lundi 5 décembre 2005
As many people have emailed me and asked if everything was okay here due to the riots, I guess I should address their concerns. Yes, everything is fine. Marseille saw hardly any burning at all. Most of the cities troubled by it were up in the North.
From the article "Marseille's recipe for composure" sent to me by Genevieve.
Fraise! Fraise! Small, round, red, fruit?
Sorry, I don't understand.
From the article "Marseille's recipe for composure" sent to me by Genevieve.
This scruffy port has most of the ingredients associated with the recent rioting and car burning in French cities: high unemployment, a huge immigrant community, considerable poverty. Yet Marseille emerged relatively unscathed compared with cities like Paris, Toulouse, and Lyon.'Everyone in France speculated that Marseille would be the first to burn. You need to live here to understand why it did not.' Residents insist that Marseille is different from other large urban centers in France. They have centuries of experience in managing immigration, they say - 2,600 years in total, if you count back to the city's founding by Greek traders. Marseille, the second largest city in France, is French the way New York is American: The city is defined by the waves of immigrants who settled here, chief among them Italians, Armenians, and Muslims and Jews from Algeria, Tunesia and Morocco....Personally, I'm not sure how un-racist Marseille is, I think it depends on where you come from. I, as a blond-haired blue-eyed American, feel that most likely I get treated differently than an African woman wearing a head scarf. But in general I think people are pretty relaxed and willing to help, even if they can't understand what I am asking for half the time in grocery store.
It is impossible not to notice the diversity of this city. In one glance across the sidewalk here you can spot West Africans selling handicrafts, crusty French seamen emerging from the port, and French-Arab youths in track suits strutting into a fast-food joint.
Fraise! Fraise! Small, round, red, fruit?
Sorry, I don't understand.
Libellés :
Misc
Inscription à :
Publier les commentaires (Atom)
About Me
Libellés
- 101 (13)
- Aix en Provence (13)
- Alain (22)
- Baby (11)
- Bureaucracy (14)
- Cooking (14)
- Daily Life (31)
- Dealing with the French (33)
- Entertainment (1)
- Ex-patness (14)
- Family (37)
- Food (1)
- French Customs (40)
- French Language (20)
- Friends (10)
- Fromage (14)
- Health (21)
- Hobbies (4)
- Holidays (29)
- Homesick (11)
- Jobs (10)
- July 22 (5)
- Marriage (1)
- Marseille (10)
- Me (3)
- Memories (3)
- Misc (40)
- Mishaps (16)
- Motorcycle (5)
- Music (2)
- Nationalité (3)
- Our Apartment (45)
- Overheard (2)
- parenting (2)
- Patents (24)
- Pictures (25)
- Provence (32)
- Ramblings (21)
- Random (1)
- Rants (30)
- Restaurants (1)
- Rugrats (7)
- S. (2)
- Scientific Stuff (4)
- Social Awkwardness (1)
- Sports (1)
- Strasbourg (13)
- Trips (52)
- VMI (12)
- Wedding (24)
- Wine (2)
- Wordless Wednesday (3)
Favorite Posts
-
The above cartoon for kids to color, cut out, and fold into a cube shape. Then the cube is to be placed in the center of the table for remi...
-
I picked up my French passport this morning. It has been ready for awhile, I received the text message saying it was available for pick-up a...
-
Here is the other cross-stitch I finished this year, this one is for Alain's Aunt, Lydia. I have now done at least one for every hous...
-
Come to an end. My maternity leave is ending and I return to work on Monday. Alain will then take his two weeks of paternity leave, then we...
-
The more I (sorta) learn another language, the more am I amazed at how many concepts, words, phrases, expressions etc. in one language don...
-
One thing that you learn very quickly when starting to learn french is that absolutely everything has a gender. And you had better know it, ...
-
Someone had other plans. Our daughter S. decided to make her appearance weeks ahead of schedule. (We have decided not to post her full name,...
-
Got back from Strasbourg just fine. My wallet however, did not. After my long train trip back home, and being called "sale race" (...
-
you buy something from Sephora and get "premiér rides" (first wrinkles cream) samples. Sigh. Today is my birthday. The big 3-0. Su...
0 commentaires: