Peace & Oil

Bonjour tout le monde, J'ai un nouveau job @Schokofabrik de Berlin. C'est un hammam turc au milieu de Kreuzberg, et géré par l'association Schokofabrik , qui est un des hauts lieux du militantisme féminin berlinois. L'endroit regroupe une épicerie, une crèche, une salle de sport et des locaux de conseil juridique et d'organisation, ainsi que le hammam. La lumière de l'après-midi sur le tuyau d'arrosage > Großstadtromantik J'adore l'ambiance tamisée et tranquille, un peu hors du temps du lieux. Imaginez-vous, quotidiennement, vous promener au milieu de femmes de tous âges, de toutes formes, qui discutent, se douchent, se frottent le dos, ou dorment, pour avoir une idée de l'atmosphère intimiste qui enveloppe mon quotidien. Cela me fait souvent penser à Broderies de Marjanne Satrapi. En tout cas, je suis ravie, et j'ai hâte de vous raconter d'autres aventures, <3

(Part 1 & 2 here) So, as I was saying before getting lost in gonzo journalism, I know, I know, it's always hard to learn that something you don't care about doesn't exist. As it turns out, and because I've traveled extensively to look for them, there are some people who care about this. Apparently, even someone as sharp as Bill Hicks used to actively aim at getting enlightened.  And he's not the only one. Most of the people I've encountered in the recent years have some sort of link with the concept, whether they are yogis, monks, intellectuals or therapists. Since I haven't been asked to clear the subject once and for all, let me rant for free on the subject. Oh and full disclosure, I can't really talk about it because of an official NDA pertaining the uselessness of such an endeavour. Yet, there's something that has been experienced which I think was some sort of dip into the unnamable. There's no pride in this, I would be comple...

A friend is one who makes me better.  It's with this highly meme-sounding quote that I'd like to start today's rambling.  I've recently been on a long trip for a wedding and I had the chance to meet some of my friends along the way. The older I get, the more I realize how delicate our lives are. Everyone is getting older, marrying, becoming pregnant, helping a sick parent. Mortality and life become real themes, we fixate into matter, and despite what I've laboriously tried to prove, there is indeed such a thing as cause and consequence. Our lives decant, or at least yours do. But that's not the point. Meeting my core friends always warms up my heart, especially in Berlin, which remains the town in which I feel the more rested. It probably is because the general atmosphere of the town is more reflective and critical, and life is less filtered by everyone's ambition to run towards success (🔛 this way guys). But that's not either the point. As I was notici...

Hyo, So this is something that I've been wanting to adress for a while. During my legal studies, I was taught that the European Union, actually the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which rose in prominence parallel to the deepening of the economical European Union, had made transparency an important requisite of what constitutes a fair trial. For those who know about the law it's nothing new, so 6§1, Kress c. France, 7th of june 2001, and  21.06.2006, the French institution of the Commissaire au gouvernement, etc. Basically France has been condemned because the Commissaire au gouvernement at the Conseil d'Etat (the highest administrative court, judging on legal matters, not factual ones), now called the rapporteur public, was present during the judges' deliberations - even though he had no judging power and was not supposed to give his opinion or vote. The Commissaire au gouvernement is required to give her conclusions at the end of the debates, conclusions...

In  the previous post about enlightenment  (you can click on the link, it's unlikely short for once), I said that it doesn't really exist. Deception in the audience. The author has left to fact-check on the presence of an audience.

Is there a way to inhabit peacefully the world? What is karma telling us about this? How can one live within the world without entertaining and feeding what cuts us from the wonder of being alive? Isn't that the whole point of life? Sorry for the vague generality of these questions. Let me start by this often quoted sentence attributed to Rumi, saying that you shouldn't be looking for love, but rather becoming aware of everything that cuts you from experiencing it. I guess that's how I would understand the whole idea of karma. This type of questioning might seem vain, sorry, especially since most of those who know me know how little I set an example for anything. But I'm regularly caught in questions about the consequence of one's actions - and doubts as to whether or not I should be doing this or that. To be actually more honest, it often comes back to the idea of complete equivalence of several alternatives: which one should prevail? How to filter what is...