SAME OLD SAME...
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| Pro-family demonstration |
The INTERMITTENTS DU
SPECTACLE, those theatre temps who
managed to disrupt several festivals and close down a number of opera and
theater performances in Aix and Avignon this summer (blog 7/21/14), have
returned to the streets. To calm the waters and prevent an all-out strike, such
as the one in 2003 that closed down all summer festivals, Prime Minister Valls promised
the temps in July that the government would settle the recurring issue of their
unemployment pay once and for all before the end of this year. On October 1st,
the temps called a one-day strike and marched in Paris to demand a specific
date for this negotiation. A "warning shot" strike, you might say.
WORK ON SUNDAYS. The sensitive issue of Sunday
work is back on the table, something that no government has managed to resolve so far. Over
time, the applicable rules and their exceptions have become so opaque and
complex that a thorough review and simplification was recommended in the Bailly report of last
winter (blog 10/13/13). To speed up the process, Prime Minister Valls
proposed this summer that this issue be decided by order instead of by
parliamentary vote. It wasn't long, however, before he had to give in to
pressure from his majority and accept the slower and more hazardous route of Parliament.
Even though France is under a lot of pressure from "Brussels"
to implement the necessary structural reforms to
reduce its deficit, "speeding up the process" is simply not a French
concept.
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| Macron in Lyon, October 9, 2014 |
First obstacle on this fast course: the strong objections
voiced by Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, leader of the Socialist Party, to any
reduction of the amount and the duration of unemployment insurance, one of the
reforms that President Hollande has avoided addressing so far. Even though Manuel
Valls on his recent visits to Berlin and London spoke of a business-friendly France
that is ready to make the necessary reforms, President Hollande sidestepped the
issue and commented that there is enough on his agenda right now and
unemployment insurance is not one of the items. This government is still not speaking
with one voice, which does not augur well for speedy solutions.
The ECOTAX on
heavy trucks that was initiated by Nicolas Sarkozy for implementation on
January 1, 2014, then repeatedly postponed by President Hollande, and considerably
weakened by his newly nominated Minister of Ecology Ségolène Royal last June
(blog 6/30/14), was finally cancelled altogether. The coup de grâce came when Royal announced on October 9th that she had
suspended this tax sine die. To make
up for the financial loss of €550 million/year she plans to make the privatized
highway companies pay "out of their excessive profits". Finance
Minister Michel Sapin fears that these concessionary companies have ironclad
long-term contracts that would be difficult to change and would take a long
time to renegotiate. In the meantime, the loss of Ecotax revenues is real and
the Italian Ecotax collection company Ecomouv will have to be paid €1.8 million
per month in indemnity.
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| Pollution peak in Paris, March 2014 |
This Ecotax - a "polluter pays" contribution to
the maintenance of public roads - had received unanimous approval in
Parliament and is already successfully applied in seven European countries. It is baffling that the Minister of
ECOLOGY could cancel this tax, ignoring its public health aspects, and showing
a total disregard for the greater good of clean air and a better environment
for all. And all it took was the threat of the federation of French
truckers to block the highways on October 13th. It didn't even have to come to
that; four days before the deadline Royal sold out.
An appalling lack of courage and political will - altogether too common, alas.
An appalling lack of courage and political will - altogether too common, alas.
WEDDINGS FOR SALE
Let's get away from French politics for a bit of soft
news: the oft-announced marriage of Brad
Pitt and Angelina Jolie finally took place on August 28th when they tied the
knot, surrounded by their six children, at Chateau Miraval, their
wine-producing property in the south of France. The very traditional bride wore
white satin but with a personal touch: her long veil was embroidered with
drawings made by her children. It was a small wedding by Hollywood standards,
and photographers were banned from the event except for People and Vogue
magazines who had bought the rights to exclusive photographs, with the proceeds
of this deal (at last count some $2 million) to go to charity.
A month later, long-time-most-eligible-bachelor George
Clooney married Lebanese-born British human-rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in the
romantic setting of Venice. Oscar-winning actor and producer Clooney is also
known for his humanitarian work on the Darfur crisis in Sudan. Like the
Jolie-Pitts, George Clooney sold the rights to his wedding pictures to several
magazines - People, Hello, and Vanity Fair - for the benefit of different charities. The bulk is
to go to the Satelite Sentinel Project
(SSP), founded by Clooney and John Prendergast in 2010 as an early-warning system
to deter mass atrocities and focus world attention on rapid responses to human
rights violations.
Weddings and Charity = happiness spread around. Nice idea.
TRIERWEILER
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| Trierweiler and de Senville (left) in happier days |
NOBEL PRIZE
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| Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano |
The rather shy Mr. Modiano was modest and appealingly
inarticulate in his interviews where he never finished a sentence and described
his work as "writing the same book for 45 years". Clearly, his medium
is the written word, not the spoken one.
BUSHISMS
This appeals to my soft spot for malapropism and inarticulateness, and inevitably brings to mind George W. Bush Jr. who has elevated these to a high art.
This appeals to my soft spot for malapropism and inarticulateness, and inevitably brings to mind George W. Bush Jr. who has elevated these to a high art.
Who can forget these Bushisms:
Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.
I stand by all the misstatements I have made (to Sam
Donaldson, 8/17/93)
If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.
Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a
mother and child.
Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of
not having it.
They misunderestimated me.
For NASA, space is still a high priority.
It's time for the human race to enter the solar system.
... whereupon I wish our space cadet a happy trip and hope
he will send us more of his wisdom once he gets there.
