The Flowers and the Candles are here to protect us

A father talks to his young son about the terrorist attacks that happened in their home city.

Liberté Egalité Fraternité

Rasheed Daci

John Oliver Paris Attacks

A life is a life

Jeremy Corbyn has suggested the British media under-played terrorist attacks in Beirut and Ankara compared to its coverage of the atrocities in Paris this weekend. The Labour leader claimed the events “got hardly any publicity” and the media should “report things that happen outside of Europe as well as inside”.

On Thursday evening, over 40 people died in Beirut in an IS terror attack a day before the Paris strikes. The extremists are also believed to have been responsible for the October suicide bombings in Ankara, Turkey, which killed over 100 people. Mr Corbyn told ITV’s Lorraine Kelly this morning: “I think first of all what happened in Paris was appalling, this is a vibrant, multicultural city, young people of all faiths, and older people as well, all there together, and cultures, and this terrible thing happened.

“Likewise, which didn’t unfortunately get hardly any publicity, was the bombing in Beirut last week or the killing in Turkey. I think our media needs be able to report things that happen outside of Europe as well as inside. A life is a life.”

More at Huff. Post UK – Also see The Conversation.

Paris reels after multiple terror attacks

At least 120 people were killed in a wave of simultaneous attacks on Friday evening in Paris, in the deadliest violence to strike France since World War II.

Gunmen and bombers attacked busy restaurants, bars and a concert hall at six locations around Paris on Friday evening, killing scores of people in what a shaken President François Hollande described as an unprecedented terrorist attack. The apparently coordinated gun and bomb assault came as the country, a founder member of the US-led coalition waging air strikes against Islamic State group fighters in Syria and Iraq, was on high alert for terrorist attacks ahead of a global climate conference due to open later this month.

More at France 24

Promises and Betrayals in the Middle East

Documentary on how British double-dealing during the First World War ignited the conflict between Arab and Jew in the Middle East.
This is a story of intrigue among rival empires; of misguided strategies; and of how conflicting promises to Arab and Jew created a legacy of bloodshed which determined the fate of the Middle East.

Gun attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo kills 13

Gunmen have attacked the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 13 people and injuring seven in an apparent Islamist attack. At least two masked attackers opened fire with assault rifles in the office and exchanged shots with police in the street outside before escaping by car.

The gunmen shouted "we have avenged the Prophet Muhammad", witnesses say. President Francois Hollande said there was no doubt it had been a terrorist attack "of exceptional barbarity". A major police operation is under way in the Paris area to catch the killers.

BBC News – Aljazeera English – Sky 

Witnesses said the gunmen shouted "Allahu Akbar" (Arabic for God is great) during the deadly rampage. It was by far the bloodiest attack on Charlie Hebdo, but not the first.

The left-leaning magazine is known for its provocative and acerbic commentary on world affairs, routinely taking on the high and mighty, be they celebrities, presidents or popes. But its jabs at Islamic extremists have stirred the most controversy.

The satirical weekly has been repeatedly threatened for publishing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in the name of free speech and France’s cherished secular laws.

More at France 24

#JeSuisCharlie - Twitter users have begun to replace their profile avatars with a white-on-black image of the phrase - which translates as "we are all Charlie" in English - in sympathy with those killed. (Sky)

Syrian Woman Secretly Films Life in Raqqa under ISIL

A Syrian woman agreed to carry a hidden camera to film how life is like inside Syria's northern city of Raqqa, which has been under the control of the Islamic State (aka ISIL or ISIS). The report was aired on France 2. It shows some French women who decided to move indefinitely to Syria while abandoning their previous lives in France.

May 1968 events in France

The May 1968 events in France were a volatile period of civil unrest punctuated by demonstrations and massive general strikes as well as the occupation of universities and factories across France. At the height of its fervor, it virtually brought the entire advanced capitalist economy of France to a dramatic halt. The protests reached such a point that political leaders feared civil war or revolution. As a matter of fact, the national government temporarily ceased to function after President de Gaulle secretly left France for a few hours. Although the events sometimes turned violent, they also had artistic and festive aspects with numerous quasi-improvised debates and assemblies, songs, imaginative graffitis, posters and slogans.

The unrest began with a series of student occupation protests against capitalism, consumerism and traditional institutions, values and order. It then spread to factories with strikes involving 11,000,000 workers, more than 22% of the total population of France at the time, for two continuous weeks. The movement was characterized by its spontaneous and de-centralized wildcat disposition; this created contrast and sometimes even conflict between itself and the establishment, trade unions and workers' parties. It was the largest general strike ever attempted in France, and the first ever nation-wide wildcat general strike.

Wikipedia

How Marine Le Pen Helped France Lurch To The Right

Journeyman TV

The Crimean War

The Crimean War (October 1853 - February 1856) was a conflict between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire. The war was part of a long-running contest between major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire.
It is sometimes considered to be one of the first "modern" wars as it "introduced technical changes which affected the future course of warfare", including the first tactical use of railways and the electric telegraph.
The Crimean War was one of the first wars to be documented extensively in written reports and photographs: notably by William Russell (for The Times newspaper). News from war correspondents reaching Britain from the Crimea kept the public informed of the day-to-day realities of the battlefield for the first time.

Paris Demonstrators Chant 'Jew, France is Not Yours'

A chilling new video clip recorded yesterday captures the reality of rising anti-Semitism in France. In it, a group of anti-government demonstrators march through Paris, singing the French national anthem and chanting “Juif, la France n’est pas a toi” (“Jew, France is not yours”)–all on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day:

Perhaps the most disturbing quality of the video is its vantage point–peering out a window onto the streets of Paris. The implication of the image is as disturbing as it is mundane. Today, in the capital of a European Union member state, one can look out the window and see demonstrators march proudly down the street while shouting anti-Semitic slogans. (A minority of viewers, in an attempt to dispute the chant’s prejudice, have claimed that the protesters are not denouncing “Juif,” but rather “CRIF,” which is the acronym for the Representative Council of the French Jewish Institutions, as though this ameliorates the problem.)

Tablet Magazine

Bush, Gog and Magog

Here's a story we should all be ashamed of missing: George W Bush attempted to sell the invasion of Iraq to Jacques Chirac using biblical prophecy.

In the winter of 2003, when George Bush and Tony Blair were frantically gathering support for their planned invasion, Professor Thomas Römer, an Old Testament expert at the university of Lausanne, was rung up by the Protestant Federation of France. They asked him to supply them with a summary of the legends surrounding Gog and Magog and as the conversation progressed, he realised that this had originally come, from the highest reaches of the French government.

President Jacques Chirac wanted to know what the hell President Bush had been on about in their last conversation. Bush had then said that when he looked at the Middle East, he saw "Gog and Magog at work" and the biblical prophecies unfolding. But who the hell were Gog and Magog? Neither Chirac nor his office had any idea. But they knew Bush was an evangelical Christian, so they asked the French Federation of Protestants, who in turn asked Professor Römer.

He explained that Gog and Magog were, to use theological jargon, crazy talk. They appear twice in the Old Testament, once as a name, and once in a truly strange prophecy in the book of Ezekiel:

And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.

Full article by Andrew Brown on The Guardian

On Lâche Rien" (english subtitles)

"Here is On Lache Rien ! (We Don't Give Up!), a great French revolt song by the French band HK et Les Saltimbanks. They come from around Lille and they've just released their first album Citoyen du Monde (Citizen of the World) on January 31, 2011.
After subtitling it in Japanese, here it is in English (thanks to Maja and David).
As one of the Saltimbanks' lines goes: "The alarm clock has gone off/It's time to reset the counters to zero!" Peoples of Europe wake up! Thank you to our brothers and sisters in the Arab world who have broken the ice! You are our sparks! Thousands of young people in Spain are on a war footing! Hats off to the youths in the U.K. and the people occupying Wall Street...!
Down with the capitalist leaches! Eat the rich!
Ya Basta! Enough is Enough! Y'en a marre! Kfa!"

Stupid Law Says 'NO' To Gay Marriage!? Google Says 'Challenge Accepted.'

Until May 18, 2013, same-sex marriage was illegal in France. Watch to find out how these couples challenged that law, one gay video chat at a time. Note: These symbolic marriages were not legally binding, but rumor has it all the couples in the video have plans to get legally married as well.

France reels from skinheads' savage attack

Police in France have arrested four men after the brutal beating of Clement Meric, a left-wing student, in Paris.He later died from the attack, blamed on far-right activists and has caused shock throughout the French political establishment.

AlJazeera - More on Huffington Post

First gay couple wed in France amid tight security

Two men have become the first gay couple to wed in France, just days after President Francois Hollande signed the same-sex marriage bill into law. Vincent Austin and Bruno Boileau tied the knot in the southern city of Montpellier amid tight security.

Mr Hollande had warned he would not accept any disruption to the ceremony. The new legislation has proved controversial and sparked violent protests. The anti-gay marriage lobby, backed by the Catholic Church and conservative opposition, argues the bill undermines an essential building block of society. Extra police were drafted in, with fear that the extreme-right might also attend, our correspondent added.

BBC News

Mali war disrupts cocaine supply to Europe

France's surprise intervention in northern Mali against Islamist fighters involved in lucrative drug-running has disrupted cocaine supply to Europe but smugglers are already finding new routes, analysts said. The former colonial power sent its jets and troops exactly two months ago to eliminate Al-Qaeda-linked groups that had been controlling northern Mali for nine months and were threatening to move south towards the capital.

The jihadist network in Mali's north has funded itself by taking foreign hostages but also by levying a tax on smugglers running drugs from Latin America to feed Europe's ever-growing market. Poverty and the lack of government presence in the vast desert expanse has provided an ideal ground for smugglers.

Daily Nation

Hero Stéphane Hessel has died

Stéphane Frédéric Hessel (20 October 1917 – 26 February 2013) was a diplomat, ambassador, writer, concentration camp survivor, French Resistance fighter and BCRA agent. Born German, he became a naturalised French citizen in 1939. He participated in the editing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. In 2011, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers.

In October 2010, his essay, Time for Outrage! (original French title: Indignez-vous!), was published in an edition of 6,000 copies (ISBN 978-1455509720). It has sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide and has been translated into Swedish, Danish, Basque, Catalan, Italian, German.Greek, Portuguese, Slovenian, Spanish, Croatian, Hebrew, Korean, and Dutch. Translations into Japanese, Hungarian, and other languages are planned. In the United States, The Nation magazine's March 7–14, 2011 issue published the entire essay in English.

Hessel's booklet argues that the French need to again become outraged, as were those who participated in the Resistance during World War II. Hessel's reasons for personal outrage include the growing gap between the very rich and the very poor, France's treatment of its illegal immigrants, the need to re-establish a free press, the need to protect the environment, importance of protecting the French welfare system, and the plight of Palestinians, recommending that people read the September 2009 Goldstone Report. He calls for peaceful and non-violent insurrection.

In 2011, one of the names given to the Spanish protests against corruption and bipartisan politics was Los Indignados (The Outraged), taken from the title of the book's translation there (¡Indignaos!). These protests, in conjunction with the Arab Spring, later helped to inspire other protests in many countries, including Greece, UK, Chile, Israel, and Occupy Wall Street which began in New York's financial district, but has now spread across the United States and numerous other countries. Ongoing protests in Mexico challenging corruption, drug cartel violence, economic hardship and policies also have been called the Indignados.

Wikipedia – Al Jazeera – NY Times – The Star

France impose media blackout on North Mali war

France has in an unprecedented move called for a total media blackout in what many say is an attempt to save her image from damages caused upon her former colony Mali.
The ban on the media comes as the international Federation for Human rights issue a damning report accusing both the French and Malian troops of gross human rights violation. In a meeting called to sensitize local journalists about the war in the north, Malian army introduced what they call the rule of engagement for any journalist wishing to cover the war in the north.

PressTV