A talk with Anne Korkeakivi about her new novel Shining Sea, the challenges of second books, family sagas, and personal inspiration.
Continue reading "A talk with Anne Korkeakivi, author of Shining Sea" »
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The drop that makes the vase overflow. The straw that breaks the camel's back. The beyond words disgusting terrorist attack in Nice is just the latest in a long and painful series of massacres fueled by the unchecked spread of radical Islam in France. In Nice, grief-stricken and furious mourners joined together for a minute of silence. The Prime Minister of France was booed. Unheard of. Incredible. And yet, completely understandable.
France is angry. Deeply, profoundly angry. Four years after the massacre of little children in Toulouse, 18 months after the slaughter of satirical cartoonists in the center of Paris, seven months after the Bataclan and other atrocities, a violent and perverse Tunisian with criminal convictions and a residency permit, plotted the murder of families enjoying the summer evening of July 14th in Nice. There were a half dozen ways this attack could have been prevented, but it was not.
And President François Hollande thinks he's doing ok.
The French trusted their government to put serious measures into place to fight the spreading menace of radicalized Islamists. And it is now dawning on everyone that this trust has been tragically misplaced.
Deploying a level of cynicism unlike any that I have ever seen in thirty years in France, François Hollande deliberately hamstrung his own ministers, in a Machiavellian play of divide and conquer, that ensured that nothing would be done, other than to exhaust the police, kept running by an army of repeat offenders who should not have been out on the streets at all, thanks to the unparalleled incompetence of the government and its failure to enact coherent policy of any kind.
There is, to this day, no policy concerning jihadists returning from Syria and Iraq. No solution of the 10,000+ people referenced as security risks - a number too high to keep track of. No new prisons to hold the petty criminals, like the killer of Nice, who blend into the massive crowd of other petty criminals. No sustained policy of expulsion of foreign nationals convicted of crimes. No review of family reunification (regroupement familiale) as the main source of immigration. No change in the grotesque laxity in sentencing of recidivist criminals. No real strengthening of the intelligence community. And on and on. Instead there is a permanent State of Emergency in which constitutional rights are suspended while CGT activists block roads with impunity, casseurs abuse the police and terrorists roam free.
After the tearful solidarity that brought masses into the street following the shock of the Charlie Hebdo assassinations, France is experiencing an unprecedented swell of anger which threatens to become a tsunami if no vessel is found that can contain or channel it.
La goutte d'eau qui fait déborder le vase.
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NEW: Major French newspapers including Le Monde, Libération and Le Figaro are reporting that the French government lied about the security arrangements. After published reports saying that only one municipal police car - and no National Police - blocked the entrance to the Promenade des Anglais, the Minister of the Interior, Bernard Cazeneuve, officially opened an inquiry by the "Police of the Police" into the security arrangements.
NEW: In the week since this post was written, Europe has seen five more murderous attacks. Wuerzberg (axe on a train: Afghan or Pakistani), Ansbach (bomb in backpack: Syrian), Munich (gun: German-Iranian), Reutlingen (machete: Syrian); and today, Saint Etienne de Rouvray (knife beheading of priest: French on terror watchlist)
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Wonderful literary events and talks coming up this summer in Paris, organized by AUP. The events begin on July 6, 2016 and continue throughout the month of July. To register, please email Jeffrey Greene (jeffrey.greene at noos.fr)
Note: RSVP obligatory: if you do not have AUP ID please write to Jeffrey Greene
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But why such surprise?
Weeks of polls placed Remain and Leave neck and neck. But bookies, the oddsmakers, announced that betting heavily favored Remain, and newspapers around the world trumpeted this happy news.
Hardly anyone noticed the discrepancy
Then a couple days before the vote, Zero Hedge, that wacky assembly of eagle-eyed traders, conspiracy aficionados and contrarian news junkies, published a post that that got little attention.
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Once again, French high school students have launched a petition to protest the content of the English test on the French BAC high school leaving exam. This time (2016) the problem is the use of the word Manhattan. The testers assumed that all students would know that it belongs in New York, but many did not, and felt that it was unfair to base their English language results on trivia known to some but not to others. The petition immediately gathered more than 12,000 signatures.
All this reminds me of last year's debate, when the petition (which gathered even more signatures) concerned questions that were also criticized as unclear, even to native English speakers (not that that matters, mind you).
I wrote about it at the time, but then didn't publish thinking "well, this will never happen again!"
Wrong.
So, only a year late, here's an essay on last year's petition against the English exam.
Continue reading "French Education News: Protesting English" »
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Politics aside, the situation of the migrants in Calais is catastrophic.
Writer Christine Buckley is helping to organize a fundraising party and auction today at Chez Grace, 46 rue des Abbesses, Paris 75018, from 2pm until late, with music and entertainment. The goal is to collect funds to help two of the associations that provide humanitarian aid to the people caught in the no man's land of Calais.
More information here.
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Continue reading "Erin Bryne on Wings: Gifts of Art, Life and Travel in France" »
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Open secret in France: no one joins the unions.
Continue reading "France: How Far Will CGT Go To Block Reforms - Of Unions?" »
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Paris Fringe has barely started and it's already a huge success. Pitch perfect opening press night. Talent, enthusiasm and risk taking galore. How did the volunteer-run cultural festival come into being and what are its goals? Artistic Co-Director Reka Polonyi took time out of an insanely busy schedule to talk with Paris Writers News!
(see also our interview with singer, writer Sarah Tullamore!)__________PWN: How was Paris Fringe created? Who are the organizers? Their goals?
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"dramatiquement drôle" - L'Express
"Une fraîche et amusante satire du monde de la recherche." - Le Monde des Livres
