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2012/07/07

1 October 2010 - Comic #342

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This comic was also published in Maki - Book 1 - Un lémurien en colo  on page 6-7.

About the 5th panel: Seine-Saint-Denis is one of the 101 départments of France. (The départment is one of the three levels of government below the national level, between the region and the commune) All départments have a number and Seine-Saint-Denis is #93. Since "Seine-Saint-Denis" as well as the French word for ninety-three (fr. "quatre-vingt-treize") are somewhat long and hard to pronounce, the inhabitants often refer to their départment as "le neuf-trois" (engl. "the nine-three") instead.
Seine-Saint-Denis is the départment with the highest proportion of immigrants. It was the scene of the death of two youths which sparked the nationwide riots of autumn 2005, a series of riots by mostly French youths of African and Maghrebian origins in the suburbs of Paris and other French cities, involving mainly the burning of cars and public buildings.
Together with the départements Hauts-de-Seine and Val-de-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis forms a ring around Paris called la petite couronne (eng. "the little crown"). The three départements are part of Paris' banlieue (eng. "suburbs"), which in French are often associated with areas of low-income apartments and social housing.

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