Did Sisyphus Ever Make it?

Back in Virginia, Patricia cleaned house for us for sixteen years, until we left the States to return to Paris. Once every two weeks, she spent about three hours on the job, then drove away leaving everything sparkling. No spot of dirt, no trace of soap in the bathtubs remained to be seen, no hairballs from the cat Pishoo and her successor Cerise (each of which she cuddled and cooed to and called “my baby.”) Patricia was efficient, always in a good mood as she went from one room to another, from one floor to the next. She had legal residence, as did her husband, but sometimes brought an illegal helper. 

When we had work to be done and brought in carpenters to redo the deck or painters to repaint a bedroom, and I admired their skills and timeliness, they were often from “El Salbador,” like Patricia herself. I would ask her why her country remained so poor when in the States, her fellow citizens worked so hard and so well, and didn’t they work the same way in El Salvador. She countered that there was no work there, and also that people didn’t need to work as their relatives in the States sent them money. I don’t know about that but I do know that I was happy at Patricia and her family all being legal residents and not risking deportation. When the awful Trump started talking about “rapists and criminals,” I called her from Paris to make sure she was all right and was relieved to hear they had all become legal citizens in the meantime. 

Islam Is Killing Us

Anxiously counting the days until November 4th and the US elections results doesn’t cancel or even slow down the vortex of other matters that call for attention and sometimes bring us much anger and sorrow. As reflected in the news, Paris where I live is once more under Islamist attack. The assassination and decapitation on October 16 of a high school teacher who, discussing freedom of expression with his class showed as illustrations the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad (which, in 2015, had caused bloodshed with 15 deaths) causes, again, immense indignation, and more fear that this Western democracy where the separation of state and church or secularism (laïcité) has been law since 1905 will have to adopt strict measures that go against its culture and principles.

Respect Me or I’ll Kill You

Warning, do not read this post if you are quick to take offense. That covers a good number of people, mafiosi, petty crooks, but also those exiles in, or immigrants to, Western democracies who consider degenerate the mores of the land and find themselves insulted and deeply offended by the slightest criticism. Respect–italics, capital R–is a great concept that has now become twisted and the primary driver of any exchange between people with wildly differing views on family, society, religious belief, on virtually any subject. It has become the basic requirement–which would be fine if it didn’t flow in one direction, only.

In Iran (where I come from, originally) as well as in other countries of the area, you’re OK as long as you compliment people, tell them that their history is grandiose, their taste unique, their hospitality the best, their virtues without compare. Any deviation from full appreciation immediately draws strong reactions and the slightest remark can be perceived as negative, and therefore, insulting. Multiply this a hundredfold in France where I live, home to innumerable people from those same Muslim countries, many of them now with French nationality. The perceived lack of Respect draws the ire and the lightning bolt of all suburban Jupiters, often first- or second-generation immigrants who have been brainwashed into believing that acceptance of recently-refurbished customs and mores must be absolute, not only from the locals among whom they live but also from the authorities of the country that has taken them in.

So the President has cojones after all

At least as seen through the eyes of fans–even chastened but still fans such as myself. Signing an executive order to set five million undocumented Hispanics on the road to legalization, hurray. Refusing to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, bad for the environments and good only for deep pockets in which far too much tainted money goes as it is, hurray again. Continuing to provide health insurance for Americans who didn’t have any, yes, indeed.

The view is quite different as seen through the jaundiced eyes of the extreme wings of the Tea Party and even so-called “moderate” Republicans such as Boehner and Mitch McConnell. They consider Obama at the very least as deserving impeachment–an actual lynching would be difficult to pull off–for innumerable crimes, among which signing too many executive orders, (less than his predecessors, but we’re not talking good faith here).