“Indigènes” continued

As widely trailed the government announced the equalisation of pensions for non-French veterans on the same day as the release of the film Indigènes. Indeed, since Wednesday the film has been everywhere…
Le Monde suggests cyncially but convincing that the government waited until the numbers of people concerned fell before announcing the change (originally there were [...]

Integrating the elite: peddling national mythology

When I spent a year as a foreign student at Sciences-po all the foreign students were obliged to do a preparatory ’stage d’intégration’. I have no idea what it entailed since I was exempted and spent my time flat-hunting instead. Even if I had attended I’m not sure I would have been quite so painfully [...]

A tour of Belleville – and anthropology in surprising places

On Sunday Oli and I took part in a ‘rallye’ (a sort of itinerant quiz, not unlike filling in a kid’s activity worksheet) organised by the association ‘Ça se visite…‘ as part of this festival in the 19e. The idea was that it should take us to lots of places that we might not otherwise [...]

Little and often…

Shhh…… don’t tell anyone as I’m sure I should have done this ages ago but this morning I wrote the first potentially usable 500 words of my thesis. Before 9am, as I promised myself. I’ve spent the early mornings of the last day or two outlining a revised plan for my introduction/first chapter (I’m not [...]

The « Indigènes » effect ?

Yesterday marked was the 5th annual day of commemoration for the harkis. However, unlike in previous years, the event seems to have passed largely unnoticed – nothing on the websites of either the Prime Minister or the Minstry of Defence, for example. Indeed, the Minister for Veterans, Hamlaoui Mekachera spent yesterday in Marseille, paying tribute [...]

Le nouveau “nous”

Tariq Ramadan’s article, published in the UK on the occasion of the anniversary of the attacks of 7 July 2005 has been translated into French and was published in Le Monde last week. (Read my post about the English version here).
Most interesting is the reaction of Le Monde’s readers, many of whom see Ramadan as [...]

A visit to “little Spain” and some good news from Saint-Denis

Ever on the political ball, I spent Thursday morning in Saint-Denis, the day after the department was all over the news, following the leak of a memo from the Prefect to Sarkozy in which he expressed his concern about a significant rise in ‘acts of deliquancy’ since the start of the year (original text of [...]

Burning the candle… but to good ends

Nigel has been in Paris for the last two days for the start of a new residency at the newly renovated Salle Pleyel, no less. Tickets were out of our price range, unfortunately, but we did manage to poke our noses in on Saturday for the Journees du Patrimoine (the same principle as Open House). [...]

Quotas for immigrants? The regularization figures

Well, surprise surprise. After having predicted that approximately 6,000 sans-papiers families with school-age children would be given papers this summer – BEFORE anyone even knew how many would apply (see previous post) – Sarkozy announced a couple of days ago that the total number of regularizations was… 6,924 (Le Monde article here). Coincidence? Good research [...]

Truth and reconciliation in Uganda?

This article about memory, justice and the aftermath of war in Uganda recalls just how much can be at stake in struggles over the past. It also puts the debate about memory in a wider global context, highlighting the existence of alternative systems of punishment, retribution and reconciliation (And above all, those who have known [...]