Immigration and colonialism

Today was a very interesting day, talking about immigration and colonialism.
We started by 10 this morning at the Cité Nationale de l'Histoire de l'Immigration and we visited the temporary exhibition on the 1931 colonial exhibition. It was Maureen Murphy, an art historian, who was our tour guide.
So, during the colonial period, France (as other colonialist countries, like the UK) was only promoting the "bright" side and the virtues of colonialism... only showing like 'France at work' but hiding the fact that many workers were Italians. It was a very good idea that yesterday we watched the movie on immigration because it helped a lot to understand the immigration situation and policies in France. Then after the exhibition we moved to a room to discuss about "the challenges of designing and exhibition at the CNHI" with Maureen and Marianne Amar. The Cité de l'Immigration is a new-born museum, it just opened last year. Many of the objects that were in the museum formerly belonged to the Museum of African and Oceanian arts + Musée de l'homme (the one in Trocadéro). After we had another speaker, Virigine Guiraudon, with whom we spoke about immigration policies in France. We mainly discussed on Sarkozy's new immigration policies and how to deal with EU laws, since France has entered the Espace Schengen, there's like no more boundaries with other European countries that are within Schengen... But today, the focus of immigration is really to prevent the arrival of "foreigners".



Then, we had lunch in the park near the Cité de l'immigration, in Bois de Vincennes. The weather was nice, it was a nice break being outside, lying in the grass under the sun. Thanks Marty for the sandwiches (and I hope you finished your carrots!! lol)





Then next step, in the afternoon we all moved together to the Musée du Quai Branly, nearby the Eiffel tower.

















Paris symbol was built for the 1889 universal exhibition


We all had like one hour to move around the museum to see either the permanent exhibition or the temporary ones. Since I've already seen the permanent exhibition (for those who would like to go visit the Musée again, know that it is FREE on saturday evening from 6 to 9 PM, you just to show you ID card, to prove that you're under 25), I decided to go visit the temporary exhibit on Polynesia. In fact, it was the first day of the exhibition !!! It was pleasant to see so many art pieces coming crafted in Fidji, Cook Islands and many from French Polynesia, my "native" land if I may say so. After, Anne Christine Taylor talked to us about the discourse of the Musée. As for the audience of the museum, it really has success among Africans, so I believe the museum really achieved its goal. Then, we had another speaker, Michel Giraud, on the memory of slavery in the French Carribean population : silence or amnesia? This speaker really had his own convictions, criticizing by many ways Sarkozy's policies. Then we went on to talk about Obama running for presidential election.
We finally finished by 6:30, we left straight away, it's a shame, we should have spent some time in the Garden, it really is an architectural pleasure !

With some of the fellows we walked from Quai Branly to the Champs-Elysées... and tonight we were hoping to see France beat Italy... but no... it's over, there's just no more hope now... That's so sad !
Well I guess that's all for today, pretty tired now, have to get some sleep to stay awake for tomorrow... (easier said than done :D)