Blaxpat Author in France

"P.C." and the Global Community

2012-02-08T15:53:00.001+01:00

It's kind of a cloudy day down here in the South, today. I'm not feeling too productive, so I've just been lazing around, surfing the net.

I just came across the most amusing images of "mappying sterotypes".

I’ve always considered my self a bit of an ethnic connoisseur. Any person who has had the privilege of living among others in foreign countries should find it quite easy to distinguish between an ethnic connoisseur and a racist clod.

An ethnic connoisseur is merely a keen and well informed social observer.

A clod is the one who hides behind pretentions of “political correctness” while rancid bones of negativity issue from his lips landing in everyone’s plate at the dinner party

You all know who I’m talking about, I’m sure.

Anyway, check these out. For a clearer view go to alphadesigner.com/mapping stereotypes.

Europe according to the French

Europe according to the Greeks

Europe According to the Americans

The World according to the Americans

and my all time favorite...

Europe according to the Vatican!

Fun, right?

On target, you think?

Nevertheless, let me offer you a piece of diplomatic advice on stereotyping: Don’t dish it if you can’t take it!

The Fresh Prince, Sammi and Election 2012!

2012-02-06T16:00:00.001+01:00

We tend to rent or buy our French movies because we find it rather penible to sit through a French movie in the theater. When one considers the various regional accents, dialects and all, I usually use the hearing impaired mode as well, to help me along.

Sometimes a French movie plot line vaguely echoes a popular American movie or television series. When this happens, it is an absolute guarantee that I will see the movie. I am never disappointed by the fact that there is always a wildly divergent approach to what on initial impact would seem a similar issue. One such movie is Agathe Clery, which most Americans could assume is a take on American filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles' Watermelon Man.

Another example of this Gallic wink towards American issues is the film I saw recently, Neuilly Sa Mère.

Years ago there was a popular television series, called Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Actor,Will Smith, starred as a teenager growing up in the "hood" of Philadelphia. After a scary gang rumble, his mother sends him off to live with his aunt and uncle who live in the wealthy town of Bel Air in California.

In Neuilly Sa Mère, adorable young actor, Samy Saghir, stars in this hilarious film about the pretentions and dysfunctions of the bourgeoisie...or the upper classes...I still have trouble with the distinctions, here in this Socialist country. After all, I'm from a Capitalist one, where the classes, these days are ironically rather...flou...in comparison.

Fourteen-year-old Sami, lives with his father and mother in a housing project in a working class and immigrant neighborhood in Chalon-sur-Saône in the Burgundy region of France. Unlike the American Fresh Prince, whose old neighborhood is ruled by gang violence, through Sammi's eyes, his "hood" is a vertitable multi-cultural and ethnic paradise...Kumbaya and such... you see.

His father drops dead of a heart attack as a result of over-identifying with and over-reacting to a Soccer game. His mother is forced to take a job on a boat, so she sends Sammi to her sister and husband who live in the affluent Paris suburb of Neuilly.

Hence the title.

Oh, by the way, Sami and his family are Beur...North African Moslims.

I'm not quite clear whether both Sammi's aunt and uncle are both Beur or in an intercultural/ racial marriage. Perhaps I missed it in my translation, since it is obvious that his aunt is North African, but his uncle, you see, is a Pork distributor.

The most amusing aspect of this tale, when I compare it to The Fresh Prince, is that while Will Smith's character arrogantly flaunts his ghetto savvy and lords over the naive, marerialistic and self-centered members of his extended family, Sammi encounters bullys and thugs of proportions previously unimaginable in the exclusive enclave of some of France's future leaders. His young cousin,Charles, with whom he must share a bedroom, is Right Wing, has political ambions and aspires to become President of the Republic.

Get it?

If you should choose to accept the challenge of watching French political satire, I'm sure you'll agree that the political references in this story are not exactly all that nuanced. Even an Anglophone foreigner like myself would get the joke...I mean...message.

It'll make you look up the backgrounds of our 2012 Presidential candidates, which is never...ever a bad idea.

This is why I read "Dreams From My Father" before I decided to cast my vote for President Obama.

No surprises. No regrets.

ELECTION 2012: France

2012-01-29T18:20:00.006+01:00

Sometimes, I feel a little queezie. Especially on days when I allow my self to contemplate too profoundly on my life, here, in France. I start wondering what will become of us (my husband and I) since we have placed our destiny in the hands of these people:

Nevertheless, each time I slip into a mood of apprehension in this regard, I run across a statement like this in the media from the United States:

"But I'm telling you that I'm worried and very, very concerned today when a mother, speaking about her son being in jail, says, 'I'm happy he's in a safe place.' You cannot take that casually!"
~Bill Cosby
in an interview with the newspaper, The Root

Maybe I’ll just call it day and watch a French movie. I’ll tell you all about it later.

What movie, you ask?

Filmmaker, Gabiel Jullien-Laferrière's, Neuilly Sa Mère.

A bientôt!

GAZON MAUDIT

2012-01-13T19:09:00.003+01:00

"The French Riviera is a sunny place for shady people."

~W.Sumerset Maugham

"When anythig is this beautiful, beware, beacuse almost everything will be attracted to it."

~Delorys Welch-Tyson

(photos of Villefranche Sur Mer)

MY BLAXPAT HUMOR: U. S. Election 2012!!!!!!

2012-01-09T15:09:00.001+01:00

Regardless of who wins in the Republican primary, I wonder what kind of curve-ball reaction there would be if he would chose either Condoleezza Rice

or some one like Angela McGlowan

as a running mate?

No…I’m not a devil’s advocate. I just found 2011 quite dull!

(google images)

Looking Toward Election 2012 aux Etats Unis... I Guess...

2012-01-02T18:52:00.004+01:00

As the Presidential elections in the US approach, I feel a strong sense of apprehension. The wild swing from optimistic celebration to bitter scepticism in just 4 short years has basically.....freaked me out!

Here is a reprint of a blog post I wrote a couple of years ago regarding America's questionable level of support of its newly elected President:

HOW FICKLE CAN YOU GET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From afar, I watched in disbelief.

A relatively unknown black man had emerged, creating ecstatic, cultish zeal with his promise of “change.” Wondering who this obviously charismatic man was, I ordered his biography, “Dreams from My Father.”

As I read this fiction-like approach to memoir describing the exotic background of a mixed race and bi-cultural colored boy from a broken home, growing up in Asia then ultimately acquiring an Ivy League education… I began to wonder. When did the average American start relating to such exotic qualities and qualifications from a person of colour…or anyone else for that matter?

I realized that I had been living away from my country for over a decade. Was it possible that my country had evolved into sophisticated, tolerant, erudite, “post racial” America? Were we entering a new enlightened era, with the slogan” Yes We Can.”?

When I completed his novel, I began to question what it was exactly that the American people felt we could do? Put the bizarre reign of the Bush Administration behind us? Elect a Democrat after 8 years of Republican dominated philosophies? Elect a Negro? Support his party’s platforms?

What were these platforms? When I asked a number of American friends back home what they were, the answer I got was a unanimous “Universal Health care, Delorys…I think.”

I think?!?

Anyway, I watched in wonder as crowds of Americans around the globe gathered around bridges, chanting “Yes We Can.” The whole scenario reminded me of scenes from Woodstock or the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Then questions concerning Obama’s citizenship surfaced, causing me to wonder how Americans could be so progressive in thinking on one hand, yet know so little about geography and American history on the other.

As a Democrat, myself, living in Europe who had suffered various repercussions of the Bush Era, I voted, as the majority of Americans did, for Barack Obama. I watched America celebrate the election of the first African American president of the United States. I watched huge crowds cheer the end of Republican party domination and destructive policies in our foreign relations.

The celebration of new beginnings.

Ignoring the heap of devastation left behind from the previous administration which our new President inherited, within months cries and accusations of fraud and elitism filled the airwaves. Citizens who supported his “campaign promises” before he was elected, screamed that our President was out of touch with the people and hadn’t delivered the fairy dust and the happily ever after that was necessary in record time!

How fickle can you get?

Citizens began questioning his religious affiliations in a country of religious freedom.

But actually what bothers me the most is the accusation of “out-of-touch elitism.” Our last 4 presidents attended Yale and Harvard. Hardly grass roots institutions.

Perhaps if American Citizens wanted a president “of the people”, they should have voted for someone more familiar like Willie Nelson.

Bonne Année 2012 à Tous!!!

2012-01-01T00:59:00.000+01:00

“ New years day…now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”

~Mark Twain

The Most Popular Post of 2011

2011-12-29T17:39:00.004+01:00

I just checked my blog stats for 2011.

The most popular post of the year on my blog site was the one I wrote about a charitable organization in Monte Carlo:

(Princess Charlene Wittstock Pricess of Monaco and Baroness Cecile de Massey of Monaco; courtesy of google images)

A Bright Light During Stressful Times
http://deloryswelchtyson.blogspot.com/2011/04/bright-light-during-stressful-times.html

This post was followed in popularity by: Racism in France: Is It Racism or Historical Precision?

http://deloryswelchtyson.blogspot.com/2010/07/racism-in-france-is-it-racism-or.html

I could never had guessed this.

Happy New Year to all. And to all a healthy and prosperous 2012!!

When Will They Ever Let Up ?

2011-12-24T16:17:00.002+01:00

The Obama Family White House Holiday card

Now, it seems that the Republicans over there are getting all worked up about the Obama’s choice of the design for the White House holiday card.

Can’t those people even take a break during the holiday season?

Here are some previous White House Cards:

Bush Jr. family White House card

Clinton Family White House card

George Bush, Sr family White House card

Reagan family White House card

What on earth is the friggin' problem?

Enjoy the Holidays!!!

T'is The Season...

2011-12-23T17:15:00.000+01:00

Charles Caleb Colton (1782-1832) was an English cleric, author and art collector who was also well known for his eccentricities. The quote, “Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” has been attributed to this gentleman.

: Menorah

The menorah is described in the Bible as the seven-branched ancient lampstand made of gold and used in the portable sanctuary set up by Moses in the wilderness and later in the Temple in Jerusalem. Fresh olive oil of the purest quality was burned daily to light its lamps. The menorah has been a symbol of Judaism since ancient times.

: Kinara

The kinara is the candle holder used in Kwanzaa** celebrations in the United States. During the week-long celebration of Kwanzaa, seven candles are placed in the kinara - three red on the left, three green on the right, and a single black candle in the center. The word kinara is a Swahili word that means candle holder.

**Kwanzaa is a week long celebration held in the United States honoring universal African-American heritage and culture, observed from December 26 to January 1 each year. It features activities such as lighting a candle holder with seven candles and culminates in a feast and gift giving. It was created by Maulana Karenga and was first celebrated in 1966–1967.

If it were my idea to create a symbol for an “African American holiday”, for black Americans, I think something more appropriate would have been a structure involving chains (our arrival) and links (our survival). But then what do I know? I live in France.

Nevertheless, I say that sometimes imitation is simply theft!

Chag Sameach!

(Happy Holiday)

BLAXPAT QUOTE OF THE DAY

2011-12-22T17:45:00.003+01:00

(Google image)

"Fear of death increases in exact proportion to increase in wealth"
~Ernest Hemingsway

AN EXPAT BOOK REVIEW

2011-12-21T16:57:00.001+01:00

Recently, I met an American expat who also lives in the South of France. She has begun a blog which reviews books written about American women living abroad. Her review of a novel, called Blackgammon had me in stitches. I have permerssion from her to share it with you on my blog.

TWO FRIENDS AND A TALE OF TWO COUNTRIES:

BLACKGAMMON by Heather Neff

“Understand this, Michael : There’s no such thing as a sanctuary. “

Believe me when I say that the pessimistic opening line of this intriguing novel belies the apparent optimism of the writer’s vision. At least this is what I concluded after reading this story which chronicles friendship of two women from two different generations whose destinies were to work, live and try to love in Europe.

Michael…that’s right her name is Michael…lives in the academic environment of England, as professor of…predictably…African American literature with her husband a brilliant English scholar of ….you guessed it…African literature.

Cloe Emmnauel is a….. painter. Well, at least she not a Naomi Campbell clone or an aspiring chocolate Hemmingway squandering her days away playing with the green fairly in the squalor of bohemian Paris. I’ll get to those books later.

Nevertheless, the two women met by chance in an American museum. The older woman, planning to flee to Paris after a disastrous romance with an Black-Canadian immigrant (yes, you read that correctly) and the other a quasi-orphan with dreams of living abroad, meet, become fast friends and vowed to keep in touch.

They kept their vow throughout the novel through letters and occasional visits involving heart wrenching revelations..

Cloë the painter struggles with domestic violence issues from her past while trying to negotiate some equilibrium between her increasingly successful and demanding career and her challengingly peculiar love life. The cultural and ethnic dynamics of her personal relationships with the men in her life will definitely baffle any female reader who has lived abroad for any length of time, yet despite the implausibility of her mates you will probably gladly follow the story to its conclusion because of the vivid images of the cosmopolitan lifestyle of these two friends.

Black American women living abroad will obviously react to the relationship configurations of these two women with a certain degree of scepticism. More than a touch of mendacity and hints of multi-cultural treason prevail in this tragic-comic novel of the search for identity, love and, professional success.

The problem I find with novels written about American women abroad is that there is a stereotypical quality to the life choices of these women. It places limits on the perceptions of the black American experience abroad, which limits the kind of novels we can expect to be disseminated through the mainstream publishing industry.

Despite what probably feels like a negative review of Blackgammon, I actually thoroughly enjoyed it on many levels.

Next I will review, Andrea Lee’s LOST HEARTS IN ITALY

Thanks Maxwell...you're a "hoot"!!!

The EU Blues: The Countdown

2011-12-17T11:26:00.000+01:00

"Get that guy out of our organization"
~unknown

"Get this guy out of our orgaization!"
~unknown

"Yo man! How in the hell did that guy get in here?
~unknown

"Pay your bills!!!! Leave Us Alone!!!!

(google images)

White Trash Europe, or: What the Hell Am I Doing In This Neighborhood?!?

2011-12-17T11:23:00.000+01:00

(google images)

First let me emphasize the fact that I neither designed this Tee Shirt nor coined this phase. Nevertheless, it brings up the topic of why there are such troubling conditions and conflicts in the European Union.

For those of you who don’t know, the expression White Trash is an American English pejorative term referring to poor white people in the United States. It suggests lower social class and degraded living standards.

The definition "white trash" emphasizes the person's moral failings.

If you’re living in Europe, I think you can probably already see where I’m going with this!

I was a wide-eyed Green Horn, in the South of France, enjoying one of my first dinners chez des copains francophones, the first time I became involved in a discussion of the EU many, many years ago. To be more precise, it was sometime in the 80s.

The host and hostess and two other couples were French, the language of the dinner party was French but several other European countries were represented at the table: German, Italian, Danish, a French Swiss and then there was me…the lone American.

They explained to me how a United Europe would give them the kind of market base which would rival the US. That it would be a sort of “United States of Europe”.

Then I emphasized the fact the despite regional differences, and that although we didn’t actually have an official language, that we in the US spoke American English. They then informed me, with pride and enthusiasm, that the language of business and commerce would indeed be English.

A vague disturbance rumbled quietly among the diner guests when I asked which English they would be using in these business transactions.

No one ventured to tell me, on the other hand, which language would be that of diplomacy among their leaders.

When some said that a United Europe would protect them from “The Yellow Menace”, I wasn’t sure whether they were being sarcastic or actually being polite. Perhaps they meant someone or something else since there were no “yellows” sitting at the table.

My preference for life in France, I told them, had a lot to do with the fact that I found more compatibility with the Gallic way of life than of the Germanic definitions of order and precision or the Spanish concept of time, Belgian randomness and uncertainty, or the dubious Italian sense of business etiquette.

When I expressed my enjoyment of the diversity and uniqueness of each national culture of Europe, I was told that a United Europe would prevent war among them in the future….or something like that anyway… if I remember correctly.

It was quite an enjoyable dinner, actually, despite the fact that I could see the seeds of familiar discord among the Europeans beginning to spout.

Nevertheless, they appeared to be unanimously excited by the prospect of all of Europe going into business together in order to better compete with the Yellow Menace…whatever that is… and the economic clout of the US.

Years later, after the EU became official, I was taking a business class here in the South of France. My French business professor explained how the high level of unemployment in France was causing apathy among job seekers to the point where many had simply given up searching for employment. The City of Nice, for instance , had become a proletariat town with new residents from all over crowding into the area seeking the promise of “the Good Life”…whatever that is…

She described in great detail how the general quality in life in France for the French was “en train de dégringoler (Going into the sewer…Caput! Fini! Bye bye!)

Then there is the issue of some snide members of the EU.

Let’s take Great Britain, for example.

How can The United Kingdom be a member in the EU when the English don’t even consider themselves in Europe: “I’m visiting Europe this summer,” or “I’m moving to Europe,” they say.

Imagine the rationality around something like this: Great Britain is composed of four countries, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

In additiona to all this, England doesn’t even acknowledge the importance of the Euro as their unit of monetary exchange.

They might as well let Turkey in. Who knows whether they, too, are on the continent of Europe.

The English have always cracked me up with their wily ways.

Why does Europe seem to be teetering on the edge of an abyss? Perhaps this is what happens when a population reacts to concepts of color instead of the possible incompatibilities of various cultures.

It’s also when you tear down all the picket fences protecting the privacy and sanctity of ones’ neighbours’ property.

What the EU represents to me the is the joining of the hands of a polyglot confusion of economically unequal, white people, semi-white people and wanna- be white people for absolutely no reason at all.

Just a silly deflection from more important issues.

Some things are just logical sequences of events!

Bad Words and "Jacked-Up" Concepts

2011-12-16T18:15:00.001+01:00

photos from Google Images

Sometimes I feel that someone has vandalized the culture of the American English language, spray painted all over it. Just trampled rough shod all over the beauty, nuances and melodies of our words and expressions. Or ... perhaps I've just been romantically involved...cohabitating... with this seductive, mesmerising and thoroughly precise French language for a long, long time.

The following are some of the words that create a feeling of a whooshing whirlpool of churning acid in the pit of my stomach whenever they are uttered in my presence:

Political Correctness: (adjectivally, politically correct; both forms commonly abbreviated to PC) is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts, and, as purported by the term, doing so to an excessive extent.

Poppy cock on all of that! The most precise word, which has existed long before the invention of that awkward phrase would be Diplomacy. Simple diplomacy and respect toward other human beings. What does it take to grant everyone their humanity by displaying basic sensitivity? Not that complex, really.

Twitter or Tweet. An insult to birds and human beings. Personally I maintain communications with my friends, relatives and acquaintences, through letters,phone calls, cards, and emails. Birds communicate…at least the ones in my neighbourhood… though sophisticated vocal projections!

Newbie. Sound like a child’s toy, not a human being.

Venue : the locality where a crime is committed or a cause of action occurs; b. The locality or political division from which a jury is called and in which a trial is held; c. The clause within a declaration naming the locality in which a trial will be held; d. The clause in an affidavit naming the place where it was sworn to.

Mostly negative connotations...n'est-ce-pas?

Moi...I as a writer would prefer having a reading in a bookstore or an auditorium, as a painter I would show in a gallery, as a performer I would expect to appear in a nightclub, concert hall, stadium or theatre.

Who needs Venues? Sounds suspicious to me. I'd stay away from 'em, myself.

Foodie. Sounds like a word that a hungry toddler would use trying to get its parents attention.

I feel that one may be a gourmet or connoisseur, otherwise just an ordinary human being who must eat to live. On the other hand if one believes that one "lives to eat" that would mean that there is some sort of medical disorder which should be explored by a doctor of some kind…if you get my drift!

Blog. Such and ugly word. Soulds like something that would be clogging up my drain pipe.. I ‘d prefer to think of your so-called blogs as personal journals and thoughts that you choose to share with me… gifts…offerings. Something precious and beautiful.

Niggah. No matter what the spelling or context, it's ridiculoulsly insulting, unessessary and should eventually cease to exist, along with such terminologies as Honky, Spic, Kike, Wop, Chink, Wog, Bitch….etc.

Going viral : Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or computer viruses...

Yada... yada... yada...yada...oh, Honey..pul-eese! The word Viral has the most horrific connotation I can image, conjuring up flu viruses, Leprocy, communicable diseases like the Bubonic Plague and A.I.D.S.

The word VIRAL had become infectuous and quite frankly, just hearing it makes me sick !

Transparency: a. Easily seen through or detected; obvious: transparent lies; .b. Free from guile; candid or open: transparent sincerity.

There is a fine line between clarity or honesty and a transparency which could render one completely vulnerable to manipulation and destruction. As in: "he/she is such a transparent fool!"

To Grow Your Jobs, Businesss or Money: If I wanted agricultural advice, I’d consult a Farmer or an Agronomist. Otherwise, I would prefer to expand my business, augment my investments, increase the number of jobs in order to restore the strength of our economy.

Often, even when someone is attempting to defend my position in some situtation I can actually feel that I am being raped by words and jargon.

For example, I recently recived a copy of a letter that my attorney sent to Random House Publishing Group, requesting a reversion of rights in order that I am able to re-issue my novel, Gingernsnaps. This is an excerpt:

...We write on behalf of Authors Guild member Ms. Dolorys Welch-Tyson, author of the above- referenced work, with whom Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House Inc., entered into a publishing agreement in 1997. Ms. Welch-Tyson has informed us that she requested a reversion of rights for the above-referenced work in May 2009, but was never granted such by Ballantine.

Since Ballantine has made clear that it has no intention of exploiting the above-referenced work in any manner in the future, we ask that it revert rights to Ms. Welch-Tyson immediately. ....

You see?

Exploit: 1) To make use of selfishly or unethically: a country that exploited peasant labor. See Synonyms at manipulate. 2). A vulnerability in software that can be used for breaking security or otherwise attacking an Internet host over the network. The Ping O' Death is a famous exploit.

or, course there is always the other way of looking at it:

Exploit:
1) To employ to the greatest possible advantage: exploit one's talents; 2). To advertise; promote.

Should I call the cops, or what?

“…the need to examine, analyze the language we see and hear… for the connotations all too often diverge wildly from the denotations, and, if we are unaware of that, our thinking can be hijacked.”

~Jerry DeNuccio

Christmas Kitsch 2011

2011-12-15T22:04:00.008+01:00

(photos by delorys welch-tyson)

You're welcome to sing along.....

On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me

A partridge in a pear tree.

On the second day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me

Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Five golden rings!!!
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings!!!!
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings!!!!!
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the eighth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings!!!!!!
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings!!!!!!!
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the tenth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings!!!!!!!!
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings!!!!!!!!!
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings!!!!!!!!!!
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!

Get my message?

Get my message??

Get my message???
Bonnes Fêtes à tous!!!!!!!!!!!

Colorblind in America: Get A Pair of Glasses Y'All

2011-12-13T16:30:00.007+01:00

(google images)

I was on a transatlantic flight not long ago, where I decided to watch a re-run of The Bill Cosby Show.

Although decades had passed, I clearly recalled the controversy it elicited throughout the nation…particularly among it’s black population. There had been outraged cries of “Blacks don’t live like that!”,
"This is not an honest portrayal of black family life in America!”

I remember heated discussions concerning the plausibility of the characters of the show, but I had a nagging sensation all along that the critics were slightly off mark. I never gave further thought to the matter until that flight from Geneva, Switzerland to NYC many, many years later when the most obvious and overlooked aspect to the show hit me with the impact of a speeding Max Truck!

When I returned home, I remembered I had a memoir by writer Susan Fales-Hill, who was a writer for the show from its inception (Ms. Fales- Hill is of black Haitian American and white Anglo Saxon descent) . She described an incident challenging the credibility of the Cosby family, existence from a colleague:

***“This family isn’t black, they’re Jewish!” This fifty-something executive with bifocals and greying hair exclaimed over my shoulder as I viewed an episode from the Cosby Show’s first season in the Viacom conference room. I hardly new this man; he worked on the syndication side of things, and I as a writer’s apprentice. Yet he stood telling me a virtual stranger, a black stranger, no less, that the Huxtable had no counterparts in reality. I sat for a moment speechless and stunned by the double-barreled assault of his arrogance and his ignorance. I then calmly asked him what he meant, curious to see this self appointed arbiter of American negritude defend his point of view.

“Look at them,” he answered agitated, “she’s a lawyer, he’s a doctor, they live in that… house!”

You know, believe it or not, I have come to agree with the syndication guy! But before we get to the most obvious issue, let me digress a bit.

If one remembers the Cosby Show, one would remember that the father of the house was an OBGYN who worked from the office of the family’s Brooklyn town house. His wife, the mother of the house, was a partner in a New York Law firm. THEY HAD FIVE…count ‘em…FIVE kids. That’s right! When on earth would the two of them have had the time to create such as scenario with such high- powered professions and all?.

Of course there is this possibility: remember the Brady Bunch? Two divorced people, with three children each who join together as a family of six children, a wife and a maid;

Umm humm…I hope you’re beginning to see the light.

Which now brings me directly to my point.

Now…look...really look, I say... at the family:

Now take a good look at the chirrrrr rren' (as the colored old folks would say)

First Set of Kids:

Actress, Lisa Bonet

actress, Sabrina Le Beauf

Second set of Kids!

actor Malcolm Jamal Warner

actress Tempesst Bledsoe

atress Keisha Knight Pulliam

Isn' t it obvious that the oldest children are the offspring of a Caucasian parent? The question should be, 'whose mullato children deese be? Da Momma's oh de daddy's?

Perhaps Mr. Syndication was not questioning the house (almost anybody could live in a brownstone in Brooklyn) as much as he was questioning the entire dynamic of the HOME.

My advice to America. Wake up and find an optomotrist!!!

(Wonder what else has been overlooked over there?)

***excerpt from ALWAYS WEAR JOY: My Mother Bold and Beautiful, by Susan Fales-Hill

Expat Angst: Why Occuppy Wall Street? Part 2...

2011-11-15T16:06:00.003+01:00

...Or the 2,000,002nd Reason I Left!

"Bye Y'all"
painting by delorys welch-tyson

Let me pick up where I left off…

Now, when there are two paychecks in a household a family unit might develop an erroneously inflated sense of economic worth. Suddenly the family finds that they are paying outrageous prices for small, often unnecessary things. The traffic suddenly decides to bear surrealist prices for flotsam and jetsum: whether it’s a ten-buck cup of coffee or a one bedroom apartment facing an alleyway in Manhattan for $4,000,000. The family begins to believe they are entitled to things that no longer have the value they had in their parents’ generation. No one is going to sell you an overpriced house or apartment to you if you are unwilling to buy it. It’s quite simple really. It simply requires a collective American and realistic philosophy regarding what something is actually worth and why.

Where once, one could achieve a decent education for a moderate price at a State University or for free at a City University, now everyone is vying for an overpriced ivy league education in order to major in philosophy or basket weaving, then wonder why they can’t find employment when they graduate.

google image

Whose fault is this?

Perhaps one should look around, while occupying Wall Street, to see who really might be occupying their jobs if they can’t find they can’t land one in their chosen field.

I realize I’ve been absent from the United States for quite some time, but I remember that all of my professional service providers, whether they be lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, journalists, editors or bank employees were all college graduates. People with college degrees (usually some kind of liberal arts endeavor) who worked for retail establishments were all occupying temporary gigs until they could figure out what profession they would pursue. I’m assuming they were all American people. Of course I never checked their birth certificates…so who knows.

Perhaps I’ve just been gone too long. I have no idea what my American brethren are talking about, anymore.

**Perhaps I should just find a venue where they’re trending, to grow my knowledge of things going viral so that I can offer more transparency to my dissed homies!

**(See my blog post: Ugly Words and Jacked-Up Concepts)

Expat Angst: Why Occupy Wall Street?

2011-11-13T16:10:00.002+01:00

Recently I received a letter from a male friend in response to a blog I wrote concerning the precarious state of the European Union. My friend, a native New Yorker, is an educator, activist and Fulbright scholar and has for decades lived on the West Coast, in the San Fancisco Bay area. Here is an excerpt from his correspondence:

“I'm not sure what steps concealed the deconstruction of the middle class in Europe, if there has been such a deconstruction; but I know this one for the US. First we added a second working adult to the definition of middle class - so that two incomes were needed to produce the lifestyle previously accomplished with one. Then we offset flattened salaries with housing inflation so that the middle class could maintain once again the same lifestyle by borrowing off of its housing. And we lowered the costs of most everyday products by having them made in places where people earn only a couple of bucks a day for their labor. All the time, the share of the assets owned by those at the top, whose tax burden we steadily reduced to the point of starving government.”

This is my response:

When I was growing up in a moderately middle class black American family in New York City, my parents and their peers lived with a particular philosophy.

Although, both of my parents worked, my mother remained a homemaker until the last of her children reached school age. There were three of us. Their philosophy was that in a family, the role of the father’s income was to determine the standard of living in a family; the wife’s income would contribute to the quality of life. You see, this way, if one were to loose his/her job, the other could be able to kick for the duration, with minimum and workable adjustments in its day-to -day standard of living requirements.

In addition, the philosophy was that a family should never purchase a home where both full salaries would be required in order to qualify for a mortgage. This would often mean that one have to live in Brooklyn instead of Manhattan, Stanford, instead of Greenwich, Pasadena instead of Beverly Hills, Oakland instead of Sausalito, if you understand my meaning. This way, one wouldn’t accumulate unnecessary overhead, thus limiting the economical mobility of the family which the mother’s additional income could provide. The mother’s income was to be used primarily for quality of life issues such as planning for higher education for the children and also for the cultural enrichment of their intellectual and spiritual growth.

My family’s philosophy evolved in a culture… a black American culture… where historically both the female and the male worked outside the home for its survival. (Of course, I realize that I’m talking basically about my own family and their peers, not the general American community, black, white or other.)

When the American male ethnic majority, through their women’s coercive tactics, reluctantly gave into their demands for the right to work for economic compensation, no theory was put in place as to how this would work in order to maintain the financial equilibrium of a family unit.

A backlash then ensued which granted women unequal, inferior, pay for equal work and at the same time required that in order to achieve a decent standard of living it would be necessary to find access to more than one paycheck for each housing unit, in most areas of the United States..

Would you like me to continue?

Blaxpat Quote for November: Living Abroad

2011-11-07T17:37:00.003+01:00

Some have said that, as a foreigner, it's difficult making friends abroad. This is what I tell them:

"The two most misused words in the entire English vocabulary are love and friendship. A true friend would die for you, so when you start trying to count them on one hand, you don't need any fingers."
~ Larry Flynt

Alors...bon séjour!

The Occupy Wall Street Movement?

2011-11-06T19:20:00.001+01:00

Being far, far away and all, in France, surrounded by EU madness, I am completely baffled by what this Wall Street Movement in the States is really about.

I’ve been wondering, though, if perhaps the brochure, from the Wall Street English Institute, below may be at the heart of the matter?

Really…they gave me this!

They claim that they are endorsed by Cambridge University!

Poaching For Euros

2011-11-01T15:13:00.000+01:00

First, I would like to emphasize that this Post is targeted specifically to American women in France, and those looking to live in France…actually to American woman everywhere.

Not long ago, I was having lunch with some American women who happened to be married to or living with French men. They were exploring the reasons for the difficulties in developing friendships with French women.

Reasons explored ranged from “they tend to make their friends in elementary school» or “they are so busy with their raising their families and cooking gourmet meals for their men, or “they are not as liberated as American women…they close their eyes to their men’s affairs” to “I am so intimidated by those stylish French women and their chic, black ensembles.”

It made me reflect on the numerous books on the allure of French women published by Anglophones.

After indulging in a conversation and theories that went nowhere, we changed the subject, finished lunch after which I returned home to the comfy familiarity of my American husband.

Later that day, I looked up books on Amazon.fr to see whether French women extolled the feistiness, progressive and liberated openness… or anything else positive at all…about the American woman.

I found nothing!

Nothing titled, “Unlock Your Inner American Woman”, “Those Lucky American Chicks Who Mostly Sleep Alone,” or even “The American Amazons of the Women’s Liberation Movement: What On Earth Is Their Secret?”.

Again...absolutely nothing.

(Perhaps some of you out there might be able to name a few for me). It simply appeared to me that here was no reciprocal interest between French and American women, regarding anything! Not even PMS.

Over the years I’ve met French women who expressed in subtle and diplomatic ways a curiosity of what the attraction American women had for their lifestyles…French cuisine and politesse, notwithstanding… and their men, in particular. It seemed to them that we, American women, had access to more wealth, comforts and gorgeous men of such diversity that it was globally enviable. Or so they said.

I kid you not!

It’s no wonder that thousands upon thousands of French women every year clandestinely flock to Greenwich (Village), San Francisco and Disney World in search of the American Woman’s secret allure and wonderful quality of life!

But then…I digress…

Although, I can personally understand the unpredictable power of love and the unpredictability of where one might unearth a lover or mate in this big wide world, I can also understand the ominous consequences of choosing a life partner from a tribe whose women are an unknown entity to a newcomer.

When a woman enters a foreign culture she instantly acquires the status of the women of that culture. Remember that.

On impact, I might look like a poacher, myself. However, my girly- girl posse, prior to marriage and for most of my life, actually, consisted of primarily members of the tribe among whom I eventually found my mate. It was inevitable that I would end up marrying one of the members of their family. I had been acculturated by the population of that particular tribe already and was quite familiar with the nuances of the male-female relationships within that tribe.

My advice to my American sisters: Do some serious research. Put romantic notions on the back burner...especially after your sweet sixteenth birthday. Read up on American foreign relations… think twice before poaching. It could prove hazardous to one's emotional, financial, social and spiritual well being.

Of course, that is unless one is a War or Mail Order Bride. Then that’s a whole ‘nother story…n’est-ce-pas?

Une Connerie Extraordinaire!

2011-10-29T18:30:00.004+02:00

"tsk, tisk, tisk...shame on you!"

The most politically questionable sculptural installation project in Europe in the last decade has to be that of the completion of the Fountain du Soleil and the Sept Scultures Illuminées de Sept Continents. This monument to something not yet clear to me, now defines the Place Massena, which is in my opinion …the heart and Soul of the City of Nice.

Had I considered myself pudique I hardly would have settled in France…particularly Nice... but this most recent project has tested the limits of my comprehension.

At the centre of the Fontaine du Soleil… standing haughty and very, very, white (marble) in all of his “butt naked glory” at the entrance to the Old Town of Nice is Apollo!

photos by dwelch-tyson

All of you know him, I’m sure: the God…Greek God, I emphasize…of light and the sun, truth and prophecy, enlightenment medicine, healing, plague, music, poetry, arts, archery…everything… and I suppose our very existence as well.

He is the son of Zeus and Leto and twin brother of the “chaste “(ah…hem, look, I didn’t write this stuff. I wasn’t even born yet) huntress Artemis. Surrounding Him are five bronze statues of fabulously buffed naked men and a voluptuous broad or two...one toting a baby... accompanied by their animals. Allegedly, these Greco-Roman mythological folks represent the planets, Earth, Mars, Mercury and Saturn.

Yeah, right!

The inauguration took place on June 20th of this year (I happened to be in New York at the time and missed out on the “festivities”). Apollo is now back at his old location at the Place Massena after almost 40 years of censure.

It was rumoured that he was banned back in the 70s for being “overly well endowed”. This I find hard to believe because, in my opinion ( based on, of course, quite limited experience in these matters), he appears to me to be in completely perfect proportion throughout…if you get my drift.

But then what do I know? I’ve never been with a Greek!

So, back then, after considerable controversy, Apollo was exiled to North Nice to the Sports Stadium, Parc des Sport Charles Ehrmann.

To my way of thinking, a sports stadium seemed to be a far more appropriate place to reside, outside of perhaps as a centrepiece for a Gay Disco, for this particular Deity.

google image

This Apollo now complements the contemporary art installation commissioned from the Catalan artist Jaume Plensa which frame the tracks of the Tramway.

Plensa’s towering seven white resin sculptures, which punctuate the square, are of naked men. These men are sitting on 10 meter high poles. Each man lights up the night with a play of light which bounces from one statue to the other signifying communications between the seven continents.
This interplay of light flashing reduces the Tramway to a dubious image of an ominous phallic image snaking its way though core of Nissa La Bella.

I have been informed that the work is called “Conversations in Nice.”

Yeah, right!

It’s not the Apollo statue itself which perturbs me, it is the cumulative message of the entire centre city installation!

When a friend, appealing to my own personal sense of swagger bragged to me, years ago, how her Niçois population was rather “butch” I had no idea that this was what they were referring to.

Considering the sorry state of Greece today, it hardly seems fitting to have that kind of karma dominating the downtown area of a major French city!

Running Late!

2011-10-11T17:43:00.002+02:00

Google Images

View from Windows on the World Restaurant

I realize that this is October 11th…an entire month after most expats have posted their remembrance of 9/11. Finally here is mine.

So sorry about running late!

We had already been living in France, in Villefranche Sur Mer, for over two years on that fateful day when we were running late for an appointment in Nice.

My husband called me into our Den, pointed to the TV screen and said, “Look at this! What do you think of this?”

We both stared… horrified… at the image of a blazing tower of the World Trade Center. The news announcer had said that a plane had flown into the building.

Realizing that, as native New Yorkers, many of our friends and relatives were still living in the New York City Metropolitan area and that it appeared that they were now under attack, we looked at one another…speechless…and frightened in a manner we had never experienced in our entire adult life.

"Perhaps those N.Y.U. film students are up to their old shenanigans again…seizing the TV stations...or something...,” I quipped, in a misguided attempt at adding levity to our state of confusion..

What one earth was going on?

Should we call home?

We did. All the lines were busy.

We were running late for our appointment in Nice.

We turned off the TV got in our car and immediately turned on the news on Riviera Radio, just in time too hear the announcer state quite flatly that ‘the Twin Towers were no more!”

Impossible!

That massive structure… the Titanic of Manhattan (I had prophetically called it for years), could not possibly be gone! Transforming from a flaming inferno of death and destruction... to now toxic rubble. After all, we had just had dinner with friends at its restaurant, Windows on the World, a couple of years earlier for my birthday!

Impossible! Ridiculous!

Those film school students should be flogged, I thought again, just not wanting to believe.

We went though the rest of the day, after our appointment, running errands and buying newspapers. Not a single person we encountered in our local French Riviera towns seemed to us to have heard or read anything, despite the screaming headlines. Not one person broached the subject. Not a twit or tweet…so to speak.

Anyway when we finally got through to various friends and relatives in New York City, over the next few days, this is what we heard:

“I was running late…looked out my window and saw a plane flying into one of the towers…”

Another:

“I was running late, I turned on the TV to see that a second plane had already flown into the World Trade Center building. I realized I would not be going to work!”

Another:

“I was running late. My view from Jersey faces lower Manhattan. When I looked out my window, I saw smoke. I put on my binoculars to see what was happening. There was no way I was going to work that day!”

Another:

“My husband and I were running late on the Long Island Railroad. When we arrived at Grand Central there was pandemonium. Everyone screaming about a terrorist attack in lower Manhattan. I realized, then that I had no physical courage.”

And another:

“I was running late. When I arrived at the lobby of my apartment building, my Doorman said that there had been an attack on the World Trade building. Obviously I wasn’t exacting going to go to work. All I know is that I better get paid this month!”

And finally…

"I was running late to my job at the World Trade Center.. If I had arrived minutes earlier, I would not be here talking to you at this very moment because I would have been in the building's elevator when the first plane hit the building!”

My conclusion is that, as my Mom would say, I am "truly blessed” to have had tardy friends and relatives!

For the record though, despite surviving the worst catastrophe in North American history committed on North American soil, the general fall- out resulted in a certain amount of alienation from friends Stateside.. An alienation which generally grows between those who have physically survived a holocaust and those who only experienced one in theory or by distance.

Those survivors in New York had to continue to work and breath in contaminated air. All had to work, in various ways, through posttraumatic stress disorders and a lingering and haunting fear that there had not yet been closure in the assault.

Nevertheless we all still live…except one friend who I lost three years ago to the long-term effects of having to continue to work at her office near Ground Zero.

She had been running late that day as well.

The Beauty Of French

2011-09-25T17:05:00.001+02:00

photo from Google Images

“Whenever I hear French spoken as I approve, I find myself quietly falling in love”

~Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton (British politician, poet, critic and novelist, 1803-1873)

The Loneliest Profession: A Writer

2011-08-26T17:22:00.004+02:00

When did you discover writing?

When I was in elementary school. In first grade, a teacher taught us how to make books…writing, illustrating and binding… as an art project. I fell in love with the idea that such a thing could exist and began writing. For my seventh birthday a male cousin gave me a typewriter (Olivetti) as a gift. I emphasize that he was a male cousin because, unlike many budding writers, I was encouraged by both male and female relatives to write books.

How would your classify your self as a writer?

I write about the politics of human relationships. Publishers have also classified my novels from time to time as Romance. It wasn’t until I moved to Europe that readers told me that they classified my novels as erotic literature!

I don’t know if the American readers are in serious denial or undeniably repressed!

Although I am a writer, painting is also a passion of mine. Mostly, I create large, colorfully bold paintings of the human form. It could be said that I am positively in love with the beauty and expressiveness of the human being…in principle. Writing allows me to also colorfully paint our presence in stories using an additional medium…words.

Do you find writing to be a lonely and isolating profession?

Very. Nevertheless, I have the companionship and support of my spouse and I am fortunate to be able to live and work in breathtaking surroundings…the South of France.

The most difficult part of writing, though, is the discipline required in writing. Most mornings when I wake up I pray that when I get to the computer that the book has already managed to write itself. Clean, edited and ready to send out!

Do you consider yourself an expat author? And are there any particular difficulties in being an American writer living abroad?

I don’t like the label “Expat”. The prefix makes me uncomfortable. Makes me think of ex-boyfriends, ex-roommates…you know…that sort of thing…

Nevertheless, as a female author, living abroad can bring surprisingly complicated repercussions. Publishers have a tendency to “pigeon-hole” authors. Meaning that if you successfully publish a novel taking place in a particular locale, populated by a particular group of characters, they tend to expect you to continue to write in that category. Business decisions are often conservative decisions based on the previous outcomes of a predetermined target audience’s buying patterns. A change in or broadening of an author’s lifestyle and perspective can result in very challenging consequences, particularly for a female author.

Who are your favorite authors?

Favorite? I bow to almost anyone who can successfully complete a novel and have some mainstream publisher acknowledge their accomplishments. On the top of my list though, would be John Updike, Erica Jong, James Baldwin; Truman Capote, Terry McMillan, John Irving, and Jay McInerney.

What kinds of challenges do you face as a professional writer?

My situation is quite unusual. In only six months after I submitted my first manuscript to Random House Publishers, I receive a book contract. On what they probably waged my advance was the “hook” of a thinly-veiled celebrity character and the “hot” trend of what was called “chick lit” books at that time.

In just three weeks I not only made back my advance but earned a nice piece of change on royalties as well. For my first novel, I had been obviously blessed to have had a top of the line Editor and a “slammin’” Marketing Department in my corner.

The life of my second novel, Ladyfingers was different. Companies changed hands. Then as my second manuscript was submitted, disaster struck with the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, while I was living in France.

Few editors were interested in a comedy about a bunch of Lotto winners and East Samarian bandits getting into all sorts of shenanigans on the French Riviera!

Believe me, no one was laughing over there.

After a while Ladyfingers was finally published, but didn’t have the opportunity to enjoy the glamour and fanfare of my debut novel.

How do you deal with critics?

Not very well.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

If you are looking for commercial success, study the books on the bestseller lists. If you are an artist, write what you want and study the craft. Before becoming successful, take martial arts because there will be all kinds of folks out there waiting to beat you up in dark alleys. Also, don’t let anyone discourage you from writing. I believe that we have an obligation to entertain and inform one another adding to the quality of life.

What projects are your working on now?.

I am working on a third and forth novel, a screenplay and have numerous ideas for future novels. Ladyfingers, as you know is the second installment of what I call my “Cookie Quartet. It will be followed by Almond Cookie and then Macaroons.

I’m sure there will be folks who would challenge the Political Correctness of all this but…hey…I write satire, you know?

I am also working on a play and novel of science fiction. Ideas are always forming in my head; Also, there is powerful inspiration here on the French Riviera. The world is an interesting place to write about.

Your novels are humorous. Why have you chosen this tone, yet at the same time use your characters to address very serious issues?

I don’t know. It is just how my mind works. I see no reason to depress people while trying to get my message across. Besides, if they don’t get the message at least they will be entertained. I hope.

Graffiti in Monte Carlo? Yo Man....That's ***Whack!!!

2011-08-04T16:58:00.008+02:00

L'Art du Graffiti, Monaco

***Whack: an event, action, or thing which makes no sense or is contrary to a logical course of action; something entirely disagreable or undesirable; A non-sequitor;

ie: "That's whack! "

No way. It's not whack, people...actually it's ***dope!

***dope: adj. cool, nice, awesome

Okay...enough. Since I'm closer to the Woodstock Generation than the Hip Hop, allow me to step into someone else's generational lingo and tell you about my relationship with Grafitti.

Let me tell you that back in the early eighties, Graffiti saved my bacon!

Writing Wisdom

2011-06-20T15:31:00.001+02:00

Edward Albee (google images)

"You gotta have swine to show you where the truffles are."

~Edward Albee, playwrite

"The Woodster's" Paris Midnights

2011-06-13T18:03:00.006+02:00

Woody Allen

While in New York we decided to see “ The Woodster’s “ latest movie, Midnight in Paris at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema, on the Upper West Side. The devastatingly gorgeous opening scenes of Paris actually seem to reveal that his love for the physical beauty of Paris equals his love of the physical attributes of New York City. Yet, it is obvious that he finds more depth, passion and complexity in the lives of contemporary New Yorkers than what he finds in contemporary Paris. In fact, the cumulative message of this movie seems to imply that nothing, new, inventive or creative of any importance has happened in Paris since the departure of America’s “lost generation” of artists, musicians and writers, before World War II. That we, Americans, “pistonned” the artistic and social life of 2Oth century Paris.

The meek, mousey, cameo appearance of President Sarkowzy’s wife suggests that French women play, in his opinion, insignificant roles in the overall evolution of French culture and daily life.

I found it to be a disturbing movie showing that despite the innovative contributions American artists have made to Paris, that there is nothing left for us there but romantic notions of fantasies from the past.

“The Woodster” has obviously spent some time analysing the great cites of Europe. After seeing Barcelona, it appears that he doesn’t think much of the Spanish artists, or much of the American women who get mixed up with them. And as far as his movies that take place in England, he seems to feel that the the English are weird, pompous and get away with murder.

All in all…it really doesn’t matter what he portrays…I’ll always be a fan of Woody Allan movies. His clarinet playing isn’t all that bad, either.

(photos google images)

New York Revisited

2011-06-13T17:46:00.046+02:00

Below is a reprint of a blog I posted last September concerning the decision the visit New York City after many years of absence.

Posted on September 9, 2010

google image

WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON IN NEW YORK CITY?

Due to the cumulative effect of a weak dollar while living in France, my husband and I haven’t been back home to New York City in over 6 years.

Well now that we seem to have the opportunity to visit, we contacted old friends to signal our possible arrival.

Granted, our communications with old friends have been erratic since the 9/11 attack (we had already been living in France for over 2 years by then). Nevertheless, our old friends date back to childhood had college years, so there had been an unbroken bond, despite the different directions we all travelled over time.

Let me share the two most curious pieces of correspondence we received regarding our plan to visit “Zoo York City”.

I receives a card, obviously purchased at a museum gift shop. The illustration on the card is the reproduction of artist Edvard Munch’s The Scream.

For those of you not familiar with this painting, The Scream is Norwegian painter’s Edvard Munch’s most famous painting. It was allegedly inspired by a hallucinatory experience in which Much felt “a scream throughout nature”. The painting was conceived in 1893. Munch himself suffered a nervous breakdown in 1908.

Inside the card, my friend wrote:

Dear Delorys,

New York City…in fact the entire country…is crazy. Be glad you are both in Europe. But if you absolutely, positively must come to the States, don’t say anything…just look around you and just watch and listen.

Another response, by email read:

Hola Delorys!

We will be excited to see you, in as much as we haven’t seen you in years and haven’t been able to come over to visit you. Nevertheless the changes in New York City have been unbelievable. Some good and some bad, depending from whose eye’s you’re looking. There is even a fantastic French restaurant in the center of Harme; You know that if French people go there it must be ‘darned good’ (note: this lady doesn’t normally speak in this matter nor does she live in or frequent Harlem establishments).

So come…share the experience!

But if you can’t make it to New York, why not meet up with us in Sao Paulo.

Can anyone out there tell me what this can possibly mean?

Should we purchase the tickets? Or should we wait until the tone of the communications changed?

_ _ _ _

June 13, 2011

Last month we finally decided to buy the tickets. This is what we found.

(photos by dwelchtyson)

Visiting my Mom

My old stomping grounds

My childhood Feudal Lord of Morningside Heights...Columbia University

Riverside Church

My beloved Upper West side

Not bad, eh?

Below this surface beauty lurked the fall out of a reprehensible act of terrorism.

Well…beginning at customs at JFK Airport a gnawing creepiness began to set in my gut. Instead of what I remembered as the congenial greeting “of welcome home” that was customary from Customs agents to American travellers from abroad, we receive a brusque “eyeballing” of our faces and passports and a frigid dismissal. I suppose it all had something to do with the installation of Homeland Security dynamics.

Friends had warned us of an undercurrent and it was palpable.

Friends who I’ve known since childhood, who have been highly trained educators, attorneys, government administrators, writers, performers …all who possessed the energy and creativity and artistic inclinations which fed the vitality in New York, now seemed tired and apprehensive. Most expressed the fear of unemployment or underemployment, a perplexity concerning the future of their health care benefits, and anxiety concerning their children’s professional and economic futures.

I also noticed a higher proportion of problems of obesity among the populations living north of 96th Street. No kidding. I found it difficult to discern whether the explanation would be ethnic or economic. Believe me; in NYC it is not the same thing.

Securing a simple metro card could involve unexplainable complexities. But the cabs and limo services were comfortable and readily available.

The restaurants we preferred turned out to be Mexican, and…Japanese.

Conversations tended to involve people who distractedly gazed around you instead of looking directly at you while talking. A disturbing number of New Yorkers actually averted the eyes when you spoke to them...like servants from the Third World.

New York City tap water which was once the most delicious in the country, to the point that they bottled and sold it to Californians, now tastes like Philadelphia tap water.

Don’t ask.

Is it just me, or is holding wine tastings from a vender's stand on the streets of Broadway in front of Lincoln Center just a tad bit tacky?

Things change, life goes on, regimes change, tastes change. I’m happy to be back in France.

In Nice.

So, tomorrow, it’s off to the Cours Saleya to restock our cupboards.

Cours Saleya, Nice France

Our return lunch at Cocodile, Promenade des Anglais, Nice...

..and back to face the music!

The President's Intentions

2011-06-10T16:04:00.006+02:00

When President Obama offered a toast to the Queen with during the British National anthem, I reflected on his memoire Dreams From My Father, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Then, remembering that his father was Kenyan and the historically dramatic relationship between Kenya and the English, I broke out into hysterical laughter!

He and his Protocol Advisor must be having the time of their lives! Yet, I wonder how maneuvers like this affect American-foreign relations.

Paying up on a Karmic Debt

2011-05-23T14:31:00.004+02:00

"Herr"Arnie's maid

"Mishie" Dominique's maid

Dominque Strauss-Kahn

Arnold Swartzenegger

The most plebeian issues are dominating the news these days.

Why are journalists discussing the fact that successful, elderly European men are choosing to destroy their careers and families for the sexual favors of colored maids?

Perhaps the seeds of these men’s despair are hidden in their surnames.

BLIND CRITICISM

2011-05-11T12:14:00.002+02:00

J’en ai marre !!!!!

The tourist season has officially begun here on the French Riviera. What always arrives with the hordes is the inevitable and harsh criticism of French driving habits.

I’d like to intercept a bit with this blog before the Anglophones really start getting flagrant down here!

Everyone knows that anyone’s life can be irrevocably destroyed by an intoxicated or mentally disturbed driver on the road in any country by a driver of any nationality. My question is why have the French, in particular, been given such a bad rap as drivers?

I have been recipient many times of French driving hospitality. What I have found is that my French friends and acquaintances have displayed skill and grace at ever turn…so to speak. It’s no wonder, I later learned, considering what they have to go though in order to earn the privilege to drive in their country.

How may of you who have criticized the French actually studied for the French Permis de Conduire?

Too scared, right?

And I’m willing to bet…too broke!

Then, that means you don’t know bupkis about anything French.

Want to know how I came to this conclusion? Because it is expensive, difficult and studying for it would actually result in an evolution of thinking that would cause you to realise that you had no prior knowledge of what it takes to understand of the Gallic approach to manoeuvring safely through life in France. My philosophy is in order to criticize the French you should have been educated in France and taught by the French. How else can one understand the cultural nuances of a country which has the power to seduce millions of people through its doors, whether they be rich or poor, yellow green or blue, to a place which is probably the most complicated in all of Europe? Even people from rich and powerful countries are willing to test their fate in a country which for years will render them functional illiterates!

Years ago I took the driving school plunge…so I know of what I write.

I can’t overstate the fact that the pursuit of the French Permis de Conduire is an expensive, lengthy but profoundly informative study of the psychology of the French population. Believe me, studying this will enhance one’s relationships with the French people you encounter, do business with or with whom one becomes intimately involved. It will even enable one to distinguish a foreign driver from a French one.

Imagine that!

Case in point:

One sunny afternoon, a fellow student, who is also an American, and I left another gruelling session of La Code de la Route to stop at a corner café. As we approached the curb, a car came screeching towards us in a completely misguided attempt to park in a no parking zone.

Mr. America, hisses, ., “Look at that. After they get their permits, all rules fly out the window. How typically French!

My response was, “What makes you think the driver is French?”

He pointed to the French License plate on the Italian Fiat, and said, “Look… 06 (the code for the Alpes Maritimes)!”

As if on cue, two men emerge from the car, sharing a typically boisterous conversation in Italian!

Typically French, right?

So, this is the advice from yours truly…the Expat Curmudgeon Writer on the Côte d’Azur…to American drivers in France. Stop criticizing…stay alert and either take your bigotry and pack it in your little back packs and go back home… or just get off the road and take the friggin’n bus!

Writing Tips

2011-04-28T12:42:00.001+02:00

mixed media 12" x 36" by Delorys Welch-Tyson

"If you can't annoy somebody, there's little point in writing."
~ Kingsley Amis

Domestic Quarrels

2011-04-28T12:00:00.003+02:00

July 21, 1926- April 13, 2001
Josephine Premice

"Never let a man tell you 'You look so beautiful stiring the soup' "
~Josephine Premice

A Bright Light During Stressful Times

2011-04-27T16:54:00.010+02:00

Baroness Cecile DeMassy founder of Ladies Lunch Association d’Aide à l’Enfance et à l’Adolescence, Monaco

an interview by Delorys Welch-Tyson with Baroness Cecile DeMassy, Founder of Ladies Lunch Monaco

“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” ~Franklin Delano Roosevelt

This blog is about a worthwhile charity I discovered recently here on the coast.

Many years ago I created an art gallery specializing in art made by children. The goal of my gallery was to present a public forum to the creative visual expression of young people between the ages of 6 and 18. My interest in helping children convey their feelings and observations though painting, drawing and sculpture, of the world around them was met with enthusiastic participation from children from the US and many countries from around the world.

Despite the fact that I am now a working writer living in the South of France, my interest in issues concerning the development of young people has never waned.

Not long ago, while surfing the net, I ran across information about an organization call Les Enfants de Frankie.

Les Enfants de Frankie is a charitable organization dedicated itself to helping the morale of disadvantaged children though various social activities. The organization reaches these young people through various social services agencies, hospitals and orphanages. Although the children of the Alpes Maritimes benefit from the efforts of the organization, Les Enfants de Frankie is based in Monaco.

Some may find it ironic that such an organization would exist in Monaco. 'Disadvantaged children on the French Riviera?’ one may ask, with perhaps a certain degree of astonishment.

When one thinks of Monaco one thinks of luxury yacht harbors, high rolling jet setters, leisure carefree life of indulgence. A population far removed from the concerns of every day people. Nevertheless, regardless of our station in life it is imperative that we know that no child is immune to the vicissitudes of life’s natural progressions.

Through Les Enfants de Frankie I discovered the Ladies Lunch Association d’Aide à l’Enfance et à l’Adolescence, also based in Monaco and founded by Baroness Cecile DeMassy, cousin by marriage to Prince Albert of Monaco.

I contacted her for a request for an interview about her organization which she graciously accepted.

But first let me give you a bit of a background on Monaco.

Monaco

Monaco is the second smallest country, by size, in the world. It is also the world's second smallest monarchy and one of the world’s most densely populated countries. Monaco has ten state-operated schools, including: seven nursery and primary schools; one secondary school, Collège Charles III; one lycée which provides general and technological training, Lycée Albert 1er and one lycée that provides vocational and hotel training, Lycée technique et Hôtelier de Monte-Carlo. There are also two grant-aided denominational private schools, including Institution François d'Assise Nicolas Barré and Ecole des Sœurs Dominicaines, and one international school, The International University of Monaco.

A new Constitution in 1962 abolished capital punishment and provided for women’s suffrage, and established a Supreme Court of Monaco to guarantee fundamental liberties.

One of Monaco's main sources of income is tourism. The principality has successfully sought to diversify into services and small, high-value-added, non-polluting industries, such as cosmetics and diathermies.

The country has no natural resources…except its people, of course.

Monaco’s population consists of all nationalities and socio-economic groups which enjoy an excellent quality of life in spite of the global economic and social crisis.

The Ladies Lunch Association d’Aide à l’Enfance et à l’Adolescence was founded by Mme. DeMassy six years ago.
***

Miss Charlene Wittstock, (future Princess of Monaco, Prince Albert, Mme. Cecile DeMassy, and Mme. Celina Lafuente de Lavotha

Welch-Tyson : How was the program of the Ladies Lunch conceived ?

Mme. DeMassy: Our association was designed following the guidelines of the Geneva Ladies Lunch. It was back in 2004 when my friend Mrs. Monia El Fitouri from Geneva and other friends like Mrs. Safia Al Rachid and Mrs. Christiane Dawson encouraged me to create the Ladies Lunch Monte Carlo. The association consists of an Action Committee of 7 women who provide their continuous assistance on a volunteer basis, each in their area of expertise. Plus an Honorary Committee of 6 highly accomplished, international women. In 2009, Miss Charlene Wittstock, our Future Princess of Monaco, became our Honorary President.

WT: What are the goals of the program?

DM: The goals of our association are to raise funds to assist other charity organizations to help children and adolescents in the Principality of Monaco.

WT: What are the needs of the children for whom you are raising funds?

DM: The needs of these children and adolescents are exactly the same as all others, ensure their wellbeing and help them move forward in their development.

WT: Do the funds you raise go to a charitable organization or to a specific service provider?

DM: The funds are reversed to the charitable organizations that help children and adolescents . For example, we have raised funds for Special Olympics, Ecoute Cancer Reconfort, Action Innocense, Jeune J’Ecoute, Les Enfants de Frankie, just to mention a few.

WT: What type of media outlets do you use to reach those people to whom you wish to participate in your fundraising efforts?

DM: To reach the women who wish to participate in our twice-a-year lunches, we have a comprehensive mailing list that is continuously updated and enlarged by the friends invited by the women already registered. We have loyal followers but we are open to newcomers. We work closely with the printed and audiovisual media, at the local and international level and internet outlets. Of course it is important to mention that we have a very informative website that we update regularly: www.ladieslunchmontecarlo.org.

WT: I understand that you have different events at your lunches, for instance your fashion shows. Have you had other events featured at your lunches, for instance theatre, dance or other cultural events?

DM: Our original concept included a famous jeweller as our main sponsor, and a fashion show by a top designer. But we are flexible and open to new ideas. For example, for the last two events the main sponsors have been institutions like Julius Baer in November 2010 and UBS in March 2011.

Furthermore we once had the performance of a violinist and yet another time we had a singer in the program. Another time we had the wives of the players of the Monaco Football team as models for the fashion show. Most recently, one of our partners, Lavida Travel, offered to raffle a 5-day stay at a top luxury hotel in Vienna, among the guests at our Ladies’ Lunch. Our objective is to continuously innovate and offers an attractive program to our guests in return for their generosity.

Third from left,

British designer Osman Yousefzada, organizer of Ladies Lunch Fashion Show Novemeber 2010

WT: What are some specific examples of how your organization’s funding have helped the children?

DM: We have helped the Department of Pediatrics of the Princess Grace Hospital in acquiring Respiratory Monitors for newborn children. We made it possible for the association Monaco Disease Power to begin the construction of a holiday home for disabled children. We have helped restore a recreation room at the Foyer Sainte Devote. We participated in the construction of “La Maison de Vie” by the association FIGHTAIDSMONACO for people affected with the disease. And our work continues.

WT: Do many people who attend these fundraisers come from outside of Monaco?

DM: Our guests come from Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, UK, USA…from all over the world, really.

WT: Do you work with other charitable organizations that help children?

DM: We collaborate with organizations that help children and adolescents in Monaco. We collaborate with associations that help women to nurture a healthy mother-child relationship.

WT: What type of relationship does your organization have with government social services agencies?

DM: We are here to help if the government social services so require. We meet with them to discuss their needs and do our best according to our means. The way we did three years ago with the Pediatric Ward of the Princess Grace Hospital.

WT: What are the plans for the future of the organization in regards to helping the Children of Monaco?

DM: We organize two events a year, in March and November and we select a charitable organization each time. Last March, we raised funds for the Academy of Dance Princess Grace, for which we received generous donations that will enable children of lower income homes to have the chance of becoming great dancers.

Miss Charlene Wittsock and recipients of Academy de Dance funding

Next November we will benefit an association that deals with youngsters who suffer from schizophrenia. They really need our help and I happen to be personally touched by this problem.

- Les membres du Comité du Ladies Lunch avec sa Présidente d'Honneur, Mlle Charlene Wittstock

***

I would like to thank Mme. Cecile DeMassy for taking time from her busy schedule for this interview. I am personally certain that due to the dedication of these women The Ladies Lunch will continue to be a bright light of social consciousness in Monaco.

http://www.deloryswelchtyson.com/

The 2,000,000th Reason Why I Fled the U.S. ...Transference

2011-04-19T16:20:00.006+02:00

(photos from google images)

Why are photos like this circulating? It’s not as if I’m lacking in a sense of humor; it’s just that I don’t understand the basis of this joke.

During my University years, I had a number of Caucasian roommates who never ceased to be amazed and ultimately expressed various forms of jealously regarding the fact that I didn’t have to routinely scrape hair from my legs. You see, the proportion of Native American and black African blood in my personal genetic pool rendered it unnecessary to do such a thing. You see…basically….these two groups, including the indigenous populations of Asia tend to have very little body hair.

Now, I realize that President Obama has a direct link through his mother to the Caucasian tribes, but what exactly is the significance of these photos?

What would our Caucasian population look like if the "hairless ones" organized and confiscated all their razors and Epiladies? What do they think they would see relecting back at them from their mirrors.

I wonder what the rest of the world thinks of us when they see infantile crap like the above photos emanating from our press and politicians?

…and now for some advice to expats everywhere!

2011-04-11T18:34:00.004+02:00

Uncle Remus and Friends (goole images)

"Boy,

what ever you is and where ever you is,

don’t be what you ain’t,

because when you is what you ain’t,

you isn’t."

~Uncle Remus

...and I’m sure you all know who I’m referring to!

An Example of the 1,999,999th Reason I Fled

2011-04-05T17:38:00.004+02:00

google images

(Subtitle) Bad Manners and Repugnant Behavior According to Whoopie Goldberg

So, yesterday I finished reading Whoopie Goldberg’s book, Is It Just Me? Or Is It Nuts Out There?

This, to me, was a hilarious book which basically implied that the United States has become a nation of arrogant and smug Philistines!

I would like to share with you a joke from her chapter: "Buddy is the new Nigger:"

A little black cherub is up in heaven and is kind of cruising around, and God comes walking by, and the cherub flies over and says, " Hi, God !"

God says, “Hey how are you doing?”

The cherub says, “Fine, God. Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” says God.

“Am I an angel?”

God says, “No, nigger, you a bat!”

Do you find this funny?

Is it me…or is this simply a sly reference to the American majority population’s opinion of President Obama?

TO MY FELLOW AMERICANS:

2011-04-05T17:29:00.004+02:00

Here you are! President Obama's Certification of Live Birth!

Case closed!
Don't you think that some sh_t should just be laid to rest?

Nevertheless, at the risk of being labled a "Devil's Advocate"...I note that his father's race is labeled "AFRICAN"?
Does that mean his father was Black? White? Micronesian? Afro- Asian?

His Mom: CAUCASIAN!
Does that mean European? African? Asian? American? Australian? South American? Antarctican?

Have a nice day!

(photos from google images)

Wall Street English: Does The Sun Still Not Set On The British Empire?

2011-03-25T13:50:00.016+01:00

(photos from google images )

Taiwan

For years I noticed…all over Nice… on bill boards, buses and bus stop shelters, humungous ads for The Wall Street English Institutes.

Having no need to study something like this nor the desire to teach English, I continued to remain mildly curious without checking out what it was all about. Besides, here in Nice, the School was originally located at the Nice Etoile. The Etoile is not someplace I frequent often since I had already "o.d."-ed on Malls in the States and had no intention of taking up the habit here in France with all the fabulous specialty shops and boutiques in town that fullfil every need of a Francophile with international predilections like myself.

old location at Nice Etoile

But…I digress…

Well yesterday, I discovered that The Wall Street English School had relocated to a building on the rue de France. It also has a residence in what I call the English Countryside on avenue Guynemer, in Saint Laurent du Var. Since we were in the neighbourhood, I decided to stop in on the one in downtown Nice.

When I walked in, the exotic-looking young lady at the desk looked as if her Mom had entered ready to reprimand her for some disreputable act.

I introduced myself and then asked her to define "Wall Street English." Did it mean that they taught American English instead of British English? After all, last I remember Wall Street was located in lower Manhattan. In New York City. In the United States.

The young lady responded by saying, “Both, Madame”. And then she handed me this brochure:

Question: As an American, should I be insulted by this?

In addition, it is stated in the brochure that The Wall Street English Institute is recognized and approved by THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE!!!

Oh golly...gee wiz...imagine that!

Expat Quote ...of the Day

2011-03-22T16:11:00.003+01:00

"Mona Laughter" by Charlie Hall

"He who laughs last …is surrounded by dead people!"

-- Dat Phan

Apropos of Food...

2011-03-11T14:36:00.012+01:00

This is for all of the Americans abroad. Let's never forget where we came from. Don't you guys miss any of this?

(food photos from google images)

pancakes and sausages

Chicken and Waffles

Manhattan Clam Chowder

New England Clam Chowder

Crab Cakes

Corn on the Cob

macaroni salad

potato salad

macaronia and cheese

Barbeque Spare Ribs

collard greens

shrimp Creole

okra

cornbread

Barbeque Chicken

Ham and Scalloped Potatoes

Well...do you?
Just remember...you are not an orphan. You come from someplace.

Cupcakes in Paris?

2011-03-09T14:23:00.006+01:00

Honey...pul-eeese....

What's all the hullabaloo about kiddy vittles in the world of Haute Couture Patisseries?

The way I was raised in the United States, Cupcakes were simply an children's snack. I guess I wasn't as underprivileged as I thought.

If we be Ambassadors...let's bring out the big guns in homage to our Grandmamas:

'Membah deeze?

( food photos by google images)

pecan pie

pineapple upside down cake

sweet potato pie

cherry pie

peach cobbler

Utensils absolutely required!

An Interview With Editor of Riviera Woman, Anna Fill

2011-03-08T12:44:00.002+01:00

Thanks, Anna, for the mention in The Riviera Woman for International Woman's Day.

Cool!

Expat Writers Quote For March

2011-03-01T13:36:00.001+01:00

Ernest Hemingway google images

The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof shit detector.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

Relax and Enjoy The Ride

2011-02-18T14:13:00.007+01:00

(google images)

This is my response to a recent criticism of my “point-of-view” approach in my novel Ladyfingers:

'An Insight Into Black America'

"You give me this advantage," Baldwin once wrote to his white audience. "Whereas you never had to look at me — because you've sealed me away along with sin and hell and death — my life was in your hands and I had to look at you. I know more about you than you know about me."
Randal Kenan (editor of Cross of Remption: Balwins uncollected essays) says that as members of the minority, African-Americans are observers of the majority culture — through television, newspapers and pop culture, blacks "are privy to so much about white folks' lives — but not vice versa."

So there you are….

James Baldwin 1924-1987 photo by Richard Avedon

What Is An Expat?

2011-02-07T15:56:00.003+01:00

Nice, France google images

Who am I?

What am I? Expat? Refugee? Immigrant (certainly felt that way living on the weak and erratic dollar for the past 8 years)? Artist? Gringo? Defector? Adventurer? Long time resident of the French Riviera? An American who enjoys living France?

Below are two definitions of Expatriate that I found interesting:

*one who lives outside one’s own country; One who has been banished from one’s own country; To banish; to drive or force (a person) from his own country; to make an exile of; To withdraw from one’s native country; To renounce the rights and liabilities of citizenship where one is born … en.wiktionary.org/wiki/expatriate

*ex patriate – A person who has abandoned his or her country of origin and citizenship and has become a subject or citizen of another country. http://www.irishclaims/

Most of the Americans I have met, proudly call themselves Expats! The word itself has come to represent glamour, exotic choices, worldly intellegencia, café life… But you see, my problem is with the prefix!

EX-!

When I think of “ex”-something…I think of EX-husbands, EX-friends, EX-boyfriends, EX-roommates…EX-change…uhh …oh…never mind… but I think you get the point.

In the mid eighties, I took a vacation to visit the beaches of the French Riviera. I fell in love….no… not with a Frenchman, I was already happily and firmly married…with the light and colors of the Mediterranean. From Monaco to Saint Tropez. I was captivated by the foods of the region, the markets, boutiques, the souk of Nice (the Old Town), the laid back pleasures of the South. The politesse of the population. I kept coming back to the area until my husband and I were able to move here in 1999. I sold my business, published my first novel, my husband retired, and we left Dodge City (New York City) to move to the sunny Côte d’Azur.

Permanently?

Who knows.

Am I an Expat?

I am an American.

An eighth generation American, female of African, Irish, Native American ancestry, who lives in France with my American spouse of Russian, Scottish, English ancestry, because we love the food, rocky beaches, cheaper travel options…and the National Healthcare System.

Trompe - l'Oeil Niçois

2011-02-05T16:42:00.001+01:00

Sometimes you find that it’s just time to move on.

In our case, living this laid back life in the South, we’ve become so provincial that moving on simply means moving closer to the sea. The weather this winter…and actually last winter as well… has caused us to feel that we were living more of an Alpine experience than a Mediterranean coastal one.

So yesterday, since the sun has reappeared and folks here are actually eating out in the sidewalk cafés (either Scandinavians or folks in serious denial…I’d surmise… despite the sunshine and all)), we decided to embark on our first New Year’s resolution: find a place somewhere not far from Nice where there are more palm trees and bougainvillea than thickets of pine.

Driving along the coast brought back memories of our early years of living here where we actually lived on the coast... smack dab in the middle between Nice and Monaco. Heavy handed urbanization, of proportions we could never have anticipated caused us to be catapulted up hill into the arrière pays de Nice! Eventually, urban expansion stalked us by constructing numerous luxury housing blocks connected by various jitneys and expanded bus lines to the long awaited Tramway.

Several people told me not long ago that Nice, over the years, had evolved into a “proletariat” town. Nevertheless, despite this theory, what I notice is massive housing projects involving the construction of “Grand Standing” and “Standing” apartment complexes, and real estate listings which reflect the income levels of Fairfield Country, Connecticut back home…or Beverly Hills. Imagine an area whose major industry is tourism competing in cost of living prices with New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco!

Now, we have found that we escaped the rat race of the banking, government and communications industries of California and New York City only to find that everyone has decided to emulate the kind of lifestyle depicted in a Jay McInerney novel. I still can’t get over seeing ads for “Wall Street English” classes. What kind of political agenda is that for a European population?

But, I digress…

One of the few neighbourhoods that retain the flavour of the Riviera I fell in love with years ago is around the area called Maeterlinck. The views are breathtaking and rival the vistas of Villefranche Sur Mer, Eze and Cap d’Ail. I won’t bother to offend anyone by discussing the asking prices of property here. Let’s just say that they are certainly the explanation as to why this superb area feels so desolate and devoid of human spirit. I mean Nice is a “Proletariat town”…so they say. Perhaps developers are planning another huge housing project… who else could possible afford these prices per square meter… or perhaps there is some sort of plot more insidious in operation here à la Stephen King.

Maybe I’ll find that this search for a coastal abode will prove to be fodder for some future novel of mine.

I’ll keep you posted.

Belated New Year Wishes from Me

2011-01-16T22:40:00.001+01:00

Oh yeah...

another thing I forgot...my Expat Quote for the New Year. So here you are....

(photos from google images)

"Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank G_d that it can go."--Brooks Atkinson

HAPPY 2011 to all!

CHRISTMAS KITSCH

2011-01-16T16:42:00.001+01:00

Between the high drama preparations for the Chistmas Season and the tragic events back home after the New Year (Arizona Massacre), I forgot to post my Monaco photos on my Expat Blog. So here, though belated and not all that comprehensive, is a taste of our Monaco Christmas.

google images

“The term kitsch is considered derogatory, denoting works executed to pander to popular demand alone and purely for commercial purposes rather than works created as self-expression by an artist.The term is generally reserved for unsubstantial and gaudy works that are calculated to have popular appeal and are considered pretentious and shallow rather than genuine artistic efforts.”

So what?

One of the advantages of living on the Riviera is that we can celebrate Christmas in one of the remaining Principalities of Europe….it has become a tradition for us.

And don’t you forget it!

What On Earth Are They Talking About?

2010-11-22T16:46:00.002+01:00

(cartoon by David Horsey, 2009)

As a long-time expat in France, I need to pose several unanswered questions which have been causing me some sleepless nights, lately:

1) When some groups of people demand that they intend to take America back, who exactly do they feel has invaded and whose culture do they feel has come and colonized our own?

2) When did this begin?

3) Are Native Americans asking this? Americans of European descent? Of African descent? Of Asian descent?

4) Who are they talking about?

5) When I read that some other groups are demanding that they get their country back, who exactly is demanding this? People who are victims of our previous foreign relations? Reluctant immigrants and other refugees perhaps?

6) Who are they talking about?

I would appreciate the feedback, since it is probably apparent to you that I have become completely out of touch.

School me on this one people!

(Post script : I have just been informed that America does not actually have an official language. “ English is the de facto national language of the United States, with 82% of the population claiming it as a mother tongue, and some 96% claiming to speak it "well" or "very well".[3] However, no official language exists at the Federal level. There have been several proposals to make English the national language in amendments to immigration reform bills,[4][5] but none of these bills has become law with the amendment intact.” Wikipedia

People…help me on this one as well…

Which English are they talking about? American English? British English? Australian English? Canadian English?

What are they talking about? It appears to me that the majority culture for hundreds of years were so preoccupied with repressing minorities and policing foreign nations that they forgot to give themselves an official language! Geeez...)

Expat Quote For November

2010-11-16T16:08:00.002+01:00

“It [the Eiffel Tower] looked very different from the Statue of Liberty, but what did that matter? What was the good of having the statue without the liberty?”Josephine Baker

In In case you don’t know…

(Josephine Baker was an American-born French expatriate entertainer and singer. She became a French citizen in 1937. Most noted as a singer, Baker was a celebrated dancer in her early career. She was given the nicknames the "Black Venus" or the "Black Pearl", as well as the "Créole Goddess" in anglophone nations. In France, she has always been known in the old theatrical tradition as "La Baker".

Joséphine Baker is noted for being the first woman of African descent to star in a major motion picture, to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

Baker worked with the NAACP.[4] In 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of Martin Luther King, Jr.[17] Wearing her Free French uniform emblazoned with her medal of the Légion d'honneur, she was the only woman to speak at the rally.[18] After King's assassination, his widow Coretta Scott King approached Baker in Holland to ask if she would take her husband's place as leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. After many days of thinking it over, Baker declined, saying her children were "… too young to lose their mother, “ as she was the mother of 13 adopted war orphans.[3]

Aging Gracefully

2010-11-15T16:46:00.003+01:00

Recently an acquaintance of mine who lives in Germany commented on my blog concerning the “Chic of French Women.” To encapsulate his quite lengthy response which was sent to me through my private email, he basically stated his opinion on what he felt was the self -deprecating tendency of American women to use facelifts as beauty enhancements in order to combat the aging process.

What came to mind was how ironic his opinion was considering the fact that we both live among the antiquities of Europe.

Image what living here would be like without the nips and tucks of European restoration efforts. The way I see it is that we’d all be living as if we were in the bowels of the slums of Cairo.

(photos from google images)

à-propos of fashion statements....

2010-11-15T14:38:00.003+01:00

Hello Ladies of the diaspora!
Is it just me or do you also see a curious pattern in these photos?

(photos from google images)

How Fickle Can You Get

2010-10-21T16:50:00.001+02:00

(photos from google images)

From afar, I watched in disbelief.

A relatively unknown black man had emerged, creating ecstatic, cultish zeal with his promise of “change.” Wondering who this obviously charismatic man was, I ordered his biography, “Dreams from My Father.”

As I read this fiction-like approach to memoir describing the exotic background of a mixed race and bi-cultural colored boy from a broken home, growing up in Asia then ultimately acquiring an Ivy League education… I began to wonder. When did the average American start relating to such exotic qualities and qualifications from a person of colour…or anyone else for that matter?

I realized that I had been living away from my country for over a decade. Was it possible that my country had evolved into sophisticated, tolerant, erudite, “post racial” America? Were we entering a new enlightened era, with the slogan” Yes We Can.”?

When I completed his novel, I began to question what it was exactly that the American people felt we could do? Put the bizarre reign of the Bush Administration behind us? Elect a Democrat after 8 years of Republican dominated philosophies? Elect a Negro? Support his party’s platforms?

What were these platforms? When I asked a number of American friends back home what they were, the answer I got was a unanimous “Universal Health care, Delorys…I think.”

I think?!?

Anyway, I watched in wonder as crowds of Americans around the globe gathered around bridges, chanting “Yes We Can.” The whole scenario reminded me of scenes from Woodstock or the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Then questions concerning Obama’s citizenship surfaced, causing me to wonder how Americans could be so progressive in thinking on one hand, yet know so little about geography and American history on the other.

As a Democrat, myself, living in Europe who had suffered various repercussions of the Bush Era, I voted, as the majority of Americans did, for Barack Obama. I watched America celebrate the election of the first African American president of the United States. I watched huge crowds cheer the end of Republican party domination and destructive policies in our foreign relations.

The celebration of new beginnings.

Ignoring the heap of devastation left behind from the previous administration which our new President inherited, within months cries and accusations of fraud and elitism filled the airwaves. Citizens who supported his “campaign promises” before he was elected, screamed that our President was out of touch with the people and hadn’t delivered the fairy dust and the happily ever after that was necessary in record time!

How fickle can you get?

Citizens began questioning his religious affiliations in a country of religious freedom.

But actually what bothers me the most is the accusation of “out-of-touch elitism.” Our last 4 presidents attended Yale and Harvard. Hardly grass roots institutions.

Perhaps if American Citizens wanted a president “of the people”, they should have voted for someone more familiar like Willie Nelson.

Sarkowzy and the Gyspies

2010-09-17T15:41:00.002+02:00

Famous Roma:

Concha Buicka, singer;Bob Hoskins,actor; Sir Micahel Caine, actor; Sir Charles Chaplin, actor, director; The Prez

I would think it would be easy, by now, for European governments to distinguish between criminals and law abiding citizens of the EU whether they are Roma or any other ethnic group.
The way I see it is, perhaps instead of just moving people around, the various European governments should set aside funds from their arts budgets to set up various theatre groups from a pool of unemployed Roma. This way we can put people to good use and show and inform the general population of the EU the culture of a group of people who have contributed a tremendous amount of talent to Europe and the rest of the world.
Perhaps the controversy is actually a domestic situation between President Sarkowzy and members of a large extended family. From my observations, the French President appears ethnically Roma in so many ways.
(As a member of a minority group, living in Europe, I figured I’d put “my two cents in” on the subject.)

(photos from google images)

Racism In France. Is It Racism or Historical Precision?

2010-07-25T17:29:00.006+02:00

A word of advice to American Blacks in France. Don’t let Africans bait you with issues of racism in France. If you are an American and Black in France, confronted with this bait, I suggest you resist the temptation to discuss something we are entirely unqualified to discuss.

I suppose you’re wondering how it would be possible for a Black American living in France to be unqualified to discuss racism.

First we are not French. Nor are we from a former French colony. We are not looking for work or any

support from a people who had colonized our African country. Our primary experience has been American Institutional racism which has continually evolved for over 500 years.

Obama, not withstanding.

According to the media and immigration patterns, Africa is riddled with ethnic strife. Racism! The kind of ethnic strife between blacks in Africa has resulted in huge numbers of Africans from various tribes fleeing to every continent on the globe.

Why would Europeans who have had to relinquish their African colonies want to deal with the same people, now in Europe, who threw them out? What kind of ethnocentric arrogance would demand that European tribes be less racist than any African tribe?

Despite the fact that from the very beginning American blacks’, who were imports from various African

societies, purpose was to help build a brand new country for Caucasian people at the expense of Native Americans, we have never been considered Americans” We are simply a kind over ever-present reminder of Caucasian moral transgressions, in every way from the diverse characters of our features due to miscegenation, to the fact that we can actually survive all manner of insult and condescension, with a pride and flair which elicits envy, respect and admiration throughout the world.

No African in Europe has had to deal with the systematic racism that has tortured black Americans for over a half a century. They never sat on the back of the bus in Europe unless they wanted to.
On the other hand, black Americans, produced and harvested the nation’s produce, built the cities, nurtured the children and handled all the dirty work of the nation with minimal rewards. We faced fire hoses, lynchings, police dogs at voting booths and lunch counters in our very own country.
It has only taken a few decades for France to confront its own racism, America is still tackling ours.
And don’t get all excited about a post racial America, simply because we elected Obama. Obama is an African American. The majority of Americans who chose to elect Obama reminds me of something my Grandparents and Parents told me. You see, back in the days of Jim Crow laws which didn’t allow blacks in restaurants and hotels among other places, it was a well known fact that if a black donned African or Middle Eastern garb, they would be welcomed into the same establishments in which black Americans would be refused.
Chew on that for a while.
It appears to me, with the rate that France is confronting its racism, she will probably elect a black French President long before America elects an indigenous black one!

(all photos from google images)