A series of short posts highlighting interesting points arising during the final countdown to the French presidential election. (I) – Storm in a “Whirlpool” It’s what we call “l’entre deux tours” (between the two rounds) of the French presidential election. And I can just sit back behind my computer and relax. All I […]
Am I Dreaming, Or Is Turkey About To Leave The EU?
If I talked to you about a country that just had a dubiously run referendum, the result of which was so close, as to be invalid for such a huge constitutional change, you would probably be thinking of Turkey. If I then told you that the leader of this country will organise elections with the […]
France Can Accept The Truth, But Cannot Stand The Lies
Mes enfants, it’s fast approaching squeaky bum time in France, with the first round of the 2017 presidential election due on the 23rd April. The political situation in France is, as I see it, similar to that of 2002, when far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, father of present-day Marine, reached the second round to everybody’s […]
The Moral Landslide: Defying Discrimination
I’ll be honest with you. Before writing this post, I had no idea what a “LGBT person” actually was. “In what sort of world is this guy living?”, I hear you ask. Well, I live in the same world as you, but the meaning of this dreadful label that has been tagged on the shoulders […]
Read All About It: “In The Media We Trust?”
The British Press: Responsible but not guilty? When the offices of the French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo were gruesomely attacked in January 2015, the world was shocked, and rightly so. The attack focused on the press, one of the most sacred institutions of our democracies. The terrorists also challenged something that most of us […]
Father Jacob: The Scams of “Medicine Man”
[perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]It rains on the roof, like it rains on the stairs[/perfectpullquote] My grandmother’s house was no ordinary house. It was a mountain chalet on the outskirts of Nice, in the South of France. The colour of its turquoise entrance to the garden, and ochre yellow walls, had nothing […]
Beyond The Pillars Of Hercules – The Gibraltar Conundrum
Together we stand, and together we wait And there was I, thinking that we were utterly alone in our battle as UK expats, to avoid being cast into oblivion by the forces of evil from both sides of the channel. It now appears that an entire dependency is about to suffer the same fate as […]
The UK’s Farewell to Europe: “Au Revoir les Enfants”
March 29th 2017 will be remembered as the day the UK officially triggered Article 50 of the European Constitution, signifying a two year slog to disentangle itself from the European Union. I have no intention of browsing the glorifying headlines on the front pages of the UK tabloids. I’ll let the Brexiteers rejoice in their […]
SOUVENIRS: Frère Jacques: Les Escroqueries de Jacques Médecin
Il pleut sur les toits, comme il pleut sur l’escalier Ce n’était pas une maison de vacances ordinaire, la maison de ma grand-mère. C’était un chalet de montagne situé dans une banlieue de Nice. L’entrée était peinte d’un bleu turquoise qui resplendissait de toutes les couleurs, sauf le turquoise. Le chalet, d’un ocre jaune qui […]
SOCIÉTÉ: Quand “J’aime” Peut Tuer: Le Coté Sombre Du Web
Parfois, un acte isolé de violence vous remplit avec tant de dégoût et de haine pour les malfaiteurs, que vous ne pouvez vous empêcher de crier votre colère au monde entier. Tout à fait par hasard, j’ai lu le fait divers, décrit plus bas, sur le site d’informations NOS de la télévision néerlandaise. L’acte de […]