I saw this rather concerning thing, these two newspapers on sale outside a French shop in Toulouse:-

The paper on the right is the UK based Daily Mail.   The Mail is often considered to be racist for heavy coverage of immigration and concerns about terrorism in the UK, as was pro-Brexit.   The paper is greatly disliked by some.   I think it’s quite a poor newspaper but understand why people are not comfortable with a lot of immigration which has minimal vetting.

The paper on left in Arabic is Al Quds.  This is a Palestinian newspaper.  Also shown is The Sun, Times, Telegraph which all have a very different style of news and audience.  The bottom left paper is in German and the other Arabic one I am not sure of.

Many people in the UK might consider many things like this to be an equal comparison of two bad news channels.   These sorts of people have never been to a middle east or a Muslim country where you are unlikely to find free of speech or religion.   Al Quds is the Islamic term for the city of Jerusalem meaning “the holy”   Quds/Qudus is similar to Kodesh which is the Hebrew word for holy as Hebrew and Arabic have certain similarities.   There is a big problem of incitement from the media in the Palestinian territories.

A friend told me on the way by text message that this was the city where Jewish people were killed outside a school a few years ago which I now remember well.    I actually saw not that many Muslim people in Toulouse but with newspapers on sale like this, it makes me worry what ideas they are giving people.

Introduction – Newspaper danger – Occitane, little known district of France & wannabe new nation –

As a Christian who tries to travel a lot, I like to see places that have something of value to my faith in Christ.   I spent a few years living in Israel, and have also visited Morocco, Turkey, China, Norway, Canada and other places since then.

This trip was different.  One of my bucket lists was to go and see all the baby countries in Europe.   Now depending on how you define a baby country, this could be a population of half a million or less or just a physically small enough footprint and yet be independent enough to have their government, international telephone code, internet top level domain and car licence plate.

So I had two days off work, and years ago a friend wanting to go to Andorra.   I’ve already been to Gibraltar, Iceland, Malta and Monaco, Andorra is between France and Spain so this should be quite simple, right?  Actually, it was a lot harder with a few hidden surprises.   I find microstates, small countries quite interesting, most of them seem to be a place for buying cheap booze or a tax haven for a business people who want no questions asked banking. In the case of Monaco when I went in 2005, it has the added appeal to me as a young man who likes cars of being the motoring obsessed mini-state of the world, its own royal family and the main streets become a race track on certain days.

Andorra has a similar kind of charm from what I have read.

Introduction – Newspaper danger – Occitane, little known district of France & wannabe new nation –

In spring of this year, I was working for a big telecoms company and they needed to send me out to install new computers in their European offices in Lisbon, Stockholm, Vienna, and finally Barcelona.   A group of other London based IT pros in my office got to go out to Zurich, Paris, Dublin, Madrid, Frankfurt and some other places.   This was a really interesting couple of months.

So in Barcelona, I came here before quite a few years ago when a friend was living out here.   After getting the project done well just straight on the deadline, I took a look around the town.

Walking around the city, I have this Freddie Mercury song stuck in my head for some reason.   Much of Barca looks a bit like a US city seeing as the streets are in a perfect parallel grid fashion.

After working for a Christian charity in Israel for four years, it’s funny that people I used to volunteer with find themselves in new and different places but in this case, two different friends of mine were in Barcelona at the same time.   One was in a hotel 20km away from me also on a long project.   This was a difficult journey to get there with taxis on strike (maybe upset about impending Uber expansion?)  so using the bus was fine but required 30-40 stops and another 30 mins of walking to see my friends on the outskirts of the city.

Deli shops with jamon (ham) hanging from the ceiling at common here.

My other friends who were volunteering back in 2009 and studying IT at Uni, now have a successful IT business in South Africa.   It was great to see them after so long.  We met up at the La Ramla, a popular tourist strip.   This was a little disappointing as I ordered a Paella which was 15 Euros and arrived somewhat small and not very inspiring.   The beer was 8 Euros a glass, so I ordered a lemonade and not checking the prices, found out it cost me 7, bah.

The strip is a funny old place with African men with blankets of fake handbags and sunglasses, and more traditional touristy shops as well.    The top of the strip has some more interesting places to see including a kosher Jewish restaurant.   Later the Jewish restaurant caught my eye again in the news in August as in this street is where someone rammed a car and killed 13 people.   Palestinian style attacks now are happening in Europe, this is so sad and frustrating when it seems often Europe isn’t prepared for these threats like Israel is.

From a Christian perspective, I didn’t get to find out if there is anything in the way of evangelical churches in this part of Spain.   It’s a big place with a lot of young people.

Few times I’ve pondered over this scripture passage

Isaiah 19 : 23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. 24In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. 25The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”

I was wondering if a new forthcoming Kurdish state could be whats called Assyria in the bible.   It’s interesting that Kurdish people seem to have a good relationship with Israel.   I’ve met one Kurdish guy in the UK who found Christ.  I don’t expect this to be an easy to make another new nation in the always turbulent middle east, but I would welcome a new nation for the Kurdish people.

This article I read today from Charisma magazine has some similar thinking.   I think this is well worth a read if you are interested in end times and middle east peace from a sensible non-hysteria point of view.

https://www.charismanews.com/opinion/standing-with-israel/67304-12-reasons-syria-may-fulfill-god-s-isaiah-19-promise-for-israel 

A few years ago I wrote about another aspect of Isaiah 19 regarding the 1973 Yom Kippur here.