Resolution #26

Be less naive

And that's all for now folks! I wish you a good year 2009.. Long live friendship, love and mort aux cons!

Resolution #25

Learn how to make a proper smoky eye (for ignorant people and / or men, this is a make up technic that makes you look like Avril Lavigne)

Resolutions

Resolution #20: Write or call my grandmother more often
Resolution #21: Learn how to grow herbs on my balcony
Resolution #22: Get comfortable with people of another opinion (i.e. right wing)
Resolution #23: Watch different films, not only the ones talking about one eyed women in South India or the conflict in the Middle East
Resolution #24: Learn photography

Resolution # 18 and 19

Resolution #18: Learning relaxation
Resolution #19: Kick my own ass to have this bicycle group started

Resolutions

# 14: Visiting the friends I haven't seen in ages, in Sweden, Spain, Czech Republic etc
# 15: Learning how to sew properly
# 16: Get a pair of stilettos
# 17: Tell people to fuck off when I mean it

Resolutions # 12 and 13

Resolution #12: Get into sports. Boxing is the preferred option
Resolution #13: Have my oven repaired

Resolution #11

Give my mom her birthday presents on time, put reminders for other people's birthdays

Special note

Resolutions #9 and 10

Resolution #9: Clean my apartment more often
Resolution #10: Stop eating jellies by kilo. One or two at a time should suffice

Resolution #8

Stop drinking like an Irish person, i.e. binge drinking once or twice a week

Resolution #7

Make a decision about this redundancy plan we have just received

Resolution #6

Sort out my life (yeah, it's vague). Job, family, friends etc.

Resolution #5

Stop swearing at each end of sentence

Resolutions # 3 and 4

Didn't have time yesterday.
Resolution #3: Go on a (long) trip
Resolution #4: Find a Swedish speaker and get conversation classes

Resolution #3

Start practising yoga

Resolution #2

Stop smoking in bed

New year's resolutions

It might be a bit early, but I think this period of questioning and sadness and winter might actually be a good moment. So until December 31st, I will write one resolution for 2009.

Resolution #1: write this daily bloody resolution every day

And no, there is no link between the picture and the text. I just thought the picture was deadly

Pfffffff

J'ai les boules. Ces dernieres semaines ont ete difficiles. Je ne vais pas enumerer les raisons pour lesquelles j'ai les boules parce que je n'ai pas envie d'en parler, mais c'est pas la grande forme. Et puis je suis fatiguee.
Si quelqu'un est assez gentil pour me prendre sous son aile et me donner des forces je suis preneuse. Serieux, je vais de deception en deception, de peur en peur, les personnes que j'aime ont des emmerdes et je ne sais pas ou aller ni a qui demander, je suis seule. Comme dirait notre grand philosophe Michel Berger "Mais au bout du coooompte / On se rend coooompte / qu'on est toujours tout seul au mooooonde".

Bref, vivement ce weekend que je m'aere la tete avec de la bonne bouffe, du bon vin, des ballades et du repos. Je reprendrai du poil de la bete une fois que je me serai reposee. C'est peut-etre l'hiver apres tout. Ou la crise financiere. Heureusement que je me suis abonnee a Fluide Glacial!

Hommage a ma grand-mere / Tribute to my grandmother

Painful history

I didn't sleep well last night. I am a bit sick and cannot stop coughing. But there was something on my mind too. I saw a beautiful film: Hunger



This film is crude, terribly blunt in the way it shows the process of hunger strike (this is mostly about Bobby Sands, who died after 66 days of hunger strike in a confrontation with the British Government at the beginning of the eighties). This hunger strike was preceded by the Blanket Protest and the Dirty Protest, where IRA and INLA prisoners refused to wear uniforms and stopped washing because they were treated like ordinary convicts and not political prisoners. You can find more here. The prisoners were covering their prison walls with excrement and piss, and then decided to go on hunger strike. 9 men died during this protest, the first one being Bobby Sands, who is a symbol of the Northern Ireland so-called "Troubles" and whose face is painted on a lot of Belfast walls.

I liked this film a lot: it is a hard film, a non compromising one, but I think what I liked the most was the non militant side of it. Victims are everywhere in this film, communities suffer, fathers die, children are brought up in violence, the two sides are broken by silence and ressentment, there is no winner. This is a relief, as the themes around the Northern Ireland conflict are generally debatted with passion and anger (not in the Republic though, which will be another subject of this blog). It is so intelligent from the director to show (in a beautiful photography and with wonderful actors) the human cost and not to take sides (even when McQueen uses Thatcher's speeches and declarations, he doesn't add anything to it. Those are extraordinary to my mind, she showed such a contempt for human life and for the Irish fighters in particular).


In other words, if you want to see a very nice and very honest piece of work, I recommend this film.

One interesting article about the reaction after this film was shown in Belfast. There is hope, let's hang to it.

Un samedi soir sur la Terre

We had a birthday party on Saturday night. Several people's birthday in fact, all more or less crossing the 30 border. You think this would be a recipe for something warmish, a bit boring, a bit reasonable, where people would go to bed just after 2 o'clock. Well, no.

It had all the elements of the first "boom" (party) when we were 13. Here is a list:

- The boy who drinks too much, gets totally legless at 11 and has to be put in a taxi (teenage version: walked home or parents called). Age: 36

- The guy who wants to touch everything that has a bra / breasts / skirt was here, avoided by all the female audience was here. Age: around 42

- The boy who has drunk too much version 2. He is sick and throws up in the toilets. Age: 30

- The girl who is jealous over boy number 1 chatting with other girls and tries to put them away. Age: 31

- The boy and the girl who meet and cannot stop kissing during the evening until they go home to her place. Age: 28 and 27

- The girls between them who comment on the boys in the room and want to know what they are like and who is looking at who, and finally nothing happens. Age: between 29 and 35

- The group which stays until the dawn has come and finally decides to go home when there is nothing less to drink at 7. Age: between 28 and 30.

I won't mention the broken glasses, the stolen cigarettes and drinks, the mini drama over the music that was put on, the extremely serious conversations about the Irish Love (with capitals please, it is worth it!), the hostess having to put herself on mineral water for more than 3 hours (that was me). So, a party is a party after all, this one was particularly colourful.

That was fun. Thanks for people who came for coming!

Fuck recession!

Yeah! Fuck it! The Irish government has just announced the new budget for 2009. Gloomy gloomy. In short, VAT is going to increase, taxation on salaries (1% levy on wages up to €100,100, 2% afterwards), job seeking allowance is on the decrease, all social payments are cut, hospitals bills are going to be higher AND last but not least, some of the state agencies are going to close, and all of them are going to cut in the staff. Who works in a state agency huh? Yeah, that's meeee! I'll know more next week.

So, fuck it all. Don't be depressed, don't get scared at the crash that the stock exchange places around the world are experiencing, don't put tons of rice in your cupboards because you don't know if you will be able to eat anything else in the coming year, don't go to cheap labour places to buy cheap clothes, because, at the end, there is someone who made those clothes who would like to have your wage.

Instead, come and participate to my "Fuck recession!" party! We'll drink champagne, wear expensive clothes, talk about our (imaginary) sports cars, pretend we are traders in 1998 and finish the evening with some first class cocaine (not the street one of course, soooo vulgar).

Well, I am half joking. I am launching a "Fuck recession" party, just to lift spirits up. No cocaine please, but something much more expensive and dear: being with people I like, having fun, and remembering we are anyway the most privileged people amongst all.

7

C'est un truc rigolo que j'ai copie. Liste des 7 choses et applique a ma fabuleuse personne. Allez.


7 choses que vous voulez faire avant de mourir :

*aller dans l'eau sans paniquer
*aller vivre dans un pays en dehors d'Europe
*apprendre une autre langue etrangere
*finir ma psychanalyse
*vivre dans une communaute hippie ecolo
*enregistrer un disque (je serai jamais rock star mais je peux toujours faire le premier pas)
*convaincre mon mec d'aller vivre en dehors de son ile

7 choses que vous faites bien :

*la cuisine
*la langue de pute
*raler
*rencontrer des gens tout le temps
*picoler et sortir danser
*semblant de travailler au boulot (comme maintenant)
*bricoler (j'adore)

7 choses que vous ne pouvez/savez pas faire

*me mordre la joue pour eviter de dire ce que je pense
*faire un drame de toutes petites choses (aaah mais ou est le tourneviiiiiis?)
*positiver et etre satisfaite du travail salarie
*l'ATR (Appui Tendu Renverse, le poirier quoi, un cauchemar de college)
*plumer une poule / depoiler un lapin etc.
*etre patiente
*arreter de fumer

7 choses qui vous attirent chez le sexe qui vous attirent

*l'absence de passion pour le sport (en particulier le foot)
*le sens de l'humour (black please, romantico neuneus s'abstenir)
*l'humilite
*l'androgynie (aime bien les cotes feminins moi)
*la curiosite
*les yeux (blue, clairs en tout cas)
*la minceur

7 choses qui vous attirent chez le même sexe

*l'humour (idem, evitons celles qui prennent tout au premier degre)
*la gentillesse
*le picolage intensif (pas que ce soit un critere, mais picoler entre copines c'est bien rigolo)
*l'interet pour la chose militante ou politique
*la sincerite (ouais, franchise meme)
*l'aptitude a me rassurer quand ca va pas

7 choses que vous dites souvent

*putain sa mere
*holy fuck
*ah nan mais ca va pas du tout
*ouais, encore une remarque sexiste
*on va boire un verre?
*oh la la, j'ai la flemme
*I have to pipi

7 béguins pour des célébrités (la je suis un peu dans la merde)

*Kirsten Dunst (j'aimerais bien lui ressembler en fait)
*Tiken Jah Fakoly (plus du respect que du beguin mais bon)
*Batman ou Goldorak (quoi c'est pas des vraies personnes? On n'en sait rien hein!)

.... je cale

Bon je sais, c'est un post de feignasse. Mais ca vous fait de la lecture non?

About the good stuff and the bad stuff of going out with a mechanic

Yep, I think all trades have their drawbacks. I always wondered what it was like to go out with a cook for example: does he / she even let you go into the kitchen? Don't you feel ashamed about presenting him / her the macaroni with cheese when it is your turn to cook and that he /she did a Roasted Langoustine with apple purée, glazed pork belly, jabugo ham, warm apple jelly and purple Nasturtium the day before?

On a microscopic point of view, I can make a list of things that are nice and other things that are less when you go out with a wonderful person with a wonderful job, I name The Mechanic. Everything is in masculine here because you have guessed I am talking about my dear and near, and not because I think that jobs have a gender.

Handy:

- He changes a wheel on a car in less than 7 minutes

- He doesn't pretend to look into the engine when the car / campervan you brought for a music festival breaks down, he actually makes it work

- He is generally strong enough to put shelves / lift the sofa / get the washing machine by himself when you move out

Less handy:

- NEVER ask the mechanic to do a massage on you. He will think you are a car to dismantle and you will end up with a very sore back

- NEVER ask a mechanic to fix the zip on a dress that is a bit stuck. You will have to buy another one (dress or zip, depending how resistant they both are)

Typical:

- The mechanic thinks engines / oil / petrol, he IS engines, oil, petrol. He doesn't understand generally that you don't give a shit about an (yes, even) Aston Martin or a Facel Vega (yeah that's a real car)

- The mechanic smells what he calls perfume (see point above) The equivalent of Chanel number 5 for him is the sweet asphalte odour.

If you have other examples let me know. I am curious about how professions influence people in their daily life..

Sorry sorry sorry

Coucou! Sorry not to update this, August has just been crazy. Check it out:

- We have been away from Dublin every weekend to present Rothar! It has been very successful but we haven't had any time to rest at all. The Irish Green Gathering is a great festival, I recommend it to everyone

- We have been working with our group of young lads in Ballyfermot. Interesting and rewarding! Even when they sometimes fight and throw hammers around

- I have reduced my working hours and this should apply from next week. I am putting the bike project on hold for the time being, I am too tired

- We are moving house! As if the agendas were not complete enough, we have found a place just in the middle of town and we moved all our stuff yesterday and the day before this. My body aches a lot, but we have a cool balcony (a "terrasse" as Anne-Laure would say)

- My good friend Tony visited Ireland during the whole month and we have been doing quite a lot of those festivals with him, discovered new pubs in Dublin and it was all good. Thanks for the cooking Tony!

- We are going to the Electric Picnic this weekend, a rock and roll cool and (a bit) alternative festival in the countryside. Should be all good, but quiet. I really need this sleep.

- I need comments on my blog just to make sure I am not writing all this for nothing!

I hope you're all well. I will try to update this more often, September should be less crazy. Bisous

TCLIF

And it is Friday again! I am quite sure it is similar in a lot of your offices, but in here, Friday has a special taste. And a special je ne sais quoi that really pisses me off. What is it? This bloody expression! Thank God It's Friday (aka TGIF)

- "Why is it annoying you Anne? Don't you think you are doing your ranting Frenchie never happy about anything crisis right now?"

- "Well, maybe, but what is the fuckin' point of getting happy about a day when you will have to come back to the job you don't like in two days?"

- "Yes Anne, it is quite true, but it makes people happy isn't it the more important?"

- "But what is the point with bloody God? What does God have to do with that?"

- "I don't know, it is just an expression"

- "Yeah, but if God was deciding upon our working days, we would be working 6 days a week, wouldn't we?"

- "What's your point?"

- "My point is that people thank an imaginary friend that has nothing to do with the fact that they work 5 days a week!"

- "Who should we thank then?"

- "That is a stupid question! The people who fought for our rights, who died under repression, the unions, the Popular Front!"

- "Isn't it a bit archaic?"

- "Archaic? When the EU wants to fix the limit at 65 working hours a week?"

- "Let's come back to TGIF. Do you want people to stop saying it?"

- "I would just like them to think about their luck of having Friday as their last day of the week. I think we should replace the expression. Let's say TCLIF"

- "What does that stand for?"

- "Thanks Comrades and Leon it's Friday!"

Return of the living dead

Helloooo! I am sorry to have abandonned you for so long, times have been hard. But I am back! and in a good form.

I know that we are supposed to make resolutions at the beginning of the year, but fuck it, I decided to do so at the end of July. I pretty much decided to give up everything that is useless, that costs me more than it brings me, things that bother me to embrace a new life. Here is the list of what I decided to give up:

- smoking (already started, 3 weeks tobacco free)
- flatmate (10 years of living with people is enough, I think I need my own space now)
- job
- worrying
- people I don't really care about

All those things are draining me, and I therefore don't to do any of this anymore. This is what I am going to do then (give me a good year to achieve all this):

- starting educations in bike mechanic, rider's lessons and web design. They are all very straightforward and practical, fed up with theoretical stuff, I want action!
- repairing the bikes and selling them for Rothar
- look for a smaller flat that is not going to cost me more than the current one but which will have central heating and a real shower
- going on with my psychoanalysis as it seems it is working on me so well! Those decisions wouldn't have been taken without counselling

In brief, I put words on stuff I've known for a long time. It is very soothing not to hesitate anymore, and I have learnt patience and I know that good things comes when one knows how to wait. More news soon!

Carless

Il a pas l'air impressionne et c'est normal, je l'ai force a prendre la photo. Cet homme aux cheveux fous est Stephen, dit le Petit Prince (a cause des cheveux justement) et est ce qu'on appelle ici un "petrolhead", entendez un roi de la route.

Parce que le petit est ne dans une famille de mecanos, pere mecano, freres mecanos, oncle mecano, ca baigne dans l'essence tout ca! Trois voitures, deux motos, une courte carriere de pilote moto, n'en jetez plus! Sauf que les temps changent et le climat avec. Stephen a emmenage chez moi il y a un an et connait depuis une pure vie de centre-ville: cinemas, restos a quelques metres, ca change la vision de la ville! Mais il y a un phenomene quand on vit au centre-ville a Dublin: la predominance des voitures. Jour et nuit, ils sont des milliers a prendre leur bagnole et a polluer, obstruer, klaxonner et envahir le peu d'espace de cette ville assez petite et pas du tout concue pour ces milliers de vehicules.

Alors le petit s'y est mis. Il est fervent defenseur du velo en ville et lit meme des bouquins consacres au sujet, cad comment se debarrasser des voitures. Il est juste pas encore tres habitue a etre photographie avec des livres subversifs.

Plus de nouvelles et des choses plus interessantes bientot. Je ne suis pas tres en forme en ce moment, je vous donnerai des nouvelles plus joyeuses dans pas longtemps. Bisous!

Ca chie!

Libe a fait le resume en francais! http://www.liberation.fr/actualite/monde/331420.FR.php

As you know, or maybe you don't, Ireland is the only country in Europe which will hold a referendum for the ratification of the Lisbon treaty. It will be held on June 12th, and the campaign started. The arguments are very low levelled to my mind. The big parties (Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Labour) are threatening the voters with the possible stigma that a no vote would bring to Ireland. This is the only thing that sticks out of the Yes Side (YS). The No Side (NS) is more imaginative, check it out:

The first one is advising a wonderful convincing stuff: doing like other people. I have to mention that France has a kind of revolutionary image in here, much appreciated by lefty people who are desperate about the passivity of their fellow citizens.

On the second one, the YS is saying "in our interest". When you read the leaflets, the treaty is very poorly explained, not sure what kind of clear idea the voters can get from this. Sinn Fein (the poster below) is obviously against it, as they say it will threaten workers' rights and more so they argue that Ireland is such a small country that it would lose its weight in the negotiations. You can have a look here. The young lady is Gerry Adam's new icon, Mary Lou McDonald. She is extremely popular and gives a new face to this party which is struggling with the past and the relationship it had with the IRA.


Here is a version in the Irish language of the campaign for the Yes organised by the Fianna Fail, the largest political party in Ireland, still in power. The funny thing about this Irish version is that it is grammatically incorrect, as answering yes (Ta) to a question doesn't exist in this language. I wonder what the ballot will look like. The poster says "Better for Ireland, better for Europe, vote yes". I don't speak Irish, I asked :)

Then there is a very strong opposition to the Lisbon Treaty in here because a lot of people think it would end the corporate tax rate (tax applied to companies) which is 12.5% and which enabled Ireland to attract so many foreign investments. That is this fear that the poster below exploits:

Here is a "classical" argument against the liberal European Union, represented by the Socialist Party (tiny tiny party)

Another fundamental point when it comes to the opposition to this Treaty is the military aspect. Ireland is a neutral country and has a tiny army (having said that, it has been the basis for an American military base in Shannon for the past thirty years, planes landing here go afterwards directly to Iraq). The treaty plans to have a common defence system and because the text is so vague and does not mention the practicalities of this, a lot of opposition parties are afraid that this will mean Ireland will have to spend much more on military and abandon its neutrality.

And finally there is this one I don't really get. Are they talking about sovereignty, taxation, nation? It is a very risque shortcut to my mind. But this is a very very common one:


I have a very mixed feeling about the whole thing myself. Living in a country that developed mostly thanks to Europe and being able to work and live here the way I do make me feel extremely European, and I voted yes to the Constitution. There is however something extremely nasty about the whole thing: France for example was to my mind so afraid that its people would vote against it that the treaty is ratified by the Parliament. The text itself is absolutely unreadable to anyone who doesn't have a master in European Law. I am not sure this will convince voters that Europe is transparent and democratic. Also, I have to say that if Ireland votes no (and I think it will, surveys are very bad for the yes, and the people not extremely interested about it will not go to vote) we can hope the European leaders will think again about the way they consider their citizens., i.e. as people who can decide for themselves.

Cork city

We went to Cork this weekend. I had gone to Cork four years ago with my ex and a couple of friends, and that was a painful experience. Probably because my relationship at this time was already disastrous, probably also because we had taken the wrong route with the car and that it had taken hours to reach the city, probably also we didn't know where to look and we ended up playing some silly game in the hotel room. In other words, I remembered Cork as a boring, not that interesting nor lively city, with nothing to do and no great opportunity to have fun. I must confess that I had this very capital city despising attitude about it and I refused to go back there for a while.

But then, because of Rothar!, the project Stephen and I are putting in place, we had to go back. We met with two extremely motivated guys who have the same kind of project down there. Instructive and encouraging.

And then, Cork. Well, I must say that I was impressed this time. It is tidy, pretty, lively, and there is a je ne sais quoi of latin atmosphere coming from the small cafes, the tiny wine bars, the colourful houses and (that is the least you can say) the colourful accent. In other words, whoever wants to go there with me is welcome! I wouldn't live in Cork, it is too small for the city girl that I became, but it is definitely worth days of discovery, walking, drinking and tasting their local stout, the Murphy's.

Carless

Il a pas l'air impressionne et c'est normal, je l'ai force a prendre la photo. Cet homme aux cheveux fous est Stephen, dit le Petit Prince (a cause des cheveux justement) et est ce qu'on appelle ici un "petrolhead", entendez un roi de la route.

Parce que le petit est ne dans une famille de mecanos, pere mecano, freres mecanos, oncle mecano, ca baigne dans l'essence tout ca! Trois voitures, deux motos, une courte carriere de pilote moto, n'en jetez plus! Sauf que les temps changent et le climat avec. Stephen a emmenage chez moi il y a un an et connait depuis une pure vie de centre-ville: cinemas, restos a quelques metres, ca change la vision de la ville! Mais il y a un phenomene quand on vit au centre-ville a Dublin: la predominance des voitures. Jour et nuit, ils sont des milliers a prendre leur bagnole et a polluer, obstruer, klaxonner et envahir le peu d'espace de cette ville assez petite et pas du tout concue pour ces milliers de vehicules.

Alors le petit s'y est mis. Il est fervent defenseur du velo en ville et lit meme des bouquins consacres au sujet, cad comment se debarrasser des voitures. Il est juste pas encore tres habitue a etre photographie avec des livres subversifs.

Plus de nouvelles et des choses plus interessantes bientot. Je ne suis pas tres en forme en ce moment, je vous donnerai des nouvelles plus joyeuses dans pas longtemps. Bisous!

Publicite gratuite pour moi-meme

Hi everyone, just a little bit of free ad for myself. Stephen and I are setting-uo a charity. The aime is to recycle bicycles and sell a part and donate a part to other charities. The ultimate goal is to develop local employment, self empowerement of certain communities, with a feminist insight (I think women should cycle more, it is good for the head, the self confidence and the ass!) and hopefully a lot of fun. I put on line a blog yesterday until we have a website (i.e. when our name is registered, with a legal status etc.)

This is the place you can find the small explanation of the project: http://rotharbikesforthecommunity.blogspot.com/. If you have suggestions, remarks etc please let me know. I keep my fingers crossed as this is going to take time!

Street art

J'adore! Tres present dans deux villes que je venere, Lisbonne et Bruxelles, l'art de rue decore les murs les plus insolites et donne un dynamisme et est quelquefois fait par des gens tres talentueux. Il peut se decliner en bande dessinee, comme ici a Bruxelles:



En version funky, toujours a Bruxelles. L'afro semble revenir a la mode ces temps-ci:

On peut trouver pas mal de pochoirs a la Bansky dans toutes les rues de Lisbonne. Celui-ci est directement inspire du chimpanze de ce dernier a mon avis:


Des personnages venus de nulle part qui ajoute un habitant a la ville (toujours Lisbonne), comme ce peintre et ce tagueur tague :)



La c'est plus difficile.. Pourquoi des titis? Mais c'est tres joli:


Un admirateur de Bebel Gilberto lui rend hommage dans la traversee des anglais a Lisbonne:

Et la vous l'aurez devine, nous sommes de retour a Bruxelles!

Et la aussi.. La funky attitude a de beaux jours devant elle


Et enfin un Haiku en forme de tableau toujours a Bruxelles, pouvez-vous lire ce qu'il y a ecrit?



"Trees don't meet, people do!". Allez savoir...

Vroooom without licence

Yep! I am a biker.. Well, not quite yet. I know how to drive this bike (the picture, it is the bike I use), but I am not quite well assured yet. "Get your licence" you will tell me. Well, I have it! This is an originality of this country. I am legally authorised to drive this motorbike without having received any practical training before (I just have a "provisional licence" which I got by passing a theory test). So I have to chance that people are tolerant enough, that I am not making too many mistakes, and that I will not get killed before I know how to drive properly. Anyway the nice weather has arrived, it should be more feasible soon to get onto the roads after the kids have left school. Wish me good luck!

Commuter in Dublin

This is a video taken from my bike (camera on handle bars) on my way to work. As you can see there is no cycle track and buses are big. I am lucky enough to be able to avoid rush hour thanks to my flexible working hours. So this was taken at around 9.15 on a sunny day. Hope you enjoy it. Bisous!

La franchouillarde reflechit

Alors m'enfin vous vous demandez pourquoi je vous emmerde a entrer une adresse email pour lire mes posts.. Bah en fait je me suis recue pas mal de commentaires haineux / pas gentils / machistes / menacants, et ca m'a pas fait plaisir. Alors je suis en train de repenser mon blog, en mettant l'option "commentaires" seulement disponibles aux gens proches mais je sais pas encore trop comment faire. Donc en attendant je ne le rends dispo qu'aux personnes qui me lisent regulierement. Ce blog est juste un moyen de garder contact avec ma famille et mes amis, pas pour lancer un debat sur le net parce que:

- lancer un debat, je m'en fous

- je n'ai pas cette pretention. Des journalistes et autres personnes qualifiees sont payes pour ca

Alors pendant que je cogite, je ferme aux "externes". Le blog devrait etre reouvert a tous d'ici a un petit mois. En attendant, une petit blague: quel est le pluriel de "petit beurre"? Reponse dans les commentaires.

Slim / fat, the image and the dictatorship of weight

A lot of you know how I look. I am slim. Very slim say some. There is a strange phenomenon when you are slim: you are harassed about it.

No, I am serious. I am getting sick of hearing things such as "oh but YOU shouldn't complain about anything, look how slim you are", "of course you don't know what it is like to feel uncomfortable, you're so slim". It even happens at work. Once, I was heating my lunch in the microwave and a lady manager was heating a soup. I told her while we were chatting about lunches (what was I thinking?) that I needed more than a soup to keep me going for the whole afternoon. She looked at me from top to toe and said "well, yes, you don't have to starve yourself, you're just lucky to be slim". Another person, a man this time, told me once I was so slim I could sit on the toaster without any problem.

So I have a question: who is this world, would dare saying to an overweight person the equivalent that would be "you are so big you would need two chairs to be able to sit properly"? It is almost like, because you are supposed to comply to a certain social image and fantasy (being thin) that it is acceptable to comment on the way you look.

Well, it is not. It is offending to be described, looked at with despising or envious eyes (plus the comment that generally goes with it), told things about your physical appearance, something that is totally private. Nobody knows but you how you feel about yourself. it can be hurtful, slim or not.

And there are always criticisms about the way you look anyway. A lot of my exes told me I was too slim. Some of my friends told me that they prefer looking the way they look because at least "they have breasts and a sizable ass". Well, good for you. I didn't know there was a competition there. I feel good with myself too, thanks very much.

It is sad to see how much the image, competition (especially between girls) and the dictatorship of beauty puts pressure on everyone, and there especially for women. You're too slim? you're anorexic! You're too fat? How can you let yourself go this way? And also, shave your legs, put make-up on, have a slim waist, be tanned, eat healthy... HEEEEELP! Just leave me alone!

And the next one who says anything intrusive about the way I look has to be warned that I have just started kick-boxing lessons....

Les dublinois pris en otage, la ville est a sec / Booze held hostage. Dubliners dry out.

Une atmosphere bizarre regne a Dublin aujourd'hui. Il semble que la ville est assiegee: les bars sont vides / A strange atmosphere has invaded Dublin today. It seems the city is besieged. Bars are empty:

Ils sont meme totalement fermes. They are even totally shut down:

Cependant, quand on y regarde de plus pres, on s'apercoit que l'alcool est emprisone dans les supermarches / If you look closer, you realise that booze is held prisoner in supermarkets

Et en y regardant encore plus pres, on lit la raison de cette soudaine abstinence / if you look even closer, you can read the reason for this sudden abstinence:

Et oui! Aujourd'hui est vendredi saint, nous bons chretiens ne sommes censes ni manger de viande ni boire d'alcool. TOUS les alcools sont interdits a la vente, pas moyen d'obtenir un verre de rouge avec un steak dans un resto, c'est la loi / Yep, today is Good Friday, and good Christians as ourselves are not supposed to eat meat or drink alcohol. It is forbidden to sell ANY kind of booze, no way you can get a glass of red with your steak. It is the law

Mais la resistance s'organise /But resistance is getting in shape

Ce soir, mes amis,mon amoureux et moi nous reunissons pour un hachis parmentier avec vin et punch / Tonight my friends, my love and myself are getting together around a shepherd's pie, some wine and some punch.

Donc, a la votre! So, slainte!

Irish food

Today is Saint Patrick's day. Happily drinking (heavily) in town, people wear the national colours in every way. Shorts made of the national flag, painted shamrocks on the cheeks, and having a bit of craic (Irish expression you can translate by having fun with everything, especially nonsensical conversations in pubs during hours).

So because today is supposed to celebrate everything that is Irish, let's talk about another feature that defines a country: its cuisine. I was inspired by this article of the Guardian (here) and was a bit at loss myself when the question asked is "what do Irish people eat traditionally?". While I am writing this, my (Irish) flatmate is frying carrots and bacon and is putting this on pasta and cheese. Surely there is something more Irish than this improbable combination of ingredients.

If you go to Temple Bar (the most touristic place in Dublin) you will find "traditional Irish restaurants" where you can eat seafood chowder, oysters with a Guinness and everything with soda bread (a kind of very light and friable bread made with chemical yeast) and butter. There are as well black pudding and the element imported from the enemy country (i.e. England), bacon. Soup is a very traditional Irish meal, you can still eat it at every meal in every eatery, sandwich place or even chic and pretentious places. Potatoes (spuds) are to be included with everything. And this food is good, tasty and unpretentious.

But this is not what Irish people eat in their everyday life. First reason: a lot of them do not know how to cook and have no idea how vegetables grow. Second reason: this country is so Americanised that the traditional meal in here is composed of a hamburger or BLT sandwich (or crisp sandwich: take two slices of white bread, put a ton of mayo in it, half a packet of crisps, crush the whole and eat with delight). Chips can be served with everything too, including lasagna. Third reason: the immigration factor. Ireland has welcomed so many different nationalities for the past 15 years that it seems natural to everyone to go out and have some Indian / French / Italian / Polish food instead of the traditional Irish stew. So it is pretty much a happy combination of everything that defines the way Irish people eat now. They integrated other cultures, other ingredients and thanks to the wealth created since the 1990s they can afford other things than cabbage.

It is a bit of a pity though, because I discovered myself a whole side of the Irish food that I had no idea about until very recently. Products that are still made in small farms, using raw milk for the cheese, breeding lamb in the fields etc. A lot of the food you can buy on markets and coming from the country are absolutely fabulously tasty and nice. Surely a bit of work on how to get back to the land and a lot of cooking lessons would make people even more aware of the beautiful stuff they have at hand and bring a lot of national pride.

Lesbian murderers

C'est le nom que nous donnent les gens qui font partie des lobbies "pro-life" (des especes de tares extremistes qui pour montrer leur attachement a la vie exhibent des photos de foetus morts... allez comprendre...) lors de nos manifestations pour demander la legalisation de l'avortement. Et ca prouve leur progressisme et leur haute tolerance de considerer que le terme "lesbienne" est une insulte. Mais c'est aussi une phrase (avec "bitches", "frustrees" et je ne mets que les polis parce que je sais que ma mere lit ce blog et qu'elle executerait ces gens sur le champ si elle les entendait traiter leur fille comme ca..) qu'on entend sur le feminisme en general. Alors c'est une mauvaise action que j'ai deja faite, mais ma copine Anne-Laure a ecrit un truc super la-dessus pas plus tard qu'hier, et je vous invite donc a lire ce constat ici. Pendant que vous y etes, allez voir dans sa rubrique Irish Stew, vous y trouverez des posts tres droles sur l'Irlande et les irlandais.

Feminist Walking Tour of Dublin

We did it! I have to say I was extremely pessimistic about this stuff, especially about the number of people who would turn up. We were 120, 150 even more according to the persons in the group. The event, the booklet, the band afterwards (fantastic, check here ), everything was a success. The women's history in Dublin is no longer a secret for me, and I discovered so many things that I would never have guessed.

If you want a good summary of what happened during this day by somebody who was there, click here.

if you want to have a look at the booklet (it says a lot of interesting things about women, Ireland and Dublin, please let me know I can send a Pdf version to you.

And just for the beauty of it, I am going to quote Pat Robertson, US tele evangelist (I think it is worth it just for the enormity of the stuff he says)

"Feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians. " Yeah!

Changements!

J'ai decide de faire quelques petits changements a ce blog car je trouve qu'il manque de clarte. Deja pour les langues employees c'est galere, et je ne sais pas trop comment m'en sortir, donc j'ai cree deux rubriques: en francais et in English. Ensuite je pense m'orienter vers des choses plus precises, comme la vie a Dublin, ou mes coups de gueule politiques, et cela dans une humeur un peu meilleure (oui j'ai tendance a etre un peu pessimiste). En tout cas amis lecteurs j'espere que vous apprecierez et sinon, ben tant pis pour vous. Et maintenant, the English version

I decided to amend slightly the way this blog is run, because I find it lacks clarity sometimes. The language issue is the first thing to modify, and because I have no bloody idea how to sort it out, I decided to create two rubrics, In English and then en francais. I want as well to be more precise in my choice of subjects and concentrate more on my every day life in Dublin or my political rants. And if it is possible I will try to write and be more humourous and happy (big challenge I know). Hope you'll like it, people, and if not well, too bad for you.

Gay revolution?

This country is, you have guessed, quite conservative on social subjects. There are numerous examples in the very recent past that would reflect reality in the 1960's in Scandinavia. For example, until 1966 female civil servants had to quit their job when they were getting married. Condoms were banned up to 1973 (there are several testimonies about how the Irish customs were searching people's bags when they were coming from abroad), homosexuality was prosecutable until 1993, divorce was legalised in 1996, and abortion is still forbidden.

But this society is changing at an extremely fast pace. Since the country opened up and began developping economically, a dramatic evolution has taken place. For example, Ireland is becoming more secular. The Church, who had the power over all matters has been losing its influence for the past 15 years. Fewer and fewer people attend mass for example. The abuses on children stained the outrageous prestige that the Church had had for so many years, the priest is not seen as the pillar on any family gathering or main counsellor anymore. In short, Ireland is becoming more tolerant, more opened (I don't want to show off but I would like to think it is thanks to immigrants too ;-) and a revolution in such a traditional country is in gear: gay couples will soon be recognised by law.

The government announced at the end of last year that they would legislate in order to give rights (inheritance, taxes and all administrative matters) to same-sex couples (I don't know if they are thinking about introducing that for straight couples who don't want to get married but that is another story). There are a couple of (important) issues:

- The legislation will not be marriage. As the campaign MarriagEquality is pointing out, the government is actually going to legislate in favour of discrimination. Straight = marriage / Gay = civil partnership. The PACS in France did exactly the same though, but it doesn't make the whole thing right
- Children: there was no talk about this at all. Apparently the Irish way of ignoring an issue is actually.. ignoring it, until it becomes big enough for the media to talk about it.

For a country like Ireland, the step is absolutely huge. Some might say that gay people are never happy even when a law is passed to recognise their rights. But is a law supposed to create a category of second-class citizens and say basically "no, you're not good enough to get married"?. "Sorry man, you are not entitled to drive a car because you're blonde, but you are allowed to try the bicycle". This is (far-stretched I acknowledge) the kind of inequality the law is going to allow. This is preposterous.

To treat the subject a lighter way, I found this on this:

Ten reasons why Gay marriage in Un-American

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.
7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

The fallen women

I am currently working on a feminist walking tour of Dublin to celebrate the International Women's Day on March 8th. I am in charge of taking pictures of some monuments remembering Irish women's history. One of the saddest part of this history is the Magdalene laundries.
Maybe you know about it because you have seen Peter Mullan's film, The Magdalene sisters (if you haven't, try to have a look).

During 150 years (the last one closed in Ireland in 1996), around 30,000 "fallen women" were admitted in those homes. Those girls and women usually spent their whole life in the institution, paying for their "crimes". The laundries were given this name because of Mary Magdalene, a woman of "bad reputation" who confessed her sins and became a devout.

Those women were imprisoned for behaviours severely condemned by the extremely powerful Church: getting pregnant outside of marriage, leaving their abusive husband, being raped etc. You could even find yourself there if you were with a mental disability. Those women were then condemned to do all kinds of work like cleaning the clergy's laundry, cooking, cleaning and looking after ageing nuns. This work was not paid, and the conditions were appalling, the women often abused and badly treated. The women were sometimes losing their name too, the nuns giving them simili biblical repentant names (such as "Magdalene St Teresa"). They were usually admitted to the asylum (another name for those prisons) on one parent's request. A lot of them remained in those houses all their life and were buried in the convent's garden.

In 1993 (I do say again that the last laudry had not been closed at this time yet), remains of 133 bodies had to be removed from one of the laundries' garden because the nuns were selling the property. The permission to take the bodies was given by the Department of Environment. The undertakers discovered 22 additional bodies that had never been declared. The authorities, instead of opening an enquiry on the matter, gave permission to the nuns for the 22 additional bodies. Those 155 bodies were later cremated and reburied in a mass grave in Glasnevin Cemetery, on the North Side of Dublin. This triggered a public scandal and revelations about the conditions of work and detention began to appear. Relatives to women who had been in a laundry began asking for the truth, and a lot of documentaries and testimonies were produced. We still don't know though who the women buried now in Glasnevin were. Their cremation prevented any hope for identification.

The victims of those asylums are numerous and a lot of them are unknown. Their illegitimate children were stolen from them and given for adoption or sent to "indutrial schools" or orphanages, ruled as well by brothers and nuns, and there as well the children were badly treated (the sexual and physical abuses were common).
The buildings, the graves, the stories of those women are still standing. The only monument in Dublin commerating those women's memory is this plaque is the centre of St Stephen's Green. They would deserve so much more.





If you want to know more:
http://www.adoptionireland.com/magdalene/background.html
This is the detailed story around the graves discovered in Drumcondra, Dublin
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/08/sunday/main567365.shtml Another article by the American press
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/so-much-for-church-remorse-over-the-sex-abuse-scandal-1280595.html This is on the various sexual abuses scandals. The former arbishop of Dublin refuses to give away documents relating to those.

There is a strange phenomenon is this world which is called human interaction, intercourse - shagging in short - everything that is related to this quite simple activity seems very complicated, especially for urban young -ish people, fed with Carrie Bradshaw and other Bridget Jones. Here are some different situations:

A - You are in a long-term relationship.

THE MYTH: perfect solution to have a regular dose of shag, with a partner you can develop with, learn with and because OBVIOUSLY you are madly in love, this is a moment of sharing emotions, body language etc.

THE FACT: the desire and mystery are hard to find, you have heard your partner burping, farting, snoring etc. He / she doesn't even pay attention when you put on your night cream and he / she doesn't care if his / her underwear look more like a mop to clean the floor than something that is supposed to arouse you. In brief the occasions are rare, the imagination gone and as soon as finished he / she will fall asleep / read the newspapers / switch the TV on.

B - You have been single for a while

THE MYTH: you are happy to be single. The possibility of shagging around is a privilege that your friends in relationships are not supposed to have. You feel free, and you ARE free, you could pick anyone you want is this bar and this would be only your problem. No commitment, no trouble.

THE FACTS: you are desperate. You are dreaming about a long and reliable kayak, and the sixth gin and tonic (variant: Jameson on ice) is making you even more sensitive to certain looks and make you ready to go for it. Unfortunately you know the person is your colleague's best friend / friend's brother / married with five kids from 0 to 6, you give up at the last minute. You order another G & T (other version, you make the first step, are so drunk you can't even talk normally, the person walks away. You order another G & T)

C - You are a free thinker

THE MYTH: you think love is a wonderful human possibility and do consider that it should be free. You reject all the social conventions if even though you don't live in a big house where the principle of musical chairs applies to your bedroom, you are at least playing around and multiply the sensory experiences happily with your different partners (including your long-term one as option C is not exclusive of option A)

THE FACTS: not only the potential new partners are reluctant to have sex with you because you have kids ("no, it wouldn't be moral"), but also do you experience this strange feeling that you didn't know could apply to you: you're possessive. And NO, it is not the same thing if I do have sex with everyone in the house than if he does.. It is .... different

And love is of multiple forms, trust Woody Allen who said "Don't knock masturbation, it's sex with someone I love"