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You are here: Home » Politics + Society » Archive » March 2008-2
POLITICS AND SOCIETY NEWS AND EVENTS ARCHIVE MARCH 2008-2
Archives: March 25-29, 2008
French Tits wins Norwegian prize
FrenchPolitics. March 29. 2008
French mathematician Jacques Tits will share Norway’s $1.2 million Abel
Prize with an American John Thompson. A Norwegian Academy of Science
and Letters statement said they were awarded the prize for "their
profound achievements in algebra and in particular for shaping modern
group theory."
> More
Britain needs a French alliance
UKGuardian. March 28, 2008
France and Britain can plausibly claim to have the longest-running
national rivalry in the history of the world, running for nearly seven
centuries. Britain invented itself as the anti-France. But In politics,
tis feud has had its day, and must be replaced by a strategic
partnership such as President Sarkozy presented to Britain during his
recent state visit. Britain should embrace an anglophile French
president who is determined to add Britain to the Franco-German axis
inside the EU.
> More
French left opposes Sarkozy on Afghan troops
Reuters. March 29, 2008
Leaders of France's opposition Socialist Party criticised President
Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday for offering to send more troops to
Afghanistan if NATO backed his proposal for a broader, coordinated
Afghan strategy. They have demanded a parliamentary debate in Paris
before any more French soldiers are sent. Socialist leader Segolene
Royal said she opposed any further increase in French troop numbers in
Afghanistan.
> More
Queen gives Sarkozy a Bath
Telegraph. March 29, 2008
More bling for Le President. Queen Elizabeth made President Sarkozy an
Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, during his state
visit to England. No word if the Order of the Bath comes with
soap-on-a-rope. The motto of the order is “Tria iuncta in uno - Three
joined in to one” (Sarko, Bruni and ….? In return, Sarkozy offered the
Queen a Lalique crystal sculpture of two horses and a 1743 book called
The Perfect Knowledge of Horses.
> More
Sarkozy’s approval at 37%
Angus Reid Global Monitor. March 28, 2008
Just over a third of adults in France are content with the performance
of Nicolas Sarkozy, according to a poll by Ifop published in Le Journal
du Dimanche. 37 per cent of respondents are satisfied with their
president, down one point since February. The poll was held Mar. 14-21,
2008.
> More
France and Nato: the Path to Full Membership
Spiegel. March 29, 2008
The French president wants to tie his country's return to full NATO
membership to the development of the European Defense Pact. In return,
he is offering a stronger French commitment in Afghanistan. The NATO
summit in Bucharest on April 2-4, 2008 will be a testing ground for
French foreign policy as members discuss the group's redefinition.
> More
Eiffel Tower story false
UKTimes. March 29, 2008
Thee was something fishy about the picture of the Eiffel Tower redesign
supposedly scheduled to mark the 120th anniversary of the Paris
monument next year. Widely reported by the international media
including the New York Times, the story turns out to be false, a
publicity stunt by Serero Architects. Eiffel Tower management said
yesterday that it had never launched a competition.
> More
Sarkozy hit by economic woes after royal glitter
IHT. March 28, 2008
The president and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy returned to Paris on
March 27, 2008 after a two-day trip to England, to face an array of
poor economic data, which showed France missing its all-important
deficit and debt targets in 2007, leaving a question mark over the
financing of planned reforms. Paris on Friday reported a 2007 deficit
of 2.7 percent of gross domestic product, against an EU limit of 3
percent of GDP and a target of 2.4 percent. Adding to the gloom, public
debt last year rose to 64.2 percent of GDP from 63.6 percent in 2006.
Government ministers have lined up to dismiss speculation that an
austerity plan was under review, but some projects, including an
ambitious drive to cut poverty, look certain to be cut back in the
drive to bolster state accounts.
> More
Chantal Sebire committed suicide
Xinhua. March 29, 2008
Chantal Sebire, a tumor-stricken French teacher whose request for
euthanasia had been denied by French courts, died on March 19, 2008 of
an overdose of barbiturates, a French prosecutor said Thursday. Her
blood contained three times the lethal level of Pentobarbital, which
can be legally prescribed for assisted human suicide in Switzerland,
Belgium and the U.S. state of Oregon, but not France. French police are
investigating.
> More
No minorities in French politics
Reuters. March 29, 2008
A report this week on the recent French local elections shows that in
day-to-day politics, French political parties have little or no ethnic
diversity. Just two mayoral posts went to candidates with what in
French are called "diverse" backgrounds, and only around 2,000 city
council seats of a total 520,000 were won by minority candidates, the
National Committee for Diversity report showed. "It's unbelievable --
Barack Obama is running for president in the United States, but here
we're still fighting for city council seats," said Patrick Lozes, a
spokesman for the group.
> More
Sarkozy charms Brits
FrenchPolitics. March 29, 2008
Oin his first State visit to England, Frech President Sarkozy cozied up
to France’s hereditary enemy, pledging closer cooperation on nuclear
energy and defense. The British media went into a frenxy over the
presence of Sarkozy’s new wife Carla Bruni, but the official functions
including a state dinner and meeting with the Queen, went off without a
hitch. Sarkozy praised Thatcherism as “the way of reform … a successful
experience.” Frenchpolitics blogger Goldhammer commnets: “ the Brits
must be awfully susceptible to Gallic charm to fall for this line of
patter.”
> More
Sarkozy’s British Entente and Germany
Spiegel. March 29, 2008
President Sarkozy made a successful two-day trip to the UK, where they
met with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Brown. German newspapers
reflect on the new "entente amicale" and what the historic visit
signifies for UK-French relations. Conclusions: Sarkozy offered much
flattery, setting up the UK as a counterweight to Germany, launched a
passle of new initiatives including promoting nuclear power, an area in
which Germany is backward. Sarko’s long range Atlanticism is a bid for
increased French prominence in world affairs, and leaves Germany in the
cold.
> More
French court fines website for a LINK
AFP. March 29, 2008
France is rapidly becoming the land of censorship and anti-free speech.
France recently shut down the teacher evaluation website
www.note2be.com. And President Sarkozy just appointed a personal
Internet watchdog to track how his image is treated on the web. Now, in
a landmark ruling, a Paris court ruled that a user-generated website
had violated a film star's privacy by hosting a link to a report about
him. The court ruled that fuzz.fr made an "editorial" decision to link
to a story on a gossip news site about French actor Olivier Martinez,
and was therefore responsible for its content. The website owner was
ordered to pay 1,000 euros (1,600 dollars) in damages to Martinez and
1,500 euros in legal costs. If this crazy decision becomes law, then
every website will be legally responsible for the content of every
website it links to, and perhaps the links on those websites, ad
infinitum. It is the equivalent of making an individual legally
responsible for the speech, acts, and behaviour of all your past and
present acquantances and friends, or your entire community. It is an
unworkable law which stifles the free exchange of information, and
opens the door to selective prosecution and legal abuse.
> More
Stoppard slams the May ’68 movement
UKTimes. March 27, 2008
The student unrest in Paris 40 years ago filled Czech playwright Tom
Stoppard with revulsion because the protesters were spoiled brats who
enjoyed enviable freedom and had no idea how lucky they were. Sure, the
“free West” was all too often disfigured by corruption and injustice
but at least the abuses were acknowledged to represent a failure of the
model. Behind the Iron Curtain, however, the abuses represented the
model in full working order.
> More
France scolds China on Tibet
BBC. March 27, 2008
Last month France decorated the Chinese ambassador and his wife for
cultural diplomacy, but this week President Sarkozy and Foreign
Minister Kouchner said they were not opposed to a boycott of the
opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing on August 8, 2008 to
protest Chinese human rights violations in Tibet. Sarkozy said: "All
options are open and I appeal to the Chinese leaders' sense of
responsibility." Meanwhile Secretary of State for Human Rights Rama
Yade said she’d be glad to meet with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai
Lama. China has condemned countries who recognize the Dalai Lama or
meddle in China’s internal politics.
> More
French youth smoke less, but drink and drug more
Frogsmoke. March 27, 2008
Young French people between 17 and 25 years are less keen on
cigarettes. In 2000, 41% of youngsters smoked every day, but in 2005
they were only 33%. But hey get drunk and stoned more. At the age of
17, ten per cent of French youngsters confirm they get drunk at least
ten times per year, up from 6.4% in 2000. Fifty percent of them have
tried cannabis, and one in ten smokes pot regularly.
> More
French Jewish emigration to Israel falls
JTA. March 27, 2008
Four years ago Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon publicly warned that
French Jews must relocate to Israel in order to avoid rising
antisemitic violence, which the French government denied. But French
Jewish emigration to Israel has plummeted since President Sarkozy (of
Jewish descent) took office with a pro-Israeli policy. Israel's
Immigration and Absorption Ministry released figures suggesting that
the rate of aliyah (emigration) from France so far this year has been
42 percent less than in the same period in 2007.
> More
Sarkozy’s bold European defence initiative
FinancialTimes. March 25, 2008
The European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) has not fulfilled
expectations. It has suffered from European governments cutting defence
budgets and doing too little to boost military capabilities, and from
poor co-operation between the EU and Nato. French President Sarkozy
seeks to reverse this trend, by reintegrating France into Nato’s
permanent military structures. Sarkozy’s bold initiative, part of his
strategy of strengthening transatlantic ties, is controversial within
France, but the symbolic and geopolitical consequences could be huge.
> More
Sarkozy's ex-wife Cecilia remarries in NY
BBC. March 25, 2008
French President Sarkozy's former wife Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz has
married Moroccan-born, US-based Jewish public relations executive
Richard Attias at a private ceremony in New York's Rainbow Room in
Rockefeller Center. Singers from the Harlem Gospel Choir performed for
150 guests. Media reports have referred to the New York nuptials as a
"revenge wedding" since Sarkozy himself remarried less than two months
ago, just four maonths after divorcing Cecilia. It is not known whether
the ceremony was religious, since Ciganer-Albeniz and millionaire
Attias are both of partial Jewish descent, as is Sarkozy.
> More
Super swimsuit needs debate, French say
Australianews. March 25, 2008 d
French swimming officials have called for high level debate about the
controversial new space-age Speedo swimsuit following the recent
avalanche of world records. Nine world records have been set this year
in the build-up to the Beijing Olympics, all in the Speedo LZR Racer,
which is seamless, contains a water-repellent fabric, and is said to
boast five per cent less passive drag in the pool than their
predecessor launched a year ago.
> More
New York Times’s French Bureau Chief Out
Frenchpolitics. March 25, 2008
Elaine Sciolino is leaving her post as the New York Times’s Paris
bureau chief. Arthur Goldhammer at FrenchPolitics blog disliked
Sciolino’s quaint, Pollyanna snapshots of French life, issues and
personalities. “She will not be missed … let us hope that the next
Paris correspondent will be cut of a different cloth.”
> More
Dollar Drop Hits European Economies
BusinesWeek. March 25, 2008
The falling greenback is killing jobs and crimping profits on the
Continent but Europe's economy has shown remarkable resilience as the
dollar has lost nearly half its value against the euro since 2000.
European banks have escaped the worst of the subprime crisis, but there
is growing concern that the healthy numbers conceal a looming threat.
European companies are learning that the only long-term insurance
against currency risk is to spread operations around the globe.
> More
French Subprefect Dismissed for Criticizing Israel
FrenchPolitics. March 25, 2008
In Sarkozy’s pro-Israel France, critiquing Zionism may be fatal to your
career. Bruno Guigue, a subprefect in Charente-Maritime, has been
dismissed by Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie for publishing an
opinion piece on Oumma.com in which he claimed Israel was "the only
state in the world that employs snipers to shoot little girls as they
leave school." He was dismissed for violating his “devoir de réserve”
which is basically French state censorship of public employees, which
prevents them from saying anything deemed offensive by their superiors,
on pain of dismissal. So muc for freedom of expression in the land of
liberte, egalite and fraternite.
> More
French support Olympic boycott
AFP. March 25, 2008
Most French want their leaders to stay away from the opening ceremony
of the Beijing Olympic Games over China's human rights record. A CSA
poll of 959 French respondents for media freedom group Reporters sans
Frontiers (Reporters Without Borders) gave 53 percent backing for a
boycott of the Olympic Games “to protest the human rights situation in
China." But 42 percent of those polled opposed the idea.
> More
France tops quality of living index
HT:Frogsmoke. March 25, 2008
International Living rated and ranked 192 countries, and created a
Quality Of Life Index based on criteria such as cost of living, culture
and leisure, freedom, health, climate and more. Based on the figures,
France tops the list, followed by Switzerland, United States, and
Luxembourg. But IL editor Kathleen Peddicord points out that Farnce
remains a nightmare for anyone trying to run a business, open a bank
account, rent an apartment, or get a cellphone.
> More
SocGen fights lawsuit
FrenchNews for Anglophones. March 25, 2008
French bank Societe Generale is determined to challenge a March 12,
2008 class action law suit filed in New York by its American investors.
According to the law firm representing the plaintiffs, Societe General
and chairman Daniel Bouton “misled investors regarding its activities
and exposure in the subprime mortgage markets,” among other things. The
bank stated it would “defend itself vigorously against these legal
actions.”
> More
Did Kerviel act alone?
BusinesWeek. March 25, 2008
From the moment Société Générale admitted losing more than $7 billion
on rogue trades by Jérôme Kerviel, it’s been hard to imagine that the
31-year-old trader could have carried out tens of billions in
unauthorized transactions without anyone helping or even noticing what
he was up to. Maybe there was no criminal conspiracy – only an
ambitious young trader with a misguided scheme to become a superstar.
But the legacy of lax oversight will continue to haunt this once
high-flying bank for years.
> More
French troop boost for Afghanistan, nuke deal with UK
UKTelegraph. March 25, 2008
France plans to send an extra 1,000 soldiers to Afghanistan to bolster
the battle against the Taleban. Francw will also offer expertise to
help Britain build replacement nuclear reactors for its ageing plants,
responsible for 20 per cent of electricity production. The two
countries will then work together to export the advanced technology
abroad.
> More
Chantal Sebire’a death “not natural”
BBC. March 25, 2008
Chantal Sebire, the French woman with an incurable tumour who lost a
legal challenge seeking euthanasia did not die of natural causes, her
postmortem has found. Sebire died in the presence of her doctor after
French politicians presumably gave them tacit permission to help her
end her life.
> More
France to reduce nuclear warheads
March 25, 2008
President Sarkozy has said France will reduce its number of airborne
nuclear weapons by one third to fewer than 300 missiles, leaving France
with "half the maximum number of warheads we had during the Cold War".
He called for an international treaty banning short and medium range
ground-to-ground missiles and another banning the manufacture of
fissile material for nuclear weapons. But he insisted he was committed
to France's nuclear deterrent, saying it was its "life-insurance
policy."
> More
Sarkozy and Diouf defend Francophony, deplore English
Euractiv. March 25, 2008
Speaking to the International Francophonie Organisation (OIF)
on International Francophony Day (March 20, 2008), French President
Sarkozy stressed the need to make more frequent use of the French
language in international institutions, including the EU. OIF Secretary
General Abdou Diouf highlighted the importance of developing "a
numerical Francophony" by investing massively in digital technologies
and improving developing countries’ access to them. He deplored the
"colonisation" of digital instruments, such as the internet, by the
English language.
> More
Sarko’s approval sinks
Bloomberg. March 25, 2008
French President Sarkozy's approval rating dropped to a record low
after losses by his party in municipal elections, according to a Le
Journal du Dimanche-Ifop poll conducted between March 14 and March 21.
The number of people who said they were satisfied with Sarkozy's work
as president fell 1 point to 37 percent.
> More
//end
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