Politics and pregnancy

French Minister of Justice Rachida Dati is pregnant - and unmarried - and won't reveal the name of the father. "I have a complicated personal life," she explains. The collective French reaction: "Congrats on the baby, ma'am. We don't give a f@*! who the father is. Now go back to work and fix France, please."

Given how crazy we're going in the States over the pregnancies of Sarah and Bristol Palin, can you imagine how we'd react here if an unmarried cabinet minister was pregnant? Say, Condoleezza Rice?

Imagine no countries

The restrictionist message is brutally simple — that illegal immigrants deserve no rights, mercy or hope. It refuses to recognize that illegality is not an identity; it is a status that can be mended by making reparations and resuming a lawful life.

- The New York Times, June 3rd, 2008

Borders and nationalities are socio-political constructs; they have no more basis in reality nor legitimacy than the dehumanizing ideologies of race that have allowed the haves to subjugate the have-nots throughout human history. At its worst, this way of thinking led Man to his darkest hours by justifying mass atrocities like the decimation of Native Americans, slavery, the Holocaust, and the Rwandan genocide. Gold stars in Nazi Germany, special pink birth certificates in the Dominican Republic, the Burmese junta's reluctance to allow Western aid workers into the Irawaddy Delta, and American immigration policy all serve to isolate the us from the them, to deny our shared humanity in service of the political and economic interests of those in power.
The US government and American mainstream culture is quick to cry wolf in defense of state sovereignty when it's convenient, forgetting about the times when it was in our interest to ignore it: the Mexican-American War then, the invasion of Iraq now.

RIP, Irena Sendler - and a tribute to my grandparents

Like many social workers in pre-war Poland, Mrs Sendler belonged to the Socialist Party: not for its political ideology, but because it combined compassion with dislike of money-worship.

- The Economist, May 24th, 2008

I think this sentence encapsulates the soul of European socialism. Though my American-educated, Cartesian mind believes in the logic of market economics and free trade, my heart is true to its French roots. My grandparents worshiped two institutions with equal degrees of veneration: the Public School and the Catholic Church, and instilled in their children (and later, my cousins and me) the sacrosanct values of education and compassion.

And sexism, too!

Lest I be accused of being politically biased, props to the Washington Post for their article about the sexist attacks against Senator Clinton. The craziest thing to me is that the primary is supposed to be between democrats - if I didn't know better, I'd think that this primary was a referendum between sexists and racists.

Racism alive and well in heartland

Ugh. I'm so disturbed by this article that it's taken me over a week to post about it. I don't ever want to hear that white people don't have it easier than everybody else. I wish you godspeed, Senator Obama.

(Ir)regular people

"Clinton won tonight because this is a state that likes, you know, regular people."

-- Karl Rove, "O'Reilly Factor," FNC, 5/13.

Ah, ethnocentrism. Because white males are the default setting for human beings, and everyone else has a special option toggled. Hillary isn't exactly regular, either (a fact that the anti-Clinton backlash hasn't hesitated to use) but as my coworker said, "at least she's the right genus of the species."

A man walks into the lobby of a prominent conservative think tank and asks the young man at the front desk whether Mr. Smith has arrived yet. The receptionist says that yes, he has, and should be at the reception just inside. "How will I recognize him?", the man asks. The young man blushes, rubs his crew-cut head, looking for a choice adjective or two. "He looks, well, normal!"

Meaning just like him. Meaning white.

Gerson trashes understanding

Apparently, trying to understand why people believe what they believe is condescending. Just like helping poor people feed their families, giving the middle class a leg up in putting their kids through college is demeaning, or passing an Equal Rights Amendment would be insulting to women. I guess that's compassionate conservatism.

Being two things at once

The other night, BelmontMedina and I were discussing the democratic primary (still):

Natacha: you know, Obama could probably convince a lot of people to get over their racism by emphasizing that he's half-white and was raised by white people.
BelmontMedina: yeah but that would antagonize black voters, they'd think he was being uppity or something.
Natacha: why can't he be two things at the same time?
BelmontMedina: Americans don't think like that - you think like that because you're French.
Natacha: French people don't think like that either. I think like that because I'm bicultural.

When I was little I used to tell people I was half-French and half-American, and my mom would correct me, saying that I'm all French AND all American, and that is in fact how I feel, 20 years down the road. In the eyes of others my label depends on their perspective. In the States, people say I'm French, in the same way that Maruka is Mexican or that Jenneepah is Korean. The "-American" part of my identity is assumed. In France on the other hand, I am either "d'origine americaine" (of American origin) or people will say "elle vit aux Etats-Unis" (she lives in the US). The greatest confusion is when I'm in another country altogether - I have to introduce myself as either French or American, otherwise it gets too confusing. At the same time, I never feel as much myself as when I'm traveling outside of the US or France. That's about the only time I get to be "just Natacha," without having to decide between being a local or a foreigner.