The end has no end

Hommage aux Strokes en guise de titre..

Aujourd'hui est mon avant-dernier jour de travail pour 2007, et vu que je ne blogge qu'au bureau, j'annonce donc que ce post est le dernier de cette année. Alors cette année, comment fut-elle? Ma foi, je peux me dire que j'ai du bol dans la vie:

- Une année pleine de .. travail. Et oui, rien qu'en 2007 j'ai occupé 3 différents postes dans 3 entreprises différentes, passant du privé au public, de la chaine d'hôtel de luxe au secteur du volontariat, calculant les sous les sous les sous.. A priori l'aspect "sous" de ma « carrière » n'est pas prêt de finir, mais en même temps c'est confortable les chiffres, ca doit tomber juste et c'est tout ce qu'on leur demande.

- Une année pleine.. d'alcool. Je dois dire que l'Irlande n'a pas amélioré mon penchant pour la chose distillée. Tout est prétexte à la fête, à la sortie, à la célébration, à la dégustation, au remontage de moral, au remède contre le rhume et j'en passe. Bref, vous l'aurez compris amis lecteurs, ma vie sans alcool est comme l'Irlande sans pluie, improbable.

- Une année pleine de.. rencontres. Sans doute lié aux deux faits précédents, mes amis ici étant bien souvent des collègues de travail avec qui j'ai picolé. Mes compagnons de fortune et d'infortune se distinguent bien souvent par leur humour décalé, leur sens de la fête dans les pubs surpeuplés de notre capitale, leur sens de la conversation politique. Bref, ami lecteur, ami tout court, tu te reconnais dans ce portrait, bah oui on choisit ses amis, et ils se ressemblent bien souvent

- Une année pleine de... découvertes. Et ce spécialement sur moi-même. Moi qui me considérais névrosée, malheureuse de nature, venant d'une famille équilibrée je me découvre calme, sereine, prompte a m'enflammer de joie et avec une famille dysfonctionnelle (ca se dit?). La révélation? La psychanalyse! Et oui ami lecteur ca torture la masse grise, ca fait grincer les dents, remuer des choses ô combien scandaleuses mais! ca pose les bonnes questions, remet les pendules à l'heure et donne de la fierté à celui qui la fait car c'est courageux (je ne me lance pas de fleurs, mais avouez vous-memes, amis qui me lisez que ca fait des années que vous y pensez et que ca vous fait chier et peur)

- Une année pleine.. d'engagements. Grâce à mon nouveau statut de fonctionnaire-privilégié-qui-est-jamais-contente-alors-qu'ils-ont-tous-les-avantages (oui ca marche aussi ici, pas besoin d'etre gouverné par Sarko), je me suis dégagé du temps libre! Et celui-ci est employé à tout un tas de choses : je suis prof dans un institut d'alphabétisation, je traduis des textes de l'anglais au français pour les parents étrangers des écoles de mon quartier, je suis membre active de Choice Ireland et participe à des manifs, réunions et je pense m'engager encore plus l'année prochaine. Je ne cite pas les activités culturelles, sociales, et le temps passé avec mon amoureux. Ca fait que mes semaines sont chargées mais riches et satisfaisantes.

- Une année pleine.. d'amour. Ah bah je suis tres privilégiée la-dessus, le petit prince a emmenagé dans mon appart en mai, et malgré mes cauchemars de femme libérée ca va pas le faire-il va empiéter sur mes plates-bandes-laisser trainer ses chaussettes sales et bien ca marche tout simplement bien, et on s'habitue aux enchantements de la vie domestique en en plaisantant...

Pour l’année prochaine le souhait est de donc de continuer à aimer, découvrir, partager, festoyer, aider et rigoler. C’est bien parti.

Je m’en vais pour mon expédition de plusieurs semaines dans des contrées zzzinconnues ! Allez hop !

Abortion in Ireland

The title is a pure product of my imagination since it is forbidden to have an abortion in this country. Totally forbidden you'll ask? Well, here are the facts (I advise feminists to take a cigarette or a drink as this is extremely infuriating):

Like in a lot of countries at this time, laws were passed in Ireland in 1861 to outlaw the "procurement of a miscarriage", whether one oneself or somebody else. Similar laws were passed in France in the 1920's. All abortions are then liable to very severe sanctions (death penalty or life imprisonment).

In 1983 the Irish constitution was modified and included the 8th amendment, recognizing the "right to life of the unborn". This is the core of the legal issue in Ireland, as the legalisation of abortion will have to be done through another change in the Constitution.

Between 1986 and 1991 a legal battle opposed the SPUC (Society for the Protection of Unborn Children) to counselling agencies and students' unions on the information disclosure. The latter were actually providing information on abortion, i.e. where and how to get it when women were confronted with an unwanted pregnancy. The SPUC won the case: it is since then forbidden by law to provide direct information on abortion if it is not requested. If the person wants to get this information it will have to be done during a 1 2 1 session, through generally a counselling agency (I will come back to that as there are loopholes in this law which don't prevent charlatans from giving false medical info). This is as well an extremely sensitive issue if you are a member of a feminist group wanting to advice women on abortion, as it is prosecutable to give this information over the phone, to distribute leaflets if not requested by the person in front of you and so on.

In 1992 the "X case" was brought into court. In brief the Irish authorities wanted to prevent a 14 year-old girl who had been raped from going to the UK to have an abortion. This was overturned by the Supreme Court which recognised that the high risk of suicide of this young girl was a sufficient reason for her to travel. However, when no such risk existed it was possible for the Irish authorities to prevent the women from travelling as it was for them contradictory with the 8th amendment.

At the end of the 1990's a series of cases (generally under aged girls pregnant as a result of a rape such as the "C case") reiterated the ban on abortion, and put the X case legislation at stake. It basically put at stake the right to travel even in case of suicide risks. The public opinion being supportive of the girl the risk of suicide is still a "sufficient" reason for the Irish authorities to allow women to travel abroad.

In 2001 the government held a referendum to try to reverse the 1992 X case, which enables women to travel if they have suicidal tendencies. The referendum's results were appalling: 49.58% voted yes (to restrict this right to travel) while 50.42% voted no.

In 2007 we are still living in a state where 17 Irish women travel to Great Britain each day to have an abortion, and this doesn't include the Irish women not giving Irish addresses and the ones travelling to other countries. We live in a country where it is forbidden to give out information on abortion but where the counselling agencies are not regulated if they don't fall under a certain category, which means they can advertise as counselling agencies and give false medical information to women in distress (I will write about it another time, meanwhile go to http://www.indymedia.ie/article/81414), a country where a young woman with a non viable foetus had to go to Court to be able to travel and abort and it is impossible to know the extent of distress, desperation and frustration of all the women not authorised to have a choice in their own country.

A list of websites if you want to know more:

http://choiceireland.blogspot.com/ (the pro choice group I belong to)
http://www.ifpa.ie/

http://www.safeandlegalinireland.ie/

Mauvais poil

Je suis de mauvaise humeur, et ce pour plusieurs raisons

- Rachida Dati: je l'ai ecoutee ce matin sur France Inter, elle propose que les personnes, en particulier les delinquants sexuels, restent en detention (elle a appele ca des "centres de soins fermes") meme apres avoir purge leur peine. En gros, on ne les enferme pas pour ce qu'ils ont fait mais pour ce qu'ils pourraient faire. Ca me revolte.

- Le vent a 150km/h en pleine face: c'est la tempete ici depuis une dizaine de jours, et vu que c'est le pays de la loi de Murphy (la tartine tombe toujours du cote de la confiture's theory), je me recois les rafales de face a velo, forcement il pleut aussi et ca donne vraiment pas envie de sourire en arrivant au boulot

- Noel approche: je sens que je vais avoir envie d'ecraser la tete de la cinquantieme personne qui va me souhaiter "de tres bonnes fetes, tu vas voir ta famille?" dans la meme journee

- J'ai une peau d'une ado de 15 ans. Pas couverte de pustules nan, mais legerement rugueuse. Ca doit etre la picole, vu ce que je bois en ce moment, ca m'etonnerait que mes pores ne soient pas bouches. Mais ca me fout de mauvais poil alors je vais picoler pour oublier ca, ou cela va t-il s'arreter?

-Le gouvernement irlandais: le premier ministre (Taoiseach) s'est augmente de €38000/an et les ministres de €25000, devenant les personnes politiques les mieux payees du monde, oui oui j'habite toujours en Irlande, ce pays de 4 millions d'habitants avec l'importance dans les relations internationales qu'il a.

- La circulation a Dublin (photo): Ras le bol d'avoir a me squeezer entre un bus et un van, de me faire couper la route par un putain de taxi, de me faire insulter par des abrutis parce que je veux passer d'une lane a l'autre. Debarrassez-nous des bagnoles en ville bande de nases!

- Le boulot: la j'avoue que ces jours-ci les discours de "express your creativity" du directeur des ressources humaines m'a fait sauter au plafond. He Ducon c'estde la comptabilite que je fais, je fais quoi avec ta creativite a la con???

Envoyez-moi des bisous, du chocolat et conseillez-moi des bons films svouple

Teaching sex?

You're going to say I just have one reference newspapers and one subject of conversation, but this article of today's Guardian is presenting a highly debated subject: sex education in schools (see www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2221466,00.html)

First question: should schools deliver sex education? Isn't it parents' role to actually do it? Well, considering the amount of dialogue in the average family (I don't know if it is the same in the UK, but I know that the word "talking" in Irish families doesn't generally exist), that would lead to a generation of ignorant young people, risking their lives just for the sake of not being told the right thing about this body that they are eager to use in other things than PE (referring to my own experience there). So, yes, maybe school is a good idea

Secondly: Is teenage sex a moral thing? Well, I don't have such a high opinion of this notion of morality applied to sex, the only rule in this matter being mutual consent. It is actually shown that the more informed young people are about sex, the later they have their first sexual experience (I was well informed myself I'm tellin' ya). So sex isn't something compulsive as such if you know what it is all about. If you don't want your kids to discover sex a nasty and precocious way, teach them!

Third question: What should we teach? I do remember the lessons at schools being about geography and mechanic, but not at all about this thing that I do... well... regularly (all things going well). My point is that even though it was interesting to see how those things work, it is just unable to explain the complexity of human feelings and all the things implied by sex.

(First digression: these mechanic / geography lessons never talked about the clitoris. This is just appalling: how do you teach young women to enjoy their own body if you don't even tell them that they have the one and only human organ that is placed there ONLY for pleasure?? And that it is so easy and reachable that they wouldn't have to wait for Prince Charming to get to a high level of satisfaction. So people if you want to teach geography properly please include this small organ)

I am coming back to my third point. It is so easy to reach any kind of porn / degrading / false / not realistic image of sexuality (you just have, in your daily life, to surf on the Internet, read magazines, watch TV, watch films where people shagging always have flat bellies and have their orgasm after 5Min of vigorous sport and AT THE SAME TIME ahahaha. Isn't it the role of a developed country, quite secular, that wants to have enlightened citizens, to show the future citizens that sex means pleasure, respect, satisfaction but also STDs, unwanted pregnancies, frustration etc? If you teach maths in school and tell the pupils that 1 + 1 = 3 all the people will tell you that it is a scandal. All adults know exactly what is implied with sex, what is the big deal with teaching it the way it is? I blame the Church..

... And George W.Bush! I was about to forget this abstention programme his administration has been financing for several years now. It would be quite funny if it was not tragic at the same time. The young lads and girls who committed themselves into this bullshit (probably encouraged by their forward thinking parents) are now not only "unvirginised" (these young people have their first sexual experience as the exact same age as the rest of the population) but also ashamed of what they've done.. Frank success