France, my country, has a new president…Following a nasty campaign which left me an ugly impression of mutual hatred…So President Sarkozy, whose heritage is clearly foreign and who chose for the first time in history Ministers of all walks of life and political background was suddenly a little Pétain…I felt sad, not because I liked him (to be honest, I didn’t…) especially not when he tried to turn himself into one in his wish to convince the extreme right, but because the whole campaign had nauseous aspects to say the least. This is not, however, the reason for my finally finding the time to write a new post…
In fact, yesterday was the last “heavy” item on my agenda….a report on a JStreet meeting in D.C. last March which enabled me to give an account of some of the most important moments during three vibrant days in the heart of decomplexed American Jewry on Cherry Blossom!
Just to fill you in after such a long silence, let’s get back to what happened since my amazing encounter with some outstanding academics in India (Delhi and Sardarshahar) in February
This moment of peace and harmony left in my heart a lasting impression of solidarity of academics across borders in the true sense of what I had envisioned when I founded with my friend Ingrid Liebeskind-Sauthier our Académie Sans Frontières group, our Borderless Academy of dreamers like us. And as a friend recently reminded me, Lennon wrote his Imagine song for people like you (who read me) and me….
So, let me thank again and again and again my little brother Prof. Surendra Pathak for proving once again that when you trust people and your own feelings, you are never disappointed, quite the opposite, you discover beautiful souls. Such is also the soul of another colleague I met during my Indian visit, Dr. Ravindra Kumar, who whas kind enough to send me two of his recent publications regarding the intellectually challenging (for the western mind) concepts of Non-Cooperation and Self-Reliance.
Kumar, R. (2009). Non-Cooperation, World Peace Movement Trust.
Kumar, R. (2012). Fundamental Structures of Buddhism: The Law of Change and the Principle of Self-Reliance, World Peace Movement Trust.
I went from India almost straight away into my ancestor’s culture in Malta and invite you to read Rondeau’s Malta Hanina
and then visit some of the world’s most exquisite islands
and hospitable people
A special thank to Ms. Mary Attard, Director of the Giovanni Curmi Higher Sec, Naxxar and her staff and students for their warm welcome to my colleagues and students!
Finally, this round of trip ended up in the enconter of the AtlanticOcean and of the Sahara, in a town called Sidi Ifni where I enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing week of belly dancing ….
….and belly filling with some of the world famous Morrocan delights thanks to my world class belly dancing teacher, Isabel Alama
and, not the least, hosts in Xanadu,
Finally let me wish you a wonderful spring, with bright cherry blossoms and fruitful encounters as well!
PS. Here’s a pre-taste of my programme in the next months, should I be in your vicinity, I’d love to meet you for more of these special moments of friendship:
JULY-AUGUST: FRANCE AND SWITZERLAND mostly…
AUGUST
20-30: Berlin Congress of Sociolinguistics where Sociolinguists on Facebook are hosting a session
SEPTEMBER:
Interdependence Day in L.A,
“Eighth International Conference on Third Language Acquisition and Multilingualism” (L3 CONFERENCE), which will take place at the Universitat Jaume I in Castelló (Spain) between 13th and 15th September 2012.
OCTOBER: Trips to Morroco, Algeria and Tunisia (inch’Allah)
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER: Thailand, Laos…and more who knows?
…I’ll keep you updated on Next year in due course, of course;-)
COSMO POLITIQUE 