Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

Sarkozy's advisors fail to protect president from himself

 

There is nothing abnormal about a father’s pride in his son. But when France’s President Sarkozy shocked his own political supporters by engineering his 23 year old son’s meteoric rise, where were the wise men to advise him against such a flagrant and indefensible case of nepotism? Even Richard II had at least one courageous advisor! 

 King Sarkozy of France betrayed by cowardly councilors? 

And when President Sarkozy dithered Hamlet-like over the fate of his wife’s friend and protégé, Fréderic Mitterand, where was his brain trust to remind him that Culture Ministers who publish in 190,000 copies (however sensitive and well-written) personal accounts of sex tourism in exotic Bangkok are liabilities? Gay—fine. Leftist—great! But sex for money with “garcons”—truly not cool.

 

And how could the math mavens let President Sarkozy propose a “national bond” for unclear purposes with the French budget deficit already soaring towards 9 % and no serious spending cuts in sight? (Why does brilliant Finance Minister Christine Lagarde say nothing?)

 

 

President Sarkozy is a man of tremendous talents. But, like many gifted and ambitious politicians, he is flawed. Good advisors tell truth to power. Sycophants, yes-men and cowards ensure the great man’s downfall.

Guaino!  Levitte !  Hortefeux ! 

 

Will no one who loves the King speak out?

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To see Jean Sarkozy's qualifications to run a billion dollar entity, click here.

Bike paths finally making headway around Paris !!!

After years of hesitation, the Val de Marne has finally gotten serious about bikes. The goal: multiply by seven the number of trips by bike!

In the towns east of Paris which comprise the Val de Marne, 70% of trips are under two kilometers.  That’s just a few minutes by bike. For these short distances, why not encourage people to ride instead of drive?

That’s exactly what Val de Marne’s Conseil General aims to do. The new “Plan de déplacement” (transportation plan) ramps up the bike option:

·     450 kilometers of bike paths by 2020

·     15 kilometers of NEW bike paths each year

·     Obligatory bike paths included in plans to modify departmental roads

·     Financial support for creating 76 new Velib station in Paris’ eastern suburbs

·     Threefold budget increase for bicycle—related projects

The Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe (PS), pushed and supported by the Greens, set off a transportation revolution in Paris by shifting urban space away from cars and towards buses and bikes. Velib in Paris has been, despite massive vandalism, a raging success.

This movement is now spreading to the suburbs (banlieue). Christian Favier (PC), president of the Conseil General du Val de Marne has thrown his considerable political weight into alternative forms of transportation.

The prospect of a region-wide network of bike paths linking Paris to the suburbs and the suburbs to each other is a joyous one. Vive le vélo! Vive la République!

Special treat:

UTUBE of Danny MacAskill on his bike

Two rape cases shake France

While intellectuals and elites demand freedom for artistic genius

Roman Polanski, France mourns the rape and murder of a jogger by a repeat sex offender.

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, French culture minister Frédéric Mitterand, French intellectual extraordinaire Bernard Henri Levy and a bevy of top French artists have called for Roman Polanski’s release following his arrest by Swiss authorities on a thirty year old rape charge. Polanki had pleaded guilty to drugging and having sex with a 13 year old but then jumped bail and fled the USA before sentencing. (see Charles Bremner for an interesting analysis).

Kouchner, a man I usually admire, expressed the French elite attitude perfectly:

"This affair is frankly a bit sinister. Here is a man of such talent, recognized worldwide, recognized especially in the country where he was arrested. This is not nice at all.”

Law, in other words, does not apply to genius.

At the same time as the French elite class articulated its thoughts on criminal justice, a 42 year-old woman out for a jog was raped and murdered by a man who had been previously condemnedto eleven years in prison for rape in 2002 but who was freed on probation in 2007.

This is not the first such case, nor, given lax sentencing and overcrowded prisons, will it be the last.

France has been, and remains, entirely at a loss how to deal with repeat sexual offenders.  Anger at judicial fecklessness is palpable and building among the non-genius, non-elite classes.

It’s like a replay of the USA in the 1970s when headlines were full of repeat rapists and murderers. Charles Bronson “Death Wish” revenge fantasies and Clint Eastwood “Dirty Harry” vigilante films captured the fury of the public who felt unprotected and abandoned by the official system. Harsh, mandatory sentencing was the result in the USA.

Is France about to head down the same road, with a thirty year lag…?

Former French president writes love fantasies of Princess Diana, on sale now !

Kiss and tell is bad enough, but dreaming of kissing, then telling, well that’s just—weird.

As if Princess Diana hadn’t suffered enough in life, former president and well known ladies man Valéry Giscard d’Estaing has written a book called The President and the Princess, in which a French president who eerily resembles himself meets a British princess, who is the exact portrait of Diana, except for the name (now Patricia).

Giscard d’Estaing is a member of the Académie Française despite his previous foray into fiction, a rather forgettable fantasy about an older fellow who picks up a pretty young hitchhiker, who then consents to live with him.  This jaw-droppingly silly book left my mouth hanging open when I chanced to read it a few years ago—this is what presidents dream of? Really? Also: Académie Française? But why?

Well now he’s in for it, the poor schmuck. “Ungentlemanly.” “Pathetic.” “In Bad Taste.” “Dream On.” These are just a few of the unkind comments from readers of Le Figaro (click here).

Lady Di may be an historical figure but her children, husband, real lovers and entire family are still alive and kicking.

Rather rude forcing her to sleep with him in writing.

What possessed the old guy?

BOOKS Nicola Keegan on SWIMMING

Authors interview Authors:

 

Nicola Keegan is a unique talent and an amazing person. Her debut novel Swimming was featured by Time as one of the top 10 novels the year it was published.  I have been rereading Nicola's novel this summer with absolute astonishment at the brilliance, humor and humanity of her prose. Swimming is one of those works of art that only gets better with rereading. Interview with Nicola Keegan from 2009.

LZ  In reading Swimming I was struck by the narrator’s powerful and unique voice. Judy Bloom said “It’s the most original novel I’ve read all year. I can’t get Pip’s voice out of my mind.” Where does PIP’s voice come from?

Paris Writers News September 2009

This month, news from Ann M Mah, Janet Skeslien Charles, Margo Berdeshevsky, Nicola Keegan, Jennifer K Dick, Mitzi Szereto, Pedro De Alcantara, Ekleksographia, Dickow, Stephanie Campion, Lisa Pasold, Culture Rapide, Seizure, Spoken Word, France Revisited, the American Library, Village Voice and more!   

 

NEW BOOKS:

  Ann M Mah's first novel, Kitchen Chinese, will be published by Harper Collins in February. More information soon!

 

 

Publishers' Weekly selected Moonlight in Odessa by Janet Skeslien Charles as one of it "Ten Promising Fall Debut Novels" and National Geographic Traveller selected it as September Book of the Month! See PWN's interview with Janet here. She will read at the Red Wheelbarrow on October 6th and at the Village Voice on November 5th.

 

BACKTRACKED by

Pedro De Alcantara is now out! In Paris, you can get it from the Red Wheelbarrow. Pedro is a musician, writer, and teacher who has written several volumes of non-fiction on the subject of the Alexander Technique and two novels for young readers.

 

BEAUTIFUL SOON ENOUGH 

by Margo Berdeshevsky, received the Fiction Collective 2's American Book Review/Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Award.  The launch for "Beautiful Soon Enough"  will be at the The Village Voice  Bookshop on  Thursday November 12th.

Lisa Pasold will be launching Rats in Las Vegas in Canada before returning to Paris. Watch for her!

Sleeping Beauty's Bed: Erotic Fairy Tales by

Mitzi Szereto : The bawdy humor of French fable meets the sublime eroticism of ancient Chinese myth as a far-from-virginal damsel weds a Prince Charming with a shoe fetish; Little Red Riding Hood discovers Grandma’s bed is open to any stray wolf; and a Japanese monk stumbles onto an S/M scene behind a forbidden door. For more information, see Mitzi's blog.

NEW LITERARY MAGAZINES: submit and support !

SEIZURE: There's a new literary magazine in town and it's playing by its own rules. Seizure exists both online and offline and is built from serialized long-form fiction released in installments. Designed to promote the work of new writers, Seizure embraces all genres, so if you like a good story, or have a story to tell, visit www.seizureonline.com

Alexander Dickow, guest curating editor of Ekleksographia, invites your submissions for an issue dedicated to anglophone poetry in France. Please send by email, before Oct 15th: - up to 5 pages of previously unpublished prose, verse or concrete/visual poetry in English or in English translation, as an attached file in Word (.doc), WordPerfect (.wpd) or .rtf format. Visual work should be sent in .pdf format. OR - previously unpublished English translations of contemporary French or Francophone poets.  Dickow is also seeking translators and reviewers. contact: [email protected].

SEEKING PLAYS!: Contact Stephanie to book a reading of YOUR play in English or in French. Moving Parts arranges for actors to complete a public reading of your work which is then followed by an audience-participation feedback session. Lots of fun, a great way to get new theatre work out of the writing room and towards a later stage presentation!!!  Bookings now being taken for December 2009 and all of 2010; For current listings, see their website : www.movingparts.org.uk

Send an e-mail to Stephanie Campion at mailto:[email protected] or contact her on : 06 14 67 18 58

Travel writers ! Check out Gary Lee Traut's submission guidelines for France Revisited.

 

WORKSHOPS IN PARIS

17 Sept 19h-21h: 7 weeks starting the 17^th: Novel & Nonfiction Advanced Writing Workshop. For those who have completed or are almost done with a full-length work (short story collection, novel, memoir) This serious and exciting workshop includes intense reading of each participant’s work with an attention to development, problemsolving, character, voice, dialogue, plot as well as general editing. Participants are expected both to read and be read in detail. There will be 7 sessions and each participant will have 60 pages (double spaced) of work scrutinized, praised, criticized, examined in order to help the author take the work in progress into publication. Tips on querying publishers and agents, getting first or second works out there will also be discussed. The workshop ambiance is convivial and kind, often followed by dinners at least 2 times during the sessions, as well as lots of chocolate to sooth the sores of facing revision advice! Previous participants of this workshop now have books with Penguin, Fayard & Bloomsbury presses, and include published and award-winning authors Laurel Zuckerman, Janet Skeslian Charles, John Kohut, & Christopher Vanier. Cost: 180e for 7 weeks/14hours & 60 of your pages. Contact [email protected] or 06 45 87 18 53 to sign up or for questions. Instructor: Jennifer K Dick.

LITERARY HAPPENINGS AND EVENTS:

Nicola Keegan, author of the acclaimed Swimming, will talk at the American Library in Parison September 30. (See PWN's interview with Nicola here)

Culture Rapide: Events nearly every night in Belleville. Check out their website for more information here.

Spoken Word open mike poetry. Check out their blog here.

For more listings, see Jennifer K. Dick's excellent  events list

 

Writers interview writers

This month, Paris Writers News talks to Nicola Keegan ! Last month we interviewed Janet Skeslien Charles.

Coming soon: A dialogue between Jennifer K. Dick and Jeffrey Greene...

 

What can the French teach us about health care? A lot !

French people live longer and healthier than Americans at roughly one half the cost.

Health incidents do not throw them into bankruptcy. They do not lose their houses when they have the misfortune to fall ill.

Everyone is covered. French people choose their doctors and swallow a ridiculous amount of expensive medicines. And even so, total health care spending is far less than in the USA. (see Roger Cohen NYT)

Could there possibly be some lessons here?

I would like to mention three:

1) France’s single payer system, EVEN WITH all its bureaucratic inefficiencies, reduces administration costs dramatically.

Get sick in the USA and dozens if not hundreds of separate invoices processed by separate companies at huge administration costs are the result. Single payer saves money through streamlined administration.

2) Free prenatal care, check-ups and vaccines for children and preventative care. Keeping people healthy costs less and makes everyone’s lives better.

3) Little or no direct consumer advertising. Bad for pharmaceutical companies, good for us.

The French system has its weaknesses, of course, as all health care systems do. But there are many positive points (cost, coverage, quality) that could help inform the American debate.

One little embarrassing difference between France and America recently made the news. Michael Pollan, author of the excellent In defense of Food, pointed out in today’s NYT that one reason why US health care costs so much is that Americans are fat. And they are fat because of how they eat. Here is his essay linking health care costs to the food industry.

Deepak Chopra came to a similar conclution in Why Health Care Reform Won't Reform Health.

More...

Here's Roger Cohen op ed piece on the differences between France and America.

Here is an article which explains some of the differences between the French and American system.

and a Newsweek article in which journalist Eric Pape describes what it's like NOT to worry about cost during a difficult birth.

See NYT article : How a 100 000 USD kidney transplant is covered but not anti-rejection drugs (necessitating another 100 000 USD transplant).

French swine flu plan forgot soap for my daughter's school ! Wash hands? With what?

"What can I do to protect myself from getting sick?"

"Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze".

--from the Center for Disease Control Swine Flu website

 

The French government is moving heaven and earth to prepare for Swine Flu-- 94 million doses of vaccine ordered, medical services mobilized, eight school classes already closed, a brochure to each schoolchild informing him of the precautions to take.

 

And yet...

 

When I remind my daughter to wash her hands regularly at school, she shrugs: " But there's no soap."

 

I call her collège (middle school). "Yes," I'm told. "There's no soap. We ordered it. It should arrive this week."

 

Seven hundred children live in this place from 8 - 16h30, go to the bathroom, sneeze, eat. And they have no soap.

 

Am I mad, or is this NOT a good way to fight a global epidemic?

 

Roselyne Bachelot, Luc Chatel, Christian Favier, Jean-Paul Huchon, Monsieur l'Inspecteur, Monsieur le Prefet, Monsieur le Maire -- How about ensuring that children in school have soap so they can wash their hands?

 

(post in French to follow)

 

 

 

French Killer Algae Strike Again! Man dead in COTES D AMOR. Cheap Food at Fault?

It's not exactly Jaws, but local authorities have been slow to take precautions, and the result is another probable death.

Probable, because the victim, a 48 year-old municipal worker was found dead at the foot of a truck which he had just emptied of algae on June 22, but the press picked up on the story only now (see Le Monde and Le Figaro articles).

At the time, authorities attributed his death to a heart attack. But the man had been transporting and unloading toxic algae with no mask, no gloves, no protective equipment of any kind. When he was found, with a bluish color (a symptom of algae intoxication) by a truck transporting aglae, no one apparently thought to ask the question.

Since a horse died and his rider was struck unconscious by the algae last month, however, local authorities have been paying a little more attention. (see previous blog entry).

There is still no sign that the cause of the proliferation of the deadly algae will be dealt with : intensive agriculture.

Cheap food is cheap only because the true costs are not acknowledged or included. This fiction is getting harder to maintain in the Côtes d'Amor.

French still lousy at English, new study says

Last year, president Sarkozy announced that he wanted France to become bilingual.

Unfortunately, results of the 2008 TOEFL test show France to be as far away as ever from reaching this goal.