This is just...I have no words!

The slaughterhouse from hell (warning: the video is unbearable if you are sensitive)

And I have no illusions about my own country since slaughterhouses are forbidden to the public, journalists and association over here.

Industrial breeding is a horror everywhere.

It's easier to turn a blind eye and ignore the reality so we don't have to question this capitalist system, our lifestyle and food consumption.

First off, here's an interesting read: Notes from A Unicorn is the "confession" of a bisexual man who explains how difficult it is to be "bi" in this world (well, in his case, in the U.S).

Me, well, I think that the world would be slightly better if people stopped identifying themselves, and others, through sexuality...among other things.

Anyway, identity has nothing to do with boxes and labels, it's complex, changing, personal and singular.  Picking one component to identify oneself is dangerous because it's a simplification. Reducing the mystery that is a person to any "marker" is the first step towards de-humanizing people. Identifying anyone according to the supposed group to which they belong is the way genocides begin.

Embracing the same "logic" and labelling oneself  to fight discriminations and find acceptance in society seems paradoxical, to say the least. It isn't a reversal, replacing shame by pride, as some would like to believe; it is the same pattern, the same trap, all over again.

I do believe that "I'm me" should be the only valid answer to questions on identity, the only way to achieve equality; and the real tolerance is to accept the others as singularities, not as part of some community. But it seems that very few are ready for such acceptance and openness.

On the other hand, wanting to fit in and expressing what is expected from you, reproducing old outlines, or wanting the others to confirm our narrow views, are also human features.

The Internet gives us great opportunities to ponder the matter of identity. There are many fakes around but they work because they meet the expectations of many people...even journalists whose job should be to tell truth and lies apart. Basically we want to believe, we want to be fooled. It's something that magicians have always understand.

The affair of the false Gay Girl from Damascus provides a new instance of the magic of the world wide web...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/13/syrian-lesbian-blogger-tom-macmaster

It snowed all day long yesterday, which NEVER happens in Paris! Today, no snow but it was colder. Too cold for this mediterranean girl.  That Siberian weather must stop NOW!

ETA1: They forecast  - 8° C for tomorrow morning!

I can feel how the cold affects our bodies, tires them out. I fear for all the homeless tonight. On the other hand I'm quite pleased with the way my classes went today. It was a good day of teaching.

Speaking of the Russians, I've just seen on my flist page that LJ might be killed off soon...and I'm too lazy to back-up my journal. I've been saying for several weeks that the place was becoming colder and now I'm wondering whether I was forseeing its possible imminent death. *brace herself for the loss*

Some of you already have my email. For the others who wouldn't want to see me disappear and would like to keep on virtual conversations, you can get in touch with me through frenchani@gmail.com or through my blog Correspondance. I also post from time to time on a Lost Forum and a BSG forum, especially when the shows are on. BSG starts again on the 16th and Lost on the 21st.

So just in case...DASVIDAGNA !!!!

ETA2: Keep killing children and innocent civilians, Israel, and let the carnage go on and the humanitarian situation  worsen in Gaza, you are making new religious fanatics and Hamas fighter every day. What a  wonderful world. *sigh*