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"

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

Only breast

A new movement appeared in Sweden, the "Bara Bröst" movement, that you can translate by "Merely Breasts". It all came from 2 women deciding to drop the top of their swimsuits in a public swimming pool. They were thrown away, because it is indecent, sexual etc etc. Frankly, I support those girls so much.

What they say is true (see website http://barabrost.blogg.se/ there is an English section). Breasts are considered indecent and highly sexualised just because men decided it was this way! It makes me think to this marvelous film "Persepolis" I saw, where Marji is actually questioning the veil. Aren't men civilized enough not to be sexually aroused by some hair?? And by breasts? Aren't we aroused when they can walk and go on the beach and even in supermarkets (Southern France specialty, nice to go and shop for a steak!) with a bare chest? And what about the advertisement then? It is not acceptable for a woman to swim bare chest but it is if a half naked one does show a lot of her to sell yogurts?? What is the fucking logic of all that except another way of controlling women's body by declaring this part or this part is OK if you are an object (i.e. advertisement, prostitution), but not if you are an "honorable" woman. In Sweden the body is considered as natural, being naked is not shameful or to be hidden, it just is a part of yourself that you have to protect and that should be considered as yours and only yours. It is a very sane approach to the body, desexualised if you don't want it to be.

So I say, go sisters! Drop the top!

Winter in the middle of two oceans

The cold and damp, damp weather has come in here. We will not see any kind of bright days until March or April, if we're lucky. It is quite strange, I do remember loving winter in Scandinavia, the 6 months of snow and darkness had not been that hard to bear. It is my fourth winter in here, I have to say I am not a fan. Although the autumn can be beautiful and warm and colourful (the picture was taken in October), winter is grey, grey, grey. Sad like Hell, the skies are falling onto your shoulders, everything seems heavier and difficult.


Luckily I had the good idea to buy an extremely hip accessory: a hot water bottle! It is coooooooool! I have to precise that central heating is still a luxury in a very high number of apartments in Dublin, the only thing lots of people have are those horrible electric radiators.. It costs your ass, it is ineffective and environmentally bad bad bad.. I therefore bought this thingy to warm me and my feet when I am watching a film or reading and put it a bit before going to bed under the blankets. It is marvellous! I do recommend it to everyone!

Happy Monday!

Feminism etc.

I read today that feminist women were better in bed and happier than the average (it is NOT propaganda, it is a study revealed by the extremely serious Guardian, see link http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2211202,00.html)

What I like in this article is the rehabilitation of a notion that is so taboo (she employs herself the "f word", and this is a very intelligent way of describing feminism as it is seen by the majority.. Just think about the way some women express themselves "I am not a feminist, but I think we should have equal pay" as racist people say "I am not a racist, but I think black people are lazy"): feminism is mostly about love, about respect and equality, not at all about war & opposition between the genders. It is a possibility for all human beings (YES people, men are not the enemy, patriarchy is) to get out from the roles and stereotypes that prevent us from being happy and mostly being ourselves. I always take this example of me not being happy because I should behave the way people expect from a girl (shaving your armpits, not swearing in public, you are obviously not complete if not married or at least with the providential man).. What about men then? Why shouldn't they be crying? Why do they have to be strong? My point is that if someone feels like doing something that is not acceptable gender wise then it is a struggle to be yourself and not being considered as a pariah or a weirdo. And this is what feminism is about. To my mind, the only reason why there was no masculinism revolt yet is just because this half of the population has power. Meanwhile they can go on getting killed in wars, being imprisoned and violent. And as said previously in my mind this is not inherent to men, it is patriarchy that creates it. Feminism is liberation. For all.

Suis-je ici depuis trop longtemps?

Aujourd'hui je fais du plagiat, c'est decide.. Marre de creer des textes originaux, je pique! Alors j'ai trouve un truc tres rigolo sur le blog d'une copine, qui vit a Dublin aussi et qui ecrit ca (les sections en bleu sont mes rajouts a cette sympathique liste) L'adresse du blog d'Anne-Laure (j'adore la premiere partie de son prenom!!) si vous avez envie d'authenticite:

http://www.alblog.fr/index.php?Irish-stew

"Tu sais que tu vis en Irlande depuis plus de 6 mois quand :

- Tu considères qu’il a fait plutôt beau un jour où le soleil est apparu trois fois dix minutes et où il n’y a eu que quelques averses.

- Tu ne te lèves plus cinq fois dans la nuit après avoir bu trois pints de bière.

- Tu n’as même plus envie de poursuivre puis de battre à mort le propriétaire de l’énorme 4x4 Mercedes qui vient de t’arroser de la tête aux pieds en passant à 100 km/h dans l’énorme marre d’eau qui s’est formée juste devant le passage piéton.

- Tu trouves normal qu’aucun mec ne vienne jamais t’adresser la parole à moins qu’il ait 4 grammes dans le sang, ce qui arrive en général aux alentours de 2 heures du mat’. Là, si tu n’es pas toi aussi dans le même état, tu évacues le bar de toute urgence avant de devenir la proie d’une meute soudainement incontrôlable.

- Tu as compris que quand quelqu’un te dit au téléphone « Mais oui, pas de problème, je m’en occupe et je vous rappelle aussi vite que possible », il veut en fait dire « Va mourir connasse, j’en ai rien à foutre de ta gueule » et tu sais que tu n’entendras plus jamais parler de lui à moins de le harceler d’appels, d’emails et de fax.

- Tu n'as plus aucune réaction quand soudainement, alors que tu marches tranquillement dans la rue, tu te retrouves sous une tempête de pluie ou au milieu d'une mini tornade.

- Ça ne te choque pas de payer 2,85€ pour un café dégeulassissime. Au contraire t'es heureuse et même que tu le bois en marchant dans la rue.

-Aujourd’hui, t’as mis tes tongs et un top dos nus par ce que, waou, il fait 19°C, quelle chaleur !!!

- Tu n’as même pas pensé à envoyer une lettre de réclamation à la direction des transports en communs locaux pour leur demander d’arrêter d’envoyer systématiquement des contrôleurs dans le tramway aux heures de pointe, spécialement des contrôleurs obèses, s’il ne veulent pas avoir ta mort par étouffement sur la conscience et le procès qui va avec.

- Au restaurant, tu es heureuse de retrouver systématiquement, voire exclusivement, tes deux plats favoris : Burger ou Fish & Chips. Et si on ne t’apporte pas, dans les 5 minutes qui suivent, une assiette géante remplie à rabord de tonnes de trucs aussi gras les uns que les autres, tu cries à l’escroquerie puis à la famine !! "

- Tu ne regardes plus les horaires de bus et rigole devant les gens qui le font car tu sais tres bien que le chauffeur de ton bus est en train de prendre une pint dans le pub a cote du depot

- Tu pratiques l'automedication a fond parce que tu sais que le medecin va te prescrire la meme chose que ce truc qui sort de ton armoire a pharmacie et que ca te coutera 55€ la consultation

- Quand un ami irlandais te dit "je passe chez toi tel jour" tu restes avachie sur ton canape en chaussettes et culotte parce que tu sais qu'il ne viendra jamais

- Tu trouves bon un vin californien avec un bouchon devisseur

- Tu ne fais meme plus attention a l'absence de melangeur et passe sans broncher tes mains d'un robinet a l'autre quand tu veux les laver

- Tu ne fais plus attention aux grosses anglaises qui fetent leur enterrement de vie de jeune fille avec des pistolets en forme de bites et des hauts tellement serres qu'ils les font ressembler a des paupiettes (oui vous savez avec les ficelles qui entourent la chair..)

J'aimerais lire les commentaires des etrangers en France, genre "tu sais que tu es a Paris depuis plus de 6 mois quand tu envoies la porte du metro a la gueule de la personne derriere toi"

Enfin je me suis bien amusee, förlåt Jenny!

Famille je vous haime

Some of you are telling me it is wrong to write in English because they don't understand it, some others blame French for being too complicated and blablabla, och du Jenny klagar du ocksa nu! Hmmm.... dunno what the hell I have to do now...

Last time I was about to write I wanted to say some words about the family stuff. The Family with a capital F for a lot of people, the pillar of the society for conservative people, the place where everything is love and care and where you enable the child to get a proper education and teach him how to be a responsible adult.

I never had anything to complain about in my family I have to say... My parents are great people, dedicated to us, they always showed their affection, never prevented us from doing anything we wanted as long as it was not dangerous for us. But what am I am learning with my shrink then? Since I had such a beautiful childhood and have such nice parents and siblings, what is this psychoanalysis about? Isn't psychoanalysis done for people who have been abused, abandoned, not taken care enough?

Well, no... I mean yes, but reality is not that simple. My parents had the best intentions in the world and despite this they created a whole list of neurosis, dysfunctionings, they transmitted their own fears to us, their own (not so happy) childhood and all the list of bad stuff they had gone through. My main issue is my fear of being abandoned. When I have people I love around me, when they leave it is as if they were leaving me on purpose, that I did something wrong. I feel as if a weight was put on my chest, on my tummy, I can barely breathe and I cannot sleep unless I do take some drug. I never was abandoned in my life, always got support, love etc.. I discovered that I had transferred my parents' experiences (too complicated to be detailed here), that those things I had developed were nothing to do with me but with them. The guy I still see every week told me he was treating grand grand children of survivors of the Shoah, they are traumatised by something that did not happen to them, but to people generations before them. This transmission is extraordinary, and it does question quite a lot this saintity of the Family and its exceptional and inviolable status. And I am just talking about the kind of well functioning family, the one where everything's supposed to be well. I don't count abuses, rapes, incests, abuses of power and authority, intolerance and other charming things happening behind closed doors..

Hence the question. Who am I, what right do I have to risk this transmission from me to my own creations? Is my desire to be immortal so strong that I can question somebody else's sanity, knowing that whatever I do I will do it wrong? That the only possible effect of my education is to create a passive tax payer spending a lot of money to go to counselling? I don't feel good thinking about it at all, and although my life's wonderful and fulfilling I am still fighting against my old demons.

I'm gonna have a drink now.

Bloody IT

Well, you're going to tell me I'm lying but it's true, my bloody computer froze in the middle of a beautiful text, I lost everything. Pisses me off so you'll just have a picture of Ha'Penny Bridge in the centre of Dublin, I'll make comments another day. Kisses!

Sick and grumpy

I've decided to rant today.. I have my reasons! I have been away from my desk the past two days because a bloody kidney infection prevented me from getting up. It hurts! I am better now and as I said I am back at work.. 50 emails to read, 50 voicemails to listen to, people at your desk the whole bloody day, leave me alooooooone! I want my bed, or better lying on this beach there. It is a beach on Isla Mujeres, an island just a few kilometres away from Cancun, the horrible / vulgar / colonised / bad taste party/ fuck / cocaine spot. Brrrr, just thinking about this place gives me the creeps... This island is very nice though, we rented bicycles my copine Elo and myself and the coast was empty, no bloody tourist annoying you, just enjoying a bit of the sea and palm trees..

I was ranting wasn't I? I am angry at this country's health system (which is a great word for such a shitty stuff). I went to a doctor 2 days ago, the consultation fee is €55 (who the hell can pay that???), the antibiotics are three times more expensive than at home... I spent €80 for 15 minutes at the doctors and a week of medication. Not that I can't afford it myself, this is not the issue, but I don't like the principle at all. I remember accompanying a friend of mine to a (public) hospital two years ago. She went there by 8 o'clock. When I came back from work (at around 7PM), she was still in the waiting room, they had taken 3 or 4 samples of different body fluids, no info, no follow-up, no results. After I threatened the whole lot of doctors, nurses etc she finally got a bed, around 10PM.. She went out the next morning, with the advice that if the troubles were coming back (her tummy was so painful she couldn't even sit...) then she would have to be admitted again... I have thousands of stories on the health system in this country, diagnoses that never are revealed to the patient, results of cancer tests that are false and that delay treatments and so on.. Just to make you aware why it makes me that angry is that Ireland is now the 2nd richest country in Europe after Luxemburg, the 6th richest country in the WORLD (GDP per capita). But the services are still the ones of a poor country.. but only for poor or not that wealthy people. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Seriously Ireland is the perfect country to live in if you are two or more of the following: young, healthy, rich, white. If you are old, with a chronic disease, a non well paid job and that you belong to the quarter of people having difficulties with literacy well good luck.

Bonjour les amis! J'ai fait ma merde, je le sais... N'ai meme pas pense a editer ce petit blog qui pourtant me fait du bien.. Alors les news, les news... Encore change de travail! Je suis maintenant dans un service public. je distribue des sous aux gens qui aident d'autres gens. C'est une administration, c'est long, fastidieux mais c'est un soulagement que de faire quelque chose d'utile. Et puis les conditions de travail sont bonnes, c'est toujours tres pres de chez moi je suis contente!

En photo mon velo.. Mon velo est mon meilleur ami, mon partenaire, plus fidele que Lassie et sans faire de caca.. Il m'emmene partout et j'essaie de le choyer, meme si sur les routes TRES defoncees de Dublin ca n'est pas evident. Et puis il faut lutter contre les bus a deux etages (en photo egalement), les voitures, les vans, eviter les pietons (qui traversent n'importe comment), affronter le temps dublinois.. Les cyclistes ont du courage ici, c'est meme limite suicidaire.. Chuis po tres inspiree pour le moment, je vous dis seulement encore merci pour la grosse fete, ce fut fantastique, mon foie se souvient encore du punch. A bientot!