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| Paris In Sites Newsletter Direct From France Edited by Linda Thalman Travel & Leisure Articles |
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Personal Thoughts - 11 September 2001 Dear Readers, I hope you will indulge me in the following personal thoughts as the 11 September events have led me (and probably yourselves) to weep, rage, cry and reflect. My life is privileged: food, shelter, education, a job, family, friends, travel, a car, computer, house and garden. The media says there are over 7 million starving in Afghanistan. Millions of children and adults will die from lack of water this year - yes, just clean water. Others will die because they did not get vaccinations against common diseases or will be victims of floods, earthquakes, cyclones around the world. Barbarism and misfortune are not new phenomena. We simply have very short memories. The peoples of the world must not live in fear nor ignorance. They both come from not knowing the 'other' and not realizing that what the 'other' does is not necessarily wrong, but different. We eat dinner at our house in France around eight o'clock at night; the post comes at 11 in the morning; our suburban bank is closed on Mondays; gas costs over 7 francs the liter; 5 weeks holiday per year is the norm; we carry identity papers; France celebrates Catholic holidays. We don't mow the lawn on Sundays; university education is basically free; unemployment and the homeless exist; maternity leave is legislated as are the annual days for sales in stores as well as the fees for visiting a doctor; presidential elections are every 5 years. We pay a national TV license for public television and tolls on the 'autoroutes'; value added tax is 19.6 percent on most items; political parties from the far right to the far left are legal; freedom of the press is a given... I simply ask you to think about what is different chez vous from what I know as life in France. Life in France is - not better, not worse - but perhaps different from what you know and experience in your daily life. We must profit from our differences. Racism, sexism, religious intolerance do not fall into the camp of acceptable for me. We must have the wisdom to seek peace in the world. From Paris, Linda |
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Linda Thalman
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Email – Linda@wfi.fr
Web Address – http://www.parisinsites.com/
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