大家との戦い：終結。

１１月に執行吏 (huissier de justice)に連絡したのですが、その後に来たのは、「大家の家に行ったら閉まっていて、郵便ポストにも名前がなかった。他の連絡先を知らないか？」という連絡。夜逃げされたか！と心配していたのですが（でも夜逃げするような金額ではないはずだが、他にもいろいろトラブルがあったのか？と想像もしてしまいました）。

でも昨日ついに届きました、チェックが。保証金全額（２ヶ月の家賃分）＋利子。１割強の手数料（頼んだときにとられた１５０ユーロ＋α）を取られ、それにはあまり納得いきませんが、仕方が無いのでしょう、それはあきらめます。

パリで外国人向けにアパートを貸し出している大家にひどい目にあっている全ての外国人のためにも、泣き寝入りせずこのように最後まで戦って勝つことができ、本当に良かったと思っています。

いずれにせよ、これまで応援してくださった皆様、ありがとうございました。一年半以上の長い戦いでしたが、これでようやっと大家との戦いが終結しました。

フランス ノルマンディー旅行：花海岸

２００７年の年末は、ノルマンディー地方で一週間過ごしました。泊まったのは Honfleur という港町でしたが、近くだったので遊びに行ったのが、この「花海岸」。

La Côte Fleurie とは、Deauville から Cabourg までの、英仏海峡を面している約２０キロの海岸のことで、海沿いの景色がとてもきれいなことで有名です。

Deauville からバスに乗って３０分くらいして降りたのは、Houlgate という小さな街。ここは、１９世紀末から２０世紀の初めにかけて建てられた、海の家がとても素敵です。冬だったので多くの家は雨戸が閉ざされていましたが、夏は人が多いことと予想されます。このようなビーチハウスに泊まって、目の前の海を眺めたり泳ぎにいったり、というのは憧れます。海ではカモメが波にのって、のんびりしていました。

Deauville とは、１９世紀から開発された高級リゾート地。パリに住む貴族などを受け入れていたらしく、観光局のホームページではここを「パリの２１区」として自慢しています。ここのビーチの前には、板張の遊歩道があり、更衣室の前にはアメリカの映画俳優や監督の名前がついています。競馬場やカシノなどお金の使い道がたくさんあるようですが、我々は海辺を散歩しただけでした。

印象派の絵にもたくさん描かれている、ビーチパラソル入りの風景を見ることはできなかったけれど、冬の散歩でも十分楽しめました。夏にもまた来てみたいけれど、人が多そうですね。

The Stone Gods

In her latest novel, Jeanette Winterson takes us through three worlds, all of which are at the brink of collapse. The first is Orbus, which is "evolving in a way that is hostile to human life", despite the fact that its residents have managed to slow down global warming, stabilize emissions, drain rising sea levels, replant forests, and stop using oil, gasoline or petroleum derivatives. Winterson then takes us to Easter Island, which looked as if "some great creature with hot breath had flown above and scorched all below", just at the moment when the islanders fell down the last palm tree. The third is an unamed world, much like our own today, which has just suffered a nuclear attack. In this post-World War Three era, people no longer use money. The world is run by a global trding company that rents out everything--houses, cars, clothes, even leisure. This is a welcome change from pre-3 War era when "Nobody ever had enough money. Rich or poor, money was scarce. The more we had, the less it seemed to buy, and the more we bought, the less satisfied we became. It was a relief when money was gone".

As with all Winterson's novels, the plot is not complicated; it is the beautiful prose, and the ill-doomed and unconventional love between beings--between two women, between two men and between robot and human--that makes us read and re-read her books over and over again. But in this novel, her prose is not only thought-provoking, but at times very political:

"... life cannot be calculated. That's the big mistake our civilization made. We never accepted that randomness is not a mistake in the equation--it is part of the equation".

"The truth is that I've spent all my life with my binoculars trained on the Maybe Islands, a pristine place of fantasy... maybe if I hadn't done this, or that or... But the truth is I am inventing the maybe. I can only make the choices I make, so why torture myself with what I might have done, when all I can handle is what I have done? The Maybe Islands are hostile to human life".

"What it means to be human... is to bring up your children in safety, educate them, keep them healthy, teach them how to care for themselves and others, allow them to develop in their own way among adults who are sane and responsible, who know the value of the world and not its economic potential. It means art, it means time, it means all the invisibles never counted by the GDP and the census figures".

I had the opportunity to see Winterson read extracts of this book last year, which was a delightful experience. Winterson does not mean to paint a dismal future for our planet; she claims to be an optimist and believes that humanity deserves better. We must act fast, however, to try to change the possible course that our planet is taking. To see videos of her reading, go to: http://www.jeanettewinterson.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=493

Winterson is one of my favourite authors, and I have read almost all her novels. Although I cannot say that "The Stone Gods" is one of my favourite of her books, it is a thought-provoking one that I know I will keep on coming back to. The book has succeeded in inspiring me in the work that I do--to try to make the world a better place.

Implementation of total smoking ban

I can breathe freely now, the smoke is gone
I can see all people coming my way
Gone are the dark smoke that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiny day.

I can taste my food, the smoke is gone
All of the stale air has disappeared
Here is the smoke-free place I've been praying for
It's gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day

Look all around, there's nothing but fresh air
Look straight ahead, there's nothing but clean air

Yeah, hey, it's gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day!

(courtesy of Johnny Nash)

See also: What's New in French Cafes? Clean Air http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-France-Smoking-Ban.html?scp=4&sq=France+smoking+ban

Our Stolen Future

In "Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival?--A Scientific Detective Story", three scientists raise an alarm over the proliferation of manmade chemicals in our environment. By mimicking natural hormones, these chemicals threaten to undermine our future. It is a truly captivating and terrifying book, as it makes us realize that danger lies all around us--in the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the food we eat.

A good part of the book gives us details of sinister signs in wildlife--bald eagles born deformed, beluga whales whose level of PCBs qualify them as hazardous waste, polar bears and seals whose reproduction rate is in decline, dolphins succumbing to epidemics, frogs disappearing. In addition to habitat loss and changing climate, endocrine-disrupting chemicals are a major threat to the world's biodiversity.

But hormone-disrupting chemicals do not just threaten wildlife; they "act broadly and insidiously to sabotage fertility and development" of humans as well, as indicated by the drop in sperm count and increase in sperm abnormalities. The fact that such chemicals have profound effects on the fetus is even more serious a concern, as contaminants accumulated in a woman's body are transfered through gestation and and breast milk. The authors suggest that abnormal tendencies in our society such as increase in learning problems, attention deficit disorders, aggression and violence are possible long-term effects such hormones have on people. As Sandra Steingraber has eloquently informs us in "Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood", environmental hazards threaten each crucial stage of infant development.

In my view, "Our Stolen Future" is just as important as "Our Common Future" aka the the Brundtland Report (published in 1987), which placed environmental issues on the political agenda. As the authors themselves imply, the book should be considered a sequel to the groundbreaking work by Rachel Carlson. The major difference between this book and Carlson's is the call for the need to "move beyond the cancer paradigm", because hormone-disrupting chemicals are not classical poisons or typical carcinogens that kill people or make people sick; rather, they "diminish individuals without making them sick". Such "deficits" can have serious consequences over not just the lifetime of individuals but for the society as a whole. The authors raise concern of the "power of hormone-disrupting chemicals to undermine and alter the characteristics that make us uniquely human--our behavior, intelligence, and capacity for social organization".

Since it was published over ten years ago, "Our Stolen Future" has drawn widespread attention to the issue of hormone-disrupting chemicals, and has been successful in influencing government policies in the US and elsewhere. See http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/ for the latest developments in the field of endocrine disruptor scientific research. Both "Our Stolen Future" and "Having Faith" should be mandatory reading for everyone and anyone who cares about our future and our environment. It is the responsibility of each and every single one of us to keep ourselves informed; after all, as the authors state, "children have a right to be born chemical-free".

ベラルーシ出張

２００７年９月の中旬に、ベラルーシへ行きました。ベラルーシ、ポーランドとウクライナの国境にまたがっている西ポレシア地域はヨーロッパで一番大きい湿地帯。この湿地はヨーロッパの水源地としても大切な上、政治的にもEUの境目となるため、とても重要な地域です。この地域の自然保全のための科学協力促進のプロジェクトを担当しているので、２００６年はウクライナ出張に行き、２００８年にはポーランドへ行く予定です。

今まで中・東ヨーロッパ地域は全く知る機会がなかったので、プロジェクトが始まった当初は学ぶことがたくさんありました。旧ソ連の影響なのか、科学者として戸惑うことがいくつか。一番気になったのは、データ収集に時間を費やす割にはそのデータを分析することにあまり力を入れない傾向があるということ。例えば、ある種の草木がどの場所に植生していて、この数年にどのよう植生が変化したか、というのを地図なりで見せるのは得意。でも、なぜこのような変化が起きた（もしくは起きたと考えられる）か、その変化がどのように周りの環境に影響を与える（可能性があるの）か、それに対して今後具体的にどのようなことをしたらいいのか、などが問題化されないのです。

あと興味深かったのは、オフィシャルの会議外での話し合いの方が、実りがあったということ。これはなんとなく日本の会議の方法に似ていますね。一日の会議が終わったらその後に酒を飲みながら、専門家達が色々話し合い、合意を達成する。オフィシャルな会議は主にそのコンセンサスを発表する場。アングロサクソン系の会議ではあまり見られない傾向ですね。

また、この地域全般に言えることなのかもしれませんが、食べ物がそれほど美味しくなく、みんなお酒を本当に飲みます。毎日の食事を楽しみにできない出張はけっこう辛いものがあります。また、朝９時から始まる専門家会議に、半分くらいの専門家が顔を赤くして出席しているというのは、少しやりにくかったです。

この写真は、川辺で見つけた木で彫った飾り（？）。ウクライナでもこのようなものをたくさん見かけましたが、ちょっと滑稽ですね。それにしても皆、楽しそう。

最後の日には、地元の女性達が民族衣装を着て、歌いに来てくれました。

あけましておめでとうございます / Happy New Year / Bonne Année 2008

２００８年が皆にとって、よい年になりますように。

Best wishes for the year 2008.

Meilleurs voeux pour l'année 2008.