THE DAY AFTER: A NEW ERA BEGINS IN FRANCE

“To respect Madame Royal is to respect the millions who voted for her, and a president of France must love all the French people.” Nicolas Sarkozy, President-elect, French Republic, 6 May 2007

soulagement, nom masculin

Sens 1 Fait d'être soulagé, de soulager. Synonyme adoucissement Anglais relief Sens 2 Ce qui soulage.

ARBEIT MACHT FREI

In the final hours of the campaign, Ms Royal leveled an ugly warning: voting for Sarkozy is dangerous; electing Sarkozy will lead to riots, violence, and brutality. In the Marais, where I am staying, the walls were magically plastered overnight Friday with photos of the Auschwitz concentration camp gates, its famous slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" and, under it, simply, "Nicholas Sarkozy," raising the spectre of a brutal regime in the making.

Even Jacques Attali, the man who hired Ms Royal to work for President François Mitterrand, rushed to assure voters that Mr Sarkozy is a democrat and there is no fear of revolution.

One may be tempted to dismiss this as an act of desperation of a candidate who has been feeling the ground giving way under her feet ever since Wednesday's debate; or, simply, yet another venomous attack coming from the mouth of an ill-tempered, authoritarian, and genuinely nasty woman.

Yet, having studied this candidate since Day One, watching the videos on her site and listening to her speeches, I consider this latest attack not an aberration, not an act of desperation, but very much in character indeed. This is a candidate who will say and do whatever it takes to carry the vote. Her arranging to debate with the loser of the first round; her dropping the rumor she might even appoint him Prime Minister (a man heading a party that has always voted with the right!); her cinematics and hypocritical anger on the issue of the number of handicapped children in French schools during Wednesday's debate (an issue that boomeranged back at her); her capricious campaign -- all point to the obvious: Ms Royal has no principles. She is ruthless and will stop at nothing to move into the Elysée.

As if it were not dangerous enough to elect someone without principles to the highest office of the land, Ms Royal clearly lacks the gravitas of the office. She has collected, over this campaign, a bouquet of gaffes large enough to bog her down. And down she will crush at 8:01 this evening, hopefully to be forgotten faster than Edith Cresson, an (equally hapless) Socialist Prime Minister in the early 90s.

ELECTION PRESIDENTIELLE 2007

*ÉVASIF, -IVE, adj.
Qui élude les difficultés en restant dans l'imprécision.
*INCOMPÉTENT, -ENTE, adj.
Qui n'est pas qualifié pour traiter un sujet donné ou faire quelque chose.
*BOURDE, subst. fém.
Erreur grossière due à l'ignorance ou à l'étourderie.

voir aussi:
*PARTIAL, -ALE, adj.
Qui prend parti pour ou contre quelqu'un ou quelque chose, au mépris de l'équité et de l'objectivité; qui juge avec parti-pris.
*PARTIEL, -ELLE, adj. et subst.
Qui constitue une partie (d'un tout).
*LAPSUS, subst. masc.
Faute que l'on commet par inadvertance soit en parlant (lapsus linguae) soit en écrivant (lapsus calami).

ADIEU, SEGOLENE!

Law and Order Takes Center Stage in the French Presidential Election

Last Tuesday, a 32 year-old without a ticket jumped the turnstile in Paris’ Gard du Nord, where Eurostar and Thalys trains connect the French capital to the rest of Europe. After resisting arrest and injuring two transit officials, he was arrested by police patrolling the station.

Several young people began to gather and some began throwing plastic bottles at police, shouting insults and chanting “down with the state, police, and bosses.” Police reinforcements arrived to contain the group of over 300 youths who had by now begun breaking windows, looting, and setting fires. It took the police until midnight to clear the station using tear gas. The youths then proceeded to set trash cans and signs on fire in nearby streets.

I watched in shock Ségolène Royal react to the news by speaking platitudes about social cohesion – the man in question is an illegal immigrant from the Congo. Nicolas Sarcozy simply pronounced himself “on the side of those who pay their fare.”

Ségolène might consider running in Greece where, in the name of democracy, a group of fifty or a hundred people is routinely (as in several times a week) allowed to hijack the city center and inconvenience millions of people, so they can exercise their right to demonstrate over school curriculum, teachers’ pay, or whatever upsets them at the moment.

YEAR OF THE PIG

Θέα στον ακάλυπτο

«Δυστυχώς έχετε πέσει θύμα της δημοσιογραφίας που διαστρεβλώνει τα γεγονότα και παρουσιάζει αλλοτριωμένη την αλήθεια… Επειτα το ξενοδοχείο που έμεινα στο Παρίσι είναι 4 αστέρων. Πού έπρεπε δηλαδή να μείνω; Σε 2 αστέρων;» τόνιζε προς τον κ. Σακαλάκ στην πρώτη επιστολή του (2.2.06) ο αρχιεπίσκοπος. Ομως ο ηλικιωμένος πιστός δεν έμεινε ικανοποιημένος και επανήλθε με νέο γράμμα του. Δύο μήνες αργότερα ο κ. Χριστόδουλος με μια τετρασέλιδη επιστολή του προέβη «εις λεπτομερή, κατά το δυνατόν, περιγραφήν της όλης υποθέσεως». Εξηγώντας την επιλογή του συγκεκριμένου ξενοδοχείου σημειώνει: «Φιλική μου οικογένεια, ενδιαφερομένη για μια ολιγοήμερη ανάπαυσή μου, προσεφέρθη να με διευκολύνει και μου “έκλεισε” δωμάτιο στο παρισινό ξενοδοχείο Four Seasons γεγονός για το οποίο με ενημέρωσε. Δεν ήτο η πρώτη φορά που επρόκειτο να επισκεφθώ την πόλιν αυτήν. Και οσάκις μετέβαινα εφρόντιζα να μένω σε ευπρεπές ξενοδοχείον, κάνοντας οικονομίαν σε άλλα πράγματα και όχι σε αυτό. Περί του ξενοδοχείου δεν εγνώριζα ούτε πού εβρίσκεται ούτε τι κοστίζει. Δια τούτο και μη έχων κάρταν επήρα μαζί μου μερικά χρήματα, όσα υπελόγιζα ότι θα εξώδευον εκεί μετά του συνοδού μου διακόνου».

THE 2008 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

NEED I SAY MORE? A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS!

US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (Democrat-New York), left, and
US Senator Barack Obama (Democrat-Illinois), right

THE DREAM TEAM FOR THE 2008 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

What it means to live in a civilised city...

Police Dog Is Seriously Injured During Pursuit

January 12, 2007

By EMILY VASQUEZ

After the life, or at least the career, of one of New York’s finest was imperiled in the line of duty yesterday, police officials and reporters gathered inside a Manhattan hospital, awaiting news from doctors.

“The dog should be able to make a full recovery in a month,” Dr. Jason Fusco finally assured the crowd. But an operation expected to last about an hour had taken three, said Dr. Fusco, a veterinarian dressed in green scrubs. “The laceration went all the way to the bone,” he said.

The dog, a 3-year-old German shepherd named Ranger, has been a member of the city’s canine unit for more than two years. Yesterday, as he and his handler, Officer Neal Campbell, searched for a man accused of violating his parole, Ranger was injured, severing three major muscles and cutting a major vein.

With an arrest warrant, Officer Campbell and Ranger entered the suspect’s basement apartment in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn yesterday around 11:45 a.m. The apartment was littered with broken plates and shattered glass, the police said.

The police said Ranger ducked beneath a dingy bed, where the suspect was hiding. In the darkness a shard of broken mirror cut a gash in the dog’s left front leg.

The cut was deep, doctors later said, and his loss of blood sizable. Officers rushed Ranger to the Animal Medical Center on East 62nd Street in Manhattan, blood trailing behind them as they carried him inside.

“He was awake, despite the pain,” Dr. Fusco said. “He was incredibly nice, despite everything.”

Earlier in the day, when Ranger’s condition was still unknown, the police speculated over whether he might be forced to retire, probably to be adopted by Officer Campbell.

But Ranger, who earned praise for his unit in 2005 when he cornered a burglar at a Brooklyn public school, should be able to return to the job after physical therapy, Dr. Fusco said.

At the school in Brooklyn, The Daily News reported, Ranger was the first to find a man who the police say was trying to steal computers. Ranger leaped at the man, allowing the police to subdue him and make the arrest.

Yesterday, although Ranger could barely walk, an arrest was also made in the case in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the police said.

For now, a splint will hold Ranger’s paw in the flexed position so his sutures can heal. Later, he will probably have to do stretching exercises, run on an underwater treadmill and undergo electrical stimulation until his muscles recover, Dr. Fusco said.

Groggy from anesthesia, Ranger did not make an appearance at the news conference yesterday. He remained under observation last night, on pain medication and antibiotics, Dr. Fusco said, and was expected to go home today.