Pieds Noirs / Black Feet

June 21 2008

No, the carpet in my studio is not dirty (actually it is a tad scruffy) causing my feet to be black. Pieds Noirs is a term used to describe immigrants from former French colonies in North Africa. Just like pigeons and other colonialist powers, the French left their little droppings all over the place, and North Africa is the one they really regret. Of course they had to grant special status to citizens of former colonies - to which degree I don't know, but there are a truckload of people from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia and all the problems that go with it.

The overwhelming majority is Muslim and integration is difficult. The battles continue on - you may recall some very serious riots in the sleazy suburbs north of Paris a few years back.

In the news here right now, there are two hot items of interest on this topic:

First, a local Muslim community center (it's not called that but since 90% of the residents are Muslims that is exactly what it really is) tried to ban men from sporting events so that women could swim and play basketball unveiled. We live in an age of triviality and frivolity where we argue endlessly about meaningless symptoms rather than actually facing and solving the root problem. Sad to see that such idiocy has extended to this part of the world, I would have expected better.

The real issue is integration versus religious tradition. The right of men to go to such tournaments is far more important than that of the women to go unveiled. Obviously either they play and swim veiled, or invent a veil that works under those circumstances, or they go without, or they don't play. In their culture they are confined to the house to make food and babies, and are never allowed to go out anywhere except to buy food, hence the veils in the first place. Rather than exercising common sense with a spirit of integration, these type of people want to have their cake and eat it too, always at our expense. It's great that these women have a real life here and it's silly to lock anybody in the house and it's great they can get out and actually do things. This isn't about men or women to me.

When you choose to go somewhere else to live it's not fair to abuse that privilege and start imposing your country's norms on the people of your host country. I'm so glad I lived in Switzerland all those years where common sense rules: you are told from day one that it's their country, not yours, if you want to live here follow the rules and do things the way they do them. Don't like it?? GO HOME. They say we didn't ask you to come here, we just let you in. Don't try to tell us how to cook our soup, go home and cook your own. If you want to cook your own soup in your own home you are welcome to do it, but don't stink out the neighbors doing it.

There is also a hilarious twin story all over the press these days: a judge annulled a marriage between two Muslims because the 20 year old bride had sworn she was a virgin, but it turned out not to be the case. HAHAHAHA. Hilarious.

CAVEAT EMPTOR (buyer beware!!) DUDE hahaha.

In their culture it's critical for many that the girl be a virgin. It's a bit of a red herring either way since there are lots of ways around that which I cannot expand upon here. Ha.

Enough of that story and sorry for the rant. As a lifelong foreigner somewhere I have strong feelings about it all.

In the evening there was the Festival of Music which takes place on the first day of summer each year. Everybody was out and I had a great time zipping around all the various spots, it was great fun and I took a lot of pics. My favorite parts were the two teenagers on dueling saxophones (didn't get a pic I was spaced out), the blues/rock group with the Elvisy looking lead singer, and the guy dancing with his daughter to James Brown. It was a great night.

June 22 2008

I got up, packed although I am not leaving until tomorrow, organized my finances and expenses, and got ready to go so I could enjoy the day and tomorrow until 230 when I go to the airport.

I jumped on the Metro and went to Montmartre. Usually I take the local Metro station by my hotel, but this time I walked up Av. du Maine to the Montparnasse station and jumped on the tube there so I wouldn't have to change. Yikes, the place is like a rabbit's den, tunnels and passageways and stairs all over the place. On top of that it's all underneath this huge train station. So I found my way in without incident and went to Montmartre to buy a few things and do a couple of videos for you Mom. I think the place looks exactly like it did 29 years ago, probably the same artists hanging out too haha:



Here is part deux:



I think that's it for Paris. I also added pics of my favorite bistrot FELICIE (means bliss) and it sure is blissful. I go there for lunch each day and just enjoy the food immensely. It's not even expensive or fancy or anything, just home cooking like your mom did it. Most of the places are like that around here - good and reasonable prices. I mean, the prices are reasonable if you pretend that the Euro and dollar are equal as they were meant to be. Taking the Euro as it is today everything is very pricey.

I'm glad I stayed the weekend and hope it's on their nickel as promised. All in all it was a great trip, I worked a bit too hard but did get some private time and a different perspective.