mardi 24 mars 2009

A new concept

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!

lundi 16 mars 2009

In Europe

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.

jeudi 12 mars 2009

A wolf in a sheep's clothing...

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.

dimanche 1 mars 2009

Palm oil race kills Orang Outang


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.