Like every other person who is addicted to social media, I get giddy over Facebook invites. Regadless of whether or not I go to this event is irrelevant, I just love that I get invited. Every so often I get invited to a gem of an event. The other weekend was just that. Some genious girl had came up with the idea of Harry Potter bar crawl. Of course my geeky self was stoked.

My latest photography project is now up named 'Made in America'. This will be one of the first photo projects done on selfies in order to see/test if they can truly be deemed as artistic. The first installment is now on my photography blog (check the tab) for looks. Let me know what you think of it!

Boys has it been a crazy summer! With my internship almost over, and the Fall semester (aka my last semester in college!) starting life has been pretty busy. Naturally, I have photos to share with you guys of my latest adventures both here and on my photography page. The latest updates includes pictures from my sisters last circus performance ever as well as a trip I just got back to in Virginia/ DC area. In addition to these updates, I have also shared some throw backs on my photography page which you might have noticed already. I always find it interesting to look back at old photo shoots that I have conducted and see how my photography style has evolved in the past years as well as to see the opportunities I have received.

In addition to the photography updates I can now announce to you guys that I am officially a member of the Style Guru team at College Fashionista! I'm super excited to use this as a platform to not only show off my personal style, but the Twin Cities style as well. Hopefully to (fingers crossed) this will give me more motivation to write more posts on the blog as well :P

With fall coming around the corner, my favorite time of year is fast approaching: back to school shopping! It's my last one ever, so you know i'll go out with a bang. I've already started to find my back to school wardrobe, and I can't wait to share them all with you once I've finished my collection.


For those of you who have already started your back to school shopping, remember that just because something is at a good price, doesn't always mean that you should buy it. Bargain shopping can be a great thing, but it can also be a curse. Having a closet full of clothes that you have only worn once is not only a waste of space, but a waste of money too. Instead, consider looking for clothing options that you can wear for the long run rather than at the moment. I'll be explaining more about this in my next blog post, so don't fret ;)

I look forward to writing more about my crazy journey of a life with you guys and I appreciate all the love and support I get from you guys.

Until next time!

By Sabrina Kennelly

On January 7th, 2015, two brothers, Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, forced their way into the Paris offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo killing twelve people. Two days later, Amedy Coulibal fired shots in the kosher grocery store, Hyper Cacher.

The deadliest terror attack since the 1961 Algerian war, French President Francois Hollande called the attacks an act of “extreme barbarity” (CNN, 2015).

Around the world, the phrase “Je suis Charlie” or “I am Charlie” was shown on social media and at public demonstrations in solidarity with the victims.

The media showed illustrations of two pencils being hit by an airplane comparing the attacks in Paris to those of 9/11 in the United States. For Jim Hoagland, contributing editor for The Washington Post, there is a difference between the attacks in Paris to those in New York. “Americans immediately understood 9/11 as a foreign attack against the homeland. We did not have to and still do not worry about an enemy within. It will require great care, and great skill, to prevent the Charlie Hebdo attack from becoming a point of division” he stated in his opinion piece after the attacks (Hoagland, 2015).

Almost a month after the attacks, on February 9th, four specialists Antoine Mégie, Sophie Fesdijan, David Vaulcair, and Dr. Jane Weston discussed the controversial magazine at a roundtable conference in Paris (Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today, Paris, 2015).

Figure 2"Liberty I cry for your name" sign is placed on the Place de la Republique (center).  On the left in purple the phrase “I am free” is marked. Photo taken by Sabrina Kennelly (2015).

A cultural clash

Dr. Weston, who studied the magazine and its controversies for her doctorate, began the Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today roundtable by explaining the history of the satirical paper.  “I would encourage everyone to read it,” said Weston, calling the paper “friendly” for readers (Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today, Paris, 2015).

The weekly magazine has always been known for its controversial humor. Previously known as Hara-Kiri in the 70s, the publication was banned for mocking the death of former French President Charles de Gaulle. By 1996, the publication was re-named as “Charlie Hebdo” and has been publishing weekly issues ever since. Many of the publications issues contain cartoons mocking religious leaders (Gibson, 2015).

In 2011, Charlie caused controversy when it listed the prophet Muhammed as editor-in-chief. The next day, on November 2nd 2011, Hebdo’s offices were firebombed and damaged. Editor Stéphane Charbonnier told BBC the following day that “if we can poke fun at everything in France, if we can talk about anything in France apart from Islam or the consequences of Islamism that is annoying,” said Charbonnier (Gibson, 2015).

For Dr. Jane Weston religion should be seen as fair game for satire. “When you understand a language and get the jokes, you become part of a group,” said Weston at the roundtable. “Humor is an explosive picture. You have to be in that spirit without bearing in mind of it’s consequences” (Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today, Paris, 2015).

Though Charlie Hebdo may seem easy to read with its use of common language, the question still remains if readers are able to fully comprehend its humor. This is especially true for immigrants in France. According to Pew Research Center, France was noted in 2010 to have the second largest Muslim population in the European Union with 4.7 Million Muslims living in France. Roughly 3 million of these immigrants are from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia (Pew Research Center, 2015).  

Figure 3 The phrase "I am Charlie" is paved on a Parisian sidewalk. Photo taken by Sabrina Kennelly (2015).

Product of the French School System

According to CNN, all three men involved in the attacks in January were first generation immigrants in France; Coulibaly was of Malian descent and The Kouachi brothers were of Algerian descent (CNN, 2015).

“The terrorists didn’t come from outside. The terrorists were produced by the French school system,” remarked Sophie Fesdijan, professor of immigration housing, and panelist for the Charlie Hebdo roundtable (Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today, Paris, 2015).

“For immigrant children school is the opportunity to learn about France,” Fesdijan proclaimed.  She went on to add that school is also an opportunity for immigrants to become liberated from religion. (Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today, Paris, 2015).

“The (French) national education system has made it necessary to give children, at the same time, help to assimilate while helping them, at the same time, to find their place within society to do well,” explained David Vauclair, author of Les religions abrahamiques: judaïsme, christianisme, et Islam and professor at Université Paris Sud at the Charlie Hebdo roundtable (Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today, Paris, 2015).

For Vauclair, secularism, or “Laïcité”, within French public schools is one of the ways French society relays the concept of living together. “Each time that religion has entered into France, it has been a catastrophe,” he said (Vauclair, personal communication, April 2015).

On January 7th, Paris became a catastrophic scene when the Kouachi brothers attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo in the name of Prophet Mohammed. In a video, Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, a member of Al Qaeda in Yemen, claimed responsibility for the horrific events saying,“As for the blessed battle of Paris, we in the organization of Qa’idatul Jihad in the Arabian Peninsula, claim responsibility for this operation as vengeance for the Messenger Allah,” (CNN, 2015).

Figure 4 Drawings on the Place de la Republique serve as a memorial for the attacks with the phrases "freedom of expression" and copies of the covers of the satirical magazine. Photo by Sabrina Kennelly (2015).

Who’s to blame?

Since the attacks in January, fingers have been pointing at who is to blame for the attacks. “Terrorism didn’t just start in January,” said Antoine Mégie, director of the journal Politique européenne and member of the editorial board of the journal Cultures et Conflits, at the panel. Terrorism, he explained, has been going on since the creation of dynamite. “We have to realize that we constantly use the word ‘terrorism’ and that the term terrorists can cause problems,” said Mégie. One of the problems, Mégie added, is profiling certain people as “terrorists” (Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today, Paris, 2015).

For many Muslims, being profiled as a “terrorist” was a reality even before the attacks in New York.  According to the French Council for the Muslim Religion, anti-Muslim acts have risen since the attacks in January. In France, 128 anti-Muslim actions and/or threats were reported from January 7th-20th alone. In addition the National Consultative Commission of Human Rights found that from 2013 to 2014 the number of anti-Semitic acts had risen to 851 from 423 (Rubin, 2015).

“Islam is in no way conductive of terrorism,” said David Vaucalir.  Very often the link of terrorism and the Islamic faith is made, he said. But this isn’t the case. “There are 5 million citizens in France that are Muslim. Only 1% is considered ‘radical’. This gives an idea of what is considered a threat,” said David Vauclair (personal communication, April 2015).

Victims of globalization

Though terrorism has been blamed for the attacks in January, it could also be blamed on effects due to globalization. According to Jim Hoagland, the cartoonists who died were “indirect victims of globalization and the communication revolution, of the electronic rubbing up against each other of societies at different levels of development and of the backlash,” (Hoagland, 2015).  

According to Yahya R. Kamalipour, author of Global Communication, globalization is “the process of different cultural groups strengthening and sharing values, ideas, opinions, and technologies together”.  This has created a global community with an increasingly homogenous culture in the political, economic, educational, and scientific activities. Kamalipour notes that religion, unlike other aspects, has difficulty integrating into different cultures and communities (Kamalipour, 2007, p. 165).

    In order to understand how Charlie Hebdo and globalization play a role in the attacks in January I decided to sit down with David Vauclair, one of the panelists from February’s Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today roundtable.  “Each culture has its own rules,” explained Vauclair. “These rules are vague but relay to the concept of ‘living together’, which corresponds to the way one eats, dresses, and interacts into society,” he explained.  “The central question is this: what will it take for immigrants to adapt and feel welcomed into the local community and culture?” asked Vauclair (personal communication, April 2015).

This question of French citizens and immigrants “living together” in a hospitable manner has been put into question since the 1940’s. From 1945-1980s immigrants were housed by the French government in shanty huts known as “Bidonvilles”, which were in poor condition, overcrowded, and located on the periphery of large cities such as Lyon, Marseille, and Paris.

“Bidonvilles tend to have states of problems ranging from access to water, sicknesses, to disputes over territory,” stated Vauclair. In order to respond to the poverty of Bidonvilles, the French government constructed apartments known as “HLM’s” in the 1980s, which had low rent and access to more resources, said Vauclair (personal communication, 2015).

In addition, the Bidonvilles, which were supposedly destroyed by the French government in the 80’s, are still intact for immigrants to live in. “The government does not wish to have these and considers those who live within Bidonvilles not real ‘immigrants’ and rather people who are passing through,” emphasized Vauclair (personal communication, 2015).

According to Vauclair many of the immigrants that reside in the periphery come from former French colonies such as Algeria or Mali. “The Front National sees immigration as a problem and talks about Arabs,” stated Vauclair.  For Vauclair, he hopes to break this stereotype, and show that the tendency to imagine immigrants as colored, Muslim, and from the Middle East is false.  “Immigration doesn’t come uniquely from ancient colonies—it is universal,” he claims (personal communication, 2015).

Instead Vauclair hopes that people will focus on the facts, rather than stereotypes on immigrants within France. “Sixty percent of immigrants aren’t colored,” he states. “The media is only focalizing on what is the problem at the moment. We are more interested in what doesn’t work than what does work,” admits Vauclair.

Because of the focalization and negative sentiments towards Muslim immigrants in France, Prime Minister Manuel Valls has announced a plan to combat this problem. In April, Valls announced the creation of a new three year plan dedicating $108 million to combat racism and anti-Semitism nationwide through education programs and police forces (Rubin, 2015).

The question remains if programs such as these will diminish negative sentiments towards immigrants within France. “Immigration has been a problem since the beginning of antiquity,” acknowledges Vauclair. “We are still in a state of shock (from the Charlie Hebdo attacks)…it is way too early to understand what the impact of this reaction will be,” he concludes (personal communication, April,2015).

References

CNN News. (2015). Complete coverage: terror in Paris. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/specials/world/shooting-at-charlie-hebdo

Gibson, M. (2015). The provocative history of French weekly newspaper Charlie. Time.com Retrieved from http://time.com/3657256/charlie-hebdo-paris-attack/

Hackett, C. (2015). 5 Facts about the Muslim population in Europe. Pewreserach.org. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/01/15/5-facts-about-the-muslim-population-in-europe/

Hoagland, J. (2015). France’s tough task in reacting to the horrific attack on Charlie Hebdo.  WashingtonPost.com. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/frances-tough-task-in-reacting-to-the-horrific-attack-on-charlie-hebdo/2015/01/07/3c2d666c-96bf-11e4-927a-4fa2638cd1b0_story.html

Kamalipour, R. J. (2007). Global  Communication (Vol. 2). Belmont, CA : Thomson Higher Education.

Madi, M., Ryder, S., Macfarlane, J., Beach, A., & Park, V. (January, 2015). As it happened:

Charlie Hebdo attack. BBC.com.  Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-30710777

Rubin, A., & Breeden, A. (2015, April). France announces stronger fight against racism and anti-

semitism. NYtimes.com. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/18/world/europe/france-announces-stronger-fight-against-racism-and-anti-semitism.html?_r=0

'Heritage' Kate Spade

'Galina' Sam Edeilman Shoe

Hot Topic Harry Potter Sweater

In honor of Bastille day this coming week here are a few outfit ideas, as well as some of my favorite (and sassy) t-shirts with French phrases. These outfits are a great idea to amp up your basic t-shirt summer style.

Do you have a favorite French shirt?

Madewell $49.50 ModCloth.com $29.99

Forever 21 $14.50 Target $19.99

Forever 21 $14.50 Charlotte Russe $11.49

Do I really need to explain myself?

Hello, hello, hello!

   Summer is in full swing (YEAH!) and that means another year full of going to the beach, hanging with friends, sipping on drinks, watching the sun set, and working on new projects. For those of you who have been religiously following my blog throughout the years you know that summer is my prime for trying things knew. I've done bucket-lists and all so that summer boredom is out of my vocabulary.
    And here I am. 21, a senior in college. Somehow I have made it to my last summer ever. The last summer and the "back to the school rush", the last summer with homework, and the last summer double checking my GPA. This also leaves a lot up to question and up in the air about my future. Since I'm graduating early (next semester to be exact in December), the question of what I'm going to do with my life is also up in the air. This could (gasp), but my last official summer in the Twin Cities. So, I've decided to try and attend as many events as possible. Just so that I can get a good old dost of Twin Cities in me, before I potentially say adieu to the land of 10,000 lakes.
   Fortunately, I also have an internship (along with two classes) to keep me busy this summer. After all, one must work hard to play hard :)

    I have received an internship at one of my favorite (if not the best) place in Minnesota. The Mall of America. I swear if it weren't for my parents and the mall, I would have been out of this state by now. So far with three weeks in everything has been going great! Plus I get to wear cute clothes. I'm going to try my best and take pictures of my work outfits. I know that finding work appropriate but cute clothes can be hard for some women so I hope that this will be helpful.

The summer has been a slow one, but also a productive one so far. I've finally come to terms that I am back in the States. But I am motived to find a way to get back to Europe and travel once I have completed school. In the meantime I'm trying to have fun and finish some "long-term" bucket lists of mine that I've had for a while. So of course that means that they'll be projects that will pop up in the near by future.

So get ready, get set, let's go and have a great summer. It may be my last, so as the French say "profiter"! Until next time,