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You are here: Home » Politics + Society » Archive » October 2007-3
POLITICS AND SOCIETY NEWS AND EVENTS ARCHIVE OCTOBER 2007-3
Kouchner vs. Sarkozy: the Struggle Between Idealism and Pragmatism
Economist. Oct. 11, 2007
Bernard Kouchner, the free-wheeling, plain-talking humanitarian
campaigner who is now France's foreign minister, has little time for
diplomatic niceties, stiff formality or professional caution. His
frank, sleeves-rolled-up approach is helping to define a new French
diplomacy. But Kouchner's idealistic instincts may be coming into
conflict with the global capitalist sympathies of President Sarkozy.
> More
Burmese Connection to Top French Politician
Inner City Press. Oct. 11, 2007
French ambassador to the United Nations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said France
would have preferred a stronger statement on sancitons against the
Myanmar regime, adding: "The additional activities by Total [oil] and
other companies are strongly discouraged," but that sanctions might
hurt the Burmese people. Critics wonder about French Foreign Minister
Bernard Kouchner's objectivity on the matter of Total Oil's involvement
in Burna. Before joining the current Sarkozy goverment, Kouchner was
commissioned by Total to write a report, generally favorable, about its
activities in Myanmar, according to the Inner City Press. > More
French Immigration Museum Fallout Continues
AP. Oct. 11, 2007
There
was no fanfare or inauguration for the opening this week of Paris's €20
million (US$28.4 million) National Center of the History of Immigration
(ironically housed in the former Ministry of the Colonies). Top
politicians shunned the event as France struggles with youth riots, a
scandal over DNA testing of immigrants,
renewed violence in the former colony of Algeria, and headaches over
France's involvement in ethnic cleansing in Rwanda. > More
France's Defense Budget Steady Under Sarkozy
ISN Security Watch. Oct. 11, 2007
President Nicolas Sarkozy has promised a radical overhaul of foreign
and defense policy, but the new president's first budget actually
strikes a balance on military spending, which will remain stable next
year, at €36.7 billion (US$52.2 billion). The budget also makes good on
nearly €16 billion in planned equipment purchases approved by former
president Chirac, which will allow the French armed forces to acquire a
range of new attack helicopters, fighter jets, submarines, naval
frigates and armored fighting vehicles included in France's last
five-year military spending planning law, which expires in 2008. > More
France Plans More Aerobus Subsidies
AFX News. Oct. 11, 2007
France's
prime minister Francois Fillon is to announce a package of funding for
aerospace companies at a ceremony in Marseilles. The funding could
total more than 1 billion euros and is designed to support
subcontractors of EADS unit Airbus through supplementary credits and
direct help with investment and research. > More
Remembering the Marshall Plan
Economist.
Oct. 11,
2007
Greg
Behrman's book "The Most Noble Adventure: The Marshall Plan and the
Time When America Helped Save Europe" is the first comprehensive
history of the Marshall Plan in decades. Between 1947 and 1952, the USA
helped Western Europe to recover from World War II by providing some
$13 billion-worth of technical and economic aid. Unfortunately, Charles
de Gaulle rebuffed the charity, setting the tone for official French
anti-Americanism that lingers to this day. > More
Social Networking Sites Thrive in Europe
Washington Post. Oct. 11, 2007
The
average French user of social networking sites such as Facebook.com and
Bebo.com, used them for 2 hours per month, much less than users in
Britain, Germany, and Spain. Facebook.com is the fastest growing
Internet property in Europe. The European social networking community
stood at 127.3 million unique visitors in August 2007, or 56 percent of
the European online population. > More
Sarkozy Fails to Move Putin
Der Spiegel. Oct. 11, 2007
France's hyperactive President may regret meddling in the tiff between
the USA and Russia over how to treat Iran. Despite aggressive rhetoric
in Moscow this week, Sarkozy wasn't able to move the iron-willed
Russian President from his supportive position on Iran. > More
Russian Media Ridicules Sarkozy
Russian News. Oct. 11, 2007
French
President Sarkozy earned little more than mockery from the Russian
press after a visit to Moscow. Newspapers poked fun at the diminutive
Sarkozy "balancing on five-centimetre heels and gesturing passionately"
while noting that nothing of substance was achieved on the key issues
of Kosovo and Iran. > More
Vatican Pardons Knights Templar After 700 Years
Reuters. Oct. 11, 2007
The
Knights Templar, the medieval Christian military falsely accused of
heresy and sexual misconduct, will soon be partly rehabilitated when
the Vatican publishes trial documents it had closely guarded for 700
years. The Templars were exterminated in the 1300's on fabricated
charges by the treacherous French King Philip IV, who owed the Templars a fortune in war loans he couldn't repay. > More
French mystery man drives the Diana conspiracies
The Age. Oct. 10, 2007
The black Mercedes which Princess Diana was travelling in collided with
the white Fiat Uno, causing the Mercedes to crash into a pylon. But
British and French inquiries have failed to bring the Fiat driver to
justice. His name is Le Van Thanh, and even today he refuses to
cooperate with investigators. Why? > More
France breaks deadlock on patent translation accord
ComputerWorld. Oct. 10, 2007
The French Senate late ratified a European patent agreement that
simplifies the translation requirements for all patent applicants in
the Union, according to the European Patent Office. By signing up to
the so-called London Agreement, France has broken a linguistic obstacle
that for decades has burdened patent applicants wanting to use their
inventions across Europe. > More
Many French rivers polluted by banned chemical
Reuters. Oct. 10, 2007
Rivers in eastern and northern France are contaminated with dangerous levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB)
that have been outlawed since 1987 and are proving very hard to
eliminate, according to a government report. The clean up job will be
enormous, said a government spokesman. Meanwhile, fishing has been
baned in the Rhone. > More
Pittsburg Editorial Lauds French-American Rapprochement
Pittsburg Post-Gazette. Oct. 10, 2007
Pittsburg Post-Gazette columnist Reg Henry is delighted that France
is back in America's good books. He was surprised and happy to find
French people in Provence friendly. "Like it or not, France and the
United States are bound at the hip by history." > More
French Imigration Museum Opens
UK Guaradian. Oct. 10, 2007
After
20 years of rows, controversy and warnings that it was a dangerous
taboo, France finally opens its first museum to immigration. The
facility explores two centuries of immigration to France, featuring
exhibits on French xenophobia and hostility as well as famous
immigrants such as the Polish-born scientist Marie Curie. Ruling French
politicians were notably absent from the opening ceremony, except a few
socialists like Bertrand Delanoe and François Hollande. > More
Sarkozy’s Reforms Must Address State-Business Corruption
UK Times. Oct. 10, 2007
France's
moral life is crippled by the intimate links between government and
private industry in the Fifth Republic. This golden triangle is a
dubious money-go-round in which the representatives of French
government, industry and labour support each other at the espence of
the citizen taxpayer. There can be no transparency or ethics in a
society when French civil service mandarins move seamlessly into top
jobs in banks and industry and then return to high-level public
service. > More
France Got Royally Taken By Carlyle Group
Forbes. Oct. 10, 2007
In a stellar example of bureaucratic bungling, the French government
lost tens of millions of euros in a business deal with the American
Carlyle Group. In 2003, Carlyle bought France's national printing
office building in Paris's 15th arrondissement for 85 million euros --
then sold it to back to France's foreign ministry for nearly 377
million euros. A secret report criticized the easy payment terms
granted Carlyle, which only began to pay for the building in 2006, or
31 months after signing the purchase agreement. > More
> More
France publishes details of Libya military deal
AFP. Oct. 10, 2007
France
published details on oct. 10, 2007 of a defence accord struck with
Libya following the release of the Bulgarian medics covering the sale
of military hardware and the training of Libyan special forces. Struck
on July 25, 2007, the day after the release of the six medics, the
accord was closely followed by the announcement of military contracts
with European defence firm EADS. President Nicolas Sarkozy is facing a
parliamentary inquiry to determine whether Paris traded arms and
nuclear cooperation with Tripoli in exchange for the medics' release.
> More
France moves closer to rejoining Nato
Independant. Oct. 10, 2007
France
has taken a step towards rejoining the Nato military alliance with a
series of proposals for closer relations between the organisation and
the European Union. In recent weeks both President Nicolas Sarkozy and
his Defence Minister, Hervé Morin, have spoken about the possibility of
ending four decades of French isolation from the US-dominated military
command of the western alliance. > More
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