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Families invade a lodging |
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Fifty families, that is more than two hundred people, settled
in a building belonging to the City of Paris that has been empty
for four years.
They were living in precarious lodgings in down town Paris. A
right time to be remembered by the candidates for the coming
Council of Paris elections..
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Police came quickly and blocked the traffic. The Police cars
were all around. |
A Syrian came to me and said" I am living near by. When
I go to work, I pass by this building it's always empty. Then
one day I phoned to your association to inform them about it."
Suddenly without knowing why, Police raise the siege. The Police
cars drove away under the enthusiastic applaud of the demonstrators.
"We will meet again
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Omar, a single man from Morocco, is disappointed: all day he
was waiting in the cold to find a lodging from the association,
but he was one of those who could not get one that day.
To satisfy all the demands, one building in Paris should be occupied
each day! |
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Communicating is living! |
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- An Annual Congress of the professors of religion in
technical schools was being held in Bad-Boll near Stuttgart in
Germany. The theme was:"Communication at the informatics
age." 140 professors were there, all Protestants. A
beautiful experience to be among them. All appreciate working
with young ones, often young ones who have a hard life. Difficult
work but very exciting.
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Quickly we speak about the Internet that is not a media like
the others. |
One of its originality is to have no center, the center is
every where and the circumference no where.
Internet ignores usual boundaries. Every thing is not coming
anymore from above, the background is first and we speak together
on the same level. One has the right to disagree. The knowledge
is not hidden anymore; it is becoming more and more accessible.
It is a kind of revolution that will allow every body to express
oneself freely. But it is only the beginning.
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A virtual diocese like Partenia has no institutional and material
constraints. It exists in another way. It is why it should not
reproduce the model of a Church that we have. On the net we innovate,
we do not copy. |
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Christians are people making links, they learn to built the Church
as a network. They have right of access. The net is really an
original device!
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Kurds are eager to get dignity and freedom. |
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Eighteen Kurds started a hunger strike in Montpellier like
in some other cities in France. They wear a white band around
the forehead and one of them asked me to put my signature on
his band. In the evening I will have diner with his family and
stay for the night at his home. His father is a bricklayer and
has built his own house. His mother who comes every day to see
him worries very much: "He has already lost 8 kilos,
what is going to happen now?"
These Kurds tried all they can to obtain a regular permit from
the French Administration. It was in vain" We have no
choice. We cannot come back to our country where we will be persecuted.
If Turkey was becoming a democratic country where our right were
respected we would go back immediately because we love our land".
Beyond their hunger strike they express their need for dignity
and freedom.
On the famous Comedie Square, just when I was leaving, a woman
came to me and said:"I cannot understand the Kurd problem.
I have nothing against them. I am a Christian, have been teaching
catechism for twenty years but anyway we cannot accept all the
people (every body)!" |
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Gypsies received at the Parliament |
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Twelve Gypsy families, altogether fifty two persons from Zamoly,
a small village in Hungary found a place of refuge in Strasbourg
last July. They flew the persecutions they were suffering for
many years in Hungary. Their complaints to the Police or to different
Administrations in Hungary had no effect. The Hungarian State
never protected their rights.
Once in Strasbourg they lodged a complaint against their government
with the European Court of Human rights and with the European
Council.
The Press conference at the Parliament was quite a new thing.
There were so many people attending that they had to find a larger
room. This conference was making the Gypsy problem a public affair!
Since the Hungarian government cannot protect them, France has
to give them asylum, because to send them back to Hungary will
mean to put their life at stake.
A few days after, France gave asylum to two families. It is hoped
that other ones will get the same. It is a victory; it is an
important event, not only for the gypsies from Zamoly but for
the eight million Gypsies living in the different countries of
Europe. The Hungarian government was not pleased but it is a
warning for them and also for Poland and Rumania who want to
join Europe. |
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