Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

On filming the Alzheimer's documentary: I REMEMBER BETTER WHEN I PAINT narrated by Olivia DE HAVILLAND

 

   

 Writer, co-producer, daughter  Berna Huebner talks with us about her remarkable film

 I REMEMBER BETTER WHEN I PAINT, 

which documents how art helped her mother in the struggle to live with Alzheimer's.

Absent teachers hurt learning in France

Teachers in France miss twice as many days of work as workers in the private sector.

As if that weren't bad enough, a recent confidential report commissioned by former Education Ministry Xavier Darcos revealed that substitute teachers registered even higher levels of absenteeism than the people they were meant to replace. 17.4 days a year!!

As a result, 10,000 classes currently have no teacher at all.

Christopher Vanier on Caribbean Chemistry: Tales from St Kitts

authors on authors

 

  This month Laurel Zuckerman talks with Christopher Vanier about his memoir Caribbean Chemistry: Tales from St Kitts

 

 

LZ: When you began work on your memoir, did you intend to write about social issues?

 

 

Has Claude ALLEGRE lost his mind? Former minister attacks French ecologist icon

When Claude Allègre famously called France's Education Nationale a "mammoth", I applauded. Minister of Education at the time, he knew what he was talking about and wasn't afraid to speak his mind.

Of course, he flamed out quickly and thoroughly, and none of his proposed reforms came to pass, in part because he relished a fight more than results.

Why must we learn English at all? French protest

Time magazine recently published an article about the challenge of learning English in France. Students pay high fees to private schools for English lessons after failing to learn the language despite years of studying in public schools. (read Time article here)

French court rules no one responsible for explosion that killed 31, wounded 2500 and caused 2 bn euros of material damages ten days after 911

The dead factory worker wore five layers of underclothing (like a Muslim suicide bomber) and had ties to Islamist groups.

Yet France's highest officials declared the AZF chemical plant explosion in Toulouse to be an "accident" only three days after the catastrophe caused 31 deaths, 2500 injuries and 2 billion euros of property damages. Before the investigation got underway. Ten days after 911.

 For exploring the Islamist ties of a temporary worker of Tunisian origin killed in the explosion, Le Figaro and Valeurs Actuelles were charged with "diffamation.

Swine flu H1N1 cases double in France in one week, vaccination centers swamped

"Une grippette" (a harmless little flu), as the esteemed Professor Débré so memorably and so irresponsibly dismissed the H1N1 virus in July.

Not any more.

H1N1 swine flu killed 23, put 121 in ICU and sickened 730 000  in the last week alone in France, according to Le Figaro.

Vaccination centers, understaffed and poorly organized, are overwhelmed with two to four hour waits and  inexplicable closings.

The Minister of Health calls undervaccinated medical personal, especially nurses and support staff,  "the principle source of hospital infections during flu epidemics".  (See The reasons behind France's Swine flu fiasco*.)

France has decided to switch to one vaccination instead of two for people over nine.

Respiratory infections are at record highs, and the seasonal flu season has not yet officially begun.

The spread of conspiracy theories, however, may now finally be on the decline.

* "la ministre de la Santé, en soulignant que «le personnel soignant non vacciné est, selon plusieurs études, la source principale des contaminations nosocomiales durant les épidémies de grippe».

How to lose weight like a French woman !

FLASH: MAJOR FRENCH WOMAN TRICK FOR LOSING WEIGHT JUST DISCOVERED!  (hint: it gives you cancer and ages your skin. Click here for more on cigarettes.)

Mireille Guiliano's best seller French Women Don't Get Fat hit a raw (and plump) American nerve. Lucky French women! What's their secret?

Some insist that speaking French correctly is so hard that it burns extra calories. Others believe in the magic of red wine. And, of course, French women smoke, but it would be irresponsible to mention that, so better not.

Guiliano herself published a French Women's Manifesto which claims that French women eat three meals a day (basically true), that they care about looks, both their own and their food's (true) and that they don't diet (absolutely false). She also maintains that French women "are individuals and don't follow mass movement". (The guys in Mad Men couldn't have put it better.) .

But what if you are not a French woman? What then?

FIVE WEIGHTLOSS STRATEGIES BY VERITABLE EXPERTS

1. The first, of course, is to become a French woman, not from the north, (where sadly they're as fat as Americans) but from Paris, where nervous ladies with the racy look of greyhounds, rush about on cruelly elegant high heels -- from kids to husband to work to garage (to get the car fixed) to grocery store, to psychiatrist to herbalist to lover to garage (to pick up the car) to kids and husband and dishes and laundry and sleeping pills and -- merde!, time to get up again! (Diet may not be the sole explanation for their svelte looks.)

2 . Change just one thing! Peter Bregman, blogging on Harvard Business Review's site, reveals that all diets have one thing in common: reduction of calorie intake. His solution: go simple. Figure out which single action will have the most impact and do that, just that. In his case, he cut out sugar. And lost 18 pounds. (see To Change Effectively, Change just one Thing)

3. Get really sick. Flu, malaria, dysentery--options are many! For that pale, Kate Moss look, nothing beats disease.

4. Give your food to your spouse. Or, lacking that, your dog. As they say, one woman's loss is another man's gain!

5. Eat only vegetables for dinner. No-one actually likes vegetables, though even the president of the United States cannot admit this (except for broccoli)

 Zucchini, cabbage, cauliflower, beets, green beans, carrots--I've cooked them all with love and my family still acts like it's doing me a favor to choke them down. Don't fight it! use it! From now on, dinner is Herbevore Delight.

The reasons behind France's Swine Flu Vaccine Fiasco

As H1N1 vaccination programs ramp up around the world, France faces an unusual challenge: there's plenty of vaccine but French people--and in particular French medical staff--are refusing vaccination.

This is due partly to the specific  fear that the vaccines might not be entirely safe, partly to a generalized distrust of French health officials due to previous scandals, and partly to a Gallic weakness for conspiracy theories.

1. If the vaccines are safe, why are doctors refusing to get vaccinated?

Fear focuses on additives to the vaccine.

While in the USA, the decision was taken NOT to use additives to boost immune response, in France, the government purchased 94 million doses of vaccines, most with additives then refused to communicate clearly and honestly about the exact nature of contracts worth nearly one billion euros.

The government's muddled message: some of  additives were well-known; while some had been tested less. Patients may neither choose their vaccine nor even obtain information about what it contains. Trust us.

As a result, French medical personal has refused vaccination. And normal citizens are not reassured.

Clearly French doctors and medical staff do not trust the government not to poison them. Why?

Health scandals in the not-so distant past are partly to blame. These include: contaminated blood, contaminated growth hormone, the decision to protect the nuclear industry instead of citizens during Chenobyl, and the disastrous response to the heat wave of 2003.

AIDS: Thousands of entirely avoidable deaths were caused by French officials' attempt to promote the French HIV-screening industry: blood supplies continued to be contaminated by HIV AFTER American screening technology became available because health officials wanted a French solution. See Time article.

GROWTH HORMONE : 117 gratuitous deaths, mostly of children, from Creuztfeldt-Jacob disease due to use of contaminated tissue in the lucrative manufacture of growth hormone. Half of the deathtoll worldwide was in France.

CHENOBYL LIES : To protect the nuclear industry the French goverment claimed that the radioactive cloud from Chenobyl had miraculously avoided France. The evening news showed entirely false maps and French government officials blatantly lied that there were no health concerns. No precautions of any kind were taken to reduce the public's exposure.

HEATWAVE: The stunningly inept response to the heat wave of 2003 which caused 15,000 more deaths than usual in France. Procedures have changed and one air-conditioned room is now required in institutions housing the elderly; however  the most visible result in my town was the disappearance of death notices from municipal publications. (Previously published automatically as public information, this information is now considered privileged: a family member must make a request.)

The idea of collusion finds fertile soil in France, which loves conspiracy theories. A (disgusting) book claiming that 9/11 was all an American-fabricated conspiracy and that no plane ever hit the Pentagon was a mega-best-seller in France. (A polytechnicien colleague of mine praised it for revealing the truth.)

The idea that French health officials would deliberately expose the people to a dangerous vaccine in order to boost pharmaceutical companies' profits is widespread, especially among the educated classes.

The result:  tens of millions of doses of vaccine are available in France but people are afraid to get vaccinated.

Funny observation: in hospitals and doctors' offices, magazines have been removed from waiting rooms as disease vectors. But unvaccinated French doctors continue to shake hands with all their patients, including (like me) the coughing ones.

Click here for Center for Disease Control Update on H1N1

Paris Writers News November 2009

This month, new books from Lynn Jeffress, Christopher Vanier, Margo Berdeshevsky, Janet Skeslien Charles, Mark Morrison-Reed, Charles Glass and Ellen Hinsey; literary magazines Five Dials, Seizure, Cerise Press, Versal Magazine, and calls for submissions for Bonjour Paris and AUP’s Paris Atlantic; meet-ups; opening of registration for the Geneva Writers’ Conference and a workshop in erotic writing with Mitzi Szereto…and a strange tale concerning

Tatiana de Rosnay…

 

 

New Books

Lynn Jeffress The Dali Code and Other Paris Stories.

Published by Wild OceanPress in California. "Bizarre and often comic tales mirroring something exquisitely surreal that is absolutely worth knowing. Or not."

 

 

 

 

 

 Christopher Vanier  Caribbean Chemistry

A story of self-discovery, told in language rich enough to eat: breadfruit, breadnut, bamboo, lignum vitae, marouba, weedee, and calabash. Funny and engaging, it speaks of breaking the barriers of identity and finding them again. A rare view of the emigrants tale.  

Christopher has read at the British Institute of Paris and The American Library of Paris. In 2006 he was awarded first prize at the annual WICE Paris Writers Workshop. In the same year he won a fellowship to the Summer Literary Seminar in Kenya.

 

 

Margo Berdeshevsky Beautiful Soon Enough

Winner of FC2's American Book Review/Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize:, "Beautiful Soon Enough" is a collection of hypnotic stories that capture the lives--worldly, sexual, obsessive--of twenty-three arresting women.

The launch for Beautiful Soon Enough  will be at the The Village Voice  Bookshop on  Thursday November 12th, @ 7 pm

 

 

 

 

 

Ellen Hinsey's

Update on the Descent

Update on the Descent is arranged in an extremely sophisticated pattern, alternating Dantean visions, contemporary accounts of torture, and thoughts on our human condition which crystallise into formulae possessing all the depth and darkness of Heraclitus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Janet Skeslien Charles Moonlight in Odessa

Janet will be reading from her acclaimed new novel at the Village Voice on November 5th at 7 pm and at the American Library on November 12th at 7:30.

See my interview with Janet here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charles Glass Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation, 1940 - 1944

'An account of the 2,000 Americans who remained in Paris during the Second World War is rich in intrigue and heroism ... for anyone interested in France during this period it is a fascinating treat.' --Antony Beevor, Daily Telegraph

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Morrison-Reed In Between: Memoir of an Integration Baby

a frank personal account of growing up black during the era of the Civil Rights movement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New literary magazines

 

Five Dials

Five Dials is a London-based literary magazine, launched by Hamish Hamilton and edited by Craig Taylor (author of One Million Tiny Plays About Britain). The Paris issue was co-edited by Simon Prosser, publishing director of Hamish Hamilton and features hard-hitting investigative reporting into the gritty world of Paris booksellers, as well as fun things by Geoff Dyer, Ali Smith, and Paul Davis, not to mention a fantastic almost-Oulipian poem by Joe Dunthorne.

Download the pdf here!

 

Cerise Press

International journal of literature, arts and culture based in Paris.

November’s issue will focus on contemporary French poetry and photography.

Paris-based/France-based contributors will include Marilyn Hacker, Amina

Saïd, Auxeméry, Olivier Schwartz, Michael Katakis, John Taylor etc.

Open to submissions.

http://www.cerisepress.com

Check out the inaugural issue at: http://www.cerisepress.com/vol-1-issue-1-features

 

Versal Magazine

Call for submissions: A VERSAL CALL

Versal wants your poetry, prose, and art for its eighth issue due out in May

2010. Internationally acclaimed literary annual published in Amsterdam,

bringing together the world's urgent, involved, and unexpected.

See website for guidelines and to submit: http://versal.wordsinhere.com.

Inquiries (only) can be directed to: [email protected].

Deadline: January 15, 2010.

 

Seizure

A new literary magazine! To read or submit, please see: www.seizureonline.com

 

 

2009 New Delta Review Creative Nonfiction Contest

Judge: Peggy Shinner

NDR seeks pieces that activate the compelling bits of “real” life. Prize: $150 and publication in New Delta Review. Finalists will be considered for publication.

$10 submission fee includes option to purchase discounted two-issue subscription to NDR for an additional $10.

For details: http://www.lsu.edu/newdeltareview/New_Delta_Review/CONTESTS.html

 

Paris/Atlantic, the AUP creative publication

Whether you are a poet, photographer, script writer, a lyricist... – To submit, contact: Oona or Saara, and/or to email us at [email protected]

 

 

For more Events and Contests, see Jen Dick’s listing http://parisreadingsmonthlylisting.blogspot.com

 

 

Other Magazines about French culture and living 

 

Bonjour Paris

To submist, please contact Karen Fawcett President Paris New Media, LLC

www.bonjourparis.com

 

Culturekiosque

The European Magazine of Arts, Culture and Ideas Worldwide Paris - London - New York   http://www.culturekiosque.com

 

 

Writers Conferences !

The GenevaWriters' Conference, Feb. 5-7will start accepting registration this month!

Check out their website !

 

Literotica: Erotic Writing with Mitzi Szereto

 Join trendsetting author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto for a weekend erotic writing workshop on the Isle of Wight in southern England..   Friday 13 Nov—Sunday 15 Nov 2009  Cost: GBP ₤75 (Cost includes course only; accommodation is extra.)  Email: [email protected]

http://thegrangebythesea.com

 

 

Fun literary get-togethers

http://www.culturerapide.com/programme

Writers’ meetups  http://www.meetup.com/pariswriters/fr/about/

 

 

In other news: see the Rue 89 article about renowned author Tatiana de Rosnay's struggle to prove her nationality  http://www.rue89.com/cabinet-de-lecture/2009/10/14/tatiana-de-rosnay-rejoint-les-radies-de-la-nation