France sees its chance at the Davis Cup with back-to-back French singles victories
February 9, 2008
Richard Gasquet and OJ-Wilfried Tsonga gave France their qualification for the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup, one of the crown jewels of tennis, with two singles victories against Romania. The two young men, 21 and 22 respectively, have all of France pinning their hopes on them to take them past the quarterfinals.
In his showdown in Sibiu, Gasquet overtook Victor Hanescu in three sets 7-6 6-4 7-5, after two hours and 44 minutes of play. In his first appearance in the Davis Cup, Tsonga, fresh from his finalist finish at the Australian Open, escaped the initial assault of a strong Andrei Pavel in the latter’s 60th David Cup appearance, winning his match in four sets, 6-7 6-4 6-4 6-4 in 3 hours and five minutes. This struck a second blow for France in quick succession.
Captain of the French team Guy forget was jubilant about the victories and the high level of play exhibited by Gasquet and Tsonga. Forget remarked on the strength of the Romanian players as well as the conditions, playing as they were before a “hostile” crowd of local fans.
Forget noted that Gasquet had been a little bit tense at the outset of his match against Hanescu. But Richard Gasquet took time to size up Victor Hanescu, ranked 76th in the world, and once he got past the tie breaker in the first set, the number one French player was never worried again. “I was tight at the beginning, which cost me a break”, Richard Gasquet admitted. “Taking the first set was important. To win in three is very satisfying. From experience, I know that the matches turn over against you very quickly.”
In his Davis Cup singles match, Tsonga had to go through a baptism of fire. Broadsided at first by the quality of tennis dished out by veteran Andrei Pavel, ranked 83rd in the world, the Frenchman found himself quickly behind by a set. Without panicking, Tsongas rebounded, imposing his own rhythm thanks to his serve (16 aces and no breaks).
Tsonga was modest. “Inside, I felt I did not play very well” reacted the finalist of the last Australian Open. But he added that in retrospect it was his opponent’s strong play that prevented him from initially hitting his stride. “I realized that I became a Davis Cup player today when I returned to the tennis court at the presentation of the teams. It was an odd feeling. I wanted to feel proud but very quickly, you remember you’re playing for a captain, your teammates and your staff.”
Very calm throughout his Australian tennis contest, this time French player OJ-Wilfried Tsonga succumbed to nerves in the middle of the fourth set, in which he had to save three consecutive breaks in his serve at 2-3. “I had a hot dispute with the referee”, he admitted. He said his temper actually was a good thing, breaking him out of his nervousness.
For Guy Forget, the French captain, the scenario was near perfect: “We’ll have a nice relaxing dinner this evening,” he said. He remarked that Richard was solid throughout, and paced himself during his tennis match, fulfilling his role well. As for OJ-Wilfried, “he was confronted by Pavel, who played at a top 10 level during the first set,” said Forget. “But everyone knew he was not going to be able to keep up this rate of play. I coached OJ to let the storm pass, to wait for the break, and he won the last three sets with a break.”
Guy Forget praised Tsonga for his comeback and for keeping his cool. “He learns so fast, and he really wants to win, After all he went through, he crushed Pavel. That is the mark of a champion. My hat’s off to him.”
The two men’s opponents in the quarterfinals will either be the defending Davis Cup champs the US, or Austria, in matches decided this weekend.
On Saturday, the French doubles pair Arnaud Clement-Michaël Llodra, finalists at Melbourne, will attempt to qualify for the next level against Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau. The two Frenchmen will be spurred by revenge because last year, in Clermont-Ferrand, the Romanians defeated them in an upset that stunned the tennis world.
France’s innovative transport concepts fight traffic and strikes, making Paris a heaven on wheels
February 8, 2008
Americans as a whole have not traditionally looked to France as a country of innovation. But transport has been an exception to this rule, with the TGV high speed train and the Paris metro, long seen as models in their industries, as well as the Smart Car, the squat ultra-compact that debuted in France and can now be seen on American streets.
But now in France, where traffic is a national headaches and transport and taxi strikes seem to hit as regularly as the seasons, people have taken innovation into their own hands. As a result, there is no country in the world where there are more unorthodox ways of getting around than in France, and in particular, Paris. And now cities around the world, including New York and Washington DC, are beginning to take notice. Both cities are looking into adopting a umber of measures that are now being tried in France.
Just last summer, the city of Paris debuted a new self-service bicycle transit system called Velib’. The name is a combination of the French slang word for bicycle (“velo”) and “liberte”. As the name suggests, Velib’ gives people in Paris more freedom to help themselves get around the city.
The Velib project in Paris recently won the city the 2008 Sustainable Transport Award from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.
Vélib’ was the brainchild of Paris mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, a Socialist and longtime green campaigner who pledged to double the number of cycle lanes in the French capital by the end of this year and reduce car traffic by 40 percent by 2020.
For inspiration, Delanoë’s team looked to Lyon, where a similar, smaller bicycle rental program was started two years ago with great success.
Parisians and visitors alike can now pick up and drop off comfortable, well-maintained bicycles throughout the city. In Paris a 10,648 bikes were made available at 750 locations at the operation’s inception. By the end of 2007, Velib’ stations dotted Paris approximately every 900 feet for a total of 1,451 locations and 20,600 bikes.
To access the bikes, riders select a one-day card for 1 euro, a weekly card for 5 euros or an annual card for 29 euros. After the purchase of an access card, riding for the first half-hour is free and a supplement of 1 euro is charged for an additional half-hour, 2 euros for another 30-minutes and 4 euros for every addition half-hour after that. For example, a 25 minute trip is free, a 50 minute trip costs 1 euro, and an hour and 15-minute ride would cost 3 euros.
With over 371 km (230 miles) of cycling lanes, Paris is a great place to bike. And Velib’ is a great way to help solve Paris’ traffic problems, get where you are going faster and stay in shape all at the same time. So far, the program has been popular and has been adopted as a way of life by many Parisians.
Each Velib’ parking station is equipped with muni-meters to purchase one and 7-day passes and to pay any additional charges once the bike is dropped off. Velib’ meters also provide information on other station locations. Application forms for the annual card are available at Paris District City Halls, metro stations and even pastry shops throughout the city. For more information visit: Velib Paris (French language only).
Of course, not all of Paris is bike-friendly. The Paris police department has so far refused to grant a permit for a cycle path along the Champs-Élysées, fearing that this would hopelessly congest the city’s main traffic artery.
But all the other paths have made cycling in Paris noticeably safer. The statistics speak for themselves: While the number of bikes on the streets has increased by 50 percent over the last six years, the number of cycling accidents has not risen at all, said Jean-Luc Dumesnil, head of cycling policy at City Hall. Dumesnil said that the new cycling paths had helped, simply by their prevalence. “The more bikes there are on the streets, the more car drivers get used to them.”
Another two-wheeled solution to the commuting problem, a strange-looking scooter called C1 manufactured by BMW is also an unusual feature of Parisian streets. It was sold in Europe only between 2000 and 2003 but one still sees many in Paris. Businessmen and women like it because it looks and drives like a scooter but does not require drivers to wear a helmet, because of its protective roof. BMW’s intention in marketing the C1 was to appeal to car drivers in crowded city streets, which is why Parisians adopted it so wholeheartedly. The vehicle offers the convenience of a scooter or motorbike but without many of the associated dangers or hassles. The scooter’s most innovative design feature is its emphasis on safety. BMW tried to added car-like crash testing to the scooter, claiming that in a head-on collision, the C1 offered a standard of accident protection comparable to a European compact car. France agreed, and allows the use of C1 without a helmet, making it more appealing to scooter drivers and car drivers alike who want to be able to bypass traffic-congested streets and highways known as “bouchons” or corks, France’s equivalent of the bottleneck.
Another new and unusual way of getting around Paris is the pedicab. This bike-powered taxi has long been a feature of Asian cities but is new in France. There are a number of pedicab services cropping up in France, but with a difference. In keeping with Parisian chic, Urban Car’s sleek bubble-like cabs look like something out of the Pompidou Center. And in keeping with France’s green policies, the Urban Car promotes their service declaring that the main purpose is not to ferry around lazy tourists, but to limit gas emissions, noise and to aid in traffic congestion. And one need not feel guilty sitting behind a panting cyclist, as Urban Car cabs are electrically assisted, which makes the cab capable of attaining speeds of 24 km per hour even with two passengers. The drivers are multi-lingual and equipped with GPS, making the cab not only a good alternative for Parisians who can’t find a taxi, but for tourists in France visiting Paris as well. Rides are reasonable: 1€50 per person plus 1€50 per kilometer for up to two passengers, adding one extra euro on Sundays. As of now the company has a fleet of 17. Urban Car plans to expand to 35 by summer 2008, and projects more than 100 by the end of 2008.
Lastly, there is the most basic form of transportation and recreation, ones own feet—using roller skates. Here, too, Paris has led the way in making a child’s toy and mainstream means of transport. Pari Roller organizes a free weekly Friday night skating tour around the city of Paris to encourage roller skating as a leisure activity, as a sport or as a means of transportation. The group is non-profit and started as a grass-root movement, meeting for “unauthorized” skating parties. Now it partners is the Paris police department, which helps ensures the security of the participants, spectators and motorists. The group claims that the weekly event gathers the largest number of skaters in the world and is responsible for the resurgence of skating as a legitimate way of getting around the city.
French taxis rolling again after slowdown strike cripples traffic in France
February 7, 2008
On January 30, for the second time in a week, thousands of French taxi drivers parked their cabs in the Place de la Republique in Paris while others drove at a snail’s pace, clogging highways all over France and wreaking havoc on people’s schedules.
Operation Escargot (Operation Snail) had traffic ground to a halt in parts of Paris, Marseille, Toulouse and Strasbourg as taxi drivers gathered at key points, blocking roads and driving at a crawl to cause maximum disruption.
But a week later, on Feb 6, Alain Estival, president of the taxi union FNAT, has announced the end of the taxi protest, with the French government having pledged not to adopt wholesale the proposals of the Attali report on the deregulation of the taxi profession. Alain Estival made this announcement to journalists after more than two hours of discussions with advisers of Prime Minister of France, Francois Fillon, in Matignon.
“One can say that today, the conflict between the 55,000 taxi drivers and the government is finished”, he added, “The government is ready to listen to us and will do all with us”, he said, specifying that a delegation of taxi drivers would be received Thursday in the Elysee Palace, the headquarters of President Nicolas Sarkozy. In an official statement issued later, Francois Fillon stressed that the goal of the government was “not to deregulate but to better regulate” the taxi situation in France.
A spokesman for the government admitted that the taxi drivers had some legitimate concerns vis-à-vis the Attali report. Sarkozy pledged that the government would work with taxi drivers to ensure that there were no losers in whatever agreement they came up with.
The January 30th strike was in response to a report released by a panel commissioned by President Nicolas Sarkozy to find ways to boost France’s stagnating economy. The Attali Commission’s report was publicly released on January 23, 2008 with hundreds of proposals - one of which urged deregulating the taxi sector. Sarkozy said he supported the idea, agreeing that it is often difficult to get a taxi in Paris and other cities, and that such a move could create thousands of new jobs. Sarkozy said on Jan. 23 that he would follow most of the recommendations in the report to ‘free the forces of growth’.
What the Attali Commission’s report proposes is to liberalize the taxis to put a total of 50,000 to 60,000 cabs on the streets of Paris and its nearest suburbs. A national federation of taxi drivers is up in arms about this, saying that the change would dilute their earning power. So they did what any self-respecting French citizen would do: they went on strike.
The government plans would be a “catastrophe for our profession,” said Alain Estival at the time.
As of today, there are around 45,000 taxis in France, a little fewer than 16,000 of which are in Paris. A quota imposes a maximum number of taxi licenses to be distributed in Paris. This number is supposedly based on the needs of the population of Paris. But everyone knows it can be difficult to find a cab available in Paris—nearly impossible at rush hour or at any time if it is raining. When one does finally show up, cabbies often refuse to take fares that are not going in his direction, or whose journey will take him past his quitting time. Frustrated riders find that it is usually a sellers’ market.
Even the President of France is not immune. “Paris is the only city in the world where you just cannot find a taxi,” Sarkozy was quoted as saying.
There are considerably fewer cabs in Paris today than there were in the 1920s, because of the strict quotas on new licenses the drivers imposed themselves and that they have refused to budge on for years. Currently there are 15,900 taxis in Paris. The number has barely changed since 1937, when they were capped at 14,000.
Today, a taxi driver works an average 70 hours a week and makes around €7.63 per hour. Much of this goes to pay off the exorbitant fees they pay for their license. Licenses are supposed to be issued free, but because of the quota, there is now a 17-year-wait for a free license to drive a taxi in Paris. Otherwise, new drivers must pay a retiring colleague 185,000 Euros [$263,000 dollars] to assume his license. And the price is even higher that Paris in Montpellier, Nice or Marseilles.
“It is a question of making it so that these professions function better and that they meet the needs for the users better”, said Prime Minister Fillon.
Apple and Orange combine to conquer France: US export iPhone sells 90,000
February 6, 2008
In France, it’s always been popular to be thin, chic and beautiful, so it’s no surprise that the Apple iPhone has taken France by storm since it was introduced in November 2007.
Orange, the leading wireless carrier in France and the exclusive French carrier partner for the revolutionary iPhone, reported that Apple iPhone sales topped 90,000 in France at the end of January. The company had already reported sales of 70,000 iPhones by the end of 2007 after barely one month. Now an additional 20,000 have been reported sold in January 2008.
The iPhone numbers in France either impress or miss the mark, depending on one’s point of view. On the one hand, Orange, the exclusive distributor of IPhone in France, is thrilled. Of the people who bought iPhones 49% are new Orange subscribers, suggesting that iPhone is what attracted these new customers into the Orange fold and raised their market share in the mobile arena significantly. 80% of these new iPhone customers signed up for monthly Orange plans costing between 49 and 119 euros, in addition to the hefty 339 euros each paid for their iPhone handset.
iPhone combines three devices into one—a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and a mobile Internet device, all based on Apple’s multi-touch interface and software that allows users to control iPhone with just a tap of their fingers. Apple sold its one millionth iPhone just 74 days after it went on sale in the US on June 29.
Didier Lombard, the chairman of Orange, which is an affiliate of the European telecommunications giant France Telecom, raved about iPhone, not only in terms of sales numbers but in the iPhone’s added value to the Orange brand. He said that the introduction of iPhone on November 29 made for brisk Christmas sales and a brilliant finish to 2007 in Orange boutiques. Before the launch, he predicted great success, declaring that the partnership with Apple was “a natural fit” because they were two global brands sharing the same values of simplicity and innovation.
On the other hand, Apple had originally projected sales of iPhone in France to be between 50,000 and 100,000 by the end of 2007, so some cynics point out that Apple has missed its target, since a month into 2008, sales in France have still not hit the giddy high predicted.
However, Orange is sticking to its original target of sales of between 400,000 and 500,000 iPhones in France by the end of 2008.
Four million Apple iPhones have been sold worldwide since its introduction in the US on June 29, 2007, making Apple the third largest seller of smartphones in the world. The same study places Apple fifth in Europe. But with 90,000 iPhones already in the hip pockets of hip French consumers, Apple iPhone is poised to become the latest must-have chic fashion accessory in France, even if sales have as yet not quite reached the ultra-ambitious level Apple originally set.
Outside of France: in Germany, where iPhone launched in early November, Deutsche Telekom recently reported having sold 70,000 in that country. In the UK, where iPhone launched at the same time as Germany, the mobile phone service provider O2 had projected sales of 200,000.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, shot in France, in French, enthralls American audiences and critics
February 5, 2008
In December 1995, at the age of 43, French fashion editor Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a sudden and severe stroke in the brain stem while driving his car. He emerged from a coma several weeks later to find himself in a rare condition called “locked-in syndrome” (LIS).
Although the Frenchman’s mind was intact, the father of two had lost virtually all physical control, able to move only his left eyelid, with no hope of recovery. Then Bauby did something truly amazing. He wrote a book about his life that has now been made into a movie acclaimed in France and the U.S.: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Remarkably, even though an American director and British screenwriter are involved, the film was shot in France, in French, as Le Scaphandre et le Papillon. It plays here with English subtitles.
The film version of Bauby’s hospital bed memoir opened in late 2007 and is directed by American painter and director Julian Schnabel. The 73-year-old British screenwriter Ronald Harwood, who won an Academy Award for his screenplay to Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, has been nominated for another Oscar for his adaptation of “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” (It has garnered Oscar nominations for best director, cinematography, film editing as well.) Harwood has even won kudos from his colleagues in France for his screenplay in the second Prix Jacques Prevert, awarded by French screenwriters’ organization Union Guide des Scenaristes.
Harwood first adapted the book in English for Schnabel’s film of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. But to remain true to Bauby’s story, despite fears from distributors that it would hurt the film at the box-office, Schnabel had it translated into French. So “Diving Bell” is that rare thing, a co-production between France and the US, and thus a meeting of two frequently incompatible - and competitive - cinema industries.
Johnny Depp was originally set to play Bauby, but Pirates of the Caribbean came along and caused a conflict. So director Julian Schnabel, whose previous films, Basquiat and Before Night Falls, were also studies of artists isolated from their surroundings, had the idea to make this story —of a Frenchman and his French Florence Nightingales —in French.
For authenticity, Schnabel opted to learn French himself, to cast mostly French actors, to shoot at the seaside hospital where Bauby convalesced, and to involve the caregivers who actually knew him in the production. “I didn’t speak French before I made the movie. It’s no harder than anything else. I translated the movie into French with each actor separately because I wanted to hear what they would say, what would come out of their mouths.” The director spoke a little French, having lived in France in 1987. “I thought to have English and American people make believe they were French, and then have French people read French subtitles in France, it just seemed ridiculous,” Schnabel says. “I have to be responsible for what I do if I’m the author of this movie, and I think it would have been compromised to go to a soundstage in Los Angeles.”
The role is played by French actor Mathieu Amalric, in a stirring portrayal of a man trapped in his own body. Mathieu Amalric is best known to American audiences as the Frenchman who helped the Israelis locate the perpetrators of the Olympics massacre in Munich. Here he delivers a masterful performance almost without moving a muscle. He makes Schnabel’s risky approach pay off by working within Bauby’s physical limitations to create a rich emotional portrait.
Unable to write or speak, Bauby composed each passage mentally and then dictated it, letter by letter, to a therapist who painstakingly recited a frequency-ordered alphabet until Bauby chose a letter by blinking his left eyelid once to signify “yes.” In another act of spectacular will, Bauby survived just long enough to see his memoir published in the spring of 1997. Bauby died two days after the book was published in France, to rave reviews.
The film may be in French, but very little is lost in translation for English-speakers. Unlike many faster-paced or comedic foreign films, viewers don’t miss much by reading the subtitles. This is partly because The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is an essentially visual film.
The film often shows what Bauby sees. For example, blinking is shown as the image flashing to black. Much of the movie offers mind’s-eye views and flashbacks of Bauby’s memories and imagination.
British screenwriter Harwood consulted with the mother of Bauby’s children to make the film, and with the female therapist who took down most of the slow dictation. He described the sound of the woman reciting the specially-ordered alphabet as “music,” and her rhythmical recitation runs throughout the film.
American director Schnabel, 56, has been a fixture of the New York art world since bursting onto the scene in the ’80’s with his neo-expressionist, theatrical, borrowing from Kabuki. But while his reputation as a painter has subsided, Schnabel’s credibility as a filmmaker has done the opposite. He’s earned kudos for the films Basquiat (about street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat) and Before Night Falls (Cuban poet Reynaldo Arenas) All three of his films are biographies of creative people imprisoned by their circumstances.
When The Diving Bell and the Butterfly made its world premiere last year in France at the Cannes film festival, Schnabel won the best director prize. Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski took home the grand technical prize for his innovative approach to the camerawork.
While shot in French, the film’s appeal has transcended language and culture. National Board of Review in the U.S. named The Diving Bell and The Butterfly the best foreign-language film of 2007. Diving Bell also won the Golden Globe for the best foreign film, and appeared on many U.S. newspapers critics’ top ten lists of the best films of 2007. Then of course, there are those four Oscar nominations.
Some of the French critics originally looked down their noses at the film; perhaps annoyed that an American had dared to poach a French story. The audience response, though, in France and all around the world, has been wildly enthusiastic. Diving Bell marks a new milestone in US-French cooperation in cinema.
Consumers in France reject genetically modified crops ahead of French parliament vote
February 5, 2008
According to two surveys, two thirds of people in France do not want any more genetically modified foods on their plates, and they overwhelmingly call for the suspension of corn MON810, produced by Monsanto. Tomorrow, the bill concerning France’s policy on genetically altered crops arrives for debate in the Senate.
According to a survey by the French Ministry for Ecology, 77 % approve the decision of the government to suspend the marketing from the MON810, the only genetically modified corn cultivated in France.
72 % of the French in the survey consider it “important” to be able to consume products without genetically modified organisms (GMO). 71 % would require that a product labeled “without GMO” absolutely not contain any trace of any genetically modified elements (labeling in France is not obligatory today for products containing less than 0.9 % of GMO).
These two surveys undoubtedly will encourage ecological organizations, worried about the return in strength of pro-GMO lobbies.
The conflict has become very heated on both sides, with environmental activists launching hunger strikes and ripping up crops, and officials siding with the pro-GMO lobbies in France decrying the blight on progress and the economy that they say a ban would produce.
Contacted yesterday, the Minister for Ecology, Jean-Louis Borloo, invited everyone in France to return to calm and to stick to the compromises obtained at the Grenelle conference on this subject. The minister pointed out that the funds granted to biotechnology research in France will be multiplied eightfold this year.
“The president will assure that engagements of Grenelle are respected,” he said in the Elysee palace. “If the Parliament once again calls into question the transparency of the growing of genetically modified crops, responsibility in the event of contamination and the principles guaranteeing people the right to produce crops and consume foods that are GMO-free, the government will oppose it.”
Some European Union officials as well as those in France remain cautious about using products that could endanger insects and fish and upset delicate ecosystems. But others have called to ease restrictions on altered seeds as a way of keeping farming in France and Europe globally competitive at a time of skyrocketing food prices.
The European agriculture commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, warned farm ministers in November that Europe’s resistance to importing genetically modified products like livestock feed was contributing to the rising cost of raising pigs and chickens and could pose a threat to the meat industry.
France - the EU’s biggest agricultural producer - is the sixth government in Europe to ban genetic engineered crops. (Austria, Germany, Greece, Hungary and Poland are the other five.) The only genetically engineered crop currently grown in France is Monsanto’s genetically engineered corn (MON810).
Genetically modified corn is already imported from outside Europe into several EU countries, including France and Germany, where it is used to feed animals like cows and chickens. But only one genetically modified crop is currently grown in Europe, a form of corn produced by Monsanto and nine other companies called Mon 810.
In October 2007 President of France Nicolas Sarkozy called for an environmental “revolution” in France. Among other measures, he promised to outlaw energy wasting light bulbs by 2010, ban commercial growing of genetically modified food and feed crops, and use a principle of taking extra precautions for all future French government decisions concerning the environment.
The initiatives were announced after the conclusion of the Grenelle de l’environment negotiations. The Grenelle (a word that comes from the students’ revolution in Paris in May ‘68) was a set of conversations among government, industry, environmental groups and unions.
At the time, Sarkozy cited three good reasons to avoid growing genetically engineered crops: Doubts about their usefulness, doubts about their effects on health and the environment, and worries about their uncontrolled dissemination.
But Sarkozy disappointed supporters of a long-term ban by announcing only a temporary freeze on genetically modified seeds pending the outcome of a review of the technology that was expected on 9 Feb 2008.
The National Assembly in France was to debate extending the ban in the days before the outcome of the review. Meanwhile, French anti-globalization activist Jose Bove began a much-publicized hunger strike, declaring on Jan 3 that he would not eat again until the government imposed a year-long ban on GM crops.
But 8 days later, Bove and about 15 supporters called off their hunger strike after the government ordered the suspension of the use of genetically modified corn. France will suspend cultivation of MON810, the seed for the only type of genetically modified corn now allowed in France, until a pan-European Union review is conducted, Prime Minister Francois Fillon’s office said.
The move was based on a recommendation this week by the French government-appointed panel that reviewed the technology and called for “the need for additional analyses on the health and environmental effects of the genetically modified product MON810 in the long term,” Fillon’s office said in a statement.
Jose Bove and his supporters in France began the Jan 3 hunger strike saying they hoped to pressure the French government to make good on its promise in November to suspend cultivation of MON810. He said they only drank water or unsweetened tea during the protest. Bove rose to fame in August 1999 when he and supporters used farm equipment to dismantle a McDonald’s branch under construction in Millau, in the foothills of France’s Massif Central Mountains, to protest the influence of multinational corporations. He has faced repeated trials and served jail time in France for destroying genetically modified crops.
MON 810 corn seed, which resists some types of insects, was authorized in France before a government-ordered moratorium on genetically modified products took effect in 1999.
In the United States, almost all crops are now genetically modified and debate is mostly closed. But in France and the rest of Europe, with its increasing green consciousness and strong agricultural traditions, the genetically modified crop issue remains extremely controversial. The bloc remains largely free of GM crops while promising further scientific environmental and safety studies, as allowed by EU law and World Trade Organization rules.
GM crops cover less than one percent of farmland in France, Europe’s top agricultural producer. Last year, MON810 was planted in about 54,000 acres in France — mainly in southern farmland.
Meanwhile, Greenpeace has just launched a petition requiring French senators to vote tomorrow in favor of what the citizens want. “We want to believe that the majority of the senators are not bound by the biotechnology lobbies but are committed to defend the general interest and the very explicit will of the citizens on this subject”, Greenpeace underlines, citing the surveys showing three-quarters of the public in France against genetically altered crops and demanding explicit food labeling. The Greenpeace organization will exert public pressure by publishing the names of French National assembly officials favorable to GMO, giving out mock bronze, silver and gold “Monsanto medals”.
President Sarkozy of France quietly marries ex-model and singer Carla Bruni in Paris
February 4, 2008
Just three months after their first meeting at a dinner party at the home of a mutual friend, Carla Bruni and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, were married in a small, 20-minute civil ceremony at the Élysée Palace on Saturday.
The twice-divorced Sarkozy, who recently turned 53, is only the second French president to be married while in office. Carla Bruni is 40 years old.
The first official confirmation of the event came not from the Élysée palace, the home base of the President, but from the mayor of the Eighth Arrondissement of Paris, who officiated at the ceremony. The Elysee Palace is located in the 8th.
In France, all weddings must first be performed in a civil ceremony to be legally recognized. Any religious ceremony which may follow is purely symbolic; the couple must already be legally married for such a ceremony to be performed. Many French dispense with a religious ceremony altogether.
“I married two voters of the Eighth Arrondissement district who live at 55 Rue du Faubourg St.-Honoré!” Mayor François Lebel announced on French radio. That is the Élysée Palace’s address. About 20 family members and close friends witnessed the ceremony.
Hours went by before the Élysée issued its own terse statement confirming the wedding. “Ms. Carla Bruni Tedeschi and Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy would like to announce that they were married this morning in the presence of their families and in the utmost privacy,” it said.
Nicolas Bazire, an investment tycoon, and Mathilde Agostinelli, communications director of Prada France, stood up with Sarkozy’s as his witnesses at the ceremony. (In a quintessentially French civilized gesture, Agostinelli is a good friend of Sarkoy’s ex-wife.) Actresses Farida Khelfa and Marine Delterme were witnesses for Carla Bruni.
In the last two months, Sarkozy’s popularity has taken a dive, both because of his failure to revive France’s ailing economy and the “Carla effect.” His three-month romance with Carla Bruni, the model-turned-pop-singer, has not impressed the French according to opinion polls, who consider the alliance and its timing to be in poor taste.
Five weeks before Sarkozy’s first electoral contest since taking office in May, a round of local elections - the president’s popularity dipped to a record low.
Polls published last week showed that Sarkozy’s approval rating in France had dropped 8 points in only one month, to 41 percent. That level matched that of his predecessor’s, Jacques Chirac, in a poll taken right after a three-week transportation strike.
French voter discontent with Sarkozy was blamed mainly on economic concerns. The increasing cost of living in France, which was one of Sarkozy’s main talking points during his campaign, is widely viewed as not having been sufficiently addressed. The French also fear the prospect of a looming economic slowdown and the government’s plans for the labor market.
The French did not seem too concerned backing October when Sarkozy’s 11-year marriage ended in divorce. Marriage here has long been seen in practical as well as romantic terms. However, President Sarkozy’s tabloid-worthy relationship with singer Carla Bruni has struck a sour note in France. Rather than a discreet Frenchwoman, Bruni is an Italian-born heiress who has been linked romantically with Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, and even—rumors say—Donald Trump. This impression has not been helped by Sarkozy and Bruni’s jet-setting lovers’ getaways to foreign countries and extravagant exchanges of expensive gifts, all breathlessly recorded by the paparazzi and mainstream media. Revealing and embarrassing photos of Bruni from her more indiscreet youthful days have been wallpapering the Internet.
Former first lady Bernadette Chirac took a more romantic view of the proceedings, however. “I find it very joyful! A marriage at the Élysée is marvelous!”
World events intruded on the day of celebration. As rebels penetrated the capital of Chad, a former French colony, Sarkozy held a crisis meeting at the Élysée and spoke by telephone with Chad’s president.
President Nicolas Sarkozy will not take his new bride on a honeymoon, his office said Sunday. Instead, he will meet with French workers at a factory threatened by closure and then head to Romania on an official visit.The eyes of France will be on Bruni, who has called herself a “man-tamer” and has spoken of monogamy as “boring”, to see how the glamorous former model, singer and jet-setter adapts to workday life as the wife of a public servant in France.
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France takes $2.4 billion stand against Alzheimer’s disease
February 1, 2008
Speaking in Nice on Friday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled a five-year plan to fight Alzheimer’s disease in France and around the world. 860,000 elderly people in France have Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is unique in that the disease affects not only the sufferers but everyone who knows them.
Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain disorder. It is the leading cause of loss of autonomy among elderly people, though a small number of people afflicted are younger.
Sarkozy said the 1.6-billion euro ($ 2.4-billion) plan, slated to take effect on Jan. 1 of next year, calls for the establishment of a new foundation for Alzheimer’s research that will pool scientific efforts of many researchers, scientists and doctors. Recognizing the effects of Alzheimer’s disease on loved ones, the plan also sets up a network of nursing homes to help families care for their Alzheimer’s-afflicted relatives and deal with the stress that Alzheimer’s places on everyone involved.
Sarkozy affirmed that this was a long-term personal commitment on his part, citing his pledge during his recent presidential campaign to do everything he could to eradicate Alzheimer’s disease in France. It is estimated that 1.3 million in France alone are expected to suffer from Alzheimer’s by 2020. Studies warn that the number of French cases could reach 2.1 million by 2040.
Sarkozy said: “France wants to help the fight against Alzheimer’s within 10-15 years, as the disease is among those whose evolution can be staved off. In a few years, patients’ suffering will be nothing like that of today, and perhaps we can eradicate Alzheimer’s altogether.”
The plan will be paid for primarily from a new fee on the users of health services that took effect on January 1. French health care is free for everyone registered with social security in France, but Sarkozy has long argued that research needs additional funding and says patients should start paying token fees to help cover the cost.
Under the plan proposed by Sarkozy in July 2007, patients would pay a non-refundable 0.50 euro ($0.68) per prescription drug, 0.50 euro for paramedical aid and 2 euros for medical transport, such as ambulance rides. “Alzheimer’s disease is a real national drama,” Sarkozy said during a visit last summer to a hospital in Dax, in southwestern France, saying that everyone should chip in to help end the disease, especially since caring for Alzheimer’s patients costs taxpayers an the government in France 10 billion euros per year.
A French association representing families of Alzheimer’s patients cheered the new plan president Arlette Meyrieux saying it could yield significant progress, but tempered her enthusiasm somewhat with an expressed desire to go over the details of the plan and assess its implications for families.
And Sarkozy’s vision for the project extends beyond his own country. The president of France hopes to use the six-month French presidency of the European Union that begins in July 2008 to organize a pan-European conference on Alzheimer’s disease.
Speaking about Alzheimer’s disease last summer, Sarkozy was quoted as saying: “To fight this illness is a challenge. It has nothing to do with left or right-wing politics. All governments over the next 30 years will be confronted by it.”
Police in France say au revoir to Microsoft, bonjour to Linux
February 1, 2008
In a pistol-whip to Microsoft corporation, the French paramilitary police force announced in Paris on Wednesday that it is abandoning the Microsoft operating system it currently uses in favor of the free Linux operating system.
Unlike in the U.S., there is a national police force in France, rather than a collection of local police entities or precincts. The French gendarmerie is one of the biggest official entities in the world to break away from the pay-per-license Microsoft environment. The nightstick fell on Microsoft at the Solution Linux 2008 conference.
The move completes the French police force’s divorce from Microsoft that began in 2005 when police in France moved to open sourcing for office applications such as word processing. They switched over to open-source Internet browsers in 2006. Linux, once the exclusive system of computer geeks, has become an easy-to-use system aimed at average users. It is an open system, meaning its access s free to all, both for use and for development. Scientists from all over the world have cooperated to make the system what it is today. Until now, it was too technical to be a threat to Microsoft in the consumer or everyday business arena. Those days are over.
The French gendarmerie’s 70,000 desktop computers currently use Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system. But these will migrate over to the Linux system distributed by Ubuntu, explained Colonel Nicolas Geraud, deputy director of the gendarmerie’s IT department. Geraud said that the French police would introduce Linux every time they replaced a desktop PC. The gendarmerie expects to transfer between 5,000 and 8,000 desktops to Ubuntu this year, with 12,000-15,000 more making the switch over the next four years. The goal is to have every desktop in the French gendarmerie running Linux by the year 2014.
The reasons behind the move are tri-fold, explained Geraud: first, to reduce the force’s reliance on one company and offer more choice by diversifying IT suppliers; second, to give the gendarmerie control and oversight of the operating system; and third — cost. This last might have been reason enough all by itself. The move away from Microsoft licensed products is saving the gendarmerie about seven million euros (10.3 million dollars) a year for all its PCs.
Microsoft claims that running Windows is actually cheaper overall than running Linux despite the cost of Windows license fees, hinting at possible integration issues and the fact that there are fewer experts trained to service open source applications as compared to Windows. But it would be hard for these issues to offset $10 million in bottom-line savings.
The French police official added that Linux was not only cheaper but more advanced than other operating systems currently on the market, a thinly veiled swipe at Vista, Microsoft’s latest operating system. Vista has been roundly panned by consumers. They complain about Vista’s high price and resource requirements, and especially about its incompatibility with their existing applications. Many in the industry as well as consumer advocacy groups are seeing Vista as a major blunder, some citing Microsoft’s arrogance as the company that has held a virtual monopoly for over a decade on PC operating systems and software programs.
Vista’s reputation for incompatibility and bugs has become a major public relations headache for Microsoft, whose popularity in France has already taken heavy hits due to widely publicized and drawn-out legal proceedings. Losing the French gendarmerie as a client is certain not to help.
Geraud explained that the move to an open source operating system was logical after the police switched in 2005 to open sourcing for its office applications and in 2006 for its Internet browsers and its email.
This latest announcement by police in France has been hinted at in recent years.
In 2005 the gendarmerie switched from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice — a collection of applications such as a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation program similar to Microsoft Powerpoint. But unlike Microsoft Office programs, all of these software suites can be downloaded free.
A year later it abandoned Microsoft’s Internet Explorer for the Mozilla Foundation’s browser Firefox and its email client Thunderbird. OpenOffice and Firefox are both on the open source platform, so moving to a Linux operating system won’t be the culture shock for the French police force as it might be in some organizations that have yet to try open-source products and systems.
With its 100,000 employees, the French gendarmerie is the largest administration to shift to open sourcing for its operating system, but not France’s first. The National Assembly adopted Ubuntu’s version of Linux for its 1,200 desktop PCs last year.
The announcement by the French police force came on the very same day that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was also in Paris, meeting with Bernard Delanoe, the Mayor of Paris, to discuss far-reaching partnerships between Microsoft and the city, including Microsoft-base training for public officials, boosts for business start-ups and the building of a new digital sports arena in the Montreuil area of Paris.
Was this a move calculated by Gates or Delanoe to offset the French gendarmerie’s announcement? If not, it would seem a very ironic coincidence. In any case, the move by the French police dealt a body blow to the mood of those celebrating the Microsoft-Paris alliance.