Attali’s Christmas Gift: A Titanic Euro Crash
Jacques Attali, French economist and writer says the euro could disappear within weeks indeed it might not survive beyond Christmas. His prediction comes as Eurocrats are excoriated in some quarters, for scurrilously damaging democracy by deposing elected national leaders. His remarks preceded by a day a warning from Moody’s Investors Service that the credit standing [...]
Apple Suppresses Jewish App Worldwide
A top selling but controversial smart phone App in the Apple iTunes Store has been withdrawn worldwide following an out-of-court settlement of two cases brought in Paris against the U.S. technology giant. The App in question — Juif-ou-pas-Juif (Jewish or not Jewish? and says the author, created as a way of celebrating Jewishness) was designed [...]
Extremists Attack Charlie Hebdo and Golgotha
Extreme it may seem but a provocative play – Garcia’s Golgotha Picnic — and an equally provocative weekly paper Charlie Hebdo have something in common – as indeed does wider French society where fundamentalists are bent on curbing freedom of speech and artistic expression. French Catholic fundamentalists — Lefebvrists or integristes – have been on the [...]
French Cuisine: When Pop beats Classical
Apart from cooking and writing, US chef, food and travel guru Anthony Bourdain is famous for his Travel Channel series ’No Reservations’. In the world of a cook he says, “an understanding and appreciation of how others eat is akin to discovering secret societies and cryptic subcultures.” Bourdain is not your typical celebrity chef. He is [...]
Rouen’s Pedestrian Speed Limit is 3 km/h
Speed-walking has taken on a whole new meaning in the port city of Rouen, where the council has granted permission for speeding pedestrians to be trapped by a special pavement radar created by one, M. Benoit Thiollent. Complete with standard warning signs and a large “Pedestrians –Slow-Down”-Speed-Limit-3km/h-admonishment, the radar fitted with that automatic flash that [...]
Marine Le Pen Courting Conservative US Jews
Front National leader Marine Le Pen, the presidential challenger currently surfing Europe’s populist wave, recently visited the US as part of reconciliation efforts towards the Jewish community. In the report below, republished by kind permission of and with acknowledgements to, the Arunwithaview blog, writer Arun Kapil offers his analysis of the Front National’s (FN) relations with American [...]
A High Cost if France Abandons Nuclear
The Socialist Party and erstwhile Green party electoral allies are in an arcane spat over the future of a European Pressurized Reactor plant at Flamanville (Manche), at a time when political pressure is mounting to abandon nuclear, France’s principal form of energy security. (Read more here online) Basically however their argument is over the direction [...]
In France Life Starts (Again) at 80
As bonus-obsessed global bankers continue to wreak havoc with middle-European lives, two retired French bakers in their 80s are reopening their boulangerie in the Auvergne because, they say, their pensions are now just too meagre to keep up a decent standard of living. Despite the long and unsociable hours of work involved, retired boulangers Georges [...]
Now Drivers’ (Licences) are Chipped
France in line with the rest of the EU will electronically chip its drivers in the name of increased freedom of movement, says a decree just published in the Government Gazette. To meet EU ‘harmonisation’ regulations introduced December 2006 drivers licences are being upgraded to include electronic chips, and the document will have to be [...]
Mouth-fills of Mercury Worry the French
French advocacy groups opposed to the use of amalgam (mercury) fillings by dentists are stepping up a campaign to have the practice banned, encouraged by a recent Nairobi gathering of world environment ministers at UN-sponsored international mercury negotiations. (Read more here online) A Le Monde report on concerns voiced by French anti-dental mercury groups, says [...]
Those Who Presently Govern France
Ever wonder which groups, parties, lobbies and ginger groups comprise or influence the broad right coalition that currently governs France? Le Monde has made it easy with an infographic published here The Parties of the Majority and their links with the UMP: The circles in the main graphic (not shown here) represent the parties that [...]
EU Leaders Fire Blanks at the Enemy
Professional poker players would sneer derisively at EU leaders who, in the current high stakes war against markets, have foolishly turned over all their cards in advance. In this article republished with permission from VoxEU , Prof Paul De Grauwe of Leuven University, urges leaders to get down and grapple a crisis throttling the EU. [...]
