strange days

I'm with this guy. And i'm not sure if you guys got this particular piece of news over in the US, but limbo doesn't exist anymore.

Yeah, i kinda think we might be coming to the end of the world. Where does one sign up for that spaceship?

In other news, Vanessa and i are leaving for Madagascar on Tuesday morning, and i am RIDICULOUSLY excited. Might get to the internet one more time before then, so if you want a postcard (or a lemur) and i don't already have your address, now would be the time to e-mail or facebook me.

love y'all.

"Un grand ouf de soulangement"

Here's the very very very good news. In the first round of elections on Sunday, the French recorded their lowest rate of abstention EVER - 15.2%. (Sidenote, i originally typed abstinence, and didn't catch it until after i'd published the blog. lol. that would put a WHOLE new spin on the elections. Tho it would be understandable, the sight of Jean-Marie Le Pen does have the same impact as a cold shower). This is awesome, given that the first round of the 2002 elections were marked first and foremost by the fact that people "stayed away from the polls in droves." Whatever other hang-ups French voters might have, they seem to have gotten over their apathy.

So the horror scenario - Sarkozy-Le Pen - didn't happen, and French voters now have two weeks to choose between Nicholas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal. Wow, wouldn't it be amazing if a major Western nation had a female president? How cool would it be (even tho i prefer Obama to Hillary) If the United States, France, and Germany all had female heads of State by 2009? Dream about it for a few minutes...


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ok, now the reality. Sarkozy's going to win.

And let us now all take a moment to mourn the La Gauche Française (i had originally typed "the french left" and then realized that it sounds MUCH better in the original). In this election there were about 5 candidates that could be classified as "extreme-left." All their first-round scores added together don't equal up to that of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the representative of the extreme right. Add to that the fact that "centrist" François Bayrou pulled a very significant 18%, and the one thing you have to admit is that the American stereotype of the french as cigarette-smoking, coffee-sipping, near communists no longer has any basis in fact. This makes me sad.

In other news, today Vanessa and i failed to fly a kite. Oh, and i put up more pictures, so look at them.

love y'all.

the return of monica's inane political ramblings

...you know you've missed them.

I've cried about 5 times this week about what happened at VA Tech, and i've been reading Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival and am unspeakably horrified at American foreign policy, but neither of those things are what i want to write about today.

Ok, raise your hand if you know that the first round of the French presidential elections is tomorrow (Sunday the 22nd). Hands down. Raise your hand if you can name more than 1 of the 4-8 major candidates competing in the first round. If your hand was raised for either of those, congrats. If not, don't worry, Aunt Monica went all the way to a tiny French possession in the Indian Ocean just to write an edifying blog entry for you.

The Issues: "Quel campagne nul!"
Monday in the teacher's lounge one of the teachers made a political joke and the principal went off: "what a terrible campaign!" she complained, "there's absolutely no social platform whatsoever." And as far as i can tell, she's right. There are a few stabs at actually having issues in this campaign - people babble occasionally about the 35-hour work week or the problem of housing for the homeless, a handfull of green candidates and environmental activists fight valiantly and vainly to keep global warming in the debate - but mostly it's about things like national identity and personality, and, sadly enough, gender. The major center-left candidate, Segolene Royal, is a woman, and i've heard from a frightening number of French people that this will stop her from getting elected. Sadly, there really are major issues to be confronted here. The European Union is near crisis-point, the environment too, France's economy could use some serious help...but none of these things is likely to be really changed...

The Candidates: "Sarko=Le Pen=Fascist"

the major candidates:
Nicholas Sarkozy (UMP): The center-right candidate, the ultimate establishment candidate, and as certain French people of my acquaintance lable him: "Baby Bush." Sarko was interior minister up until last month, when he quit to campaign full time. Which means that those riots in French cities in 2005 - those were his job to deal with. Result: The Sarkozy laws: lots of police presence in problem neighbourhoods, lots of prison for problem kids, not a lot of real solutions to problems. Oh and yeah, he's known for his close ties to everyone's favourite cowboy president. Finally, Sarkozy he's been moving his policies further right to court voters away from Jean-Marie Le Pen (see below). Basically, i can't stand Sarko, and neither can any of my French friends. But he'll probably win.

Segolene Royal (PS): The center-left candidate and, as mentioned, France's first ever serious female candidate for president. Yay. Unfortunately, that's about the only thing she has going for her. The woman doesn't appear to have an unscripted thought in her pretty head, and the media doesn't help by devoting pages and pages of coverage to her offhand suggestion that every French home should fly a flag on on Bastille Day while writing one article on her actual platform - which isn't terrible.

François Bayrou (UDF): The center-center candidate. Bayrou is an establishment politician running on a platform that French voters are sick of the establishment. He proposes himself as a centrist alternative to the bickering between the left and right. It might not actually be the worst idea in the world, and too be honest he has some truly good things to say in his platform, but my opinion of Bayrou is irredeemably influenced by a French satirical news show, "les Guignols d'info," which constantly depicts him as a dithering wussy who can't figure out what tie to wear without consulting a poll.

Jean-Marie Le Pen (FN): It's painful to have to list Le Pen as a major candidate. He's a right-wing racist who's main message is "France for the French." Anti-european cooperation, anti-immigration, oh, and yeah he eats kittens for breakfast and chubby little babies for lunch.

i'm going to have to cut this short because i'm about to be kicked off of the internet. I'm not even going to get to write about my favourite candidate - the green party's Dominique Voynet. Monday or Tuesday i'll blog about the results of the first round, and why they happened.

Love y'all

The tour de cirques

What did you do on Easter weekend? Because i spent mine on a four-day hiking/camping trip that included a sunrise climb to the highest point in the Indian ocean, from which i was able to witness a volcanic eruption. Not trying to make anyone jealous or anything...

I was going to do a day-by-day account of the hike, but i realized that a whole lot of it would be "and then we went up" "and then we went down" "and then there was more mud." so instead, here are random highlights:

Friday, in the rain, getting to a picnic spot with a fire going, and Alex, after me telling about my kids drawing dragons on their valentines, coining the phrase "i love you like a dragon," which we proceeded to scream at various moments all through the rest of the hike.

Friday night eating dinner in Kyra and Bridget's tent when JJ called out ot us, "the volcano's erupting!" and looking out to the East to a red glow and plumes of dark smoke...a little later looking up in the other direction to see the entire milky way spread out before my eyes.

Saturday morning, not really having slept in a cold wet sleeping bag, getting up at 4 to climb with JJ, Jonathan, and Rachel to the top of Piton de Neiges, the highest point in the Indian Ocean. Watching the volcano erupting and the sun rising as we tried not to freeze.

Saturday, taking a path (recommended by the tourism bureau) that was marked 5 km and should have been marked 5 hours. Jonathan and i running ahead and doing an hour-and-a-half descent in 45-50 minutes in order to get food for everyone and ensure that we would all catch the bus to where we were supposed to spend the night.

Sunday, walking along the road to the entrance to Mafate ( the circle of mountains with no roads). Managing to get a hitch for Kyra, Rachel, and our packs in a pickup truck. The rest of us, with a huge weight literally off our backs, stopping to play at a playground.

Sunday afternoon, separated into two tents, insulting eachother through the walls as the rain fell outside.

Monday, tired and irritable and sore, but still able to appreciate passing over an amazing suspension bridge, and the proseltyzing hiker who passed us saying, "Hallelujah, vous etes super. Bonne journée, Hallelujah."

Getting to the end of the trail and feeling sick and tired and like a complete and utter ROCK STAR.

So, yeah, it was an AMAZING weekend. And to add to the awesomeness, my camera is back in the world and i have pictures uploading on Yahoo as we speak. YAY.

And in non-Reunion news, i sent in my official intent to enroll and tuition deposit for NYU today. So come visit me in NYC next year.

love y'all