Pave: French Car-be-cues 2007

Le jour 463 de Sarko

37,359 CAR-BE-CUES IN 2007
Excellent Prospects In France For Car Dealerships,
Apply To Michèle Alliot-Marie, Minister of the Interior

Torching cars is a tradition during French holidays. These cheering fires add zest and excitement especially to occasions that rely on ginned-up symbolism without real meaning or when a festive spirit is absent.

But in France there are plenty of gloomy days that need a little excitement. [Pause.] Almost any day. [Pause.] Or every day.

From Le Salon Beige:

Le nombre de « violences urbaines » commises en 2007 en France a été discrètement publié par le ministère de l’Intérieur. Il s’élève à 93 016, dont 37 359 incendies de véhicules, soit 102 par jour ! Le reste se répartit entre 26 217 incendies de poubelles, 7 955 dégradations de mobilier urbain (recensées dans la même catégorie, que celui-ci soit juste endommagé ou totalement détruit), 6 856 jets de projectile (les destinataires étant principalement les policiers et les pompiers), 5 658 rodéos automobiles et 4 101 « violences collectives à l’encontre des forces de sécurité, de secours et de santé », à distinguer des « jets de projectile » qui sont des actes individuels …

[The numbers on “urban violence” committed in 2007 in France has been discreetly published by the Interior Ministry. It comes to 93,016, including 37,359 vehicle torchings, which is to say 102 per day! The remainder is distributed between 26,217 dumpster fires, 7,955 instances of damage to city property (whether just damaged or completely destroyed, listed in the same category), 6,856 peltings by projectile (the targets being mainly police officers and firemen), 5,658 joyrides [scil., car thiefs] and 4,101 “collective violence against the security forces, emergency and medical services”, to distinguish from the “peltings by projectile” that are individual acts…]

[Hat tip: Hervé]

PFFT (What is this?): Brightening gloomy France 3½ | Rayonnement français 0

Pave: Socialist Paradise In Decline: Titillation

Le jour 462 de Sarko

France's worsening economy purportedly claims another French indulgence, passive voyuerism.

BEACH GOERS IN FRANCE GOING TOPLESS LESS

TOULON August 9, 2008 (UPI) - Going topless on beaches in French beach communities like St. Tropez has suddenly fallen out of fashion due to a number of factors, an expert says.

French academic Dr. Guy Fournier said while female beach goers in France have traditionally bared their breasts without a second thought, the trend has declined due in part to the declining economy, The (British) Daily Mail said Friday. Dr. Guy Fournier:

Bare breasts are viewed as a totally natural state on the beach. But public morality follows people's confidence and optimism in their wealth and lifestyle. During an economic downturn, women are less inclined to let it all hang out and more likely to cover up.

Now perhaps you, unlike the UPI, think that Dr. Fournier has put forward an incoherent explanation laden with enthymemes gone begging. Dr. Fournier seems to argue that prudishness follows markets in some direct measurable way. But he offers no measures. No comparative historical study. Not so much as an interview of a former topless bather. In Dr. Fournier's surgery any two dots are connectable -- which makes for fun theory, if bad science.

So let us look at the "topless lessness" dot and find it a more plausible originating companion.

[A quick search of the news wires and an overlarge dot presents itself almost immediately.]

We suggest the below is a good reason there is less toplessness on French beaches. If you have attained the proportions of a hippopotamus, you are more likely to stuff as much of your abundance as will fit in a spandex body girdle for your day at the beach.

FRENCH BEACH PARADE
Topless? No Thank You, We've Seen Enough
[Photo source: Durand Florence/ABC News/SIPA/AP Photo]

The plumping of France is not news.* However it is a fell wound to the French fairy tale of a streamlined national somatotype.

OBESITY IN FRANCE

December 20, 2005 (The Economist) - The rate of obesity in France has started to swell, rising from 8% of the adult population in 1997 to 11% by 2003. Over 40% of the French are now considered overweight. According to a recent Senate report, France has the same share of fat people today as America did in 1991— and an upward trend to match. And these numbers may understate the problem. The 2005 OECD health study says that obesity rates in Britain, at 23%, and America, at 31%, are higher. But it points out that the French figures, unlike British and American ones, are based on polls asking people if they are fat. Unsurprisingly, denial intrudes; self-reporting produces underestimates.

Oh! That the French should fib out of vanity. Perish the thought.

FRENCH "TAILLES FINES" GIVING WAY TO XXL

PARIS September 23, 2006 (China Daily/Reuters) - The French are becoming bigger and fatter and French women in particular are increasingly giving up on their renowned "taille fine," a survey that tracks weight patterns in France shows.

Nearly 42 percent of the French population older than 15 years has a weight problem, an ObEpi-Roche survey showed on Tuesday. Almost a third is overweight and 12.4 percent is obese.

What to do? How about one of those subtle French PSAs?

OBESITY KILLS
Attention ! Si vous êtes gros, ce n'est pas une critique !
[Graphic source: CNAO]

Well, that of course has had zero effect. Time to ready the French solution for everything.

FRANCE WEIGHS RAISING TAX ON FATTY FOODS

PARIS August 6, 2008 (WSJ) - Two French government agencies have recommended raising the sales tax on high-fat and high-sugar food and drinks in an attempt to fight an increasing obesity problem in France.

The report, expected to go before Parliament in the fall, calls for an increase in the value-added tax to 19.6% from the current 5.5% on foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt. It also targets snack foods, such as potato chips.

That is a big fat 356% increase.

JUNK FOOD LEADS TO FRENCH OBESITY

LONDON August 8, 2008 (ABC News) - More than one-third of the French are obese or overweight. A controversial memo submitted to the government recommends a tax increase on junk food... But would that deter families from buying chocolate bars, chips and soda? Not at all, says Paris-based nutritionist Dr. Arnaud Cocaul:

The tax idea is rather stupid. It is very difficult to say which product is good and which product is bad.

Even the Confederation Paysanne, an organization that defends traditional farmers and French-quality products, deemed the idea ludicrous. That opposition is surprising, given that the organization's flamboyant leader, Jose Bove, earned worldwide fame after he trashed a McDonald's restaurant and burned genetically modified corn fields in 1999. Philippe Colin, the confederation's national secretary:

This is scandalous. You may forbid some products because they are deemed unhealthy, but you cannot raise taxes on them, especially now that the French are struggling with rising food prices...just another tax to fix the government's budget situation.

And here we find ourselves agreeing with M. Colin. "Sin" taxes are fundamentally dishonest. If the "sin" poses a mortal danger to the public, the government has an obligation to forbid it. If the "sin" is a lifestyle choice of overindulgence or immobility, then the government should encourage better choices. But what government would survive imposing a limited national menu and a modest exercise regimen? A potato chip in and of itself does not cause obesity. Planting oneself and eating 10 pounds at a sitting day-in-day-out might, though not to a certainty.

Governments love "sin" taxes because -- as the hike contemplated here by the French illustrates -- the sky's the limit. The bigger the tax, the more rectifying virtue. It's all good.

------------------------------------
* See here and here.

PFFT (What is this?): Topless economy 0 | Rayonnement français 0

Pave: A Reminder I

Le jour 461 de Sarko

For those who wilfully forget. For those who are conveniently ignorant.

You should as a matter of extreme urgency get in touch with M. Benes [Edvard Beneš, President of Czechoslovakia] in order to make sure of his agreement. I request you to express to him my deep emotion at the end of these negotiations -- and to assure him that it was not by my choice that no representative of Czechoslovakia was present. I have no doubt, however painful the sacrifices imposed by the present situation, that M. Benes will agree with me that it is of the highest importance, whilst safeguarding for the future the essential conditions enabling his country to retain its faith in its destiny, to save the Czechoslovak nation from the more redoubtable trial of war.

Edouard Daladier,
French Prime Minister
and Minister of National Defence and War,
communiqué to Georges Bonnet, French Foreign Minister,
urging the Czech nation to cut its throat
for comity between France and Germany
MUNICH September 30, 1938
(The French Yellow Book, Document №13)

Please make an immediate communication to M. Krofta [Kamil Krofta, Czech Foreign Minister] to express the sentiments of profound sympathy with which, from hour to hour, I have followed his noble and courageous personal handling of the situation during so painful a national trial. Please assure him of the admiration felt by myself and by all my countrymen for the strength of character and the incomparable self-control shown by all Czechoslovak leaders, whose clear-sightedness has done so much to protect their country from the horrors of war. Will you assure him of my most loyal personal friendship and of my desire to help him to the best of my ability in the constructive task which now lies before him. The dignity and the self-abnegation shown by the entire Czechoslovak nation afford proof of its reserves of strength and vitality, the best safeguard of her historical patrimony and of her proud and free destiny.

Georges Bonnet,
French Foreign Minister,
communiqué to Victor de Lacroix, French Minister in Prague,
expressing his sympathies having persuaded the Czech nation
to cut its own throat in furtherance of French interests
PARIS October 2, 1938
(The French Yellow Book, Document №14)

There follows a self-congratulating dispatch to all foreign posts describing the French plan ("...while conforming with the procedure contemplated in the British plan, considerably enlarged the zone of territory to be occupied by the Germans from the 1st of October.") that won over the Führer and the subsequent hard work endured in selling out Czechoslovakia (Document №15). But even the French realized the Münchner Abkommen was a house of cards. So a for-French-eyes-only dispatch went on the record laying the foundation for placing the blame on the British, whom the Führer found disagreeable ("With regard to France, he took a rather indulgent attitude but on the other hand he insisted bitterly on the fact that he could, so he said, discern in the British attitude the expression of a fundamental antagonism.", Document №17)

The note from the German Foreign Office goes further still. It unequivocally declares that an intervention of the Western Powers in Central Europe, in the shape of a guarantee in favour of the Czechoslovak State, would do more harm than good. ... Doubtless the note seems in places to deal with a "premature" guarantee, but, for those who understand, it is the whole conception of a guarantee of the new Czechoslovakia by the Western Powers which it rejects. ... All that part of Europe henceforward is a preserve of the Reich... Translated into clear language, this phrase means that the Western Powers have no longer any right to interest themselves in Central European affairs.

... At first sight this document is therefore anything but reassuring as to the immediate intentions of Hitler's policy towards Czechoslovakia.

Robert Coulondre,
French Ambassador in Berlin,
communiqué to Georges Bonnet describing
the unraveling of France's "talking cure" handiwork
BERLIN March 2, 1939
(The French Yellow Book, Document №51)

By the time of this dispatch Germany's intentions toward Czechoslovakia were manifestly clear. But to admit this would be to admit that the whole diplomatic enterprise was a botch.

According to rumours which seem to be gaining strength, concentrations of German troops are taking place near the southern frontiers of Moravia and Slovakia. It should be observed that such rumours, for the time being are interpreted as a probable indication of Germany's desire, by intimidatory action, to exploit the situation created by her agents and to exercise pressure so as to extend her domination over Czechoslovakia.

Victor de Lacroix,
communiqué to Georges Bonnet describing
the further unraveling of France's diplomatic handiwork
PRAGUE March 10, 1939
(The French Yellow Book, Document №53)

According to the declarations obtained by one of our correspondents this evening from a German who occupies an important post in one of the Ministries, the fate of Bohemia and Moravia is now settled. What Germany wants is the annexation of these provinces pure and simple. "It is not for the sake of Mgr. Tiso [Monsignor Jozef Tiso, President of the puppet Solvak Republic]," said the person in question, "that our divisions are marching and that we are mobilizing several major aircraft units. You should understand that we intend to settle the question finally. Today an ultimatum will be sent to the Prague Government. The answer we receive is immaterial. It will be overtaken by events by the time it reaches us."

Robert Coulondre,
communiqué to Georges Bonnet describing
the latest German diplomatic initiative
BERLIN March 13, 1939
(The French Yellow Book, Document №56)

Until now the Munich Agreement has been presented even in Germany, as a vital element in the peace of Central Europe and, in a more general way, as a decisive step in the promotion of mutual confidence between the principal European Powers interested in the maintenance of that peace, among whom it should create both a formal basis for understanding and at the same time an atmosphere of cooperation which would prevent any future resort to force. ... It is therefore with the most concern that the French Government is following the development of events in Slovakia. The attitude to be adopted on this occasion by the Reich Government cannot but provide a lesson which will throw a light upon many essential questions for the future relations of Germany with the rest of Europe.

Georges Bonnet,
communiqué to Charles Corbin,
French Ambassador in London, and Robert Coulondre
expressing concern that the engineered Czech suicide
may have gained France nothing
PARIS March 14, 1939
(The French Yellow Book, Document №64)

But the lesson provided by the Reich was ignored and the Western European powers continued to blink beyond when blinking bought them nothing. [We pause for eyewash.] Only change "Führer" and "Germany" to "Putin" and "Russia" and this amazing series of dispatches becomes alarmingly contemporary with its weak-kneed hope-against-hope, its sputtering polite protests, and its tireless appetite for catered negotiations.

PFFT (What is this?): Disturbingly familiar 4 | Rayonnement français 0

Pave: Where Is The French Peace Mob? I

Le jour 460 de Sarko

The Ligue communiste Révoltionnaire (Revolutionary Communist League, LCR) in France decries a non-UN-sanctioned imperialist and oppressive power grab!

A tous les citoyens de France et d’Europe :

Tous ensemble, nous pouvons empêcher cette guerre !

Nous, citoyens et citoyennes de France et d’ Europe, nous luttons pour les droits sociaux et la justice sociale, pour la démocratie et contre toutes les formes d’oppression.

Nous croyons que la guerre qui se prépare, qu’elle se fasse sous le mandat de l’ONU ou non, sera catastrophique... Tous ceux qui pensent qu’une solution politique et démocratique doit s’imposer dans le règlement des conflits internationaux doivent s’opposer à cette guerre parce qu’elle augmentera le risque d’une catastrophe plus grande encore.

Le mouvement contre la guerre est massif dans tous les pays européens et des centaines de milliers de personnes se sont déjà mobilisées dans la rue.

Nous en appelons à tous les mouvements et à tous les citoyens et citoyennes de France et d’Europe afin qu’ils se mobilisent de manière coordonnée au niveau européen.

Nous appelons les autorités françaises et le parlement à utiliser tous les moyens en leur pouvoir pour empêcher la guerre contre l’Irak.

[To all citizens of France and Europe:

We, he-citizens and she-citizens of France and Europe, we fight for the social rights and social justice, democracy, and against all the forms of oppression.

We believe that the war being readied, not under the mandate of the UN, will be catastrophic... All those who think that a political and democratic solution is essential in the regulation of international conflicts must be opposed to this war because it will further increase the risk of a greater catastrophe.

The movement against the war is massive in all the European countries and hundreds of thousands of people are already mobilized in the street.

We call on all the movements and all the he-citizens and she-citizens of France and Europe so that they mobilize coordinated at the European level.

We call on the French authorities and the Parliament to use all means in their power to prevent the war against Iraq.]

Appel à la manifestation du 14 décembre 2003,
et constitution du comité
(LCR)

Oh. [Pause.] Oh. Wait. [Pause.] That was a call to protest a good 4 months before the American-led coalition liberated Iraq.

Well, Russia has been in Georgia since August 6, the LCR must be hopping mad about this violation of the international order, the violence to Georgian sovereignty, the lack of UN legitimacy, the civilian deaths, the wanton destruction, the blatant oil grab.

Let's see what the LCR is doing about all this.

Hhmmm. Notihng here. Nothing here either. Nope. Nada. Zilch.

Nothing. [Pause.] The LCR appears to have no idea that Russia is trashing their inviolable solution politique et démocratique dans le règlement des conflits internationaux.

Shameless.

PFFT (What is this?): Rank hypocrites caught out 5 (There is no higher ranking.) | Rayonnement français 0 (There is no lower rating.)

Pave: Weenies And Warsaw

Le jour 459 de Sarko

One can forget about any talk about Georgia's territorial integrity because, I believe, it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state.

Sergey Lavrov,
Russian Foreign Minister,
explaining that Russia has not invaded Georgia,
Russia is only securing its own natural enlargement
GORI, Georgia August 14, 2008 (Fox/AP)

Well, since Russia here confirms what the EU has already forgotten, that only leaves serving Russia dessert. And testily looking to America to pick up the tab.

Once again, it turns out that the real decisions in this organization [scil., EU] are being made between Berlin and Paris. Saying that the Union will have a common policy toward Russia is laughable.

Lech Kaczynski,
President of Poland,
describing the "more equal" among equals EU principle
(infra)

POLISH PRESIDENT CRITICIZES FRANCE, GERMANY

WARSAW August 16, 2008 (IHT) - Poland's president criticized the way France and Germany have handled the crisis between Russia and Georgia, accusing them Saturday of being too soft on Moscow due to their commercial ties with Russia.

Lech Kaczynski also said that European Union policy was being decided by the two EU giants without taking into consideration the views of new EU members such as Poland that once fell under Moscow's control during the Cold War.

... Poland and the ex-Soviet republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, all new EU members, have sharply condemned Russia for its military incursion into Georgia amid the conflict in South Ossetia.

After the fighting broke out, the presidents of the four countries issued a joint statement calling Russia's policy "imperialist and revisionist" and urging NATO and the European Union to stand up to Moscow.

Leaders from those four nations followed that up with a trip in recent days to Tbilisi, joined by Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko, to show their support to Georgia.

... The already chilly ties worsened significantly in the past days, with a Russian general threatening an attack — even a nuclear one — against Poland on Friday because Warsaw agreed to allow a planned U.S. missile defense site in its borders.

Hear that? [Silence.] That is the outrage and condemnation of France for pre-emptive war, for war without UN sanction, for unilateralism, for military action without consultation. [The silence of space.]

In Europa no one can hear you scream.

PFFT (What is this?): Collective irresponsibility 3½ | Rayonnement français 0

Will Georgia be on the EU's mind?

We ran into a pro-Georgia demonstration this afternoon in Brussels.

Peaceful people with Georgian roots, coming as far as from Germany, waved Georgian flags to the sound of "Georgia! Georgia!", "Russia go home!" or to the sound of the Georgian hymn.

Pave: Gallia Ecclesiæ Primogenita Filia

Le jour 459 de Sarko

Another secular moment in France.

CHAGALL WINDOW SHATTERED IN FRANCE

August 14, 2008 (NYT) - Part of a stained-glass window by the artist Marc Chagall was shattered by vandals in France over the weekend, The Associated Press reported. Culture ministry officials said the glass had been smashed when thieves broke into the Saint-Étienne Cathedral [Cathédrale Saint-Charles-de-Borromé de Saint-Étienne] in Metz. A hole measuring 24 inches by 26 inches, above, was smashed in at the bottom of the 1963 Chagall window, which depicts a scene of Adam and Eve, according to Emmanuel Étienne, an architect for the culture ministry:

They didn’t take anything important, just souvenir medallions and brass crowns from statues.

The vandals also drew graffiti on the cathedral’s stones.

Cheap sacramentals being of less importance to the French Cultural Ministry than goods by a name artist with a ready market.

PFFT (What is this?): Rien important 4 | Rayonnement français 0

Do the French love their children?

It may seem like a harsh and strange title, but this summer had me wondering.

There are undeserving parents everywhere and we all know the accidents presented below happen everywhere. But since mid-July - only a month -, there has been some kind of pattern, trend or loi des séries over here.

A [2 & 1/2 year old] child dies forbidden in a car [parked] under direct sun
July 15, 2008

French father hangs daughters [2 & 7 years old], commits suicide
July 16, 2008

Eunice, 3 years old, disappeared on Sunday, found dead in a Meaux pond
July 28, 2008

Little girl [4 years old] shot with hunting rifle [fired by her grand-mother's boyfriend] during party celebrated with alcohol
August 1, 2008

11 year-old dies after being accidentally killed by friend [manipulating] rifle
August 6, 2008

Baby killed by stone [thrown] in Corsica: two teenagers jailed
August 6, 2008

Var: 6 year-old child left in car being taken care of by police
August 6, 2008

Car parked in direct sun: two children [3 months old and 3 years old] saved
August 6, 2008

Child [5 years old] found dead in his bathtub after being beaten [by his father]
August 6, 2008

Christophe, 2 years old, dies crushed by trailer [accidentally ran over by his grand-father]
August 7, 2008

Child [2 years old] forgotten in car: a father arrested in the Yvelines
August 7, 2008

A mother [35 years old] kills her 2 children [7 & 10 years old] and kills herself
August 8, 2008

Driver hits father and son: one dead [the 3 year-old kid]
August 10, 2008

8 year-old dies in Benirdorm [Alicante, Spain] after being dragged by aquatic motorcycle
August 11, 2008

A [13 year-old] teenager dies forgotten in a car
August 12, 2008

Two little girls [1 & 2 years old] die in a fire in the Drôme
August 12, 2008

Death of a two year old child: the father and his girlfriend jailed
August 12, 2008

Marseilles: mystery surrounds abandoned [2 and a half year-old] child
August 13, 2008

7 year-old child dies crushed by hay bale
August 14, 2008

7 year-old child from Nice drowns in summer camp
August 14, 2008

Father sued after leaving [5 year-old] child alone in park
August 14, 2008

An article sums up the situation: "News are cruel for children this summer. Almost not a single day without young lives being abruptly interrupted..."

Like the government was deemed responsible by many for the death of 15,000 persons during the 2003 heatwave because the State should take care of our elderly, maybe today the parents are waiting for the State to take care of our children. After taking care of them, of course.

A colleague of mine once said in front of me that women should not be egoist: they should have children. Indeed, he continued, if they don't have children, who is going to pay our pensions? Huh.

NYC Letter: Quote Of The Day: Fred Thompson

Little help can be expected from our friends in Europe no matter how much it appears that their own interests are at stake. European countries spend even less of their GDP on their own defense than we do. They continue to trade with Iran, refusing to impose tough sanctions as Iran develops its nuclear capabilities. These are the weak reeds on which many would have us lean in our effort to fight global terrorism and the authoritarianism that threatens democratic countries.

... This is no time to elect a president whose international experience is limited to speaking to adoring European crowds who want to see the United States retreat from the world … until they require our help in the next crisis that threatens them.

Fred Thompson,
former Republican presidential candidate,
former Senator, and television DA
August 14, 2008 (Townhall.com)

Worth the full read.

Mr. Obama replies:

Ola! Barack Obama here. [Scans the headlines.] It's a dangerous world. Let's keep talking. [A cloud passes overhead.] OK, better hide.

Pave: "Blood Will Flow"

Le jour 456 de Sarko

In France when the government inconveniences you, if you deem the social order regressive, or should accommodations be insufficiently generous, well, just huddle up with like-minded yobs and destroy something.

SITUATION 'UNCONTROLLABLE' AS WINEMAKERS
GO ON RAMPAGE IN SOUTHERN FRANCE

March 7, 2006 (Decanter) - Disenchanted winemakers attacked police vehicles, wine tankers and négociants yesterday in a further attempt to elicit financial help from the government. Over 100 winemakers, masked and armed with crowbars and sledgehammers, began the day by descending on a wine depot in the Mediterranean port of Sète.

The group attacked an Italian wine tanker and emptied its contents, several thousand litres of Italian wine, onto the tarmac. More wine was spilled shortly after when the winemakers stormed La Navale Française – another négociant in Sète... Several thousand hectolitres of wine were sent gushing out of opened vats, flooding the quayside before the demonstrators took to the roads.

The winemakers formed a rolling roadblock on the A9 motorway between Montpellier and Béziers and attacked police vehicles, including a motorcycle, with sledgehammers. One police van was set alight.

FRENCH WINE 'RADICALS' THREATEN MORE VIOLENCE
December 12, 2006 (beveragedaily.com)

CRAV WINE MILITANTS ISSUE ULTIMATUM

May 21, 2007 (beveragedaily.com) - French wine militants have warned the country's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, there will be more violence if he does not offer more support to the sector.

Several balaclava-clad men claiming to represent militant winemaker group, Comite d'Action Regionale Viticole (CRAV), made their threats in a video passed to the France 3 television channel in Languedoc Roussillon. Addressing the new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, they said:

If in one month nothing has changed and prices have not risen, then the winemakers will emerge from the maquis (hinterlands) and act. ... Winemakers, we call on you to revolt. We are at the point of no return. If Sarkozy does not have the sense to support the wine sector, he will be responsible for what happens.

It is thought more violence is likely in the wake of EU plans to reform Europe's wine sector. Formal proposals, to be announced on 4 July, may involve ripping up 400,000 hectares of vines and Languedoc Roussillon is expected to be one of the areas worst hit.

CRAV's latest threat comes only a few weeks after claiming responsibility for minor explosions at several supermarkets in Languedoc. No one was injured, but one source close to CRAV has told BeverageDaily that may change. He said central leaders had always warned against injuring people, but their power has disintegrated and splinter factions containing more radical elements were now acting on their own.

It is understood the group contained more than 800 members last year.

FRANCE'S WINE TERRORISTS

PARIS August 1, 2008 (Time) - Hurting from over-production and cheap imports, and punished lately by the rising cost of gas, a small group of local wine growers has resorted to "wine terrorism" in a violent attempt to shock the French government into helping them.

... CRAV's commando operations began with the 2005 bombing of a state agricultural building. CRAV members, or independent sympathizers, have repeatedly carried out bombings or acts of vandalism since, including three acts of property destruction in a 10-day span in May this year alone. In mid-July, CRAV logos were discovered spray-painted at a Narbonne agriculture collective whose vandalized vats had drained nearly 132,000 gallons of wine on the ground — an estimated loss of around $450,000. Last year, it sent a video to newly-elected President Nicolas Sarkozy demanding assistance to the region's grape growers, or

"blood will flow".

Quixotic as it may seem to outsiders, the group — and many Langeudoc-Rousillon growers who support its aims while condemning the violence used to achieve them — want the French government to protect them from a rapidly globalizing market. Foreign wine from cheaper producers such as Italy, Spain, Australia, the US, and South America — where costs can be one-fifth of those in France — has saturated the market, and driven down demand for locally-grown grapes. That has depressed the price Langeudoc-Rousillon growers get for their crops by up to 50% in recent years.

With revenues plummeting and production costs on the rise thanks in part to escalating gas prices, local farmers are demanding financial aid from Paris. But European Union rules limit how much help the French government can extend; Brussels has repeatedly urged growers to cut costs by letting nearly 500,000 acres of land lie fallow, and swap plonk production for more expensive, higher quality wine.

... Jérôme Soulère's lawyer, Jean-Marie Bourland, doesn't justify his client's avowed acts of destruction, but sympathizes with his client's predicament.

We're in a country where, alas, our leaders don't pay attention to well-behaved, and listen to those who leave them no choice. ... For some, I suppose, posing a bomb is their attempt to pose a question.

What CRAV might want to consider is that a government that has made their industry dependent on government is probably not where the solution lies. CRAV also might want to awaken to the fact that there is no lasting protection from the free market. You are either in or out. If you are out then the government becomes your principal customer and, on a commercial basis, governments are notoriously cheap.

PFFT (What is this?): CRAV, bombing its way to a bright future 0 | Rayonnement français 0

More lousy clothes in Paris: anti-semitic t-shirts now

After the Che t-shirts, the terrorist rag, the anti-semitic t-shirt. Straight front the capital of fashion:

A sleeveless t-shirt with anti-Semitic inscriptions was found on sale in a northern Paris shop last weekend.

The inscriptions on the t-shirt read in German "Juden Eintritt in die parkanlagen verboten" (No Entry for Jews in the Park) and in Polish "Zydome [sic] wstep do parku wzbroniony," reproducing a ban to Jews in the Lodz ghetto in 1940.

It was found and bought for 18 euros last weekend in Belleville, in Paris's 19th district, by the French National Bureau of Vigilance against anti-Semitism (BNVCA), a group monitoring anti-Semitic incidents in France.

An AFP reporter found five of the grey, sleeveless woollen tops -- labelled with the brand "Introfancy IF" -- on sale early Tuesday, but when he returned shortly afterwards they had been withdrawn.

[Thanks to Janinka]

Ah, you gotta love summer in Paris. A little souvenir?

Pave: War Talk Redux

Le jour 455 de Sarko

The France of only yesterday...

I wish to reiterate here that for France war can only be the last resort, and collective responsibility, the rule. ... [T]hat holds true for Iraq and for all the crises that we will have to confront together.

Dom "la Mouette" de Villepin,
Then French Foreign Minister,
posturing as a moral exemplar
NEW YORK March 19, 2003 (French Embassy UK)

We consider that all military action not endorsed by the international community, through, in particular, the Security Council, was both illegitimate and illegal, is illegitimate and illegal. And we have not changed our view on that.

Then-Jack, Now Ex-Jack,
posturing as a moral exemplar
ÉVIAN-LES-BAINS June 3, 2003 (BBC)

The France of today.

La France réitère son attachement à la souveraineté et à l'intégrité territoriale de la Géorgie dans ses frontières internationalement reconnues.

[France reiterates its commitment to Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.]

Situation en Ossétie du sud, Géorgie
Communiqué du Ministere des affaires etrangeres
et europeennes
PARIS 8 août 2008 (Quai d'Orsay)

You might think the above communiqué puts France squarely in Georgia's corner. [Pause to nod knowingly.] Think again.

KOUCHNER: SARKOZY TO HEAD TO MOSCOW
TO MEDIATE IN CAUCASUS

PARIS August 11, 2008 (M&C) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to travel to Moscow on Tuesday to mediate in the Caucasus conflict, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in an interview with radio RTL in the Georgian capital Tbilisi Monday.

... Kouchner, in the interview, reiterated his support for a ceasefire and a withdrawal of troops from the area. He also called for access to victims and an undertaking in writing from both sides to renounce further violence.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili had 'accepted almost all proposals,' Kouchner said. The EU and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) should play an important political role in mediation, he added.

'It is a war of bombing and mortars,' Kouchner said. 'There have already been numerous civilian casualties.' He refrained, however, from condemning the latest Russian bombing. M. Kouchner:

If I condemn, I can no longer hear both sides.

Ah, France rediscovers overdelicacy in diplomacy -- the mincing non-statement, the leveling of right with wrong, the principled position of cringe opportunism. [Pause.]

Let us pretend like M. Kouchner that there are two legitimate sides. First there is Georgia and its sovereign territory, which it believes it has a duty to administer and keep intact. Next there is Russia and its army operating under a UNSCR resolution leading a coalition of several score nations coming to the aid of a Russian-backed rebel Georgian province. [Pause.]

We are of course pretending. Like the non-judgmental M. Kouchner. There is no flimsy UNSCR sanctioning a Russian invasion of Georgia. There is no Russian-led international coalition. No. There is only Russia doing as it pleases in Georgia.

¡No Pasarán! has translated several philosophical comments on the Russian invasion from Le Monde readers. By philosophical we mean virulently anti-American, which passes for philosophy in much of France. These thoughtful readers -- with perhaps several philosophical droolers in the mix -- applaud Russia and condemn America. Why? [We search the heavens. Nothing.]

Our guess is that Europa applauds to cover its cringe. Criticize America, hate America, believe the worst of America -- and still "dark America" is not going to invade your Euro-state. Raise a hackle in the Kremlin and Russia will find cause to visit your Euro-state and make a permanent impression.

Without an American NATO, Western Europa does not dare to blink, to weakly tongue-cluck.

POODLE PIDDLE
Strong Principled Listening
[Original graphic (unmodified): obeythepurebreed.com]

Pave: "The Americans? We're going to smash them." Redux

Le jour 454 de Sarko

I felt that I was in the lead. I knew I had to accelerate, but it got harder. Of course, we are a bit disappointed, but (silver) is a nice medal.

Alain Bernard,
disappointed smasher
and French celebrity Olympic swimmer,
explaining why the fittest natatory competitor,
believed by him to be himself, with a body-length advantage
in the final 50m of the 400m relay, was beaten by
non-celebrity American swimmer, Jason Lezak,
seven years Bernard's senior
August 11, 2008 (DMN)

A bit disappointed?

L'ex-recordman du monde de la spécialité, qui a passé près de 10 minutes accroupi dans les toilettes du Cube d'eau, la tête dans les mains, semblait encore sous le choc. "Alain est touché. Partir dernier relayeur en tête et se faire battre, on n'en sort pas indemne", a reconnu le directeur technique national, Claude Fauquet. ... Afin d'évacuer la frustration d'une course aussi cruelle que magnifique, de les relancer dans les épreuves individuelles, et d'éviter qu'Alain Bernard ne soit non seulement touché, mais aussi coulé.

Yes. Well, silver is nice if handled with a little grace. [Pause.] When the vain fall, they fall hard.

PFFT (What is this?): A bit disappointed 4½ | Rayonnement français ½

Pave: "The Americans? We're going to smash them."

Le jour 454 de Sarko

Trash-talking Frenchman Alain Bernard makes his boast before delivering the goods. Now, placing second in a world-class competition, France looks like a loser. Nice going, Bernard.

I'M FAVOURITE AND WE'LL SMASH US: BERNARD

August 7, 2008 (ABC-AU/Reuters) - World record holder Alain Bernard has opened the war of words for the Olympic swimming competition, stating he was the favourite for the 100 metres freestyle and the French relay squad would "smash" the Americans.

... France with a team including Amaury Leveaux, Frederic Gilot and Frederick Bousquet clocked 3:12.54 in June, only 0.08 seconds from the world mark and Bernard was bullish ahead of Sunday's 4x100 freestyle relay heats. Alain Bernard:

The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for.

That was last week. Today M. Bernard, a gifted athlete, is a donkey.

SMASHING WIN FOR U.S., PHELPS

BEIJING August 11, 2008 (Baltimore Sun) - The U.S. 400-meter freestyle relay team of Phelps, Cullen Jones, Garret Weber-Gale and Jason Lezak came from behind to win the gold medal, upsetting France, and the biggest hero of the day turned out to be Lezak, the American anchor and captain of the entire team.

Lezak trailed France's Alain Bernard -- who started the day as the world record holder in the 100-meter freestyle -- by half a body length when the two swimmers turned from the final wall. But Lezak slowly closed the gap, reeling in Bernard an inch at a time, and he out-touched the Frenchman by eight-hundredths of a second to win gold in a world-record time of 3 minutes, 8.24 seconds.

Please note, it is Alain Bernard himself, enjoying a half-body length advantage for an all-but-certain-win, who does not deliver. It is Alain Bernard himself, the self-declared fittest competitor at the games,* who fails to out-duel the oldest swimmer** on the American relay squad.

The Americans' relay victory was all the more sweet considering the way France declared itself the favorite prior to the Olympics. The Frenchmen weren't shy about repeating it either. In a news conference prior to the start of the Games, Bernard, who boasts a tattoo of a shark on his abdomen, was asked what he thought about his country's chances against the United States.

"The Americans?" Bernard said. "We will smash them."

Several of Bernard's teammates followed his lead, even going so far as to suggest that the Americans were scared of the French.

"This morning, [coach] Bob (Bowman) had said the French were saying some stuff, talking a little bit of trash," Phelps said. "It fired me up more than anything else. I told Garret, and he said 'You know what?' We're going to let our swimming do the talking." Jason Lezak:

When I flipped at the 50, and saw how far ahead he was, knowing he was the world record holder, for a split second a thought crossed my mind: There is no way. But I said 'You know what? This is ridiculous. This is the Olympics and I'm here for the United States of America. I don't care how bad it hurts.' Honestly, in like five seconds, I was thinking all these things. I just got like a super charge and just took it from there. It was unreal.

Lezak's closing leg (46.06) was the fastest relay split ever.

ALAIN SWIMS FOR BERNARD. JASON SWIMS FOR AMERICA.
U.S. 400-Meter Freestyle Relay Team (L to R)
Garret Weber-Gale, Jason Lezak, Michael Phelps And Cullen Jones
[Photo source: Baltimore Sun/Getty Images]

[Hat tip: V de T via ¡No Pasarán!]

------------------------------------
* Alain Bernard (supra):

The 100 metres favourite, it's me. If I didn't believe I was, I wouldn't be here at all. I've always said that 10 to 15 swimmers could be on the podium. But physically, I'm on top. I'm fitter than I was at the French championships, fitter than I was at the European championships.

** Jason Lezak is 32 years old. Alain Bernard is 25 years old.

PFFT (What is this?): Big talk 5 | Scary French 0 | Sportsmanship (France) 0 | Rayonnement français ½ (Trash-talking and not delivering forfeits a 4 rating)

Better late... Ahem

I would like to apologize to those who wrote to us (that doesn't include trolls) the past couple - cough - of months and who only got an answer today.

Since we noticed a strange pattern of banned IPs occurring inexplicably, we are wondering whether we also received all important e-mails from you (that doesn't include trolls). Consequently, if you sent us an e-mail recently - or less recently (that doesn't include trolls) that requires an answer, please do not hesitate to send it back. We will get back to you (that doesn't include trolls) as soon as possible.

Thanks for your patience and readership :)

Pave: Missed The Boat

Le jour 452 de Sarko

COLOSSAL DÉFICIT COMMERCIAL FRANÇAIS,
QUI CONTRASTE AVEC L'EXCÉDENT ALLEMAND
[COLOSSAL FRENCH TRADE DEFICIT,
CONTRASTS WITH GERMAN SURPLUS]
7 août 2008 (Dépêche)

[Source: Patrice Deré, AFP/Douanes]

[Hat tip: Janina]

MADE IN FRANCE, GOING NOWHERE*

LONDON August 7, 2008 (Forbes) - Want to know why France's trade deficit hit a record high last month, while Germany's trade surplus grew at its fastest rate in two years? Look no further than Russia.

Russia may have lots of energy resources at its disposal, and it benefits from exporting them, but it also needs to import as well. Capital goods, cars, machinery and equipment all wind their way towards Moscow, and that is precisely why Germany is prospering while France dithers. Gilles Moec, economist with Bank of America:

France has, to a great extent, missed the boat on globalization [and here]. Germany has expanded internationally and taken in the emerging markets, in sectors like the auto industry. France, in this regard, is still quite muted.

The problem is a structural one. Germany's dedicated focus to its export industry has pushed companies to spread their cost base wide, build up their international supply chains and to satisfy emerging-market demand for capital goods.

Meanwhile, France's track record of strong domestic growth after World War II meant that international expansion and exports were never seen as necessary, or even a good thing, leaving luxury consumer goods and food as the only real strong points for French international trade.

The figures speak for themselves. French exports to Russia totaled 5.7 billion euros ($8.7 billion) last year, while Germany's were nearly five times bigger, at 28.1 billion euros ($43.1 billion).

... So it might not be wise to simply blame the strong euro, or high energy prices, for France's trade deficit. After all, the exchange rate is the same for France's Renault, as it is for Germany's BMW or Daimler (nyse: DAI - news - people ). Only the cost base and the products are different--as is the brand power of "Made In Germany."

Ah. [Pause.] Well, as Tony Blair might say to Then-Jack, Now Ex-Jack:

Well, France gave its support [and this and this and here and this ] but I did not see much in return [and this and this and this and now this]. I am not sure that it is in the nature of our Russian friends at the moment to return favours systematically.

Or something along those lines. Except that Tony Blair is not a mal élevé bore who thinks the world waits on his mood swings.

------------------------------------
* France is a recognized destination of going nowhere.

PFFT (What is this?): Russia neglects the poodle 4 | Rayonnement français 0

Pave: Hyped Economy VIII

Le jour 451 de Sarko

As we can see since 2001, the gap between government forecast and reality will remain significant.

Marc Touati,
chief economist, Global Equities,
commenting on successive French governments
to the present talking up hope eternal
PARIS January 15, 2008 (fxstreet.com/Dow Jones)

FRANCE'S LAGARDE SAYS INSEE GROWTH FORECASTS
'EXCESSIVELY PESSIMISTIC'

PARIS June 20, 2008 (Forbes/Thomson Financial) - Insee said yesterday that French GDP growth will slow to 1.6 percent in 2008 as France starts to feel the effects of the global economic slowdown. Its full-year GDP growth forecast is slightly below the French government's current target range of 1.7 to 2.0 percent.

Nothing seems to discourage Mdm. Lagarde's economic boosterism of the French economy. Certainly not bad news.*

FRENCH INDUSTRIAL CONFIDENCE
'HITS THREE-YEAR LOW'

PARIS July 24, 2008 (AFP) — French industrialists are the gloomiest about business prospects for three years, a survey by the statistics institute INSEE showed on Thursday, pointing to a sharper economic slowdown in coming months.

FRENCH CONSUMER CONFIDENCE
DIPS TO NEW RECORD LOW

July 29, 2008 (RTTNews) - The French consumer confidence fell to a new record low in July, results of a [INSEE] monthly consumer confidence survey showed. Meanwhile, official data revealed that producer price inflation increased in June... The latest business survey report released by the INSEE revealed that demand in the French manufacturing industry fell noticeably in the second quarter and business leaders expect a further decline in demand in the third quarter.

French housing starts declined 28.2% in three months to June, larger than the 21.6% fall recorded during three months to May, official data showed. Meanwhile, housing permits showed a 15.3% decrease. For three months to May, decline in housing permits was 19.9%.

This is a new record low from the record low of June.

FRANCE'S TRADE DEFICIT SWELLS TO RECORD HIGH IN JUNE

PARIS August 7, 2008 (Guardian/Reuters) - France's trade deficit ballooned to a record high in June... The value of imports outstripped exports by 5.6 billion euros ($8.7 billion)... The deficit far exceeded the 4.6 billion euros expected in a Reuters survey of economists, fuelling expectations for weak, or even no economic growth in the second quarter.

Bad news is only a foil for better-days-just-around-the-corner headlines.

LAGARDE SAYS UPTURN FOR FRENCH ECONOMY
A POSSIBILITY FROM H2 2009

PARIS July 15, 2008 (Reuters/Thomson Financial) - Finance minister Christine Lagarde said GDP growth in France in 2008 is likely to be at the bottom of the range of the official forecast and that an upturn is a possibility from the second half of next year.

FRENCH MINISTER SEES INFLATION RATE
FALLING OFF 17-YEAR HIGH IN COMING MONTHS

PARIS July 22, 2008 (IHT/AP) - French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Tuesday she expects the inflation rate to start falling in the months ahead as the economy absorbs last year's rise in fuel and food prices.

"Inflation will fall in coming months," she told reporters, adding that the rate for July will remain high.

Focus on the fabulous future -- this is a neat French trick. "Coming months", ah, dear skimmer, why that is anywhere from September to the eschaton. We explain how you too can perform neat tricks like a French finance minister here.

------------------------------------
* Also see posts here and here.

PFFT (What is this?): Mdm. Lagrade bets on the eschaton 3½ | Rayonnement français 0

Pave: Bad News Is Good News

Le jour 449 de Sarko

Same story, different headlines.

AIR FRANCE-KLM PROFIT DROPS 59% ON OIL BILL

LONDON August 5, 2008 (MarketWatch) - Air France-KLM on Tuesday reported a 59% profit decline for its fiscal first quarter, as fuel surcharges weren't nearly enough to counter a sky-high fuel bill.

The last of the major European airlines to report earnings, Air France-KLM said its profit fell to 168 million euros (USD $260 million) from 415 million euros.

Revenue rose 6% to 6.29 billion euros after a passenger traffic rise of 3.7%.

Analysts, on average, were looking for a profit of 145 million euros on revenue of 6.27 billion euros.

In the glum story AF-KLM betters both revenue and profit expectations by almost 16%.

AIR FRANCE PROFIT BEATS FORECASTS

August 6, 2008 (The Age) - Air France-KLM Group, Europe's largest airline, reported first-quarter profit that exceeded analysts' estimates as the carrier sold more business-class tickets and protected itself from record fuel costs with hedging contracts.

... Net income for the three months through June 30 dropped 60% to 168 million euros (USD $260 million), or 54 cents a share, compared with the 152 million-euro median estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

But in the bright story AF-KLM only beats the forecast average by 10.5%, or a 52% fall-off from the glum news report.

Imagine the numbers had AF-KLM serviced all passenger classes.

PFFT (What is this?): Less profit, better results 2½ | Rayonnement français 2½

NYC Letter: Sweet Talkin' Guy

Countdown 91 days to go

NEW MR. OBAMA CAMPAIGN ANTHEM
[Lyrics: The Chiffons]

Sweet talkin' guy
Talkin' sweet kinda lies
Don't you believe in him
If you do, he'll make you cry

He'll send you flowers
And paint the town with another girl

He's a sweet talkin' guy
But he's my kind of guy

Sweeter than sugar
Kisses like wine
Don't let him under your skin
'Cause you'll never win

NOT LIKE THE OTHER GUYS ON THE DOLLAR BILLS
You Know, With Those Big Ears

Don't give him love today
Tomorrow he's on his way

But he's a sweet talkin' guy
But he's my kinda guy

Why do I love him like I do?

[Break.]

He's a sweet talkin'
Sweet talkin' guy

Stay away from him
Stay away from him
Don't believe him he's lying
No, you'll never win
No, you'll never win
You'll just end up crying

Don't give him love today
Tomorrow he's on his way

1966 US №10, UK №31; 1972 re-issue: №4; 2008 expropriation: №2.

[Hat tip: V de T via The Scratching Post]

Pave: Life In France, VI

Le jour 447 de Sarko

Paysans lighten the burdens of wedlock by making a gift of them to the neighbors.

RACY GOINGS-ON IN LA FRANCE PROFONDE
The Wife-Swapping Club Comes To Rural Normandy

August 4, 2008 (Independent) - The nearest town to our house in Normandy is a sad place which has never fully recovered from the summer of 1944. ... The population is ageing and glum. Excitement is hard to find.

A few days ago work began on renovating a long-closed shop on the town's main square. Would this be yet another estate agent selling houses without roofs to the British? Or something more interesting? A hand-written red and white sign appeared in the window. The sign read:

Ici bientôt, Club Echangiste.

Opening here soon, Wife Swapping Club.

Clubs Echangistes are an accepted part of the entertainment industry in France. Paris has more than 60 of them. That, however, is the wicked big city. An officially proclaimed, rural wife-swapping club – next to the notary's office – seemed too good to be true. On closer inspection, the red-and -white sign in the tiny shop-front added the following details.

On peut apporter son mari, son chien, son âne, sa belle-mère.

A separate sign read:

Fully booked until 20 August.

Was this meant to be a satire on the submerged, sexual oddities of rural life? I asked the man painting the inside of the shop. He shrugged. "It's meant to be funny, I think," he said.

Yesterday, a new sign had appeared next to the other ones.

By popular demand, we will open on Sunday. After Mass.

More life as eeked out in France here, here, here, here, and here.

PFFT (What is this?): Rural dullsville 2½ | Hymenaios weeps 5 | Rayonnement français 0

Pave: Socialist Paradise In Decline: Vacation

Le jour 446 de Sarko

Le but de la politique que je propose n'est pas de maintenir stable le pouvoir d'achat, il est de l'augmenter. Le but, ce n'est pas la stagnation, c'est le progrès. Le but, ce n'est pas le minimum, mais le maximum.

[The goal of the policies that I am proposing is not to keep purchasing power stable, it is to increase it. The goal is not stagnation, it is progress. The goal is not the minimum, but the maximum.]

Sarko,
then aspiring candidat du pouvoir d’achat,
now Président de la République and pocket reformer
Ensemble (Paris: XO Editions, 2007)

NEARLY HALF FRENCH WILL NOT TAKE SUMMER HOLIDAY

July 31, 2008 (RFI) - Nearly half of all French people have decided to forego the most hallowed of Gallic traditions this year: August holidays. Some 42 per cent of the population say they will not take a summer holiday and blame a lower standard of living for not heading for the mountains and beaches, according to a study commissioned by the French Communist Party's paper l'Humanité.

Pardon, allow us a caveat. It is in the interests of the French Communist Party (Parti communiste français, PCF) to find such a finding. The Communists who continually run for the presidency and lose, have participated in only two Ve Republic governments (the first-term Mitterand cabinet and the Jospin** cohabitation cabinet, see Arnaud's comment below). A spent force (and this and here), the Communists have no record of social accomplishments, so the next best thing is to rob accomplished political parties of accomplishments. It is also in the PCF's interests that the rhetoric of the sorry lot of the French worker never be lessened, otherwise why elect the Communists? What hope the revolution?

That said, this is a survey of intentions, not a record of events. It is likely that many of the no-vacation responses are complaints and, come August, these respondents will be off to the beach or campground leaving their cares behind them.*

Polls show that declining purchasing power [and here] has become the principal concern for most French people, taking over from employment in Autumn 2007, and adding to the decline in popularity of President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose main election slogan was "Work more to earn more".

Restaurants and cafés have felt the penny-pinching by French consumers according to the UMIH, the national restaurant union, reporting that clientele numbers fell 20 to 30 per cent in July alone.

Hotels have reported a better showing, but vacationers are trying to bargain for hotel rooms at the lowest possible price, president Yannick Fassaert of the tourist association Gites en France told L'Humanité.

"Lowest possible price"? [Pause.] How radical. How unsporting. Where is yesterday's "economic patriotism"?

In fact, more than a quarter of all French save money to go on vacation, according to the study. And 56 per cent who are hitting the road are staying closer to home, due to rising petrol prices.

... The Communist Party takes a particular interest in the question because the right to paid vacations in France was granted by the country's first-ever left-wing government, the 1936 Popular Front which the party supported.***

A reach-back to 1936 is indicative of the bold retrospective thinking found among today's French Communists.

------------------------------------
* Cares such as Mamie et Papy. See also here, here, here, and here.

** Lionel Jospin (16.18%) lost to M. Le Pen (16.86%) and Jack (19.88%) in the presidential 1er tour in 2002 and retired for good from politics. He unretired to shill for the EU constitution, which was voted down by the French (57.26%/42.74%). He re-retired. He un-re-retired to present himself as a Socialist présidentiable in 2006, was quickly disabused, and re-re-retired.

*** And pointedly did not participate in (soutien sans participation) as association would sully Communist principles and compromise the forever-over-the-horizon revolution. Association might also lead to collegial sentimentalism, making any accompanying post-revolutionary score-settling awkward.

PFFT (What is this?): Bonnes vacances ! 1½ | Rayonnement français 0

Pave: Who To Believe? France Or Those Lying Jews? IX Redux

Le jour 444 de Sarko

Non, la France n'est pas un pays antisémite. ... La France n'accepte pas l'antisémitisme ; elle le combat. Mais elle n'accepte pas non plus les accusations qui touchent à son honneur.

[No, France is not an anti-Semitic country. ... France does not accept anti-semitism; she fights it. But neither does she accept charges that wound her honor.]

Ex-Jack,
then-president of anti-Semite-free France,
explaining how France while battling
French anti-Semitism morning, noon, and night,
cannot, as a point of honor, acknowledge
claims of anti-Semiticsm in France
PALAIS DE L'ÉLYSÉE February 13, 2004
(Élysée/Yedioth Aharonoth)

In June of this year a lone Jewish teenager, identified by his kippa, was brutally beaten by a Parisian gang of 15 to 20 "youths" and left in a coma. What was plain was that the victim was a Jew and, from eye witnesses, the attackers were Maghrébins (North Africans). The tough call for the French media was how to report this savage attack without giving offense or not too much offense or the least offense possible to the Maghrébin community. Ever resourceful in new approaches to the facts the French press conjured up "intercommunitarian strife", a sort of Jewish-Maghrebi West Side Story minus the catchy tunes or dance numbers or the nice Natalie Wood-Richard Beymer love interest.

Now the story was Rudy Haddad, a Jewish gang member with a police record, is caught alone on the turf of a rival Maghrebi gang. Mayhem ensues. [Heads nod knowingly.]

There was only one small fail-point in this everyone's-to-blame fairy tale. [Pause.]

No complementary Jewish gang.

Nidra Poller, perhaps the most intelligent and trusted reporter in France (and here), provides a believable exposition.

HATE

PARIS July 31, 2008 (WSJ) - The brutal mob beating of a Jewish teenager in full view of witnesses at the end of a summer afternoon marks an ominous development in the hate crimes that have plagued France since the fall of 2000.

... As if to camouflage the horror of a brazen aggression, French media framed 17-year-old Rudy Haddad's beating in an incongruous narrative of turf battles between Jewish gangs and African and Maghrebi gangs. Confused accounts of the June 21 fights that ended with the attack against Rudy -- portrayed as a tough guy with a police record -- curiously recall the "cycle of violence" treatment of the Arab-Israeli conflict, where Palestinian terror attacks and Israeli efforts to prevent them are judged as morally equivalent. In Rudy's case, officials and reporters contravened the customary self-imposed gag rule and immediately pinned an ethno-religious label on the "youths" who, according to witnesses, bashed Rudy's skull, broke his ribs, jumped up and down on his inert body with all their might shouting "dirty Jew," and left him in a coma. But every account ended with a line about "intercommunitarian strife" that placed half the blame on the victim. The exact nature of these Jewish gangs was left in the dark...

To reaffirm the good reputation of his district, Socialist Mayor Roger Madec organized a "fraternal gathering" in front of the City Hall on July 3. Reporters were greeted by a press attaché who hastened to inform them that this was not a "purely" anti-Semitic attack -- the Jewish gangs, you know.

With the exception of Richard Prasquier, the president of the Jewish umbrella organization CRIF [Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France] who asked what is being done about the hatred that fired the unspeakable violence against a 17-year-old simply because he is Jewish, the other speakers sang the praises of good neighborly diversity and warned the media not to pin anti-this and anti-that labels on the "regrettable incident." None of these other speakers thought to address Mr. Prasquier's question.

... In France, where racial, religious, national or ethnic breakdown of population statistics is forbidden, and where applying such labels to criminals is taboo, the term "youth" is used to hide the identity of thugs, even when their identity is visible in TV footage. The taboo was exceptionally lifted in Rudy's case to sustain the narrative of intercommunitarian strife. The fortuitous discovery -- or invention -- of Jewish gangs imposed a corresponding African and Maghrebi label.

Since tough laws and improved police work have not put a stop to the harassment of Jews, some young Jewish men are trying to defend themselves. Much was made of Rudy's "police record." In fact, his "record" consisted of an attempt to defend a friend who'd been knocked to the ground by a group of Muslims who came to break up a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony in honor of kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Rudy fought them off with his motorcycle helmet, which became in legal terms an "arm by destination."

... The Rudy Haddad story leaped back onto the front pages on July 10 with the arrest of seven "youths" who turned out to be in their mid- to late 20s. Two have been arraigned and jailed: an African, identified as Sekou M., and a North African, Foued O. The latter, who is a career air force corporal, is accused of bashing Rudy's head with a crutch. Another African, Boubacar C., suspected of involvement in the machete attack, has been charged and released while awaiting trial. The implication of husky, mature men in the attacks that raged that day and culminated in the savage beating of a Jewish teen further undermines the narrative of mere squabbles among youngsters.

And here is a telling anecdote about the rule of law in the very heart of France:

A woman told me she witnessed another violent fight near the City Hall [in Paris's 19th arrondissement] in midafternoon. Fearing someone would get killed -- the (African and Maghrebi) assailants were beating their victims with iron bars -- she asked the policemen on duty to intervene. One of them shrugged and said, "They should all go home."

Worth the full read.

PFFT (What is this?): Everyone go home 5 | Rayonnement français 0 (There is no lower rating)

Pave: Une nation qui rayonne dans le monde VI

Le jour 443 de Sarko

La population est inquiète et ne croit plus aux chiffres officiels.

[The local population is worried and no longer believes official figures.]

André-Yves Becq,
deputy mayor of Bollène,
describing local confidence
in official versions of events
17 juillet 2008 (Le Monde)

EVACUATION AT FRENCH NUCLEAR PLANT

July 29, 2008 (TPA) - An engineer has said 127 people were evacuated from a French nuclear site after what he called a minor incident that triggered an alarm.

Engineer Jean Girardi said 45 of those workers have been taken to the hospital after the incident at the Tricastin nuclear complex near the city of Avignon in southern France.

Mr Girardi said the alarm was apparently set off by a minor leak of radioactive particles. He also said tests found "extremely weak traces of radioactivity" on two people.

The French electric company EDF said Tuesday's incident had no impact on employees' health.

It has declined further comment.

Or maybe it was nothing at all. No leak. No radioactivity. A false alarm.

100 EMPLOYEES OF FRENCH NUCLEAR SITE EVACUATED

GRENOBLE July 29, 2008 (BW/AP) - About 100 employees were evacuated from a nuclear site in southern France on Tuesday after an alarm went off accidentally, the power plant said. ... Stephanie Biabaut, a spokeswoman for the plant near the city of Avignon, said the alarm went off accidentally Tuesday, and medical tests showed that personnel were not contaminated.

... French electric company EDF, which runs the plant, declined to explain Girardi's comments [See above.] but insisted the case was merely a false alarm.

You see, officially it was a false alarm. Officially nothing has happened. [Pause.] Officially nothing to worry about, M. Becq.

NEW EDF SPOKESMAN: QUOI-MOI, INQUIET ?
M. Girardi Is No Longer Available For Comments
[Photo source (background): obouton]

PFFT (What is this?): Quoi-moi, inquiet ? 4½ | Rayonnement français 0

Pave: French Poodle

Le jour 442 de Sarko

MR. OBAMA NOVELTY UNDERPANTS
Special French Deluxe Edition Features
Confidence-Building Eiffel Tower Imprint

Without so much as a "merci beaucoup" Mr. Obama breezed in-and-out of France transforming a once haughty and hostile nation into a kennel of yapping, adoring poodles ready to vote him into office -- unless, of course, he were to run in France. [Abrupt needle scratch.] Relax, mes amis. Not to worry about any Mr. Obamas emerging in France. Relax.

And the most yapping of the adoring French, the chief of state himself, Sarko.

SARKOZY TO OBAMA: JE T’AIME
July 25, 2008 (ABC News)

Yap.

NICOLAS SARKOZY LOUE "L'AVENTURE DE BARACK OBAMA"
[NICOLAS SARKOZY PRAISES "ADVENTURE OF BARACK OBAMA"]
26 juillet 2008 (Le Monde)

Yap.

NICOLAS SARKOZY : « OBAMA ? C'EST MON COPAIN »
[SARKO: "OBAMA? HE'S MY BUDDY"]
26 juillet 2008 (Le Monde)

Yap.

SARKOZY GUSHES OVER OBAMA, KINDRED SPIRIT

July 26, 2008 (Chicago Sun Times) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy gushed over Barack Obama on Friday when the two appeared together at the Elysee Palace, coming close, it seemed, to making an endorsement. Sarko:

But, obviously, one is interested in a candidate who's looking towards the future, rather than the past, and that's something that -- a concern that I share.

... And you have to know that here in Europe, here in France, we're watching with great interest what you're doing.

... Not everyone here is called Sarkozy, you know. And I'm aware of the fact that not everyone is called Obama in the United States of America. And that's a sense of -- gives us a sense of America of adventure. And Barack Obama's adventure is an adventure that rings true in the hearts and mind of the French and of Europeans.

In March, rival John McCain visited with Sarkozy at the palace, but the French leader did not give him the honor of a joint appearance.

Not too long ago such effusions were construed as "poodling".

M. Sarkozy n'est pas un européen convaincu, comme nous tous, qui défend les intérêts de la France. Il est avant tout un pro-américaniste, il est un zélateur de Bush...quelqu'un qui se fixe comme programme d'être le futur caniche du président des Etats-Unis.

[Mr. Sarkozy is not a confirmed European, like the rest of us, who defends the interests of France. He is foremost a pro-americanist, a Bush zealot...somebody who sets an agenda to be the future poodle of the president of the United States.]

Laurent Fabius,
député PS de Seine-Maritime (4ème),
former PM, présidentiable wash-out,
and "Top Ten" politician (No.6)
September 16, 2006 (Le Monde)

Ah, but now even Socialists want a Mr. Obama moment.

Should Mr. McCain win, then this sort of thing will again be denounced as poodling.

(A more outrageous but less cited example of French poodling here.)

Although it would seriously wound European sensibilities to say so, their endorsements mean little or nothing to the American electorate. Unless there is a war on (e.g., 2004), presidential elections do not much turn on foreign policy. They turn on domestic issues. Selfish Americans.

PFFT (What is this?): Kiss-up gamble 3¾ | Rayonnement français 0

NYC Letter: Mr. Obama, Tear Down This Wall, Uh, Walls!

Countdown 96 days to go

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, 'Ich bin ein Berliner'

John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
thirty-fifth President of the United States,
affirming America's commitment to fighting Communism
BERLIN June 26, 1963 (BBC)

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Ronald Wilson Reagan,
fortieth President of the United States,
reaffirming America's commitment to fighting Communism
BERLIN June 12, 1987 (Reagan Foundation)

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

Mr. Obama,
not a President of the United States,
affirming the European view of America
BERLIN July 24, 2008 (HuffPo)

We admit that a selective edit can make Mr. Obama look an object of fun. But we invite you to read the whole of his speech at the above link and judge whether Mr. Obama isn't an object of fun of his own making.

Here for instance, Mr. Obama acts as America's presumptive Apologist-in-Chief, affirming nothing bad without America having a hand in it:

As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.

When in the EU, observe the EU pieties.

And when sympathy puts in an appearance, well, it must be shared in the broadest possible way:

The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.

"From all over the globe" but with a strangely high incidence of fatalities from the State of New York, or more precisely the City of New York and in the broadest relevant context, Americans. [We reflect.] Having reflected we recall it was actually thousands of Americans, not "thousands from all over the globe".

The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.

What exactly does this mean? What is the nature of these unstandable walls? Does Mr. Obama so construe the EU, a wall between America and her allies? Isn't there a natural divide between the native and immigrant, between host and guest? And how will Mr. Obama tear down the divides between Christian and Jew and Muslim without mucking in their respective theologies? Or, in what is touted as a major policy address, does Mr. Obama have something less ambitious in mind? [We consider a less ambitious read.] Is he simply exhorting us to "be nice"? Ah, North Korea, Burma, Iran, Libya, Cuba -- only a few of the nations eager to fall in line with Mr. Obama and his brave new approach to world affairs.

Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?

People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time.

"All of our people", "our moment", "our time" -- for whom does Mr. Obama presume to speak?

Meanwhile, while Mr. Obama's unexamined propositions make banner headlines, Mr. McCain makes the back-pages.

McCAIN VISITS GERMAN RESTAURANT -- IN OHIO
COLUMBUS, Ohio July 24, 2008 (AP)

Pave: The Beholden Forget III

Le jour 441 de Sarko

PORN FILM MADE AT FIRST WORLD WAR MEMORIAL
Pornography Has Become The Latest Threat To Graves And Memorials
On The First World War Battlefields Of Northern France.

PARIS July 29, 2008 (Telegraph) - While common acts of desecration have in the past included vandalism and graffiti, indecent photographs and videos are increasingly being shot around the magnificent structures built during the post-war years to remember the fallen.

The latest incident saw a French couple given a four-month suspended prison sentence for making a pornographic video at the Vimy Ridge memorial near Arras.

After being found guilty of exhibitionism, they were fined £400 each and ordered to pay a

symbolic one euro (80 pence)

in damages to Canada, which lost 60,000 men in the Great War.

At Vimy Ridge 3,598 Canadians were killed and 10,602 wounded. [A quick calculation.]

80 pence x French SYMBOLIC multiplier = Ample compensation to Canada. And a little something left over for British desecrations.

Naturally, France pockets the £800 in fines for the bother of dispensing her justice.

VIMY RIDGE MEMORIAL
Added Attraction

Despite the courageous deeds and sacrifice honoured by the Vimy Memorial, the couple are believed to have stripped naked and performed sex acts beside the soaring stone structure.

They then posted the video on a website, invited people to pay to watch it.

Their punishment came just six months after another couple were fined for taking nude photographs of themselves in the same place.

... Police who investigated the case said similar incidents were regularly reported at other memorial and military graveyards.

[Hat tip: Hervé]

PFFT (What is this?): Hallowed ground 0 (There is no lower rating) | Rayonnement français 0

NYC Letter: What Mr. Obama Meant To Say Redux

Countdown 98 days t