smaller versions of the children themselves; humans or sometimes animals; based on real people or TV characters; single or multiple; and varied in terms of gender, age and temperament. In general, girls often create imaginary friends who need taking care of, but the characters impersonated by boys are often “super competent” and might be a representation of the child's own aspirations.

(28.02.2014 The Guardian, Adapted).

South Korea switches to digital textbooks in the classroom. PAU 2013

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Image by Lee Jin-man/AP

South Korea is planning to change from paper to digital textbooks in the next few years. The content of South Korea’s school subjects will be available on PC’s, iPads and mobile phones by 2015. The education department has announced that South Korea is preparing for a new digital revolution that will change schools of the future.

The project was started last summer. Classrooms throughout the Asian country will be equipped with wireless LANs so that students can access learning materials whenever and wherever they want. Pupils will no longer have to carry heavy schoolbags.

Compared to South Korea, western nations lag behind. American president Barack Obama has announced that the United States is installing a national learning centre to improve teaching standards and develop new teaching methods.

Educational experts are currently discussing whether digital technology in the classroom makes a great difference. Some argue that bad pupils will stay bad even if they have a computer in front of them. They agree, however, that going digital could motivate children and help schools save money. The biggest problem is how to get teachers to integrate new technologies into their lessons.

Other experts focus on a social problem. Introducing digital learning materials to the classroom could create two groups of children; those who have access to these new technologies and are able to use them and those who do not. The first group will have advantages in getting a good job, the others will stay behind.

Critics also fear that digitizing all learning materials will result in lack of trust. People have more confidence in textbooks simply because content is written in print, whereas material published on the Internet is subject to scepticism.

Adapted from an Article by Liz Dwyer from Good Education July 2011.

The Playmobil theme park that's a different kind of adventure. PAU 2013

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Yes, the rumours are true. Playmobil which makes ambulances, dragons, princesses and pirates for millions of children, is going to bring its theme park to Britain. The German toy company has announced that it is “a matter of when, not if”. For many parents going to theme parks, with their queues, expensive burgers and alarming rides, is awful. However this is not an ordinary theme park.

In fact, it is not a theme park at all as it does not have any traditional theme park rides. Hans Beck, the original designer of Playmobil believed that children’s greatest gift was their imagination. The moment a little plastic figure, with arms and legs, was in their hands, they would make up stories. Playmobil is what all toys were before video games, television or the cinema; a way for children to enter a world entirely of their own making.

Playmobil theme parks are the Playmobil universe but in human size. There is a pirates’ ship on a lake, whose rigging can be climbed, a knights’ castle, from whose walls children can shout and scale, located next door to the cowboy area, with Playmobil horses and wagons which can be ridden.

Herr Beck’s legacy was his strong belief that his toys must not encourage violence or horror. Horst Brandstatter, who owns the company has always refused to make Playmobil tanks or warplanes although he knows it would be a lucrative option.

Horst Brandstatter says, “I hope that there is enough fantasy in the Playmobil world that children can make up and play out their own story. That’s what we want. I hope we can perpetuate that.” .

Adapted from The Daily Telegraph 2011.

Can a video game lead to murder? - PAU Galicia inglés 2007

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

18-year-old Devin Moore, found in the driver’s seat of a car in Alabama at 7am, was driven to the local police station. He had no criminal record but was suspected of stealing the car. While being interrogated, he suddenly took the policeman’s gun and shot three men dead before escaping.

If those acts of violence had been a video game, Moore would have won. He’d played it before. For months he’d sat for hours in front of a video monitor stealing cars, beating prostitutes and finally killing policemen. The game was Grand Theft Auto, which has sold over 35 million copies worldwide.

A few years ago, video games were just fun, but now realistic games played at home have become an integral part of many people’s daily lives, especially for children. Child psychologists report that children’s school marks fall, they stop playing sports and stop socializing with their friends. Research shows that their brains learn to respond in certain ways to certain stimuli, like an arrest, in Moore’s case.

Video games cannot be separated from other forms of entertainment, such as magazines, books or films, many of which routinely show violence, and these games are one of many factors which could transform a player into a killer, such as a child’s home life. In fact, Devin Moore came from a broken home; his parents separated when he was young. When arrested, he asked the police to shoot him. When the sentence of death by lethal injection was read, his words were: “Life is like a video game. You have to die sometime.”

Marriage in crisis? - PAU Galicia 2008

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As today’s bride and groom celebrate their wedding, they have every excuse for being nervous. They exchange promises of lifelong fidelity and mutual support. However, all around them, they can see that many people do not and cannot keep these promises. Their own marriage has a one in three chance of divorce, if present tendencies continue.

Traditional marriage is facing a crisis, at least in Britain. Not only are there more and more divorces, but the number of marriages is falling. Living together is more popular than before. The family is now no longer one man, one woman and their children. Instead, there are more and more families which include parents, half sisters and brothers, or even only one parent on her / his own.

Although Britain is still conservative in its attitudes to marriage compared with other countries such as the USA, Sweden and Denmark, the future will probably see many more people living together before marriage – and more divorce. Interestingly, it is women rather than men who apply for divorce. Seven out of ten divorces are given to the wife. Also, one of the main reasons for divorce, chosen by ten times more women than men, is unreasonable or cruel behaviour. Perhaps this means that women will tolerate less than they used to.

Ancient Roman society - PAU Galicia 2008

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

Roman women, although they were never given legal independence, still had a high status. They were all their lives under the control of their husbands, but the Roman mother was the head of her family. “We Romans,” said Cato, “rule the world, but our wives rule us.” The Romans were the first to celebrate Mother’s Day, and their religion reflected the importance of the family in their culture. Each family conducted its own religious rites, the father acting as the family’s priest. Romans believed in the gods, tradition, the family and the state.

The father’s power over the children did not end when they became adults, and was absolute, including life and death. The system was inflexible and didn’t allow any change, and lasted more than a thousand years. The oppression of children by their fathers was nothing, however, compared with the position of the plebeians, who had practically no rights. A plebeian could be arrested and executed by a patrician without a trial, and, if their masters died, they were sold into slavery.

In time, the plebeians gained the right to own land, to marry with higher classes and to pass their own laws. The Twelve Tables (450BC) marked the beginning of a period of “uniform law for all”. No plebeian could be executed by the magistrates without an appeal to an assembly of all Roman citizens. Later, rich plebeians formed an alliance with some patricians and a new aristocracy emerged.

Un certain espoir pour les SDF

«Zéro SDF». Quand Lionel Jospin a fait cette promesse électorale pendant la campagne présidentielle de 2002 il a été raillé pour utopie doublée de démagogie. À l’époque, selon une enquête nationale de l’Insee sur l’année 2001, il y avait 86500 sans domicile fixe. Dans son rapport annuel 2007, la Fondation Abbé Pierre évalue cette population à 100000 personnes. C’est dans les années 1980 que le terme de «SDF», déjà utilisé dans des rapports de police au XIXe siècle, est réapparu. (...) En France, pays riche où l’État se veut providence, ni la droite ni la gauche n’ont réussi à éradiquer cette extrême pauvreté condamnée à «se réfugier» dans la rue.

Année après année, les SDF sont toujours d´actualité. L’un d’eux est décédé, dans la nuit du 19 décembre, place de la Concorde, à Paris. Le 18 décembre, deux autres ont été retrouvés morts. (...) Les SDF appartiennent à la grande famille des exclus, et pourtant, selon une étude de l’Insee en 2004, trois sur dix ont un emploi (précaire) et quatre sont inscrits à l’ANPEc. Ces statistiques alimentent une peur très française, quelque chose de profond: celle de ne pas être à l’abri d’un tel drame. Selon un sondage BVA réalisé en novembre par l’association Emmaüs, 47 % des français craignent de devenir un jour SDF. (...)

François Fillon a promis, d’ici au 15 janvier, un contrat entre le gouvernement et les associations. (...) «L’objectif, a dit le premier ministre, est simple: il ne faut pas que des personnes soient contraintes de dormir dans la rue». Simple. Mais il faut une volonté politique ferme et des moyens à la hauteur. (...) Peut-être le rêve du «zéro SDF», aujourd’hui illusoire, ne sera alors plus tout à fait une utopie.

Le Monde.fr 22 /12 /07

Agatha Christie, the most popular mystery writer of all time - PAU 2007

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

Taught at home by a tutor, as a child Agatha Christie never attended school. She invented games to keep herself occupied at a very young age. A shy child, she could not express her feelings; she first used music as a means of expression and, later, writing. In 1914, at the age of 24, she married Archie Christie, a pilot.

While he was at war, she worked as a nurse, and, working in a hospital, Christie first had the idea of writing a detective novel.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles gave the world Hercule Poirot, a retired Belgian police officer who would become one of the most famous characters in fiction. He was a meticulous, slightly absurd little man. Christie wrote more than 30 novels where Poirot appeared. In 1926, Archie asked for a divorce. Agatha immediately disappeared, and all England became excited about “The case of the missing writer”. She was found three weeks later, explaining to police that she had lost her memory.

She found happiness by marrying Max Mallowan, a young archaeologist whom she met on a trip to Mesopotamia. Another of Christie’s most well-known characters was introduced in 1930: Miss Jane Marple, an elderly spinster in the English village of St. Mary Mead, who solved mysteries with concentration and intuition. Christie wrote over 66 novels, numerous short stories and screenplays. Several of her works were made into successful films, such as Murder on the Orient Express (1974). Her work has been translated into more than a hundred languages. In short, she is the most popular mystery writer of all time.

How a boy from Peru changed my life - PAU Galicia 2004 inglés

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

It was Christmas 2002, and I was appearing in an opera in London. My career as a singer has always been at the centre of my life, but because my mother had just died, I decided to do what she had asked: I took a year’s sabbatical. I also made another decision. I’d fly to Peru to meet a young man called Nick López.

Ten years earlier, a friend had told me about a charity organization called EveryChild. By giving $20 a month, you could help a young person in a developing country. Nick was five years old, living with his parents and two brothers in a shanty town above Lima. We exchanged letters. I enjoyed reading about his life, although it became clear that his family had to struggle to get by. When he was eight he sent me my favourite photograph, which I still keep in my office. Nick was growing up fast.

So here I was on my way to Lima at last to meet him in person. It was an experience that I’ll never forget. The poverty shocked me. Nick and his family live in a two-roomed house, but Nick was a sweet, shy 15-year-old boy with beautiful manners and real dignity, who kept chickens and sold them to help his family. I had been told that giving him too many presents would single him out from the rest of his community, so I brought T-shirts for him and his brothers, and books about caring for chickens. Meeting Nick has given my life a new perspective.

La précaire situation des immigrants en France

Le voyage a duré deux jours. Dans le car qui le menait jusqu’en France, Sorin a rigolé avec les copains. Arrivé à la gare d’Austerlitz, tout le monde s’est tu. Ce trajet, il l’avait mille fois fait dans sa tête, suivant de son doigt les cartes routières. Cela faisait si longtemps qu’il voulait partir. Pour obtenir un visa, il avait fallu soudoyer des «personnes avec de l’influence». Et trouver 1 100 euros! Ses parents avaient vendu leur unique voiture pour financer le départ de leur fils... A Paris, Sorin ne connaissait personne. C’était en 2000, il avait 22 ans.

«Au début, c’était dur. Quand j’appelais mes parents, je leur disais que c’était le paradis. En fait, je dormais dans la rue et je mangeais au Resto du Coeur.» Dans la rue, on donne à Sorin le tuyau* du Point P, la grande plate-forme du bâtiment en banlieue parisienne. Là, c’est le marché aux esclaves. Il y a le coin des Serbes, des Ukrainiens, des Russes... Les entrepreneurs viennent faire leurs courses. Ils embarquent, en même temps que des sacs de ciment, un maçon ou un carreleur pour des chantiers. Sorin y est allé. Un Portugais l’a pris. «Je ne parlais pas le français. Il me disait: donne-moi la pelle, je prenais le marteau.» Aujourd’hui, Sorin a appris le métier, parle le français. Il se débrouille, avec des chantiers par-ci par-là, loue un deux-pièces avec sa femme, roumaine elle aussi, rencontrée à Paris. Surtout, il a réussi à acheter un appartement en Roumanie pour 7 500 euros en 2004: «Aujourd’hui, il a triplé de prix!» Mais il travaille toujours au noir, comme sa femme, nounou dans une famille à Paris. «Je suis censé rentrer tous les trois mois pour renouveler le visa de tourisme. Mais si j’ai un job, je ne peux pas tout planter! J’aimerais enfin pouvoir travailler légalement. Nous, les Roumains à l’étranger, on n’a aucun droit. On est un peu comme des esclaves.»

Le Nouvel Observateur (17.01.07)

The dangers of mobile phones - PAU Galicia 2004 inglés

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

A massive investigation into mobile phone safety has failed to rule out risks of brain damage and cancer. Experts say there are still large gaps in scientific knowledge about what radiation is doing to users’ bodies and brains. The results of a three-year study highlighted continuing uncertainty over the safety of handsets. Parents were urged to limit mobile phone use by children because of the potential damage. Campaigners have long feared that users of Britain’s 50 million phones are risking cancer, brain damage, Alzheimer’s disease, sleeping disorders and memory loss because of radiation emitted by handsets directly into the head. Now the report says there may be other hidden problems because mobiles have been in widespread use among British people for only a few years.

Professor Anthony Simons, who led the study, said: ‘We cannot be sure what will be found and the possibility of an effect still remains’. ‘It’s still early days, particularly on the use of handsets,’ he added. ‘There could still be effects we don’t know about. We can’t predict what we are going to learn tomorrow. In the meantime, excessive use of mobile phones by young children should be discouraged. While children are growing and developing, they are more susceptible to all sorts of things. About a quarter of mobile phone users are under 18, with many having been given them by their parents so they can easily stay in touch. Those under ten are thought to be particularly vulnerable because their skulls are thinner and may allow radiation to penetrate deeper into the brain. Also their nervous systems are still developing’.

Disney et ses nouveaux documentaires

Mickey, Donald, Bambi, Bagheera... Pour créer ses personnages de dessin animé, Disney n’a cessé de puiser dans le grand vivier animal. Affublées de pensées et de sentiments humains, ces petites ou grosses bêtes parlaient, aimaient, vivaient comme vous et nous. Changement de perspective: comme pour vérifier le cliché qui veut que la réalité dépasse la fiction, la compagnie Disney se lance dans le documentaire animalier. Avec Les Ailes pourpres: le mystère des flamants, long métrage consacré à la vie des flamants roses, elle procède au premier décollage d’un programme qui prévoit environ un lancement chaque année. Avec, déjà prêts à se lancer, les orangsoutans en 2010, l’histoire d’amour entre les fleurs et les abeilles en 2011, les félins en 2012 et, la même année, les chimpanzés.

Les historiens du cinéma ne manqueront pas d’y voir un retour aux sources. De 1948 à 1960, Disney produisit quinze documentaires, qui décrochèrent huit Oscars. Déjà à l’époque, le grand Walt entendait relever ainsi un des plus grands défis de l’homme: protéger les espèces animales et végétales menacées.

Si Jean-François Camilleri, patron français de Disneynature, assure que le nouveau départ n’a rien à voir avec le passé, lui aussi fixe à ses films une ambition écologique: «La nature est plus fragile que jamais, nous serions fiers de susciter des vocations. Mais l’essentiel n’est pas là, s’empresse-t-il de corriger. Ce que nous voulons avant tout, c’est raconter de belles histoires, montrer de belles choses, émerveiller les spectateurs.» En un mot : «divertir.»

C’est donc à Paris qu’a été implantée Disneynature. Ce qui n’implique aucun privilège pour une quelconque french touch. Au contraire. Si Camilleri affirme son admiration pour le cinéma ambitieux (Microcosmos ou Le Peuple migrateur), il ne s’interdit pas les ficelles propres au film animalier: voix off ininterrompue, musique omniprésente, personnalisation des protagonistes. «Cela dépendra du sujet abordé, affirme Camilleri. Parmi les films en préparation, l’un est conçu sans aucun commentaire» Disneynature n’a pas davantage favorisé le savoir-faire français. Les cinq projets annoncés sont l’oeuvre de réalisateurs anglo-saxons, formés à l’école de la BBC. «Pour eux, le passage au grand écran est une aubaine. Au lieu d’expliquer, ils racontent une histoire.» Une histoire sauvage, évidemment.

Mais qui sait, un jour, Disney nous racontera peut-être l’extraordinaire aventure d’une souris. Une vraie, cette fois.

Le Monde 16/12/08

Brad Pitt a présenté son projet à la Nouvelle Orléans

Brad Pitt construit des maisons à la Nouvelle Orléans.

Plus de deux ans après l’ouragan Katrina, l’acteur américain Brad Pitt a présenté lundi 3 décembre à la Nouvelle Orléans (Louisiane) son projet de construction de maisons écologiques à prix réduit dans un quartier de la ville dévasté par les inondations, en août 2005.

Le «Make It Right Project», élaboré avec la collaboration de 13 architectes internationaux, prévoit la construction d’ici l’été prochain de 150 maisons aux nouvelles normes écologiques dans le quartier du Lower 9th Ward de la Nouvelle Orléans pour un coût de 150.000 dollars (102.000 euros) par unité.

Entouré de tentes roses symbolisant les emplacements de ces futures maisons «vertes», Brad Pitt a dit lundi espérer que son initiative soit étendue à d’autres quartiers de la ville.

«Nous commençons ici, mais j’espère que nous pourrons aller jusqu’au quartier de Jefferson Parish (...) que nous pourrons faire grandir cette initiative», a-t-il déclaré sous le regard de sa compagne Angelina Jolie.

L’acteur s’est engagé à débloquer cinq millions de dollars (3,40 millions d’euros) pour ce projet. Le milliardaire Steve Bing a fait le même engagement.

Chaque maison sera bâtie sur pilotis pour éviter les risques d’inondations. En attendant, la couleur rose a été choisie pour les tentes symbolisant les futures habitations car «c’est ce qui crie le plus fort. Elle dit que les gens vont revenir».

Le quartier du Lower 9th Ward a été l’un des plus touchés par les inondations qui ont dévasté la Nouvelle Orléans après le passage de l’ouragan Katrina dans le Golfe du Mexique le 29 août 2005.

Le Nouvel Observateur 12/02/08

Inspiration for a dance - PAU 2009

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Inspiration for a dance might come to you from a piece of music, but it could be an idea, a story, or a photograph. Once you’ve found your inspiration, put on some music and try some movements. Try changing the speed, and introducing pauses. If you have more than one dancer, try different combinations. Then put all the elements together in an imaginative way that expresses your idea.

You’ll need to be creative and determined, with good coordination. You don’t need to be thin; dance teachers are more interested in the size of your talent than your waist. To practise your dance work, you’ll need a studio, a gym or even a squash court! However, your own bedroom or living room can do just as well. You can always practise outside in a local park. It’s free and spacious. A graffiti-covered wall could make the perfect background for a contemporary piece.

Remember: as a dancer your own body is your most important piece of equipment. Learn how to take care of it. It’s essential to warm up to avoid unnecessary injuries. Eat a balanced diet to stay healthy, preferably with the help of a dietician.

The world of dance is incredibly competitive so you’ll need to stand out from the crowd. If you set up your own dance company, you’ll need a good group of people. The choreographer will work with dancers and even DJs or musicians. If you’re taking it seriously, you’ll also need someone for the organization and marketing. Use performance opportunities at school or college. Try to find a number of events so people can see your work as much as possible. Once you have put on your own event – it is possible that you will think about following a career in dance. Good luck!

L’écrivaine Talisma Nasreen va être logée par la ville de Paris

Taslima Nasrin par Claude Truong Ngoc nov 2013

Après plusieurs années d’exil entre l’Europe et les États-Unis, l’écrivaine du Bangladesh Taslima Nasreen va enfin pouvoir poser ses bagages. Menacée de mort par des extrémistes musulmans, elle va être logée début février par la Mairie de Paris, a-t-on appris samedi 3 janvier auprès du cabinet du maire (PS) Bertrand Delanoë. La romancière a fait appel à la mairie pour trouver un logement il y a un mois et demi, a indiqué la même source, confirmant des informations du Figaro.
Le cabinet du maire a alors cherché la solution « la plus efficace et la plus conforme » à ses propres procédures. Cette solution consiste en un grand studio dans une résidence d’artistes du dixième arrondissement de la capitale. Comme l’écrivaine n’a pas actuellement de ressources propres, la mairie prendra en charge les premiers loyers, a précisé le cabinet du maire.

Contrainte* à l’exil
Avocate de la laïcité, militante féministe, Taslima Nasreen avait été faite citoyenne d’honneur de la ville le 7 juillet 2008. Bertrand Delanoë avait lancé à cette « combattante de la liberté », présente dans la tribune du Conseil de Paris : « Vous êtes ici chez vous, dans la ville où il fut proclamé que les hommes naissent et demeurent libres et égaux, et que nul ne peut être condamné pour ses opinions.»
Mme Nasreen a été contrainte de fuir son pays natal, le Bangladesh, en 1994 après avoir été accusée de blasphème par des islamistes à la suite de la publication de son roman Lajja (La Honte), dans lequel elle décrit la vie d’une famille hindoue persécutée par les musulmans au Bangladesh, où ils sont majoritaires. En 2004, elle s’installe en Inde qu’elle est de nouveau contrainte de quitter sous le coup de nouvelles menaces au printemps 2008. Âgée de 45 ans, cette gynécologue de formation a vécu ces derniers mois entre Stockholm, Berlin et les États-Unis.

Le Monde.fr 04/01/09