Of silly parents and ignorant little ones

So Friday morning i walked out the school gate after dropping off my son and there i  found this mother whose daughter is in the same class as my son waiting for me with such a heart warming smile on her face. I smiled back and then came the inevitable.

Her: "Tu sais quoi ma fille m'a demande l'autre fois?" (Do you know what my daughter asked me the other time).
Me: "Non, qu'eset ce qu'elle t'as demande?" (No, what did she ask you)
Her: "Elle m's demande pourqoi tu est noire?"
Me: "Ah ben. Je suis noire parce que jes suis noire. Comment vous etes blanche."

Interesting. So interesting in this time and day that a parent thinks it important to report to me word by word that her 4-year old had asked her why i was black. Even my 4- year old son knows and says it "Maman elle est noire et moi je suis moitie noir comment Maman et moitie blanc comme Papa. And he has never asked for an explaination from me about why i am black.

But this woman, this mother instead of explaining the difference races that exist in the world to her daughter thought it best to come right out with a smile and tell me all about it. What she expected of me, i will never know perhaps her knowledge of colour differences is so bad or perhaps she just wanted to have something to talk to me about, i will never know.

All i hope for is that one day her daughter will understand that we live in a world where there are black, white, and all different types of people. And that difference will always exist.

No longer the worst "that the cat dragged in"

January 1, 2014 the transitional controls on free movement included in the accession treaties and adopted by the UK and seven other Member States when Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in 2007, ended. 

So simply what does this mean for thos of you who perhaps do not have the patience to read European politics, basically, since the start of this year, Bulgarians and Romanians live and work freely in those eight Member States (France is in the mix). Except of course in the Uk, of course the Brits have always been sane in as far as the EU goes but that is a story for another day. For now, its official, the poor  Bulgarians and Romanians are in the same situation as the citizens of all other Member States except those from Croatia which will be subject to transitional controls until 2020.

So the New Year could not have announced anything better for them Romanians and Bulgarians than the fact that there exist no more restrictions for them. Free at last, free at last if i may borrow the words of one of my hero Martin Luther King Jr. They are free at last to live in Europe like all other European citizens.

But i too am free at last, free at last from being the worst that the cat dragged into Europe and into France. Of course i am neither Romanian nor Bulgarian, hey am happily Ugandan, she from the little known African country smack right in East Africa whose claim to fame until Aamito(very recently and she is still not known by the French) was Idd Amin, Gorillas and hmmmm cannot think of anything else. All the same this lifting of the restriction for Romanians and Bulgarians could not have come at a better time.

Finally, finally a people that are more hated and much more looked down upon than me! Phew! Thank you the powers that be, thank you. See even if Romania and Bulgaria were part of the European Union since seven years ago, these poor beings needed to have visas to work in France as they did in Belgium and in the Netherlamds. As i do. But now they do not need any visas. Hop they get onto a bus, train or plane get into Framce and start living their lives and looking for jobs. No restrictions nothing nadda. But it gets better, they have the right as any European citizen to free education for their children, free health care, free housing for those that cannot afford to pay their rent, coupons for food, toys and clothes. And for those with more than one child, allowances for each child. Could not get better huh what an icing on the cake..

Hahahahahaha could not make me laugh more, while me and those of my colour have been for a long time castigated by the people here for taking all their jobs (trust me this could not be any wrong because there are no jobs to take!) Whats more there are outcries of racism following the reaction of those in richer European nations.

Bwhahahaha; this i thought i would never live to see. Europeans claiming racism from fellow Europeans and whats worse Europeans turning againt their own because they come from poorer nations. They should not have thought up the EU if you ask me!

So now that the Romanians and Bulgarians are here whats the scenario. Fears of losing jobs to the new immigrants, see they work for much less, these Romanians and Bulgarians. Whereas a French person will ask for say 25 Euros and hour, the brothers will take as little as 5 Euros! And again there are worries of more pickpocketers on the streets of Paris, see Romanian children as young as 4 years old are well trained in this "trick".

But as for me i cant reast assured that i can sleep a little freely, walk about more reassured that i ain't the worst that the cat dragged in!

An affair, thats so French

So the world is once again aflame again thanks to the goings on in between the sheets and behind closed doors of another big Frenchman, this time President Holland himself!

For starters, I never thought the dude had it in him, another affair! Hahahaha, cheating on Valerie Trierweiler, the woman he cheated with when he was happily married to the now lovely Signole Royale ( i say the now lovely because she keeps getting better with Botox shots).

Anyways back to Holland he must have some secret; after all he aren't the most appealing most powerful Frenchman that i have seen in a while. Sex appeal the man has none but then again who am i to judge after all he jumped onto a scooter tried to be discreet and went to the sexend-vous with his actress. Now maybe that is appeal. She on the other hand must have something special to have gotten the first French man cruising around the richest streets of Paris for a rompe in the sheets. 

But whats more interesting is that while the world may be so keen on following up on all the little bitsyintimate details, the French people would not care less. Its another affair by another man of office even it while wash away. On this one I could not agree more with the French poeople. Trust me its not always that i do.

Let me tell you a little about the French people, they do not get worked up about extra marital affairs, infidelity  mistress or gigolos of anyone even the President. They believe its the private life of those concerned and they do not go looking under the beds in houses that do not belong to them.

Take the DSK affair; him who was accussed of having forced the poor immigrant in America to give in to his sexual demands. What shocked the French more at the time was that DSK was handcuffed before he had even been found guilty of the crime. And he was handcuffed and filmed on television! That just does not work here. Trust me i watched with awe as my mother in law cursed the Americans and called them hypocrites for parading a man around in handcuffs because a woman had said he had sexually abused her!

In fact what may be annoying les Francaises about the Holland/actress issue is that he was so silly he got found out. Look at Mitterand he managed to have it in keeps until his death. And his was real it came with a daughetr in tact and who really well resembled the man. But did they make a sound about it, non!

Matter of fact even French pychologists do not see anything wrong with French husbands having affairs. As French Pyschologist Maryse Vaillant put it, just a few days after the Holland affair went public, "husbands affairs are good for marriage"
According to figures cited in her book, an estimated 39 per cent of French men cheat on their wives at some stage in their life.

In fact if you want to know what may be making the Froggies talk these days sure is not the Holland affair. But if the social security system was in trouble and there was no more allocation money for those that did not work or if the food at the Ecole Maternelle (Kindergaten) canteens was horrible, then they would be talking.

An affair grace a Holland et son actresse, non the French have much better things to follow up on.

So chill, relax people if the French are not raising hell about Holland and his actress who is the rest of the world to!  Its simple, given the French let themselves get away with a lot and so they let others geat away with it too.

As for Holland, next time make sure your camaflouge is good enough not to attact attention so you do not give the foreign press more to talk about.

New Year, new challenges

Another year came and went, and now its a new one. This morning i received a tweet from an old friend Dave Jenkins who saw i had started writing again or rather was trying to get back to the writing. He could not have said what he did any better, that it seemed challenging. And yes it is so true.

I once was a natural at this, deadlines were my thing, i lived, breathed, ate and slept with writing on my mind, it was my calling, my career, my vocation, my passion, i was happiest when i was writing, the adrenalin rush i had knowing i had a story to complete and a deadline to beat could not be compared to anything. I was addicted!

Then i had a child and he took over. And for him i made sacrficies, i changed countreis so he could grow up in his country and he could belong, i changed professions i had to, i learnt a new language and even if its been three years of trying to get my life sorted out, it is not not yet sorted out. I wonder if it ever will be.

I wonder how those that came before me managed! To accept the new life, the new challenges, the feeling that you do not belong, the ups and the downs and most of all the fact that you have to make it all on your own.

Yes its a challenge but this is also a new year so i am setting my targets higher that i did and this year will be better, tough i know but still than the last one.

And yes i will continue beating the writing blues and write. That is a promise Dave! Happy 2014!