Writing comes in all genres.
One of the most neglected -- but oh, so crucial!-- is the corporate complaint letter.
Making the rounds on the internet is a hilarious piece from a dissatisfied customer to Sir Richard Branson, fashionable Ted Talker and CEO of Virgin Airlines.
Continue reading "How to write a letter of complaint to your favorite airline" »
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Unlike most bloggers in France, I really don't give a hoot about fashion.
But when über-weirdo Galliano gets suspended by Dior for "slapping" a couple and "anti-Semitic insults", I prick my ears.
What?
Outrageous behavior from this guy? How could his employer not stand by him.
But then I read the Le Monde article that details what he said.
To the lady:
"Dirty Jewish face, you should be dead" ("Sale tête de juive, tu devrais être morte")
And to the gentleman
"F--ing Asian bastard, I will kill you" ("Putain de bâtard asiatique, je vais te tuer").
Then, according to The Guardian, the creative genius:
"repeatedly called the woman "ugly" and a "slag". A police official said that Galliano also exchanged slaps with the couple. "
But here is what I liked best.
"The row began at around 9pm at the bar known for its hip fashion clientele."
(Quick--the name!)
A police source explained that : "the outburst was prompted by stress before fashion week."
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It's doubled!
Last March I listed the top five blunders that cost Nicolas Sarkozy France's Regional Elections.
They were:
1. Allowing his son to become a candidate to head EPAD, which runs La Défense France's richest business area.
Prince Jean has not even graduated law school yet. The effort to drop him into a key post as head of France's most important business district made Sarkozy look arrogant and France like a banana republic. Also, it mortally offended many of Sarkozy's best supporters.
2. Launching a pointless debate on "National Identity"
Why? The French LIKE Sarkozy's promise to get tough with crime and expect him to deliver on it (which he has not yet managed to do.) Why this offensive and distracting sideshow? It hurt feelings and awakened the beast of the Far Right--to absolutely no purpose whatsoever!
3. Appointing Frédéric Mitterand Culture Minister
Poaching the left for talent worked wonders with DSK, Bernard Kouchner and others. Claiming the Mitterand name was apparently so irresistable that Sarkozy ignored warnings about Mitterand's book La Mauvaise Vie in which he recounts sex tourism with Thai "garçons" (translate that however you like). No problem until Minister of Culture Mitterand attacked the US (still an ally) for demanding extradition from Switzerland (not France) of genius film-maker Roman Polanski on charges of raping a minor, which he had fled years ago making him a fugitive. In retaliation, Marine Le Pen read Mitterand's sex tourism with "garçons" passage out loud on TV causing normal French people to question Sarkozy's judgement in having appointed the man in the first place.
4. Encouraging Valérie Pécresse, Minister of Higher Education, to sling mud in a negative campaign that disgusted Ile de France voters.
(This was for the Regional elections. We've all forgotten it now.)
5. Betraying the spirit and the promise of Grenelle.
After a brilliant start in making the environment a centerpiece of this political strategy, Sarkozy abandoned agreed on goals, one after another --clean water, reduction of pesticides, carbon tax. Under pressure from farmers he is reported to have said that he's had enough of ecology! A major error, one which allows the left to pick up the mantel of saving the environment in a Green-Socialist alliance that Sarko had a good chance of breaking...
Now, in the light of Tunisia, the Mexican fiasco, the Libyan fiasco, the MAM and Ollier fiasco, the Eric Woerth fiasco and the rape and murder of yet another young woman by a repeat offender (which Sarkozy had vowed to stop) followed by the judges strike fiasco, I've had to enlarge the list.
6. Tunisia.
Not only was France blindsided by revolution in a Francophile country with long and close relations, but we learned that Sarkozy's foreign minister MAM was doing lucrative personal business with intimates of the regime WHILE THE REVOLT WAS HAPPENING.
In a stunning show of arrogance, diplomatic incompetence and total indifference to the thousands of people who had prepared hundreds of events, Sarkozy offended a friendly nation, failed to achieve his goal concerning the transfer of Florence Cassez, wrecked the Année de Mexique, and set us all to wondering what, if anything, remains of French foreign policy. It's hard to fail simultaneous on more levels.
The ill-advised invitation to Gaddafi to stake his tent in Paris in the desperate pursuit of cash deals with the dictator have come back to haunt the President. Sell your soul, fine. But not for nothing. Revelations that his foreign minister's "companion" founded the Franco-Libyan friendship society do not help his case. Sarkozy is not the first French president to roll in the mud with dictators, but this was so unnecessary...And the whiff of money, very dirty money, is unmistakable.
9. Eric Woerth
Yet another element suggesting Sarkozy's blindness to apparent conflicts of interest. Quiet, reliable Eric Woerth wore too many hats: UMP treasurer AND minister of the budget, his "bouclier fiscal" saved France's richest lady 30,000 euros, which would have been less of a problem had Bettencourt not then hired Woerth's wife for a cushy, well-paid job. Alone, it might have been ok. Wedged between his Prince Jean's attempt to rule EPAD, and MAM's oney grubbing in the Arab world, it looks too much like a pattern of tolerance to sleaze to be ignored.
10. France's failure to protect victims from violent repeat sex offenders.
Sarkozy promised. He vowed to stand on the victim's side. To change laws so that dangerous criminals remained in jail. And, to his credit, he tried. But without building prisons to lock up criminals and unable to change the astonishingly irresponsible habits of the judicial system, he's failed. Miserably. Yet another murder. And on top of that a judge's strike. Result: criminals still on the loose and more votes for the far right.
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One year of school lost.
Why?
Because, in French public schools, when a teacher is absent, he or she is generally not replaced.
The result:
no class.
Students, of course lose out on lessons.
But that is not all.
Absent teachers mean less adults in the school.
Absent teachers send a message to children that presence is, contrary to what adults SAY, not really all that important.
Absent teachers mean more work in more difficult conditions for teachers who are present.
Absent teachers mean more inequality.
What does the failure to replace absent teachers have to do with rising inequality in France?
Children from better off families FLEE to private schools (which have huge waiting lists), which miraculously manage to replace absent teachers.
Children from better off families are able to COMPENSATE for absent teachers by helping the children with schoolwork in the home or even hiring tutors.
Thus the gap between the education achievements between the haves and the have nots widen.
As a result, the HALDE, the French organization to track and combat discrimination, has FILED SUIT in the poor, riot-prone 93 department for the failure to replace absent teachers.
Why are teachers absent? And why are so many absences (81% of 48 h absences) grouped around weekends?
Well, it almost doesn't matter... What's important is that France's immense National Education establishment fails to replace them.
The non-replacement of absent teachers--not PR gimmicks like "sensitizing" three year olds to English-- should be Education Minister Luc Chatel's TOP priority.
Solve this problem, and others will solve themselves.
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French judges are so angry that strikes by magistrates are spreading, despite the technical lack of the right to strike. The reason: Sarkozy accused them of a role in the disastrous management of a violent sex offender with 15 previous convictions.
That the justice system failed the murdered young woman is clear and uncontestable.
What exactly went wrong is still under investigation.
Judges, however, resent any suggestion that they might have in any way been responsible or should, in any case, be sanctionned.
It is interesting to note that judges are striking because of Sarkozy's words--not any particular action that has been taken.
French Judges may not gain the support they hope for in the general population since after previous tragedies, only the most feeble measures were taken to correct gross dysfunction (see l'Affaire d'Outreau where a judge accused innocent people of pedophelia and jailed them for years with no proof).
See France's problem with repeat sex offenders
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"IT'S
RISK- FREE"
"For genetically modified crops we don't have enough distance"
This is one of the posters created by
to try to get the attention of French authorities.
Well, mission accomplished! Three of the six posters were suddenly withdrawn by the RATP--(see below.)
Another ad deals with green algae (also called killer seaweed after a horse and a man died in separate incidents after inhaling their toxic fumes).
HAVE A NICE VACATION
"Intensive industrial hog farms and fertilizers promote the growth of green algae."
"Their decomposition emits a gas which is lethal for man."
WITHDRAWN BY RATP WITHOUT EXPLANATION
The next ad refers to the lack of obligatory labelling requirements on meat products from animals fed genetically modified food.
BIG LIAR
"The law does not require special labeling for animals fed genetically modified food."
THE END OF BUZZZ says the next poster, referring to the massive die-off of bees.
"Certain pesticides carry a mortal risk for bees."
WITHDRAWN BY RATP WITHOUT EXPLANATION
Le Figaro 16 Fév 2011
"La RATP vient de décider de retirer trois des six affiches de cette campagne. Il s'agit des deux portant sur les algues vertes, et de celle dénonçant l'impact des pesticides sur la disparition des abeilles. Selon Benoît Hartmann, le porte-parole de l'association écologiste France Nature Environnement, la RATP a agi «sans (leur) fournir aucune explication. On ne sait pas pourquoi en France, il est impossible de parler de l'agriculture intensive au moment du salon de l'agriculture» explique-t-il." -
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I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Cannes, and no more so than this year.
Imagine:
Robert De Niro (the great) presides the jury.
Woody Allen allows his "love letter to Paris" (MIDNIGHT IN PARIS.) to entertain glitterati the opening night.
Carla Bruni (aka Madame Sarkozy) and Oscar winner Marillon Cotillard dazzle up freshly vacuumed red carpets.
Sounds fun, non? As an old time Woody Allen fan, I'll raise my flute from my dark banlieue, and hope the film's as delightful as Everyone Says I Love You, a charming, off-beat musical, also set Paris.
The 64th Cannes film festival runs 11-22 May, with a jury headed by the American actor Robert De Niro.
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A Food Manifesto for the Future by Mark Bittman, published in NYT February 1, 2011
Mr. Bittman's suggestions are so appropriate and doable that I offer a summary here. For the complete article, see http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/a-food-manifesto-for-the-future/
(Believe it or not, many of these measures would also work in France.).
End government subsidies to processed food.
Begin subsidies to those who produce and sell actual food for direct consumption.
Break up the U.S. Department of Agriculture and empower the Food and Drug Administration. (Food-related deaths are far more common than those resulting from terrorism, yet the F.D.A.’s budget is about one-fifteenth that of Homeland Security.)
Outlaw concentrated animal feeding operations and encourage the development of sustainable animal husbandry.
Encourage and subsidize home cooking.
Tax the marketing and sale of unhealthful foods.
Reduce waste and encourage recycling.
Mandate truth in labeling.
Reinvest in research geared toward leading a global movement in sustainable agriculture, combining technology and tradition to create a new and meaningful Green Revolution.
BRAVO TO MR BITTMAN !
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Sébastien Chabal can be admired at the Musée Grévin in Paris from Feb 17.
(Marcel Marceau and Marcel Proust are not ALL France has to offer...)
(photo from L'Express)
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