DR

Even though I never got used to French traditional food at home, I have always loved French food in general, I used to eat things like baguettes, croissants and other typical western food found in restaurants. The French are well known for their delicious and rich cuisine, and they put a high priority on the enjoyment of food.  In that sense, I must admit, I feel French.

At home, my mother has always been cooking both Western and Kabyle traditional food.

The most famous dish in the Kabyle and  North African culture is unmistakably “couscous”,  and it is becoming increasingly popular in France.

 However, there are many different types of couscous depending on the region where it comes from. Moroccans include saffron , Algerians like to add tomatoes, Tunisians   spice up theirs with  harissa and Kabyles add green beans.

 Among the other specialties from the Kabyle culture, there is also the special bread, « Aghroum” which is flat and crunchy. We can have it with “Felfel” for example (not to be confounded with “Falafel”), It is a simple dish made of cooked and crushed pepper mixed up with olive oil.

  DR/  Kabyle bread, « Aghroum »

 It is this mixture of flavour that finally made of me a real foodie[1] person.

 When, in 2009, I moved to England for 8 months, the change of environment also meant I had to forget both the dishes of my Mum and the French gastronomy.     

The thing that first caught my eye was the quantity of take away shops one could find lined up in the streets of the city where I lived. The same dishes would also be displayed in all the fast food restaurants:  “Burgers, Parmesans, Pizzas and Kebabs”.

Junk food was apparently king in this part of Britain, no wonder if the obesity rate in the North East is the highest in the country. In this region, the most popular dish is called the “Parmo” which is a shortcut for Parmesan. It’s a much loved dish made of chicken or pork « fillet » with « béchamel » sauce and a layer of cheese (strangely not parmesan), normally served with chips and a choice of salad: coleslaw or creamed cabbage.

  DR/ Chicken Parmo, also served in restaurants 

Unfortunately, I did not have many opportunities to discover good homemade British food, except for the famous Fish and Chips that I ate in Whitby, a lovely fishing port of the North East coast. Apart from their Sunday dinner and a filling breakfast, I have not experienced the richness of the British culture in terms of food…Far from sharing Jacque Chirac’s opinion who, joking five years ago with Russian leaders, said about Britons: « One cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad”. From my experience, I have noticed that unlike what is the case in France, in Britain, eating has not much to do with any form of ceremony. 

However, England  remains a multicultural society, and the multicultural aspect of this country is also reflected in the various dishes offered by the migrants who have come to settle there. The dishes of the newcomers are also part of a certain British heritage.Chicken tikka masala, for example, is so popular that it has even been proclaimed as  British national dish.

  DR/ Chicken tikka masala

      (Could you imagine “couscous” being recognized as a “French national dish”?)

Indeed, the best moments I had were when I was discovering new dishes from other parts of the world thanks to my friends who like me were foreigners. I had the opportunity to taste « jollof rice » from Nigeria, chicken rice and « dahl » from Pakistan, « noodles and moon cakes » from China, « tortillas de patatas », « mojete and patatas Alioli » from Spain, « Polish pickles », « Malaysian coconut chicken » and the best green tea ever made by my dearest Pakistanni pachtoune friends.…

Back in France, I was happy to find again my favourite baguette and my mother’s dishes but I also came back with a heavy heart. To my big surprise, shortly after my arrival, I already missed all the exotic flavours I had discovered during my stay in Britain.  My mind was still full of very nice memories about my eating time in England…

DR 

But there is a more troubling aspect to the reaction to the defeat, which has focused on lack of patriotism, shared values and national honor on a team with many members who are black or brown and descended from immigrants.

The philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, who has often criticized the failures of French assimilation, compared the players to youths rioting in the banlieues, France’s suburban ghettos. “We now have proof that the French team is not a team at all, but a gang of hooligans that knows only the morals of the mafia,” he said in a radio interview.

While most politicians have talked carefully of values and patriotism, rather than immigration and race, some legislators blasted the players as “scum,” “little troublemakers” and “guys with chickpeas in their heads instead of a brain,” according to news reports.

Fadela Amara, the junior minister for the racially charged suburbs who was born to Algerian parents, warned on Tuesday that the reaction to the team’s loss had become racially charged.

“There is a tendency to ethnicize what has happened,” she told a gathering of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s governing party, according to news reports. “Everyone condemns the lower-class neighborhoods. People doubt that those of immigrant backgrounds are capable of respecting the nation.”

She criticized Mr. Sarkozy’s handling of a debate on “national identity,” warning that “all democrats and all republicans will be lost” in this ethnically tinged criticism about Les Bleus, the French team. “We’re building a highway for the National Front,” she said, in a reference to the far-right, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim party founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Philippe Tétart, a sport historian at the Institut d’Études Politiques, said that the undercurrent of racism was “very unhealthy, but one of the predictable negative outcomes of the World Cup defeat.”

France is confused about its identity and uncomfortable with the growing numbers and sometimes the attitudes of its immigrants and their children, he said. “What is certain is that we are going through in France questions of disobedience, of incivility, of loss of bearings, and this group of irritated young kids is an excessive reflection of those questions.”

In 1998, the French team that won the World Cup was widely praised for its multiethnic nature — black, white and Arab, and seen as a symbol of a more diverse nation. But today, Mr. Tétart said, the talk is the opposite.

Today’s players, he said, “come from a generation who come from the banlieues, and they don’t necessarily have the cultural background to understand what they did.”

Luc Chatel, the education minister, said on television Wednesday that he was “terribly angry” and shocked that Raymond Domenech, the team’s coach, who is blamed for some of the team’s disunity and apologized to the nation for the failures, refused to shake hands with the South African manager after the team’s final game.

“But I’m going to go farther,” he added. “A captain of the French team who does not sing ‘The Marseillaise,’ ” the national anthem, “shocks me, there it is. When one wears the jersey, one should be proud to wear the colors, you’re an example.”

He was speaking of Patrice Evra, who was born in Senegal and who found himself caught between players and managers as the team refused to practice after another black player, Nicolas Anelka, swore at Mr. Domenech and was removed from the team.

Mr. Sarkozy himself called a meeting on the disastrous result on Wednesday, summoning Prime Minister François Fillon, Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot and Rama Yade, the junior sports minister. In a statement, he said he had ordered them “to rapidly draw the lessons of this disaster.”

The racial makeup of the French team has long been an issue on the far right, even in a country where all the French are “citizens” and are supposed to have equal rights. Of the 22-man squad, 13 are men of color, with two born in French territories.

This month, Marine Le Pen, the vice president of the National Front and daughter of its founder, said that she did not see herself in the makeup of the team, whose players behaved as individuals, not as a team, and who were “fighting for advertising contracts more than for their country.”

“Most of these guys,” she added, “consider at one moment that they represent France at the World Cup, and at another they are a part of another nation or have another nationality in their heart.”

In her contempt, which carefully did not mention the factors of race and ethnicity but implied them, she was echoing her father, who in June 2006 criticized the team for containing too many nonwhite players and failing to accurately reflect society. He also went on to scold players for not singing “La Marseillaise,” saying they were not French.

On Tuesday, Mr. Le Pen said that “the myth of antiracism is a sacred myth in France.” He added, apparently with no irony, that he hated politicians who turned the national soccer team into “a flag of antiracism instead of sport.”

Now, the language of Mr. Chatel, the education minister, resonates with the themes of the Le Pens. That reflects, critics say, the general effort of Mr. Sarkozy and his party, over the last few years, to weaken the far right by playing on the same themes of patriotism, nationhood and identity.

DR

The reason why I have chosen that word is not because I recognized myself in this name. Far from it, this is just the way I feel I have been sometimes perceived in my life.

For those who never came across that expression before:

A “Beurette” is just a female “beur”, in French slang; it designates French-born people whose parents are immigrants from North Africa.

I found that expression very pejorative and I hated the people who called me like that.

 I grew up in a small French town where it was rare to find any immigrants from North Africa.  I was only surrounded by white French people but my family has always been deeply immersed into Kabyle and Muslims traditions. This might be the reason why I was given this etiquette.

I finally moved to these suburbs called ‘banlieue parisienne’, when I turned 18.

 Back to the main topic:

From October 2009 to May 2010, I spent the academic year in the North east of England, working as a French Teacher assistant mainly in a secondary school – (named) Ian Ramsey Church of England School.

I have North-African background, I was born in Algeria but grew up in France, and I was there (in Britain) “to represent” the French culture, for a year, assisting teachers or teaching on my own small groups of children aged between 11 and 15; discussing different aspects of the French culture with them

DR

When I first started working in this school, I was sometimes feeling quite uncomfortable because I wondered: “how someone like me, who is not French “ pure souche” as we say in France, can share and transmit the French culture. But I finally found my way and realized that indeed I am French, strange as it may seem, even though I have no clue about how French wines taste like, I have never ever tasted “cassoulet or quiche aux lardons”… Fortunately for me, France is much more than just porky recipes!

Little by little, I finally thought I could find another way to introduce the French culture just like any “pure souche” French girl.

I was eventually feeling more French in Britain than I had ever felt in France…Weird feeling, indeed.

It was an experience full of surprise. I was very astonished to see how open-minded Britons were, especially regarding religion. While I was trying to find out few things to show about Christmas celebrations in France, some even went as far as to ask me if I wanted to talk about how French Muslims celebrate Eid El Kebir,.

 I also noticed how they remarkably promoted tolerance and integration allowing minority groups to maintain their cultural identities and customs at school; offering for example, Urdu classes in a school called Church of England…Whereas in France the government has always been uncompromising with secularity, banning religious symbols in public schools. I remember the first time I saw in that same school the immigrants’ children from Pakistani background wearing the veil without facing any problem. I then thought of all the problems this same veil was causing on the other side of the Channel.

I used to think that secularity was the best option at school, but my experience there made me seriously reconsider my opinion. I would never have thought it could work well.

However, while the adults seemed quite aware of cultural differences, the teenagers seemed really surprised to hear that I could be French and Muslim at the same time. Once, during a school trip in Toulouse, we were visiting a cathedral.  Some students were being rude and giggling all the time, so I told them to calm down. One of them, a platinum blond, grumbled “I am not Christian, I don’t care’”. “Are you Muslim then?” I said, just to see her reaction. She looked daggers at me as if I was insulting her. I told her that whatever her religion, when she comes to a place of worship, she should behave. Then I said: “By the way, I am Muslim”. Finally deeply shocked, she said “What?! Muslim?! But I thought you were French!”

DR

When it comes to explain delinquency in the deprived areas of Paris the following argument is often to be heard: “Youngsters of immigrant descents do not have in France any successful role model, except from that of the football players or rap singers”. It is true that in a country where it has become a custom from the mass media to denigrate and negatively depict ethnic minorities, in general models for a certain category of the population are scarce. Besides, the case of Karim Benzema who was recently involved in the Zahia scandal also proves that football players just like rap singers are sometimes far from being good examples for the younger generations. This week I decided to focus on people I think could be presented as models for the youth in the nineteenth district of Paris.

Among all the people I know in the nineteenth district of Paris Sadia Diawara is without doubt one of the best models for the younger generation. I first heard about Sadia Diawara some five years ago. At the time I was travelling a lot between the U.K and the nineteenth district of Paris. Sadia Diawara was the founder of the Afternoons of the Memory at Mama Africa restaurant; a meeting that took place once a month, on Sundays, and where discussions and tales about Africa were told in a convivial atmosphere.

Today, once again the name of the 31 year old director and entrepreneur is in everybody’s mouth. Three years ago, Sadia Diawara who has “more than a wallet in his pocket”, launched a project that consists in traveling from the nineteenth district of Paris to Mali; crossing by car countries such as Spain and Mauritania. The initiative is based on mutual solidarity between the French people taking part in the project and the different people encountered on the way to Mali. Equipment in exchange for knowledge is the key element of the initiative. The Africans teach the French how to plant trees in the region and the French provide them with the necessary equipment. During the trip, cultural exchanges take place not only with the villagers but also between the travelling crew. The first objective of the initiative is to fight all united against desertification no matter the differences or the continent we live in. Through the ecosystem Global Warming affects all of us without distinction.  

DR.

From the two previous expeditions Sadia Diawara remembers the good memories. “I will never forget the first time we arrived in the village my parents had left some thirty years ago to come here and make a living”, he once told me before adding. “The planting of the first trees is an experience no one can forget”… “No matter how many trees you’ve planted, each new planted tree gives you the same sensation and feeling of pride”.   

Road Tree’P is an initiative coming from the heart asking no money or support from any government or organisation. “All we need is people coming and taking part in the trip” Sadia says.    He dreams of the day when individuals take the initiative to go on their own and plant trees in order to fight against deforestation and desertification. In every culture and religion the planting of a tree has huge signification. When he grows older Sadia Diawara would like to be able to say to his grandsons: “You see this forest over there I am somehow at the origin of it” …  “This is my legacy to you”. And, this wish of his is, indeed, what makes him great and a model for the younger generations.

DR.

The last holidays of the academic year are coming to an end. I will soon find again the rush and harrying that so much characterize my every day life in Paris.

What I will finally remember of these two weeks spent in the place I finally consider my home is above all, all the friends who following the normal course of their lives are now all settling down in Britain.

Last week Abdel khalim, a French convert to Islam also got a baby boy from his Senegalese wife. I was invited to the restaurant in Birmingham to celebrate the good news. It was an opportunity as well for me to see the small community of French expat who after living in different cities in Britain had all decided to make a living in Birmingham where they found they could practice their Muslim religion best.

Funny story for those French Citizens who just like me some few years ago have finally decided to make Britain their home.

The choice is however easy to understand. Britain is really a strange country. It is geographically very close to France but at the same time so different.
While I am writing these few lines in the main Library of the city of Coventry, for example, the man sitting on my left; a man over sixty years old is playing video games with his own laptop without it shocking anyone: a scene hard to imagine in France indeed.

But let’s have a look at what precisely in Britain attracts the French ethnic minorities born in France.

It is amazing to see how many well highly educated people from African and Asian backgrounds one can meet in the UK. People from those two communities who did well at school in most cases get very decent jobs while in France delinquency and unemployment often seems to be the only fate for the sons of immigrants and more surprisingly no matter if they did well at school or not.

Among the people of my own community living in France- I dare use the term community here for the reason that I am at the moment in Britain and unlike what is the case in France, over here communities officially exist, and are recognized and even more valued as such- very few, for some reasons, have access to higher education.

I will always remember Marie a mother of four kids I met on a coach heading for London. The lady who was in her forties was meticulously studying her law lessons on the coach. In the short conversation we had I was also to learn that she had recently come from Nigeria to join her husband living in Coventry. Back home, Marie used to work as a teacher but now in Britain she had decided to become a lawyer. Her husband also from Nigeria was a practicing doctor.

On my return from the same trip I happened to be sitting next to Abubakar; a solicitor born in Britain from Nigerian parents. Here again in the conversation we had, I was to I learn more about this passenger. His Mum who was now a retired teacher had come from Nigeria in the sixties. I will never forget this sentence of his: « I have visited many countries in Europe but what I like about this country …..» I so wished I could just have said the same thing about the country in which I was born.

The best example illustrating the difference there is between France and Britain when it comes to ethnic minorities and immigration appeared to me earlier this week. Indeed, to answer the worries of an elderly lady he afterward qualified as « begoted » Prime Minister Gordon Brown was able to use the argument that most doctors today in Britain are immigrants from Asia and Africa saving the lives of many British; in France things are rather otherwise. Immigrants are just seen as pariahs the society has to get rid of.

Most people in Britain do recognize that if the country has been doing so well in the last three decades it is partly due to immigration that acted as a plus; while in the country of Arthur de Gobineau and the French République discrimination and racism did not only handicapped the new comers but the society as a whole.

DR

« We are humanists »




Thierry Sinda, man of letters, fascinating and passionate artist, opens the doors of his universe where nostalgia and fighting spirit are often interwoven.  Author of the poetic collection « Travels to Africa in search of my deep self” Voyages en Afrique à la recherche de mon moi enivré . In this work, he evokes his journey and the encounter with his roots, the cultural duality, part of his inner self. A narrative on the roads of his journeys and his encounter with the other one beyond time
A Frenchman of origin, an African of heart, he does not forget his fight for the equality of all Men where each one will find a place to build one’s self. It is in this sense that he has created a movement, the Union for the New France « , an achieved political party which aims at giving a voice to those who are in the margin of the republic  » 



How can you define yourself?


I am a professor and researcher, a journalist, a cinema critic for the magazine Amina and the president of “The Spring of the Poets of Africa and Other Parts of the World”; an association linked to the 1901 law, created in 2006. It organises festivals and the 7^th edition is due to take place, 2010; I am also the president of The Diversified Generations (association law 1901) which fights against all forms of discriminations.


Your father was also a big poet. Did he inspire you as a poet?


 » One is not born a poet but becomes a poet. « . My father, Martial Sinda was indeed the first poet of the AEF in 1956. He was awarded the Grand Prix(Prize) of the AEF in 1956, and was a member of the 3rd generation of the movement of the Negritude to which we can add: Bernard Dadié, Paulin Joaquim David and many other members … I did not like  poetry in particular and I don ‘t believe that it is genetic . I saw myself interested in poetry by emotional shock: the first shock was born from an encounter with a girl. This was a love letter, then, a poem of love and finally the love for poetry was awakened in me. It is a movement that goes on…
I did not make poetry because of my father otherwise this would not have been authenticity. I am certainly following his path but i am not doing it consciously.


How can we qualify your style?


Once, a professor compared me to a « black Apollinaire « . Apollinaire made some calligraphy; I join an art rather abstract, a sort of cubism. I do not draw the I speak object about. But I make ideograms that is to say that I give a shape to my idea, making it follow a movement.

Is « Journey in Africa in search of my own self », a kind of quest for identity or just a mere title?


It is not a collection of poems it is a poetic drama. Each poem can be appreciated as poetry or by reading them one after the other to create the narrative of a young Frenchman who is going to Africa to discover his roots.
There is delight and disappointment because the character realizes that in Africa there is alienation, poverty, and neo-colonialism. I do not try to make art I have just made an autobiography of what i have been experiencing.



You are the president of The Spring of the Poets of Africa, when was this association born?


The Spring of the poets was created by Jacques Lang and there never was any representation of black poetry. Very often when you are invited to a purely French poetic event you cannot express all that is in your poetry because they will probably miss the point. There was a feeling of uneasiness. Many said « we only play the Negro poets when asked to; « So the idea came to me in 2004, to gather all these poets and to create The Spring of the Poets of Africa. We used the theme submitted by The Spring of the National Poets and we added specificity so that it might correspond to the profile of the poets invited. We are not sectarian.
Our festival is sponsored every year by a godfather of the world of poetry. The first godfather was Jacques Rabemananjara, a poet and Malagasy statesman, poet in the line of Césaire or Senghor who was awarded the Grand Prix (Prize) of the French academy (regional education authority) for his whole work; he died in 2005, and in the literary will he gave me, he asserted that it was good that this association is praiseworthy in the sense that it will enable African poets to be known and to know each another. Our common aim is to make the voice of the neo-negritude heard


What difficulties did you meet during the organization of this festival?


We may always face difficulties. This festival gives the Blacks the opportunity to own their history and to share it. The fight is worth it. This is the rehabilitation of the black man and his culture that we are expressing through articles and we try to write poetry. It enables us to discover one another … The first edition of the festival, at Annie Bouet’s bookshop, was a magic moment. The bookshop was crowded. Sounds of tom-tom punctuated the words. And cultures intermingled: Africa, Madagascar and the Caribbean. There were exhibitions: Elvir Mauroy; Black beauties of C. Baudelaire. Showing these papers to the others is to propose an artistic and human experience. 

It is not a sectarian initiative but a real message to break barriers and remove prejudices, to give diversity all its energy. 


Besides your cultural and literary commitment, you are the president of the Association Generation Diversity and today the president of the Union for a New France, how and why can one go from an association to a political party?


If I never got involved in politics, it is on the one hand because politics such as it is practised in Africa is hardly satisfying and on the other hand, because it seemed to me impossible to have an impact on politics. The perfect profile of the politician is no longer a fifty-year-old white man who made the ENA(NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION SCHOOL).
Moreover our political life has been dominated for more than thirty years by the same traditional political parties. They often change the name of the parties but not their political staff unless a natural change of generation takes place. Within the association Diversity Generation of which I am the president, we have decided to study the issue of diversity in politics. It has been reported that : out of 520 000 local councillors only 2000 came from the visible minority group; out of 577 members of Parliament of in the National Assembly, there were only one hundred women and one deputy elected by the hexagon coming from the coloured minority ethnic group (George Pau Langevin). Out of 209 regional councillors in the Ile-de-France region there are only three black councillors. The « white » society does not want to integrate the other elements of the French society that are different. There is a problem of integration in so far as the majority does not want to open society to others. It is the reason why with a group of friends we have decided to set up the Union for the New France.



What is your wish for France?


When the French society is just like its plural composition, we will have already won a fight.


Could you tell us about the schedule?


The 7th edition of The Spring of the Poets of Africa will be held from Tuesday, May 4th till Sunday, May 9th in partnership with the festival « L’ Afrique dans tous les sens ». This year the event will have as a theme « the 50th Anniversary of the independence of the countries of Africa « : a tribute to these men who, through the activist literature (Damascus, Dadié, Senghor) fought against colonialism and for the restoration of the African dignity


Pieces of information are available at: www.neonegritude33.afrikblog.com

DR.

Christophe Adji-Ahoudian is a man of the field before being a political actor; through his policy he is highly determined to put an end to the prejudices in the districts. It is for him a real « citizenship action ». Elected deputy mayor of the XIXth district of Paris, in charge of the youth department since 2008, he remains faithful to his program and has not stopped activist involvement.: it is more that an appointment it is a fight.
It is with this idea and faith to his commitments that he has set up the young talents festival, an event supervised by Mayor Roger Madec, since 2009, which values the skills of the young people in the « districts », an unavoidable event where all the fields of cultural activities are revealed for a couple of days.

Q: How will you define yourself?

As an Associative activist I joined the political field in a natural way. I subscribed to the PS in 2005 and then supported Roger Madec’s list during the municipal elections of 2008. From then on, he elected me deputy mayor in charge of the youth affairs. It is my first political mandate.

Q: How did you go from your associative action to the political arena?

The BGA (Bold Boys of Africa) is an association of friends, all young. It compensates the lack of initiatives for the young people. All the fights we had led for the training as well as for the cultural interest of the youngsters in the district, led me to political action. In our activist policy, there is necessarily a link between the associative and the political field.
But my political project reached its highest point during my journey in 2006 in the United States with our association BGA. We met a lot of Afro-American activists in several sectors and it opened our eyes: if we want to improve our fight it is necessary to get involved in all the sectors of society. When we came back in France, each of us undertook a mission in the sector which interestged him most. I have chosen the political arena..

Q: As Deputy Mayor in charge of youth affairs, do you consider yourself as a spokesman of the young people in the districts?

Before being interested in politics, I was committed to the creation of many associations, and I still stick to my role of man on the field which strengthens my link with the other young people.
They see in me the associative activist who has chosen the political tool to bring about more concrete answers. In my role of associative activist, I only had limited actions
I do not claim to be able to say that I am a model but hope my policy will meet its expectations as much as possible.

Q: Which results have your action brought about since 2008?

Concerning the training and jobs opportunities for the youngsters, we are in a very positive dynamic. Some examples of our actions: we lowered the cost of the BAFA to 50 euros to allow young people to have access to training and work as guides in children camps(the usual cost of the BAFA was 450 euros). We had 70 subscribers for 40 available jobs. The training in computing was a frank success because we had 7 times more subscribers than we expected. In September the forum on the Cooperative Education, gathered 350 young people, while we expected 50. This is concrete action which enables us to facilitate the professional integration of young people. It is necessary to know that all the led actions are made according to the needs and expectations of the young people of the district. Roger Madec, the mayor of the XIXth district dedicates a big part of his policy to the notion of diversity, which also defines the district.
Q: On the theme of cultural and ethnic diversity, the « salad bowl » ,….  You set up in 2009, the festival of the young talents. Where does this idea come from?

It is a kind of participative democracy. Indeed, this festival was born in a meeting between Roger Madec and the young people of the district, during the municipal campaign. During the meeting, young people voiced the will to be valued in their know-how. They did not want us to limit their images to crimes and passiveness.. The idea of the festival was born. We held our promises. When elected, we set up « the festival of the young talents » of the district in several sectors. The first edition was in July, 2009.

Q: What is the aim of this festival?

It is an initiative on 6 days, taking place in  July and in various places in the XIXth district of Paris. To present the cultural and sports talents we also want to show the geographical heritage of the district.
The implementation of the festival requires the creation of a specific program for the necessary costs and various stages to be followed.
First of all we elaborate and submit a program; and I make a budgetary proposal to the Mayor. Once validated, I present the godfathers thanks to door-to-door canvassing. Godfathers are the persons who are going « to chair » the festival. Once we’ve found the godfathers, we appeal to applicants for the young talents in the field of: the textile creation, Music, and humorist careers. These 3 domains will define the first three days of the festival. The three following days will be about: football, basketball and dance: the organization is delegated to local associations. For example for FOOTBALL it is BJA, for basketball it is Solitary FC and as regards dance it is Ivoiry Ebony.We organize committees with other associations to make sure that the actions are indeed in connection with the presented discipline. This year we shall add a competition of young talents entrepreneurship to encourage the young people who want create their own business. A message we give them is: « we support you in what you are, what defines you ».
This festival would not be possible without the mobilization of social actors. It is the tripartite commitment which takes place between the institution ( the City hall), social associations and young citizens ( the initiators).

Q: How are the godfathers chosen?

For the first edition in 2009, we have chosen the godfathers among the former inhabitants of the XIXth distirict and who are now famous: the main godfather are OXMO PUCCINO; Nasty, a dancer; Mamoutou Diarra, a basketball player; Mickael Djarousso; Sadio Bee or again the Comedie Club with whom we had worked previously.
For this second edition, we selected Agnès B for fashion, Djamel Debouze, Gad Elmaleh or Omar and Fred for the humorists. For the concert, we hope to get Yannick Noah or Kelly Rowland.
Our motto is to remain in a spirit of diversity so that the festival remains a real platform of human meeting and common experience.

Q: How are your financial partners chosen ?

For the 2009 edition, it was largely public financed (the city of bets, the city hall of the 19th district, the League of the Education, 3F, Paris housing association) and many associations and shopkeepers of the XIXth.
For this new edition, we want to widen our financial partners. Have more support from private partners (Banks and shopkeepers). Wide private support is a guarantee for the success of this citizenship intiative.
Q: How are you going to advertise this event?

We are going to use all means of communication to reach a wide and diversified target: pamphlets, posters,, Facebook (Facebook talents19ème), radio stations, TV channels. Last year Trace TV was present during the festival, this year we are also trying to get M6 as a godfather.
The dates 5th to 9th of July are held for the second edition of the Festival of the young talents. We hope to have as much success as last year.

Where do you have enquiries for the young talent’s festival ?

Christophe Adji-Ahoudian

Tel : 01 44 52 28 18

http :::www.mairie19.paris.fr/mairie19/jsp/site/portal.jsp

Facebook « Festival jeunes talents «

DR

Immigrants’ voting rights: the debate is still raging

The debate on national identity and immigration is raised in electoral programs. With such a political tension dividing policymakers and citizens, as well as several political parties, Martine Aubry, the president of the socialist party, suggested that immigrants should have the voting right before the next local elections.

On Tuesday the 12^th of January 2010, the Socialist party whose head is Martine Aubry submitted a bill to the National Assembly to enable immigrants to vote during the next local elections. The European elections are not part of the debate yet. The government refuses to pass this bill and this reaction testifies that some policymakers are still disturbed by this debate which feeds electoral programs.

Indeed the government’s spokesman, Luc Chatel claimed on RFI, « This bill was not designed only for the coming local elections. » even knowing that this voting right was deeply linked to the notion of citizenship.  Eric Woerth, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, corroborates the government’s opposition claiming that the French population is not ready to welcome that proposal.

Paradoxically, a recent poll unexpectedly raised concern among the bill’s opponents, but was cheerfully welcomed by Eric Besson: the  high majority of French citizens (55%) accepts immigrants’ voting right for the local elections as the Secretary of Immigration wished such a result even if on a long-term period. He expressed his opinion on a TV political program, 17 heures politique, reported by an opinion poll made by the French broadcasting regulatory body for the magazine, Le Parisien Aujourd’hui en France, published yesterday.

Why this reform is taking such a long time in France whereas immigrants like their French counterparts contribute to the economic and social life of the country? This seems even more contradictory, knowing that immigrants have already been given certain rights: the right to vote during elections in works council, boards of directors of the Social security fund, social housing, industrial tribunals, associations. Immigrants also have the same basic rights as French citizens. Immigrants are taxpayers and are instrumental in developing local as well as the national wealth.

A few people fear that granting the voting right to immigrants, might give birth to an identity vote, a community vote and that the French nation might turn into a divided nation. Republican values might be threatened as well. There is no reason to think so. However, making a difference among voters on cultural grounds can generate tensions based on multiculturalism misunderstandings.

What about the French value of Equality born during the French Revolution: same rights, same duties…

As the first snow fell at the foot of the Italian Alps, the centre of Coccaglio presented an idyllic scene. In front of its 18th-century church, the flakes came to rest on a magnificent Christmas tree, rising almost to the height of the Roman tower opposite.

But in this town of 8,000 inhabitants between Milan and Venice, the approach to Christianity’s most sacred festival has been marked in a very special way. On orders from the local council, controlled by the conservative Northern League, police have been carrying out house-to-house searches for illegal immigrants in an action dubbed Operation White Christmas. The operation is due to finish on December 25.

Some 3,000 people have marched through the town in protest at the operation, which the Vatican called « sad and distressing ». But it has been endorsed by Silvio Berlusconi’s government. Visiting nearby Brescia, where he announced the opening of a detention camp for suspected illegal immigrants – a so-called centre for identification and expulsion – Berlusconi’s interior minister, Roberto Maroni, a leader of the League, complimented Coccaglio’s mayor.

« Operation White Christmas has been carried out in other towns with other names and without arousing the same kind of clamour, » he said. « These are initiatives that serve to check and combat the phenomenon of illegal immigrants. So there is no ’story’ and no racism. »

The migrant population has soared in Italy’s industrial heartland, making it fertile territory for the League, with its xenophobic rhetoric. A League poster at the last general election showed three white sheep kicking out a black one.

Coccaglio’s registered, non-Italian population rose from 177 to 1,562 in the 10 years to 2008. In Brescia, non-Italians outnumber natives in the centre, which is lined with halal butchers, African markets, Chinese bazaars and takeaway kebab shops. Suspicions exploded into fury last month in the town nearest Coccaglio, when a Moroccan man was arrested on suspicion of attacking and raping a local woman. Eyewitnesses said he risked being lynched as he was escorted from the carabinieri barracks.

Franco Claretti, Coccaglio’s mayor, confirmed the police operation would end on Christmas Day but that was a coincidence and claimed the White Christmas tag was invented by a local newspaper headline-writer rather than his council.

« You will not find it in any council document », he said. « In Italy, council ordinances are valid for 60 days and this one was passed on October 27. »

But critics of the operation were sceptical. « They did not deny it at the outset, » said Umberto Gobbi, a radio station manager who organised the protest last month. In his view, the Northern League is playing a game of provocation and subsequent denial, intended to keep tension high. « Operation White Christmas forms part of a sort of competition to see who can be most provocative, » he said.

Claretti said he tried to set the record straight when he was first contacted by the national media, but the resulting report had a more explosive element: a comment attributed to one of his councillors that « for me, Christmas is not a festival of hospitality, but one of Christian tradition, of our identity ». Again, Claretti said the councillor was misquoted and that what he really said was that hospitality had to be extended all year, not just at Christmas.

In his rectory on the outskirts of Brescia, Father Mario Toffari, head of the diocesan office for the pastoral care of immigrants, lifted his shoulders and opened his arms in a classic Italian gesture of scepticism.

« If that is the way it was, all they needed to do was take it back, » he said.

The League had repeatedly exploited Christian symbols for its own ends « and the symbols of Christianity ought not to be used against anyone », said Toffari.

In Brescia, recently, as in several other towns, League members handed out crosses in the street to protest at a European court of human rights ruling that displaying crucifixes in Italian classrooms was a violation of religious freedom. Elsewhere, the party has mounted campaigns for the erection of nativity scenes on council premises.

The operation in Coccaglio is the product of legislation promoted by the Berlusconi government giving mayors wider powers to flush out illegal immigrants. Under Italian law, councils can withdraw the right of abode six months after the expiry of an immigrant’s residence permit if he or she cannot show an application has been submitted for renewal.Claretti said the police were delivering letters telling immigrants whose permits had expired to prove they had applied to renew them. But Toffari said the normal procedure was to post a letter inviting the recipient to go to the town hall. Sending round the police was « like saying these people could be dangerous and need to be checked in a special way ». Claretti said that dispatching registered letters would have cost his council €3,000 it could ill afford.

« Besides, if there is a letter they just put it to one side; if they see a police officer, they take it seriously. As far as I’m concerned, this is a gesture of politeness. If someone has nothing to hide, he or she has nothing to fear. »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/20/italy-coccaglio-operation-white-christmas