Not being a fan of the overrated Louis Vuitton line of luxury handbags and luggage (and in general), this is another reason for me to take my dislike up a notch.

Louis Vuitton is suing a design student (Nadia Plesner) working with a Darfur fundraiser because their recent campaign called, “Simple Living” shows a refugee with a little chihuahua and expensive LV-ish handbag. Sound or Look familiar? As most of us sadly know, this combination of images only leads to one person: Paris Hilton. The raison d’etre of this design illustrates that people like Hilton get all of the media attention (and why?!), while much more attention-worthy important causes are being ignored.

All of the proceeds of the t-shirts and posters of this campaign are going to charity.

Buy a t-shirt now and support Nadia and Save Darfur

[via]

More Chinese haters of France. In this case, it’s a taxi driver that is refusing Frenchmen and dogs. What about French women? French children? Are they turning away French poodles? Bichon Frisés? The noyve.

I don’t think France cares too much if she’s hated but don’t you wonder why China is picking on France specifically - when there have been boycotts all along the world path of the Olympic torch? What about England? What about the U.S.? Japan? They tried to trample the Olympic torch, too.

And, and, and, what did dogs do to deserve that? Can’t we all just get along?

Apparemment non.

From yahoo:

“The French government will “suspend” the use of new software for recording the personal habits and affiliations of its citizens in a police database, following an outcry by civil rights groups.

But Synergie-Officiers supported storage of information about the race and religion of suspects and victims. In France some violent crimes attract tougher sentences if motivated by racial or religious hatred, and the union warned that if campaign groups want such hate crimes pursued more vigorously, then police need a way to identify the relevant information about attackers and victims during investigations.”

Tags: france, big+brother, privacy+threatened, software, civil+liberties

I know these Chinese guys didn’t mean for this to be funny and for all intents and purposes it isn’t funny, but still…

They just don’t GET it.

Hey, and Napoleon’s a pervert!

Related: Olympic Torch

From iht:

“Nearly a year into his term, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has hardly mentioned the arts or culture. In late February, he said that French cuisine should be added to the Unesco World Heritage list.

Every French president since the Liberation has cooked up some such pharaonic new museum or opera house or library or initiated some legacy-minded cultural program, until now.

Sarkozy’s taste is said to be for…”

Full article

Tags: france, sarkozy, embarrassing, french+politics

Last night a special report aired on television (on the show Envoyé Spécial on France 2) about the Olympic Torch in Paris, and showed how the whole spectacle unraveled. While everyone expected a certain amount of unrest from France (and got it), there was some disturbing behavior reported that sent shivers down my spine. It reminded me of something I saw years ago on TV about what could happen in the near future. But, in fact, seems to be happening now.

About 5 years ago, there was a very short-lived (1 season only) but brilliant TV show called, Firefly. It was a Sci-Fi Western set aboard a transport starship with a small crew that took on unquestionably criminal moonlighting jobs. The backdrop was a starry landscape of deep space roughly 500 years into the future and everyone spoke some sort of hybrid of Chinese and Redneck English. Obviously, the implication of the state of the universe 500 years from now was frightening. It shows that the political, geographical and philosophical meltdown over the years eventually embraces China as master. It means China ruled the world.

Back to the Olympic torch event in Paris. The report showed cameramen and journalists all crowded on a truck just in front of the Olympic torch runners - obviously to capture the “glorious” Olympic moment. The French crew notices that the Chinese journalists do not shoot any of the protesters all around the truck; they simply ignore them and tape the torch. The Chinese people evidently will never see any of the human rights activists.

The French and other countries’ journalists, obviously, wanted to capture everything. At that moment, the Chinese cameraman notices being taped by the French, then alerts the Chinese security team about it, saying, “There’s a dangerous cameraman onboard.” Apparently, the Chinese security ordered the French police to remove them without question. Seconds later, The French police arrive and apologetically remove the journalists, who did have the permission to be present. While removing them, the French police said something to the effect of, “we have to follow orders.”

Clearly, it is obvious who is in power here. How could the Chinese have authority outside of their country? It’s strange to see them have all that power in France. They also did appear to be calling the shots in San Francisco, as well. Did you notice? I guess that’s what happens, U.S., when you owe China that much money. The U.S. borrows $3 billion a DAY from Japan, China, the UK and oil exporting countries. Do things make a little more sense now? Is this a reflection of what is to come? The signs of the times, they’re scary.

Could this submissive behavior on the part of the French have something to do with their recent Nuclear Energy deal worth 8 BILLION EUROS ($11.86 billion) with China? Does it have anything to do with the fact that so many French companies have installed themselves in China? Does “Made in China” sound familiar?

An aside: I’ve recently noticed that everything made in China has started to look like “Made in PRC” (People’s Republic of China). You don’t fool me.

Links: Made in China , Olympic Torch

Tags: france, china, olympics, 2008, torch

As most people expected, Reporters without Borders did manage to get some attention during today’s Olympic torch relay in Paris protesting against China’s inhumane treatment of the people of Tibet. There was so much disruption everywhere that the last leg of the Paris torch relay was canceled.

Related: Photos from Paris Bloggers, Olympic Torch

Oui! We knew SOMETHING would happen.

From iht:

“What was supposed to be a majestic procession for the Olympic torch through the French capital was disrupted Monday as thousands of people from around Europe, many with Tibetan flags, massed to protest the passage of the flame, forcing police officers to bring the torch onto a bus to try to protect it and causing the torch to be extinguished at least once.

A police spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with policy, said the torch went out “for technical reasons” unrelated to the protests, without offering further clarification. CNN reported that the torch was extinguished at least twice amid the melee, and The Associated Press said officials were forced to extinguish the flame three times amid security concerns.

Despite tremendous security, at least two activists got within almost an arm’s length of the flame before they were grabbed by police officers, The AP reported. Officers tackled numerous protesters to the ground and carried some away.

It was yet another unscripted moment in the passage of the Olympic flame, and the second time in two days that the torch relay had been disrupted in a European capital.

Some 3,000 police officers in Paris — on foot, horseback, roller blades, motorbikes and even boats in the river Seine — tried to prevent a repeat of the scenes in London on Sunday, when the torch’s progression through the streets turned into a tumult of scuffles. One man broke through a tight security cordon in the London protests and made a failed grab for the torch, and 35 people were arrested…”

Read the rest

From the daily mail:

“French President Nicholas Sarkozy will boycott the opening of the Beijing Olympics unless China opens dialogue with the Dalai Lama and frees political prisoners, a French minister told Le Monde today.
Secretary of State for Human Rights Rama Yade said these conditions were “indispensable” for Sarkozy to attend the opening of the Games.

His warning comes as Government security forces fired on crowds of civilians, killing at least eight people in the Tibetan area of western China.

Xinhua news agency said rioters attacked government offices in Garze, Sichuan province, on Thursday, leaving one official hurt and others seriously injured.

Sarkozy is set to announce his decision on the boycott after consulting with his European counterparts and will be speaking as current president of the European Union.

“Nevertheless, three conditions are indispensable for him to go: an end to violence against the population and the release of political prisoners, light to be shed on the events in Tibet and the opening of dialogue with the Dalai Lama,” Tibet’s spiritual leader, Ms Yade said.

France calls on China to undertake “a really constructive dialogue with the Dalai Lama”.

“These discussions should be about the recognition of Tibetan autonomy and the spiritual, religious and cultural identity of Tibetans,” she added.

The French minister said 132 Tibetan monks had been arrested last year for political reasons.

“At the moment, China practises a politics of…

Full article

From AP:

“French athletes said Friday they want to be able to wear a badge marked ‘For a better world’ at the Beijing Olympics to show support for human rights in the wake of China’s crackdown in Tibet.

The athletes plan to lobby the International Olympic Committee for permission to wear the badge, a symbol of their attachment to principles they said China is not respecting.

About 20 former and current French athletes, some already qualified to compete in Beijing this August, attended the unveiling of the badge. It shows the Olympic rings, below the words “France” and “For a better world.”

The badge is the result of several weeks of reflection among athletes in France about how they should respond to the events in Tibet and the broader question of human rights in China…

(more…)

From counterpunch:

“Nicolas Sarkozy, allegedly the most Anglophile (or rather Americanophile) president of the 5th Republic failed his Science Po degree in the late 70s because his English was so poor that he was barred from sitting the politics exams. In the run up to the war in Iraq, the allegedly “Anti-American” Chirac was able to explain the French position in English before the US media, a small feat totally out of reach for the monolingual Sarkozy.

Sarkozy did not have to make small talk in English when he recently met the Queen in Windsor Castle since the British Monarch is fluent in French. On this occasion, some may have warned the Queen that Sarkozy’s French is generally most unceremonial: his crude crack at a person who refused to shake hands with him at a Paris farm show or the derogatory use of the “tu” form to address strangers (in the French context, not a cool way to behave, but rather a condescending or bossy one) have become Internet hits. Meeting youngsters from the banlieues a few months before his election, Sarko boasted to the kids: “I speak like you, I could be one of you”. “Bling-Bling Sarko” confuses familiarity with vulgarity. As one of his critics in the French media cruelly put it: Sarkozy is not small, but low.

Before Sarko, the Gaullist right was not quintessentially vulgar and anti-intellectual. Charles de Gaulle was a well-read man who had the good taste to choose André Malraux as Minister of Culture. Georges Pompidou was an Agrégé de lettres and a student at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. The apparently less highbrow Jacques Chirac is a great connoisseur of Japanese civilization (and, some cynics might like to add, of his banking system) [and leaves the splendid Branly museum as a monument, Editors]. Sarkozy breaks with the Gaullist tradition on that count: he is a self-professed idiot. To one of his advisers who suggested that he visit a museum during a trip in Madrid, Sarko replied: “The idiot thanks you!” (Le con te dit merci!). The ironic jibe fails to conceal Sarkozy’s deep insecurity with regard to the world of knowledge in general and to intellectuals in particular. Sarkozy admitted hating school and underachieved as a student. Recently, he was heard fuming in public against “those researchers who find nothing”.

(more…)

With his approval ratings plunging into seemingly negative numbers, Sarkozy has been under extreme mounting pressure and stress to improve his popularity as was witnessed earlier in his presidential career. He has shocked the world by taking France by the horns (feathers) with his immediate action against immigration. His stance on “work more, earn more” slapped lagging chomeurs and professional “RMIistes” out of their beds. His marriage to a supermodel taller than him caused a stir outside of France. Of course, inside the hexagon, the French did not bat an eye, and wouldn’t do so even if he married a hairless dwarf monkey.

Although no one faults him for his singularity and take-charge attitude, the people of France expected an overall improvement in the quality of French life from Monsieur le president. Instead they got skyrocketing inflation and endless reportages of his love life. The public knows that during the myriad of marriage footage in the media, he was covertly passing unsavory laws - and le peuple is not pleased.

But in an unprecedented move to come clean, Sarkozy has offered complete transparency and divulged his intentions in an impromptu press conference today. He has decided to be open and honest about his plans for the country and has taken a vow of truth to disclose all plans and events to the public as they happen. He also plans to admit his recent “misinformations.” (We call those “lies.”)

He then continued to inform the media and general public of his recent decisions and actions, which are as follows:

1. He admits to having married supermodel, Carla Bruni, because she is a perfect trophy wife. He felt that having a beautiful, tall younger woman as a wife would boost his ratings. He, in actuality, hates Carla with the passion - particularly because she looks better nude than he does, speaks better English than he does, and everyone would rather talk to her and not him at cocktail parties.

2. Since the launching of the euro in France in 2002, the price of food and goods have gone through the roof, so much so, that many people are running out of money. They’ve had to resort to spending their savings. When France’s currency was the franc, even poor people could afford basic needs and still were able to save a little in the bank. Sarkozy realizes this and confesses that he does not care about poor people, so originally he had no intentions of any kind to make changes - but since today, he’s decided to bend a little and although it may sound shocking, he has decided to bring back the Franc. “Forget euros,” he quipped, “that currency is for pauvre cons.”

3. Regarding the Olympics in Beijing this summer, Sarkozy has urged everyone to buy a Reporters without Borders t-shirt and wear them next week, April 7, when the Olympic torch passes through Paris. “You must change the t-shirts a little, however,” he said, “please tear off the sleeves so that we all look like Rambo. Don’t forget to wear a bandana around your head, too”

Poisson d’avril!! April Fools!

Related: France Demands Worldwide Royalties

On the way to the Olympic Ceremony, the torch will makes its way all over the world. For what it’s worth, it’ll be in Paris on April 7. Mark your calendars.

I don’t believe it’s going to be an eventless moment in history because 1) this is France; and 2) the most awesome Reporters sans frontières / Reporters without Borders will surely make an appearance. If you were able to see the initial ceremony in Greece a week or so ago, you’ll remember that some fearless reporters without borders crashed the party to demonstrate against China, which is the largest world prison for freedom of expression and human rights, among other things.

Stay tuned. And in the meantime, get a T-shirt to show your support of Reporters Without Borders - and please sign the petition.

Links: Torch Cities

From IHT:

“Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister of France and a longtime humanitarian, diplomatic and political activist on the international scene, says that whoever succeeds President George W. Bush in the White House may restore something of America’s battered image and standing overseas, but “the magic is over.”

In a wide-ranging conversation Tuesday with Roger Cohen of the International Herald Tribune at the Forum for New Diplomacy in Paris, Kouchner also held out the eventual hope of talking with Hamas, the Palestinian movement that controls the Gaza Strip but has been ostracized by the West and by its Palestinian rival, Fatah.

Asked whether the United States could repair the damage it has suffered to its reputation during the Bush presidency and especially since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Kouchner replied, “It will never be as…”

Read the full article

The French documentary, “Le Monde Selon Monsanto / The world according to Monsanto,” directed by independent filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin, airs tonight on ARTE.

The film paints a grim picture of a no-holds-barred evil corporation with a decades-long track record of environmental crimes, health scandals and endangering the population of the entire world.

It will open your eyes to many things and you’ll never look at food the same way again.

Read about it at ARTE (in French) More about it here (in English)

See the movie trailer here

As an expat in France, I don’t get to vote in the municipal elections today but my sweetie does and so I was trying to figure out how it works here. It became very, VERY clear that it’s nothing like in the U.S. Firstly, our little city hall has an “aperitif” room where you can have a drink and eat some cake before or after voting. Later in the day they serve wine.

Me: So who’s running for mayor?

Him: Same guy.

Me: Anyone else?

Him: Well, not really. You know, the list.

Me: What list? What do you mean not really?

Him: He could get scratched off the list.

Me: What!? People can just scratch him off the list and he’s out?

Him: Yeah, well if more than 50% of the voters cross him out.

Me: You mean cross his name out…with a pen?

Him: Yes.

Me: But. Oh. Weird. And what about the list?

Him: Since we live in a tiny village, there’s only one list. We’re lucky anyone wants to run for anything. But in larger places, there would be many lists. For example, each list representing a political party. You’re in fact voting for a list of people: The mayor and his municipal counsel.

Me: Soooo. Our village has only one list. That just means they are sure to win. No other lists means no other candidates. Are the people on the list from one party?

Him: No. But only because the village is so small.

Me: Ok, this is strange. So, who’s on the list?

Him: The guy who wants to be re-elected mayor and all his friends.

Me: His friends? Why are his friends on the list?

Him: They want to be part of the municipal counsel.

Me: What if you don’t want some people to be on the counsel?

Him: You cross out their name. And if you want someone else to be on the counsel, after you cross out a name, you can add someone’s name on the list. Same with the person running for mayor. He would be at the top of the list.

Me: What?! You mean you can cross out the name of the guy running for mayor and put ANYONE else’s name???

Him: Sure, and also with counsel candidates.

Me: Ok, so, in fact, someone who isn’t running for mayor, can actually be elected mayor.

Him: Yes. But more than 50% of the voters have to write in his name.

Me: What if that person gets elected mayor and never wanted to be mayor?

Him: He’s mayor. I guess he’d have to resign and the rest of the list would come up with a mayor.

Me: That is so kooky.

More Franco-American Conversations

Can you imagine the First Lady of another country posing nude? *shudders!*

From chiefengineer:

“Thousands of canisters of highly radioactive waste from the world’s most nuclear-energized nation lie, silent and deadly, beneath this jutting tip of Normandy. Above ground, cows graze and Atlantic waves crash into heather-covered hills.

The spent fuel, vitrified into blocks of black glass that will remain dangerous for thousands of years, is in “interim storage.” Like nearly all the world’s nuclear waste, it is still waiting for the long-term disposal solution that has eluded scientists and governments in the six decades since the atomic era began.

…Greenpeace questions state-run Areva’s safety figures, and accuses the government of playing down accidents and soil and water contamination. A group called Meres en Colere, or Angry Mothers, was formed in the region (Normandy) after a 1997 study showed higher than usual local rates of child leukemia, a malady linked to radiation exposure.

Now the “pros” are on a new mission to dispel a generation of scares and suspicion, saying nuclear power is less dangerous to humans and the Earth than burning oil or coal. The “antis” say nuclear energy can never offer 100 percent protection from its radioactive ingredients.

The splitting of uranium atoms in a nuclear reactor creates the exceptional heat that drives turbines to provide electricity. The processes also create radioactive isotopes such as cesium-137 and strontium-90 that take about 30 years to lose half their radioactivity. Higher-level leftovers include plutonium-239, with a half-life of 24,000 years.

Direct exposure to such highly radioactive material, even for a short period, can be fatal. Indirect exposure, through seepage into groundwater, can lead to life-threatening illness for those living nearby and environmental damage.

For now, the best scientific solution for getting rid of the most lethal waste is to shove it deep underground.

Yet no country has built a deep geological repository. Governments meet protests each time one is proposed. The Yucca Mountain waste site in Nevada was commissioned in 1982 and is still awaiting a license.

Another option is recycling. Countries such as France, Russia and Japan reprocess much nuclear waste into new fuel. That dramatically reduces the volume: Forty years’ worth of France’s highly radioactive waste is stored under just three floor surfaces, each about the size of a basketball court, at Beaumont-Hague.

Recycling, though, produces plutonium that could be used in nuclear weapons - so the United States bans it, fearing proliferation.

And not all waste can be reprocessed. The deadliest bits - such as fuel rod casings and other reactor parts as well as concentrated fuel residue containing plutonium and highly enriched uranium - must be sealed and stored away.

That’s what lurks 10 feet underground at this Normandy plant: More than 7,000 cylindrical steel canisters, each about the height of a parking meter, stacked and sealed upright in holes beneath the slick floor. Some contain compacted radioactive metal, the others hold spent fuel that has been vitrified into glass.

Among other ideas once floated for disposing of nuclear waste have been shooting it into space (deemed too risky because of the volatile rocket fuel) or injecting it in the ocean floor (stalled because testing its feasibility is too costly), or shipping all the world’s waste to a collective nuclear dump….”

Read the article

From the belfasttelegraph:

“Saint Céneri could hardly be more French and yet its rich history has been shaped, for good and ill, by foreign missionaries and invaders. The small settlement, just within lower Normandy, was created in the seventh century by an Italian saint and hermit – Saint Céneri himself – who conjured up springs and parted the waters of rivers by pointing his stick. During the Hundred Years’ War, in 1434, the village castle was besieged for months and then demolished by 15,000 obstinate Englishmen.

After 561 uneventful years, the village fell, willingly this time, into the clutches of another foreigner – a Yorkshireman. For the past 13 years, Ken Tatham has been the mayor of Saint Céneri-le-Gérei, the only British mayor in France.

On Sunday week, 9 March, he is up for election for the third time. There are no opinion polls in Saint Céneri but Mr Tatham, 62, is likely to win by a miniature landslide.

How many voters would that mean exactly? Mr Tatham considers for a moment. “We have a population of 140, of whom 160 can vote,” he said. “This is just like Corsica, although you’d better not quote me saying that.”

Mr Tatham has lived in Saint Céneri for 38 years. He is married to a…”

Read the full article

Already blazing throughout the internet, here’s a video of Sarkozy greeting people at the Agriculture Salon in Paris where he meets a man who doesn’t want to shake his hand. It makes us laugh so hard.

Man: Ah non, touche moi pas / oh no, don’t touch me.

Sarko: Casse-toi alors / Then get lost.

Man: Tu me salis / You’ll get me dirty (You disgust me).

Sarko: Casse-toi alors pauvre con / Then get lost, dumb ass.

Watch the video

From news.com.au:

“FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy said he wants to see French cuisine listed as a world heritage item by the United Nations.

“Agriculture and the jobs which produce it every day are the source of our country’s gastronomic diversity. It is an essential element of our heritage,” Mr Sarkozy said at the opening of France’s huge annual agriculture show in Paris.

“That is why I want France to be the first country to apply to UNESCO for our gastronomic tradition to be recognised as a world heritage,” Mr Sarkozy said.

“We have the best gastronomy in the world,” he said.”

[source]

From Timesonline:

“Venetians reconstructing a gold-covered barge used by the doges of Venice until it was reduced to ashes by Napoleon have appealed to President Sarkozy of France to contribute to the cost “by way of reparation”.

The foundation behind the €20 million (£15 million) project wants France to make a financial contribution to compensate for what has been described as the wilful destruction of the barge, which was set ablaze during Napoleon’s occupation of Venice in 1798.

The Fondazione Bucintoro has written to President Sarkozy to ask France to contribute as a goodwill gesture to make amends for Napoleon’s “vandalism”.

The elaborate and imposing ducal barge, known as the Bucintoro, was a symbol both of the doge’s power and of the Venetian Republic’s mystical relationship with the sea and its once-extensive empire. The origin of the name is obscure but is thought to combine burcio, a traditional Venetian term for a lagoon vessel, with in oro, meaning covered in gold.

Venetian scholars believe that there were four…”

Read more

Click on the image to see the report.

Related: 22,000 died amid delayed Bayer drug recall

From reuters:

Italian scientists say they have proved Napoleon was not poisoned, scotching the legend the French emperor was murdered by his British jailors.

Napoleon’s post-mortem said he died of stomach cancer aged 51, but the theory he was assassinated to prevent any return to power has gained credence in recent decades as some studies indicated his body contained a high level of the poison arsenic.

“It was not arsenic poisoning that killed Napoleon at Saint Helena,” said researchers at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics and the University of Pavia who tested the theory the British killed him while he was in exile on the South Atlantic island in 1821.

The Italian research — which studied hair samples from various moments in his life which are kept in museums in Italy and France — showed Napoleon’s body did have a high level of arsenic, but that he was already heavily contaminated as a boy.

The scientists used a nuclear reactor to irradiate the hairs to get an accurate measure of the levels of arsenic.

Looking at hairs from several of Napoleon’s contemporaries, including his wife and son, they found…

More

From nyt:

“He is a lieutenant so loyal that President Nicolas Sarkozy personally rewarded him with the party’s nomination for mayor of the affluent Paris suburb that Mr. Sarkozy himself long governed.

But now, David Martinon, the president’s spokesman, has abruptly withdrawn from the race. And it was the president’s own son Jean who forced him out.

“The conditions are no longer in place for me to lead the municipal campaign in Neuilly,” Mr. Martinon told reporters on Monday. “I am pulling out.”

Adding to the intrigue, Mr. Martinon said that he submitted his resignation as spokesman — but that Mr. Sarkozy refused to accept it.

With Mr. Sarkozy’s poll ratings in free fall, the fiasco in the suburb, Neuilly-sur-Seine, is the freshest sign of turmoil in his presidency.

His hyperactive style, long regarded as a welcome change from the torpor of the last days of the presidency of Jacques Chirac, is increasingly seen as movement without a goal. “It’s the law of the boomerang — the harder and farther you throw it, the faster and more violently it comes back,” Le Monde wrote in its editorial on Monday afternoon.

On Monday, Mr. Sarkozy’s popularity plunged to a new low of…”

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