pat_le_lion: (Default)
I have reservations about the EU and the way it is run, like a lot of people. But I don't want to see it implode. The EU isn't perfect but it stopped member countries being at war with each other. It brought peace.

Seeing the UK leave is a big blow to it: the Leavers are being smug about it and seem to be under the delusion that the European project need them more than the UK need the EU. I hope the Remainers will fight for their right to stay. This decision to leave is punishing a lot of people, Leavers included. Wearing blinkers and refusing to face reality won't prevent them from feeling the pain.

The rest of the EU members show a strange determination to go on without the UK, when they should show some sympathy for Remainers and their own citizens who live and work in the UK. To witness that going on doesn't reflect well on the UK or the EU. In the same way solidarity wasn't shown to Greece, the UK sees the other member states turn against it to the extent that the UK wasn't even invited to the recent summit in Bratislava.

Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic rebelling against welcoming their quota of refugees is another ugly side of countries who take advantage of free movement to settle in Western Europe and yet, show appaling racism and xenophobia agaisnt refugees... They want to have their cake and eat it and will be part of the European Project only as long as it serves them and they can fill their pockets at its expense.

To see the EU turning more and more into a nightmare through the behaviour and lack of solidarity displayed by its members is heartbreaking. And what about the young folks and their opportunities being squandered by the older generations?

2015

Dec. 16th, 2015 07:48 pm
pat_le_lion: (Default)
I don't normally dwell about how good or bad a year has been: good or bad, you still lose a year of you life once it comes to an end ;)

But I feel 2015 has been somewhat different. Although I live mostly abroad now, in Ireland, and consider myself to be a citizen of the world, I felt reminded of my identity as a French person because of the acts of terror perpetrated in France this year. The attacks against the cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo were the first blow last January and the atrocities committed in Paris last November were an other... A weaker country could have seen its social fabric desintegrate and sunk into violence. Fortunately, even though I felt physically sick to see the National Front score so many votes at the last regional elections, the country is still strong enough to brush off attempts at winding people up against one another. And ultimately, the French rejected Marine Le Pen at the second round of the elections.

But should we be complacent and think that the population will be able to carry on after acts of terror are perpetrated against it? Especially knowing those mass murders were carried out in retaliation for the actions of our government and our armies in the Middle East?

So 2015 is coming to an end, we'll kiss under the mistletoe at midnight in the New Year and it will be relegated in the past. Roll on 2016! 2015 has been an atrocious year for us, giving us a taste of the horrors faced daily by people in Syria, Lybia and others as a direct consequence of France's foreign policies in those countries. But I also fear 2015 has been merely a foretaste of more bloody and barbaric plots to come.
pat_le_lion: (Default)
I wish to thank my younger self for being active and keen to keep himself fit. I am grateful to my younger self for not staying up late drinking and smoking. I can only praise my younger self for having exercised caution around drugs and for not eating just about any rubbish that passed for food back then. I respect my younger self for resisting peer pressure and for being pretty much his own man, even when he had to suffer the consequences.

I wish my younger self had known what my older self does now but I wouldn't be myself now without making some mistakes and learning from them.

I want my younger self to know that I love him with his qualities and flaws.

Ebola

Jul. 30th, 2014 11:42 am
pat_le_lion: (Default)
HSE alerts Irish doctors to watch for deadly Ebola virus

Deadly Ebola virus a threat to whole of Europe, warn health experts

Let's look at it this way: if you catch the Ebola virus, you have a 10% rate of survival, rather that a 90% chance to go and meet your Creator, which you will do anyway eventually... I can't think of a more horrible way to go though: you bleed internally and externally, presumably in a lot of pain before you kick the bucket. Not the most serene and peaceful death.

Death

May. 22nd, 2014 07:26 pm
pat_le_lion: (Default)
I have been thinking about death more often lately. I never thought about it much when I was younger but wondering about it has been creeping up more and more in my thoughts: when will I die? How? Will I be happy with what I have done with my life? Will the end come too soon? The only thing that seems obvious is I won't be seeing anybody I know on the other side. Death is a lonely stage: whether you're in company of others or not, you die alone.

I fear death a little bit. I don't want to die thrashing about futilely. I don't want to be uncomfortable or in pain when I die. I hope it will be sudden, a simple passage from one state to another. A state of silence, inertia, darkness. A state of non-existence and no awareness of it.

If there is one thing I don't care about in the afterlife, it's my online presence. Now,there getting the public worried about it, as if dying in itself wasn't enough.

http://www.samapplegate.co.uk/social-media/facebook-twitter-and-death-what-happens-when-you-die/
pat_le_lion: (Default)
Je suis vieux et je ne m'émeus pas facilement normalement mais je trouve cette femme tout simplement admirable. Une putain intello et artistique, d'une grande intelligence et d'une grande humanité.


http://www.franceculture.fr/emission-l-atelier-fiction-memoires-de-l-inacheve-de-griselidis-real-2013-04-24
pat_le_lion: (Default)
Some obscure track by one of the most-underrated band of all time... I had this album at one time but it seems I lost it.

pat_le_lion: (Default)
People spread negativity online only because they think they can get away with it. Yet, does it deserve any attention? No. If you are creative and talented, just get on with it.

http://www.nme.com/news/architects/64084

You are not the first and you won't be the last to be criticized and put down.
pat_le_lion: (Default)
How can I resist sharing a cartoon that cute and colourful with you on such a beautiful day?



Off to the garden now with a book I had been looking forward to read for a while: 'Rub Out The Words: The letters of William Burroughs 1959-1974'. I just received it today :)It follows the first book published in the early 90s, that left Burroughs in Paris. These letters were written while the author stayed in London (of which I wasn't even aware of) and it was over that time that he severed the links he had with the Beat Generation. It is also over that period that he wrote 'The ticket that exploded' and 'Nova Express', the only two novels by him I couldn't get into AT ALL while being a fan of his other works. I just felt he pushed his cut-up technique too far, making the reading process less enjoyable. But never mind, I expect this new addition to my Burroughs collection will keep me occupied over a few lazy afternoons.
pat_le_lion: (Default)
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My parents didn't let us have posters on the walls as they thought it would look tatty. And, with hindsight, I think they were right.
pat_le_lion: (Default)
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I run a print workshop and I am quite happy with it and not thinking of a career change.
pat_le_lion: (Default)
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Well I've just ordered that online because it's cute and he does look a bit like me when I'm hungry:)


And some Lemsip from the corner shop.
pat_le_lion: (Default)
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I can't be bothered to answer that... Of all time? When the same question was asked 15 odd years ago, Radiohead was voted best band of all time.
pat_le_lion: (Default)
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If it's down to be stuck with one track, I would be quite happy to make my own :)

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