Rip-off Britain, it's called; over-priced for a holiday, cheaper to fly to the Costas, and ruinous to live in.
Even the Government is fleecing its citizens. Have you seen the price for a passport now? I need to change the name on mine, back to my maiden name. Just one change - I renewed it only in 2003 so I've got a fair few years on it yet. No half-price bargain because I've still got 5 years to run on it! No sirree. It'll cost me the price of a full renewal, again. Yes! Even for a name change, I have to go through the whole procedure all over again, which will cost 158€.
Good grief! For the French, it'll only cost 60€ to get an adult passport. I'm in the process of renewing the boys' passports and decided to keep them French because it'll only cost 60€ for two instead of 202€ for two British passports.
Is there any country that has more expensive fees? I'm absolutely disgusted. If France can keep the price down, then how come the Brits can't? Apparently, the price is high to pay for the introduction of ID cards, but France already has ID cards without having to fleece its citizens.
If they can do it, WHY CAN'T WE?
I've been meaning to register the boys as British citizens at the consular, and get them British birth certificates, but guess how much that'll cost. Registering each child costs 122€, and a birth certificate costs 78€, total : 400€; plus two passports: 602€; plus my passport: 760€.
Seven hundred and sixty euros. It no longer pays to be British, it costs.
Showing posts with label British. Show all posts
Showing posts with label British. Show all posts
Friday, October 03, 2008
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
World Slavery
The abolition of slavery in Britain is 200years old. Commemorating it is a good way of bringing it to the attention of a wider public who are not fully aware of this era of British history. We don't learn about such things at school, or at least I didn't when I was there, but then we didn't learn about a whole swathe of other parts of history either.
Gillian Reynolds captures some of the frustration surrounding the topic of slavery in her article in the Telegraph today; frustration on both sides, from blacks and whites. Descendents who want reparation for wrongs committed to their ancestors are at loggerheads with those who believe that it's pointless apologising in modern times for actions carried out generations ago. That whole period was infinitely regretful, but an apology from the State would be meaningless. Nations all over the world have committed atrocities since the beginning of time. Why single out one particular atrocity, centuries later?
Gleaned from Wikipedia, some interesting information on slavery:
"There were slaves in mainland France, but the institution was never fully authorized there. However, slavery was vitally important in France's Caribbean possessions, especially Saint-Domingue... In Paris, on February 4, 1794, Abbé Grégoire and the Convention ratified this action by officially abolishing slavery in all French territories. Napoleon sent troops to the Caribbean in 1802 to try to re-establish slavery. They succeeded in Guadeloupe, but the ex-slaves of Saint-Domingue defeated the French army and declared independence." "The Arab world has traded in slaves like many other cultures of the region. It was one of the oldest slave trades, predating the European transatlantic slave trade by hundreds of years[8]. The Arab or Middle Eastern slave trade is thought to have originated with trans-Saharan slavery...
...As many African slaves may have crossed the Sahara Desert, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean as crossed the Atlantic, perhaps more. Some sources estimate that between 11 and 17 million slaves crossed the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara Desert from 650 to 1900, compared to 11.6 million across the Atlantic from 1500 to the late 1860s. The Arab or Middle Eastern slave trade continued into the early 1900s...
...The Arab trade in slaves continued into the 20th century. Written travelogues and other historical works are replete with references to slaves owned by wealthy traders, nobility and heads of state in the Arabian Peninsula well into the 1920s. Slave owning and slave-like working conditions have been documented up to and including the present, in countries of the Middle East. Though the subject is considered taboo in the affected regions, a leading Saudi government cleric and author of the country's religious curriculum has called for the outright re-legalization of slavery."
"Slavery persists in Africa more than in all other continents. Slavery in Mauritania was legally abolished by laws passed in 1905, 1961, and 1981, but several human rights organizations are reporting that the practice continues there. The trading of children has been reported in modern Nigeria and Benin. In parts of Ghana, a family may be punished for an offense by having to turn over a virgin female to serve as a sex slave within the offended family... In the Sudan, slavery continues as part of an ongoing civil war; see also the Slavery in Sudan article. Evidence emerged in the late 1990s of systematic slavery in cacao plantations in West Africa."
Instead of breast-beating it would be far better to campaign to outlaw modern-day slavery. Maybe the descendents of slaves could take up the fight to ensure that enslavement is eradicated from the planet so that what happened to their ancestors never happens to anyone else.
Gillian Reynolds captures some of the frustration surrounding the topic of slavery in her article in the Telegraph today; frustration on both sides, from blacks and whites. Descendents who want reparation for wrongs committed to their ancestors are at loggerheads with those who believe that it's pointless apologising in modern times for actions carried out generations ago. That whole period was infinitely regretful, but an apology from the State would be meaningless. Nations all over the world have committed atrocities since the beginning of time. Why single out one particular atrocity, centuries later?
Gleaned from Wikipedia, some interesting information on slavery:
"There were slaves in mainland France, but the institution was never fully authorized there. However, slavery was vitally important in France's Caribbean possessions, especially Saint-Domingue... In Paris, on February 4, 1794, Abbé Grégoire and the Convention ratified this action by officially abolishing slavery in all French territories. Napoleon sent troops to the Caribbean in 1802 to try to re-establish slavery. They succeeded in Guadeloupe, but the ex-slaves of Saint-Domingue defeated the French army and declared independence." "The Arab world has traded in slaves like many other cultures of the region. It was one of the oldest slave trades, predating the European transatlantic slave trade by hundreds of years[8]. The Arab or Middle Eastern slave trade is thought to have originated with trans-Saharan slavery...
...As many African slaves may have crossed the Sahara Desert, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean as crossed the Atlantic, perhaps more. Some sources estimate that between 11 and 17 million slaves crossed the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara Desert from 650 to 1900, compared to 11.6 million across the Atlantic from 1500 to the late 1860s. The Arab or Middle Eastern slave trade continued into the early 1900s...
...The Arab trade in slaves continued into the 20th century. Written travelogues and other historical works are replete with references to slaves owned by wealthy traders, nobility and heads of state in the Arabian Peninsula well into the 1920s. Slave owning and slave-like working conditions have been documented up to and including the present, in countries of the Middle East. Though the subject is considered taboo in the affected regions, a leading Saudi government cleric and author of the country's religious curriculum has called for the outright re-legalization of slavery."
"Slavery persists in Africa more than in all other continents. Slavery in Mauritania was legally abolished by laws passed in 1905, 1961, and 1981, but several human rights organizations are reporting that the practice continues there. The trading of children has been reported in modern Nigeria and Benin. In parts of Ghana, a family may be punished for an offense by having to turn over a virgin female to serve as a sex slave within the offended family... In the Sudan, slavery continues as part of an ongoing civil war; see also the Slavery in Sudan article. Evidence emerged in the late 1990s of systematic slavery in cacao plantations in West Africa."
Instead of breast-beating it would be far better to campaign to outlaw modern-day slavery. Maybe the descendents of slaves could take up the fight to ensure that enslavement is eradicated from the planet so that what happened to their ancestors never happens to anyone else.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Ecole/School
Depending on who you're talking to, you'll get a completely different idea of where your child is able to obtain a good education.
This week, I've heard two conflicting views: one French, one British. A friend of mine who lives in one of the villages around Montpellier has sent her eldest daughter to the UK to attend a public school for a term. Normally, this school would charge £4,000 per term for a day pupil, or £20,000 full time per year. A staggering amount. If I was paying that I would certainly expect my child to receive a very fine education and lots of extra-curricular activities.
This child attends a private Catholic school in Montpellier mainly because the local school was so crappy she was getting nowhere fast. It was a very small pond and she was neither stretched, nor motivated to do her best. In desperation, then, her parents decided to send her to a private school, 400€ per term. For that she gets, as her mother was telling me, an education that is made up of the most boring material possible, no extra-curricular activities, but a strict work ethic and encouragement to do her best.
To show her another side to education, she has been sent to the English boarding school for this term, staying with her grandparents. Apart from the fact that she is homesick, she is loving it. She is part of acting groups, the choir and anything else she has time to do. The teachers are top notch and she is taught creatively and with enthusiasm. It sounds like the English education system at its best.
A woman I met just yesterday at my youngest's school; a French woman married to a Welshman, told me they decided to come to France, to Montpellier where her mother and grandparents live, because she wanted to be near them, and also because a French education is better than an English one.
It's perhaps unfair to compare the best of British with the ordinary of French, but, while infant and primary education may be fine, in my experience, the problems start with collège and lycée. My children are lucky. We live in a comfortable area where the well-to-do parents are happy enough with the local schools to send their little darlings there. They might receive an acceptable education, but it's a shame the schools only cater to their academic success. All extra-curricula activities have to be undertaken outside school. There is no sport, no music, no drama. Nothing to bring the school together. No sense of belonging through sporting triumphs; musical or dramatic productions. The result is that children have ambivalent feelings about their school.
I would never send my children away to school, but I do wish the best of the different education systems could be studied and adapted to local needs for the benefit of all types of children, and give them a solid reason to feel they belong to their school in heart and mind.
This week, I've heard two conflicting views: one French, one British. A friend of mine who lives in one of the villages around Montpellier has sent her eldest daughter to the UK to attend a public school for a term. Normally, this school would charge £4,000 per term for a day pupil, or £20,000 full time per year. A staggering amount. If I was paying that I would certainly expect my child to receive a very fine education and lots of extra-curricular activities.
This child attends a private Catholic school in Montpellier mainly because the local school was so crappy she was getting nowhere fast. It was a very small pond and she was neither stretched, nor motivated to do her best. In desperation, then, her parents decided to send her to a private school, 400€ per term. For that she gets, as her mother was telling me, an education that is made up of the most boring material possible, no extra-curricular activities, but a strict work ethic and encouragement to do her best.
To show her another side to education, she has been sent to the English boarding school for this term, staying with her grandparents. Apart from the fact that she is homesick, she is loving it. She is part of acting groups, the choir and anything else she has time to do. The teachers are top notch and she is taught creatively and with enthusiasm. It sounds like the English education system at its best.
A woman I met just yesterday at my youngest's school; a French woman married to a Welshman, told me they decided to come to France, to Montpellier where her mother and grandparents live, because she wanted to be near them, and also because a French education is better than an English one.
It's perhaps unfair to compare the best of British with the ordinary of French, but, while infant and primary education may be fine, in my experience, the problems start with collège and lycée. My children are lucky. We live in a comfortable area where the well-to-do parents are happy enough with the local schools to send their little darlings there. They might receive an acceptable education, but it's a shame the schools only cater to their academic success. All extra-curricula activities have to be undertaken outside school. There is no sport, no music, no drama. Nothing to bring the school together. No sense of belonging through sporting triumphs; musical or dramatic productions. The result is that children have ambivalent feelings about their school.
I would never send my children away to school, but I do wish the best of the different education systems could be studied and adapted to local needs for the benefit of all types of children, and give them a solid reason to feel they belong to their school in heart and mind.
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