With our feet in the shit but a smile on our lips, an upraised fist but comfortably sitting in front of our computers, this blog brings to you some material to reflect on, what we think is important to make a fuss about.
This is my last post on this blog. And there would have been so much more to say about so much, but time is missing.
This blog thing is really time demanding. When you understand that you have to find the ressources to write your post, summarize, and develop a thought on a subject you might not be that familiar with, one can easily understand that Zoé's, Flo's, Lucie's and my posts were few. But we tried to be as interesting as possible.
We hope that you appreciated the time with us and that you understand that watching things go worse is actually what we did, but that we also think about how to make things better. In our own way, at our level.
We would like to thank you for reading. And for posting comments.
If you haven't had the opportunity to get your hands on a very good book lately, I would like to recommend you reading Jared Diamond's awesome essay Collapse. How societies chose to fail or succeed. The book is now a few years old but it has recently been published pocket-sized in France. (If anybody has a pocket large enough to fit it in, please let me know...)
By analyzing how former civilisations survived or collapsed facing a major (usually environmental) problem and how actual civilisations chose to react facing the same problems, Diamond delivers a fascinating opus. Really. It is not that often that I get carried away by essays. But this one is dealing with one major issue that I am deeply interested in. Sustainable development.
But not only. There is also a lot of history going on in that book. About some civilisations I had never heard about.
Diamond analyses every society the book is about through a five factor grid : environmental damages, climate change, conflicts with neighbours, trade relations and answers given by a society facing an environmental issue.
The book itself is divided into two sections : past societies, whether they survived or not and the measures they took in front of a problem, and nowadays societies, facing an issue.
How can this be an optimistic post?
Because this post is about how, maybe, we could find solutions to the destroying of the earth. I think it is a book to be read. And a book to give to our political leaders. And it is clear. And the examples taken are relevant.
I already think that we are heading towards a catastrophe, and this book is just a confirmation of what I thought.
But reading about how societies succeeded in overcoming their problems in the past, gives a little hope.
If they did it, so can we.
The world is getting more and more fucked up at the moment. This book is analyse of the mess we're in. And a good start for finding a solution.
One of the most despicable things that's been going on since the human race has been walking on the surface of this planet is human trafficking.
For those who wouldn't know what that is, here is a quote from the Amnesty International website :
"Trafficking of Persons: Amnesty International Fact Sheet
Trafficking is modern day slave trading. It involves transporting people away from the communities they live in by the threat or use of violence, deception or coercion so they can be exploited as forced or enslaved workers. When children are trafficked, no violence, deception or coercion needs to be involved: simply transporting them into exploitative conditions constitutes trafficking."
So as you can see, my fellow readers, human trafficking is no more than slavery, with just a slighter glamorous way of saying it.
And the one who thinks that we, in the modern occidental countries, are far, far away from human trafficking and that it does not exist in our world, is far, far away from the truth. The fact is that human trafficking is at at our door. I would even say an important part of human trafficking is headed towards our countries. We've got the money, after all.
Here is how it usually works in most of the cases.
(For those who wanted to get away from their homeland...)
Take a country, a poor one. Pick a person who already struggles for life in his poor country. How wouldn't that person want to escape from misery and to move to a land where there is plenty of money (even with the crisis going on)?
So that person is becoming desperate to live in such conditions, which is quite normal. And that person thinks of the west world like a world where there are lots of opportunities. The person contacts or is contacted by someone who says he or she can do something for her, let's call that person the smuggler.
Well, the smuggler promises the smuggled that he or she will be granted a job and a place to stay and that the smuggled will have enough money to support his/her family who stays in the smuggled's homeland. Who wouldn't accept to swap a bad situation with a good one?
Full of hope, the smuggled accepts. And that is when the nightmare begins. In the first place, the smuggled pays a fortune to be sent away (or to send away his/her child) : either the smuggled pays in advance, either he/she accepts to work for the smuggler under what's to be a short time but reveals itself to be an endless time.
When arrived in the promised land (if the smuggled reaches the land in question... How many die during the travel?..), many are kept emprisoned. He or she can be sold as a piece of meat would be. Or he can work for the smuggler.
What happens when arrived?
If they are women : they can be sold as slaves to families who exploit them as housekeepers. Living in conditions one wouldn't even want for an animal. Or worse : be forced to prostitution or sexually abused, if sold as sexual objects.
If they are men : they can become illegal workers. In what appears to be a small proportion, be forced to prostitution.
If they are children : become the same thing as adults. Prostitutes, illegal workers, sexual objects. Some are sold to adoptive parents (those might be the lucky ones, you might think. What if you were taken away from your family?..).
The smuggled is taken away his papers, if he has any. He is considered as nothing more than an object and is denied the most elementary human rights.
Fucked up...
In a way, we are responsible for the situation. We don't do much to stop it. We just close our eyes and think that it doesn't happen in our little western paradise.
But it is hard to fight something so discreet as human trafficking : the smugglers know how to hide from authorities and the smuggled are afraid to come under the spotlights and get sent back to their homeland, meaning going back to a situation that may be worse the the one they are in now...
Estimations are hard to find and most of them are said to be questionable. A 2006 U.S. estimation numbered the trafficked between 600,000 and 800,000 (have a look here to read the report).
It may be hard to fight but, yet, there has to be a solution. Somewhere. Somehow.
Well I am in Spain since more than a month now and I wasn't not worried a lot about what was happening in the world since this time... Now that I am better used of living in Spain, I am trying to catch back what I missed. Lucie's post on the "solidarity offence" which is a subject making a big buzz on the web is very interesting. There is a struggle between the minister and associations like Gisti ( support group for migrant workers), the governement says that the "solidarity offence" doesn't exist and is a creation of the GISTI but the fact is that many people have been prosecuted since two decades for feeding, helping, migrants even if they are not identified has "smugglers" or members of a migrant smugglers group which is a criminal action. It's really funny to see how M. Eric BESSON reacts when scenarios are proposed to him and it shows us how hypocritical our governement is in his way of giving informations to us. Associaions which are created to help civil society to have little power in front of political decisions are now qualified as liars even if our governements might be really happy to see them working directly with migrants, I think that associations are today service providers for the State in fields in which he doesn't to invest time and money but today we are facing problems which are contrary to our motto as Lucie said and I am proud to see people fighting against what is happening and saying that our minister is a liar !!
Everything's going so fast in one month the world faced earthquakes, a new law to fight against illegal downloadings:HADOPI, a pandemy warning, no good news about the end of the economical crisis...
In Southern Spain, the situation with migrant workers is not better than in France. For example, I found out why in France we were able to buy strawberries in the middle of February. Guess what in Andalucia, you can find out plenty of greenhouses all over the countryside and who works in greenhouses : migrants of course !! This year many of them were touched by skin or bretahing problems due to the amount of chemical fertilizers and pesticides used to grow nice strawberries in winter. So I just decide that next year I won't eat strawberries coming from Spain in the middle of winter, not in regard of the pollution created by trucks to transport the fruits but in regard of the migrants who are wasting their skin and lungs in exchange of a little money and still no way of sorting out !!
Well I am now trying to understand what HADOPI law really is and I am going to write and article about it tonight or tomorrow, but this law seems really weird...
In this last post, I would like to reflect about the solidarity : in my posts, I wanted to show that illegal immigrants need our help : we are the ones who can help them to change this society only based on repression. And fighting for the rihts of illegal immigrants, we also defend our rights. The poeme I wrote in my last post shows this. But I discovered that if we dare defending their fight, we risk to be juged, pay a fine (until 18 000 €) and go in jail (until five years). Our govenment has created the concept of "offence of solidarity" (délit de solidarité). I want to give you some example : To protest aigainst the condition of eviction of two Congolese in his flight between Paris and Brazzaville, a men 72 year old has been condamned of 1500 € of fine by le tribunal correctionnel de Bobigny. On the flight, him and others passagers heared some cry and realize there are some illegal immigrants on the same flight. This man, André Barthélémy who is a member of the Commission consultative des droits de l'Homme sayed : "It's a shame, you don't respect the human rights". He has proded to others passagers to act like him and protest against the conditions of this eviction. During his trial he sayed that he wasn't put back into question the eviction but the conditions which they succeed in. An other example : A voluntary of les restos du coeur has been arrested because she was helping illegal immigrants giving them clothes and something to eat. This offense of solidarity wants to dishearten people helping others human beings. Authorities seems forget that illegal immigrants are human beings. These people want to live in Europe (in France or in UK) because in their country there is a war. But our european country who make the war in Afganistan don't want to help people who flee this war. Also, when illegal immigrants succeed coming in France, french governement refuses to receive them and refuses to let them living the country to go in UK (this country doesn't want them also). Countries as France and England collaborate to evitate illegal immigrants arrive in England. So these people are gived up by authorities. They survive as they can. French people considerate that it's not possible to let them in this conditions of life. They help them but the governement punish them for doing that. I don't understant what the government wants. I don't understant what french citizens can do. Fortunatly, Some people believe in the motto of our republic and in the third word : fraternité. To fight for acts of fraternity, le groupe socialiste radical et citoyen decided to suggest a law who wants to decriminalize all forms of help towards illegal immigrants who are in an extrem situation of distress. But this law has as project to fight against ferrymen who harass illegal immigrants and profit of their misery to make them pay for anything : they make them believe they will give them their help but it's not true. This law suggests to protect human dignity. I don't know if this law has been accepted or not, they decided to create it in March 2009. To be continued... by yourself!
I would like to talk about the situation of "sans-papiers" in others countries. I know what it's happening today in Italy. This country is becoming always more strict with immigrate people. We can take the interest in the law created by Silvio Berlusconi about illegal immigrantes in Italy. This law wants italian doctors to denounce illegal immigrates who need to be cared : they have to report them to autorities. The consequence of this, is that doctors are giving up Hippocratic Oath. We can note that the government is ready to control the population forcing doctors denouce them. The problem is that illegal immigrates will not desappear from the country! But they will not go to hospital to be cared when they will be ill. So, the government is becoming a killer preventing illegal people caring themselves. Lot of illness would not be cared and they would propagate them in the population. Doctors do not agree with this law : "If a doctor denounce an illegal person, he respects the law but he infringes the deontological code and the article 42 of the Constitution, but if he doesn't denounce, he conforms to every norms." told a doctor. We understand that this law is going against the human rights like lots of others french laws. And if we don't want these law to be applied, we have to fight them showing we will not obey the governement. That's what italian doctors are doing and I think all citizens should do that.
But this law is making me worring : today, we can note a tendency of repression from governments who are making an immigrates hunting. If we accept this, we accept a decrease of human rights. And when we would like to protest, we would not have the rights to do it.
this poem written by the pastor Martin Niemoller illustrates this very well :
In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic.
Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.
This new fucked up post will deal with the newest trend in media in France.
Progressively, we are shifting towards the taking over of the public French media by our dearest president. Consecutively to the application of a decision of the CSA (Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel, Superior TV and Radio Coucil) we have now to face an overrepresentation of our government, and rightwing-majority, in the media.
By that I mean that since the beginning of February, all of the French radio and TV media have to report the time they give antenna to politicians, whichever political orientation they come from. It was already a reality for TV since quite a long time, but the radio wasn't obliged to do it until February.
That wouldn't be a problem to me if the way the time was shared between either the right-wing party and the left-wing party politicians wasn't a little fucked up. Concretely, the time share goes like this :
one third goes to the government ;
one third goes to the majority (for those who wouldn't know, the UMP, our president's majority) ;
one third goes to the opposition ;
the time dedicated to our president's speeches on TV and radio is not taken in account in all this.
This decision was the reason why public radio was on strike in the beginning of February.
In the same line, it is now a reality that the presidents of public TV an Radio will be chosen by the government, their nomination and their carrier at the head of public TV and radio are in the hands of the government.
It sounds a little like the freedom of press is beginning to endangered. We can easily imagine that because the president of public TV and radio would not stand in the line of the majority, she/he could be asked to give her/his resignation.
I don't know for you, but the situation looks a little familiar to me. Not far from France (in fact you just have to cross the Alps) there is nearly the same situation : a council president better known for his dubious sense of humour, is the owner of the major TV channels in his country...
I wonder how long it will take before, we go down the same path as our neighbours.
In the shade of palm trees cliché, synonymous of exotic beaches, a shameful and dangerous business for the planet is hiding. The palm oil market is strongly increasing because it is used to make our furniture, our cakes, our cosmetics and most important of all, our biofuel (by the way this biofuel is not bio at all). Indonesia is the second producer of palm oil in the world which is now considered like petroleum in Asia. Indonesian farmers are now changing their traditionnal crops to palm tree crops and they are sure that because the important yield rate ( 100 kilograms of fruits makes 22 liters of oil) is a way to become rich. In 2008, one football field every 15 seconds was destroyed. Indonesia has now the highest rate of deforestation in the world. Gigantic fires were lit to burn forests and peat-bogs and as a result, Indonesia has now climbed to the third step of the carbon dioxyde producers country in the world, just after the China and the United States. The soils are irreversibly damaged and Great Apes are now forced to live the forests, their original habitats. In less than 10 years Orang Outang is going to disappear from Indonesian islands. It is a disaster for the biodiversity and also for the forest ecosystem in which Orang Outang is an irreplaceable regulating element. Who is conscious of that problem in Europe ? Not a lot of people seeing how members of the group "Biofuel does not feed its world" are treated.
Militants were forbiddent to enter The annual Paris Agriculture Show because they were trying to demonstrate within the visit of the French President.
Here is a small video from an Arte documentary (subtitled by myself)
Palm oil is one example telling us that the developement of Biofuel could be a good thing to replace Petroleum but there are direct effects on the wildlife and the flora. Forests are destroyed to grow palm trees, or corn in South America and as producing Biofuel is more profitable than growing other crops, everything is abandoned and replace by biofuel producing crops. Everything is linked on our planet and as human beigs unbalanced some important Earth systems our planet is reacting and suffering.
A really hot topic at the moment I'm fucked up with is the important frequency of suicides in jail since January 2009. I think you heard about this without looking for informations about jail, but on our radio, sometimes, we hear it and we don't know anything else about it. Nobody explain the reason, the context... So people continue to not have interest about what is succeeding in jail. But If we want jail change, we have to demonstrate our interest and show that we are not bored with what happen everyday in our jail.
In jail, suicides used to be 6,4 time higher than in general population, but we are in a context of increase of twenty percent of suicides : since the beginning of the year, 13 persons commit suicide. The problem is that the government doesn't want to admit that this increase is in link with conditions of life very hard to support.
Some of you would think that it's not a big problem : they all are criminal so if they commit suicide, they make some space! We hear that jail are overloaded, this is the solution! I'm sorry to tell you that I don't agree with this point of view! I want to reflect about the jail's function : what is the goal of an imprisonment? If the death penalty has been abolished (in 1981 for the one's who didn't remember!) why prisoners would die in jail?
The main problem of our jail (in France) are the conditions of life : prisoners live in 9m² in one, two, three, and four sometimes. On one hand, lack of privacy, hygiene, people with they don't agree with... And on the other hand, relationship with guards who don't always respect them... There would be lot of things to say about this, but I'm not able to talk about this in English (sorry!) and I think you know how can be the situation in jail, so I will limit my comments about suicides. But in fact it's hard to talk about that without talking about the context in jail because it help to understand why people want to commit suicide.
Some organizations as l' Observatoire International des Prisons want the government recognizes that this increase of suicides in jail is in link with the conditions we can qualify as dehumanizing : France is the European country where the suicides in jail are higher. But we can read : " Le taux élevé de suicide en milieu pénitentiaire ne saurait refléter une prétendue dégradation des conditions de détention ou encore constituer une mesure objective du mal-être en prison, notamment en raison de la dimension essentiellement individuelle des actes suicidaires. Aucune corrélation n'a pu être établie entre les conditions d'incarcération et le taux de suicides." (ministère de la justice, 2004)
Also if the governement makes as a priority prevention of suicides, it doesn't take into account conditions of imprisonment! Furthermore, solutions suggested by the OIP are remained without answer : the governement refuses to consider people who work in jail and who know what would be good or no to reduce the suicides rate. It also plans to educate better penitenciary employees and identify better people who could present a risk of suicide.
To conclude, we can imagine that jail must change to avoid suicides, and we know that the governement doesn't want that because the public opinion used to think that criminal have to remain in jail which makes them better : but people don't understant that it's not the quantity, it's the quality of imprisonment which is important!
Since a few months, we can observe how some of our Ministers are dealing with their tasks.
After the disastrous reforms of secondary school made by our Minister of Education, Mr Xavier DARCOS and the collapse of the statutory order (decree) modifying the status of university professors-researchers managed by Mrs Valérie PECRESSE, Minister of Higher Education and Research, it's time for Mr Yves JEGO, Overseas Territory Secretrary of State, to shine with is incapability of dealing with a global strike in Guadeloupe ! Today Matigon is facing a repetition of mistakes and has found judicious to name some mediators who are in fact " crisis managers" to trying to help overwhelmed Ministers and to find solutions to the crises. After Mr DARCOS' speech on the will of the governement to reform a part of the secondary education's system, the demonstrations of secondary school pupils were so important that the Minister postponed his reform for 2010. In this way, he was helped by Mr Richard DESCOINGS, the director of Sciences Po Paris (Paris Institute of Political Studies). However Mr DARCOS does not lose face telling he designed Mr DESCOINGS to assist him. Mrs PECRESSE, also in great difficulty with the professor's strike and unable to negociate, has also named an "indepedant mediator", Mrs Claire BAZY-MALAURIE. Her work is to re-build the decree modifying the university professor's status instead of throwing it in the bin and think about an other way to reform French Universities. At last it is Mr. JEGO with an exceptionnal failure in the way he dealt with the global strike in Guadeloupe island which started on the 20th January. First of all he landed on the island twelve days after the beginning of the strike and escaped on the quiet from it five days later, realizing he was unable in finding out a way out of the crisis. So Mr JEGO is now seconded by not only one but two mediators with the responsabilities of correcting mistakes and negociating. And now a little bonus...Mr Bernard LAPORTE our former Sports and Youth Secretary of State (yes that's really what he was) is now dispossessed by Mr SARKOZY of the "sector" Youth of his Secretary of State. The main reason for this decision is an absence of Mr LAPORTE in the political scene and the sanction is not the intervention of a mediator but a dispossession. Mr Martin HIRSCH, the High Commisioner in the field of solidarities, wins a new task : dealing with Youth in France. But when looking at the work of Mr LAPORTE we can easily find out that it is not a big loss for us (Could you give at least one important work he made ?).
In this second post, I would like to reflect with you about the situation in Palestine and about the impunity of Israel. And I also want to make people reflect about our responsibility as citizens.
I went to a debate-conference about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and I heard some accounts from people who went in Gaza during the war and during the truce. These people were : one member of European parliament, one reporter at the newspaper "l'Humanité" and one doctor who went with others Europeans doctors to Gaza.
They told us what they saw in Gaza : people without houses, children alone because their family was dead under bombs... But they all were surprised by the courage and the desire to live of Palestinian.
The main problem of this conflict, is that Israel is colonizing the Palestine since 1948 and doesn't recognize it as a country, Israel is the fourth military strength in the world and nicknamed the "fifty-first state of the USA". So we understand that there is an unsteadiness between the two parts : USA and Europe are supported Israel in this conflict.
Israel told that he wanted to fight the Hamas but these people I saw (they are not the only) described how Israel uses some weapons and a strategy to murder Palestinian, innocents people : they use some weapons witch are made with phosphorus (they burn for 48 hours) and fragmentation bombs, when they explode, they scat lot of piece of steel and even if people are touched on their arm, these piece make lot of damage into the body. These weapons are made to murder most of people as it's possible. Do you remember when Isreli soldiers ask to people to go in a house and after they put bombs on the same house, murdering 30 persons? We understand that is not a war against the Hamas but a war against Palestinian.
Even if the UN ask to Israel to stop the war and accuse it of violation of the human rights, This nation doesn't mind and doesn't want to give the name of the generals who could have killed people even though it was not necessary.
Today, The human rights council of the UN is going to send a mission to investigate in Gaza about all the violations of international right. But we can be afraid that they won't find anything to accuse Israel...
The question here is how can we act to show that we don't support this war (witch is stopped now but we know it could start again)? Some associations (for example the Association France Palestine Solidarite, AFPS) want town hall of Lille make some acts of solidarity with Palestinian like put the Palestinian flag on the town hall or build an house of information about the Palestine...
What do you thing about that? Are you agree or not with my point of view?
As our planet looks more and more like a dump, some people have decided to react to the overconsumption phenomenon and to start exploring other ways to save our planet. This article is about two alternatives to the destruction of our planet.
One of them is the downshifting way of life, the other is the malthusianist theory applied to environmental issues.
Downshifting or Downsizing.
(This is not an exhaustive summary of the downsizing way of life, but just a glimpse of what it can be...)
Downshifting or downsizing (both words have the same meaning), is not a new phenomenon. Far from it. It is a concept that goes way back in time, but that is now starting to spread out a little in the occidental world (in France it is known as "décroissance", in Canada as "simplicité volontaire"). Media finally look at them not as marginals but more as precursors. In the whole environment frenzy, it is about time people look up to Downshifters instead of looking down at them.
Their point of view is simple, and goes from an obvious fact : economic growth cannot continue eternally. Downsizers think that the accumulation of goods is not a way to improve one's wellness and everyday life. On the contrary, when living in a world of frenetic consumption, you just forget who you are, who the ones you love are, and who the others are.
The whole thing is about taking time. Take time to live, take time to be who you are and who you want to be. Start living a simpler, healthier life and reduce your own impact on the environment.
In the beginning is a principle : less-is-more. As you reduce your consumption of various goods, you reduce your impact on the environment. Downshifters do their best to be as environment-friendly as they can. It is about recycling, thinking of others and thinking of oneself.
For those living in the countryside, it might be a little easier : starting to grow your own vegetables, organically, use only what you need in water, start thinking renewable energy such as solar power cells, stop throwing whatever you can in the trash can, all that is biodegradable is used for composting and then fertilizing crops, etc.
I've put up a short video which shows what the life of downsizers in the country can be. It was found on youtube, and deals with a bunch of Italian downsizers. Watch, enjoy and feel free to leave a comment if you feel so.
Saying that it is easier to be a downsizer in the country, doesn't mean it is not possible to start being one in the city.
Okay, growing artichokes, carrots and potatoes on your balcony (if you are lucky enough to have one) might be a little hard, but it might be time to think about something else to act for environment. As an example, why not start with food and favour organic food instead of non-organic (unfortunately, organic food is still a little too expensive for my own means). You can also start thinking about lowering your power consumption: using low energy light bulbs, turning off appliances you don't use instead of leaving them on standby. As for water, you can take showers instead of filling the bathtub to the top.
Combining simple acts is already a move towards helping to lead a healthier, more environment friendly life. Lots of thing can be done to be less dependant on energy. Into the bargain, it is also a way to save some money.
As for myself, I cannot say that I am a downsizer, but that is something that I find really fascinating, as well as definitively tempting . Everybody knows the earth's resources are not eternal, and it is highly about time we reflect on alternatives to the way of living we have now. I hope someday I can really start with being one, in the country, but at the moment I can only try to be as environment friendly as I can, in the city.
Malthusianism.
Malthusianism applied to the environmental issue is the alibi for my post (actually, what would a post in this blogg be if it wasn't to show something I find a little fucked up?..).
For those who wouldn't know what malthusianism is in the beginning, here is a short cut to the economical theory : Malthus thought, on the verge of the eighteenth and the nineteenth century, that there was a strong dichotomy between the growth of population, and the growth of food-supply. The first one grows in a geometric rate (i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16), whereas the second one grows following an arithmetic rate (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc.). This dichotomy is the base of the malthusian theory, of which the main point was to help less the poor (and eventually encourage them to have less children) to stress less the government funds. But this is another story.
Today has the malthusian theory found an echo in a certain category of ecologists (and I even began to wonder if they really were ecologists). Their point is to encourage people to have less people to stress less the Earth's resources. Given that we are being more and more, and that our resources grows smaller and smaller, the idea would be to get people to have less babies. Babies are bad. Babies contaminate. Etc.
It is true that I would love to see less mothers pushing buggies equipped like they would soon be off to the Paris-Dakar. And I'm quite tired to see those mothers wander in the streets thinking that the entire side walk is theirs. And that I should make way for them.
And it is true that I would love to set up a trade market like the one about greenhouse effect gas existing since the Kyoto protocol in 1997 (and effective since 2005). I could trade my own children non-desire against some extra money.
Wouldn't that be heaven?
Seriously. My opinion about all that is that malthusianism doesn't really help to find new ways to save the earth, but more to find a way to slow down the disappearing of resources. It feels more like a way to preserve our way of living a little longer than to start something new, from scratch. As I regard it, it is only a disguised way to a conservative reflexion, or how to accuse the poor, who, of course have large families, to be the cause for all the trouble. Clever.
Here is an article I found on the internet that I thought relevant. From my point of view, of course. http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/malthus.htm It gives an overview of the issue i tried to deal about.
Now I'd like to know what you think about all that. Agree? Disagree? Feel free to comment.
Thursday 29th January, a large national movement took place in Lille and in the whole France in order to protest against the government's way of doing politics and also the way he is trying to deeply change the France society with all the measures voted by the parliement. Indeed, most of French Trade Unions called their employees in National Train Company, from the Ministry of National Education and employees from public and private company... to strike on the 29th January 2009.
Their demands are :
to defend the public and private employment,
to fight against precariousness, social and economical problems,
to ask for some political measures guaranting a level of salary which is enough for employees, retired and students to afford the cost of life,
to defend the National Health System,
to improve the quality of Public Services which is necessary to answer to social needs and the lack of solidarity.
I was demonstrating on Thursday, I think it is necessary to react now against how the government is shaping our society. If we are not able to unite and have the same demands, we are going to lose some of our social gains and I am afraid to say goodbye to our Welfare State which is an important security for solidarity in France and to say hello to a State based on the economic liberalism doctrine.
Here is a video of the demonstrations with two small subtitled interviews
As a student I feel concerned by some reforms of this government because they are directly changing the Education field in which I want to work in the near future. Competitive examinations rules are changed, for example you need to have a Master 1 today in order to be a teacher in secondary education but I think this only the first steps to deeper reforms in the way the State will recruit future teachers. Many things can be said about those State measures but they are all leading to the establishment of a new French model which is good for the country as the government says...
I'm Zoé... This blog is going to be useful for me to talk about every events which upsets and bothers me in France and in the world !! I will try to post weekly what Fu**s up in my opinion in order to share my concerns about today society. I'm a newbie in blogging, so I will try to use diversified sources (videos, pictures...) for my posts. Don't hesitate to warn me if something doesn't work properly, and I'll manage to fix it... I'm sorry in advance for my English writing level !!
Since Romania entered in Europe in January 2007, a lot of Rom families arrive in France. They leave their country in order to have a normal life: a house, a job, school for children, access to medical care…First of all here is a big confusion between roms and “gens du voyage”, roms aren’t French, they don’t have the French nationality, what’s why they cannot use the French social welfare. “Gens du voyage” are French citizens who have a different lifestyle : they live in Mobil home and move from camps to camps. Here are some hosting area for them : French government builds areas where they can clean themselves, cook and also be allowed to stay for a while. Let’s now talking more about our main subject: roms people. Why do they leave their country? Most of them don’t work or when they have professional activity, it’s a very bad job like dustman or city cleaner. Bosses hire a lot less Gypsies than Romanians. Either they have an illegal job so they don’t benefit of social services and they have a very low salary or they work for the city but their working conditions are very difficult. On no account they have a lot of money, they don’t live but survive. In Romania, when somebody doesn’t have money, he can’t access to medical care. In Romania, Gypsies are victims of discrimination from Romanians. Indeed, Romanians don’t like Gypsies. They accuse them sometimes rightly but often wrongly to be thieves, dirty, idle, or stupid. Violent acts against Gypsies are, fortunately, rare enough, but nobody can deny that they don’t exist. Romanian Gypsies are sedentary, they have houses and they don’t live in caravan like lot of people can think it but they don’t have money and they are obliged to live out of the way. Because of all this disagreements, they decide to leave their country rather than trying to build their lives in this one. In this point of view, they have nothing to lose. They decide to come in France where they hope to know a better life. Therefore they travel to france though Europe with families by bus. They buy caravan when they arrive in france. Caravans are easy to buy for them and it allows an easy staying. They got a homefrom then, but working in france is a bit complicated for them. French government makes difficulties to allow they working. They only can work illegly as workers on construction sites and area keeping (house keeping, baby sitting). These jobs don’t pay enough for surviving. In addition they must respect a list of job broadcast by the ministry of labour. This list doesn’t include all kind of jobs. For example, roms can not work as an engineer or a lawyer! Only “primary jobs” are allowed. Hence they must work on the black market to earn enough money to feed their families. That’s why roms are known to be robbers, because they can’t work as every one, they find other ways to make money. In addition, French government doesn’t cheer them up to stay in France. French state doesn’t want their staying on the French territory and doesn’t settle any hosting systems. Such is the sad destiny of the roms people, being expulsed to country from country and having no issue to find a proper land. What can we do in order to save rompeople? What does Europe to give a hand to these population? Roms are now European citizens like us. When governments would begin to recognize them as people and not animals? Is France racist? Is president Sarkozy out of solution for roms people in France?
There are no real projects done for this people. The main problem is that nobody wants them in their own country but they are European citizen, so they got to be allowed to move wherever they want inside the European Union.
hi
I'm Flo, and I would like to talk about Romanian Gypsies in France : life's condition, why they come in France,... They are excluded of society, in Romania like in France and everywhere, they are victims of discrimination for always, but why ? ..... What are solutions for them ? When will they have a normal life ? When will they be respected ?
Hadj Mohand El Hadi, a student registered in mathematics at the university of Lille 1 is suffering from hepatitis B and is about to be deported in Algeria. The council of administration of Lille 1 has voted a motion for the intervention of the president of the university next to the préfet to cancel this expulsion. The student is now hold up at the centre de rétention of Lesquin despite his health state witch requires an hospitalization. El Hadi is in France since 2005, he came with a visa of student but this year he could not renew his visa in the absence of adress. To expulse him is put his life in a jeopardy and endage his studies and his future !
Students know that the mobilization is necessary and everybody has to support him.
The event we can see on the poster will take place at the cinema "l'univers", rue Danton in Lille, at 7 pm, free price. I wanted to talk about that in my first article because I went to a rally in front of the prefecture of Lille to ask to the prefect to free him. Some hundred people (students and others) were there, sitting down on the street and singing. There were of course, lot of "crs" and police.
I want to discuss with you about our responsibility as French students and French citizens. I feel more affected in this case because is a student but I think that we have a responsibility also if the "sans-papier" is not a student. What do you think about that? Are you agree or no with the rally? What do you think white-French people have to do?
The tons of plastic we use in everyday life, and by extension the lack of care people have for environment (and it's a person who throws nearly all his cigarettes to the ground when wandering in the streets who writes that...) ;
Trafficking : human trafficking, weapon trafficking, etc. (I haven't decided yet which was worse) ;
The coming of a more and more univocal media speech (I mean by that the recent fiasco of French public television) ;
The overrepresentation of the USA and the UK when dealing with English-speaking countries (I would like to hear about the other countries. What is happening in Canada, in New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, and Co at the moment?) ;
Lots of other things which Florence, Zoé and Lucie also disagree with.
Why am I upset with all that ?
And why wouldn't I ?..
No kidding...
I think our planet looks more and more like a trash can.
I think people are not to be considered as material that can be sold or traded, used and abused.
I think the use, manufacturing and selling of weapons should be strictly restricted.
I think we are heading towards an era of disinformation where mainstream media are held by a few people more interested in making money than actually informing people.
I think we hear too much about the traditional English-speaking couple. There must be things happening somewhere else in the English-speaking area that should be interesting to discuss.
- Disagree with the situation in Gaza - Disagree with the situation of The "sans-papiers" in France and in the whole world - Disagree with the situation of prisoners and jails in France - Disagree with others things
I would like to talk about this 3 subjects beacause :
- I want to enquire about The conflict of the moment and i don' t feel enough informed to have a real opinion - I know the situation in french jails and i want to remain informed - I want to understand and find our responsability as french people and french citizen in an international conflict which is the one between israeli and palestinian and in the french politic. - I would like to find solutions and way of struggle not to be only depressed reflecting about this actuallity.
Each contributor of this blog will introduce himself : not his personal life but his political vision of the actuality, events make him worried, fights concern him...
We choosed to create this blog together because we have the (nearly) same opinion about the society in which we live : we are not agree with a lot of thinks and we want to share ours feelings !
With our feet in the shit but a smile on our lips, an upraised fist but comfortably sitting in front of our computers, this blog brings to you some material to reflect on, what we think is important to make a fuss about.
We would like to explore how we can participate to make people aware of everyday events that happen here and there, behind our front doors or on the other side of the planet, and fight them.
As a starter, Ladies and Gents', here are some of the subjects, this blog will deal with in the forthcoming days :
- The situation of the sans-papiers, - The Palestinian-Israeli conflict, - Trafficking around the world, - ...
Based on films, newspaper articles and photos, and the contributors' opinions, this blog is a project for our English course in our Master I in French as a foreign language.
