tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84350659486201696702024-03-04T20:01:38.676-08:00Under the Burning BridgePhotos, thoughts and rambling scribblings from and about FranceFripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.comBlogger178125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-59870421172181592892020-08-31T11:53:00.000-07:002020-08-31T11:53:08.104-07:00test<p> test</p>Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-40502414172725680822014-04-23T08:52:00.000-07:002014-04-23T08:52:31.458-07:00Hollande: time to dissolve parliament and call national elections?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMp0pmShxJVsEFTjbwHq6xwy7nZ1X6svknYAYsOHlcRJzPSygHdD1wruapl8Tkcs53_42mNMlsJhCmp3nDS7sDmzFX6gK7e-H9qy7As4ziRY4Ei9cWvZ2zPSiAEdytE0auH0JowWyyf9g-/s1600/by-election-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMp0pmShxJVsEFTjbwHq6xwy7nZ1X6svknYAYsOHlcRJzPSygHdD1wruapl8Tkcs53_42mNMlsJhCmp3nDS7sDmzFX6gK7e-H9qy7As4ziRY4Ei9cWvZ2zPSiAEdytE0auH0JowWyyf9g-/s1600/by-election-2.jpg" height="245" width="400" /></a></div>
Rumours that François Hollande may dissolve parliament and call elections began to circulate a week ago when he said in public that he would not stand for re-election if he and his government did not succeed in reducing unemployment. This was a significant statement because it is by no means certain that he will be able to lower unemployment given the economic outlook. Also, he is said by some advisors to be adopting a policy of secretive 'bunkerisation' at the Elysée and is becoming weary at the constant criticism he is receiving in the press. He was also shocked by the extent of voter dissatisfaction that saw the socialists trounced in recent national local elections.<br />
<br />
This spectacular defeat forced
Hollande to be seen to react, and that's why he let PM Jean-Marc Ayrault go and
installed Manuel Valls in Matignon to replace him. But the change has not been
anything like effective so far.On the contrary, things have gone from bad to worse.<br />
<br />
The day Valls was named a group of 100 socialist dissidents let him and
Hollande know that they might not give the new government the
parliamentary vote of confidence that would officially allow it to take
office and begin work. They backed down in the end but the tone was set -
the dissidents were here to stay.<br />
<br />
What are the dissidents angry about? They are angry at Hollande's
Social-Democratic conversion, which they say goes against everything
that socialism represents. They feel that nothing is being done to make
life easier for ordinary citizens and that the poor are being milked dry to
help the rich. In other words, their objections are of an ideological
nature.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the reality on the ground remains dire. France failed recently to persuade the EU to give it more time to get its
finances in order. This latest demand was the third in so many years and
the EU's curt refusal showed that it has finally decided to force France to engage the structural
and economic reforms that it has been trying to put off or has not been able to implement.<br />
<br />
Further bad news followed in the form of Hollande being obliged to fire a
prominent Elysée advisor because he was suspected of a conflict of
interest in his business dealings. The opposition poured oil on the
flames and Hollande's popularity ratings began to fall even further.<br />
<br />
The extent of his unpopularity became painfully clear to him today when <a href="http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/politique/20140423.OBS4840/hollande-siffle-a-carmaux-sur-les-terres-de-jaures.html" target="_blank">he was roundly bood</a>
by socialists who had come to hear him speak at a ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of
the death of legendary founding socialist Jean Jaurés, a man of
deep socialist convictions who is still revered within the party today.
Accusing him of betraying socialism and Jaurés' legacy, the protestors also demanded to know why he had not held his election promises to
be 'the enemy of finance'. <br />
<br />
Then, just this afternoon, the dissidents decided this afternoon to <a href="http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/politique/20140423.OBS4845/laurent-baumel-pourquoi-je-ne-voterai-pas-le-plan-de-50-milliards.html" target="_blank">reject planned spending cuts </a>by the government and either vote against them in parliament or abstain. These cuts are designed to contribute to the €50 billion the government is trying to raise to honour François Hollande's New Year promise to cut the business sector some tax slack to enable companies to keep prices down and hire more staff. That plan is the 'Pact of Responsibility', and Hollande said at the time that it was "urgently needed". Four months on however, almost no progress has been made on it and this is largely due to the dissidents' stalling tactics.<br />
<br />
In other words, Hollande is facing a serious backbench revolt that is holding up reforms and legislation and he and his government have been unable to move forward on changes at a time when they are of the utmost importance.<br />
<br />
How long can this situation be allowed to continue? A massively unpopular president and government, open revolt in his party, a paralysed parliament, the country is to all intents and purposes at a standstill.<br />
<br />
François Hollande is very much aware of his situation and may well be thinking that if he cannot be permitted to implement his own policies that it's time to begin to consider dissolving parliament and asking the people to decide in legislative elections. If this were to happen the result would almost certainly be a victory for the opposition UMP and a 'government of cohabitation' between Hollande and his enemies, who may, ironically, be more open to his more liberal plans. As to the dissidents, many of them would be out of a job.<br />
<br />
What if the dissidents threw out his cuts when they are voted upon? What if he threatened dissolution? Would the threat force the dissidents to climb down? We don't know yet, but we do know that something must be done, and soon, to ensure that France has a functioning government at the very moment it most desperately needs one.<br />
<br />Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-46799780480075560052014-04-06T06:58:00.000-07:002014-04-06T07:11:43.288-07:00Suicidal French socialists should take Winston Churchill's advice<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_dFCL-5hIzOEMiQJhTSQQzTBmFxt3gBkkkEtRU1ZQqsLyyETz2Dpo0MKBA7kvePvphusaA4S85Z6k0kamuOlk-cOXtghmRkvoiXxGNM7PGLRMY8UxL5MeQ2o4m6KvtnctA7XWviZYSnMK/s1600/France-la-taxe-a-75-s-appliquera-aux-revenus-de-2013-et-2014_article_popin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_dFCL-5hIzOEMiQJhTSQQzTBmFxt3gBkkkEtRU1ZQqsLyyETz2Dpo0MKBA7kvePvphusaA4S85Z6k0kamuOlk-cOXtghmRkvoiXxGNM7PGLRMY8UxL5MeQ2o4m6KvtnctA7XWviZYSnMK/s1600/France-la-taxe-a-75-s-appliquera-aux-revenus-de-2013-et-2014_article_popin.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy of AFP/Archives</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It has been a week to the day since the Socialists and the president were handed the biggest defeat in local elections ever recorded during the 5th Republic. The nature of the cabinet reshuffl that has followed seems to indicate that Hollande has recognised that his government needs to speak with one voice if it is to be credible, and Valls is determined to put a stop to the squabbles and contradictory declarations that characterised Ayrault's reign.<br />
<br />
Yet, incredibly, Valls and Hollande are today facing the biggest revolt by backbench Socialists since Hollande became elected, and the cacophony of dissent is deafening. Added to this is the fact that the ecologists have decided not to participate in the new government, thus weakening it from day one.<br />
<br />
It began on the very evening that the election results were announced, but it went relatively unnoticed at first. Consisting of a document called <i>The Conditions for Confidence - For a Contract of the Majority</i>, <a href="http://www.liberation.fr/politiques/2014/04/06/des-parlementaires-socialistes-appellent-a-un-virage-a-gauche_993506" target="_blank">it demands that the government and Hollande change their policies</a> and insists that Hollande must implement his election promises. It goes on to outline a series of measures its authors say should be taken immediately in order to change course.<br />
<br />
The reason for the dissent is that Hollande and Valls have made it clear
that the government's policy package is to remain more or less intact.
This means we shall see more cuts and more money - €50bn - dedicated to
helping businesses to create new jobs. It's a brave - some would say
foolhardy - move designed to get France's economy back on track and
reduce deficits.<br />
<br />
Who is behind it? The main instigator seems to be no less that party
First Secretary Martine Aubry, a woman who has never hidden her disdain
for Manuel Valls and who is still licking her wounds after being
defeated in her efforts to become Prime minister after Hollande's
victory. This led her to refuse a cabinet post and keep her distance
from Matignon. So far the document has been signed on to by 86 députés
and senior left-wing figures, including the First Vice-president of the
National Assembly and the presidents of several parliamentary
commissions. At least a couple of dozen more are expected to sign it before Valls presents his new policies to parliament for a vote of confidence next Tuesday.<br />
<br />
It begins by declaring that <i>"dialogue with the new government begins now"</i> and goes on to list its demands. Here are those that are directly related to the economy;<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[We must] obtain a reorientation of Europe that puts an end to the policies of austerity that have pushed Europe into recession [by establishing] sustainable budgetary trajectories....<br />
[We must] concentrate public means on the real creation of jobs and intensify industrial renewal. For that, we must substitute a national investment pact, negotiated with companies, for the more costly conditions that are without conditions [for business] that are being considered right now in the Pact of Responsibility.<br />
[We demand] measures in favour of low salary earners, fiscal reform and a progressive CSG [a tax that helps finance the Social Security system] and an effort in favour of those on modest retirement benefits.<br />
[We need to] Reaffirm and amplify the choices and engagements undertaken in 2012: beef up efforts to regulate financial and banking activities. </blockquote>
To put that into plain English;<br />
<br />
- France should confront the EU (and Germany) and demand that the very budgetary constraints that France helped to create to save the euro should be scrapped in favour of a more laxist approach that would increase national debt, thus risking the ire of the markets, the IMF and the moneylenders.<br />
- France should create tax-funded jobs, thus increasing the tax burden on households in order to create artificial jobs that don't create wealth. Also, business should be forced to contribute to the effort, thus lessening the possibility of them creating real jobs and frightening investors away. <br />
- More public money should be found to help the less well off.<br />
- Hollande should put his "I am the enemy of finance" promise into effect, with stricter demands being placed upon the markets and banks, despite the fact that doing so unilaterally would ensure that France became the international paria of the world of business, lending and investment.<br />
<br />
In other words, this document demands that France revert to the very policies that got it into this mess in the first place. Hollande tried them for almost a year until it became clear that doing so risked driving the economy straight over a cliff and pushing the country into a deep recession.<br />
<br />
French socialists still seem to be stuck in a timewarp in which believe that business, bosses and the rich are their enemies and that France can tax its way out of debt using their money. Adopting these policies would be akin to committing economic suicide and Hollande and Valls should reject these demands out of hands.<br />
<br />
I am reminded of these wise words;<br />
<br />
<i>"I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket trying to lift himself up by the handle."</i>- Winston ChurchillFripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-83360317718629672622014-04-03T10:02:00.000-07:002014-04-03T10:02:08.053-07:00Hollande and Valls create France's first ever de facto Social-Democrat government<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Valls_Toulouse_2012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Valls_Toulouse_2012.JPG" height="400" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Manuel Valls, French Social Democrat</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The day after the Socialist's and François Hollande's crushing defeat in the local elections saw not only Hollande but a slew of other government heavyweights insisting that yes yes, "we have heard the message of the French people."<br />
<br />
Well, they may have 'heard the message', but Hollande has clearly decided that it's not because he heard it that he should listen to it. That's why he has chosen to continue to implement his highly unpopular policies, which consist of a mix of measures designed to help businesses, tax households and kickstart a decrease in France's record unemployment rate via structural reforms. Going further, he has eliminated a couple of dissenting voices in the ranks of the cabinet and installed Manuel Valls in Matignon. But why Valls?<br />
<br />
Hollande's presidential election campaign was highly ambiguous, alternating as it did between promising to reform France's antiquated job market and saying he was the "enemy of finance", or saying he would reduce public spending yet promising job creation based on it being financed by the state. However, after a few initial months trying to borrow his way out of debt whilst continuing to spend he was sharply reprimanded by the EU, investors and the markets. It was at this point that he took the plunge and opted for what is called in France 'the social compromise'. This is the name given to the post war acceptance by the left that the head-to-head ideological class fight against capital was doomed to defeat and that it had become necessary to trade off some of its more hardline values and compromise more with a changing world. In other words, Hollande began to 'do a Tony Blair' and adopt more liberal policies.<br />
<br />
Mid-January saw Hollande announcing his 'pact of responsibility', a plan to inject money into the business world and make it easier for companies to hire and fire, and to drive his point home he announced that he was a Social-Democrat in the sense that he was going to "take action to reach a compromise with big business." The announcement was roundly condemned by the left wing of his party and all the other left-wing parties, the press didn't quite know what to make of it all, and the public became even more disillusioned with him than it had been up till then. But the government was rattled by the extent of the revolt, which reached its peak when the local elections came around, hence Hollande's drubbing. Hollande now needed a whipping boy, a sacrifice to feed to the lions of public opinion.<br />
<br />
Enter Manuel Valls. He was a natural choice for two reasons. Firstly, he is a stickler for discipline, and party discipline in particular. During Ayrault's time dissention was rife within the cabinet, which sent out conflicting statements on just about everything to the point where the government looked more like a rudderless ship with a rowdy and rebellious crew aboard than anything else. Valls, however, is expected to restore order and impose a more coordinated and disciplined system of communicating with the press and public, whereby unofficial press statements and interviews shall become more sparse and dissention within the ranks sanctioned. Think 'professional', instead of 'amateur', politics.<br />
<br />
More importantly however, he has been chosen because he shares Hollande's political and ideological approach. Intensely disliked by left-wingers, he, like Hollande, is a self-proclaimed Social-Democrat whose ideas have often been compared to those of Tony Blair. He will be best remembered at the Interior ministry for continuing to implement policies from the days of Sarkozy that resulted in a no-nonsense policy of deporting Roma and other illegal immigrants as well as failed asylum-seekers. <br />
<br />
He is also known to be a critic of the dogmatic left-wing approach to fixing problems that consists of clamouring for more spending as well as tighter controls over the business sector. A pragmatist, Valls considers that the only way out of the economic hole that France is in is to reform its employment legislation, help businesses to create jobs and accept that belts are going to have to be tightened. In other words, he is a 'Hollandist'.<br />
<br />
The Hollande-Valls tandem shall probably last until the next presidential elections, three years from now, and between now and then they are to steer the country through a round of spending cuts, debt-paying and structural reform of the economy in general that is designed to get the country back on its feet.<br />
<br />
One may agree or not with these policies, but one thing's for sure, Hollande and Valls are no longer representative of a socialist agenda. They are implementing an unabashedly social-democratic agenda. If they fail, the right will sweep back into power like a tsunami, and the Socialist Party will be in opposition yet again after just one term in office.<br />
<br />
But if they succeed, they will, ironically, have effectively killed off French Socialism and replaced it with fully-fledged social democracy.<br />
Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-7040810094733103222014-03-30T13:58:00.000-07:002014-03-30T16:28:55.406-07:00French local elections: Hollande is not the only big loser<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Carte-electorale-francaise-recto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Carte-electorale-francaise-recto.jpg" height="290" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A French polling card, one of millions that went unused today</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The result of today's French local elections was already a foregone conclusion as early as midday, when the press announced that just 19.83% of the electorate had turned out thus far for the second round. <br />
<br />
Meanwhile, opposition UMP and Front National voters had their tails up. They knew they had every chance on capitalising on their first round gains, they were smelling blood, and they have finally got it in the form of a crushing defeat for the socialists and François Hollande.<br />
<br />
This was the first national ballot since Hollande's election in May
2012, and as such this shattering defeat effectively represents payback
time for a
President and government who have been in trouble since the day they
were elected. Hollande quickly came under pressure to deliver on
his best-known election slogan, which was "I am the enemy of finance",
and indeed he did begin his mandate with some harsh news for business
and good news for the public. But as the country's financial situation degraded it
was soon clear that this honeymoon could, and would, not last. 'Finance' finally
picked up the gauntlet and France has been harshly
sanctioned by international financial organisations, investors and the
credit
rating agencies ever since. Finally, disastrous unemployment levels, a
catastrophic loss of foreign investment and widespread discontent with
the way the country was being run led him to capitulate and tax
households to the limit whilst giving tax breaks and other favours to
business in a desperate ateempt to stimulate the jobs market. <br />
<br />
In other words, disastrous as this result is for François Hollande and his government, it comes as no surprise. The first round resulted in very poor results for the socialists, whereas the UMP and FN did well. The abstention rate last week was 36.45%, and today saw it reach yet another new record high of 38%.<br />
<br />
Unsurprisingly, the UMP, which despite the fact that it has had more of it share of problems lately what with a
bitterly divided leadership and much internal squabbling, is tonight's
big winner, having taken France's fourth-biggest city - Toulouse - as well as Saint-Etienne, Carcassonne, Laval, Quimper, Roubaix, Ajaccio, and many other towns. <br />
<br />
The Front National captured a record number of towns, mainly in the south of the country. This tally included some fairly sizeable towns such as Béziers and Fréjus, <br />
<br />
As for the Socialists, the pickings were meager, with the victory off Annie Hidalgo in Paris in a closely-fought battle being the only tiny sliver of good news on what has otherwise been an awful day for them, a day during which they lost well over 150 small-to-medium towns.<br />
<br />
The future now looks extremely bleak for Hollande, who is widely expected to announce a cabinet reshuffle within the next few days, with PM Jean-Marc Ayrault being tipped to be replaced by either Laurent Fabius or Manuel Valls.<br />
<br />
But the biggest loser here isn't Hollande, who is a career politician. After all, he's 'just' a president, and as such he can be replaced. What cannot be replaced however, at least not in the next few years, is the public's lost faith in its institutions and politicians. Today's record high abstention rate and sanction vote are merely the outward signs of a deep malaise in French society, a society that is becoming increasingly alienated from the democratic process and is profoundly cynical about its future prospects. <br />
<br />
Successive French governments have tried to put off essential economic and social reforms for as long as possible. But these reforms are slowly but surely being imposed upon a recalcitrant France by globalised trade and a change in the world region pecking order that sees Europe in decline and Asia on the up. Hollande too has been resisting, and although he has done enough to persuade the moneylenders and the EU to stay off his back for a short while, much more needs to be done to catch up on the long years spent neglecting major structural problems in the economy.<br />
<br />
France is a country that knows it must change, but is tetanised by fear at the very prospect of having to do so. The people are resigned and dispirited, and the reputation of the ruling classes is as bad as it has ever been in all the 27 years I have lived here.<br />
<br />
What France badly needs right now is a president and parliament that can rise to the occasion and persuade the people to support them, however grudgingly, as they seek to get the country back on its feet.<br />
<br />
In other words, France needs the one thing it doesn't have today - a pragmatic, charismatic and inspiring leader.Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-74599132539398130732013-10-13T04:58:00.000-07:002013-10-13T04:58:16.517-07:00France struggles to turn good ideas into profit: is it serious Doc?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/The_Culebra_Cut_7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="301" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/The_Culebra_Cut_7.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Panama Canal construction - 1896</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I have often heard French people declare that 'France is good at inventing things but bad at selling them', and I was reminded of that adage this morning by a combination of the content of two articles I read on the online French press.<br />
<br />
The first article is on <a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2013/10/11/01016-20131011ARTFIG00488-le-grand-jour-du-canal-de-panama.php" target="_blank">Le Figaro's '100 Years Ago'</a> pages, and it recounts the interesting story of how the Panama Canal was imagined by the French, but built and exploited by the Americans.<br />
<br />
Various countries and leaders had dreamed of building the canal since as early as the 1500s, but the French would be the first to try. Construction began in 1881 with major funding from both industry and the state, but the project soon proved to be more difficult than had initially been planned. It was eventually abandoned due to a combination of the ill-prepareness of geological and other studies, insufficiently trained engineers with little experience, unexpectedly high death rates among the workers due to malaria, poor equipment, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_scandals" target="_blank">financial mismanagement and political corruption</a>. The fiasco had cost a fortune in lost investment and the loss of 22,000 lives due to illness and accidents.<br />
<br />
The result was that the United States - who were also interested in building a canal - subsequently took over the project and finished it successfully thanks to better preparations and more expertise in the field of construction. France had conceded what would have been a major commercial and geopolitical advantage to America and its influence in South America has never fully recovered to this day.<br />
<br />
I then went to Nouvelobs' site where I came across an article with the headline <a href="http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/education/20131011.OBS0868/les-francais-inventent-beaucoup-au-profit-des-etrangers.html" target="_blank">'The French invent lots of things, and foreigners profit from them'</a>. The article discusses the results of an international classification of countries according to the number of patents for newly-invented products they produce, and at first glance France does very well indeed seeing as it takes third place.<br />
<br />
But the good news stops there. France may possess more patents than many other countries but the vast majority of the money it makes from them comes from selling them to foreign countries, who then go on to transform the prototypes and theoretical expertise they have just bought into sellable - and profitable - products. The country's technological prowess may be excellent, but France's industrial trade balance is in deficit.<br />
<br />
French Minister for Higher Education and Research recently summed up the situation with the following statement, made during a parliamentary speech;<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"We must overcome the valley of death that separates research and innovation here in France. [...] French mentalities have been recalcitrant with respect to the links between the academic world, the world of research, and industry for far too long." She pleads for improvements in the way France looks at intellectual property "..to ensure that the excellence of our research, which is financed by public money, is not pillaged by others."</blockquote>
So there we have it. Two examples over a 100-year timespan that demonstrate France's ability to imagine and begin projects only to fail to capitalise on them due to a lack of vision and foresight. It would seem then that France is indeed "..good at inventing things but bad at selling them'.<br />
<br />
But does that really matter? After all, France is still one of the top six economies in the world and the French, despite their penchant for complaining, enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world.<br />
<br />
I am reminded of another expression that the French often use to describe themselves. It says that the French are 'sweet dreamers'. Perhaps they are after all, and there's nothing wrong with that in my book.<br />
Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-16286111788225301142013-10-02T13:23:00.001-07:002013-10-02T13:26:32.153-07:00A self-confessed pedophile is released on bail to await his trial. WHAT????!!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrUhaNxPcrC6643opSgEQxtK9VxjVs0VGoefcbpNBRNxCEUuw98RnIT9lk5GfsxvPT3giOxHuB6oMVzJxHOtXuAudY2oqMsEJksf3tTt8NWY3As4x-e5OqVF8hOfqKLdGb_9FT_ywh-FYT/s1600/zSans+titre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrUhaNxPcrC6643opSgEQxtK9VxjVs0VGoefcbpNBRNxCEUuw98RnIT9lk5GfsxvPT3giOxHuB6oMVzJxHOtXuAudY2oqMsEJksf3tTt8NWY3As4x-e5OqVF8hOfqKLdGb_9FT_ywh-FYT/s400/zSans+titre.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="fig-chapo" itemprop="about">
A 27-year-old military serviceman from Toulon in France who stands accused of repeatedly raping his niece over a period of three years <a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2013/10/02/01016-20131002ARTFIG00495-la-surprenante-remise-en-liberte-d-un-violeur-d-enfant-a-toulon.php" target="_blank">has been released on bail</a>. </div>
<div class="fig-chapo" itemprop="about">
<br /></div>
<div class="fig-chapo" itemprop="about">
The accused man has already admitted that he raped his niece on five occasions, the first of which was on July 1, 2009. The girl was 11 years old at that time. He is also known to have accessed pedopornographic images on the Internet over a period of several months. </div>
<div class="fig-chapo" itemprop="about">
<br /></div>
<div class="fig-chapo" itemprop="about">
The judge justified his decision to free the man to await trial instead of holding him in custody pending trial by saying that he had "furnished details about all the acts of which he is accused", that nothing "would lead one to consider that he lied during his spoken statements to the police", and that there is nothing to indicate "that there may be other victims". The judge concluded that the accused "presented solid guarantees that he would not skip bail." </div>
<div class="fig-chapo" itemprop="about">
<br /></div>
<div class="fig-chapo" itemprop="about">
It goes without saying that this judgement has outraged many people. The police are furious that long months of hard work designed to put a suspected repeat-offender pedophile behind bars has failed even before his trial, the public - and parents of young children in particular - is dumbfounded, and it's the same story for all those associations and other organisations that fight child abuse and pedophilia. </div>
<div class="fig-chapo" itemprop="about">
<br /></div>
<div class="fig-chapo" itemprop="about">
And I am outraged too. I am absolutely incensed that in this, a supposedly modern and progressist society which says it respects human - and that includes children's - rights, a judge can free a man who has admitted that he raped a child five times. I am sickened by the judge's mealy-mouthed, totally biased and subjective reasoning, and - although I would never dream of voting for them myself - I fully understand why the French political party which is making the most positive progress in polls at the moment is the.......</div>
<div class="fig-chapo" itemprop="about">
<br /></div>
<div class="fig-chapo" itemprop="about">
<br />
.......extreme-right National Front. </div>
<div class="fig-chapo" itemprop="about">
<br /></div>
Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-17489601835286534002013-09-30T12:31:00.000-07:002013-09-30T12:34:19.235-07:00Photos of the Vieux Port of Marseille<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBf8FlOouk07UG2D6ta0KEYg2KSiFpF6MRqtrHFgzaSBIY57nZmIbKkHY9NDeWOQ5ToNJ_RaVFE7M-tRJa2sC1iud7deR5wVBA76xSEenJWAgXgtiI3NqrG2ddjmTJhFVLd6ZqeAWRqEUw/s1600/a+gold+statue_edited.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBf8FlOouk07UG2D6ta0KEYg2KSiFpF6MRqtrHFgzaSBIY57nZmIbKkHY9NDeWOQ5ToNJ_RaVFE7M-tRJa2sC1iud7deR5wVBA76xSEenJWAgXgtiI3NqrG2ddjmTJhFVLd6ZqeAWRqEUw/s400/a+gold+statue_edited.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
Readers of the French press will be aware that newspapers invariably jump on every gangland killing in Marseille and hold it up as an example of the city's chronic problem with drug dealing and violent crime in general. The articles are often given angst-ridden and dramatic headlines such as 'Marseille: the most dangerous city in France!!' Much debate then follows about the best way to resolve the issues. Equally predictable is the reaction to these stories of the people of Marseille. They hold that the press is exaggerating the phenomenon and giving the city a bad name. The truth though - as is ever the case with this kind of phenomenon - lies somewhere in between these two extremes.<br />
<br />
Also true though is that despite the city's problems, the Vieux Port of Marseille is one of the most beautiful ports to be found not only in France, but in the whole of Europe. <br />
<br />
So here are some photos of it that I took a couple of years back. The one here at the top of the page is the statue of the Virgin Mary with Jesus on top of the Notre Dame de la Garde, which overlooks the port and is the highest point in the city. I'm posting these photos as a reminder that Marseille is not just about violence, it's about a historical past, grace and elegance too.<br />
<br />
----------------------------------<br />
<br />
Humans have inhabited Marseille and its environs for almost 30,000 years, but the Vieux Port didn't begin to take on an international aspect until after the Greeks arrived there. There is testimony to that in the form of a commemorative plaque that is imbedded into the quayside. It reads;<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It was here that Greek sailors who had come from the Greek city of Phocea in Asia Minor came ashore in about 600 BC. They founded Marseille, from where civilisation would illuminate the West.</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc1R3K7iXfdm2q-g9nDxCnPSqLfMGO5rGKJgi0zeFRTJjvICNqOqCP7ee1r6zdSAI70oLMmYIGLQWN_yF0dM__jpu2dGiGYugVwMEk3G9POPAN5-eBcDuIPmsroT8elfKyo_4_xMJnMLrh/s1600/a+plaque_edited.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc1R3K7iXfdm2q-g9nDxCnPSqLfMGO5rGKJgi0zeFRTJjvICNqOqCP7ee1r6zdSAI70oLMmYIGLQWN_yF0dM__jpu2dGiGYugVwMEk3G9POPAN5-eBcDuIPmsroT8elfKyo_4_xMJnMLrh/s640/a+plaque_edited.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The port is of the picture postcard variety and it's easy to understand why.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtPKfXLQNA3OEdYCSECKbBnxIzOkjBzjCkqFxyHAv6V_NwWjDl3l7NQGIApvLSsOJt-snMrjwV4lByTHjHV-BcJvBhpzfxsL1IjOUSL6aryK1r2zMDYSIGcBqNrmXBeo-WWwWU-GVybZpc/s1600/a+low+port+view_edited.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtPKfXLQNA3OEdYCSECKbBnxIzOkjBzjCkqFxyHAv6V_NwWjDl3l7NQGIApvLSsOJt-snMrjwV4lByTHjHV-BcJvBhpzfxsL1IjOUSL6aryK1r2zMDYSIGcBqNrmXBeo-WWwWU-GVybZpc/s640/a+low+port+view_edited.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWb1hIZ3AXazwSNFqFWLn1RFVHFvFsHS7Gi9nCUP0B7emaXHmEm6XP9gG693gY0tVj-JHwYEaEBPG_pDfQByWkd9YYwNfEaCd7V60t7yrajM0Sx3SUZ5gFsaptOcY4AoqgEcng3lleP_OF/s1600/P1020124_edited.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWb1hIZ3AXazwSNFqFWLn1RFVHFvFsHS7Gi9nCUP0B7emaXHmEm6XP9gG693gY0tVj-JHwYEaEBPG_pDfQByWkd9YYwNfEaCd7V60t7yrajM0Sx3SUZ5gFsaptOcY4AoqgEcng3lleP_OF/s640/P1020124_edited.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The Vieux Port is home to many sailing boats and smaller yachts.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirxhc6nFtG3-c3B4tgV3xKG7ULVY_1FpJpGZPQ-eRsb8KHXIhdakNUHr8YlgWSObdWwo8nyC11QuUnUDE7ZagkFKBKCbv8ptzNLsDDs5J0XpVtTAK2u-qW8ZKRBgsM9qxsb3JFevjyxMzQ/s1600/a+lotsaboats_edited.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirxhc6nFtG3-c3B4tgV3xKG7ULVY_1FpJpGZPQ-eRsb8KHXIhdakNUHr8YlgWSObdWwo8nyC11QuUnUDE7ZagkFKBKCbv8ptzNLsDDs5J0XpVtTAK2u-qW8ZKRBgsM9qxsb3JFevjyxMzQ/s640/a+lotsaboats_edited.JPG" width="480" /> </a> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4G8qYH87Hq0yPzrGc56Np0emJ2mOvR-A71N6aqnDDZug3DhLlW2fy6WntqfpaOmQRwYPYxRraMdmEg7QGY_GCF1rhNaqf3XcYwzVFhnb8h9QS9BB_Ay63l46c2Ia7YjqfdTaorKBLmEP9/s1600/a+schooner_edited.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4G8qYH87Hq0yPzrGc56Np0emJ2mOvR-A71N6aqnDDZug3DhLlW2fy6WntqfpaOmQRwYPYxRraMdmEg7QGY_GCF1rhNaqf3XcYwzVFhnb8h9QS9BB_Ay63l46c2Ia7YjqfdTaorKBLmEP9/s640/a+schooner_edited.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Here is the perimeter of the commercial shipping port, which is of vital importance to the city's economy. I took this photo from a vantage point at which I could turn around and see the Vieux Port.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhanwCG_-w7tYKIkTZXJ4w968GRWmrDVvPIXpdOk3Yl8jflOEdfMlkukC5X-JCIEwpdKmDEL-YD976SLi0MnP-r7O0Nkb1P_ofFl7MXpCE1rZjJ4jCjQ5GZ9se1HG2yLDfdhM8gJ5IHWvx1/s1600/a+harbour_edited.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhanwCG_-w7tYKIkTZXJ4w968GRWmrDVvPIXpdOk3Yl8jflOEdfMlkukC5X-JCIEwpdKmDEL-YD976SLi0MnP-r7O0Nkb1P_ofFl7MXpCE1rZjJ4jCjQ5GZ9se1HG2yLDfdhM8gJ5IHWvx1/s640/a+harbour_edited.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The port is U-shaped, with the top of the U representing the exit towards the Mediterranean, but if you're near the exit and want to visit the other side don't worry, you don't have to go back down and all around the U to get there because some bright entrepreneur once had the excellent - and very popular - idea of operating a ferry from one side to the other. Here's the crew, and as this photo shows the people of Marseille like to take things easy when they can. From whence this dual command post, at which one of these guys sails the ferry across, and the other sails it back. Very efficient.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSr6Mn-5m8wLBzRyGR_BRSrUj59NKmWN7kxZ7BDKG0RvACfOFidOt3nJJCRveqISZyYtFVzfigOuKJ9rS-xbAFTScxsvWqZ6kMsMLCsPIVORxeNw4O2Ikviap8rXl5GpwKIasC2riPg8Xi/s1600/a+two+man+crew_edited.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSr6Mn-5m8wLBzRyGR_BRSrUj59NKmWN7kxZ7BDKG0RvACfOFidOt3nJJCRveqISZyYtFVzfigOuKJ9rS-xbAFTScxsvWqZ6kMsMLCsPIVORxeNw4O2Ikviap8rXl5GpwKIasC2riPg8Xi/s640/a+two+man+crew_edited.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
The Vieux Port was heavily defended many years ago by forts on either side of the entrance. Here's one of them, St Jean.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKixVf_9Z50eBgetJIskwtxrxfZwZa0bbLv4b6w35etEB5TA1Wyu6At5R1Sq41uwMEheZQ72opuOrmKmSirk2inNmCiHHWEmOCuCKF08gI1ekdycuE80i5ugh2QWEgXoi5Bq346e_xndFd/s1600/a+fort+st+jean_edited.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKixVf_9Z50eBgetJIskwtxrxfZwZa0bbLv4b6w35etEB5TA1Wyu6At5R1Sq41uwMEheZQ72opuOrmKmSirk2inNmCiHHWEmOCuCKF08gI1ekdycuE80i5ugh2QWEgXoi5Bq346e_xndFd/s640/a+fort+st+jean_edited.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Once beyond it you are in the Mediterranean, and from the moment this fort is no longer in view you are en route for the rest of the world.......<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwslUIK0Ro1-_6R602MbV478_EKqLII5RwCqFV1QGvbu4MiRz1-bcz8mzhirAWfvZC5QUUW0IxdAK0E6t3oyZJJzVyrBWpUJBm7dgVftYPCVM3RRdZB3Du1BdH55-TZlqDWzgvBSn6iHYR/s1600/a+island+prison_edited.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwslUIK0Ro1-_6R602MbV478_EKqLII5RwCqFV1QGvbu4MiRz1-bcz8mzhirAWfvZC5QUUW0IxdAK0E6t3oyZJJzVyrBWpUJBm7dgVftYPCVM3RRdZB3Du1BdH55-TZlqDWzgvBSn6iHYR/s640/a+island+prison_edited.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
But beautiful though it is, there is much more to Marseille than its port, so I'll be back in a few days to post some photos of the downtown area and its attractions.<br />
<br />
Have a good day, wherever you may be..<br />
<br />Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-67876990777500614362013-09-28T05:31:00.001-07:002013-09-28T09:23:24.192-07:00French trade unions' opposition to sunday working: a throwback to the 19th century?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Samaritaine_2010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Samaritaine_2010.jpg" width="392" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Sephora cosmetics outlet in Paris</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Luddites were an organisation of 19th century English textile workers who opposed the introduction of newly-invented machines that were designed to improve output and reduce labour costs. The fors and againsts of their struggle have been the subject of much debate ever since, but they are still held up today as an example of either progress-stopping King Canute-style reactionaries or working class heroes, depending on one's point of view.<br />
<br />
So what, in that context, are we to make of the current dispute which is pitting French trade unions against their chain store employers? The unions and Clic-C, their representative body in the chain store sector, have been taking legal action against a number of them in an effort to stop them opening on Sundays and late in the evening during the week on the grounds that the practice is damaging to workers' health and represents an erosion of their rights. The companies involved work in industries such as food supermarkets, do-it-yourself, furniture, luxury goods shops, and finance. They include Monoprix, Leroy Merlin, Castorama, Sephora, Bricorama, Apple, Uniqlo, Franprix, Abercrombie & Fitch and Marionnaud. Most industries in France are forced to close on Sundays, with the exception of those who work in tourism, transport and a few others.<br />
<br />
Courts have come down in favour of the unions in many cases, and the chain stores concerned have been forbidden by judges to open on Sundays, with the penalty for not obeying being a fine of €120,000 per outlet for each Sunday worked. <br />
<br />
But more and more of them have announced that they are lodging appeals and <a href="http://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/entreprises/travail-le-dimanche/castorama-et-leroy-merlin-bravent-l-interdiction-d-ouvrir-le-dimanche_422015.html" target="_blank">shall open on Sundays despite the ban</a>, saying that not doing so would result in revenue losses of up to 25% and thousands of staff layoffs. They argue that most staff members are not obliged to work on Sundays and that those who do are volunteers.<br />
<br />
This is borne out to some degree by the workers themselves, <a href="http://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/entreprises/travail-le-dimanche/des-salaries-devant-des-prefectures-pour-defendre-le-travail-dominical_421945.html" target="_blank">some of whom have held demonstrations in front of local prefectures</a> over the last few days to protest both the unions' decision to have Sunday opening banned by the courts and the laws which govern it. Workers say that a ban would cost them anything up to 10% of their take-home pay, that they would lose bonuses for working on Sundays and that part-time workers who work on Sunday only would quite simply lose their jobs. Consumer organisations are also contesting the ban.<br />
<br />
Both the workers and the consumer organisations are right, and for many reasons. The historical reason for banning work on Sundays was that workers used to work anything up to 80 hours a week over 7 days 200 years ago, often in very hard conditions. The ban was necessary and right at that time.<br />
<br />
But the world has changed since those dark days. Whereas many women did not work 60 years ago and could thus do the shopping and deal with other chores, most families today need both parents to work in order to make ends meet, with the result that they have precious little time left at the end of the day to do their shopping and buy furniture, D-I-Y materials and other items. <br />
<br />
Also, banning Sunday trading heavily penalises the tourism sector, as many tourists are used to being able to shop on Sundays in their own countries. That is why deluxe stores in Paris and other major cities are also to defy the ban, claiming that Sunday opening would create 5000 jobs in Paris alone. Supermarket chain store Monoprix is continuing to defy a ban on evening opening and claims that if they shut earlier they would be forced to shed 1500 jobs, again, in Paris alone.<br />
<br />
From a wider perspective, France currently has the highest unemployment levels ever seen during the Fifth Republic, family incomes are under a sustained tax attack from the government, and the prospect of losing even more jobs for these reasons is therefore a highly unpalatable one.<br />
<br />
French trade unions are antediluvian in nature. They are living in another era and their actions are based on ideological principles that are morally indefensible. The sad spectacle of unions attempting to all intents and purposes to get people thrown out of jobs and into the unemployment queue during the worst economic crisis the country has seen since the oil crisis in Seventies is an absurd and unedifying one. They deserve to fail, and fail they shall once the government finally gets off its backside and the fence and modernises the country's outdated Sunday trading laws.<br />
<br />
-------------------- <br />
<br />
(<i>Update</i>: The only sizeable trade union to support Sunday trading is the CFCT, whose representative for the Paris outlets of the home improvement and gardening chain store Leroy Merlin - Jean-Marc Cicuto - says today that he <a href="http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/politique/20130928.OBS8936/hamon-il-serait-inadmissible-que-leroy-merlin-ouvre-ce-dimanche.html" target="_blank">supports the company's decision </a>to defy the law and open on Sundays. He adds that "95% of Leroy Merlin staff in the Paris area are in favour of working on Sunday.")Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-35097610768653365052013-09-25T16:46:00.000-07:002013-09-26T16:21:27.445-07:00It's my birthday today, and I'm 60 years old. Hmmm.....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVEeoTLENuJaMcE72P1MSanZxYI9MCtJgEuK-vVa8xJPTy_daGlvHcjrc6dYI8HnReKCvRJCPRZzOZDd6al-yDg4hvv60uPpXgSqGMA2rl-0kBOzGM03ikBnMMs0rwV5pMzj6IhOED3FQX/s1600/oh+god.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVEeoTLENuJaMcE72P1MSanZxYI9MCtJgEuK-vVa8xJPTy_daGlvHcjrc6dYI8HnReKCvRJCPRZzOZDd6al-yDg4hvv60uPpXgSqGMA2rl-0kBOzGM03ikBnMMs0rwV5pMzj6IhOED3FQX/s320/oh+god.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Older guy still dreaming he's playing Woodstock blah blah blah.. :)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It's just before one in the morning on Thursday September 26th as I begin writing this blog entry, which means that I am now officially sixty years old. Yup, 60. Sixty-Years-Old. The big Six Zero. Six-Nought. Call it what you will.<br />
<br />
I read an article in The Guardian recently that said that we are officially "old" at 60. So I suppose I must be old then if they say so. Problem is, I don't feel old. Far from it.<br />
<br />
I've never felt better in my life! My professional life is as enriching as anyone could wish for, I am lucky enough to know some wonderful people I love dearly and who appreciate me too, I'm happier than I've ever been, I'm more confident than I've ever felt, I'm in good physical shape for my age and, despite all my mess-ups and mistakes over the long long years, I don't think I've turned out to be any worse than the next person. And god knows I could - or even should - have been a total fucking loser.<br />
<br />
Truth be told, and without going into too much detail, I should have been dead years ago. My childhood was cut short at the age of thirteen by the death of both my parents, and I was pretty much left to fend for myself, which means that I had all the characteristics and credentials it took to be a criminal. No parents, a shattered family (it took me years to find my two sisters again as we had all been scattered to the winds), and an errant lifestyle. Rapists, pedophiles, murderers and all sorts of other sundry villains and criminals use their ruined childhood as a mitigating circumstance before their judges, but I somehow - and thankfully - managed to avoid that fate (although I did spend one night in prison for picking a fight with a pub owner in Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire on my 26th birthday. I was fined the equivalent of €60 the next morning and I thoroughly deserved it. It taught me a valuable lesson).<br />
<br />
Drugs and alcohol? Oh, let's not talk about that but say we did okay? Lots of people
I knew then are not here today because of their excessive intake of drugs
and I'll not add to that. Suffice it to say that the drug and alcohol abuse that characterised my life until my forties should have killed me off, just as it did many people at that time. I can't even begin to remember how many times I woke up fully-dressed in the morning on the floor of my home with a massive hangover or acid, or opium comedown or whatever and asked myself 'how the fuck did I get home?' only to drag myself to the window to see my car, very badly parked, outside. How the hell I didn't kill myself, or, worse, kill other road users, is still, and shall forever, remain a mystery.<br />
<br />
Then there are all the people I knew who died prematurely because of illness or accidents, those who died in car and motorcycle accidents, and even some children, who died for reasons ranging from contracted disease to unsuspected heart anomalies.The latter killed a girlfriend of mine in fact. We were both nineteen and were just picking up our coats on our way out of a discotheque when she dropped down dead on the stairs in just one second. It turned out that she had been born with a time-bomb heart condition that meant that she was condemned to die young.<br />
<br />
When I was younger I used to think that people of sixty years of age were finished. They were old. They had nothing more to say or contribute to the 'modern' world which I thought belonged to me and me only. In a word, they were irrelevant has-beens to be put out to pasture. I thought I knew it all.<br />
<br />
But now that I'm 60, I know that I still know nothing much. I learn new things every day. World events such as war and the cruel things people do to each other still shock and sadden me, and I have not, thankfully, become become blasé and cynical about the realities of life. <br />
<br />
I still love people, I still love life, I still love living on this humble little planet, and I still feel that life has so much to offer me. <br />
<br />
In other words - and truth be told - this, my sixtieth birthday, is the best birthday I have ever had. I shall enjoy every moment of it, and I can only be grateful for having been born and still being alive. The future? Oh, I'm old enough now to know that <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tisjsgsgtZU" target="_blank">Tomorrow Never Knows</a>. <br />
<br />
Anyway, enough of all my ruminations and blatherings, so have a good day all.<br />
Frip<br />
<br />Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-11765318157725674152013-09-23T14:58:00.000-07:002013-09-23T16:00:18.469-07:00The Kenya massacre and the most shamefully Chamberlian article the Guardian has ever published<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVgzJ_nTUjEd7T_SOZYXDH8btIPS0dQ4rAQllyJ6TXzOsdlbnrT10_pe-FFhxa7cEdZx-qnaOGuAT9hZ6Uqoc67jDopyRryYYZ_4nmCNWMoGEeGAcIaA33I0l84SLDJCrXy9hfTQ-rb3W6/s1600/Sans+titre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVgzJ_nTUjEd7T_SOZYXDH8btIPS0dQ4rAQllyJ6TXzOsdlbnrT10_pe-FFhxa7cEdZx-qnaOGuAT9hZ6Uqoc67jDopyRryYYZ_4nmCNWMoGEeGAcIaA33I0l84SLDJCrXy9hfTQ-rb3W6/s400/Sans+titre.jpg" width="317" /></a></div>
I have been a faithful Guardian reader for 43 years, during which time I have seen many of the good, the bad and the ugly episodes that have illustrated its history. But never have I read such a crass piece of shamelessly opinion-pandering nonsense to equal that which was posted on the paper's website today by Simon Jenkins, former Times editor and current National Trust chairman.<br />
<br />
Jenkins analyses the ongoing crisis in Nairobi, Kenya, and in his conclusion he deploys the well-worn - and arguably justified to a certain degree - opinion that;<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The "war on terror" has failed on its own terms. It had made dozens of
countries not pacified but terrified. By deploying violence against a
succession of Muslim states, the world's leading powers have made their
business its business and invited retaliation. They have not crushed
al-Qaida any more than they have suppressed extreme Islamism. They have
refreshed rather than diminished that extremism, and made the world less
safe as a result."</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Fair enough, although I shall not allow myself to be innocently tempted into developing the futile chicken-and-egg answer that 9/11 demanded a response, but was itself due to western aggression, which was in turn a response to other threats against the west etc and <i>ad infinitum</i>, but what does Jenkins think should be done faced with the mindless slaughter of about seventy civilians of many nationalities in a shopping centre by religiously and ideologically-motivated terrorists? He says that the British Prime minister should, despite the fact that four British citizens are said to have been slaughtered in Nairobi as I write these words, ignore it, just as all western leaders ignore all incidents in which; <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...the Somalian al-Shabaab sect merely shot up a street in Mogadishu... </blockquote>
He goes on to add that because large gatherings of people are vulnerable to terrorist attacks that....<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It might be sensible to discourage like-minded crowds from gathering in
one place, be they co-religionists or party faithful or merely the
wealthy; </blockquote>
...and that<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The modern urban obsession with celebrity buildings and high-profile
events offers too many publicity-rich targets. A World Trade Centre, a
Mumbai hotel, a Boston marathon, a Nairobi shopping mall<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/21/nairobi-mall-attackers-target" title=""></a> are all enticing to extremists. Defending them is near impossible. Better at least not to create them. </blockquote>
In other words, Simon Jenkins is advocating that Britain and the West should appease terrorists by abandoning the beliefs and principles which hold that the free association of like-minded individuals in public is an inherently necessary right and an essential component of a democratic society, that western society should decree and enact a bland and anonymous social landscape in which neither rich, poor, religious, ethnic, political or other societal groups may congregate, and that it should abandon or adapt its fundamental principles of freedom of movement because a terrorist organisation says so.<br />
<br />
The Guardian is not to be criticised for publishing Jenkins' article - after all, 'Comment is Free' and that's how it should be - but Simon Jenkins' article is nothing more than an abject sop to terrorism and a rehash of the naive cowardice of Neville Chamberlain's paper-waving-in-the-wind capitulation to Adolf Hitler.<br />
<br />
He should be ashamed of it.<br />
<br />Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-64257125524082956102013-09-22T11:00:00.000-07:002013-09-22T11:00:21.381-07:00A lazy Sunday afternoon bike ride down the banks of the Rhône river<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBuWMXIqr-IHcRdDL7wW3uWHpHaoKTogaybag9Yzu0iUJ2CgLU0fwj_6PsDa5hpUTQdm9-LIaMk1UwZskzozP8G76_w6IhAGHOoxFR-Mt2nOJNZTIwkjMpW5SK2pJUZMO-R505SQJQFDK7/s1600/P1010154.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBuWMXIqr-IHcRdDL7wW3uWHpHaoKTogaybag9Yzu0iUJ2CgLU0fwj_6PsDa5hpUTQdm9-LIaMk1UwZskzozP8G76_w6IhAGHOoxFR-Mt2nOJNZTIwkjMpW5SK2pJUZMO-R505SQJQFDK7/s400/P1010154.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strike>A Star Trek spaceship base... </strike>a municipal swimming pool on the left bank of the Rhône</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It's autumn and most of us are enjoying the beginning of the Indian
summer which seems set to last for a week over much of Europe. That's
why I decided to get on my bike this afternoon and ride southbound along
the left bank of the Rhône here in Lyon from the northern end of the
city centre - which is a peninsula hemmed in by the Rhône on one side
and the Saône on the other - to the southern suburb where it ends, and
where I live. The weather was gorgeous! <br />
<br />
Most of us go down to the river to potter about, but some people live on it in houseboats like this one. The centre of the city is on the other side.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixcvE0A-zAJxpNyrvnf-4n28TgywfKt5tDD31ym3kw_xGhS7I787YbLCEN4MuIKI-uPoJBrPi7pLgtgX5WbxmFolHpYWvr8JJBzZ51-04jAUZZbcIKz4hZ6Io77gfC0eA29BQWUJUl5ANB/s1600/P1010147.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixcvE0A-zAJxpNyrvnf-4n28TgywfKt5tDD31ym3kw_xGhS7I787YbLCEN4MuIKI-uPoJBrPi7pLgtgX5WbxmFolHpYWvr8JJBzZ51-04jAUZZbcIKz4hZ6Io77gfC0eA29BQWUJUl5ANB/s640/P1010147.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Some of the Rhône's finest bridges were blown up by the German army in WWII in an effort to hold up its Allied persuers during its retreat from France in late 1944 and early 1945, but thankfully some of them were left untouched. Here's one of them.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY6C_eYoQZqiaV18FK89AqcIiJb7xmyLe80BeikLwHKIJs6KXYVqi6N3yJUyT7IPip5X99OOhOO8cIFtu9nVgluxiq-oLZyAO2Ugzu0WoegTABdKCJtt6Ex7kWtzHUBO5RJHDHV8xrHymA/s1600/P1010156.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY6C_eYoQZqiaV18FK89AqcIiJb7xmyLe80BeikLwHKIJs6KXYVqi6N3yJUyT7IPip5X99OOhOO8cIFtu9nVgluxiq-oLZyAO2Ugzu0WoegTABdKCJtt6Ex7kWtzHUBO5RJHDHV8xrHymA/s640/P1010156.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Some people go jogging by the river...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsUn820yaTlbvG5garRJBTflTYoOTWBrnm5fRFRAzK3Nr5d8GDCB3aixfgfoGh8y8RF-sW_1VDyAf3agERSu4ggJ4DCrQ4yO0-i-pawExz4uqTEY7Phvt65naso_v6HBtOqPPeLhWB4L1D/s1600/P1010153.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsUn820yaTlbvG5garRJBTflTYoOTWBrnm5fRFRAzK3Nr5d8GDCB3aixfgfoGh8y8RF-sW_1VDyAf3agERSu4ggJ4DCrQ4yO0-i-pawExz4uqTEY7Phvt65naso_v6HBtOqPPeLhWB4L1D/s640/P1010153.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
...others hang out and play music under the trees....<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZuU0PWlpiI0iDtenXaa54mib-0_AvvuTv2FwyJucINoewieV6J-rKrcl0fJXtjdZRZ1ywv8IkIR_KepekEEQC8qxRBwcFgI95m0HwxZh-6J2HBAUmsmJIRphItk7swgWYLznsSbXUW9PA/s1600/P1010149.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZuU0PWlpiI0iDtenXaa54mib-0_AvvuTv2FwyJucINoewieV6J-rKrcl0fJXtjdZRZ1ywv8IkIR_KepekEEQC8qxRBwcFgI95m0HwxZh-6J2HBAUmsmJIRphItk7swgWYLznsSbXUW9PA/s640/P1010149.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
...but whatever they do, they all appreciate the bar-barges which sell the cold drinks they need in weather like this.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkVnXF6IxhvURmDb6FoIuvRXryFoo09twQoXMda50XOWNvjYB82uMgzosWrPCL4CSRRb_ct4iGk_kUnpVyZ1AeMAylZw8HNxJQkg0aCMsr_aTe7BVHmNK45lB8IiBBJ-IrdjUr1vbUSPmp/s1600/P1010148.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkVnXF6IxhvURmDb6FoIuvRXryFoo09twQoXMda50XOWNvjYB82uMgzosWrPCL4CSRRb_ct4iGk_kUnpVyZ1AeMAylZw8HNxJQkg0aCMsr_aTe7BVHmNK45lB8IiBBJ-IrdjUr1vbUSPmp/s640/P1010148.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Heading south out of the centre and towards where I live, there's less activity and people, but much more greenery and nature. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBMQfgz9w_DMwMCkV9K3yUXNhYnVb823RsKrnlM9MLeUYfGOJjseyusOWLmN_Pgan1W5HUfqyWvjmQftMARj9tR0B3UwCzHeM4g21BbH7SZOMMTByHa_gq6OiNrTTJZGWSQYzLtBiM_B5k/s1600/P1010120.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBMQfgz9w_DMwMCkV9K3yUXNhYnVb823RsKrnlM9MLeUYfGOJjseyusOWLmN_Pgan1W5HUfqyWvjmQftMARj9tR0B3UwCzHeM4g21BbH7SZOMMTByHa_gq6OiNrTTJZGWSQYzLtBiM_B5k/s640/P1010120.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZzF8G3WtMV5WQsV36bZJ5w0p96e87ejOdH90KCuS1W5SRH-2bus0mOIPaIuQ4N7BBixYuyQANKVSXyfynd5SqkNfAKb8JX0IoF9oA787O8VTT-JtVbj8xRmeq7L_xkGOiJ2h3xv1rQdd7/s1600/P1010126.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZzF8G3WtMV5WQsV36bZJ5w0p96e87ejOdH90KCuS1W5SRH-2bus0mOIPaIuQ4N7BBixYuyQANKVSXyfynd5SqkNfAKb8JX0IoF9oA787O8VTT-JtVbj8xRmeq7L_xkGOiJ2h3xv1rQdd7/s640/P1010126.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
This swan is one of a couple which has lived here for a long while now and they are well known to the locals.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivbgn7T5OWiTOQ8qeUhZ5ZI2vfpdeO35uKvR49iQz1n0ecHjNHMWmLq5UmNLkKejOC1NgpPg8tpTS6VWunvUStjefd8DHW31enARwzMOql3hDbjT70_reGtNjE5DpXe3-dPxGHEsI3LdWQ/s1600/P1010132.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivbgn7T5OWiTOQ8qeUhZ5ZI2vfpdeO35uKvR49iQz1n0ecHjNHMWmLq5UmNLkKejOC1NgpPg8tpTS6VWunvUStjefd8DHW31enARwzMOql3hDbjT70_reGtNjE5DpXe3-dPxGHEsI3LdWQ/s640/P1010132.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Can anyone tell me what this strange structure is? It has a door at the top and reminds me of a public toilet, although I'd rather take a leak behind a bush than swim out to that. And there isn't even a ladder!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaDVwvx9PUS-s646bUwvAVvjez3xTuQ9gALe3wXbkfwRQgj03HlnG2MWT5iBljc05mrJRzQOZ7EPUOkFPJhoxM8WwO1z_gRyBz3SGBJ8MyJ-POTbntBf0UQjHxaDGMhpr-FpWas3d3hisy/s1600/P1010133.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaDVwvx9PUS-s646bUwvAVvjez3xTuQ9gALe3wXbkfwRQgj03HlnG2MWT5iBljc05mrJRzQOZ7EPUOkFPJhoxM8WwO1z_gRyBz3SGBJ8MyJ-POTbntBf0UQjHxaDGMhpr-FpWas3d3hisy/s640/P1010133.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
The quayside disappears towards the end of the peninsula and gives way to grassy slopes upon which people can relax in the sun and drink in the peace and quiet.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhtARG01Q7kdKdHR2IBRMQ2isewYAxcIkX6T4ytggr5YmCXFSYi3Zn54I4py6YFvbwjPVfaxYNefjmRscqk7qr2YBQ4Gpr3J6ElC4EfqqjjT2UGT5zbsVRS-ZelLvhpHoW-Y_qIQlvpTFH/s1600/P1010140.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhtARG01Q7kdKdHR2IBRMQ2isewYAxcIkX6T4ytggr5YmCXFSYi3Zn54I4py6YFvbwjPVfaxYNefjmRscqk7qr2YBQ4Gpr3J6ElC4EfqqjjT2UGT5zbsVRS-ZelLvhpHoW-Y_qIQlvpTFH/s640/P1010140.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I've lost count of the number of times I've seen couples canoodling here in this little haven of peace and tranquility.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXGwsCBzewkxtulJq66Z8tqp89mGXqjBqZIdomwYbCrB0efz4c2HW_O60-q9VIG9rUuhriiL8izURoU9Xe6pnlJeOgdAyXz9jrTaKmRojU4zDxRdroE0k0GxMVxqYHZNR7g4IEeT1AOiyX/s1600/P1010142.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXGwsCBzewkxtulJq66Z8tqp89mGXqjBqZIdomwYbCrB0efz4c2HW_O60-q9VIG9rUuhriiL8izURoU9Xe6pnlJeOgdAyXz9jrTaKmRojU4zDxRdroE0k0GxMVxqYHZNR7g4IEeT1AOiyX/s640/P1010142.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
And this is where the peninsula, and the bike track, ends.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ8N1ButnmDfgQxIdaluJ1bliMLyN6zLaYSqIitNOeRYSiDxIQHOdixsXVMJjCOsrILQydNiMK82h9Z0Un8BldFkik78TxTfwtd1YUbWSv-4SBABkbyMSbkzcS-9sGZ7IQSyDLcmp95sr4/s1600/P1010144.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ8N1ButnmDfgQxIdaluJ1bliMLyN6zLaYSqIitNOeRYSiDxIQHOdixsXVMJjCOsrILQydNiMK82h9Z0Un8BldFkik78TxTfwtd1YUbWSv-4SBABkbyMSbkzcS-9sGZ7IQSyDLcmp95sr4/s640/P1010144.JPG" width="480" /> </a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
If you were to get on a boat from here and continue on down south, you
would sail through the valleys of the Ardèche region and onwards to the
charming towns of Valence, Montelimar and Avignon before reaching the
Mediterranean Sea near Marseille, and, if you wanted to go further
still, you could continue on to Northern Africa and the rest of the
world......<br />
<br />
Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-89938602464361734222013-09-20T16:55:00.002-07:002013-09-20T17:00:30.722-07:00The immigrant's story<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjTkPbHV-Zwie_mitgSNN-6HCw9kijUoRwBXzE3pXlGFvTkrN4eWPGWI2rLYtWExPdBRoqUw60xfKxzog_LB6cCze2EIQppBdIPVXpfp7-T8crnAdByXi6UHTLYFo5uafLO3Zp-vBIhc4q/s1600/fr3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjTkPbHV-Zwie_mitgSNN-6HCw9kijUoRwBXzE3pXlGFvTkrN4eWPGWI2rLYtWExPdBRoqUw60xfKxzog_LB6cCze2EIQppBdIPVXpfp7-T8crnAdByXi6UHTLYFo5uafLO3Zp-vBIhc4q/s400/fr3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: Chareles Platiau/Reuters</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:HyphenationZone>21</w:HyphenationZone>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>FR</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/>
<w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
<w:Word11KerningPairs/>
<w:CachedColBalance/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">My girlfriend works in a
school in a poorer area of Lyon in which almost 90% of the children are of
immigrant origin. It's a hard job. Violence is never far away and social
problems are rife, but the staff does their best to educate their pupils
against the odds.</span>
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The school recently hired a
secretary to the headmistress. She is a young woman of Algerian origin who
arrived in France from Algeria not long ago to join her husband, who earns a
small salary. She too is on a low salary and they have a young child.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The secretary does her
best and has many qualities. She is kind to the children and has earned their respect,
she has an agreeable personality, she gets to work on time and she dresses
impeccably. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But there's a snag. She was
hired on a 'Contract of Insertion', a kind of contract which is destined to
integrate immigrants and poorer people into a working environment despite what
may be considered as being rather inadequate qualifications and abilities. Her
level of French is very poor, she has problems writing from left to right - she
was educated to write Algerian Arabic from right to left - she is very bad at
taking messages by phone, and she refers to those who do so by saying things
like 'an important person called who is called Mme Dupont', when Mme Dupont is
just a teacher like everybody else. In other words, she is overawed by it all.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Not only that, she may be
good at dealing with children but her social skills with adults are, shall we
say, of a finite nature. The regional School Inspector turned up the other day
and she welcomed him with a cheerily offhand 'hey hi, how're ya' doin'?' NOT
what is expected in a socially rigid country like France, in which hierarchies
are rigorously and respectfully respected. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Error after error, gaffe
after gaffe, it has got to the point where emails she writes are checked and
changed before being sent and in some cases the staff do her work for her. The staff
feels for her and tries to help her as much as possible, but it's an uphill
(losing?) battle and everyone, including the young woman concerned, knows it.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">My girlfriend says that the
secretary recently pleaded, begged, her and other staff to try and ensure that
the school don't fire her after her trial period. She said that she would do
her very best to improve her French and her ways of dealing with people in the
context of French culture. My girlfriend answered that she would try to get her
enrolled for free French lessons. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Everyone likes her a lot,
but it is as plain as day that she is just not up to the job. Despite that however
they are trying to rally round and help her. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The poor girl is petrified
of losing her job and ending up on a state pittance for doing nothing to
contribute to the country. She wants so much to succeed and she is desperate to
do so. But even with the best will in the world of everyone concerned, it is by
no means certain that she will still have a job in a few weeks from now.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And if she loses her job?
Oh, her husband may well abandon her and her baby because they are a financial
liability, and she may well end up living in poverty. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">An awful dilemma this. Not
all immigrants want to milk the system, but not all are able to find and keep
work either. What can be done about it? That is for the movers and shakers of
France to decide.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Meanwhile, her immigrant's
story, that of a courageous young woman who wants no more than to earn an
honest living, shall remain unheard and unread, except for those who have just
taken the time to read this little blog post, parked up as it is, anonymously,
in a tiny corner of the Internet........</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Tableau Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-20843418097486496122013-09-19T05:48:00.000-07:002013-09-19T14:23:08.573-07:00French Heritage Day at the Malartre Car Bike and Motorbike Museum in Rochetaillé<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1wFa2s8TbyqqOI_lgkwDKxBzhP0ngofMgytwffJQEfqJgOSgHI9fZkau9gi7Bf-5hOGEVFICLT1_ppzl1qqHq7MdcTfKWD1IhczZzbOSlODaUD6B5CtBie_KUZgxfu79g0HvIG-WpEGd-/s1600/girlcar.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1wFa2s8TbyqqOI_lgkwDKxBzhP0ngofMgytwffJQEfqJgOSgHI9fZkau9gi7Bf-5hOGEVFICLT1_ppzl1qqHq7MdcTfKWD1IhczZzbOSlODaUD6B5CtBie_KUZgxfu79g0HvIG-WpEGd-/s400/girlcar.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
Hello, and I'm back after a summer break from blogging. I'm keen to find out what those bloggers I follow have been up to but before doing so I thought I'd post some photos I took recently at <a href="http://www.musee-malartre.com/malartre/" target="_blank">the Rochetaillé Museum</a>, which is on the banks of the River Saône about 11 kilometres from Lyon. There are lots of vintage, classical and veteran transport vehicles of all kinds to be seen there, and the museum's star attraction is Hitler's parade car, which it acquired a few years ago. As you shall see, it's a really mean machine.<br />
<br />
We went there on Sunday, which was the second day of France's National Heritage weekend. The museum is housed in several buildings, with the vintage car, bike and motorbike sections being housed in a Chateau at the top of a hill which offers some splendid views. Here's the chateau (please note that I didn't take this photo, although the rest are mine);<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjtN0h6p9EZUNgX-SCgx52j-5FKjY4j_NukLoBZ8kgV6b6rqNwYwEYMFMFS4JxmMWJ7GYDbv80cTPaMZ9AnqttjRk5WbYBMzBj9c531x-MwEaPN41oyBposwsG8_KGuAlXu5dzI7ctaM9S/s1600/chateau1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjtN0h6p9EZUNgX-SCgx52j-5FKjY4j_NukLoBZ8kgV6b6rqNwYwEYMFMFS4JxmMWJ7GYDbv80cTPaMZ9AnqttjRk5WbYBMzBj9c531x-MwEaPN41oyBposwsG8_KGuAlXu5dzI7ctaM9S/s640/chateau1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
This photo was taken from the second floor of the museum; <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7za4ZuyikasRGQRWt4jPnjWPl7kC5TkI_lf2k9efq7oKZnWq8nj-2xIYoYT0dqFAFH9K9W00BNmHEZ5gwvQ_-4m_uHZcmIsIoFf8KeKZyNYgDQiMzubLp2hDyBjqMPBg1AsJHDrmZ024_/s1600/P1010104.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7za4ZuyikasRGQRWt4jPnjWPl7kC5TkI_lf2k9efq7oKZnWq8nj-2xIYoYT0dqFAFH9K9W00BNmHEZ5gwvQ_-4m_uHZcmIsIoFf8KeKZyNYgDQiMzubLp2hDyBjqMPBg1AsJHDrmZ024_/s640/P1010104.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I would imagine that many people - well, me in any case - think that foldable bicycles are a recent invention. But they're not, as this example, from the beginning of the 1900s, attests. The photo also demonstrates that punctures aren't a recent invention either;<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Tg1U7JRDhLCkD2iWMV-Ven-FlO2BrMW3FXJkWtAHvzdxXxJ_in3WEIcnJfJu-mU9gxECMpQozd66BjkdoDYEvopUYH2xR9wr68mIoJLRfXcAnXI88y34PKgTOxdq2iuGOCLHT3m1KeDA/s1600/P1010101.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Tg1U7JRDhLCkD2iWMV-Ven-FlO2BrMW3FXJkWtAHvzdxXxJ_in3WEIcnJfJu-mU9gxECMpQozd66BjkdoDYEvopUYH2xR9wr68mIoJLRfXcAnXI88y34PKgTOxdq2iuGOCLHT3m1KeDA/s640/P1010101.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
The large majority of the exhibits are of French origin of course, although there are some notable exceptions, particularly in the motorbike section, which includes some pieces of British and Italian origin. I'm not sure where this one was made. Not that it matters, because it's a beautiful example of early motorbike engineering, and that's what's important;<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1vIZTe4wrmNJVG5yd5ZymtfIdhLCNmy2fgWMYEq5JDCmjcaDSRLTyfxRvaxYMufYUN3UtZkdm5zHAUWOJ7zHcFoMrGiCKak5njyZjXpNTg56A8D0w3LRC571yEay8A3W-pn0fArSO1Ywh/s1600/motorbike.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1vIZTe4wrmNJVG5yd5ZymtfIdhLCNmy2fgWMYEq5JDCmjcaDSRLTyfxRvaxYMufYUN3UtZkdm5zHAUWOJ7zHcFoMrGiCKak5njyZjXpNTg56A8D0w3LRC571yEay8A3W-pn0fArSO1Ywh/s640/motorbike.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Vintage cars were much in evidence, including this one, which, from memory (I didn't take notes) is a Peugeot. The yellow suspension unit looks very robust. Mind you, it needed to be robust given that car tyres were made of solid rubber with no inner tubes at the time;<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRSrnUBSMDNuCIx3xrsLvZipS1KykrSS7MiphyyrvGHXtvF5xMHpGVXjFA5G-fV3PmfE1M9ys9CBwiqI8UQPFvCDctUTjbhreFuOvocHTaEIwNsu1myVoZKPOp9igwNZYMHCUk1dbQ-wmq/s1600/redcar.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRSrnUBSMDNuCIx3xrsLvZipS1KykrSS7MiphyyrvGHXtvF5xMHpGVXjFA5G-fV3PmfE1M9ys9CBwiqI8UQPFvCDctUTjbhreFuOvocHTaEIwNsu1myVoZKPOp9igwNZYMHCUk1dbQ-wmq/s640/redcar.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
This classy number (the car) has tyres with inner tubes, and the mix of shiny white paint and brass is very elegant in my humble view. The steering wheel is on the right, which is rather curious given that the car is a Renault. Perhaps it was an export model destined for the British market?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy9t2gxl_C24LfzdB8Ihocwr4TWulTAf6qJDjrC0fVP79lvcgNi1HAKtwIM8txpD9h_Q1ANcz9A1RlGFLt9v02oG3w6N-Z6l6kczFUUINaAO1ULJUCv9mBGwZ1sBxWpBk2FNKWWjMlQEsd/s1600/classcar.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy9t2gxl_C24LfzdB8Ihocwr4TWulTAf6qJDjrC0fVP79lvcgNi1HAKtwIM8txpD9h_Q1ANcz9A1RlGFLt9v02oG3w6N-Z6l6kczFUUINaAO1ULJUCv9mBGwZ1sBxWpBk2FNKWWjMlQEsd/s640/classcar.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Car engines and drive assemblies in vintage cars have always fascinated me. Consisting essentially of brass, copper and forged steel, they were beautifully crafted. Here are a couple of examples;<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5RxG-7Z5x1vBNjLA7qL9X8C2ecNZBQ7_9zwYHdyLv-o1EV5CsQ4Sc8aQEuYdjTkO9nu1XSYJabQKHrW80GI1caplY9z2RoWlv9v-5kp5JSfIMLA-j8UQQS3dW7wYJP27_9udBmqCWzUbb/s1600/enginecloseup.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5RxG-7Z5x1vBNjLA7qL9X8C2ecNZBQ7_9zwYHdyLv-o1EV5CsQ4Sc8aQEuYdjTkO9nu1XSYJabQKHrW80GI1caplY9z2RoWlv9v-5kp5JSfIMLA-j8UQQS3dW7wYJP27_9udBmqCWzUbb/s640/enginecloseup.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYjBR79yGNNs6eFGl18BtuF1tU8X_Xpt03LX4zdeb6LB1KswhiFwr0zew7CJYHUV0WLMmXt1BRC95Ec0nXBhcn6dUukD6PzUUtDEtOfpqeMgCkY4A47ALxvnIjYdIZVU8yziq4AC1DduD2/s1600/engineall.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYjBR79yGNNs6eFGl18BtuF1tU8X_Xpt03LX4zdeb6LB1KswhiFwr0zew7CJYHUV0WLMmXt1BRC95Ec0nXBhcn6dUukD6PzUUtDEtOfpqeMgCkY4A47ALxvnIjYdIZVU8yziq4AC1DduD2/s640/engineall.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
There are hundreds of bikes, motorbikes and cars in the museum, but the star of the show is, of course, Hitler's personal parade car. It can be seen in thousands of photos and newsreel film reports from before and during the Second World War at rallies from Nuremburg to Hamburg and Berlin. It's a stunning piece, if only for its sheer size, and it's menacingly massive presence must have been frightening and intimidating to see as it drove by with Hitler standing up in it and giving his Nazi salute;<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSBCvj2Vdhx7B1SXbDCG_serHX1C1_VAovcKY39tY0IA8PYF5nPvy4LZkTVXO3bwZvgcvd9PGuAFMYTh7YRYpgnzDgF0qjlebAOKBRIRv_gZ6B0mZxi38tbSINleTGMRIj2QjPHNbEqg8Q/s1600/hitler1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSBCvj2Vdhx7B1SXbDCG_serHX1C1_VAovcKY39tY0IA8PYF5nPvy4LZkTVXO3bwZvgcvd9PGuAFMYTh7YRYpgnzDgF0qjlebAOKBRIRv_gZ6B0mZxi38tbSINleTGMRIj2QjPHNbEqg8Q/s640/hitler1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The car's technical specifications are just as impressive as the car itself. Hitler had thousands of enemies both inside and outside Germany from 1930 onwards, many of whom plotted to kill him, so the car was built with that threat in mind and it offered him as much protection as was possible at the time. Its manganese-treated 18-millimeter armour plating meant that it weighed a mighty 4780 kilograms when empty and it also had a 400 HP engine, 20-cell tyres, spare wheels which were placed on the sides of the engine to protect it in case of attack and electro-magnetic door-blocking mechanisms;<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9F-SU_MCA_eH-nHLhlWQHj6gplarHVBTSjMIFWJ7oJKEiGXNjIBHWBt2pzms6BEWnpExp0DuyFFsloq-8x1ZWXgRRUbZZGaozclWmTAeAc0upZE-6EulPe9DiEfDGp3S8sYglMxniNrZD/s1600/hitler2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9F-SU_MCA_eH-nHLhlWQHj6gplarHVBTSjMIFWJ7oJKEiGXNjIBHWBt2pzms6BEWnpExp0DuyFFsloq-8x1ZWXgRRUbZZGaozclWmTAeAc0upZE-6EulPe9DiEfDGp3S8sYglMxniNrZD/s640/hitler2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The car's designers were also aware that the windows and windshild were a source of potential risk, which is why they were made of 40 millimeter-thick bulletproof glass. Could it stop bullets? The answer is a resounding yes, as this photo shows. The weapon used to fire at it on this occasion was probably some sort of machine-gun, given the roughly linear line of the bullet impacts;<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_lV4HPG9Fm5ESMSN5n9qhklIA2VCMbCCKDwEEhDZlAxISfvyHZL85wogDQC8YTiiAakz2cQceSrvDUL1We-UEVqwp3b9yLhnxoDGpATJWIQwqy2QXDKutzFretVKNXXHGaoL4P-jwmBmd/s1600/hitler3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_lV4HPG9Fm5ESMSN5n9qhklIA2VCMbCCKDwEEhDZlAxISfvyHZL85wogDQC8YTiiAakz2cQceSrvDUL1We-UEVqwp3b9yLhnxoDGpATJWIQwqy2QXDKutzFretVKNXXHGaoL4P-jwmBmd/s640/hitler3.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
These are just a few of the many vehicles on show at the museum, and other categories include racing cars and motorbikes, trolleycars, classical 50s and 60s cars and authentic engine and other parts taken from well-known vehicles, such as the machine in which Donald Campbell broke the existing land speed record in Australia in 1964. The museum is a big favourite for car enthusiasts as well as anyone interested in seeing the results of man's creative engineering history over the years. Highly recommended, 10/10, a gold star, and have a nice day!<br />
<br />
<br />Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-50306977359371400242013-07-06T11:02:00.000-07:002013-07-06T11:31:41.720-07:00Lyon's Musée des Confluences - update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzy-dLq0Q_9yhnXB5oaMJYgEmo5I48rqLcWwtzU7rCSgkhKM_G6CoNBQbXa2LQPtaVS5zLD3svgu6BFHtg1ayiCudWO9YcfJW9B2HkaB3dZzQIFdhCi9BznsS6v8jh9Uv-0TUtRU2xbhOZ/s1600/At+a+distance+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzy-dLq0Q_9yhnXB5oaMJYgEmo5I48rqLcWwtzU7rCSgkhKM_G6CoNBQbXa2LQPtaVS5zLD3svgu6BFHtg1ayiCudWO9YcfJW9B2HkaB3dZzQIFdhCi9BznsS6v8jh9Uv-0TUtRU2xbhOZ/s640/At+a+distance+1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The future Confluences Museum here in Lyon is a colossal structure in the making. Designed by architectural design company Coop Himmelb(l)au, it is destined to house a science museum and a library among other things and it is under construction just down the road from where I live. I posted <a href="http://undertheburningbridge.blogspot.fr/2012/12/le-musee-des-confluences-lyon.html" target="_blank">photos of an earlier construction stage</a> back in December, and here is how things are looking today.<br />
<br />
It looks even more like a massive mother station space ship today than it did before. And it's big and impressive, as the above photo shows.<br />
<br />
As you get closer it begins to tower above you;<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHtXuV3mf8SGy6hRpzNz3iPTeMjyVBREek_dsO3jlHjICiddyQBn2yLDEvdrTu1lKki78d_CE5Pq1BzlDIy1Su39UGjkxlKaLiG0L-T5IPhhGm4z-0ydkyo3rTlvexEA1Nkna_xi-Nb9AO/s1600/Yup,+it%27s+big.+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHtXuV3mf8SGy6hRpzNz3iPTeMjyVBREek_dsO3jlHjICiddyQBn2yLDEvdrTu1lKki78d_CE5Pq1BzlDIy1Su39UGjkxlKaLiG0L-T5IPhhGm4z-0ydkyo3rTlvexEA1Nkna_xi-Nb9AO/s640/Yup,+it%27s+big.+2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEM5KrqyjQEKyshoZX4RdFgjr1SsUg2lU-jtnt43dMJPwggSQGK-1Xp01MdrMcLpQbsndEJ7BrfhL_fOAR2cN0s240obkE5mrSz_tcvbZMyKE1UAh8dHOS7iWMaTSocgZXw6mpvZpZ0dk-/s1600/Yup,+very+big+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEM5KrqyjQEKyshoZX4RdFgjr1SsUg2lU-jtnt43dMJPwggSQGK-1Xp01MdrMcLpQbsndEJ7BrfhL_fOAR2cN0s240obkE5mrSz_tcvbZMyKE1UAh8dHOS7iWMaTSocgZXw6mpvZpZ0dk-/s640/Yup,+very+big+3.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZsZkj-fqGzoD9SqiBNtHj-94Ua7oBbn4k9E16B8Wqp1-jshe05mEkJ2u6knEwVP4WG8O-kAWDIA9dfXJ58C3gNvXsMgC21w5LrwYFokfgaxrZsmIEoJQcBulX6fJunkn4GFHaw-bR3x-/s1600/4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZsZkj-fqGzoD9SqiBNtHj-94Ua7oBbn4k9E16B8Wqp1-jshe05mEkJ2u6knEwVP4WG8O-kAWDIA9dfXJ58C3gNvXsMgC21w5LrwYFokfgaxrZsmIEoJQcBulX6fJunkn4GFHaw-bR3x-/s640/4.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Here are two views of the front of the other side, which show the mother ship's cockpit area;<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG4pPcXDNN-2jhTZmrKhyphenhyphenY1nTejPfPa3ldMnYf2Y8wtLsxRbWnD49e08e6AND1Oz9YDM3gLvOwOXU3gn6sLaxv45WFonTcRxazzEPqZpMEy9zubZ63kGmnYXAXE3LfBvP7pJGNxY-5leS7/s1600/First+view+other+side+5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG4pPcXDNN-2jhTZmrKhyphenhyphenY1nTejPfPa3ldMnYf2Y8wtLsxRbWnD49e08e6AND1Oz9YDM3gLvOwOXU3gn6sLaxv45WFonTcRxazzEPqZpMEy9zubZ63kGmnYXAXE3LfBvP7pJGNxY-5leS7/s640/First+view+other+side+5.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsXxLHm2srKP_JjWP7sifJXUrOIimF_ct3SmkD5poBFx6oK38trQFr-OdNVjETNTrHSsS2owzEFTg77oYG2FGysLvQts6F-Tbs8eRZR-R8v2SOneAAK6QWHNt2Ewgjk9E7vSlDyoBPZ7PT/s1600/6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsXxLHm2srKP_JjWP7sifJXUrOIimF_ct3SmkD5poBFx6oK38trQFr-OdNVjETNTrHSsS2owzEFTg77oYG2FGysLvQts6F-Tbs8eRZR-R8v2SOneAAK6QWHNt2Ewgjk9E7vSlDyoBPZ7PT/s640/6.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
This is a close-up of the building's cladding, which reminds me of the heat-resistant tiles on the NASA shuttle;<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgATb_CJzj_8k0ViXSD3Q-ecarQ2HNimoaca2RsSfNYwZWnH9lHXLJGZRzY0g8WsQyoHbGFQ5y7OuSt-h2I9Gsc5NpGz4hW9CI-WdCFHkuv2WmiFj4_MmTXUiC1jrsSHV_RML0HRpOhu-ei/s1600/close+up+white+7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgATb_CJzj_8k0ViXSD3Q-ecarQ2HNimoaca2RsSfNYwZWnH9lHXLJGZRzY0g8WsQyoHbGFQ5y7OuSt-h2I9Gsc5NpGz4hW9CI-WdCFHkuv2WmiFj4_MmTXUiC1jrsSHV_RML0HRpOhu-ei/s640/close+up+white+7.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Here's the left-side power plant and tail stabiliser;<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijvb5ulSpRp0lrembX9vqTPRMpBElRoUfFRA76tG7tVkJbAVTdBZZMk0z8NCYSFo9b7D68n2Yqiw1iqCpquMcjqK3tT-cbWwZDc3ksbaYVy9yyEA10CqkYcX9YvPiE2K6hi5uv4NuGihxq/s1600/close+up+black+8.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijvb5ulSpRp0lrembX9vqTPRMpBElRoUfFRA76tG7tVkJbAVTdBZZMk0z8NCYSFo9b7D68n2Yqiw1iqCpquMcjqK3tT-cbWwZDc3ksbaYVy9yyEA10CqkYcX9YvPiE2K6hi5uv4NuGihxq/s640/close+up+black+8.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The rear landing gear;<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5DJVbJRjkYhjXC0zYlgZBSgUg1hHjSw6e4YwIQDXbQqHHt9lv5geUGJEA8t_XBawj45_1wtaeTtYu-LuKEx_7ZksBh0ltCwuDjJAjK_A58zZuVqQTadQKrbkTwsefOeSAQthv_B8n9oJO/s1600/And+as+you+move+away+from+it+9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5DJVbJRjkYhjXC0zYlgZBSgUg1hHjSw6e4YwIQDXbQqHHt9lv5geUGJEA8t_XBawj45_1wtaeTtYu-LuKEx_7ZksBh0ltCwuDjJAjK_A58zZuVqQTadQKrbkTwsefOeSAQthv_B8n9oJO/s640/And+as+you+move+away+from+it+9.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinFhK3z5adlp40fqXx6kh-sAlsSqZUN9CoetC4MEnA7MoAq7Zkgb1gYLAMAIjL54Wv0BsTk4a8khFuWYFQceJY4OiclvRqWyurMkZHc59bN7ntIeluqRBsbQUw_9FT5oMJO-DuHXHulXIp/s1600/Last+10.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinFhK3z5adlp40fqXx6kh-sAlsSqZUN9CoetC4MEnA7MoAq7Zkgb1gYLAMAIjL54Wv0BsTk4a8khFuWYFQceJY4OiclvRqWyurMkZHc59bN7ntIeluqRBsbQUw_9FT5oMJO-DuHXHulXIp/s640/Last+10.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Hope you enjoyed the pix, have a good weekend, and be good. Well, at least try to.<br />
<br />
------------------------------<br />
<br />
(You can visit the museum's site <a href="http://www.museedesconfluences.fr/musee/" target="_blank">here</a>, and you can see more of Coop Himmelb(l)au's work <a href="http://www.coop-himmelblau.at/" target="_blank">here</a>.)Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-46685231885942882562013-06-28T12:22:00.000-07:002013-06-28T12:33:22.766-07:00Why it always pays to know a foreign language<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj12nlkW6TPOmsv-EH8mZx4GuQFidkUOgN6tA8_5pSkSRIsDOJPHV42IgAkoxrwmeIgSAY9oOu_xcR1b3Qx1t9pQo5vK0c_dKNmY6bUgjX3x4SztnzAIUkgTameKsgS1deo2z6R6bMNQg4a/s620/Electric_bus4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj12nlkW6TPOmsv-EH8mZx4GuQFidkUOgN6tA8_5pSkSRIsDOJPHV42IgAkoxrwmeIgSAY9oOu_xcR1b3Qx1t9pQo5vK0c_dKNmY6bUgjX3x4SztnzAIUkgTameKsgS1deo2z6R6bMNQg4a/s400/Electric_bus4.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A bus in Lyon. No traffic jam.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Oh god, that was all I needed. There I was this evening, on the way home after working downtown all day, and my bus ran into a traffic jam. A big one. I'm used to traffic during rush hours but this was obviously due to an accident or something. Patience Frip, patience.<br />
<br />
I text a girlfriend and she's available to text back so we text for ten minutes and that helps the time go by. 45 minutes on a stretch that only takes 2 normally. Boredom? Tell me about it.<br />
<br />
Then the bus leaves that road as part of its route and takes another one, where there is no traffic. Yay! When we finally get to the bottom of that road however, another traffic jam awaits us at the intersection where the bus turns next. Nothing was moving for hundreds of yards and we were obviously in for a long wait.<br />
<br />
But my stop was only 30 yards away. I wait 2 minutes, and then, just as pissed as everyone else at being sardined in a traffic-jammed bus (is that even English?) for almost an hour, I politely ask the driver if he can open the doors for those of us who want to alight at that stop. <br />
<br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Tableau Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Me: Est-ce que vous
pourriez ouvrir les portes s'il vous plait pour laisser descendre les gens pour cet arrêt ? <i>(Could you open the doors so that people who want this stop can get off please?)</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Driver: Non, désole. Je n’ai
pas le droit de laisser descendre les passagers ailleurs qu’à un arrêt. <i>(No, sorry. I'm not authorised to let people off anywhere else than at a bus stop.)</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Me: Mais il n'est qu’a
trente mètres et rien ne bouge ! <i>(But it's only thirty meters away and nothing's moving!)</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Driver: Non. Désole. <i>(No, sorry.)</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">His persnickety and punctiliously excessive sticking-to-the-rulebook attitude annoyed me. A lot. So I said, mostly to myself, and IN ENGLISH - because English 'gets it out of my system' better than French when I'm annoyed;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Me: Oh that's total fucking bullshit. The traffic is at a standstill and we've been in this thing for an hour for fuck's sake!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Driver: Well fuck you. I'm not opening the doors until the bus stop.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">I WAS DUMFOUNDED!! THE GUY SPEAKS ENGLISH!!! AND WELL!! AND WITH A LOVELY ACCENT!!! So I looked him right between the eyes, smiled, and said;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Me: Fuck you too. But you have a super accent I must say.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Driver (smiling): Thanks, I lived in England for years.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">------------------------------------------------------</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Then he opened the doors, I thanked him, he said no problem, I got off the bus, and we waved goodbye....</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Languages are good for you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></div>
Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-32436264421157429682013-06-27T12:02:00.003-07:002013-06-27T15:40:33.848-07:00Air France: one of the world's safest airlines? Far from it (Part 1 of 2)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq9ng7MhhKuylNGLMZkIni6MshvEZ8pkg96M5kiF1PU6mkURCn0EphGvxGhBVzb-oEGz2NHE8OFuA7u13sAUfyaANAE_cLDaloibjiDTCYjKTNNy4vRn8A1RSqChLZ-xNiqpwrl8WCqWaQ/s1280/concord.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq9ng7MhhKuylNGLMZkIni6MshvEZ8pkg96M5kiF1PU6mkURCn0EphGvxGhBVzb-oEGz2NHE8OFuA7u13sAUfyaANAE_cLDaloibjiDTCYjKTNNy4vRn8A1RSqChLZ-xNiqpwrl8WCqWaQ/s640/concord.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I was discussing civil aviation safety with a friend recently, and he said that Air France was one of the safest airlines in the world. But it seemed to me that his knowledge of these issues was limited - none of us are experts at everything after all - because I happen to be a keen follower of air safety issues and his words just didn't ring true somehow. I had the impression that he was just trotting out an 'ism' that everyone knee-jerkingly believes. So I went and dug up some stats, and this is what I came up with.<br />
<br />
The first thing I did was to see if Air France is in the top ten list of safest airlines in the world over the last 30 years. <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/worlds-safest-airlines-named-20130110-2cikq.html" target="_blank">It isn't.</a> <br />
<br />
That prompted me to dig deeper, and I then discovered that Air France has had 22 major accidents resulting in over over 1,250
fatalities since the 1950s. What does that mean in relative terms? That is a difficult question to answer because stats can be twisted as we know, but as an illustration of my good faith and an honest attempt to be objective I can relate comparative stats for British Airways - which is the 10th safest airline in the world - and state that they have had just 3 major accidents and 140
victims in the same 60-year period, that is to say since the 1950s. That is a massive difference by any yardstick.<br />
<br />
Worse, the last 15 years of Air France's safety record have been particularly appalling. Fatal crashes during this period include;<br />
<br />
2000 - Paris. 113 dead in the crash of an air France Concord shortly after takeoff. American airline Continental Airways was blamed for that disaster. It was alleged by French aviation authorities that faulty maintenance on a Continental plane led to a piece of metal falling off it as it took off just before the Concord, leading to the tyre burst on the Concord that resulted in the accident. Continental is currently appealing that decision.<br />
<br />
2003 - Brest. 1 dead and a total plane write-off in a crash-landing. This accident was imputed by French aviation authorities to pilot error.<br />
<br />
2005 - Toronto. Total plane write-off upon landing and - "miraculously" as was said at the time - no victims. Pilot error. Again.<br />
<br />
2007 - Pau. 1 victim in a total plane write-off during takeoff. Pilot error. Well well well.<br />
<br />
2009 - Rio Paris flight 447. 228 dead after it went down in the Atlantic. Primarily pilot error. This simplistic conclusion by authorities was and remains a disgrace.<br />
<br />
That's a total of 343 victims in just 13 years. In other words, if you spread that death rate out over the last 60 years, Air France's mortality record is actually getting worse over time.<br />
<br />
But why is that the case?<br />
<br />
I'll be explaining the reasons in Part 2, but in the meantime suffice it to say that those reasons are contained in clues in this blogpost for those who know how to look for them.<br />
<br />
<br />Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-76071122596397402822013-06-22T13:49:00.000-07:002013-06-22T17:47:17.644-07:00J'ACCUSE! France's 'Slow Drinking' advice to Jack Daniel's drinkers :)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJVKa1KwHzN5TkiKfIHto7KBCX4hr21JbjLhltBoo5c5EanEMZwWu2Nic9vVAnw-RbkOo3ipOlPYMP0iZTyLHaw0hhfcWxKlhXp1uesS7NsvzDqOhNWgxLcQVN57bTWL2hay14PauR7Bw9/s1600/jd.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJVKa1KwHzN5TkiKfIHto7KBCX4hr21JbjLhltBoo5c5EanEMZwWu2Nic9vVAnw-RbkOo3ipOlPYMP0iZTyLHaw0hhfcWxKlhXp1uesS7NsvzDqOhNWgxLcQVN57bTWL2hay14PauR7Bw9/s640/jd.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Keith Richards' favourite tipple</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I bought a bottle of Jack Daniel's yesterday evening. Hard alcohol is rarely to be found at my home but I only bought that bottle because I liked the presentation box to be honest. I took it home and promptly forgot about it.<br />
<br />
Still, I decided to have a small nip earlier this evening, and it was then that I discovered and read the enclosed leaflet. I nearly dropped dead on the spot. Here are a few excerpts from this scurrilous propaganda.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
'Slow Drinking - the art of savouring.'<br />
<br />
'Slow Drinking is a new way of tasting alcoholic drinks in which one takes one's time to savour each instant. The Slow Drinking philosophy valorises the visual, olfactive and gustatory senses and offers new rituals and modes of tasting in order to better savour the moment whilst also drinking moderately.'<br />
<br />
'When I don't have a doser, I use the bottle cap and that makes sure I limit my consumption.'</blockquote>
WHAT??!! JD is a drink for rock musicians (I was one for years), alcoholics-or-nearly (I almost became one), rebels (always been one), motorbikers (never ridden one), and various other categories of us, the marginals who make this otherwise sad world go round, and I want it to stay that way!!<br />
<br />
This 'Slow Drinking' gimmick may be okay for soft drink drinkers of girly drinks like Martini and Bacardi - the campaign is the initiative of Martini-Bacardi France - but it has no place in a presentation box of Jack Daniel's. Worse, the French distinguish themselves once again as the world's most incompetent English users by mistakenly labelling Jack Daniel's as 'Jack Daniel'. How would they like it if Anglophones labelled champagne as 'shampain'? Roquefort as 'Rock Fort'?<br />
<br />
Good lord, this civilised 'culturalisation' of JD is an absolute abomination. JD drinkers don't need to 'taste', or 'savour', or - worst of all - 'dose' JD. We need to drink it, lots of it, and without moderation. That's what it was invented for.<br />
<br />
But now that the French have started drinking it they are setting a bad precedent for the future.<br />
<br />
I swear that if ever they succeed in making people put ice in JD I'll stop drinking it.<br />
<br />
After all, it's a strong drink, for rebels like me. So I'll have to find something even stronger if they make it socially acceptable.<br />
<br />
Hmmm, now where's the number of the guy I know who makes Moonshine.....<br />
<br />
(All that said, at almost 60 years old now I stopped at one drink.)<br />
<br />
Excellent weekend to all...<br />
<br />
<br />Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-8730614090346525762013-06-19T11:38:00.000-07:002013-06-19T11:38:08.092-07:00Barroso is wrong to claim that France's 'exception culturelle' is "reactionary"<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Jose_Manuel_Barroso,_EU-kommissionens_ordforande,_under_ett_mote_i_Folketinget_2006-05-19_(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Jose_Manuel_Barroso,_EU-kommissionens_ordforande,_under_ett_mote_i_Folketinget_2006-05-19_(1).jpg" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This man has appalling taste in ties</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Francois Hollande, his socialist government and a sizeable chunk of press and public opinion are currently up in arms about inflammatory <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/17/business/global/european-union-divided-before-g-8-meeting.html?src=rechp" target="_blank">remarks made yesterday by European Commission president José Manuel Barroso</a>. His comments expressed his displeasure at France's refusal to ratify a trans-Atlantic trade agreement between Europe and the United States unless its film, television and music industries were excluded from it. Barroso said;<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"[The French stance is] part of this anti-globalization agenda that I consider completely
reactionary. [...] Some say they belong
to the left, but in fact they are culturally extremely reactionary." </blockquote>
He went on to argue that he believed in protecting
cultural diversity but not in "sealing off Europe".<br />
<br />
French government negotiating officials had insisted upon this exemption in the name of France's <i>'exception culturelle'</i> - a protective measure for French cultural production that was introduced partially in an effort to stem what was and still is seen by French governments as being an unacceptably high percentage of foreign (read 'Anglophone') films, music and television series being shown and broadcast in France. Installing limit quotas on them in order to protect home-grown and European product was the method chosen, and this principle is backed up by legislation. The major clauses of the law stipulate that;<br />
<br />
a) TV stations must pay a 3.2% tax upon their annual turnover of which three-quarters helps to finance French films.<br />
b) TV stations must reserve 60% of their airtime to films for European films, 40% of which must be French.<br />
c) Music radio stations must reserve 40% of their airtime for French-language songs.<br />
<br />
Now what's so 'reactionary' about that? Anglophones don't tend to consider these issues much because almost all their media broadcast uniquely Anglophone cultural products, but in smaller, non-Anglophone countries, there is obviously good reason to support home-grown product in order to protect their cultural identity. And it's not as if foreign culture isn't allowed onto the market in France, which, if you turn the figures round, reserves 40% of TV time and 60% of radio time to
other than European - and that, again, essentially means Anglophone -
films and music. That may not be as much as the Hollywood moguls would like, but France nevertheless represents a substantial market for them. Anglophone documentaries and other non-film products also get their fair share of the remaining airtime, thus further increasing the total amount of Anglophone product. Then add non-European and Anglophone product - even if there isn't much of it - and you have a situation in which about half of all product is non-French. Isn't that enough?<br />
<br />
And there's another factor which should be taken into account when analysing just how much France protects it's own culture to the detriment of that of others, and that is the difference between what the law theoretically says should be done and what is actually being done in the real world. The fact is that TV stations, radio stations and cinemas regularly feature a substantially higher percentage of Anglophone product than they should, but the authorities turn a blind eye to it. In other words, it's a safe bet to say that over half of all product diffused by French TV, cinema and radio isn't French. <br />
<br />
No, that is not reactionary and Barroso is wrong. <br />
<br />Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-76055398512845588232013-06-14T14:12:00.000-07:002013-06-14T14:41:44.305-07:00Nicolas Sarkozy: the Ladder of Lies goes right to the top<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Flickr_-_europeanpeoplesparty_-_EPP_Summit_(35).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Flickr_-_europeanpeoplesparty_-_EPP_Summit_(35).jpg" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A glass and a microphone with a man sitting behind them</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It all started out as a rather banal story of a media-attractive formerly convicted and jailed corrupt businessman and erstwhile minister in a French government - nothing new there - called Bernard Tapie who got into a spat with a bank about the sale of one of his companies. He said they had ripped him off, and they denied it. Nothing new there either.<br />
<br />
It was finally decided by an arbitral body appointed by Nicolas Sarkozy's government that Tapie was right and that therefore he would be given €405 million of taxpayers' money in compensation. That caused a minor stir at the time but, as is usual in France where the rich and influential are involved, it came to nothing, the years passed, and the affair was forgotten.<br />
<br />
Last year however it emerged that then Economy Minister Christine Lagarde, in Sarkozy's government, had successfully demanded that the government and presidency intervene in his favour, an intervention, it is said, which led to Tapie getting his hands on the money. She denied it under questioning and is currently an assisted witness before a Parisian court, which thinks she may be lying.<br />
<br />
Events have moved quickly since then. One of Tapie's lawyers and a political adviser to Lagarde were arrested recently on suspicion that they, and Tapie himself, had participated in meetings at the Elysée designed to perfect the strategy which would give him the money.<br />
<br />
But why, you may ask, were those meetings ever held? After all, Tapie had been a socialist minister and he was dealing here with Sarkozy, his right-of-centre political antithesis. So what was the common interest?<br />
<br />
The common interest, it now transpires, was that Tapie had promised his support for Sarkozy in the latter's efforts to be elected president in 2007 in return for his favourable intervention in his fight against the bank. And, once the deal agreed, Tapie did indeed support him, and had thus turned his political vest for money.<br />
<br />
Sarkozy, Tapie, Lagarde and all the others denied that any such arrangement was made. Well, almost all the others. Because Lagarde's political advisor, already in custody, told investigators two days ago that Tapie had actively participated in the deal. He asserted moreover that Claude Guéant, Sarkozy's Chief of Staff at the Elysée, had also known about this operation and had participated in it. Guéant too denies it but the case has become so strong that he too is now under investigation, and Tapie shall not be far behind.<br />
<br />
But most importantly however, Guéant, as head of the Elysée's administration and second only to Sarkozy, could not have been able to do this without Sarkozy's permission.<br />
<br />
Which leads us to the top of the ladder. The President. Sarkozy. It is as plain as white on rice that this scam occured and that Sarkozy approved it. Do I have the proof? No. Of course not, in a country where it is almost impossible to gain access to the communications - email, letters, meetings, other documentation - which would be needed to prove it.<br />
<br />
And that means that even if this scandal reaches Sarkozy, which it looks set to do, neither he nor any of the others will be found guilty of any malpractice. They will be aquitted without trial. Except, possibly, for Tapie's lawyer and Lagarde's political advisor, who may soon find themselves cast in the role of sacrificial lambs, scapegoats, and a sop to the French people in a shabby effort to be able to say that the rich and powerful are not immune from justice.<br />
<br />
But they are immune, and the French know it. French democracy is extremely fragile compared to that of other comparable countries precisely because of the sheer amount of abuse its leaders are able to indulge themselves in without being made accountable either to the justice system or the public. <br />
<br />
No wonder the French detest their political classes more than is the case anywhere else in Europe. The French elites are liars, thieves, opportunists, a back-scratching mafia, and I for one would be more than pleased to see the French people take to the streets to shout;<br />
<br />
CA SUFFIT MAINTENANT!!<br />
<br />
But they won't, because their demonstration time is already full of demos against economic measures which are eating away at their salaries due to the financial crisis. So it shall be business as usual.<br />
<br />
The French - 'a revolutionary people'? - <i>Laisse moi rire va.....</i><br />
<br />Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-4595677466870319322013-06-12T10:00:00.000-07:002013-06-13T08:29:25.324-07:00A law to limit the use of the term 'restaurant' to those which actually cook? Excellent idea!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimmP_0bTc6vMATwAJoyoHQOxNSlqfsww3SKZUi4mGJkQAdeVySkR0qKOVPWZWMLKhroUivrrk8pgt6VAgPJ-_wqTkvPpiCsk_2-NtWQ_XS9q6BiuE4eqWYWCDigtHjS98Wnz7mGNjGNy2o/s1600/glasswine+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimmP_0bTc6vMATwAJoyoHQOxNSlqfsww3SKZUi4mGJkQAdeVySkR0qKOVPWZWMLKhroUivrrk8pgt6VAgPJ-_wqTkvPpiCsk_2-NtWQ_XS9q6BiuE4eqWYWCDigtHjS98Wnz7mGNjGNy2o/s400/glasswine+(1).JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My right ear and left arm in a restaurant. The rest of me stayed at home</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<strike>Just walk into any French restaurant and you will be amazed at the high quality of the delicious dishes being served. Succulent fresh fish, gorgeous desserts, delicious prawns, eating out in France is a genuine pleasu........</strike><br />
<br />
What!!?? Good grief, did I really write that rubbish?! I do beg your pardon, it must be the weather. Or my tax bill.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, the fact is that up to 50% of French restaurants don't actually prepare or cook all the food they serve. They just heat up frozen dishes such as pizza and serve vegetables straight from the tin, or, in the case of many desserts, serve mass-produced items such as tarts and chocolate cakes straight out of the box or, where applicable, the fridge or freezer. So how can it possibly be right that they are currently allowed to call themselves 'restaurants' in their names and on their facades and menus, just like those restaurants that can actually be bothered to cook fresh food?<br />
<br />
This is bad news for tourists of course, because the outside of all restaurants in a given price range look roughly the same and I'll bet a pound to a penny that 90% of tourists wouldn't know a good average-priced restaurant which serves real food from a bad one which doesn't. Until they are served that is, by which time it's too late. Even locals and those of us foreigners who have lived here for years need to be very careful when choosing to go to a restaurant for the first time. The only sure way is to ask someone who has already visited the restaurant concerned, but this isn't always possible, and tourists, of course, can rarely benefit from knowing someone who will send them to a good restaurant. <br />
<br />
Are restaurant guides of any help? Unfortunately not, unless you are looking at the high end of the market, or reading a specialist guide. They just list restaurants irrespective of the quality, unless they have a really bad reputation.<br />
<br />
Which leads me to one man's laudable attempts to clean up the restaurant business and sort the wheat from the chaff. <br />
<br />
The story begins with the scandal which saw horse meat being passed off as beef in mass-produced lasagnes and other products. Nobody was charged in this scandal, and the national outcry it caused prompted the government to do something about it. The job was given to Benoît Hamon, a Delegate Minister for the Social and Solidarity Economy. He has drawn up a law proposal which would drastically increase the controls carried out within the food business and multiply sanctions for frauders by a factor of eight. This law is almost certain to be voted.<br />
<br />
Now though a UMP deputy, Daniel Fasquelle, has proposed an amendment to it which would reserve the right to use the term 'restaurant' uniquely for establishments which prepare and serve fresh food. There would be exceptions of course - after all, it would be unrealistic to expect all restaurants to make food items such as cheese, bread and ice cream from scratch, although I do know some restaurants which do make their own bread or ice cream. What an excellent idea!<br />
<br />
Many tourists come here with the expectation that food will be good everywhere, but they are often sadly disappointed with the fare on offer. This is not good for the country's image as a temple of gastronomical excellence. This amendment however would make it easier for them - and locals - to better know what they are letting themselves in for when they go into a restaurant. It would also reduce fraudulent practices in some restaurants, which pass mass-produced ingredients off as the real thing.<br />
<br />
Some restaurant owners and professional bodies which represent them are against this proposal, saying that it would lead to severe job losses in the industry. But they are wrong, as the boulangerie business will attest.<br />
<br />
It was extremely difficult to find a good boulangerie in France until 1995, when a law was passed which reserved the right to use the appellation 'boulangerie' uniquely for those bakers who actually produce their own dough on the premises. This has made things somewhat easier, although tourists and even some locals still have trouble knowing what a good boulangerie is so there is room for improvement. More importantly, it has saved the livelihoods of many bakers who were facing unfair competition from establishments such as those which merely bake products which have been factory-prepared, and the move forced producers of finished baker's products and pre-formed products to improve the quality of their offer, as real boulangeries were regaining the public's confidence and thus market share. (Incidentally, for those interested in the subject of finding good bread in France I wrote a detailed entry on it which <a href="http://undertheburningbridge.blogspot.fr/2012/02/buying-good-baguette-in-france-piece-of.html" target="_blank">you can read here</a>. It's a must-read for tourists.)<br />
<br />
France relies on the reputation of its restaurants and all things culinary, but that reputation has taken a serious battering over the last 25 years due to complacency, a lack of imagination when it comes to change which would be better suited to new tastes, and fraudulent practices. And as if that weren't enough, even France's ability to win international awards for food-related products and wine has diminished sharply. There was a time when the French would win a large majority of these awards, but these days they are majoritarily won by people and products from other countries. Did you know, for example, that this year's world cheese championship was won by a japanese lady and her cheeses?<i> </i><br />
<br />
The reputation of France's food and drink industry needs all the legislation and changes in mentality it can get if it is to improve, and the adoption of Daniel Fasquelle's proposed amendment would help not only the restaurant business, it would help to bolster France's reputation for excellence when it comes to food and drink too.<br />
<br />
<br />Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-59634342839782094542013-06-11T11:39:00.003-07:002013-06-11T11:39:43.136-07:00Financial corruption by politicians in France is the stuff of which banana republics are made<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2o-8UJSy9tyZHlq3N7C-Q7A5T73PImULYBUvjSHQZeInKdgFz_tXUncLGEDXh_K_UADJjNqGPe7CHKrZZ8KHemOsuhL63cH7jW3Fix9yE48mFR3ZkQ9OvkQ1ipiUyn8CKmUQUXMrXx9sl/s1600/Corruption.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2o-8UJSy9tyZHlq3N7C-Q7A5T73PImULYBUvjSHQZeInKdgFz_tXUncLGEDXh_K_UADJjNqGPe7CHKrZZ8KHemOsuhL63cH7jW3Fix9yE48mFR3ZkQ9OvkQ1ipiUyn8CKmUQUXMrXx9sl/s400/Corruption.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Here is a rundown of the background to all the stories I have read today in the French online press which concern ongoing court cases and investigations involving French politicians, almost all of whom are accused of various kinds of financial corruption. It makes edifying reading, so enjoy, for want of a better word. <br />
<br />
<b>Jean-Noël Guérini.</b><br />
Guerini is a Socialist and President of the Bouches-du-Rhône region, which includes Marseille, a city with major corruption and mafia problems, and he is facing charges of passive corruption, influence peddling, criminal conspiracy to commit crime, and illegal restriction of market access to companies wishing to submit tenders for public works projects. All this is in the context of his alleged handing out of contracts for kickbacks to companies owned by his brother or the mafia. He has refused to go to some court convocations, and has claimed he was ill to avoid going to others. Courts have also charged various other local politicians, businessmen and mafia members with various offences related to the Guerini charges. And no, I didn't make an error at the start of this description of him, he is, incredibly, still a regional president in charge of hundreds of millions of taxpayer euros. <br />
<br />
<b>Nicolas Sarkozy.</b><br />
He needs no introduction but some of you may not know much about the fact that he has been charged with breach of trust by means of the abuse of the reduced mental faculties of the victim. This case revolves around allegations that he and others personally obtained envelopes stuffed with banknotes to finance his 2007 election campaign from Liliane Bettencourt, who is the heiress of the L'Oréal cosmetics conglomerate and has a net worth of over $30 billion. Bettencourt was made a ward<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_%28law%29" title="Ward (law)"></a> of the state in 2011 for the poor state of her health and being incapable of the management of her fortune, and she has also been placed by a court under the guardianship of members of her family on concerns about her declining mental health, although she has appealed this latter judgement. This case forced the replacement of Sarkozy's then Budget minister, Eric Woerth, and about 20 other people have also been charged with varying offences in relation to this affair.<br />
<br />
<b>Christine Lagarde and the Lagarde-Tapie affair.</b><br />
A former Economy minister in François Fillon's government, she is now Managing Director of the International Monetary fund. Lagarde is an assisted witness who now stands to be charged with offences related to what is known as the 'Lagarde-Tapie affair'. She is under investigation in relation to her role as a minister in an alleged government decision to illegally settle the court battle between businessman and former minister Bernard Tapie and the Credit Lyonnais bank over alleged fraud concerning the sale of Adidas, a company Tapie owned at the time. Tapie was awarded €405 million in compensation after what is alleged to be government interference in the case on Tapie's behalf in exhange for his support for Sarkozy during his 2007 election campaign. Several other ministers as well as Nicolas Sarkozy are also suspected of being involved in the affair, as are various lawyers, heads of major companies and political advisors, some of whom have spent or are spending time in police custody. Bernard Tapie has not yet been charged but if the case goes ahead he most certainly shall be. Not that he isn't used to being in court of course, given that he was jailed some years back for corruption.<br />
<br />
<b>Claude Guéant.</b><br />
Guéant was Nicolas Sarkozy's Interior minister and the General Secretary of the Elysée. He is under criminal investigation in several affairs.<br />
a) He is suspected of being involved in the illegal financing of Nicolas Sarkoz's election campaign by Muammar Gadaffi by transiting €500,000 through his own bank account.<br />
b) Judges have found evidence that he may have received up to €240,000 in secret government cash funds between 2002 and 2004 and creamed some of it off for his own benefit.<br />
c) He is one of several senior government figures who are suspected of being involved in the Lagarde-Tapie affair.<br />
d) He is facing charges of fraud, receiving stolen goods and complicity to commit an offence for his part in the creation of a non-existent and well paid political advisory job to help a political ally and friend by using his influence as Sarkozy's head of the Elysée.<br />
Again, other politicians are implicated in these cases.<br />
<br />
<b>Jérôme Cahuzac.</b><br />
He was François Hollande's Budget minister in charge of dealing with tax fraud until May, when he resigned after being himself charged with tax fraud. He admitted holding an offshore bank account for 20 years which contained €600,000 of laundered money when investigations began. Cahuzac is in the news today because - and contrary to previous declarations - he will no longer cooperate with judges and investigators. It is suspected that his illegal activities were known to other ministers, who said and did nothing to stop him being offered the job of Budget minister.<br />
<br />
<b>Michèle Tabarot.</b><br />
Tabarot is second-in-command of the UMP party after Jean-François Copé and is being investigated for her role in a massive €72 million real estate fraud in Spain involving her brother, her political advisor (who was a shareholder in the incriminated company) and another politician, all three of whom have already been charged with various offences. She is alleged to have used some of the money to finance her political campaigns.<br />
<br />
<b>The Socialists of Béthune, in the Pas-de-Calais region.</b><br />
Too numerous to name here, dozens of socialist politicians in the town Béthune, including the Mayor, have been charged with offences including forgery, the use of forged documents, the embezzlement of public money, passive corruption, active corruption, forged invoices and many more. The Federation of the whole of the Pas-de-Calais region is also under investigation. The Socialist Party in Béthune was described as a judge as having created "a mafia climate" in the town. Private planes paid for with taxpayers' money, the extortion of illegal commission from companies tendering for local authority contracts, fraudulent accounting practices, you name it, it's on the charge sheet.<br />
<br />
------------------------ <br />
<br />
As I said at the beginning of this entry, these cases are just those which appeared in the French press today and as such they do not represent all of the ongoing cases against and investigations into French politicians. There are many more and and even more are in the pipeline. Very few of the well-known politicians involved in these scandals shall ever be found guilty, never mind go to prison.<br />
<br />
This is the stuff of which banana republics are made and it goes a long way to explaining why the vast majority of French citizens think that most politicians are corrupt. It also proves that they are quite justified in thinking that. But why do the French people tolerate this extraordinarily vast and generalised amount of corruption by their politicians?<br />
<br />
Was Charles De Gaulle right after all to say that <i>"les français sont des veaux</i>", an expression he used to say that the French were too indolent, meek and lazy to fight for what was right, even when it was in their own interest?<br />
<br />
It obviously seems that way at the moment, but who knows, things may change one day. That said, don't hold your breath whilst waiting...<br />
<br />
<br />Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-48852349232831845332013-06-09T12:30:00.000-07:002013-06-11T03:01:25.316-07:00Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet - a highly unconventional political rebel and my favourite French political personality<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Nathalie_Kosciusko-Morizet_-_Portrait_2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Nathalie_Kosciusko-Morizet_-_Portrait_2012.jpg" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
If you were asked to to choose your favourite French political personality, which criteria would be the most deciding factor in your decision? The political opinions they defend? Their debating skills? <strike>Their high level of honesty?</strike> (No, scrub that, that criteria doesn't apply to politicians.) Their experience maybe?<br />
<br />
Those are all valid criteria of course, but my main criteria is that the person must be a free electron with an eccentric side to their manner of doing politics which sets them apart from all the drab party-line following clones. And if there is one French political personality who fits that description to a tee it has to be right-of-centre UMP politician Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet.<br />
<br />
The first thing that stikes me about her is that she doesn't even look like a politician. Kosciusko-Morizet's vestimentary style is, well, ummm, not exactly coordinated, and it cannot be said that she is exactly the most beautiful of women in a classic sense either. She has often been referred to as being 'pale' or 'pasty' faced and it has often been remarked that she looks tired. Makeup isn't her strong point. She obviously spends little time on it. No complementary chic outfits of classy skirts and blouses of the sort that 99% of female politicians wear for her either, she tends towards a rather frumpy and old-fashioned look and wears what most people would consider to be bland and outdated outfits. Her hair is a permanent mess, generally tied carelessly back with what look like supermarket quality clips and bands which struggle against the odds to keep it in place. And it's not as if her hair doesn't deserve better because - and as can be seen in the rare photos of her in which she lets it down - she actually has the kind of hair that many women would be more than pleased to show off to the world if they could. But she looks as if she just got out of bed. She just doesn't seem to care about all that fashion stuff, and that is rare in politics today, where image is everything. <br />
<br />
Nor does she behave like most other politicians. She swears a lot and - sin of all sins for a politician - is often to be seen smoking in the street, and she even smokes when she speaks to members of the public during meetings and other events. That's political suicide for most people, but not for her. On the contrary, people like her honest, frank and down-to-earth approach with the public. French political parties consist of several ideological clans, or factions, and being a member of one of them is considered to be an essential advantage for ambitious politicians who want to climb further up the party ladder and get noticed by party leadership and the press. Not so Kosciusko-Morizet. She is a member of no party clan. 'Worse' still, she is despised by some of them and has been involved in numerous spats with other party members. She is considered to be an outcast by many, and has a substantial number of political enemies within the UMP. But she doesn't care about all that either. After all, despite - or perhaps I should say precisely because of - her fierce intellectual and political independence, she was noticed early on in her career by Jacques Chirac, who promptly invited her to dinner. He subsequently helped her carer in many ways. Now that's what I call being different.<br />
<br />
But is she an effective politician and has she reached a point where she is influential despite her rather singular and controversial character? The answer is yes on both counts. She became a deputy in 2002 at 29, which is very young by French standards, and was reelected in 2007 and 2012. She went on to become the Ecology State Secretary in 2007 before taking over the post of secretary of
state with responsibility for Forward Planning, Assessment of Public
Policies and Development of the Digital Economy in 2010. One year later she was appointed as Minister for Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing under Nicolas Sarkozy, who would later make her his official spokesperson for his reelection campaign. <br />
<br />
How did she get that high up the ladder? Kosciusko-Morizet is known for being a very hard, almost obsessive and obsessed worker, as illustrated by the following words, spoken by fellow UMP member Serge Dassault who was praising her work on transport and sustainable development issues during her time as Ecology minister;<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I just don't know how she does it. She works on everything at once - bridges, rail transport, ports, everything, and on top of that she [as a mayor] looks after her circumscription. She really is a formidable woman."</blockquote>
But that's not surprising given that another politician had said of her years earlier, when she was a mayor, that;<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"She knows all about every single pothole in Longjumeau."</blockquote>
That said, perhaps - and, again, unlikely on the face of it - the principal reason for her success is her personality, which can vary between anything from charming to highly aggressive. She is said to be a highly patient, knowledgeable and persuasive politician when the mood takes her, which is why both Chirac and Sarkozy appreciated her and often invited her to discuss issues and listen to her point of view. But she is better known for her fierce will to do and say things as she sees them. This trait of character, particularly disliked in female politicians by their male counterparts, is what got her demoted as a minister on one occasion, and Sarkozy would often rage against her departures from the party line in speeches and parliamentary discourses. <br />
<br />
What is she up to today? She is the official UMP candidate for the upcoming mayoral elections in Paris, a city with a tradition of electing socialist mayors, often by landslides. Her attempt to become mayor is thus theoretically doomed in advance. But, again, Kosciusko-Morizet surprises us. The latest voting intention polls give her a deficit of just a few points with respect to her opponent, socialist Annie Hidalgo, and the gap is closing. Who knows, maybe she will be elected? Here we have a politically unconventional operator, an isolated and insolent rebel who is under no-one's command, but she may just pull off what the UMP has been trying - and failing - to do for many years. If that isn't an exceptional situation in today's political world in France I don't know what is.<br />
<br />
To sum up, all of this is why Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet is my preferred political personality in France. She is dedicated to her work, she has genuinely honest relations and candid conversations with people she meets in the street, she sticks to her principles and she is - make no mistake about it - a canny and extremely talented politician.<br />
<br />
And besides, who can possibly not like someone who, whilst smoking a cigarette in a public place, and after being advised by a nearby political communications and media advisor that smoking in public is perhaps not the best thing to do in terms of image, damningly and dismissively replies "tu vas arrêter de me casser les couilles ou quoi?!" Which, in plain English means; <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Are you going to stop breaking my balls or what?!" </blockquote>
That kind of straight talking is why Chirac, who appreciated her enormously, would affectionately refer to her as "the shit-stirrer." And he was absolutely right to do so.<br />
<br />
Yup, no doubt about it, this lady has balls all right. She's a lone wolf, she's unfathomable, and my money says that she has not finished surprising us yet, not by a long chalk.<br />
<br />
----------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
<i>(This piece was inspired by a comment by Streaky on <a href="http://undertheburningbridge.blogspot.fr/2013/06/the-killing-of-clement-meric-was-both.html?showComment=1370790046423#c7439293077866093853" target="_blank">a post</a> I published yesterday. Grateful thanks to him, her, or whatever it may be.)</i><br />
<br />Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-16901994594173764482013-06-07T08:22:00.000-07:002013-06-07T15:53:13.120-07:00The killing of Clément Méric was both predictable and inevitable<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGeu23pcQwfiFdAM3nbixPaecZ_ooYIhw2Gv0W_lGW1UBbDz4jsx-ENRCkgDM19mrlvPPmB_kL-h5Ed106bBpp256YFgguoyPH74-VaXF1o0otkMVNs2u-rtNecEJsXcDr89e51RHvqcbN/s1600/P1000845.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGeu23pcQwfiFdAM3nbixPaecZ_ooYIhw2Gv0W_lGW1UBbDz4jsx-ENRCkgDM19mrlvPPmB_kL-h5Ed106bBpp256YFgguoyPH74-VaXF1o0otkMVNs2u-rtNecEJsXcDr89e51RHvqcbN/s640/P1000845.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Demonstrators here in Lyon, France, yesterday (my photo)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Clément Méric, an 18-year-old hard-left militant, was killed in Paris earlier this week by extreme-right wing militants. A classic case of ultra-right violence? Not so fast. Those who attacked Méric might be guilty of the murder itself, but they are not the only ones responsible for it, and those who are ultimately responsible for the detestable climate of political hate and debate in France which inspired this crime shall never be brought to justice.<br />
<br />
The first and most obvious culprit is the cluster of extreme-right wing groups to which Méric's alleged killers are said to belong. They have been upping the violence stakes for months in their fight against the left, homosexuals, foreigners and anybody else who does not share their opinions. An example of this can be seen here<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> in Lyon, where the St Jean quarter has been
terrorised for two years by extreme right wing groups who have been smashing up bars and
businesses owned by gays and people of immigrant origins. Locals are beginning to avoid the area at night and
tourism is being affected by it. But because it takes two to tango - and two to fight - a long hard look also needs to be taken at their extreme-left wing enemies, and French film director </span><span style="font-size: 1em;"><a href="http://next.liberation.fr/mode/2013/06/06/on-peut-presque-dire-que-ce-drame-etait-ineluctable_908841" target="_blank">Marc-Aurèle Vecchione has done just that</a>. His 2008 film 'Antifascist skinhead hunters' paints a grim picture of the years-long state of gang warfare between left and right wing skinheads. These groups even dress the same, with a marked preference for Dr. Martens boots and clothes from the Fred Perry and Ben Sherman brands. Shops which sell these items attract both groups, and it appears that Méric was at a private sales event involving clothes from these brands when he got into an argument with others in the shop who were members of right-wing groups. The fight which ensued left him brian-dead and he died yesterday afternoon. Méric, as it turns out, was a hard-left militant who was well known to opposing groups. Both left and right wing groups have incontestably contributed to the climate of hate which led to Méric's killing.</span><br />
<br />
But these groups did not exist in a vacuum, and they were egged on by another guilty party, the organisers and supporters of the 'Manif Pour Tous', the anti-gay marriage group which has been staging inflammatory demonstrations over the last few months designed to provoke violence and the police reaction to it which ensued on several occasions. This organisation's hate-filled and violently homophobic bile was directly responsible for a spate of vicious attacks on homosexuals which hospitalised several of the victims. Just a few weeks ago the MPT's iconic figurehead - Frigide Barjot - addressed a menacing menace to President François Hollande in which she said <a href="http://lelab.europe1.fr/t/mariage-homosexuel-frigide-barjot-menace-hollande-veut-du-sang-il-en-aura-8576" target="_blank">"Hollande wants blood and he's going to get it"</a>. She partially retracted that statement later, but it was too late. These demonstrations attracted members of extreme-right wing groups who caused much of the violence, and Méric's suspected killers - who were arrested yesterday - are said by police to be members of them. It would be naive at best and malicious at worst to suggest that the Manif Pour Tous did not contribute in its own indirect way to Méric's murder by provoking violence and civil disobedience. The killers of Méric were useful, if dangerous, idiots who were manipulated by others and Barjot finally has the blood she promised would flow. <br />
<br />
The third group category of people responsible for the deleterious climate in France today is France's political class, which has spent years embroiled in spiteful and violent 'debate', for want of a better word, and mutual insult, all of which has triggered a mimetic reaction in French society. The biggest offenders here at the moment are certain anti-gay marriage members of the right-of-centre UMP opposition party. Some of them, including party leader Jean-François Copé, attended Manif Pour Tous demonstrations knowing full well that they were likely to end in violence, which they then blamed on 'government provocation'. They promised to scrap gay marriage if elected in 2017 and - in a break from republican tradition - some of them even called for demonstrations to continue even though the law has been voted. Some mayors have said that they will refuse to celebrate gay marriages and there have been vague calls from the right about 'continuing the resistance' and 'civil disobedience'. The left has generally been less provocative lately, although they too have a history of inflammatory statements. One example that nobody will forget here was the 2007 call by Ségolène Royal for people to "take to the streets" to protest against the election of Nicolas Sarkozy, who had just trounced her in what was after all a democratic election. Jean-Luc Mélenchon is another left-winger with a reputation for fiery provocation, and his language is peppered with words such as 'revolt', 'revolution' 'a people's uprising' and others. Hardly a week goes by without some politician using words such as 'fascist', 'Nazi', 'collaborator', 'Vichyist', 'gas chambers' and others to describe their opponents and their policies. More sickeningly still they have all, left and right, been using Méric's murder to score cheap political points and recuperate the event since it occured. <span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The atmosphere in French
politics has been getting more and more violent over time, with hate-filled
diatribes and appeals for civil disobedience by politicians of the right and
extreme right finally becoming the norm. </span>They have no shame, and they refuse to accept their part of the responsibility for the social and political climate in which Méric's killing took place.<br />
<br />
Finally, bad enough as all this is, yet another element been whipping people up into a frenzy. Its name? The French media. Extremists of all colours crave platforms of expression and media exposure - without which they would be much less effective - and the press has been generously dishing out all the coverage they desire. TV debates featuring politicians who are known to despise each other are common. Viewers lap up these vulgar spectacles, in which politicians insult and shout at each other, walk off the set, treat journalists appallingly and generally behave like the foul-mouthed louts they are. Audience figures are sky-high and everyone is happy. The press publishes sensationalist headlines and interviews with extremists of both left and right, and contentious subjects are the object of countless articles of a polarising nature. The press has also played a part in the climate of hate and fear which led to this week's murder.<br />
<br />
The murder of Clément Méric for reasons linked to political hatred was<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> a despicable act, but worse still, it was both predictable and ultimately inevitable due to the underlying reasons which formed the backdrop to it. If French society fails to rein in the excesses of extremist groups, French politicians and the press soon it is only a matter of time before someone else is killed for similar motives.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-47276937929812706662013-06-06T13:32:00.000-07:002013-06-06T13:32:25.017-07:00Demonstration in Lyon in homage to Clément Méric, murdered in Paris by fascists<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAsBpIWypxHV2035fzBwvp4_9WrFivDbvwE8uYxVioDn5584a8C6b2b4oYwLqpdO4CdhVr4liI8NqSsJlf0Dg4atASzehpL_TOnEH4Upf4WRCELtIe4VCG_-jD7rsJmabCLIGuIpJwDMS9/s1600/P1000846.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAsBpIWypxHV2035fzBwvp4_9WrFivDbvwE8uYxVioDn5584a8C6b2b4oYwLqpdO4CdhVr4liI8NqSsJlf0Dg4atASzehpL_TOnEH4Upf4WRCELtIe4VCG_-jD7rsJmabCLIGuIpJwDMS9/s640/P1000846.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
Clément Méric was a young left-wing militant who was attacked in Paris last night by members of a well-known fascist group here in France. He was declared brain-dead on admission to hospital and he died this afternoon.<br />
<br />Demonstrations in honour of Méric's memory expressing their disgust with the current upsurge in extreme-right violence in France have been held today in several French cities, including Lyon, where I live. I went down to the demo, which ended peacefully, and took some photos. Here are a few of them.<br />
<br />
What do I think of all this? These are just photos of a demo, but don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow with another post with my thoughts and opinions on this ignominious attack and its implications for France. And that post shall take no prisoners....<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_9M4ybV991Gd4ewP9hXyYbzKHKc__sAtTzHyHKNnAuQAhiYCIRwP4td3lFcOgc7dNcFgsV5RDPavykYPEB_NhtGMWl6MnFkAP1WvSzNeK0toTStNmoZkk0Ae2kTW0m1EhXpUWR4A4r1ns/s1600/A+crowd.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_9M4ybV991Gd4ewP9hXyYbzKHKc__sAtTzHyHKNnAuQAhiYCIRwP4td3lFcOgc7dNcFgsV5RDPavykYPEB_NhtGMWl6MnFkAP1WvSzNeK0toTStNmoZkk0Ae2kTW0m1EhXpUWR4A4r1ns/s640/A+crowd.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBMSg91fI6Vz7-APacRZTLXYu5cK8Ax-WCfKq-CXwh_oD79u_a2-UL2ULE7mxZNq7TJPvVH5CZrjrAsfjLVnZjAdtFGOPGVKoOC9NDvIdwJUtnMrJPkQDXq8TewRSSoKM8M5IUIlhgvrep/s1600/P1000853.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBMSg91fI6Vz7-APacRZTLXYu5cK8Ax-WCfKq-CXwh_oD79u_a2-UL2ULE7mxZNq7TJPvVH5CZrjrAsfjLVnZjAdtFGOPGVKoOC9NDvIdwJUtnMrJPkQDXq8TewRSSoKM8M5IUIlhgvrep/s640/P1000853.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQDVOpB9mQB6tqvtbSx3O0bbSW6qYbSI4JbiCbNXI00rAxM180otDfIyIkOQQS270WEME0pSeaB3vFkvQkNQ6_bETe2glf_8eT_Z3YJvNKMhPMOlcT0fAgD5QiycTL37Y8EexoskId7UDP/s1600/P1000850.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQDVOpB9mQB6tqvtbSx3O0bbSW6qYbSI4JbiCbNXI00rAxM180otDfIyIkOQQS270WEME0pSeaB3vFkvQkNQ6_bETe2glf_8eT_Z3YJvNKMhPMOlcT0fAgD5QiycTL37Y8EexoskId7UDP/s640/P1000850.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihnYYr-HBbxmQDjXKM2s2QQfiq-fkH6XAWksNPK_vs59Yse615X63S52rFIfFXYY5T8oJGgzrdupsG_O6BEFsxPcL7wRKv8TQ7l5jxtRuXSXvlpXuO4rsIwoQdE6z-Cg4evIJLRxMB2XI0/s1600/P1000861.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihnYYr-HBbxmQDjXKM2s2QQfiq-fkH6XAWksNPK_vs59Yse615X63S52rFIfFXYY5T8oJGgzrdupsG_O6BEFsxPcL7wRKv8TQ7l5jxtRuXSXvlpXuO4rsIwoQdE6z-Cg4evIJLRxMB2XI0/s640/P1000861.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The victim.<br />
<br />
<br />Fripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.com2