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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
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Don’t forget to apply for a college grant (bourse des lycées)
to the head of the establishment before the end of March. You
can obtain more information from your education counsellor
or the social worker at the school.
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
Poverty is always with us but is tossed up onto the crest
of the media wave at times when a particularly gritty
protest succeeds a particularly gritty tragedy, caused by
lack of money, lack of support – misery.
Economic migrants, asylum-seekers, political
refugees… we are surrounded by misery, mostly that of
foreigners. Don Quixote, Emmaüs, the Restos du Coeur are
visibly busy in our small provincial towns, yet the SMIC
(minimum-wage) worker is moaning about a lack of
spending power. Some do find it hard, if they have no
house, no family to help with the children, but many wageearners
take a low-cost holiday once a year, or even twice,
something the average small farmer would never have
dreamed of 30 years ago – anyway, who would soigner les
bêtes? Soigner les bêtes used to be such a priority that the
programme of rural weddings, which in 1975 still lasted
three days, comprised a special bêtes soigning window after
the vin d’honneur and before the post-nuptial banquet.
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
As a conseillère municipale in my local
village (Pyrénées-Orientales) for the last
six years, I was interested to read that three
British women are considering standing in
the forthcoming local municipal elections in
the Hérault.
The comments made in the article
concerning the acquisition of French
nationality would seem to merit discussion as
there are, as I see it, a number of
misapprehensions about it.
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
I am researching for a light-hearted book
on the most over-used clichés of our
times, for example: “the elephant in the
room” and “it does what it says on the
tin”.
I am also collecting malapropisms: I
overheard an indignant lady exclaim (on
the apparent dimness of a friend): “Well,
it’s not rocket salad, is it?”
Also superfluous words like ‘literally’
and ‘actually’ as well as catch phrases
from American TV such as “I’m good”
meaning “I’m well” and least favourite
corporate jargon such as “blue skies
thinking”.
Any contributions and anecdotes
gratefully received, French ones too (with
translation...).
Heather Hacking,
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
Clair Whitmer’s article (US Guys) in
the February issue suddenly opened
a door which had been locked for more
than half a century.
Fear is necessary for us. Without
fear we would have been devoured by
the sabre-toothed tiger a long time ago.
We have less fear when we have the
feeling that we are living in a
predictable world. With his unknown
manners and customs the alien is a
potential threat, a violation to our
feeling of a predictable order. The fear
for the alien therefore is a classical fear.
Indonesia is my country of birth. I
speak the local lingua franca Malay
fluently, I speak the patois slang and I
lived there for 20 years; but because my
parents came from the Netherlands –
before the war, Indonesia was a Dutch
colony – I am not chez moi there.
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