Trump Elected: Time to Learn

Donald Trump speaking at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. / Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore

After the fiasco of the Democratic National Convention and the attitude of the "establishment" towards many Americans, the Democratic Party has to learn from its mistakes.

“It is my high honor and esteemed privilege to introduce to you the President Elect of the United States of America, Donald Trump,” introduced future Vice President Mike Pence in New York in the night of November 8, 2016. Donald Trump himself soon appeared on scene accompanied by ceremonial military-like brass music reminiscent of Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” written in 1942, in a time of world war, after Vice President Henry A. Wallace’s speech in which he proclaimed the dawning of the "Century of the Common Man". A fitting entrance scene, for a candidate that has built his whole campaign on war rhetoric and the claim to want to give the power of the United States back to its citizens, its common men and women.

There is much to learn from this victory. This whole electoral season has been covered by the media in a binary way - the 'clown' and the reasonable one, the paranoid one and the open-minded one. It is undeniable that Donald Trump has appealed to some divisive, xenophobic and sexist fears that a great part of the population feel, and in a way more than just clownish. But to solely talk about this is a mistake.

Donald Trump has been out-spoken about his hatred of the media. According to him, the media were only painting a pessimistic and burlesque portrait of him - 'The Donald' - and took sentences he said out of context to confuse people about his actual policies. But only Donald Trump can be held accountable for the words he said, and he should know better when exposing himself to national and international criticism.

But the media also faked ignorance and feigned objectivity, going so far as to say – seeing the great popularity Donald Trump ended up getting for real – that he had cleverly “manipulated the media.” But only the media can be held accountable for the coverage they made of the Republican candidate, and they should know better as well.

What most “liberal establishment” media failed to see is that the common when-she-becomes-President kind of presumptuous attitude would not go unnoticed, nor unpunished. There is only so long you can make fun of such a great part of the population. Liberals – like me – liked to make fun, in an incredulous way, of Trump supporters. How could anyone go for someone saying such trashy things? Denying, lying so often about what he said or did in the past – WRONG! – whether long ago or recently?

And yet, he was not the only one to lie in this electoral season. As the Observer puts it in a nutshell: “Hillary Clinton and the DNC Have Only Themselves to Blame – This is what happens when a major political party rigs the primaries to nominate their preferred candidate.” Following WikiLeaks e-mails showing the dishonesty of the Clinton campaign towards Bernie Sanders, his strategist Cesar Vargas recently wrote an op-ed piece in The Huffington Post recounting the unfairness with which the Vermont Senator’s campaign was met:

"There has been no repudiation, let alone denunciation, of what was said in those emails-just denial, finger pointing, and doublespeak. To appoint the very same folks who carried out many malicious behaviors to tip the scales for Hillary is just as unpardonable. Why reward unethical behavior? It’s mind-boggling."

In a feature focusing on the Clinton years and the internal and ideological struggles of the Democratic Party, The New Yorker's George Packer asked the question “can Hillary win the white working class back?” We now see she narrowly failed to do so. And this social class was indeed the central focus of the whole Trump campaign: he spoke to disillusioned working- and middle-class white people in simple terms that hit home. While he did not propose any clear program – neither did Clinton, although she was more articulate in her views – he focused a great deal on trade, the dark spot of the Democrats’ legacy that left many formerly industrialized regions abandoned, in the face of rising globalization not yet well-mastered, or understood, by the political class.

The “American Dream” slogan does not work so much anymore because globalization has made competition much stronger and mobile, and capitalism crushed the little people with ridiculous living costs - mainly regarding health. This is not specific to the United States only of course, but this 2016 race will certainly have underlined it. On November 9, Bernie Sanders’ Facebook page published the following status, encapsulating what had been at stake:

It is now time for the Democratic Party to face its own demons, and reconcile with its pro-worker tradition. Hillary Clinton might have been just as sincerely passionate as Donald Trump, but the ways in which she "stole" the primaries from Bernie Sanders was too much to bear for many millennials that had been so inspired by the Senator. And while she got more popular vote than Trump, the point remains that even if she had been elected, it would not have been the landslide victory all were expecting: a deep divide exists within the American society, and it is no longer possible to shove it under the rug with terms of "post-racial society", as we were continuously hearing a few years ago.

Finally, such liberal bashing as we have seen, or participated in for some (the other way around was just as true, but the argument of "they did it too" does not stand) was very disrespectful to those many Americans who have true fears of having the control over their lives slipping away from them, and who have a true feeling of betrayal by their federal State. This is a sentiment all the more relevant in a country where self-reliance is a founding philosophy.

For them, what was more reassuring than finding a community of fellow-disillusioned that has more or less the same perspective, giving them a sense of belonging they certainly did not get from the disconnected political elite? Both Sanders and Trump found that vacuum, and the latter filled it up with populist and hopeful promises while the former got silenced too soon.

This article was written for this blog only.

French Perspectives on the American Election

Presidential candidates Donald J. Trump and Hillary R. Clinton / Image: Rich Girard / Flickr

During her summer internship at WMRA Marguerite Gallorini, who is from France, has been exploring the differences, and similarities, between the ways that Americans and the French approach today’s world.  In the last few weeks, that’s included the global refugee crisis, and how we view work and vacation time.  Today, Marguerite has some insight on how the American presidential election campaign is being viewed from the French perspective.

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4:39

Julia Brown, a graduate student at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, a top research and public administration school, discusses the focus on personal background versus political background:

JULIA BROWN: Apparently everybody hates Hillary Clinton, which I really can't understand why at this point; and not everybody hates Trump, which I really can't understand why either. The thing is with this election there hasn't really been any debate regarding ideas. It's all been about personalities.

Mathieu Perrot, a French teacher and Ph.D. student in literature at UVa, agrees:

MATHIEU PERROT: Yeah the persona, the charisma is probably more important here than in France, I would say. French people might be more interested in... maybe not the program itself, probably not, but at least, maybe more fascinated by the career or the studies that the person would have made.

French people tend to make analogies between Donald Trump and some French politicians, like former right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy, or Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right party National Front. But French observers see some differences.

PIERRE GERVAIS: I wouldn't compare Trump to Marine Le Pen. I mean I'm no fan of Marine Le Pen, but she's a professional politician and she knows what she's doing.

That's Professor Pierre Gervais, who specializes in American politics and economy at the Sorbonne University in Paris. For the record, the National Front was once led by Jean-Marie Le Pen, the father of current leader Marine Le Pen.

GERVAIS: Actually they got rid of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who in terms of behavior, was actually close to Trump. It became clear that they couldn't function efficiently in the French system with somebody who's not at least serious-looking.

Gervais also points out that the French party system makes for a government less dominated by the two main left and right parties, and relying more on coalitions.  That way it allows for more representation and party diversity. Also, the election of party leaders is internal to parties in France, not up for popular election as in the U.S. primary system. So for both historical and sociological reasons, the possibility for a politician like Trump to become the national leader is  less likely in France. Now, would the outcome of this election influence the French one?

PERROT: The election in the U.S. is important for the entire world, that's for sure. Because of the partnership we have with this country, because of the trade we have with the country... And I'm pretty sure politicians in France are watching very closely the debates and how it goes here. I don't know about the coming election if Sarkozy will try to imitate Trump in some ways. Hopefully not!

But according to Professor Gervais and Serena Albert, a marine biologist graduate from the Sorbonne University, this interest in U.S. elections is not that influential:

SERENA ALBERT: I wouldn't say that they influence really... What I hear in the media, or from people that I talked to, they're much more concerned about French problems.

GERVAIS: The French are fairly insular. The little I've read, there's a mixture of sort of fear to a certain extent, amusement, and very little understanding of what's going on. There is this apprehension of... “what would happen if they actually elected Trump?” but since at this point the election of Trump is very highly unlikely. You do get coverage, but not that much.

BROWN: What I'm hoping is, if Trump does get elected, maybe French people will be afraid of voting for our own extreme right party... I'm hoping he's giving us an example of what not to do.

French elections are less than a year away, with the first round coming up in April 2017.  Chloe Bertholon, a French-American business student at UVa, is excited because it is the first year she will be able to vote in both elections.

CHLOE BERTHOLON: I think it is interesting though that the American process is drawn out to be so, so, so long, whereas the French process seems to be much shorter. I told my grandma in France that I was going to be in Lyon for their elections, and she was like “oh yeah, that is coming up, huh,” whereas for us it’s like... the past year, we've been talking about it.

Whatever the American election outcome may be, they all said they were going to miss Barack Obama.

ALBERT: Well, I'm not really really not convinced by Trump, but I'm not really convinced by Hillary Clinton either, so … I think that in any case, it won't be for a better change.

This story appeared on WMRA.org
Download the original podcast at Through Gallo Eyes Media.

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The American Work Ethic... from a French Perspective

During this American election year, NPR has been exploring how people in other countries view the United States.  WMRA’s Marguerite Gallorini gets the reaction of French immigrants to the U.S., in particular how they feel about a distinctly different approach the two countries take to work life and vacation time.

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4:08

The European lifestyle, in particular that of the French, is often somewhat of a joke in the U.S., where work ethics seem to be different. An Ipsos Global and Reuters study found a few years ago that only 57% of Americans use their vacation days. That makes them the fifth most workaholic country on Earth. Meanwhile, that study showed French citizens leading the way in taking advantage of their vacations, with 89% taking all of their allotted time.

[French conversation at C’Ville Coffee]

I meet with  Charlottesville French teacher Pascale Hapgood at C'Ville Coffee. She arrived in the U.S. almost 30 years ago, and is a lecturer at the University of Virginia. She also teaches at a foreign and English language center, and at a French educational association promoting French language and culture.

From what Pascale tells me, her perspective aligns completely with the study's results:

Pascale Hapgood /
Picture: "Speak!" Language Center

PASCALE HAPGOOD: This is much more serious here. People are dedicated to their job – at least in the kind of jobs that I've had and where I've worked. Nowadays with the technology we have, I see my husband constantly answering emails on vacation, you know... we go away at the beach, he's supposed to be completely off, but he says “I have to take this!  I have to answer this!” In my mind, it's too much.

The French government seems to agree. In April, the National Assembly passed a so-called “right to disconnect” law, effective this coming January. The law will give workers the right to ignore emails, and will protect them from bosses that would punish them for not answering work emails in hours they're not supposed to be working.

Patrick Jones, a host of the travel and lifestyle news feed website Buzz60, explains what is at stake:

PATRICK JONES: They want to keep work at work. The new law would give employees the right to ignore calls, texts and emails from bosses on nights and weekends so they can go socialize. I know a lot of you being American capitalists starting freaking out now saying “oh the French are lazy” but let this information actually sink in. You would not get in trouble for ignoring emails! It doesn't take more than two seconds to search Google to find that our constant state of connectedness is killing us. Maybe it's a little lofty or unrealistic but isn't that what society should be trying to head towards?

But Pascale does not think the French model is perfect either – and it may not work in America, where the entrepreneurial spirit is deeply engrained in the nation’s history.

HAPGOOD: In France, it's not serious enough. People couldn't care less, what happens to the business... they don't think past their nose. They think “oh my little vacation,” but don't think of the good of the company, in the end.

[Kitchen sounds]

Serge Torres /
Picture: Marguerite Gallorini

For another French view, I checked in with pastry chef Serge Torres at a Charlottesville French restaurant.

SERGE TORRES: I've been in America since June 1993, and so I started to work in New York with my cousin Jacques Torres in New York.

This would be the beginning of a long career taking him through many restaurants throughout the country, and throughout the world. And what did he take from his varied experience in the US, compared to France?

SERGE TORRES: In America we have more flexibility, in comparison between America and France, they gave me more opportunity to work for different companies. They kind of give you the chance to try to show what you can do, more than look at your resume.That's what I like about America, the opportunity and diversity of work.

And what about France’s 35-hour work week policy? That may not be as different from the American dedication to work as you think. According to Fortune, French rules aren’t really that much different from those in place in the U.S. The French actually can work more than that, and they tend to work closer to 40 hours per week, just like Americans do. The main difference is French society tends to compensate in leisure time rather than in cash.

The main difference in working hours and income between France and the U.S. boils down to the fact that French law mandates five weeks of vacation – quite a culture shock for French people here.

This story appeared on WMRA.

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Could Our Immune System Influence Social Behavior?

Picture: Center for Brain Immunology and Glia, UVa

It has been known for some time that immune cells and their signals can induce changes in our central nervous systems -- or CNS. But the link between the immune system and social behavior was unknown – until recently, thanks to new research out of Charlottesville. WMRA's Marguerite Gallorini reports.

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4:46

Dr. Jonathan Kipnis is the Director of the Neuroscience Department and of the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia -- or BIG for short -- at the University of Virginia. He's been looking into the immune system connection with the central nervous system of mice for quite some time.

JONATHAN KIPNIS: When I was a graduate student, we started to be interested in the role of the immune system in response to injured CNS, and then from there the question was is the immune system playing a role in a normal CNS.

The CNS is the part of the nervous system mainly consisting of the brain and spinal cord.

KIPNIS: And so I started my own lab, with which we try to understand what are the exact molecules the cells produce to affect brain function.

After more than ten years, they finally discovered that a special disease-fighting molecule – called interferon gamma – was also responsible for social behavior. Anthony Filiano, a post-doctoral research fellow in Kipnis’s team, explains their recent study:

ANTHONY FILIANO: We found that interferon gamma has a pro-social role, and this was really unexpected to us and it was fascinating.

This was unexpected because the interferon gamma molecule is produced by immune cells, called T-cells, themselves produced by the lymphatic system – a crucial part of the immune system. So, since it is part of the lymphatic system, so far   interferon gamma was only known for its anti-pathogen nature as Anthony mentioned – that means it was only known for responding to bacteria, viruses or parasites.

So to arrive at the discovery of this other social role, the UVa team studied flies, zebrafish, mice and rats; and they noticed that, when these animals were social, they activated the T-cells, releasing interferon gamma.

FILIANO: And we found that mice that are deficient for these immune cells – their brain goes haywire, it’s this… hyper connectivity in a part of the brain that’s important for social behavior. And so these mice have social deficits, and patients with autism, they also have this hyper connectivity.

But researchers still didn’t know exactly where that interferon gamma was located or coming from. That is when Antoine Louveau, a postdoctoral fellow in the Kipnis lab since 2014, came in:

KIPNIS: So when Antoine came to the lab, the question he was interested about was to understand where the immune cells that affect the brain are located. And that’s when he started to look into the meninges more closely.

The meninges are three membranes that envelope the CNS. Louveau explains his research process.

ANTOINE LOUVEAU: So we were able to analyze the meninges of old tissues. And when we did that, we realized that the immune cells were very localized at specific spots in the meninges, and they were along those major blood vessels called sinuses. And when we looked very closely at those vessels, we realized that they were lymphatic vessels.

So that is how they made two discoveries at once: Antoine demonstrated a direct link between the brain and the immune system, contrary to decades of thinking that the brain was “immune privileged,” that is to say lacking a direct connection to the immune system.  And, they found that interferon gamma might affect social behavior. But why are the immune system and social behavior correlated in the first place?

FILIANO: So we created this hypothesis that when organisms become social, they would activate this interferon gamma response pathway to protect against the spread of pathogens while aggregating.

Indeed, many creatures need to interact for the survival of their species – but this same contact also makes the spread of diseases easier. That is why interferon gamma both makes them social, while protecting them from diseases that could come from such social interactions. That also explains why deficiencies in the immune system can lead to neurological disorders, such as depression, social anxiety, autism-spectrum disorder, or frontotemporal dementia.

FILIANO: And our pre-clinical study in mice show that interferon gamma is necessary for normal social function. We think that this suggests that perhaps interferon gamma signaling pathway might be a target for these diseases.

But this will require further research in the years to come.

FILIANO : Yeah so we…keep the clinical trials to the experts (laughs). It’s too early, these studies have been just done on mice, and… a lot more work needs to be done.

More needs to be done, especially in transitioning the research from mice to humans. But this first step in better understanding the link between social interaction and the immune system is very good news for the fight against neurological diseases stemming from immune deficiency.

 This article appeared on  WMRA.org. You can also download it on Through Gallo Eyes Media.

The Global Refugee Crisis, in a Small French Town

Saint-Loup's city hall / Picture: Marguerite Gallorini

Most of us learn about the global refugee crisis through news coverage rather than personal experience.  WMRA has been telling the stories of many refugees who have settled in Virginia. But what is the refugee experience in quieter parts of the world, far from the global media's attention? WMRA’s Marguerite Gallorini takes us to her rural hometown in the east of France, called Saint-Loup.

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4:50

[Bells sound]

Meet Hebaj Bore…

HEBAJ BORE (as read by Emily Richardson-Lorente): I am 37, married; I have two children, a boy and a girl. I have been in France for two and half years.

… And Arjeta Gjoni.

ARJETA GJONI (as read by Emily Richardson-Lorente): I am an Albanian language and literature teacher. I am 33 years old, and arrived in France on September 8, 2013.

Arjeta and Hibaj are both Albanian refugees resettled to Saint-Loup, a small town close to the German and Swiss borders. Due to security reasons, they preferred not to reveal why they fled their country.

Out of the city's thirty-five hundred inhabitants, about 100 are asylum seekers. Many now come from Syria, but they also come from Kosovo, Russia, or – like Hebaj and Arjeta – Albania. They are usually fleeing war, starvation, or persecution. In addition to this, Hebaj could not visit her father before he died four months ago. That is a lot to deal with psychologically, says Saint-Loup’s Mayor Thierry Bordot.

BORDOT (as read by Jordy Yager): Sometimes we even encounter problems of a psychiatric nature, in families who already have gone through tragedies in their lives, and when they leave their country it can be in very challenging conditions. This psychological welcoming is still, in my opinion, something to be improved, so that we can really allow them to thrive faster in our country.

And while Arjeta's asylum request has just been granted, Hebaj is not done yet.

BORE: I still don't have legal papers. I am waiting... I’m hoping it will come one day!

Her nervous laugh hides a deeper anxiety. Procedures to become legalized are becoming increasingly clogged and can take up to two years, or more.  It all begins with the OFPRA – the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and the Stateless, which is in charge of examining the legitimacy of asylum requests.

Then, the French Ministry of the Interior determines how and where asylum seekers are to be resettled. In that process, Mayor Bordot says that, by law, he is out of the loop.

BORDOT: It is all dealt with internally, between the State services and private and public landlords. I guess it could be explained by a kind of mistrust of local powers, which would not deliberately want to welcome that many refugees if they had a say in it.

Not every request is granted though – because of insufficient proof of danger to the asylum-seekers in their home countries, for instance. Critics say the OFPRA even turns down valid requests. According to the French newspaper Les Echos, while other European countries usually grant 45% of asylum requests, France grants only 22% of them. So… What becomes of these denied refugees?

BORDOT: Then, families can be taken back to the border – but it is not always implemented because, on a human level, when you have to deal with families with children, it is always complicated to use the public force to expel these families. So in general, the State lets things run their course.

[bell signaling the start of class]

We are now at Saint-Loup's primary school, with headmistress Anna Breysse. She tells me about the on-line State database called Casnav, which provides official documents translated into the refugees' language. But she admits she doesn't use it often.

ANNA BREYSSE: I think that to integrate them, nothing's better than approaching them directly and talking to them – even if it's in broken English, even if they don't understand 100% of the conversation. I think it's better to create a human bond than give them a piece of paper, very well written in their language, sure, but which once again places a barrier. So with them, we have erased all written communication... and we try to choose them in priority for school trips – it's a way to show them they are valued.

Refugees take French classes four times a week, and their lodgings are close to the city hall and primary school, which facilitates their social integration. That way, as Arjeta and Hebaj are finding, other parents interact easily and keep them and other refugees in the loop.

GJONI: There is everything here. A lot of solidarity, a lot of people help asylum seekers... There are also much more activities for children here. We found a lot of good things in Saint-Loup.

Their children don't find it too hard to make new friends in spite of language. But in the classroom, French remains their biggest challenge. So in Saint-Loup, an external part-time teacher comes twice a week to help refugee children study according to their needs. This proves to be efficient: after only a few months, they can integrate a normal class.

[children during a classroom activity]

For now, Hebaj hopes to be legalized soon; and as for Arjeta, she wishes to continue working with children, just like she did in Albania. In the meantime, the European Commission now wants to reform the current system to standardize and streamline procedures across Europe, to make it easier for everyone.

This article and podcast appeared on WMRA.org.

Download it on Through Gallo Eyes Media.