- PORTRAIT #2: WHY AND HOW TO JOIN FREEMASONRY? -
- JANUARY 21st, THE REMASTERING! -
Tyche (...). It is you who make the light vessels fly on the waves; it is you who preside over the bloody combats and the wise deliberations of mortals. You play with their deceiving hopes: sometimes you carry them to the top of the wheel [of fortune], sometimes you precipitate them from it. Never had any of them received from the Immortals a certain omen of their future: their spirit, shrouded in darkness, cannot look beyond the present. Often unforeseen misfortunes deceive their expectation and their desires, while others, beaten by the storm, see happiness suddenly smile on them,and their destiny change in an instant.Pindar, in Olympics
Clément Elbaz, april 2008 |
- UNIVERSAL INCOME: END OF POVERTY OR END OF WORK? -
1) Dolce far niente[, French future?] - Painting by John William Godward, 1904 |
There's only one thing we love to see shared with oneself, although it is very dear to us: our opinion.
2) Manna, mythical precedent of the UBI. Woodcut, Anton Koberger's Bible (1483) |
Help thyself, Heaven will help thee too.Conclusion of the fable of The waggoner stuck in the mud, la Fontaine, 17th century
BOATCH: SAILING THE WILDERNESS
The boredom of 2020 allowed me to remember that on one of my hard drives, the images of a remarkable adventure were waiting to be edited... the adventure of three young men from Toulouse and their reckless project: to join Bordeaux by the Garonne.
Born during a solid drinking on the banks of the river, this idea materialized with the purchase of an 250kg capacity Caravelle K85 inflatable type boat. Precisely what it takes to carry a little equipment and the three bold young men of 232 kilos combined. On April 7, 2014, the Bob Dyla's crew was fit to board. Fit to share an adventure.
Five intense and cold days followed, spent between dangers and meanders and passing through the exotic towns of Montech, Agen and even Langon… where the adventure ended in a tragic shipwreck.
I do not understand what this philosopher meant saying that, but I prefer his quote to Frédéric Dard's one, who said that failure is the success of the douche. It's more lucid but a little harsh. Anyway, this true life lesson deserved more than a successful Facebook page and an article in a local newspaper. More was needed and, with the video above, here is more: the trailer for an epic film, itself the witness of an unique adventure... Have a good trip, sailors !
N.B: the adventure has not come to its planned end, thereby it is quite possible that the same will be true for the making of the complete film.
- THE JURORS REPUBLIC: A NEW WAY TO AN ECOLOGIC SOCIETY -
... at least will we show that we are a People who is not afraid to talk, to exchange, to debate.Emmanuel Macron
2) On the left, the blue planet. On the right, a blue trash can. The integrity of one depends in part on the proper use of the other. |
- EGYPTIAN PROJECT -
This video presents the project of a 52-minutes documentary that I started working on during a trip to Egypt, in November 2019.
Filming will go on in France and Israel when I'll find a production company to buy the project. What's the subject ?
Today there are only half a dozen Jews in Egypt, while they were to more than 80,000 in 1947. This disappearance is the consequence of the rise of Arab nationalism and the return of a Jewish political power in the region, after 2000 years of absence.
The documentary will highlight the modern exodus of the Jews of Egypt, while following the memorial battle of those who have remained and of the exiled ones who, from France or Israel, contribute or complete it.
We will meet Magda Haroun (lawyer and president of Drop of Milk, association based in Cairo), Albert Arié and his son Sami Ibrahim (members of Drop of Milk), and also André Cohen and Yves Fedida (Association for the Safeguarding of the Cultural Heritage of the Jews of Egypt - ASPCJE, based in Paris).
Also, from the local to the general, the film will deal with the exodus of Jews from all Arab countries (800,000 exiled); To underscore the universality of the suffering of exile, Palestinians who had to flee the 1948 Arab-Israeli war will also be interviewed.
The story will be told objectively, and no facts will be overlooked. While leaving the floor to those who have lost everything, without watering down their speeches, the film will highlight the social actors who try to bring communities together through culture.
- IS THE FRENCH POSTAL SERVICE STILL NAZI FRIENDLY? -
Why did I do this? First, because it's funny.
Yes it is.
But also to remid us that between 1940 and 1944 Vichy France actively collaborated with the Nazis, thus offering to History the bitter memory of the roundups of Jews and the imprisonment of gypsies, Spanish Republicans and Resistance fighters. Vichy has of course delegated the production of his base works to public services; SNCF for example, the French national railway company, organized the departure of convoys for Auschwitz.
But a lesser known collaboration is that of the PTT, the French Post, whose direction once purged of all of its Jews and Freemasons ordered to intercept, on behalf of Vichy France and for the Nazis, written or phone communications. This was widely accepted by the employees, even if a fair number of them entered the Resistance.
Enlightened by the dark hours of history and at a time of rising extremisms - brown or platinum blonde with an absurd styling - it may seem interesting to wonder if French Public Services have learned their lesson from the past.
Last time I checked, all Jews traveling by train to Germany do so on their own free will, and Jacques Chirac apologized for the State responsibility in 1995. Guillaume Pépy, lip-service like and a little constrained, presented the excuses of the SNCF in 2011. (But perhaps he found it rude that the Jewish associations had not noticed that these trains were, for once, perfectly on time...). French Post apologies are still pending in 2020, and I take the opportunity of this article to suggest that a declaration would not hurt anyone; neither to today's management, nor to the still living victims of this collaboration.
Of course, the French Post of 2020 is far from the actions of the PTT at the time of WWII, aberrant cancellation of this stamp is only a mistake - your complaints will unlakely be better received if you visit your neighborhood post office with a Panzer. But this Nazi stamp case highlights another problem: if it went through like a letter in the post, it is because it did not go through anyone's hands.
In the Post just as in the others public domains automation, subcontracting, opening to competition and reduction of workforce are a must; a fashionable corporate policy of our era. This time, instead of adapting the present to prepare the future, as the Liberals say, this policy has opened a window to a 75-year-old dirty past.
With a moronic stamp as the joke for now. But what if totalitarianism comes back up to date? As in China, it will be a reign of dematerialization and cold algorithms that execute orders without delay, mistake, and also without question.
On this day, of course, the letters will arrive faster than with Monique and André, our good old traditional civil servants. But if there are only robots without conscience and without principles... who will be there to resist?