Paris Parfait

Sunday morning at Puce de Vanves

An antique dealer entertains shoppers with his guitar skills Sunday morning on Avenue Marc Sangnier at the Puce de Vanves. Susan of Soozphotoz and her daughter Sara and I spent the morning shopping and chatting and shopping and chatting. No, I can't show you my purchases, which are for friends I'll be seeing during my travels in May.

A curious keyboard on wheels on Avenue Georges Lafenestre. The flea market at Vanves is open every Saturday and Sunday morning. Plan on arriving early for the best choice.

A group of cane-bottomed bistro chairs.

Vintage Barbies, complete with original box. Susan and I remember the Barbies in the yellow-and-white lace dress and strapless striped one from childhood.

Barnacle sculptures at Selfridges

In keeping with the shipwreck-themed window displays at Selfridges, the London department store, lighting designer Stuart Haygarth created these unique light sculptures. Black barnacle (above).

White barnacle.

Harpon 321 by Stuart Haygarth.

True romance

An unusual shrub near Cromwell Road, London. Anyone know what kind it is?

On Monday I received this delightful message:

Hi Tara,

My name is xxxxx xxxxx, an xxxxx currently living in xxxxx (another country). I hope you don´t mind using xxxxx to contact you hoping that maybe I could get some advice from a local perspective for a special evening that has been on my mind for the last few weeks.

As it turns out, I will be visiting Paris for xxxxx days at the end of xxxxx in order to meet some potential clients my company wants to develop. My girlfriend xxxxx, who currently works in xxxxx (yet another country) will join me for the weekend and the idea is that we can spend some time together, as well as get to know this charming city.

What she doesn´t know is that I would like to take advantage of the fact that we are in such a romantic town to plan the perfect day that ends up with me asking her to marry me. This will hopefully catch her breath away :-) The problem is that I have never been to Paris so far, so here is where I would need your advice. I would really appreciate if you can recommend me some romantic spots and places that can help me build up a nice atmosphere towards the evening. I am thinking maybe a walk in a beautiful street, some gardens or parks, a nice restaurant or a traditional serenade around the river, but please, you are the expert and that is why I came to you. The keyword as you already notice: Romantic.

As you can surely imagine, I am very excited and cannot wait for this day to finally come. So, if you decide to help me in my quest you will make this romantic xxxxx the happiest man of the world.

Merci et au revoir,

(Name)

Ah, a charming man with a romantic soul... And what a lucky woman to win his heart! Practically every woman I know wishes men would make more of an effort to be thoughtful and sweet. Today I was having lunch with my friend Susan of Soozphotoz and her lovely daughter Sara on Ile Saint Louis. When I told them the story, they simultaneously exlaimed, "Aaaawwwww - how sweet!" Yes, you can bet I sent the writer a list of some of the city's most romantic rendezvous spots. And the Eiffel Tower was not on the list!

Here's another wonderful story, just in case you missed it----or need a tiny glimmer of hope.

Worlds apart, bound together by Bush's folly

For the Writers Island prompt "outrageous:"

One of the most fascinating encounters I had during my last trip to London was talking with an Iraqi mini-cab driver. The minute I saw him, I knew he was an Iraqi refugee. He was wearing the usual three-piece brown suit, white shirt and tie made of cheap fabric; had carefully combed hair and a heavy douse of scent. I say this not to disparage this gentleman, but to explain that I have seen a version of him in nearly every country in the Middle East, in Europe and - more rarely - in the United States: someone who has lost nearly everything. A desperate person trying to make his way in a foreign country, with very little, while working hard to make ends meet. This particular man drives a car seven days a week to support his family.

While moving slowly through London traffic to St. Pancras International, we chatted about war in Iraq and the American presidential election:

"The situation is so bad that most teachers, doctors and anyone who can afford it have left Iraq," the man said. "We knew when the Americans arrived that they would not be leaving anytime soon and no one was happy about that. But we worry that if American troops pull out now, Iran will seize the opening. They are always looking for a way in (and he referenced the eight-year Iran-Iraq war)...We are threatened by Turkey from the North, Iran from the South and Al-Qaida taking advantage of the chaos."

Asked why Iraqis are listening to Iran, a non-Arab country and longtime enemy, the man replied: "Only a few are listening, but they have influence with others." He said Moqtada al Sadr "gets all his weapons and support" from Iran.

We talked about the dilemma for the US, as 68 percent of Americans believe we never should have gone into Iraq and want our troops home, but have sympathy for the Iraqis' plight. Then we discussed the double-edged sword for the Iraqis, who badly need help, but resent the foreign troops' presence. He said he believes it will take "50 years" to rebuild Iraq. "The situation is so perilous that Iraqis now living outside Iraq talk about it only at dinner and when questioned by people like you," he noted. Otherwise, "we try to forget about it," he said. "It's just too horrible to think about."

He expressed concern about Iraqi deaths that often go unreported by the media. "There have been hundreds of Iraqis killed this week alone and nobody talks about it or does anything about it," he said.

He said Iraqis are watching the American election with a mixture of interest and fear. "We're worried that the next president might pull all the troops out too soon, leaving Iraq to fend for itself," he said. "The Iraqi government isn't strong enough and can't fight powerful influences of people like Moqtada al Sadr, without help from outside."

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band singing Worlds Apart in Barcelona, Spain. I had the privilege of seeing Springsteen on this same "The Rising" tour in Paris. In memoriam: Danny Federici of the E Street Band.

Outrageous battles for those who live to tell

Meanwhile, more than 120 veteran soldiers of Iraq and Afghanistan commit suicide every week, while the Bush administration delays mental health treatment and benefits to which returning troops are entitled, veterans advocates told a federal judge in San Francisco.

The rights of hundreds of thousands of veterans are being violated by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), "an agency that is in denial" and by a government health care system and appeals process for patients that is "broken down," Gordon Erspamer, attorney for two advocacy groups, said in his opening statement at trial. Erspamer said veterans are committing suicide at the rate of 18 a day - a number acknowledged by a VA official in a Dec. 15 e-mail. The agency's backlog of disability claims exceeds 650,000.

Wings of desire

These photos from the London department store Selfridges "shipwreck" series remind me of one of my favourite films, Wings of Desire. The Wim Wenders film features Bruno Ganz, the late Solveig Dommartin and Peter Falk. In 1987-88, the film won numerous prizes in festivals in France, Germany and Europe, including Best Director at Cannes. The film's premise involves angels surveying the war-scarred city of Berlin. The angels listen to tortured thoughts of mortals going about their daily lives and try to comfort them. One angel desires nothing more than to become mortal, after falling in love with Marian, a beautiful trapeze artist.

My poem in homage to Wings of Desire:

The heart knows nothing
until that fateful encounter:
a seemingly chance meeting
at the right place and time
and something inside stirs.

From that first moment
the stars and planets align.
Anxiety gives way to certainty,
saying yes to all the questions
too long unasked and unanswered.

No matter that the distance
of time and space is long
and the journey ahead
fraught with challenges and obstacles
that may alter the route.

The picture in your mind's eye steady;
the path to your beloved clear.
No maps needed to find the way
to the one who understands
before a single word is spoken.

A connection forged long ago
in another lifetime
so distant from this modern realm
etched into memory's core;
written indelibly across your heart.

Check back Tuesday for photos of shipwreck-themed sculptures created especially for Selfridges, London by artist Stuart Haygarth, as well as pictures from today's Marches des Puces at Vanves, Paris.

More shipwreck

This is the second of a three-part series of shipwreck-themed window fashion displays at Selfridges on Oxford Street, London. Check back Sunday for photos of angels amidst the rotted hull of a ship, as well as pictures of some amazing sea-themed sculptures created especially for Selfridges by artist Stuart Haygarth. For Part I, go here.

Shipwrecked at Selfridges

The famous London department store Selfridges on Oxford Street has the most imaginative window displays I've ever seen, outside of Paris. Currently, they're displaying fashion in elaborate and imaginative scenes of shipwreck. If anyone knows who designed these fantastic windows at Selfridges, please email me. Check back Saturday and Sunday for more London vitrine photos.

McCain's double-talk about New Orleans

Oh and he's still refusing to denounce an endorsement from the right-wing Rev. John Hagee, who this week reiterated his 2006 claim that Hurricane Katrina was punishment for the sins of New Orleans residents.

“It’s nonsense, it’s nonsense, it’s nonsense, it’s nonsense, it’s nonsense. I don’t have anything additional to say. It’s nonsense, it’s nonsense, it’s nonsense, I don’t have anything more to say….it’s nonsense. I reject that categorically,” McCain told reporters.

And speaking of nonsense, Rush Limbaugh has called for race riots in Denver! Where is the Federal Communications Commission - allowing a talk show host to incite listeners to riot??!!

Meanwhile Hillary Clinton is telling more tall tales about her knowledge of her husband's pardon of two domestic terrorists. No doubt the Republicans will have a field day with this one!

Shades of 1984

Our Homeland Security Secretary thinks our fingerprints are not "personal data."

Michael Chertoff was in Canada discussing the so-called “Server in the Sky” program to share fingerprint databases among the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Chertoff told Canadian reporters that fingerprints are "hardly personal data, because you leave it on glasses and silverware and articles all over the world, they’re like footprints. They’re not particularly private, " he said. Chertoff's claim contradicts Homeland Security's own definition of "personally identifiable information." In Privacy Impact Assessments used by the government, the department lists "biometric identifiers (e.g., fingerprints)."

Jennifer Stoddart, a Canadian official involved with privacy issues disagreed: “Fingerprints constitute extremely personal information for which there is clearly a high expectation of privacy.” There are compelling reasons to treat fingerprints as “extremely personal information,” Stoddart said. "The strongest reason is that fingerprints, if not used carefully, will become the biggest source of identity theft. Fingerprints shared in databases all over the world won’t stay secret for long and identity thieves will take advantage."

We are well aware of the Bush administration's reckless disregard for our civil liberties, including rights to privacy. Chertoff's claim about fingerprints not being personal is yet another example of the administration's lack of respect for individual rights.

Government scraps plan for "virtual fence"

Meanwhile, Chertoff's judgment was again called into question (remember Hurricane Katrina?), this time by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Two months after Chertoff announced his approval of a $20 million "virtual fence" on the Arizona-Mexico border, the government is scrapping the project. The GAO told Congress the plan "did not fully meet user needs and the project's design will not be used as the basis for future developments."

The fence would have consisted of nine electronic surveillance towers along a 28-mile section of border southwest of Tucson. The glaring problem was the time lag between electronic detection of movement along the border and transmitting a camera image to agents patrolling the area, the GAO said. The project is to be replaced with towers equipped with communications systems, cameras and radar capability.

Travelers beware: Fourth Amendment again under threat

On Monday, a federal appeals court ruled that border agents can search laptops, cameras and mobile phones without cause. The ruling extends the government's power to look through personal belongings like luggage, briefcases and handbags. Further, the ruling allows agents to seize electronic devices and keep them for an indefinite period of time!

The unanimous three-judge decision reverses a lower court finding that digital devices were "an extension of our own memory" and too personal to allow the government to search them without cause. The previous ruling said US Customs agents would need "reasonable and articulable suspicion" a crime had occurred before searching a traveler's laptop.

On appeal, the government argued that was too high a standard, infringing upon its right "to keep the country safe and enforce laws." Civil rights and business traveler groups defended the lower court ruling, to no avail. In Arnold vs. USA, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the so-called border exception to the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches applied not just to suitcases and papers, but also to electronics.

The court's ruling did not indicate whether a traveler must provide login information to help the government search his computer. The ruling also did not address the issue of encrypted data on the hard drive.

P.S. In the New York Daily News, Mike Lupica has a fascinating column about the Democratic presidential race.

Pennsylvania changed...nothing.

But cable news’s need to hype overrides reality, Zachary Roth writes in the Columbia Journalism Review.

"So, where are we after the epic seven-week-long, make-or-break campaign for Pennsylvania? About the same place we were before it. In the end, Clinton’s ten-point win was about in line with, or slightly exceeded, expectations. The delegate math looks little better for her than it did yesterday, but she’ll continue her unlikely effort to wrest the nomination from Obama by convincing the superdelegates that he is unelectable. In other words, last night changed very little.

"Not that you’d know that from watching CNN or MSNBC, of course, where the usual election-night suspects discussed every possible angle and implication of the Pennsylvania results, ad nauseam. Would this win give her new momentum to take her fight to the convention? What’s his problem with white working-class voters (now routinely short-handed, by Chris Matthews among others, as white working voters, as if those with college degrees don’t work)? Does this make it more likely they’ll run on the same ticket? Why can’t he close the deal? And on and on.

"In short, no one that we saw—not Matthews, not Russert, not Olbermann, not Williams, not Blitzer, not Cooper, not King, not the other King, not anyone—was willing to unequivocally tell viewers the one simple piece of information they needed about the results: that they had little long-term effect on the race.

"Of course, it’s not shocking that cable-news pundits can keep talking far beyond the point when there’s anything left worth saying. Or to see cable news pump its material as more newsworthy than it actually is. For obvious reasons, the media’s most consistent bias—more pronounced than ever in the age of frantic, nonstop competition—is its tendency to hype even minor developments out of all proportion to their actual significance, in order to keep viewers glued to the screen.

"But in this case, that bias has an unfortunate impact on the real world. By playing the Pennsylvania results as more important than they actually are, the media, without intending to, provide momentum for Clinton, which her campaign will use to raise money and prolong the fight. Nothing that’s said on cable news at this point will make it any more likely that she’ll actually win, but it very well could delay Obama’s victory, with all the drawbacks for the general election that come along with that.

"That’s not CNN or MSNBC’s problem, of course. But it’s worth keeping in mind that the cable networks’ bias toward hype isn’t harmless. It has a real-world impact on our politics—aside from simply leaving viewers without the ability to put events in perspective, which is a major part of what the news is supposed to be for.

"Nor is it unavoidable: it could be mitigated by one person brave enough to go on TV and tell viewers the truth about which developments matter and which don’t. Not that we’re holding our breath."

No matter how she spins it...

Do the math: the Pennsylvania primary changed nothing. Sen. Barack Obama still leads Hillary Clinton by 131 delegates overall and 156 pledged delegates. NBC News has allocated a 75-65 split for Clinton out of Pennsylvania; 18 delegates have not been allocated. So Clinton won only ten delegates more than Obama in Pennsylvania. Since Super Tuesday, Clinton has gained 12 Superdelegates; Obama has gained 83. With just nine contests remaining, Obama has won more delegates, more votes and twice as many contests.

Clinton would have to win 69 to 70 percent of the delegates in every remaining state to catch up to Obama. Even if Obama and Clinton each win a state in the May 6 contests in Indiana and North Carolina, Clinton would need to win 80 percent of the delegates in every remaining state and that's impossible! The race is over, but Clinton refuses to admit it. And the media is having a field day covering the Clinton-orchestrated circus.

In reality, the Clinton campaign is in the red, running negative attack ads while not paying its bills. Mark Penn's firm is owed $4.5 million; other debtors - including small businesses - are owed over $6 million. After an appeal last night, Clinton apparently raised about $2.5 million - but that should go towards paying her debts, not propel the campaign forward.

From the New York Times editorial board:

"The Pennsylvania campaign, which produced yet another inconclusive result on Tuesday, was even meaner, more vacuous, more desperate and more filled with pandering than the mean, vacuous, desperate, pander-filled contests that preceded it.

Voters are getting tired of it; it is demeaning the political process and it does not work. It is past time for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to acknowledge that the negativity, for which she is mostly responsible, does nothing but harm to her, her opponent, her party and the 2008 election.

If nothing else, self interest should push her in that direction. Mrs. Clinton did not get the big win in Pennsylvania that she needed to challenge the calculus of the Democratic race....

It is getting to be time for the superdelegates to do what the Democrats had in mind when they created superdelegates: settle a bloody race that cannot be won at the ballot box. Mrs. Clinton once had a big lead among the party elders, but has been steadily losing it, in large part because of her negative campaign. If she is ever to have a hope of persuading these most loyal of Democrats to come back to her side, let alone win over the larger body of voters, she has to call off the dogs."

In exit polls in Pennsylvania, voters complained about the negative tone of the race, with 68 percent of voters saying Clinton attacked Obama unfairly. Meanwhile, John McCain still refuses to release his medical records or his wealthy wife's tax records.

Update 6 p.m.: Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry - a superdelegate - announced today he is endorsing Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. Henry called Obama "an inspirational leader who can unite the country."

Also, nearly 50 of John Edwards's most prominent backers lined up behind Sen. Obama today, less than two weeks before the North Carolina primary. The group includes Ed Turlington, Edwards’s former national general campaign chairman; three North Carolina members of Congress and 46 local activists, philanthropists and business leaders, among others.

Speaking from his law office in Raleigh, Turlington said he had not expected to endorse a candidate after Edwards dropped out of the race. “I thought I was going to be on the sidelines,” Turlington said, adding that he made the decision about ten days ago, after speaking to Mr. Obama. “I think his candidacy is doing a lot of important things that are similar to themes that John Edwards ran on.”

Among those things, he said, were Sen. Obama’s pledges to change the culture of Washington and fight for issues important to working people.

Creating a collage

Creating a collage at DKNY Jeans, Knightsbridge, London. Check back Wednesday for photos of some very creative department store window displays.

By the way, the euro vs. the dollar is at $1.60 today - the two currencies once were about level. That means the dollar has lost 60 percent of its value in world currency markets. And the price of oil is nearly $120 a barrel! What next??!!

Why I won't be voting for Hillary - ever.

"Obliterate Iran?" Not the kind of considered judgment we want from a president answering any 3 a.m. phone calls...

"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran," Hillary Clinton told Chris Cuomo in an interview airing Tuesday on Good Morning America. "In the next ten years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."

Clinton reiterated her position in an interview with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. But her staff now says she didn't mean to imply that she would "obliterate Iran." Whatever she intended, it's awfully cavalier - not to mention dangerous - to talk about using nuclear weapons to destroy a country of over 71 million people. This is the latest example of a worrying pattern of "say and do anything to win" philosophy Clinton has adopted in recent months.

London lashes

A vitrine at Selfridges, Oxford Street, London - talk about eyelashes to bat - as opposed to Bat for Lashes!

Just back from a fabulous time in London with some stories and photos to share. Check back later for more. If you live in Pennsylvania, don't forget to vote in Tuesday's Democratic primary. Before you cast your ballot, consider this - it's a very big deal - and certainly not presidential behaviour. I'm happy that Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp, two of my favourite musicians and activists, have thrown their support behind Barack Obama.

Take a risk

A form of bungee jumping deemed safe for children at Hippodrome de Longchamp, Paris.

To one
     Who smells the sun,
          Eyes shut and tastes that rain is sweet;
Who hears
     Music, but fears
          Its presence in empty gardens; or, discreet,
Only observes
     The nerves
          And fibers of a painting - shade, technique;
What is
     Beyond analysis
          Is perilous: we must not wish to seek
And cry
     'This is what I
          Love, what I cherish!' Instead, be wary of such
Intensity
     That we
          May never be hurt or happy or anything too
much.

Poem from the novel Beginner's Greek by James Collins. For those who are sitting on the fence, afraid to take a leap forward, I encourage you to be brave. Take a risk. Dare to open your heart. Truly LIVE your life in capital letters!

Children's joy

Bronze sculptures in Singapore, photo by Marie-Claire Holmes.

"I caught the happy virus last night
When I was out singing beneath the stars.
It is remarkably contagious -
so kiss me." - Hafiz, Persia, 14th-century

Rugby match

While I am in London, thought I might surprise you with something unexpected: the local rugby lads in the thick of a fast-paced game on a muddy field. The rugby club is located in the Bois du Boulogne, just a few metres from Hippodrome de Longchamp. I am a big rugby fan; Stade Francais (Paris) is my favourite local team. They play at Stade Jean Bouin next door to Parc des Princes. It is just a ten-minute walk from Roland Garros, home of the French Open. Within easy walking distance of the apartment, one can watch live horse racing, tennis, rugby or water-skiing on the Seine.

I was going to write this, but then...

Last night I listened to the Democratic  presidential debate live via radio.  I was going to write about what a complete travesty it was, with stupid, inane questions pandering to the lowest common denominator of society - a penchant for gossip, mud-slinging and name-calling. Issues of substance such as torture, Iraq, China, Tibet and the economy largely were ignored. I was going to write that the moderators did a terrible job and ask what has happened to ABC News? No doubt the late Peter Jennings wouldn't have asked such lightweight questions - he would have focused on the substantive issues that affect us all.

I was going to write that it's hard to single out the most ridiculous question, as the majority were so idiotic. But the one asking Sen. Barack Obama if he respected the American flag was probably the dumbest and most inflammatory. Sen. Obama patiently responded and - unlike the moderators - kept trying to turn the subject back to real issues, saying Americans didn't want to waste time talking about manufactured ones.

I was going to write that people who think those who don't wrap themselves in the American flag, wear flag lapel pins - just in case you forget you're an American - and believe that wearing such a pin equates being patriotic -  deserve the government they get. And that those people probably should be reading books and blogs and newspapers and learning about the issues, rather than questioning someone else's patriotism.  Because wearing a flag pin has zip nada NOTHING to do with patriotism!

I was going to write that patriotism does not require wearing a silly cheap plastic flag pin bought from Wal-Mart and made in China. I don't care if you drape your front lawn in flags and wear a flag pin every waking moment, if you aren't doing something to establish a dialogue and change the downwards spiral in America, you're part of the problem.

Patriotism is questioning what's happening in our country. Patriotism is being a soldier trying to stay alive amidst terrible conditions in a war fought under false pretenses. Patriotism involves the families who struggle to pay bills while their husband or wife is in Iraq or returning soldiers who have serious injuries, yet must fight to get the proper medical care they need.  Patriotism is those who fight for the underdog and try to protect the Constitution and our civil liberties. Patriotism is shining attention on critical issues affecting us all, such as global warming and human rights. Patriotism is helping insure a better future for our children and their children, by keeping informed and involved with issues that impact our lives. Patriotism is thinking for ourselves. It is not accepting blindly what someone else tells us to do - that's fascism.

I was going to write, please spare us any further presidential debates if they are going to insult the viewers and listeners' intelligence. Why can't the media raise substantive issues that really matter, rather than lazily catering to fabricated nonsense? I was going to ask are we really such an entertainment-lite culture that we have forgotten how to think for ourselves and question our leaders and potential future president?

All this I was going to write... then I saw the Hafiz poem Out of the Mouths of a Thousand Birds, a simple, yet powerful reminder of what's important in the grand scheme of things:

Listen
Listen more carefully to what is around you
Right now.

...There is an astonishing vastness
of movement and Life

Emanating sound and light
from my folded hands

And my even quieter simple being and heart.

My dear
Is it true that your mind
is sometimes like a battering
Ram

Running all through the city,
Shouting so madly inside and out

About the ten thousand things
That do not matter?

...Oh listen
Listen more carefully
to what is inside of you right now.

In my world
All that remains is the wondrous call to
Dance and prayer

Rising up like a thousand suns
out of the mouth of a
Single bird.

Pensive oil and mixed media on panel by Randall LaGro. Photo courtesy of Blue Rain Gallery, Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Brocante basics

I am off to London until Sunday, so here are more photos of the recent brocante at Chatou, France. All being well, timed posts will appear daily in my absence.

A gilt mirror frame and painting from Brittany are among the antiques on offer.

I adore the cherry red wooden chairs!

Vintage drawers and cabinets offer storage space for cuisine or office.

A variety of traditional French pottery on offer at Chatou.

Chairs aged with a paint effect and recovered in a floral brocade.

Two marble Grecian-style panels, a chest of drawers and Flemish chandelier.

A Napoleon I Empire chair and Egyptian-influenced stone urns.

A desk from the British ship HMS Portsmouth.

A small circus ride for children features a horse, bear and elephant.

An alabaster bust, twin vases and a decorative fan-shaped panel adorned with gilt cherubs.

A bow and arrow astride two endtables.

Save the Internet hearing at Stanford

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you have a rare opportunity on Thursday to speak out about the Internet and remind policymakers it should remain free. Please try to attend a public hearing about the future of the Internet tomorrow, April 17 at Stanford University.

At the last Federal Communications Commission hearing, Comcast hired people to fill the room and keep the public from commenting. The hearing Thursday is a second chance to stand up to Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and other telecommunications and cable companies that want to block, filter and discriminate against Internet users.

The hearing begins at 12 noon and continues until 7 p.m. at Dinkelspiel Auditorium at Stanford, 471 Lagunita Drive, Palo Alto. For maps, travel and parking information, go here.

If you are unable to attend the hearing, check out the webcast on the FCC website.

Salvage and pirates

A prototype for a light wing aircraft is among the many salvage items on these barges. Currently, the vessels are floating next to peniches or houseboats along the River Seine.

Speaking of salvage, certain officials are determined to save France's reputation. Some government officials are outraged about the French entry's English lyrics in the upcoming Eurovision song contest. Quel horreur!

And the six Somali pirates who seized a French yacht and held the crew hostage for a week have arrived in Paris for police questioning.

The French parliament has banned websites and magazines that promote anorexia among teenage girls. The French blog, Be Perfect, Be Pro Ana, encourages teenage girls to refuse food, make themselves sick and take laxatives to emulate the body shape of their "thinspirations" such as Nicole Richie and Victoria Beckham.

Government figures suggest between 30,000 and 40,000 people in France suffer from anorexia. Most are female aged 12 -19. French advertisers, model agencies and fashion houses have agreed to sign a government charter to "refuse to publish images, especially of young people, which could promote an ideal of extreme thinness."

Obviously this problem is not limited to France.

Wicked game

A leather case of vintage Bingo and other board games at a French brocante. Chris Isaak sings about the only Wicked Game worth playing.

Pathetic. Is this what Hillary Clinton considers leadership - twisting and manipulating someone else's words, taken out of context - rather than come up with solutions for those people losing their jobs and homes? The ad - and Clinton's focus in her recent speeches - insults voters' intelligence. Oh and one of the so-called Pennsylvania voters in the ad is actually registered to vote in New Jersey."Bitter?" You betcha! Seriously, who isn't disappointed about what's happened to our country under George W. Bush (other than his rich and getting richer cronies)?

John Baer of The Philadelphia Daily News responds to Clinton's latest campaign tactics:

"Some thoughts on the latest diversion of Campaign '08, a campaign apparently hell-bent on keeping the nation mired in its own stupidity. As a native-born, small-town Pennsylvanian, a son of native-born, small-town Pennsylvania parents - one from the coal region, one from Lancaster County - let me assure you that the so-called offensive, condescending things Barack Obama said about the people I come from are basically right on target.

"Bitter" perhaps best describes my late mother, an angry Irish Catholic who absolutely clung to her religion. Dad, also a journalist, wasn't really bitter as far as I know, but he sure liked to hunt. So, despite carping from Hillary Clinton and annoying yapping from her surrogates (really, it's like turning on the lights at night in a puppy farm), I take no offense. What's offensive to me is suggesting that small-town, working-class, gun-toting and/or religious Pennsylvanians are somehow injured by a politician's words.

"Are you kidding me? They're injured all right, but the injury is long-term and from lots more than "just words." They've been injured from decades of neglect by political cultures in Washington and Harrisburg driven by special interests. They're injured by a system of isolated, insulated political leadership that protects itself and the status quo above all else.

"They've been harmed by a lack of political guts to fix a health-care system that works against the poor and forces middle-class families to pay more for less, while at the same time giving politicians the best coverage taxpayer money can buy.

"They've been taken for granted by political parties and candidates who stay in power by - and this was the apparent gist of Obama's remarks - forcing attention and debate on issues tied to guns, religion and race (precisely because such issues resonate) rather than real problems such as health care and the economy.

"They've been consistently made fools of by their own elected representatives who, year after year, pull fat salaries ($169,000 for every member of Congress; $150,000 in salary, perks and benefits for every state lawmaker) with automatic raises no matter how little gets done.

"A new Associated Press poll shows Congress' approval rating at 23 percent. And don't even get me started on the Pennsylvania Legislature. Insulting? What's insulting are the sizes of salaries and perks of politicians in a state where the median household income is $43,714. What's insulting is the ongoing failure of elected "leaders" to deal with long-term, working-class worries while insuring their own futures with hefty, over-rich pensions...

"...So the question is whether Obama effectively defuses this, as he did the controversy surrounding his former minister. And that remains to be seen. Just don't tell me that he insulted a state or, given his background, that he's an out-of-touch elitist. And I especially don't want to hear such arguments from a candidate who spent decades in the bubble of a governor's mansion, the White House and the U.S. Senate and under the blanket of $109 million income during the last eight years.

Pennsylvanians might cling to religion and guns. I hope they don't cling to stupidity."

Here are some excellent points about the disingenuous actions of both the Clinton and McCain campaigns and the media's unwillingness or inability to cover the stories.

Help save Windows XP

Microsoft is planning to stop sales of Windows XP on June 30, forcing users to convert to the Vista operating system. Infoworld is circulating a petition to save Windows XP here.

In May 2007, XP had 82.25 percent of the OS market. Vista had just 3.75 percent, according to Net Applications, which measures the market share of operating systems. As of March 2008, XP maintained 73.59 percent of the operating system market, while Vista had only 14.02 percent. Yet Microsoft intends to force the majority of its users to switch to an operating system that's still full of bugs, runs slower and requires more memory? This hardly seems fair. If you oppose the idea of switching from XP to Vista, consider signing the petition or writing Microsoft with your concerns.

Microsoft is facing a class-action lawsuit in federal court over misleading advertising claiming computers sold with XP are capable of running Vista. The suit alleges that labeling some PCs as “Windows Vista Capable” was misleading, as many of the computers were not powerful enough to run Vista’s features.

**********

If you're an American, fed up with stupid spin in the presidential campaign cycle, this is well worth your time.

Dumb and dumber

It seems Sir Elton John, a British citizen, can't legally contribute money to the Clinton campaign. Now both Clinton and McCain are breaking campaign finance laws!

And the Army Times slams John McCain for his confusion over Iraq.

Curiosities at Centre Pompidou

Some curious sculptures and works of art at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.

This made me laugh out loud.

And I find it so refreshing to hear a politician speak the truth.

More alike than different

Arched windows, Mosquee de Paris

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.” - Rumi 1207-1273.

"You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way and the only way, it does not exist.” - Friedrich Nietzsche 1844-1900.

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” - Rumi.

Longchamp en cours

Headed towards victory at Hippodrome de Longchamp, Paris.

A view of part of the course, pre-race. I live across the street and walk or bike around the exterior of Longchamp nearly every day.

Another view of the course with the lucky horseshoe finish line. If you look closely, you'll notice the Eiffel Tower peeking out above the trees of the Bois du Boulogne.

The pre-race parade rink and winner's circle.

Before the race...

The winner's circle

Anticipation: Jockeys wait for their mounts.

Headed towards the course.

A pony for the children to ride. The next races at Longchamp begin at 1 p.m. Sunday, April 13.

And here is some hope and inspiration for Americans who are struggling.

Taking flight

For the Writers Island prompt "flight," there was a time in my life when I was on a plane practically every week...a hectic, thrilling and unpredictable time when it sometimes seemed I took planes almost like other people took taxis.

Most of those flights were thankfully, rather uneventful. But there was one trip when the police wouldn't let me out of the airport in Kuwait. Seems the consul at the Kuwait Embassy in Amman, Jordan had deliberately left an essential stamp off my visa, because I politely spurned his advances. As I was wearing a dress and high heels, the police jumped to the conclusion that I must be some rich man's personal plaything. Luckily, an executive for Kuwait Airways was meeting me at the airport and raised a ruckus until they let me pass.

Another time I got on a plane in an Arab country and prayed for it to hurry and take off, before guards tried to arrest me for something I wrote that angered the government - to the point the magazine in which my article appeared was confiscated! When the plane finally lifted off the ground, I breathed a huge sign of relief, certain I'd escaped hours of questioning - and perhaps worse - about my confidential sources.

In those days airport officials were very suspicious of a young woman traveling on her own, even if one did carry proper international press credentials. In one Middle Eastern airport, the customs officers searching my bags - and me - were so intrusive, I cursed them in Arabic (I was young) and threatened to phone their foreign minister. They were shocked that an American girl was speaking Arabic to them - never mind what I'd said - and immediately apologised and became very solicitious.

Once flying from London to Amman, I was bringing back extra luggage for my friend Lindsay, who worked at an international school. Her brother had met me in London with two suitcases jammed with clothes, videos, books and treats from home. So the airline confiscated my passport, told me I couldn't leave the airport until I paid the excess baggage fee and informed me they were seizing the luggage. Of course, I was more than a little annoyed - this was my thanks for doing a favour for a friend - but I decided the airline really couldn't do much to me.

Near the end of the flight, I persuaded a male flight attendant to give me my passport. He said, "OK, but you'll have to leave those extra suitcases at the airport." As the baggage carousel came around, there were no guards to be seen. So I grabbed my bags and Lindsay's and sailed into a waiting taxi. The next day, the airline created quite the kerfuffle about me "absconding" with the extra bags, but a Jordanian friend who worked for the airline resolved the problem so Lindsay didn't have to pay a fine.

Flying from Amman to New York, I was seated in business class and a group of tourists kept asking for my autograph. Seems they had me confused with a Canadian actress. I was so ill with food poisoning, I'd barely been able to board the plane. I didn't feel like repeatedly explaining, "Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not her!" Finally a flight attendant took pity on me and moved me to a quiet corner in first class.

Then there were all those flights when I was giddy with excitement, flying into the arms of a man I loved - or tearful farewells, as each of us boarded planes going in opposite directions. I have many, many travel stories which I will save for an upcoming book.

These days I hate flying, particularly the trans-Atlantic flights. I do everything possible to distract myself from the fact that I'm on a plane - reading, writing, watching a film, listening to music, chatting with my fellow passengers - anything to make the time pass without thinking about being in a plane. Beginning in May, I have nine flights coming up - and as much as I'm looking forward to seeing my daughter and friends at the other end of the flights, I regard the actual travel part as something that must be endured.

What about you? What's your best or worst air travel story?

Lehnert and Landrock photo, Tunis, early 20th-century

An important victory for the rule of law in Britain

In Britain today, the High Court has stood up for the rule of law. The court issued a scathing indictment against the government for its refusal to cooperate with an investigation into alleged bribery in a BAE Systems-Saudi Arabia arms deal. The ruling is a clear victory for Corner House and the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). The anti-bribery campaigners had argued that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) decision to stop the investigation was influenced by Blair government concerns about diplomacy and trade with Saudi Arabia.

The groups accused British authorities of caving in to blackmail. They said former Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to drop the probe was illegal under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD's) Anti-Bribery Convention.

In issuing their decision, the judges said the man behind the threats was Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council and son of the crown prince. US President George W. Bush refers to Bandar as "Bandar Bush," so close are the Bush family's political ties with the Saudi royal family.

Prince Bandar, former Saudi Ambassador to the US, has been accused of accepting more than £1 billion in secret payments from BAE. Read all about it here and here.

Time for a change in leadership

No matter what happens in Iraq, the Bush administration and John McCain always have an answer: six more months. When the "surge" began a year ago, they told America things would get better by September. In September, they said we'd know more by spring. And this week, General Petraeus is on Capitol Hill asking for -you guessed it - six more months. Senator McCain and President Bush couldn't agree more.

They don't have a plan for getting us out of Iraq, so they're trying to sell endless war on the installment plan. When questioning Gen. Patraeus and Amb. Crocker this week, Sen. Barack Obama asked fundamental questions the Bush administration has failed to answer. What does victory mean? What are our goals? What are we trying to achieve? But neither Petraeus nor Crocker could answer those key questions.

And I agree with John Ashcroft's concern that "history will not judge kindly" the news that top Bush advisors approved torture methods.

An excerpt from MSNBC's Keith Olbermann's comments regarding George W. Bush's latest machinations:

Olbemann said while Bush reduced tours of duty for our soldiers from 15 months to 12, a cruel caveat is attached: Any troops currently in Iraq or those deploying before August aren't eligible for reduced tours. Olbermann takes Bush to task for claiming troop morale would plummet "if we were to lose in Iraq" by not fulfilling HIS goals. He reminded viewers that last year alone some 120 soldiers committed suicide and for them, "the war is already over."

”Last year he (Bush) escalated the war in Iraq; today he announced that there would be de-escalation beyond July, yet somehow stood there with a straight face and lied about how he was withdrawing troops. Now, that was hardly the lone instance of dissembling, tortured logic, sophistry and outright dishonesty in Mr. Bush’s latest sugar-coating of the undeniable and unforgivable fact that he is continuing to arrange for the needless deaths of American heroes.”

And sadly, once again Bill Clinton is telling tall tales.

Taking us for a ride

Pedicab for sale at a brocante at Chatou, France.

At Truthdig Marie Cocco writes about Seven Years of Scandal. Infuriating and mind-boggling.

Nancy Pelosi takes a principled stand. If only more people in government displayed such courage!

On a lighter note, my friend Tangobaby has posted some great photos taken in the Sunset District in San Francisco - which just happens to be my old neighbourhood. Yes, I am homesick!

When traversing the Paris Metro on Tuesday, I learned a little about the plight of an Iraqi refugee and her young daughter. The contrast of the woman's pitiful state with two American women, dressed in furs and Gucci made me want to scream at the far-reaching and terrible implications of George W. Bush's war. Tonight I opened the book Soul Food: Nourishing Poems for Starved Minds to find Naomi Shihab Nye's poem, which struck a chord:

"Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

"Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

"Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

"Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend."

Vintage dolls and seeds of possibility

Today I have been a busy woman, writing up a storm; chasing away gloom; dispelling doubt and planting magical seeds of possibility. I've also been listening to this song, an old favourite.

Photos of vintage poupees from the recent brocante at Chatou.

Religious icon.

Elfin dolls.

Southern belle.

Two quirky dolls in a wicker wine crate.

Dutch treats in wooden clogs.

Two real live dolls, although one doesn't seem very happy.

Just the facts, ma'am

Vintage glove lasts at the recent brocante at Chatou, France. It appears that Sen. John McCain needs a helping hand with history and geography lessons when it comes to Iraq and inter-Arab conflict in the Middle East.

Ok, now this just gives me a headache. This is a man who claims to be an "expert" on Iraq - yet still can't get the key players straight? Pity the nation, as Lawrence Ferlinghetti says.

Ten things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.

2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than George W. Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."

3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.

4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."

5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.

6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports McCain and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.

7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander-in-chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any presidential candidate.

9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."

10. The Arizona senator positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.

So please consider the facts before making any rash decisions about voting for a man who so closely follows in George W. Bush's non-reality-based footsteps. McCain may be an American hero for his service in Vietnam, but that doesn't make him qualified to serve as president - and he's proving that more and more with each day that passes.

Aesthetics of the city

Practically everywhere you look in Paris, there's something beautiful or interesting to behold. At Printemps, even the construction scaffolding - painted with a trompe l'oeil finish - has style.

This large billboard covers much of the exterior of the future Roberto Cavelli store on rue Cambon, currently under construction. The current Cavelli boutique is on rue de Rivoli.

Up-to-the-minute fashion at Chanel on rue Cambon. Bicycles are reflected in the vitrine.

A new twist on ropes of pearls at Chanel.

More elaborate costume jewelery featuring rhinestone moon-and-stars accent the latest Chanel designs.

Beneath this unbuttoned coatdress at Chanel, the mannequin is wearing hotpants - remember those?

Chanel's upscale version of cut-off shorts.

A mid-calf-length sheath dress, with kicky pleats near the hemline.

1940s-inspired platforms at Chanel.

A bling-bling handbag, designed with gold and silver leather traditional interlocking "Cs."

The weird, wacky weather of April in Paris

Orange upside-down flowers being buffeted by high winds on Monday. Reader Jacky Petrie in Canada tells me these flowers are "Fritillaria imperialis rubra maxima."

You know what the song says about April in Paris - but it simply isn't true, at least weather-wise. Last night, the city was covered in a soft blanket of snow. I spent a few minutes between 2 and 3 a.m. staring out the window, watching the snowfall. The plan was to photograph it, before the morning sunshine melted every trace. But by 10 a.m., both the snow and sunshine had given way to rain and cold winds - all these dramatic shifts within the space of about 12 hours.

Meanwhile the Olympic torch ceremony in Paris was marred not only by bad weather, but by numerous protests, just as in London on Sunday. The torch was doused three times before finally being carried by bus to Stade Charlety. Bernard Delanoe, the mayor of Paris, cancelled a ceremony honouring the torch relay after Green Party activists hung a Tibetan flag and Reporters sans Frontieres hung a banner depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs from the Hotel de Ville. Tibetan flags or protest banners were also draped from other Paris landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame.

And news today that mobile phones will be allowed in European airspace. Not sure that's a good thing! Under the best of circumstances, it's difficult to find any peace and quiet on a crowded airplane - now we'll be forced to overhear other people's conversations?

A planter box of assorted spring blossoms, unaffected by last night's snow.

Kebede wins Paris Marathon

Tsegaye Kebede won the Paris Marathon on Sunday at his first attempt with a personal best time. The Ethiopian runner finished in two hours, six minutes and forty seconds, comfortably beating his previous best marathon of 2:08.16 last year in Amsterdam.

Scenes from the Paris Marathon, Sunday, April 6, 2008.

Sunday sports

Kodak advertising sign from a photo shop in southwest France, photographed recently at the brocante at Chatou.

Remember film? Amazing how quickly we have adapted to digital cameras, drastically reducing the market for film. For photos of today's Paris Marathon go here. Check back later for additional marathon photographs, as well as pictures from opening day at the races at Hippodrome de Longchamp.

Oh and all that talk about the French president - and various other officials around the world - calling for a boycott of the Olympic opening ceremonies? I don't believe politics and sports should mix. The athletes have trained long and hard and shouldn't be denied a chance to compete because of the host's abysmal human rights record - a key factor that the Olympic Committee should have considered when awarding host nation status to China.

The country has a well-documented history of human rights abuses, both in Tibet and within its own borders. So those advocating a boycott because of China's latest horrendous abuses and crackdown on protestors shouldn't be surprised; this is what the Chinese government does. They are serial abusers of human rights, no matter how hard they try to conceal their true nature when making lucrative business deals with the West. But let's not punish the athletes simply because the Olympic Committee exercised poor judgement.

Meanwhile, racism has reared its ugly head at France's largest World War I cemetery. Read the sad story here.

Industrial chic at Chatou

A tall chest with original numbers revealed by a paint treatment at Julie Isore's Agape, pictured at the recent brocante at Ile de Chatou, France. (Yes, that tall chest came home with me - and there is no room for it anywhere)!

An industrial steel serving cart and hospital sidetables.

Original Tolix stools and blue bobbin chests.

A vignette of bottles and books at Agape.

A zinc industrial barrel turned into a light fixture. Check out the Hermes-orange numbered lockers in the background.

A zinc patterned l'oeil du boeuf from Geraldine Michaelis's Une Chanson Douce.

Oeil du boeuf zinc window casings that once graced a chateau.

An old stove and a hodgepodge of rusty watering cans and other utilitarian items.

Zinc buckets in an iron daybed frame at Chatou. Another brocante at Chatou is scheduled in September.

C'est moi aussi

Self-portrait update, April 1, 2008, Paris.

An excerpt from Comfortable with Uncertainty by Pema Chodron:

"Being able to lighten up is the key to feeling at home with your body, mind and emotions, to feeling worthy to live on this planet. For example, you can hear the slogan "always maintain only a joyful mind" and start beating yourself over the head for never being joyful..."

"This earnestness, this seriousness about everything in our lives...this goal-oriented "We're going to do it or else" attitude is the world's greatest killjoy. There's no sense of appreciation because we're so solemn about everything. In contrast, a joyful mind is very ordinary and relaxed. So lighten up. Don't make such a big deal."

"When your aspiration is to lighten up, you begin to have a sense of humour... In addition to a sense of humour, a basic support for a joyful mind is curiosity, paying attention, taking an interest in the world around you. Happiness is not required, but being curious without a judgemental attitude helps. If you are judgemental, you can even be curious about that."

"Curiosity encourages cheering up. So does simply remembering to do something different. We are so locked into this sense of burden - Big Deal Joy and Big Deal Unhappiness - that it's sometimes helpful just to change the pattern. Anything out of the ordinary will help. You can go to the window and look at the sky, you can splash cold water on your face, you can sing in the shower, you can go jogging - anything against your usual pattern. That's how things start to lighten up."

I pay attention to details and try to learn something new and do something different every single day. To me, routine and regimen without variation ultimately result in apathy and boredom. What do you do to shake things up in your life?

And won't you please take a moment to watch this powerful video, on a day where polls show 81 percent of Americans think our country is on the wrong track?

Good for what ails you

Vintage French pharmacy bottles at the recent brocante at Chatou, France.

Today I received an anti-Obama email from someone with whom I grew up... It was one of the most racist, right-wing, revisionist pieces of garbage I've ever seen. I know I should consider the source: someone who grew up in a wealthy household with a full-time black maid; who has led a privileged life and was a George W. Bush supporter. But these are the kind of deliberately wrong-headed Republican-fueled attacks we can expect as we move closer to the election in November.

No matter what candidate you support in the presidential election, I urge you to pay attention to the facts, not the rumors and innuendo. If you don't know where a candidate stands on certain issues, go to their official website; read a variety of newspapers, magazines and blogs. Check out the candidates' Senate voting records. Think for yourself! Don't accept as fact a distorted bunch of words combined in mean-spirited and ignorant attacks designed to rip the country apart, rather than bring us together.

If there's anything we've learned in the past seven-plus years of an incompetent Bush administration, it's that we must stand together to combat extremists and special interests. We cannot allow further erosion of our civil liberties and Constitutional freedoms by those who stand to profit from our complacency.

And I'm still so upset by that vile message, am off to listen to Earth Wind & Fire's That's the Way of the World, for many years, my favourite peace of mind song - followed by a lap or two around Longchamp.

Spotlight on Bedouin villages

A jumble of industrial light fixtures at a brocante at Chatou, France.

Lucy Mair of Human Rights Watch writes from Jerusalem about land and housing rights violations in Israel's unrecognized Bedouin villages:

"We sat on the dusty ground outside a makeshift tent in the Bedouin village of Um Mitnan in April 2006, talking to some women whose homes had recently been destroyed by the government. One stared at the rubble and asked, "Why would they demolish such basic structures? You can hardly call them homes. We didn't even have electricity. It's not that we built palaces, it's just cement blocks on the sides and a tin roof."

"Even for seasoned human rights workers and international journalists, the poverty and desolation of Israel's unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev comes as a shock. Perhaps it is the constant threat of a bulldozer crashing into one's home; or the extreme contrast with some of Israel's wealthiest communities nearby; or perhaps the fact that the Bedouin are not refugees in a war-torn country, but rather full fledged citizens of one of the most prosperous countries in the Middle East. Bedouin serve in the Israeli army, practice law and medicine and work as professors in Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Yet when Bedouin return to a home in one of these unrecognized villages at the end of the day it is often to a ramshackle hut, with no electricity or running water, a home that state-owned bulldozers may demolish at any time.

"Many Israelis believe the country's Bedouin citizens deserve their lot; that they have trespassed onto land that wasn't theirs and willfully built without proper permits. Yet during months of research for Human Rights Watch I found the opposite to be true. Bedouin presence on this land in the Negev dates back generations. Some Bedouin have documents to show that their fathers and grandfathers bought land from other Bedouin or paid land taxes to the Ottoman and British authorities before the state of Israel was founded. Others showed Human Rights Watch the ruins of family homes and school buildings from decades ago, or graveyards where their ancestors were buried in the 1800s. And others showed us military orders asking Bedouin to "temporarily" leave their villages in the early 1950s.

"But these displaced Bedouin were never allowed to return to their ancestral villages. Israel passed a series of laws in the 1950s and 60s confiscating the land from which the Bedouin were displaced and registering it in the name of the state. In the 1960s, when Israel drew up its first master plan, planners purposefully ignored the Bedouin villages, rendering them illegal with a stroke of the pen, thus denying them access to building permits and basic services. These state actions are the root cause of the terrible conditions that tens of thousands of Israel's Bedouin citizens endure to this day.

"The land dispute between the state and the Bedouin is now before the Goldberg Commission. The Commission, appointed by the Ministry of Housing in October 2007 and headed by former state comptroller and retired Supreme Court Justice Eliezer Goldberg will present its findings and recommendations this June. The commission cannot afford to ignore Israel's basic human rights obligations. These include tackling pervasive discrimination in land allocation and planning policies in Israel and combating the unlawful way in which home demolitions are carried out in the Bedouin community.

"It does Israel no credit to deny secure tenure and adequate housing to a whole segment of its population and it undermines Israel's stated goal of developing the Negev. Redressing years of injustice is not easy, but some of Israel's allies, such as Canada and Australia, have embarked on legal and political processes to provide some modicum of land and housing rights to their indigenous populations.

"As a first step, Israel should place an immediate moratorium on all demolitions and complement the work of the government-appointed Goldberg Commission by setting up an entirely independent body to investigate Bedouin complaints. This is the least the state can do to try and win back the hope and the trust of its Bedouin community."