6.24.2006
In the streets
Silvio Berlusconi, the recently ousted Italian Prime Minister, is fond of taking pages out of the Bush family playbook, but here he's being outflanked, it appears, on the right: his party's poster for his referendum (which certain on the left call a bid for neofascism) has been covered over by this:
Translation, approximately, "Never in Italy! No to gay pride! No to civil unions! Let's defend the family! National Movement" I wonder how many people in Italy think the family is threatened by civil unions.
I'm back in Paris, where life is easy: reasonable temperatures, and high-speed internet on my own computer. I went out to do some grocery shopping and found myself in the middle of the remnants of some kind of parade. It was such a diverse crowd that I could not for the life of me figure out whether it was a celebration of France's qualification for the next round of the World Cup, or whether it was a gay pride parade. It turns out it was the latter. (France has civil unions, which has not kept it from having a higher birth rate than Italy.)
Speaking of things seen in the streets, I find that, in my absence, a graffito I wanted to photograph near my metro stop has been painted over. I remember that it said "Ici regulièrement contrôles d'identité racistes" (which means, more or less, "racial profiling happens here") and it also said something about revolution.
The revolution will not be advertised...
Translation, approximately, "Never in Italy! No to gay pride! No to civil unions! Let's defend the family! National Movement" I wonder how many people in Italy think the family is threatened by civil unions.
I'm back in Paris, where life is easy: reasonable temperatures, and high-speed internet on my own computer. I went out to do some grocery shopping and found myself in the middle of the remnants of some kind of parade. It was such a diverse crowd that I could not for the life of me figure out whether it was a celebration of France's qualification for the next round of the World Cup, or whether it was a gay pride parade. It turns out it was the latter. (France has civil unions, which has not kept it from having a higher birth rate than Italy.)
Speaking of things seen in the streets, I find that, in my absence, a graffito I wanted to photograph near my metro stop has been painted over. I remember that it said "Ici regulièrement contrôles d'identité racistes" (which means, more or less, "racial profiling happens here") and it also said something about revolution.
The revolution will not be advertised...
