French Presidential Elections This Weekend

On Sat­ur­day, I have to go vote for the first round of the Pres­i­den­tial Elec­tions at the French Embassy in Ottawa. France will only vote on Sun­day, but as “French abroad” we have to cast our bal­lot a day earlier.

Graffiti and Political Stickers

I’m a big fan of polit­i­cal or cre­ative graf­fiti and stick­ers, and every time I go to France, I enjoy tak­ing pic­tures of the walls. The 2012 batch was pretty cre­ative, prob­a­bly because of the upcom­ing pres­i­den­tial elections!

Picture of the Week: Occupy Ottawa, a Month Later

Last week­end, I walked through Con­fed­er­a­tion Square, where Occupy Ottawa set­tled. I hadn’t gone back since the day the move­ment started.

The Walls Are Talking

Every time I go to France, I like to take the pulse of the pop­u­la­tion and to sound out cur­rent issues. Graf­fiti and stick­ers can be found every­where, and these lit­tle words writ­ten or stuck on urban frag­ments tell a lot about how peo­ple feel.

Change A Life

A while ago, I was vis­it­ing Gean’s blog when I noticed an intrigu­ing ban­ner: “Lend $25, change a life. Get $25 back and lend it again. Change another life.” I clicked on the ban­ner and I was directed to Kiva.
I learned that Kiva’s mis­sion was to: “empower indi­vid­u­als to lend to an entre­pre­neur across the globe”.

Another World Is Possible

The more I attend classes at uni­ver­sity, the more I feel like I belong in a museum. The big museum of failed and for­got­ten ideals. Move along, noth­ing to see here.

No Prorogation Rally In Ottawa

Let me put it this way: Cana­di­ans are usu­ally pretty quiet and it takes a lot to have them go down in the streets. But Stephen Harper made it, he man­aged to anger Cana­di­ans enough and have them demon­strate in the mid­dle of the win­ter. Way to go, Stevie!

Unpleasant Realities of American Life

I think prospec­tive immi­grants should be given the whole pic­ture and I don’t believe wear­ing pink-colored glasses really helps on the long run.

This is not about bash­ing Canada or North Amer­ica, or say­ing that other coun­tries on earth are by com­par­i­son much bet­ter. This is about giv­ing some other facts, for once a bit on the “minus” side.

It's Okay Not To Believe

To me, going door to door try­ing to explain peo­ple they are going to hell is about as use­less as a tele­mar­keter who is call­ing at 11:00 pm to sell AIG stocks. How does shov­ing your beliefs in my face is going to make the world a bet­ter place?

Rebel France IV

Walls are talk­ing in France! Here is the sec­ond part of my French graffitis.