In peace we trust?

Hey Hey... It seems that those iron birds became silent again... Let's hope that what we call "peace" will last for a long time. Those operations were a real disaster for Lebanon, with no more bridges, no more roads, no more facilities to get drinkable water. The Arabian community in the Gulf, everywhere, displays this Lebanese Flag in order to ask for some help to people who lost everything, and those who are in great difficulty. Here, in Saudi, there are many poor people... And particularly in the district where I live, which is far from being the safest and the richest one, Charity starts to show its real shape. Even people who have a very few things show solidarity and give a hand. Shoes, rice, tissues, towels, shampoo, toothpaste, water, cloth, people give anything they think it could be useful. And that is great... In the last decades, I think, Charity has become a kind of fancy thing : those big directors of companies have been showing off on TV, with enoooormous cheques, hundreds of thousands dollars... "Look at me, people !!! I am rich but not selfish !!" Fair enough. At least, it's a clever way to help people but maybe Charity should remain something one should not show off with. To be helpful is not something one should be proud of. Those Saudis, Banglas, Pakistanis, Indians, Jordanians, Bahreinis, Qataris have never asked to be on TV... However they do something, and ask for nothing material in return. Consequently, I'm starting to think that the world is divided between people who have moral values, and people who try to show that there is a moral in this "nothing-but-money" world. Even though I admit to be obsessed by money sometimes, or maybe always... I cannot have an objective point of view about myself, actually. In French, we have such a saying : "it's like that, but you know, I try to cure myself".

Let's now change the topic.. I'm still leading this quiet and busy life in Saudi, everything is going well for the moment. I've been here for almost 10 weeks now, even though I have the impression that it's been more than 3 months. The end of September, which corresponds to my vacation period, is coming quite rapidly I would say. On weekends, I go to Bahrain to have a little drive around. The local French school proposed me to have an accomodation there, sometimes when I want to spend the whole weekend. Bahrain has a bad reputation among Saudis : maybe that's why there are soooooooooo many cars from Saudi at the border line on Thursdays :P :PI could visit some interesting things there... The architecture is very interesting, next time i'll take some pictures if I manage to cross the border even earlier in the day... without spending those 30 minutes at the immigration office, as I do everytime. My embassy did not register my residence permit in the computer, so it gets harder when it comes to leave and get inside the country. From tomorrow I'll see that. I did a very interesting visit, even though I'm not that much interested in sportscar, I went - by curiosity - to this new Formula One Circuit, that was built 3 years ago. It's giant. They say that it took 16 months to make it up, people worked 7.7 and 24.24 on this project. One of the "crazy" ideas of the Bahreini king, who somehow had one of his dreams come true. If you want to take a glance at the pictures, you can find them on this webpage : http://cfsd.ifrance.com/wab/bhr . Now, as I lack some time at the moment to do whatever I want, I'll get prepared to go outside, I have a private course to give. And then, my internship report, "AUN" (Academic Useless Necessity) to write...
Wish you a good day!

Once again... the Cedar is falling.

Middle east is burning... I'm not talking about the temperature outside, that daily reaches 45°C and more. Just about sad events that give us all the creeps. The Gulf is shaking... It seems that a civil war in Irak, failures to make the non-proliferation law (about Uranium modification) survive in Iran and the neverending Gaza conflict were not sufficient elements to provoke a slight reaction in the International Community. Yes... We hear that "This country and that one merely condemned the events and asked for their immediate interruption"... And then??! This speech is tasteless now, and has no more effect... We wouldn't even swallow those false condemnations as "placebo medicine", just to have the illusion that everything is going well. No one can believe this now, any more. Middle east has become like a sad widow... Desperately looking for a partner, a neighbour with whom she would get along well, and maybe expect some bright days. Sometimes she hears some voices... "Heeey, look at me... I want to help you!" But when this partner comes and tries to know her better, he rapidly realizes that her body is covered with scarves, among which some are still not sown. Then, Miss Middle-east has no other choice but to accept to be left alone again, against her destiny. And lacking any wilful surgeon, her pains gets worse and her wounds, infected. On the 14th of July, a tree fell on the ground. It was a Cedar... A big green tree that needs many many...many years to grow and which had already fallen before. Who wanted to put it down? Just some falcons flying around. This kind of devil bird which wings are made of steel, and that could kill any child within a distance of 40km. Those birds are blue and covered with stars... They were bred in the nearby country, a country where they teach you how to forget mercy... For the reason that in the past, people had no mercy towards them.

Filled with the desire of eradicating terrorism - which is a necessary quest, Israëli govt eradicates civilians. Israëli govt bombs the airport. Israëli govt destroys bridges, Israëli govt destroys roads, Israëli govt destroys factories that clean water, and no wonder if Israëli govt soon destroys some powerplants. Because Israëli govt is on the side of war against terrorism..... is it? YES IT IS !! and don't ever say the contrary, if you don't want to be labelled as anti-semitic. Do you know what a syllogism is? Let's consider the famous syllogism of Socrates. "The human is mortal. Besides, Socrates is human. Then, Socrates is mortal." Now let's implement this syllogism to Middle East : Hezbollah is a terrorist group. Besides, Hezbollah's location is in Lebanon. Then, Lebanon is a terrorist country. You got it ? Don't try to find any complexity in Israel's foreign policy : it's very simple!! The best way to eradicate a terrorist group is to bomb the whole country : then you can be sure that you'll have reached your target! One thing that is left to be understood by Israël, I think... It's that terrorism is not a correct reply to terrorism. It seems that they still have this grudge against History and Humanity. Maybe one day we will realize that people who have undoubtedly suffered along History (facts and statistics are not to be questioned at all) can certainly be victims, that's right... But let's not have any bad conscience in thinking that they can also behave bloodily. That's exactly what's happening. What I'm dealing with is not politics, but just some mere questions. I don't give a damn about religion in this case, it's meaningless. I'm just worried about the fact that the situation is already excessively unfair, but there is still not any strong action against a government that considers itself as almighty in its legitimate quest against terrorism.... Please answer me : between a terrorist and a terrorist? which one do you choose? Easy, uhhh....

Now, I'd just like to show some sympathy, without any self-interest, to people who were forced to leave their school, their job, their house behind them.... at least, what is left of these buildings. There is a justice for everything, in the History Lebanon managed to stand up again after many hardships, I wish this could happen again.

With all my heart and respect.

Errrr... I don't know which title to put on my message!!!

Well, after "hello", "heyhey", I think I will have used all the different manners of greeting you on this blog. I receive some comments about it sometimes, and I'm very glad about it. I know who they come from, it's better to have few messages from people you like than tons of posts from people you don't know. So, thank you very much for giving me reasons to continue... Today was a calm day, on the whole. My chief picked me up at the compound and drove me to the FR center, where I spent the whole morning. During this time, he went to the travel company to buy his ticket to go back to Riyadh. Today, French pupils who live abroad had their first exam at high school, and began with philosophy. His son is among those pupils, so it was normal that he goes back to Riyadh and encourage him. We spent 3 very interesting days, my chief and I, he gave me some instructions about how to run the center, about the objectives in terms of communication, partnerships with companies, advertisments in newspapers... There are a lot of things to do, above the mere act of "teaching" and this dimension gives a very interesting dimension to my job. I am free about taking initiatives, contacting companies, schools, educational institutions in FR.. This center will become what I want it to be, so on the one hand it raises a lot of excitment, and on the other, it supposes to develope a high sense of responsibility. It will help me to become more mature... I don't want to fail it. The responsible of Cultural office, in the FR embassy of Saudi Arabia, had been hesitating for a long time between closing the center and leaving him a last chance to survive. I think I want to take this chance and make this Center not only a language school, but a cultural center, a kind of tool for local schools and companies whose purposes are to cooperate with FR institutions. The demand for FR lectures is high, according to the phonecalls I receive, as far from the side of man as from the side of women. Saudi express a real motivation and interest for FR language and, furtherly, for higher education : it would be a shame to waste this demand... What do you think about this?
I'm very glad to talk with local people on the phone and to invite them at the office for a tea or coffee, it's the occasion to have a nice conversation about their expectations, linguistically speaking, and also culturally, by the way. In general, they are shy, they say 2 or 3 FR words, expressions in a sentence, to show you that they are interested in what you do, and that they would like to learn more. I spend nice moments at my office, sending some faxes to France, to Saudian companies to let them know about my new project. People are coming and going, I already have the impression that it's living, at least a little bit. What I would like, it is to leave a good and sincere impression to the visitors, so that they can talk around them. I would like to set a system of sponsorship, so that people thanks to whom new people come to register would be rewarded, I don't know yet the way I would do that, but not necessarily by doing a commercial special offer : rather by thinking about an intelligent way to catch their interest.. I keep this topic "under my elbow" ;) The main objective, of course, is to have as much people as possible in the courses.. But I don't want to favour the commercial aspect, i'm not interested in that. I want people to feel good by coming to the Center, both feeling at home and abroad. As the region is known for its very high production of Oil, it would be good to create some partnerships between the companies and the French Institute of Oil, for example, that proposes some very high education in this area... Everything is possible!

For the moment, I'm feeling good where I am. I visited the owners of the neighbour shops, as my office is inside a mall, and had some cool conversation with them. There are different types of shops, which is interesting : offices of educational information, restaurants, clothes shops, candy shops... They all greeted me very kindly. I admit that the position of the "white foreigner" makes me feel uneasy, although I can't get rid of it I need to show that I'm here to work "with" them, and not only "next to" them. Integration is important to me, even though I am quite realist about it, I don't have utopical expectations. At least, I have to try! The secretary who works in the office is really kind, he's going to help me to find a car. Today, I told him that I needed to leave the office because I was a bit hungry, he proposed me to call Mc Donald's... and finally went there for me, although I felt embarrassed. I don't want to command anyone, hierarchy is not something that will cross the door of "my" center.
At night, i'm living in the compound, where there are some important (quantitatively speaking) communities of people from France and Lebanon. The day before yesterday, we played Scrabble altogether and I was amazed by the deep knowledge of FR language that people from Lebanon have. To get back to my temporary living place, i'm very happy and quite sad at the same time. Eric, the Latin&greek professor who invites me, is really welcoming and helpful. I enjoy talking with him about anything, jobs, conditions of living abroad, our respective lives in FR. The sad thing is that soon, I will have to find a place to live in outside the compound.. not that I am afraid, it's true that the idea of living downtown is exciting, but still, the Fr community is nice here and I will miss the compound, for sure. I'm still thinking about a present for Eric.Tomorrow in the morning, I'll visit the French school, which has been proposed to me several times so far. This place is also a potential partner in the activity of the FR center : its director looks interested in the running of the center, we will probably soon talk about settling the female lectures inside the FR school. I'll also contact the teacher for women, we need to work together on the way we will communicate. My boss told me that she just "teaches", I think we'll reconsider her status and give her some little more tasks in terms of communication about the center.

Wow.. I thought I wouldn't have that many things to tell today, it seems that this post is longer than the previous ones. I can't promise that I will write so much everyday, but I'll do my best to update the blog as much as possible. Now i'm thinking of a picture to publish with this message. Oh, and one more thing, I admit that it's not easy to publish pictures, but anyway I managed to find a solution.. not the easiest one. Now, you can have a look at this URL, if you want to see some pictures : http://martiello.free.fr/web/index.htm I will also put this link as a permanent one, on the blog, above Google News. Try to look at them sometimes, if you wish !
Have a good night, feel free to leave messages and questions...

Hey Hey.....

I'm going to give the news for the 3 last days, for those I couldn't talk to since Friday. Many things happened, not bad one on the whole. First of all, I have to admit that it's not really easy to communicate the news on the internet, not that I don't have any access, on the contrary, but just that Saudian equipment is not as fast as the one I've known so far. I'm going back to the source, a 56k connection is the maximum I can have for the moment : I'm thinking very seriously of opening a private DSL line, but beforehand, I'd prefer to find an accomodation of my own, and the most important thing, the instrument we can do nothing without it : a car. But let's begin with a chronological summary of the last days.
On Friday, I was on my second day in Saudi Arabia. The sun rised over Riyadh very early in the morning, at around 4, 4.30 if I'm not wrong. It permits to wake up early, an habit that I've got familiar with since I've arrived, despite short time spent sleeping. I had my breakfast, then spent the morning listening to music, not daring go outside to see the landscape and take some pictureS. There is something in my mind that told me that there are risks about taking some pictures inside a diplomatic area, so I retained myself from doing that. At 1.20, I went to my chief's place to visit him, as he had invited me for lunch at this time. After posting Thursday's message on the blog, we had some drinks with a colleague of him, and another young man who has worked for the FR embassy since April, and who has the same status as mine. We had a very delicious lunch, some fish whose name I can't remember. As far as I know, i'll publish its name, it's worth tasting it but I doubt we might find some in Western Europe. The desert was a "Strawberry Charlotte" prepared by a cooker from Lebanon. I've been told several times that food from Lebanon is good. Well, at the end of lunch, everyone went back to his place, I had a nap until 6.. At this time, my colleague from Riyadh called at the door and we went to the Embassy together. He had some Faxes to send, while I would relax in the swimming pool. Of course, I can't give details about security inside the embassy, first because I know almost nothing about it and also because it's not an interesting topic to develope now, but the few that I saw about safety rules impressed me. After swimming, my colleague came to pick me up and we walked to our quarters. The "D.Q.", on the whole, seems to be a very safe place, we just have to look at the number of soldiers, overall near the American area, whose people were target of some attacks 2 years ago. Once again, no details.For dinner, I had some... pasta (looks like in DK, doesn't it?) and listen to music - Cyril's selection on my USB player - until tiredness close my eyes naturally. By the way, if there was a country where Sand Sellers wouldn't suffer from unemployment, it would certainly be Saudi. However I don't know if the joke of the "Sand Seller" is valid for everyone. No big deal...
For the beginning of the week - in other words, on Saturday 10th - it was planned that I would go to the embassy to register my presence here. First I went to the Consulate, which is a kind of Townhall and that is in charge of civil rights and duties, voting, stuff like these. Then I went to some more specific offices, to apply for the IQAMA, that is to say the Saudian ID. Without IQAMA, theoretically, you can buy no car and open no bank account. As strange as it may seem, I'd like to do those two things... I hope my papers will rapidly be available.Inside the embassy, I met some people among whom the head of the FR school in Khobar, "JF" (as he calls me "JMM"), he's someone who has a pleasant sense of humor. In the afternoon, we were supposed to have a flight to Dammam at 3PM but that was just "the plan". Once at the airport, we knew that the flight would be delayed, 30 minutes or so. Then, the flight was announced at 4... then 5... at 5.30, we finally took the bus until the plane. And things started to take a strange appearance. All the passengers were sitting calmly in the plane, reading the newspapers that had been offered some minutes earlier. Engines started spinning rapidly, then ... nothing. No light anymore in the cabin. OK, sometimes it happens that the pilot makes some tests on engines before taking off. 30 minutes later, still nothing. It was already 6.30. We saw some engineers getting into the plane, holding some corkscrews and toolboxes. Then I thought : "there is definitely something wrong with the plane". Suddenly the pilot announced that we had to take the bus again : the driver took us to the airport hall again, where we waited for some 40 minutes, and at 7.30, AT LAST (!!) we took off. It means that all our plans for the night were cancelled, as we were expected to land at Dammam at 4, 4.30. The last joke, that we call in FR "the little cherry on the top of the cake" happened when everyone stood up to get out of the plane, after landing. The pilot taxiied the aircraft until its full stop location but no stairs were there to let us get out. People nervously laughed, "and then finally" :) left the airport quite rapidly.I left with JF and 2 other people from Lebanon, among whom a music teacher (who works at the FR school) and a cardiologist whose fluency in French is almost perfect. After some 50 km sitting in a very comfortable American car, we reached our compound. There, I was welcomed by a French teacher with whom I got along very rapidly. He teaches Latin and Greek and also French at Middle school. His welcoming was warm and still is, I'm looking for an idea to show him my gratefulness, something else than a mere "thanks a lot". If you have any idea, please "post it"(©) as a comment. My first night in Khobar was calm, I rapidly fell asleep..
On Sunday morning, my chief picked me up at the entry of the compound, where some soldiers asked me what I was doing there. Showing them my temporary resident permit, they finally understood that I was waiting for someone. By car, we visited the main areas of the city; Some mosques by the sea are really interesting as far as their architecture is concerned, I'll try to take some pictures. (Sorry if you have the impression that I promise "more than I show pictures.. For the moment, it's a very long process, if not impossible to publish them on FTP servers).After visiting my workplace and talking about it with my chief, we went to the clothes-shop just below the Saudi-French Center. We found very interesting stuff, among those I found a leather pair of trousers which brand is Levi's. Quite surprizing.. The FR teacher who rents me a room told me that those items are genuine.For lunch, we went to a kind of asiatic restaurant in which many nationalities are present. I had some beef with a spicy sauce, and drank some "Saudian champaign" which is made of apple juice,sparkling water, pieces of oranges and apples and leaves of mint. It's very tasty. Then, we went back to the F-S center where I stayed some time and met the secretary of the place, someone very helpful and polite. He proposed me to give me a hand in the choice of a car and of a little apartment. I sent some faxes to Bahrain, in order to propose them a partnership if they had any cultural project. I did the design of my business card and made some modifications compared to the previous one.At night, after getting into the compound again (and walking in front of the soldiers who had recognized me), I brought a letter to JF who proposed me to play scrabble (Scrabble duplicate) with other FR-speaking people. And I can say that people from Lebanon are very good at Scrabbling :P That was a good idea to go there, I had the opportunity to have a talk with people I didn't know before.
Generally, I like the place, the country where I am and the job i'm going to fulfill. There will probably be darker sides in the next weeks, but i'm already trying to consider which things could be negative for me within a short or middle perspective. I'll let you know about this soon. Until then, take care and leave me some news when possible. SEE YOU..
P.S. : My best wishes to those who are starting High School exams from today.