French Culture Now

Archives: March 12-21, 2008

French Poll on women in politics
Angus Reid Global Monitor. March 21, 2008
People in France think the absence of female representation in politics is not due to lack of interest on their part, according to a poll by CSA published in Le Parisien. 51 per cent of respondents believe that the challenges of balancing public service and family life could explain why few women are in office, while 47 per cent blame misogyny from men who participate in politics. In addition, 30 per cent of respondents think there are few women in politics because the environment is too tough for them.
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Sarkozy appoints internet police
GalliaWatch. March 21, 2008
President Sarkozy’s office has hired a cyber spin doctor to "track false rumors and counter disinformation aimed at the president." Sarkozy has been lampooned mercileesly by many websites dedicated to exposing his pretensions. It is not clear how proactive the Internet watchdog Nicolas Princen, a 24-year-old graduate of Normal School and the HEC (Advanced School of Business), will be in helping spin Sarkozy’s image for the internet, or whether censorship and litigation are in the offing.
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France Mulls Olympic Ceremony Boycot
AP. March 21, 2008
France seems to have taken a break from kissing Chinese derriere to challenge the Asian country’s dismal human rights record. France's The head of the European parliament and media watchdog Reporters Without Borders are calling Tuesday for a boycott of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics if violence continues in Tibet. boycott. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner says the proposal is "interesting."
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Poll: Americans say French health care may be better
Bloomberg. March 21, 2008
The majority of Americans say U.S. private health care may not be better than national systems in Canada, France and the U.K., according to a poll by the Harvard School of Public Health. The survey, co-sponsored with Harris Interactive Inc., a Rochester, New York, research and polling company, found that 45 percent of Americans thought the U.S. medical system generally was the best. The remaining 54 percent either didn't know or thought other countries' systems were better.
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French court upholds GM corn ban
AFP. March 21, 2008
A group of French farmers on March 19, 2008 lost a bid to overturn a government ban on a strain of genetically-modified corn, a month after it came into force. France's highest administrative body, the state council, rejected the challenge from nine plaintiffs including a maize producers' association backed by the US agribusiness giant Monsanto, which produces the strain. "There are no serious doubts as to the legality of the decisions" to ban the use of MON810 strain of corn, the only GM crop grown in France, said a state spokesperson.
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France forced to stop illegal drift net fishing
Telegraph. March 21 2008
Despite its self-proclaimed championing of human rights, France has a dismal record when it comes to nature preservation and ecological reponsibility. A prime example is the fleet of 92 French vessels operating in the Mediterranean using "wall of death" nets between three and six miles long, a practice banned by the EU in 2002, but encouraged by th French state, which gave the fleet special waivers to continue their massacre. As a result of such piracy, tuna and other fish stocks have been driven to the point of extinction. Thanks to pressure from the environmental group Oceana, the EU court has forbidden Franc to continue “holocaust fishing” and illegal waivers.
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French minicar is world’s most efficient
Frogsmoke. March 21, 2008
The Microjoule is the most fuel efficient vehicle on the planet. The single-seat racer, developed by students from the French Technical School St. Joseph La Joliverie, gets 8,923 miles out of a gallon (3 793 km/liter). Since 1992 the Microjoule has won the Shell Eco Marathon every single time, and has broken the world record 6 times. It looks to win once again in the May 2008 edition of the race.
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Brangelina buy French luxury home
Mirror. March 21, 2008
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have bought a £10million seaside property in a billionaires' paradise close to the French Riviera. The the six-bedroom property on five acres was originally a monastic establishment dating back to 1200, but has been expanded and renovated. Jolie, 32, wants to be in France for the birth of the child she is expecting - said to be a daughter - to honour her French mother's memory.
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French euthanasia-row woman dies
BBC. March 21, 2008
Chantal Sebire, a French woman with an incurable facial tumour who lost a legal bid seeking euthanasia in France has died at her home near Dijon at the age of 52. Sebire’s plight motivated the Catholic pro-life lobby who demanded that she live and suffer. The French court rejected her plea, stating that Ms Sebire's physical condition may "inspire compassion" but the law did not allow assisted suicide. French politicians at the highest level had examined her case just days before her death, at which her doctor was present, suggesting that she was given unofficial approval to end her life. A typical example how French law is rigid in the abstract but is often flouted by those in power, for exceptional cases.
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Giscard’s castle for sale
AFP. March 21, 2008
Its good to be the King, er, President. Former president Valery Giscard d'Estaing is selling the 23-room La Varvasse chateau in Chanonat, a 15th-century pile he inherited from his father in France's central Auvergne region, according to a real estate agency. Giscard lives at a different castlem the chateau d'Estaing in Aveyron, he bought in 2005
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Sarko Survey
SarkotheAmerican. March 21, 2008
Ifop releases its latest Sarkozy polling for Le Journal du Dimanche, and things do not look great. 64% of the French now say that he worries them, and only a minority believe he is honest. The only relatively consistent plus is that 68% still believe "he really wants to change things." Sarkozy still retains the support of his right wing base.
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SocGen’s Kerviel freed, accomplice questioned
FrenchPolitics. March 21, 2008
A second Societe Generale employee, working for the SG Securities branch, was detained on March 19, 2008 after investigators found that rogue trader Jerome Kerviel made several phone calls to the broker. Kerviel was released from prison on March 18, and has been offered a job as a computer expert, say his lawyers.
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SocGen admin shakeup, lawsuit
New YorkTimes. March 21, 2008
Société Générale, the French bank hobbled by a trading loss of more than $7 billion, is reorganizing its senior management team, promoting its chief financial officer, Frédéric Oudea, to deputy chief executive — a move that some said could pave the way for the chairman and chief executive, Daniel Bouton, to step down. Cohen Milstein Hausfeld and Toll, a U.S. law firm, have launched a class action suit against Societe General in a federal New York court. On Wednesday the law firm alleged that the French bank had misled investors about its exposure to the U.S. subprime market risks and failure to avoid Kerviel’s rogue trading.
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Sarkozy drops lawsuit over SMS report: newspaper
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is dropping his lawsuit against Le Nouvel Observateur for reporting he had sent a SMS to his wife Cecilia eight days before his marriage to ex-model Carla Bruni that said: "If you come back, I'll call it all off." Journalist Airy Routier has sent a letter to Bruni apologising for the article and admitting that it was wrong. It is not clear if the message was actually sent. Cecilia denies having received it.
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Sarko’s new press office
FrenchJournal. March 16, 2006.
In a cabinet shuffle following recent municipal elections, Sarkozy’s troubled press secretary David Martinon is being replaced as presidential spokesman by Communications Counsellor Franck Louvrier and Sarko’s two backroom advisors: conservative speechwriter Claude Guéant, secretary general of the Élysée, and the inscrutable Jean-David Levitte. Martinon will be appointed Consul General in New York, the second most luxurious French political sinecure in the USA after the Ambassadorship. Martinon will suffer his political exile in a $50 million townhouse on 5th Avenue, owned by the French state.
HT: FrenchPolitics.
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London and Paris and their futures
Economist. March 16, 2008
The French and British capitals are different yet competitive and complementary. They are closer than ever in terms of transportation, with a high-speed rail link. By most economic tests, London outstrips Paris, but Paris still considers itself the center of the civilised world. Still, for one London politico, France is part of the past, while London is making the future. “We don't think of ourselves as in competition with Paris. We've won that contest. We measure ourselves against New York.”
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The Franco-German relationship
Economist. March 16, 2008
The Franco-German relationship has been the motor of the European project. But Sarkozy strained relations with German Chancellor Merkel when he demanded political control of the euro, took credit for the release of Bulgarian nurses in Libya (and signed a nuclear-energy deal with the Libyans), insisted on postponing cuts in France's budget deficit and pressed his project for a Mediterranean Union. For now, Sarko and Merkel have made peace for the moment, but there will be plenty more issues, ranging from European defence to industrial and exchange-rate policy, in which French and German interests will diverge.
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France's NATO ambitions
WallStreetJournal. March 16, 2008
French President Sarkozy is expected next month to lay out plans to increase France's contribution to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and shoulder more of the military burden in Afghanistan. While the move could seal a rapprochement with the U.S., it could impede Mr. Sarkozy's efforts to promote a stronger, more autonomous European defense force.
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Pentagon-Auirbus Deal Sparks Fury
BusinessWeek. March 12, 2008
Last week, the US Defense Department announced it was awarding the second-biggest contract in its history to a consortium that includes the French-led European Airbus Group, leaving domestic aviation giant Boeing on the outside looking in. A political flap among politicians of all stripes quickly ensued, with calls for the contract to be reviewed and warnings that US national security may be at risk. Congressman John Murtha, the chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, threatened: "This committee funds this program, and all this committee has to do is stop the money, and this program is not going to go forward." Paradoxically, Airbus' contract with the Pentagon for in-flight refueling aircraft may lead to an accelerated exodus of jobs to Asia and the U.S.
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Remembering May 1968
FinancialTimes. March 16, 2008
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the May 1968 uprising of students and workers that convulsed France. The event left its mark on everyone including Prsident Sarkozy, and still divides the country. To the Left, 1968 marked a heroic break with deadening social conservatism and the triumph of self-expression, free love and individuals' - particularly women's - rights. To the Right, the "revolutionary carnival" signified an assault on respect and order.
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SocGen scandal book boom
Bloomberg. March 16, 2008
Jerome Kerviel, the trader blamed by Societe Generale SA for the biggest trading loss in banking history, is spurring a cottage industry in publishing in France. At least five new books chronicle how he left France's second-biggest bank with a trading loss of 4.9 billion-euro ($7.6 billion). Titles include: “Five Billion Up in Smoke: The Roots of the Societe Generale Scandal'' by Pierre-Antoine Delhommais, and “The Player: The Fall of the 50 Billion-Euro Man'.”
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Sarkozy's Club Med defeat
EarthTimes. March 16, 2007
European Union leaders formally backed French plans for a Union for the Mediterranean, but watered them down to such an extent that it had to be given a new name: "Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean." It includes all of the EU's member states and vaguely talks about "projects with an accent on regional cooperation." FrenchPolitics blog called it another pseudovictory such as become a halmark of Sarkozy’s reign. “He wanted a Mediterranean Union but will get a Union for the Mediterranean that bears little resemblance to the original project and will fulfill none of its goals.” HT: FrenchPolitics.
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French Revolution website opens wounds
UKTimes. March 16, 2008
According to one estimate, up to five million French people are descended from victims of The French Revolution. Now a French website Les Guillotinés offers the most complete online list yet established of the Revolution’s victims, and reveals that they didn’t just guillotine the nobility. Innocent farmers, peasants and commoners who were also killed. France has tried to ignore the Terror because the Revolution created the current Republican system of government and no one really wants to call that into question.
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France's sordid housing crisis
BBC. March 16, 2008
France, the government admits, is in the grip of its worst housing crisis since the end of World War II. Liberation’s undercover reporter reveals France’s lodging-for-sex business, where French apartments are offered free in exchange for “libertine services.” The scandal has been highlighted by a book: Laura D's “My Dear Studies (Mes Cheres Etudes)” an anonymous student’s story of selling her body to pay the rent.
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France: “Things have to change”
Newsweek. March 16, 2008
French novelist and member of the Academie Francaise Erik Orsenna comments on Sarkozy’s France: “God knows I think things have to change in this country.” On the role of Presidential advisors, the concentration of executive power that is pretty rare in other democracies, the perpetual mediatization of the Presidential office, and Mediterranean Union.
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Air France Liable for Crash Damages
Forbes. March 16, 2008
A French appeals court ruled Friday that Air France must pay damages for a 1992 plane crash that killed 87 people near the German border - but relieved plane maker Airbus of responsibility imposed by a previous court decision. Payouts range from 10,000 euros ($15,400) to 50,000 euros ($77,100) to some victims' families.
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French entrepreneurs find haven in UK
NewYorkTimes. March 12, 2008
Legions of entrepreneurial refugees have survived and thrived in England even as France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has been slowly pushing forward Sarkonomics, his pro-capitalist agenda. But France is still not business friendly enough: “Change may come, but France is not a country of evolution, but of revolution,” said Jean-Claude Cothias, who left France 10 years ago to found a consulting company in Ashford, England.
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Dissent: Special issue on France
Dissent. March 12, 2008
Dissent magazine has a special issue devoted to French society and politics in the Sarkozy era. Contributions include: "France: Red Rose, Blue Grip" by Mitchell Cohen; "France's 35-Hour Workweek" by Philippe Askenazy; "Gender and Politics in France" by Françoise Gaspard; “Of Croissants and Couscous" by Nancy L. Green; and "Internet Politics in France" by Jean-Baptiste Soufron.
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Kouchner on France’s role in Africa, Europe, World, and Universe
IHT. March 12, 2008
Blowing his own horn, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner pens an editorial on Darfur for the International Herald Tribune. In it he loads praise on France and Sarkozy for global diplomacy and humanitarianism. “At the behest of France … the European Union … launched its Eufor operation. There will finally be help and comfort for women - who up to now were raped or killed as soon as they left their camps - and for hungry children … France is one of the largest contributors to both EU and NATO … A tireless promoter of European defense, France is at the same time a key member of NATO … The EU presidency, which France will assume on July 1, must allow us to open new perspectives in the field of security and defense…” etc.
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POLITICS AND SOCIETY NEWS AND EVENTS ARCHIVE MARCH 2008-1