2007 February | Loca Lingo Multicultural

Harkis - oubliés de l’histoire

Patriote pour certains, traître pour les autres, arabe extrémiste délinquant immigré pour Mr. tout le monde, un petit groupe francophile musulman désorganisé pour politiques en veille électorale.
Telle est la triste histoire actuelle du Harki - un apatride condamné et discriminé (exemple).

Qu’est-ce qu’un Harki ?
Quelle est la différence (physique, linguistique,…) entre un Harki et un Algérien ?

Aucune.

Tous deux viennent de la même contrée, ont des ancêtres en commun, sont musulmans, sont génétiquement les mêmes, ont leurs histoires inscrite sur cette terre d’Algérie. Comme vous le verrez plus bas, cette distinction est purement “politique” (pour plus d’infos, ici et ici).

1830, l’Algérie devient colonie française.
Read the rest of this entry »

Posted on February 28th, 2007 by tanguy
Filed under: FRANCAIS, expériences interculturelles, immigration, sociétés, populations, tendances | 3 Comments »

ABC - American Born Chinese

Cantonese lyrics / English subtitles (by “Jin” / “Learn Chinese”). Read the lyrics, and you’ll understand why I believe this song is of interest. Bear in mind it is a “rap” song.

An ABC is a person of Chinese ethnic descent, born in the US - second generation or later ones. They usually are the best integrated “ethnic chinese” within the USAmerican society (which sounds quite logic).

They do not especially live in Chinatowns (which is a bit of a cliché), but sometimes in more affluent suburbs (depending on the level of income and education).

It is interesting to note “Chinese” (as a visible identity) in Canada, mix the least with other ethnicities (numbers including CBC (Canadian Born Chinese)). The degree of integration depends as well on how populated and concentrated “Chinese” communities are (usually on the coast, groups are stronger than the ones in mainland US where they tend to blend more within the local USAmerican society).
So it goes with the Chinese language… ABC / CBC do not especially speak Chinese, sometimes they could express themselves within their (grand)parent’s local dialects, but could not read or write it. Please note that Jin sings in Cantonese which is a Guangzhou - Hong-Kong dialect.
official website, ABC-Jin

Posted on February 27th, 2007 by john
Filed under: America, Asia, ENGLISH, Languages, cross-cultural, ethnic, "race", multicultural, mixity, culture, literature, architecture, photography, art, society, demography, global trends, Zeitgeist | 3 Comments »

curtains. barriers. walls. fences. mind-closers.

« From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Varsovie, Berlin, Prague, Vienne, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucarest et Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow. » (Fulton’s speech). Iron Curtain

Iron curtain, Korea’s border, Israeli wall… just a shallow solution to much deeper problems, with anyway heavy consequences on the local population - usually depending on how long this separator has been settled… clearly creating cultural gaps at the end that can create huge sources of conflict. To my opinion, it might limit some insecurity problems, but just superficially and on the short term only. I believe indeed this can be the cause itself of deeper troubles on the longer term, rather than erasing them. A refusal to dialogue ?

The Iron Curtain, during the cold war, separated Europe in two different blocs, during 40 years in the wake of Nazi’s loss. Now that Europe is being “re”-unified, we realize that mentalities aside this former “border” are pretty much different ; mainly tainted by different economical experiences and lack of “political freedom”. One population had the possibility to travel, express itself. The other not. Read the rest of this entry »