France Today

Ivorian Bloc Said to Plan Murder of French Soldiers Civil war broke out in Ivory Coast in 2002 but in January of last year, France negotiated a cease-fire between Ivorian authorities and a rebel army, granting the rebels a place in a new power-sharing government. President Gbagbo accepted this but it infuriated the Ivorian public who are angry with France for making such a concession to the rebels and, in their view, imposing it on Ivorian authorities. A wave of anti-French sentiment has come over the country and tensions are high, especially since the murder of a French reporter in IC last October. French peace-keepers are now in a hostile country and having to repel insurgent attacks. Meanwhile, the rebels have recalled their representatives from the government. The rebels now claim that the government is planning for war. Furthermore, an Ivorian News Web site is now reporting that the "Rebel Bloc" are seeking to murder French soldiers, stationed there as part of a peace-keeping force. The site quotes a "trustworthy source" as saying "there will be a demonstration by the rebel bloc in Abidjan. During this demonstration, which will be more violent than that of last March 25, a French soldier will be killed. This will provide an official reason for the Licorne forces [French peace keeping troops] to intervene alongside the rebel marchers. The aim of the march itself is to create the conditions for a clash among the civilian populations. The rebels, large numbers of whom are already on the banks of Ebrié Laguna, are all armed with light weapons. And this time, it won't be firing on a few of their own members. It will rather involve attacking the civilian population." Cross your fingers everyone... *** French Sikhs to Wear Hair Nets But Not Name Tags Indian news Web site rediff.com reports that France's Sikhs plan to get round the new law on secularism (which forbids wearing religious symbols in school) by replacing their turbans with hair nets. Great. Education minister François Fillon is actually proud of this arrangement. He said, "we've come up with an arrangement. They accept wearing a hair net. It's less aggressive, less showy."

Injustice Update Despite a moribund French economy, the average salary of French CEOs rose by 14% in 2003, according a widely publicized report in on the financial news Web site Les Echos (subscription required). The average CEO salary was €2 million last year. These same salaries increased 36% in 2000, 20% in 2001, and 13% in 2002, not exactly good years for the French economy. Meanwhile, Le Journal du Net is reporting that the number of salaried employees in France dropped by 0.1% in just the first quarter of 2004. Fifty thousand such positions were terminated in 2003. In her memoirs, former investigating magistrate for financial crimes Eva Joly (mentioned here, here and here) wrote (p. 293) that "30 years ago, the highest salary in a company was on average twenty times greater than the median salary. To-day it is nearly 200 times greater." She goes on to list a number of CEOs of failing companies whose remuneration only grew and grew. This is part of a larger array of social injustices that she says arise from the abuse of power by the super-rich. "Why have we remained passive opposite this deep flaw in the democratic system?" she asks. *** Fewer Dead on French Highways — Pols Still Hypocrites Those who take the Paris metro will be familiar with the ubiquitous graffiti that reads "8,000 dead a year on the highways!" (Huit mille morts par an sur les routes!) This is normally written right across a woman's boobs in a lingerie ad. (Indeed, that is a high number: it translates to almost one death an hour in a country of sixty million). Well, according to this AP news round-up, France saw a "historic drop" in the number of people killed in high-way accidents in 2003. Transport minister Gilles de Robien presented the new statistics which hold that only 5,731 people were killed on France's high-ways in 2003, down from 7,242 in 2002, which equals a 20.9% drop. (There were also 20% fewer wounded and 20% fewer accidents.) See here some of the embarrassments suffered by the French government in its campaign against speeding. (De Robien was himself caught red-handed speeding down the highway with Nicholas Sarkozy last October. De Robien and Sarkozy had themselves unveiled radar speed detectors on that very same road).