Saturday, November 17, 2007

Pres. Sarkozy raids Tchad and saves the lives of French prisoners

No, that did not happen. But sometimes I wonder how our president plans his communication.
In the recent affair of "L'Arche de Zoé", a group of French citizens tried to kidnap children from Tchad under the pretense that these orphans (many of which actually have parents) needed to be saved. They are now detained by the local authorities.

Sarkozy has always condemned the action of "L'Arche de Zoé", and claimed that justice should be administered by Tchad, a sovereign country.

A few weeks ago, he went to Tchad and brought back a few journalists, flight attendants and a pilot. This went well with Tchad's president, but not so well with the justice system. Back in France, N. Sarkozy recently announced "I will fetch all those who are left in Tchad", which obviously contradicts his earlier announcements. I guess he was trying to please the families of French citizen still under arrest in Tchad, but he managed to anger an entire country. Being a former French colony, Tchad is upset that the former occupier intends to take care of the case. Cannot Tchad be trusted to judge the case and apply the sentence?

This behavior is unfortunately typical of our president. He is obsessed with appearing decisive and frank, whereas I believe he should give more importance to achieving his goals, which often requires having a low profile.

What is depressing is that this slip of the tongue was not visibly reported by the international media. Instead, newspapers keep spreading the image of an energetic leader, when a more critical reporting should be suggesting another image, that of a pretentious fool whose mistakes can have long-lasting consequences.