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.

The Science of Sleep

Went to the movie last Friday and watched that movie. It's about a Franco-Mexican guy who gets back to Paris. He's a day-dreamer, an artist who falls in love with his neighbour. His boring day-job (where he seldom shows up in time, or at all) gives him nightmares. He's a bit lost in Paris. Surprisingly, he can't speak french (although it seems he lived in Paris as a kid).
People in the movie speak all kinds of languages, including french and Spanish, mostly English. That makes for an interesting mix.
The complete lack of distance between the main character and his neighbour is a bit strange, they get friendly way too easily. Yet it made me a bit homesick... The only neighbour I met in my building is a ridiculously beautiful woman (must be 30-something?) who lives upstairs. Haven't met her for two weeks, by the way. It feels cold here.

Unrests in banlieues

The violent protests that took place in autumn 2005, with some resurgence in 2006 constitute a major problem. When the economy depends on young male for its future expansion, a country cannot afford letting its youth fall into crime and unemployment. The problem cannot be left ignored, as if its scope was limited to poor suburbs.

Although high-visibility violence, such as car burnings has decreased, many banlieues are places over which the police has little to no control. The priority must be to regain control.

Sarkozy (and Royal too, to some unclear extent) seem to favour the "zero-tolerance" option. That sounds like empty words to me. It's not as if the police was currently being lenient and forgiving. The problem resides in the fact that identifying the perpetrators of crime is currently impossible. The police force is not given the means to fight crime. Investigation is a tool seldom used by officers. It has been replaced by recurring identity controls. That way of working is akin to shooting in the dark. I don't see how it can significantly curb crime.

As a virtual candidate to the elections, I would suggest the following:
1) Increase funding of the local police. Funds would go into better education of new police officers, computer upgrades, improvement of existing databases registering criminals, new offices, more cars. Compare the level of equipment that American policemen looking over traffic have at their disposal with the lack of equipment of the french local police. A shame.
2) Focus the spending towards improving detecting, following and ending crime. Don't try to make policemen look "tougher". Competing with young males on who looks tougher is not a contest any intelligent person would consider.
3) Improvements in investigation is going to put more pressure on the judicial and punitive systems. Additional spending on courts and prisons seems necessary.

Where to get all the additional money that is needed? The solutions are not few:
1) Increase taxes
2) Take it away from lower priority tasks: subventions to the agriculture, health care and welfare to the middle class, military spending.

It is unfortunate that most of the options in 2) are a no-go if you are a honest politician who needs votes. Maybe honesty is overrated. Don't mention taking away subventions to peasants and the middle-class, their votes are needed.

To vote and not to vote...

My position as a frenchman living in Sweden gives me the right to vote to local elections. That's interesting, there is a vote on the 17th next week. Swedes will vote for the parliament, the county and the town, but I get to vote "only" on the last two. That's more than I'm asking for, frankly. Ah, and since I live in the capital, there's also a referendum on whether we want to reinstate definitely the fee for driving cars into Stockholm's center. Now, I got all necessary papers to proceed to these votes, without having lifted the finger.

On the other hand, as a frenchman, I get to vote on the presidential elections next year. Except I don't have my voting card, and I have to register this year, even if elections take place next year. I did make an attempt to register, sent all papers to the consulate here, but I haven't heard a peep since then. I've been too lasy to do anything about it yet.

I would love to pretend I am well integrated into the swedish life, but the fact is I'm not. I have no clue who I'm going to vote for. Although I follow what happens on the national level, I ignore pretty much what happens at the local level. Too bad it's on the local level I get to decide.
I think I'll vote yes in favour of the "trängselskatt", the fee for driving on the streets of central Stockholm. I remember than in Marseille, where I lived earlier, you get to pay to use the tunnel to cross the town quickly. Getting stuck in the day-long traffic jam on the surface is free. It would seem to me that the reverse policy, which may be installed in Stockholm, makes a lot more sense.

I do follow however what happens in France, and sure want to do all the little I can to keep Sarkozy away from the throne. The sad thing is, the surest way to do this would be to vote for Segolene Royal, but her program is more or less identical to Sarkozy's.

During the previous presidential elections, I threw an idealist vote for the green party. Big mistake, that vote should have gone to Jospin and the socialists. Because of that (and of millions of other young nuts like me), the left's part got fragmented, which lead to the horrific 2nd place of Le Pen (and no possibility to vote for anyone on the left on the second round).

I'm considering if I should reiterate my mistake. Should I vote for Royal, who's tough stance against "la racaille" is too similar to Sarkozy's, whose policies are inspired my Le Pen's? Or should I go for the Greens, knowing there is no chance they will continue to the second round?

Not too bad, after all

It turns out Zidane was not so slow and uninspired after all... Congratulations to the French team, they proved experience does compensate for lack of energy. The fact that France managed to go to the final without playing any extra time must have helped. They even looked a lot fresher than the Italians, on the end.
Zidane left the field on a rather odd and ugly way. Well, I guess he's just a man after all. While I understand his reaction, it's a pity half the planet (in particular kids) got to see it.
I hope the Italian guy will get his share of blame and punishment.

WorldCup: France goes on

The victory over Togo 2-0 allows France to reach the 8th finals. The team dared to take risks, forward players kept attacking. There were many failed passes, which sometimes resulted in dangerous situations for France. Happily, Togo had its share of lost balls too, and was not too good at exploiting spaces in the french back line.
That game was played without Zidane, and I think that was the main reason France finally scored. Zidane is an artist who likes dribbling, but that is no longer an advantage. Unfortunately, I bet he'll be back for the game against Spain, so don't expect France to score much in that game. Since our defense is pretty tight, especially against teams we don't underestimate, I don't expect many goals from Spain either.
Football experts on SVT, the state-owned swedish TV channel, are rather good I must say. They really bring something in terms of explaining the game, and why teams are succeeding/failing. I don't remember experiencing that on any french TV channel, especially not on TF1 during the Roland-Larqué period.

Today Sweden plays against Germany for the first 8th-final. I hope Swedes will win, but I don't think so.