Their hair has long turned gray. They have visions of barricades dancing in their heads. They have fire in their eyes and the same determination they had as youngsters in the 1968 revolts. Some 200 veterans of class struggle in France answered the call of the association Friends of the Paris Commune – 1871 on Saturday to celebrate the short-lived People’s Republic which became a springboard for proletarian revolution for a century.
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An estimated 1.2 million Muslims in France would prefer Islamic rule to the secular Republic. 28% of the Muslims polled believe Sharia law comes before the laws of France. This is the conclusion drawn from a poll published by the Institut Montaigne which says nearly a third of the estimated four million Muslims in France have “adopted a system of values clearly opposed to the values of the Republic.” That is a large ocean to swim in for the 15,000 potential Jihadists said to be living in the country.
A third of the Muslims in France would rather see a hard line Sharia law regime in place of the secular Republic they live in, including half of those aged 15 to 25.
The French weekly, le Journal du Dimanche, published on Sunday a first of its kind study on Muslims in France which shows that they represent a little over five percent of the population (5.6%) but ten percent of those aged under 25. This means there are some four million Muslims out of a population of 66 million people in the country. What has people anxious is the high number of “extremists” among the youth.
The war which led to the destruction of Libya was unnecessary, launched on false pretense and disastrous. This is the conclusion drawn from reading the UK parliamentary report on the War that destroyed Libya and destabilized a continent.
Last May, the head of the French Domestic Intelligence service, the DGSI, a sort of FBI, told a parliamentary commission he felt “we are on the verge of a civil war.” Patrick Calver said: “one or more new attacks and the confrontation will come.” He was referring to extreme right wing violence in reaction to terrorism.
A lot has been made of Donald Trump’s refusal to serve in the military during the Vietnam War. As a wealthy young man, he probably knew much better than we Grunts did, what that war was all about. At the same time, when Muhammad Ali died this year, little was made in the mainstream media about his refusal to serve when he said: “I got nothing against the Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me nigger.” 1 The major reason for this is the US has never drawn the right conclusions on that war even though the military did.
Tübingen – Baden-Wurtemberg. Most people come to the university town of Tübingen in south-western Germany to admire the colorful medieval and renaissance architecture, walk the ancient cobblestone streets and visit the museum at the castle Schloss Hohentübingen, parts of which date back to the 12th century. Others come for treatment at the world-renowned university hospitals. But this summer, the city’s Green Party lord-mayor, Boris Palmer, inaugurated another kind of visit aimed at a German public: the city’s Nazi past.
Cembra – Italy. Since the Dolomites were made World Heritage sites by UNESCO in 2009, the number of Alpine hikers and tourists has grown exponentially. But if you tire of the crowds and of finding mountain refuges and valley hotels booked out weeks and months in advance; if your mind spins from juggling the Südtiroler German names with those the Italians have been trying to impose on Alto Adige ever since they annexed it from Austria after WWI (how does Grassleitenpass become Passo Principe?), there is a valley not yet over-run by the international tourist industry and which is pure Italy without the noise, hustle and bustle: the Val di Cembra.
If you are nearing retirement or have retired and you are looking for that great adventure which will take your breath away, both literally and figuratively, or just need to clear your mind to start a new life, then the Dream Trail from Munich to Venice is perhaps what you want. The trek, known in German as the Traumpfad München-Venedig, may sound awesome but if we could do it, so can you. All you need is a couple of months, a few thousand dollars in cash and a lot of determination.
It is late June and Sonja, 62, and I, 61, are off to one corner of Munich’s Marienplatz square having our photo taken while tourists crowd in front of the Gothic Revival Town Hall and wait for the colorful Rathaus-Glockenspiel clock to sound its 43 bells with 32 colorful life-sized figurines re-enacting a 16th century fairy-tale in a 15 minute show.
Gas stations ran dry last week when unions blocked the refineries. Other employees threatened to shut down nuclear reactors. Public transport is expected to grind to a halt this week. Police, teachers, prison guards and more are joining the movement. All of this to protest a mild labor reform law aimed at reducing unemployment.
President Hollande insists he will not back down even though violence in the streets, despite a state-of-emergency, has the government fearing tourists will stay away this summer.
It is truly a case of ‘The Cid‘ in which there is no honorable way out for all sides meaning the worst is possible.
KazoDaily 