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Il y a peu j'envoyais un courrier à Actiris, organisme d'intérêt public régional chargé de la politique de l'emploi, de respecter mon titre de civilité (Monsieur) conformément à la "Loi relative à la protection de la vie privée à l'égard des traitements de données à caractère personnel" du 8 décembre 1992. En effet, les titres de civilité n'ayant aucune valeur légale dans la majorité des pays européens, cette donnée peut-être modifiée ou supprimée à loisir. Or, comme la loi l'indique clairement, toute information enregistrée au sujet d'une personne doit d'être correcte ou corrigée si elle ne l'est pas, et ce sans délai. Comme dit plus haut les titres de civilité n'ont pas de valeur légale donc aucun lien réel ou légale avec quoique ce soit comme information figurant sur votre carte d'identité. Actiris, tout comme ma mutuelle - PartenaMut, ma banque - BNP Paribas Fortis et d'autres organismes refusent toujours actuellement ...

Today I was called an extremist when I came to the conclusion that 'half push-ups' (typically performed by girls and women) were sexist. To give you a little context, my sister is training for a musical that she will perform in at the end of this academic year and she was telling my brother and I about the routine and told us about how guys do regular push-ups and girls only do the half ones. Surprised, I asked why that was the case. My sister explained it was because regular push-ups also train the pecs and women shouldn't/don't have to train their pecs. I asked why that was the case and I couldn't get a clear answer except that pecs on girls aren't pretty and their breasts would melt down. I laughed and said well, shouldn't girls be asked what they want to do, isn't it the size of their breasts their own problem? I also said if these were the reasons, they are sexist. It is then that my siblings said I was exaggerating. I am not one that gives u...

I wrote an opinion piece for the Independent Voices , rejoice! Hurray! Dancing all around! Okay don't get your titties in a twist, it's just that I hadn't been published in so long, it feels quite nice. I just hope I get more gigs like that. If you've read my last post, which was a more personal one, you'll know I've come out as transgender to a few people and mainly myself. I've been going to the gender therapist and it's helped me a lot - but wait, what has it got to do with journalism? I'm gonna tell you, wait for it! The therapist is part of this charity Genres Pluriels  which is actively trying to get more and better rights for trans people. So Iv'e been talking to them and I really want to start a magazine for them. Fingers crossed, that would be amazing. Also I've got another project, a short documentary about an Egyptian NGO that works with orphanages to upgrade quality standards to give better chances in life to the...

The Holocaust workshop at the Manchester Jewish Museum will open on Tuesday In preparation for its new Holocaust educational workshop due to launch next Tuesday on Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Manchester Jewish Museum opened its doors this Sunday for a preview and a commemoration talk. Rose Stanyon, the learning officer and outreach manager at the Museum opened the ceremony with a definition of the Holocaust according to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and reminded the audience about the six millions Jews that lost their lives to the cruelty of the Nazis, as well as the disabled, homosexuals, Roma and political dissidents that were equally persecuted. The Holocaust Remembrance Day has been observed since 2001 in the UK. As set by the HMD, this year’s theme for the ceremonies was “keeping the memory alive,” and so the museum decided to share the stories of three survivors who currently live in Manchester: Haim Ferster, Helen Taichner and Peter Kurer. The worksh...

Today, like millions of people in the world, I walked to defend our democracies' values. I took the streets in Périgueux having decorated my bag with the words "Je Suis Charlie" especially for the occasion. This walk meant so many different things to me. People walked to honour the memory of the 17 victims of different terrorist attacks, to show the world they care, to defend freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of cult, people stood together as one in Paris and several other cities in France and the world. Today millions of people were Charlie. As well as regular citizens, 50 country representatives joined the French president, François Hollande, in Paris to show their support to France. Among them were representatives of Greece, Israel, Algeria, Turkey, Egypt, Palestine, the Emirates, all of which walked arm in arm in the name of Freedom of speech. All day in the press I heard no mention of the 12 Palestinian journalists who died in the last 4 weeks in ...

"The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them." – Thomas Jefferson There are times when people ask me if I’m French and I reply, half-jokingly, “don’t call me French, I’m Belgian!” I take an offended tone; I don’t want to be French. But today, I am, everyone is French, I am and everyone else is Charlie. Sitting in my mum’s house in the French countryside, we’re grieving, the tears and whisky are flowing. We are scared at the idea that there are people in this world who are willing to kill because they didn’t find a joke funny. The radio is on, we’re following the development of the events, listening to the day-long homage to the...

Aaaah London, what a glamorous town London is! A town where everything’s possible, where dreams come true! Back to reality. So I went to the One World Media “kick-start your foreign correspondent career” event yesterday, and it was great. I mean it. First there was a conversation between the former director of the BBC World Service, Phil Harding, and Alex Crawford, Sky News’ special correspondent who is based in South Africa and flew overnight for the event. Alex was the first reporter to broadcast live from Tripoli’s Green Square as the rebels took over. She’s reported from all over the world, including some very dangerous war zones and has been arrested, abducted, interrogated and shot at. Explaining how one eventually gets to cover war zones Alex said “war zones are like the world cup, you don’t start playing football one day and play the world cup the next, you have to go through the second, first division, everything before you eventually get there. Being a foreign...

I've just spent ten days waking up at 5.30 or 6 am sometimes but rarely later (6.30 or 7) to go on the set of the new film "At the Heart of the Battle" that will be showcased for years to come at the new Napoleonic museum of Belgium. The film, directed by the acclaimed Belgian director Gérard Corbiau, recreates the battle of Waterloo and aims to place, as its title might give away, at the heart of the action, using groundbreaking technology. I had the luck and joy of witnessing the shoot as a member of the press. Other press organisations visited the set during an organised session (I have a couple of hilarious stories about the most ignorant BBC presenter ever, if you're nice I'll tell you a little later). Ten days interviewing interesting people, taking some amazing shots of horse charges, troops marching in the sunset light, a cavalier falling off his horse repeatedly. I must say it was very impressive. Ten days of writing features of different aspects of ...

Unless you've been living in a cave or have just woken up from a long coma like Schumacher, you know the football world cup has started in Brazil. Tonight Belgium is playing Algeria, and even if I had no intention of knowing this fact I do because this "info" has been forced down our throats all day long on the national "news." All day long the national radio and TV "news" report opened with amazingly long featured about the football match. This so appalling to me as this is not newsworthy and as far as I know the world has stopped so everyone can focus on the football. Where are all the journalists? Probably in front of their TV. Thousands of people have been forced out of their homes at gun point in Rio in the name of football and entertainment, thousands have been massacred because they didn't want to leave. But that, the "news" don't talk about. The world is silent. And the "news" don't mention how not a ...

Today I voted. First, there were the road works. Every time there is an election in Belgium, they block all the roads to fix them up so everyone knows how awesome our rulers are. And yet everybody is just annoyed; what is usually a ten-minute drive becomes a 25-minute one, the usual bus stops are moved to streets you've never even heard of and you're just supposed to find them, and if you decide to walk, if you don't slip on the sand caused by the works, it will just be blown into your eyes by the wind. And every election is the same, although our politicians deny this fact. Then there were the installation of massive wood panels for political party members to display their photos, as if that was going to make you go "oh this guy there looks awesome with his stupid smile, Imma vote for him!" They seriously all look more stupid and fake than the one next to them. All these posters pollute our sight as if our neighbourhoods weren't ugly enough already. An...

Yesterday marked my final day  of work, and in five days, I'll be heading home . You cannot imagine how happy I am to have left work!!!! Don't get me wrong, I consider myself to be a hard worker but the conditions under which I have been working in the last three months can be described as bullying, professional harassment, psychological harassment, etc. These words come from my colleagues and there is a consensus, people have left after two, three weeks and another is leaving very soon. But now, on to better things. Today I will visit an NGO , an umbrella group that focuses on helping the Palestinians in the Jerusalem area, because they are often forgotten by the international NGO's which tend to focus more on Gaza and the West Bank, and the Palestinians here are residents but not citizens. I am currently deleting all my files on my old PC so I can give it to them to give to a needy family. This week is Pessach so it will limit me in my previously planned travels ...

My work experience in Israel is getting to a close... Juste a few more days of work left, a couple of free days and boom, back to Brussels. Wow. Has it really been that long? Almost three months have gone by but sometimes it feels like it's just been a couple of weeks. What to say... This experience has been incredibly enriching, eye-opening and a real challenge. Many a time did I want to quit, a couple of times I ended up in tears after a long day of not being treated very well (not to be rude...). But I couldn't give up, not when I was so close to the end. I don't like looking back on things, looking forward is the way! But in the situation that I don't actually know what is to come yet, I guess that gives me the time to look at these three months. I won't bore you with a deep analysis and will rather opt for a short list of points... Work:  Exhausting. I am trying really hard to think of what I have learnt but nothing is coming to my mind... I have m...

I have been absent in the last two weeks but this fact can easily be explained by the presence of my mum and grandma who were here for the first time. I tried spending as much time as I could with them, juggling between them and work. I even established my headquarters in the apartment I rented for them. But because I'm nice and all, I present you, in pictures yet, the highlights of my two-week-absence : Three crazy generations... Massada birds If you happen to know what kind of bird this is, please share! A little urbex on the way back from the dead sea The Wailing Wall Ruins from the 2006 bombardment of Haifa. This house has been converted into a stable. Flea market in downtown Haifa. Abra Kadabra! Haifa The liberal mosque of Akko. And its inside. Akko shuq. He can smell it, can you smell it? What? The food!! The old port of Akko. Old Akko. Akko shuq. A mural in Nachlaot, Jerus...