"Fraser Brown joined the group Le discours de Dakar : la continuité de la françafrique?"

LOL.

what is that?

"The Lesbians of Dakar: continuing to fuck for France"

How could I not sign up?

Gonch joined a reflexion group about relationships between France and its former african colonies.

lol

I' m sorry fraser, it is a bit less exciting than lesbians...

lolol, well that's somewhat disappointing.

Discours=speech


Will you dare reading it?

Indy, if you take some time to read it, i' d be interested to know about your opinion.

ah, everybody left of course.

Well you did quite ruin it for me

are you gonna leave the group now?

I was reading! It's so long. I stopped halfway through. You know I'm right-wing these days so do you want my opinion? No, I don't really have an opinion on it to be honest. Some of the left press in Britain made out he said that colonizers weren't exploitative, but in that speech he said they were, but that some had good intentions, which I think is true. I'm not sure how racist a speech it is; it appears to be patronising, but then I didn't read all of it.

What do you think?

Nah, I'm still a member of those other French groups I joined, this one will make a nice addition.

I found it really really patronising:

"Africa’s challenge is that of all civilisations, of all cultures, of all peoples that want to protect their identity without isolating themselves because they know that isolation is deadly.

Civilizations are great to the extent that they participate in the great mix of the human spirit.

The weakness of Africa, which has known so many brilliant civilizations on its soil, was for a long time not being able to participate fully in this great engagement."

I don' t know how muwh the meaning is rendered in the translation but:

"Africa’s problem is that it lives the present too much in nostalgia for a lost childhood paradise."

= colonial view of african people being like grown up children, naive and dumb. What about african artists, scientists, philosophers...?

Gave them bridges. LOL. What a peace offering.

"Right, we're gonna take six million Africans across the Atlantic, and put them to work picking cotton. To make up for this, we'll let you cross that stream over there. There's not actually anything on the other side, except desert, desert, shrubs, and a bit more desert, but it's something to do, I guess. Deal?"

Sarkozy's a bit of a joker. Clearly bat-shit mental, but well worth having in the international arena.

ScarletRope, Africa has no scientists, philosophers or even artists. Have you seen African 'art'? It's like something out of the stone age.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senghor[url][/url][url][/url]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barthelemy_Toguo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nzante_Spee
http://www.ansti.org/french/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=15&Itemid=49&PHPSESSID=21bfb74f0433d1528a336df2832f6aaa

and so on...

Never heard of 'em.

I guess but they do exist, like they exist in every other continent. Africa is not just a victim.

That's like saying *I* am an artist 'cause I do occasional scribbles on note pads at work. They're chancers, and shouldn't be compared to proper professionals.

Also tell that to Sarkozy. We've given them bridges, and look at them. Still stuck in the dark ages. Essentially, they are a victim.*

*AIDS victim most likely.

*snorts* Oh dear...

So you' re saying that there can' t be any african artist?

He's a twit, let's not worry

No, of course there can. But there probably won't be any who could hope to match up to European standards (modern art excluded, which is a pile of toss, generally), at least not until they stop killing each other.

Eve - fuck off.

Nah sweetie, nah