Sujet du Bac Anglais, monde contemporain 2025 · Métropole

Document A

Australia Day: The ‘quiet rebranding’ 1 of a controversial national holiday

On 26 January every year – which marks the 1788 landing of Britain's First Fleet in Sydney Cove – two competing stories about Australia are told.

One is of nation-building and achievement; the other is of the displacement and dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

While many Indigenous Australians protest or sit the day out, 2 this year Dennis Kickett is co-hosting a celebration like few others. [...]

For the first time, his community of York near Perth will combine three days of Indigenous storytelling with the annual Australia Day festivities. It will include a BBQ with traditional bush tucker and the raising of Australian and Aboriginal flags to welcome new citizens.

Mr Kickett's aim is to use the gathering to explain what happened on 26 January.

“For us to move forward we all have to acknowledge the past. We live in the same community, and we're all striving for the same things,” says the 70-year-old, who made the decision with fellow Ballardong 3 traditional owners.

“There's no point segregating ourselves. On that date we will have an audience, so why not educate them?”

The Ballardong First Festival is one of hundreds of gatherings this weekend funded by the National Australia Day Council (NADC) – the body tasked with organising celebrations.

In recent years it has shifted away from patriotic pageantry towards events which “acknowledge past wrongs” and the “survival, resilience and enduring culture” of Indigenous communities. [...]

But as more people and businesses quietly opt out, 4 and annual “Invasion Day” protests gather steam, some experts say it's unclear if revamping Australia Day will help future-proof it.

The controversy stems from a debate over the appropriateness of celebrating Australia on a day when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people began being stripped of their lands and cut off from their culture.

Polls show about 60% of Australians see no issue with keeping the holiday as is.

But in recent years, they have suggested small shifts in public sentiment in favour of finding an alternative date – particularly among young people. [...]

Earlier this month the nation's largest retailer, Woolworths, announced it was axing its Australia Day merchandise – such as caps, tattoos, and plastic flags – due to a “gradual decline in demand.”

But many Australians also proudly celebrate it, decking themselves out in flags and other regalia to attend sporting events, BBQs, concerts and firework displays across the country.

BBC News, 25 January 2024

1 changing the image of something

2 refuse to participate in the celebrations

3 an Indigenous people of Western Australia

4 don't participate

Document B

A new Australia Day for everyone

For years now, there has been an ongoing debate over the meaning and appropriateness of celebrating Australia Day on 26 January. But what has been lost amid the increasingly heated rhetoric is the simple truth that this date makes no sense. [...] A country's national day usually accords to it gaining independence. The United States has 4 July, commemorating when in 1776 the Thirteen Colonies declared their independence from the rule of the United Kingdom. [...]

However, for various historical but illogical reasons, in Australia, we don't have a public holiday to celebrate our independence. Instead, we cling to a date that commemorates only the establishment of British settlement on this continent. The 26 th January says nothing about the country we have become since, nor about the Indigenous peoples who have lived here for tens of thousands of years. [...]

Let me suggest another, arguably more universal date: 9 July. It was on this day in 1900 that the Constitution of Australia was ratified, creating the new state that would come into being the following year. This was our real declaration that we were no longer a British colony but an independent country. [...]

Aboriginal activist and respected community leader, Noel Pearson has stated that Australia is made up of three stories: “The ancient Indigenous heritage which is Australia's foundation, the British institutions built upon it, and the adorning gift of multicultural migration”. A proper Australia Day should be a moment to celebrate each of these stories – 26 January is the expression of only one.

Nicholas Langdon [academic tutor], Pursuit, 19 th January 2024

[ Pursuit is the research news website of the University of Melbourne.]

Document C

60% of Australians want to keep Australia Day on January 26, but those under 35 disagree

Deakin University [Australia], 26 th January 2022

Sujet 1 — Partie 1 [16 points]

Prenez connaissance du dossier proposé, composé des documents A, B et C non hiérarchisés, et traitez en anglais le sujet suivant (500 mots environ):

Taking into account the viewpoints expressed, say what the documents show about Australia Day and its celebrations. Pay particular attention to the controversies around that day and the alternative options to reinforce national cohesion.

Document A

Australia Day: The ‘quiet rebranding’ 1 of a controversial national holiday

On 26 January every year – which marks the 1788 landing of Britain's First Fleet in Sydney Cove – two competing stories about Australia are told.

One is of nation-building and achievement; the other is of the displacement and dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

While many Indigenous Australians protest or sit the day out, 2 this year Dennis Kickett is co-hosting a celebration like few others. [...]

For the first time, his community of York near Perth will combine three days of Indigenous storytelling with the annual Australia Day festivities. It will include a BBQ with traditional bush tucker and the raising of Australian and Aboriginal flags to welcome new citizens.

Mr Kickett's aim is to use the gathering to explain what happened on 26 January.

“For us to move forward we all have to acknowledge the past. We live in the same community, and we're all striving for the same things,” says the 70-year-old, who made the decision with fellow Ballardong 3 traditional owners.

“There's no point segregating ourselves. On that date we will have an audience, so why not educate them?”

The Ballardong First Festival is one of hundreds of gatherings this weekend funded by the National Australia Day Council (NADC) – the body tasked with organising celebrations.

In recent years it has shifted away from patriotic pageantry towards events which “acknowledge past wrongs” and the “survival, resilience and enduring culture” of Indigenous communities. [...]

But as more people and businesses quietly opt out, 4 and annual “Invasion Day” protests gather steam, some experts say it's unclear if revamping Australia Day will help future-proof it.

The controversy stems from a debate over the appropriateness of celebrating Australia on a day when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people began being stripped of their lands and cut off from their culture.

Polls show about 60% of Australians see no issue with keeping the holiday as is.

But in recent years, they have suggested small shifts in public sentiment in favour of finding an alternative date – particularly among young people. [...]

Earlier this month the nation's largest retailer, Woolworths, announced it was axing its Australia Day merchandise – such as caps, tattoos, and plastic flags – due to a “gradual decline in demand.”

But many Australians also proudly celebrate it, decking themselves out in flags and other regalia to attend sporting events, BBQs, concerts and firework displays across the country.

BBC News, 25 January 2024

1 changing the image of something

2 refuse to participate in the celebrations

3 an Indigenous people of Western Australia

4 don't participate

Document B

A new Australia Day for everyone

For years now, there has been an ongoing debate over the meaning and appropriateness of celebrating Australia Day on 26 January. But what has been lost amid the increasingly heated rhetoric is the simple truth that this date makes no sense. [...] A country's national day usually accords to it gaining independence. The United States has 4 July, commemorating when in 1776 the Thirteen Colonies declared their independence from the rule of the United Kingdom. [...]

However, for various historical but illogical reasons, in Australia, we don't have a public holiday to celebrate our independence. Instead, we cling to a date that commemorates only the establishment of British settlement on this continent. The 26 th January says nothing about the country we have become since, nor about the Indigenous peoples who have lived here for tens of thousands of years. [...]

Let me suggest another, arguably more universal date: 9 July. It was on this day in 1900 that the Constitution of Australia was ratified, creating the new state that would come into being the following year. This was our real declaration that we were no longer a British colony but an independent country. [...]

Aboriginal activist and respected community leader, Noel Pearson has stated that Australia is made up of three stories: “The ancient Indigenous heritage which is Australia's foundation, the British institutions built upon it, and the adorning gift of multicultural migration”. A proper Australia Day should be a moment to celebrate each of these stories – 26 January is the expression of only one.

Nicholas Langdon [academic tutor], Pursuit, 19 th January 2024

[ Pursuit is the research news website of the University of Melbourne.]

Document C

60% of Australians want to keep Australia Day on January 26, but those under 35 disagree

Deakin University [Australia], 26 th January 2022

Sujet 1 - Partie 2 (4 pts)

Traduisez en français le passage suivant du document B (l. 7-12):

« However, for various historical but illogical reasons, in Australia, we don't have a public holiday to celebrate our independence. Instead, we cling to a date that commemorates only the establishment of British settlement on this continent. The 26 th January says nothing about the country we have become since, nor about the Indigenous peoples who have lived here for tens of thousands of years. [...]

Let me suggest another, arguably more universal date: 9 July. »

SUJET 2

Le sujet porte sur la thématique « Environnements en mutation ».

Document A

Detroit, Then and Now

A hundred and ten years ago, a symphony of machinery whirred as workers assembled the first Model T vehicles, regarded as the first broadly affordable car, at the bustling Ford Piquette Avenue Plant. Today, tourists stroll the aged wooden planks of the former factory floor, snapping photos of antique cars; the place that was once a symbol of American modernization now functions as a museum, and a love letter to Detroit’s past. The Motor City, the eponymous home of Motown Records, has been inextricably linked to the auto-manufacturing industry ever since Henry Ford débuted those cars at his factory.

In the nineteen-forties, Detroit was the fourth-largest city in America, drawing in workers with opportunities for stable employment on the assembly lines at the Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler plants. Starting in the fifties, however, the auto industry spread beyond Detroit: factories closed, and jobs vanished from the city that had been the center of the industry. The effects of that shift are still visible. […] Many facilities, now unused, serve as vandalized monuments to deindustrialization. The city rapidly became the textbook example of urban decay. Although more than 1.8 million people lived in the Motor City at its peak, fewer than seven hundred thousand now call Detroit home. In 2013, the city filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Select areas of Detroit are now in the midst of another radical transformation. In the city’s core, developers have converted crumbling buildings into upscale apartments and have launched a new streetcar system. Coffee shops and trendy restaurants with Instagram-friendly offerings populate formerly abandoned streets. In Brooklyn and Manhattan, billboards 1 have popped up with messages attempting to lure gentrifiers 2 to Detroit. Many note that the revitalization of “America’s Comeback City” has been primarily confined to the downtown and midtown areas; blight and depression still loom in predominantly black neighborhoods outside the city center. Some argue that this focus on developing the city’s core has drawn attention and resources from communities that are still dealing with a housing crisis, a lack of city services, and widespread displacement. Amid the ongoing change, there is cautious optimism, among some, that Detroit’s motto— Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus (We hope for better things; it shall arise from the ashes)—will prove to be prescient.

The New Yorker, June 19, 2018

1 advertising panels

2 attract people who have money

Document B

Rising costs and gentrification force locals out of Detroit’s downtown and Midtown

Detroit is one of the poorest cities in the country, but it has one of the fastest growing rental rates 1 in the country, according to several market research reports. Since 2017, the average rent in Detroit has increased a staggering 46.2%, from $831 to$1,215, according to rent.com, which tracks apartment rates. During that period, the average annual income in Detroit has risen a modest 11%, from $31,283 to$34,762, according to census estimates.

Some of the steepest increases in rent occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when Black Detroiters were disproportionately hit hard by unemployment.

Rising rental costs are especially worrisome in Detroit because about half of the city’s residents are renters, not owners.

HUD 2 recommends that renters spend no more than 30% of their income on rent. For the average Detroit household, that means spending no more than $869 a month, a rate that is exceedingly difficult to find. […]

Over the past decade, dozens of apartment buildings have been renovated or built downtown and in surrounding neighborhoods, attracting predominantly young, white, suburban professionals who can afford to pay high rents that often exceed $1,800 a month. As a result, these areas are losing their diversity and becoming inaccessible to lower-income and even middle-income Detroiters. […]

“Real estate speculation is driving gentrification,” says Linda Campbell, director of the Detroit People’s Platform, an activist group that promotes a more equitable city. “The disappointment for us is that the city government has failed majority Black Detroit. It feels like our community planning process is being driven by real estate speculation, as opposed to thoughtful, long-term planning for stabilization.” […]

The escalating housing costs are a key factor driving people out of Detroit, housing advocates say.

“We look at the latest trends at what’s happening in Detroit, and we see that Black Detroiters are leaving,” Campbell says. “They are finding that Detroit is no longer a place they want to call home. A model of economic development that is more equitable would lend itself 3 in the long-term to attracting residents back to the city.”

Detroit Metro Times, July 19, 2023

1 prices

2 US Department of Housing and Urban Development

3 contribute

Document C

Separated by as little as a city block... a boarded up house in Brush Park with downtown Detroit behind it.

Reuters, published in The Guardian, 5 February 2015

Partie 1

[16 pts]

Prenez connaissance du dossier proposé, composé des documents A, B et C non hiérarchisés et traitez en anglais le sujet suivant (500 mots environ):

Taking into account the three documents, show how they offer a contrasting view of Detroit’s renewal.

Document A

Detroit, Then and Now

A hundred and ten years ago, a symphony of machinery whirred as workers assembled the first Model T vehicles, regarded as the first broadly affordable car, at the bustling Ford Piquette Avenue Plant. Today, tourists stroll the aged wooden planks of the former factory floor, snapping photos of antique cars; the place that was once a symbol of American modernization now functions as a museum, and a love letter to Detroit’s past. The Motor City, the eponymous home of Motown Records, has been inextricably linked to the auto-manufacturing industry ever since Henry Ford débuted those cars at his factory.

In the nineteen-forties, Detroit was the fourth-largest city in America, drawing in workers with opportunities for stable employment on the assembly lines at the Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler plants. Starting in the fifties, however, the auto industry spread beyond Detroit: factories closed, and jobs vanished from the city that had been the center of the industry. The effects of that shift are still visible. […] Many facilities, now unused, serve as vandalized monuments to deindustrialization. The city rapidly became the textbook example of urban decay. Although more than 1.8 million people lived in the Motor City at its peak, fewer than seven hundred thousand now call Detroit home. In 2013, the city filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Select areas of Detroit are now in the midst of another radical transformation. In the city’s core, developers have converted crumbling buildings into upscale apartments and have launched a new streetcar system. Coffee shops and trendy restaurants with Instagram-friendly offerings populate formerly abandoned streets. In Brooklyn and Manhattan, billboards 1 have popped up with messages attempting to lure gentrifiers 2 to Detroit. Many note that the revitalization of “America’s Comeback City” has been primarily confined to the downtown and midtown areas; blight and depression still loom in predominantly black neighborhoods outside the city center. Some argue that this focus on developing the city’s core has drawn attention and resources from communities that are still dealing with a housing crisis, a lack of city services, and widespread displacement. Amid the ongoing change, there is cautious optimism, among some, that Detroit’s motto— Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus (We hope for better things; it shall arise from the ashes)—will prove to be prescient.

The New Yorker, June 19, 2018

1 advertising panels

2 attract people who have money

Document B

Rising costs and gentrification force locals out of Detroit’s downtown and Midtown

Detroit is one of the poorest cities in the country, but it has one of the fastest growing rental rates 1 in the country, according to several market research reports. Since 2017, the average rent in Detroit has increased a staggering 46.2%, from $831 to$1,215, according to rent.com, which tracks apartment rates. During that period, the average annual income in Detroit has risen a modest 11%, from $31,283 to$34,762, according to census estimates.

Some of the steepest increases in rent occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when Black Detroiters were disproportionately hit hard by unemployment.

Rising rental costs are especially worrisome in Detroit because about half of the city’s residents are renters, not owners.

HUD 2 recommends that renters spend no more than 30% of their income on rent. For the average Detroit household, that means spending no more than $869 a month, a rate that is exceedingly difficult to find. […]

Over the past decade, dozens of apartment buildings have been renovated or built downtown and in surrounding neighborhoods, attracting predominantly young, white, suburban professionals who can afford to pay high rents that often exceed $1,800 a month. As a result, these areas are losing their diversity and becoming inaccessible to lower-income and even middle-income Detroiters. […]

“Real estate speculation is driving gentrification,” says Linda Campbell, director of the Detroit People’s Platform, an activist group that promotes a more equitable city. “The disappointment for us is that the city government has failed majority Black Detroit. It feels like our community planning process is being driven by real estate speculation, as opposed to thoughtful, long-term planning for stabilization.” […]

The escalating housing costs are a key factor driving people out of Detroit, housing advocates say.

“We look at the latest trends at what’s happening in Detroit, and we see that Black Detroiters are leaving,” Campbell says. “They are finding that Detroit is no longer a place they want to call home. A model of economic development that is more equitable would lend itself 3 in the long-term to attracting residents back to the city.”

Detroit Metro Times, July 19, 2023

1 prices

2 US Department of Housing and Urban Development

3 contribute

Document C

Separated by as little as a city block... a boarded up house in Brush Park with downtown Detroit behind it.

Reuters, published in The Guardian, 5 February 2015

Partie 2 (4 pts)

Traduisez en français le passage suivant du document B (l. 11-17):

« [The Department of Housing and Urban Development] recommends that renters spend no more than 30% of their income on rent. For the average Detroit household, that means spending no more than $869 a month, a rate that is exceedingly difficult to find.

Over the past decade, dozens of apartment buildings have been renovated or built downtown and in surrounding neighborhoods, attracting predominantly young, white, suburban professionals who can afford to pay high rents that often exceed $1,800 a month. »