Sunday, September 10, 2006

Immigration demonstration


So... The summer is over, it's about time people go back to one of the favorite French pastime: demonstrations! And guess what, the first one of the season went by my street today. So I did not even have to go out to take my daily pic! In case you're interested, this demonstration was organized to support African immigrants who were evicted from a squat last August. More, here.

22 comments:

  1. You are talking about demonstrations as if it was any funny at all ! It actually is not. And it is not a past time either. Please show some respect for people who demonstrate, as they have the courage to voice and defend opinions, which is not always the case on this blog I noticed !

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  2. I love the fact that French people still take their struggles to the street... as inconvenient as it might be for people trying to go to work and tourists trying to see the sites. Au moins on n'est pas des planques!

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  3. It's amazing to see these people demonstrating...
    So, they support OUTLAWS... and they even have the right to demonstrate for it...
    What a strange world.
    :-)

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  4. In Chile we are having a lot of demonstrations and strikes too. September is the month when we celebrate independence, and it's when all groups manifests their needs.

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  5. It is good to see a mix of ages coming together to communicate their plea for change. Simply being in another's sight is a way to communicate with other humans. Glad you were at your window ready to document it and bring it into our sight.
    -Kim

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  6. Oh fellouk, calm down a bit. Eric has the right to his own opinions, especially in his blog! Besides, yes demonstrations are to be taken seriously and are generally about serious issues, but there's humor in almost anything and if you can't find it then life is going to be pretty dull for you. If people must always take serious issues seriously then a lot of very funny people (stand-up comedians & David Letterman for example) would be out of a job and everyone would be very depressed with their lives! Eric is never one to intentionally disrespect anyone, he's one of the sweetest people on the planet, so be nice to him please!

    BTW Eric (and fellow regulars here), I went to the 13th annual St. Louis Art Fair today and saw many beautiful and breathtaking works of art in all kinds of mediums and I thought of you all often. I wish I could have had each of you with me, you probably would have made the night more enjoyable then it was. (My husband isn't much into art or culture and my 2 year old was being quite stubborn!) Didn't get any pictures of anything, though, sorry. I'm probably gonna post some links to some of the artists websites, though. Many of the artists came from all over the country to show off their works.

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  7. All I can say is wait until NastyGG sees this and the comments on Monday! He's going to have an opinion for sure!

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  8. I was going to compliment the entertaining commentary before I read the first comment but then I thought maybe I shouldn't say how I laughed when I read "Favorite French Pastime". I also laughed at your photos and commentary from the Spring demonstrations but I won't say that here.
    We actually had a million person demonstration last spring regarding immigrant rights and I got some great photos. Maybe I will post them one day (in a serious way of course).

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  9. Boy, some people are so sensitive!

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  10. You go, Soosha! :)
    *****

    A demonstration, in Paris? How unusual and ... so romantic!

    But Eric, I thought strikes were the national French passtime? Now I'm confused!

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  11. I get so confused on these issues. We have a similar problem with the Mexicans here in the USA. Libra is my sign so that makes it worse. These folks are illegally where they shouldn't be. However, they are human beings and need help. These are difficult times for me because of the worldwide unrest and our ridiculous war with Iraq. As Dietrich sang "When will they ever learn?"

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  12. Thanks tomate! Striking seems to be the current "it" pasttime around here right now for teachers! Always right before school starts or during the beginning of the school year. A morning show dj around here was wondering why they don't do it over the summer vacation and a teacher called up and said (jokingly. see even someone in the midst of the serious situation can joke!) "We don't want to go on strike in the summer! We're too busy lyin by th epool side. If we do it at the beginning of the school year we gets an extra week or two off!" Of course it's really because their position for bargining is stronger with a lot of children waiting to start school. So at the end of every August striking becomes ever teachers favorite pasttime for about a month!

    Michael: I know, I responded in that same post. You're a great guy, but you need to pay more attention!!! *wink*

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  13. Well, yes, like you say Johnny. There is a law: if you want to live in France you need to have a legal permit.

    One can argue that the law is bad, that it should not apply to poor people, then what?

    How about a demonstration against the corrupted governments in Africa instead? Maybe Africans would not have to come to Europe if the money wasn't used to build stupid Cathedrals like in Bamako for instance?

    So yes there are poor people in the world, it's sad, but it's not France's fault.

    Yes, France is rich, so we do what we can to greet some of them as much as we can.

    But there is a limit to it. It would be nice to greet all the poor people of the planet but we simply cannot afford it. That is precisely why we had riots last March.


    So, yes demonstrating in favor of illegal immigrants makes some people look like the good guys but where will they be when we have more riots?

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  14. Fellouk is so democratic that he did'nt even left an adress to get responses. What do you think ? That he will come back to read your comments ? Dream on.

    This blog, the DP community blogs are just photopaintings of our cities, not places for sterile stupid political discussions.

    VOTE if you can, and stop complaining on others, or find a better democratic country than ours to live : you can see many of them, using the links on the left side of that blog !

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  15. Laurent > just one thing, have a look on the way French governments deal with international issues on Africa. They is certainly a connection between migration to the North countries and French blindness on certain things, strange friendship with politicians (see Chirac with Denis Sassou Nguesso) and support of autoritarian states there. I advise you to read positions of informed people like Jean Merckaert (coordinator of the European network of non-governmental organisations campaigning for total cancellation of foreign debt for the affected countries) working at CCFD (Comité catholique contre la faim et pour le développement = the Catholic committee against hunger and for development). For instance have a look on the chat (in fr.) on lemonde.fr (June 30th '05).

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  16. I need some help. "Papier pour tous". Can't they buy their loo paper?

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  17. HAM! You crack me up! Sorry for those of you trying to be serious... I am NOT being disrespectful, I promise!

    Seriously...I like the photo a lot. When you blow it up, you can see so many things happening inside. The guys at the top of the photo carrying the bag of beer, the girl with the whistle, the guy with the sticker on his forehead....really a lot of action inside!

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  18. Hi everyone. I understand that, like always on that kind of matters, there are pros and cons.

    Let's face it if you're poor you think it's unfair that the rich don't accept to share a little bit of their wealth with you, if you're rich you think it's unfair that the poor try to take the money you work for.

    Anyway Fellouk, you've got to admit: the French (and even the immigrants!) are very good at demonstrating. So a little humour from time to time does not harm.

    PS: Ham, are proud of yourself???

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  19. Eric, I got the link to work, but I didn't realise that this was a squat Haxo. Now I see the signs it's obvious.

    Try this as a link if you can't get the other one from Haxo.

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  20. Oh,yeah, I forgot to say, it's a cool picture ;)

    (I actually mean it, all the colors and everything make it kind interesting).

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  21. Ahhh Tomate, can't you use another word besides "cool"? *wink*

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  22. Michael: not really! ;)

    By the way, HAM, lol!!!

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