Piggyback

Ah the word piggyback. Such a simple term we are all very accustom to hearing and using, but what an interesting word to try and associate with other cultures. After some thought, I am sad to say that I won't be as creative as I was last time.

As many people know, some of  the "super powers" of the world (i.e. the US, France, England, etc.) not only have their own country but still maintain multiple territories as well. Today, most territories function on their own, but maintain the statues of being a territory. Some, however, still maintain some financial reliability on their motherland.

One thing that has come up recently is the question of how much financial aid should be given to various territories that are held by France? With the global financial crisis, along with the specific EU crisis, how much is too much when it comes to helping its territories? These territories are know as the DOM (Département d'outre mer) that include Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guinea. These territories essentially have the same status and benefits of a regular French citizen. Without boring anyone too much with the history of France and its territories, the DOM are what they call "
ultra-peripheral regions", which basically means they have a "structural handicap". Essentially, what these territories need is constant aid from its governing nation. The problems that can arise is a false sense of independence and once problems arise, such as the financial crisis of the EU, problems arise much faster and greater than imagined.

The question then arises, what happens in the situation of a financial crisis? Is it up to the governing territory to also pull its territory out of the financial crisis when they, themselves are already struggling? Who is responsible in this whole process? Should the territory step up and handle it on its own? Should there be more requirements of sorts put on the territories themselves to ensure that they can survive on their own?

I obtained my information from the following article:

 EU Crisis Article

Any quotations used are taking from this article. The article is quite lengthy so don't feel obligated to read the whole thing by any means. Hopefully I have explained it well enough for everyone.

Pugilism

Pugilism: n : boxing

This week, I've spent quite a bit of time trying to think of the best way to blog about this word. To me, although the meaning is clear, I have had quite a bit of difficulty in my attempt to relate it in some way to the francophone culture. I wanted to try and come up with something more original than the obvious of a boxer or history of boxing. In saying that, I came across something that I found very interesting.

French Cow Fighting. Yes, I am writing about French cow fight.

Dating back to its origin in the 1910s, cow fighting has been an annual event attracting crowds up to 50,000 people from all over. The event is actually held in Alps in the city of Martigny, Switzerland, a town located close to the French border. For the competition, there is only one type of cow used, the Herens, which is the breed most adapted to the climate and mountain conditions. The Herens is a naturally aggressive breed.  Each year at the "combats des reines" (queen fights), handlers fight their cows against one another until they reach one ultimate winner, or "La Reine des Reines". Battles can last anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. As stated in the video posted below, one man talks about the difference between this competition where you have cows fighting against themselves and the famous bullfights of Spain. The things he points out is that this competition is animal versus animal, not animal versus man. As he puts it, "it is a notable difference." They did come up against some problems in the 1980s from animal rights groups, but apparently were able to bypass this in stating that the injuries were not significant enough on average.

Here is a link to a video that has all the information on it and it is only about 6 minutes long.

Cow Fighting

Now, I don't put this up here to start a huge debate one way or the other, I just found this piece of history that has remained for almost 100 years interesting to share. What I would like to hear from you all though is an answer to the question at the end of the video.

If you want some more information on it, I have a few websites.

•  Rules (French)
• Wiki - Cow Fighting (English)

This is a picture of the prizes that goes to first, second, third, etc...


Lastly, I also found out they have camel wrestling in Turkey, but I'll save that for another post.