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March 13, 2008

Life is a neverending circle.
Ten years ago, all of my friends found their special someone. Ten years later, some of them are single again. Those who are still married, remain married just for their child(ren). During all those years, I've been "pushed" to find a girl. I walked through these ten years as a single guy most of the time. And my friends, after having believed in lo
ve, now find themselves unhappy, living a painful single life (or marriage) they didn't expect to live. During those 10 years, I was born, I grew up, I made mistakes, I loved, I was hurt, and I tamed the beast they now fear: being single and lonely.

I also have the impression that the person met at 18-20, the one my friends lived with and sometimes married, is rarely the one they were supposed to spend the rest of their life with. For many of my friends or people I come to meet, nearing 30 is synonym of breakup or divorce, which fortunately hasn't been final for some.

This "with someone at 20, single at 30" cycle puzzles me. It puzzles me because it seems to concern many people.

And I keep walking straight ahead. Single, but straight ahead. Or am I really walking straight ahead or do I stay put, learning to listen, to read, to live, to accept, and to love my surroundings?

10 years that have been lived very differently, but today, I'm happy while my friends are going through a rough time. Roles have changed.

The circle of life is odd...

Fushichô


February 19, 2008

After a one month absence, I take advantage of the delay of a client in sending me the files I'll have to translate to post the following text: Hindu Legend

Fushichô


January 26, 2008

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY, MATES !!!!!!!!!!


Two new links:
Enercoop, French 100% sustainable electricity provider. No nuclear energy, no coal, only clean stuff !
And another friendly, smart, well-written
blog, as much in the articles as in the comments (at least, most of them!).

Fushichô


January 24, 2008

New proof of the stupidity of political correctness. Is it ever gonna stop?

In Great Britain, a children’s book retelling the story of the three little pigs (The Three Little Cowboy Builders) failed to make the shortlist of an annual schools award (the Bett Award) because the judges said it was offensive to builders. They criticised the portrayal of builders as pigs whose work can easily be blown down.

Another comment from the judges of Becta, the government technology agency that organises the award: the use of pigs as characters in the story meant they “could not recommend it to the Muslim community”.

Anne Curtis, creative director of Shoo-fly publishing, the book’s publishing company, said: “The three pig’s mother tells them to go to school and get qualifications but they say they don’t need them. The wolf is a housing inspector and when he comes and asks to see the architects’ plans of their three houses, and they can’t produce them, he huffs and puffs and blows their houses down.”

“We’re really encouraging people to get qualifications and trades. I think we’re promoting good building practice.”

This is completely surreal. A children’s story about lame builders, and judges consider it is disparaging to the profession. Besides, the fact that the characters are pig is deemed offensive to the Muslim community!!!

I don’t even know how to comment such an insanity…

What I really find offensive here is to assert the book can not be recommended to the Muslim community. It’s really considering all Muslims bloody stupid and unable to understand this is just a simple, trivial story. We may find somewhere in the world stupid extremists who have nothing better to do than acting against the publishing of this book, but going as far as saying it can’t be recommended to the Muslim community…

Regarding the idea of a children’s story involving three cowboy pigs deciding suddenly to be untrained builders alienating part of the workforce, well, judges must have been completely pissed to come up with something like that!

Why not saying all minors are stupid dwarves because of Dopey in Snow White and the 7 dwarves?

This is all utterly appalling…

Sources: http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=29&ContentID=55833? target=?_blank and http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=284&storycode=3104670&c=1



Fushichô


January 11, 2008

I've added the foreword on the homepage.

Fushichô


January 10, 2008

I've added a reflexion about the new detention centres. Initially, I wanted it to be a small article on the blig page, but by the time I said everything I wanted, I had reached 2 pages, which was way too much for a blog article. So I turned it into an article in the Reflexions section, an article in which I talk about paadophilia and sexual offenders, who, to me, require to be listened to and accompanied, much more than being imprisoned for life and cast aside. Which is by far slower and less simple than the solution the government came up with, but no one ever said delinquency was a simple problem with a simple solution, except the right and far right wings for which the individual doesn't exis.

I also suppressed the Pictures section, since I've never added any picture and don't intend to in the near future.

Fushichô


January 8, 2008

This is the beginning of the year, and this period is usually full of resolutions, projects, and sometimes of questioning of our life as well. Hence today's topic: the meaning of life.

Fushichô


December 27, 2007

I've added an analysis about political correctness in the Reflexions section of the site.

Fushichô


December 24, 2007

I've added another text in the Texts category. Topic of the day : happiness.

Fushichô

December 20, 2007

Yeah, I'm making progress! I've just finished the translation of Sports and Politics, et for today, I added Xmas songs, I couldn't resist Xmas spirit. It's right here !
I'm just kidding, I hate this period of the year which, like any other, under the false pretext of kindness and generosity is actually the celebration of consumerism, the act of prouving by money your love to your loved ones, the over-consuming and over-eating when 3/4 of the planet would simply like to eat, and the murky family reunions that end badly because half the family is pissed, and because people that don't see each other the rest of the year because they can't stand each other are at the same table for an endless meal, which inevitably lead to an loud argument.
But I'm glad 'cause this year, I avoid the family reunion :)
By the way, it probably would have ended badly if I had seen one of my brothers in law (and my sister too, 'cause she's as much an prick as her husband), because it's OK to smooth things in order not to ruin the atmosphere of family reunions and not to hurt my parents' feeling, but that asshole doesn't give shit and doesn't hesitate to screw us and considered us a jerks, family reuinon or not! And that has to come to an end, and I reckon that next I see those bastards, it will !!!

And there's also an short article just below.


Today a little anecdote about Xmas, that I read earlier in Newsweek:
The CEO of the Australian Childhood Foundation defended the laugh against a Santa training agency (I didn't know such a thing existed)'s attempt to replace "ho, ho, ho", which could scare children and offend women (??? I don't see what's offensive for women in this laugh... if someone could explain it to me...), with a more neutral "ha, ha, ha". Two Santas have already quit in opposition to the ban.
How further in the stupidity will the political correctness go???

Today's reading advice: Les identités meurtrières, by Amin Maalouf. This book (in French, I don't know if it's translated in any language), easy and quick to read, discuss the problems underlying identity and explains numerous phenomenon such as terrorism, war, globalisation, reject of modernity, etc. The only drawback, actually, there are 2 drawbacks: the first one, I think the author sometimes draws parallels between 2 phenomenons, and I'm not sure, despite the examples, that it's relevant. The second drawback is that this book is too short! I whished the author had explained in many more details the various concepts he discusses, had multiplied the examples, and had gone a little deeper in its analyses. Well, I'll have to look for this information myself (which is not necessarily for the worst); coincidentally, this week's article by Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek echos this concept of multiple identity.

Fushichô

 

December 18, 2007

Fuck, I didn't realise I hadn't written anything for 1 month! Time flies... and it also means I have work to do, which is great for me :)

Today's post is about an article written today that I've just read on Libération's (a French newspaper) website (
http://www.liberation.fr/actualite/politiques/298780.FR.php). What is it about? It tells us that Sarkozy is a professional when it comes to manipulating media and that every time he's in deep shit politically, he comes up with something to make us forget everything. The 3 examples stated, for the past 2 months only, are:

1/ October 18, social movement, strikes all over France against the special pension scheme reform, notably in transport. First major conflict Sarko has to face, and he leaves to Lisbon to sign the European treaty France rejected 2 years ago and that he put back on track himself. The period smells bad for him, how is he gonna handle that? The same evening, his divorced is officially announced. The social movement is no longer the main event, it is distillated with reports on his divorce.

2/ December 2, the party Russia United wins the elections, the ballot is spoilt with irregularities, contested by the Russian opposition and denounced by many Western capitals. What do we learn a few days later ? That Sarko called Poutine to congratulate him (NB: Poutine wasn't even a candidate, he just belongs to the party...). How could he manage to make us forget this faux-pas, theses congratulations to a president that leads more and more his country towards dictatorship, putting opponents to jail, diminishing the rights of his own people? He sends a message to the FARC whishing to "see Ingrid Bétancourt amongst her relatives for Christmas". Sarko's pro-Russian feelings are forgotten thanks to this humanitarian message, useless in effect.  

3/ December 10, Khadafi arrives in France. Severe criticisms from all part about his stay, denunciation of the non-respect of human rights by Khadafi, UMP (Sarko's political party) is divided on the issue, it's a perfect mess. What do we then learn that makes forget this cacophony and the billions of euros of contracts signed with Libya in favour of France? That Sarko fucks Carla Bruni (French ex-top model). The turbulent, embarrassing week for Sarko is forgotten, only his new affair matters (by the way, I note he got over his divorce pretty quickly, even though I'm not sure that screwing an ex-top model who fucked hundreds of guys and who is so full of cocaine that even if she stopped several years ago her body must still be full of it, is good for the president's image. But at least she's pretty hot, so the rest doesn't matter, does it?).

That the chain of all these events is purely due to randomness or calculated by Sarko is not what I want to stress here. What I want to stress, is this:

To make people forget about a critical problem, essential to the running of the country or the world (social conflict, human rights, dictatorship), there's nothing better than something very "people". And yes, I put Sarko's private life, be it his divorce or Carla Bruni at Disneyland, at the same level as the message to the FARC. That's true, the message is important, in a humanitarian way, but it's not what's gonna help to make any progress in the liberation of the hostages, it's just about sinking in saccharine feelings, "dreaming of Ingrid Bétancourt amongst her relatives for Christmas".

I think it's sad that human memory, whose span is already short enough, functions in such a way that saccharine verses and "people stories", extremely ephemeral, make conflicts of the day before, or of the same day, disappear. These conflicts are infinitely more important for everyone's future, in France or all over the world. It's shameful that human rights come after Carla Bruni and that France social decline comes after Sarko's divorce (even though I'm in favour of raising the age of pension; which is good for me, given that if I ever go to Australia, the pension age is 65 there, and they were even talking about pushing it further to 67, when here we were arguing about keeping it 55 or earlier for some...).

I don't know where the society is heading, but we sure aren't on the right track, and it seems like we're sinking every day a little deeper... 

Fushichô



November 18, 2007

I just want to clarify something, after a feedback from MDLL. On this "blog", it's not possible to post any comment.
Yes, that's normal. There are two reasons for this: 1/ The software I use to create this site doesn't feature the function to do it. Or if it does, I still haven't found it (and I don't have spent days looking for it, I must admit) 2/ I don't really want to have comments everywhere, given that the main aim of my site is to express myself; the blog is only secondary and only here for me to comment news quickly or to tell you of the updates, its aim is not to create endless debates or, when the debates do have an end, to see them winding up in just people insulting each other. So for any comment and feedback, go to the
contact page, I receive your comment, I post it myself or answer by e-mail, depending on the comment, my mood, the time I have, which way the wind blows, etc.
As far as RSS feeds are concerned, well, it's quite simple, refer to point 1/ above, I still haven't found how to do that with the software I use :p But if I ever do, I install this feature, I promise!

Fushichô

 

November 15, 2007

I keep updating the English part of this website, it takes some time, but I'm progressing little by little. Today is the translation of the blog, next time it will be the translation of my criticism of TV.
See you soon for this one, then!

Fushichô

 


November 5, 2007

I've just found out that 3 Frenchmen sued Wikipedia for libel regarding an article disclosing the homosexuality of the 3 plaintiffs. It was also implied one of them had only been able to adopt his two children because of his activism for the rights of the sexual minorities.
The plaintiffs demanded 69,000 euros for damages and the court decided that Wikipedia, as a hoster, couldn't be held responsible for the content hosted (reference (French article):
http://www.infos-du-net.com/actualite/12148-wikipedia-proces-articles.html).

There's something I find appalling in this story, besides the fact that the hoster was sued, not the persons who wrote the libellous article on Wikipedia. That it is wrongfully written in an article that someone is gay, et that this article in then edited, that a right of reply is given or an erratum posted, I find it completely normal. There is no reason why wrong information is left hosted on a website indefinitely. But suing someone because an article states, even wrongfully, that you are gay, I find it simply ridiculous. Why? Because it supposes being homosexual is an insult. No, it is not an insult. It is a fact. Who would be offended if they were called "straight"? No one! No one would ask for 69,000 euros for being called "hetero sexual!
I firmly believe that it is absolutely not libellous to wrongfully say someone is gay. A mistake in this case, certainly, a libel, clearly not.

Libel : Malicious publication of a defamation of a person by printing, writing, signs, or pictures, for the purposes of injuring the reputation and good name of such person.
 (
www.crfonline.org/orc/glossary/l.html)

So it seems that being called a homosexual injures the reputation...mentalities evolve slowly, really slowly...If there is libel here, I only see it in the allegation that one of the plaintiffs had only been able to adopt his children because of his activism, certainly not in the fact he may be gay.


Fushichô

 

November 4, 2007

Numerous adds, including a criticism of TV (in French for the moment, translation soon available) and a few songs in the Multimédia section.

After having criticised TV, here's a link to listen to the shows' and cartoons' themes we all heard when we were kids: http://www.coucoucircus.org. Sorry, it's in French and most of the themes were translated. But it could be fun to discover what we had when you had the original version in the States or in your home country. I'm sure it could be fun! Though the main problem might be to find the show given that most of them have different names in French and English...

Fushichô

 

November, 2 2007

Youhou !!!!! Here's my first post !

What am I gonna write here? What am I gonna talk about? Dunno...
I'll just tell you to go to the Multimédia
section to discover several great French artists.
You could also visit the page
Texts to discover a beautiful poem by Rudyard Kipling "You will be a man, my son". In the section Analyses, I've written an article about death, particularly appropriate on this date.
I could have talked about Halloween, but it seems to me that this year, shops didn't "celebrate" it that much and that this purely commercial holyday in France is already losing momentum. I won't complain, I think it was completely stupid. Besides, I hate when people tell me when to party, how to party, be it wearing a pumpkin costume or a santa clause's hat...

I probably won't write about my daily life in my blog, maybe once in a while, but most likely my reaction about the news of the day. Or maybe a literary or musical discovery. I promise, I won't annoy you with things like "this morning, my mum called me and this afternoon I bought peas"!

Fushichô

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