Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

1320 deaths attributed to Mediator drug in French medical scandal that threatens to hit Sarkozy's UMP

Laurel Zuckerman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:42:11 +0100

Nicolas Sarkozy awards Jacques Servier the Grand Croix ... lesinrocks.com

Last year, Jacques Servier, founder and CEO of Laboratoires Servier, the drug company that aggressively marketed the dangerous diabetes drug Mediator as a diet aid, dismissed rumors with a wave of his hand:

"Le Mediator, il ne s'agit que de trois morts."

"Mediator, it's only three deaths"

-Servier told his employees.

The intrepid researcher who broke the story placed the number at 500. Now, according to Le Monde, two researchers at Inserm are estimating the number of dead at 1320.

Jacques Servier, who was awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has long been thought to be a major UMP donor.

Numerous warnings about Servier's drug went ignored by Afssaps, the French version of the FDA (the same agency that did nothing to stop PIPs breast implants).

Long after similar molecules were banned in the USA, French Social Security continued to reimburse Mediator for use by non-diabetics.

From 1976 to 2009 it is estimated that more than five million people took the potentially dangerous pills.

Originally licensed for diabetics, French family doctors began to prescribe Mediator in the mid-1990s as an appetite-suppressant pushed by agressive marketing from Servier.

"Despite the ringing of alarm bells over the years about its links to heart disease, both in other countries and within the French medical profession," The Economist states, "the drug was not withdrawn in France until 2009. By that time, according to different estimates, between 500 and 2,000 people who had been taking the drug had died."

There is hope that this scandal, combined with the PIPs scandal, coming after the contaminated blood, the mad cow, the asbestos and the growth hormone scandals, might help to shed some cleansing light on the dark and highly lucrative corners of the French drug industry.

However in the absence of class action suits and political will, there is little evidence as yet that anything will change.

The true cost of top French prepas : higher education in France

Laurel Zuckerman — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:05:10 +0100

American universities cost an arm and a leg. French prepas are free. So it's a no brainer, isn't it?

Not according to Le Monde.

France's newspaper of record for teachers, the most conservative of all French publications when it comes to changing education, has gone public with a shocking article on how elite prepas treat top French students.

In "Prépas, Excellence au Prix Fort" Marie Desplechin, winner of the prestigious Prix Médicis for La Vie Sauve, denounces the brutal experience inflicted upon France's best and brightest. The true cost to our students of the elite French prépas is high, suggests the article, too high perhaps?

Sixty hours weeks, including 35 hours in the classroom, astonishingly bad grades, forced to abandon music, sport and other non-essential activities in order to survive the brutal selection process imposed by the concours, students--hard working, brilliant students--pay the price of their ambitions.

To readers of Peter Gumbel's On Achève Bien Les Ecoliers (whom Desplechin cites) or my own Sorbonne Confidential none of this will come as that much of a surprise. But for many French parents who still put their faith in the ideals of the meritocracy, the shock is great.

Over 4000 likes on Facebook already.

In a year that saw the Arab Spring, can change come to France's Education Nationale?

See also: interviews with prépa professors, also in Le Monde, "Nous sommes des bourreaux bienveillants" as well as Peter Gumbel's excellent On Achève Bien Les Ecoliers.

For reactions AGAINST Desplechin's article see: Eduspros.fr et universitaires blogspot,

Paris Literary Events February 2012 : books, readings, workshops, submissions

Laurel Zuckerman — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:38:35 +0100

This month, news from the Geneva Writers Conference, Upstairs at Duroc, The Young Authors Fiction Festival, Fred Leebron, Cynthia Haven, Tracie Morris, Judy Pou, Lance Tait, Fernanda Eberstadt, Monique Wells, Donald Morrison, Robert Camuto, Noella Marcellino, Denyse Beaulieu, Philip Caputo, Pamela Druckerman, John Morris, Fred Weissler, Elyse Michaels-Berger, Sallie Chaballier, JANE COPE, KIT FRYATT, PANSY MAURER-ALVAREZ, JOE ROSS, John Baxter and more...

SELECTED LITERARY EVENTS

Wed 01 February 2012 19h30 Fernanda Eberstadt presents her latest novel Rat, which touches on children parenting parents, modern terror, and the ragtag legacy of the 60’s. AT The American Library in Paris

Saturday, February 4th 2012 at 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Cost: 45€. The Iliad and The Odyssey. For more info: http://www.litsalon.co.uk/events/the-iliad-paris-salon-intensive-february-4-2012/

Feb.4 2012: A three hour intensive study of two great short stories: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Runaway by Alice Munro. Salon cost 30 euros (includes critical materials); potluck brunch break. For more details, http://www.litsalon.co.uk/events/the-yellow-wallpaper-munros-runaway-short-salon-intensive-brunch-paris-feb-4-2012/

February 3-5 The Geneva Writers Conference with Patricia Duncker, Sheila Kohler, Bret Lott, Nick Barlay, Dinty W. Moore, Susan Tiberghien, Rob Drummer, Naomi Shihab Nye, Wallis Wilde-Menozzi’, Hannah Westland, Miriam Goderich, David Appleﬁeld, Colin Harrison Catherine Nelson-Pollard, John Zimmer, Dinah Lee Küng. This outstanding event, held every two years, has become a magnet for up-and-coming Paris writers.

Sunday, 5th February 2012 at 7.30 pm MOVING PARTS presents a reading of a play by Lance Tait "Gambling Fever" AT Carr's Pub & Restaurant, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris Metro : Tuileries

MONDAY 6TH FEBRUARY 7:00PM John Baxter will read from The Most Beautiful Walk in The World AT Shakespeare & Co

6 February 20h SPOKEN WORD Paris (check site for details): Come read YOUR work in ENGLISH, FRENCH, ITALIAN or any other language; play a short musical piece or read a poem by an author you admire... 20h sign up/hang out 20h30 first round starts 15 min break 21h45 second round starts 15 min break 23h00 third round starts stop at midnight-- bar stays open till after one). AT: the basement of Le Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Métro Parmentier/Couronnes/Oberkampf

Lundi 6 Février Lecture with the author, Loïc Wacquant, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and researcher at the Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Science Politique in Paris. His works on urban marginality, ethno-racial domination, the criminal State, the policy of reason and sociological theory have been translated into more than twenty languages. AT NYU in France 56 rue de Passy Paris, 75016 Entrée libre, dans la limite des places disponibles

Tue 07 February 2012 19h30 Following the Flavors of the African Diaspora with Monique Wells AT The American Library in Paris

Tuesday, 7 February 2012 18h30 Cynthia Haven will speak about her experiences in print and online media, and on making the transition from being a "critic/reviewer" to actually creating books that foster international culture. AT The American University of Paris, Room 29 in the Grenelle Building.147, rue de Grenelle 75007 Paris For more info see website

Wed 08 February 2012 19h30 Donald Morrison, author of Comment Obama a perdu l’Amérique, assesses Barack Obama’s presidency and the stakes in the 2012 U.S. presidential election. AT The American Library in Paris

February 8, 3:15 p.m. Fred Leebron Open Creative Writing Class Event. Creative writing discussion with novelist Fred Leebron. American University of Paris, 6, rue du Colonel Combes, Room C-34.

(see more under workshops)

WEDNESDAY 8TH FEBRUARY 5:00PM WORKSHOP: Fred Leebron will give an interactive workshop on 'Embracing the Difficult: Writing Beyond What's Comfortable', for fiction writers, poets, and nonfiction writers. AT Shakespeare & Co (see more under workshops)

Thursday February 9, 2012, 7 PM UPSTAIRS AT DUROC the Paris literary journal invites you to a LAUNCH READING for its ISSUE # 13. Come pick up your copy and listen to new work by JANE COPE, KIT FRYATT, PANSY MAURER-ALVAREZ, JOE ROSS AT Berkeley Books of Paris, 8 rue Casimir Delavigne, 75006 Paris, Métro Odéon

Thu 09 February 2012 19h30 AAWE @ The Library: Understanding French Higher Education with the AAWE authors of Beyond the Bac – Higher Education in France and Abroad. Speakers : Fred Weissler, professor of mathematics at Université Paris 13; Elyse Michaels- Berger, former Academic Director of the HEC MBA Program; and Sallie Chaballier, co-chair of the FAWCO education task force and AAWE coordinator of Paris College Day. AT The American Library in Paris

11 February 10-16h30 Ireland and Cultural Memory: Dr Oona Frawley (School of English, National University of Ireland Maynooth) will discuss 20th century literature and nostalgia. AT: Centre Culturel Irlandais, 5 rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris. RER: Luxembourg

12^th February at 7.30 pm MOVING PARTS presents a reading of a play by John Binkley "A Modern Fairy Tale" AT Carr's Pub & Restaurant, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris Metro : Tuileries

12 February 19h30 Double Change vous invite à une lecture bilingue de Tracie Morris et Jody Pou. AT: la galerie éof 15, rue Saint-Fiacre, 75002 M° Grands Boulevards ou Bonne Nouvelle

13 February 20h onwards SPOKEN WORD Paris AT: the basement of Le Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Métro Parmentier/Couronnes/Oberkampf

Wed 15 February 2012 19h30 Passion Panel about Wine, Cheese, and Perfume with Robert Camuto, author of Corkscrewed and Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey, Noella Marcellino, Benedictine nun,a Fulbright Scholar and the subject of a PBS documentary called The Cheese Nun. and Denyse Beaulieu, editor for Citizen K and author of The Perfume Lover to be released in March. AT The American Library in Paris

Thu 16 February 2012 19h30 Philip Caputo will present Crossers, a blistering new novel about the brutality and beauty of life on the Arizona-Mexico border and about the unyielding power of the past to shape our lives. AT The American Library in Paris

19^th February at 7.30 pm MOVING PARTS presents a reading of a play by Roderick Ford "The Numberless House AT Carr's Pub & Restaurant, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris Metro : Tuileries

20 February 20h onwards SPOKEN WORD Paris ( AT: the basement of Le Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Métro Parmentier/Couronnes/Oberkampf

Wed 22 February 2012 19h30 Journalist Pamela Druckerman explores the secret behind France's astonishingly well-behaved children in Bringing Up Bébé. RESCHEDULED CHECK WITH LIBRARY TO CONFIRM TIMES AT The American Library in Paris

23 February 19h00 Old Library Visit: admission free, reservation recommended. The Old Library of the Irish College is one of the few surviving libraries of the many colleges, convents and monasteries which were situated in the Montagne-Sainte-Geneviève area of Paris until the end of the 18th century. This visit provides a further opportunity to see the treasures of the Old Library - its three illuminated manuscripts dating from c.1500. AT: Centre Culturel Irlandais, 5 rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris. RER: Luxembourg

27 February 20h onwards SPOKEN WORD Paris AT: the basement of Le Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Métro Parmentier/Couronnes/Oberkampf

Wed 29 February 2012 19h30 John Morris, who has been called "the world's most influential photography editor," will talk about his legendary career. AT The American Library in Paris

SUBMISSIONS -- attention parents!!

2012 Young Authors Fiction Festival - The Fiction Festival is open to all students ages 5 to 18 in the greater Paris area who write in English. It offers a wonderful opportunity for educators to encourage creative writing among their students. Deadline for submissions is midnight 1 April 2012. For more information see site.

WORKSHOPS

SALON: Saturday, February 4th 2012 at 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Cost: 45€. The Iliad and The Odyssey. For more info: http://www.litsalon.co.uk/events/the-iliad-paris-salon-intensive-february-4-2012/

SALON: The Yellow Wallpaper & Munro’s ‘Runaway: Short Salon Intensive brunch Paris Feb.4 2012: 30 euros (includes critical materials); potluck brunch break. See http://www.litsalon.co.uk/events/the-yellow-wallpaper-munros-runaway-short-salon-intensive-brunch-paris-feb-4-2012/

SALON: Jane Eyre/Wide Sargasso Sea Salon Intensive Paris: Sunday, February 5th 2012 at 3:00 -8:00 PM. Cost: 45€ These two works, taken together in this Salon intensive, will offer interesting commentaries on the positioning of the female as a space for madness and rebellion. http://www.litsalon.co.uk/events/jane-eyrewide-sargasso-sea-salon-intensive-paris-feb-5-2012/

February 8, 3:30 p.m. Open Creative Writing Class Event: Creative writing discussion with novelist Fred Leebron. Fred Leebron directs the MFA in Creative Writing program at Queens. He also is a professor of English at Gettysburg College, and a former director of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. His novels include "Six Figures," "In the Middle of All This" and "Out West." He has received a Pushcart Prize, a Michener Award, a Stegner Fellowship, and an O. Henry Award. He is co-editor of "Postmodern American Fiction: A Norton Anthology" and co-author of "Creating Fiction: A Writer’s Companion." AT: American University of Paris, 6, rue du Colonel Combes, Room C-34.

WORKSHOP 8 February 5:00pm: Fred Leebron will give an interactive workshop on 'Embracing the Difficult: Writing Beyond What's Comfortable', to help take your writing to the next level, for fiction writers, poets, and nonfiction writers. This workshop will help you transcend your writing voice and establish new territories in your creative process. Fred Leebron, director of the Queens University MFA Program in Creative Writing, is working on an initiative to launch a European MFA Program beginning June 2012, and featuring Jayne Anne Phillips, Dinaw Mengestu, Aleksandar Hemon, Jeffrey Greene, Gwyneth Lewis, David St. John, Robert Antoni, and David Bezmozgis on its faculty. Free and open to all but limited space. Please email Fred directly for further details at fleebron@gettysburg.edu. AT: Shakespeare & Co., 37rue de la Bûcherie, Paris 5ème. M° St Michel

Simply Sound : A series of theatre workshops for individuals with an intermediate level of English. This workshop is specifically geared to improve pronunciation and syntax. The workshop will incorporate acting techniques, exercises, games, short texts, and improvisation. Une serie des ateliers ouvert aux personnes ayant un niveau intermédiaire d'anglais. L'atelier propose des exercices d'acteur, jeux, court textes et improvisation comme moyens d'apprivoiser la prononciation, sons et le syntaxe. Pre-registration is required. Please call 01 77 15 71 90 / 06 37 66 27 98 or writewordsaliveo@gmail.com Dates: 28th January, 4th February, 31st March. Time: Saturdays 17h-19h. Venue: 35, rue St. Roch 75001 Paris. M° Pyramides, Tuileries, Opera. Fee for one session 18€ Students 15€ For students already enrolled in other classes, sessions are 11€

Theatre Workshops for English Teachers. A Cycle of Four Sessions.These workshops are specifically geared for English Teachers who wish to acquire theatre techniques as pedagogical tools. The workshop will cover acting techniques, exercises, voice and movement. The workshops can be attended separately but it is recommended to attend the entire cycle as there will be a progression leading to more individual work. Pre-registration is required. Please call 01 77 15 71 90 / 06 37 66 27 98 or writewordsaliveo@gmail.com Time Saturdays 16h-19h. Dates: Saturdays, 21st January, 11th February, 10th March, 24th March Venue: 35, rue St. Roch 75001 Paris. Metro Pyramides, Tuileries, Opera. Fee: Individual session 60€. Cycle of four sessions 180€ For participants in other classes: one session is 45€. Cycle of four sessions 145€

High Concept Ambitions: Master Class with agent Mary Kole.Saturday, March 10 from 10:00-1:00pm in Paris. Cost: 70 Euros Register: Please contact ARA Dana Carey at dcarey_ap@yahoo.fr:

WRITING WORKSHOPS: Sat March 24 (2pm – 5pm) & Sun March 25 (11am – 5pm) Writer Lisa Pasold offers DON’T JUST SIT THERE: a literary workshop on finding and unleashing your creative inspiration. Fee: 80 euros for weekend (limited space--last year's workshop sold out, so pre-registration essential) For a full outline of the workshop & to register, visit lisapasold.com

Paris Writers News February 2012 : spotlight on the American Library in Paris

Laurel Zuckerman — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:34:49 +0100

This month, we begin with literary events at the American Library of Paris which is featuring authors Fernanda Eberstadt, Monique Wells, Donald Morrison, Robert Camuto, Noella Marcellino, Denyse Beaulieu, Philip Caputo, Pamela Druckerman, John Morris, Fred Weissler, Elyse Michaels-Berger, Sallie Chaballier and the 2012 Young Authors Fiction Festival (deadline for submission April 1) . New books and events at other venues will be added throughout the month....The fabulous Geneva Writers' Conference takes place this weekend with, as usual, a strong Paris contingent. More about this later...

February Focus on The American Library in Paris

Wed 01 February 2012 19h30 Fernanda Eberstadt presents her latest novel Rat, which touches on children parenting parents, modern terror, and the ragtag legacy of the 60’s.

Tue 07 February 2012 19h30 Following the Flavors of the African Diaspora with Monique Wells

Wed 08 February 2012 19h30 Donald Morrison, author of Comment Obama a perdu l’Amérique, assesses Barack Obama’s presidency and the stakes in the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

Wed 22 February 2012 19h30 Journalist Pamela Druckerman explores the secret behind France's astonishingly well-behaved children in Bringing Up Bébé. RESCHEDULED CHECK WITH LIBRARY TO CONFIRM TIMES

Wed 29 February 2012 19h30 John Morris, who has been called "the world's most influential photography editor," will talk about his legendary career.

SUBMISSIONS -- attention parents!!

Paris Writers News: literary events, readings, workshops in January 2012

Laurel Zuckerman — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:04:32 +0100

Paris Writers News is back online in 2012 and eager to report new publications and events in the English-language writing community in Paris! This month, news from the Geneva Writers Conference, Kartik Singh, Florence Valero, Kristin Espinasse, Samantha Dunn, Jennifer L. Scott, Vahram Muratyam, Charles Wood, Thomas Huber, Jean Claude Gautrand, John Baxter, Sarah Meade, Jeffrey Greene, Barry Kirwan, Sheila Kohler, Best Paris Stories, Charles Glass, Margo Berdeshevsky, Jim Bitterman, Jean Lesieur, the American Library in Paris, Shakespeare and Co, Village Voice, WH Smith, NYU Paris, WICE, Lionel Shriver, Eugève Nicole, The American Club, Beth Epstein, Cherie Burns, Dimitri Bechacq and more,

If you have a new book or event in Paris you'd like to announce, let me know.

NEWS:

George Whitman of Shakespeare and Company, photo Simon Nofolk

Tributes poured in from all over the world for George Whitman, founder of the iconic Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company and extraordinary contributor to literary life far beyond the Left Bank. Sor an idea of the man and his world see articles in The Economist, NYT, Guardian, Le Figaro, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and many, many more.

All of us in Paris are very fortunate that George's remarkable daughter Sylvia continues Shakespeare and Company's outstanding tradition of dynamic and generous contribution to the literary arts.

***

Geneva Writers Conference February 3-5, 2012 Program now posted with registration form

***

BEST PARIS STORIES to celebrate the launch of the anthology May 29, 2012 at The American Library in Paris

EVENTS

Thu 5 January : Charles Glass will speak about his book Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under the Nazi Occupation 1940-1944 at American Club of Paris (entry fee : 50 euros for non-members) read Paris Writers News interview

January 7-8 USED BOOK SALE at the American Library in Paris. See their site for how to contribute and/or make purchases. (By the way, if anyone has a car, I have a lot of books I’d like to donate…)

Sunday, January 8th, play reading VISITES by Florence Valero (in French) at Carr's Restaurant and Pub with Moving Parts, 7:30 pm 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris

January 10 Jim Bitterman and Jean Lesieur on the impact of the upcoming elections in France and the USA at the American Library in Paris

January 10 : LIONEL SHRIVER, SO MUCH FOR THAT SHAKESPEARE And Company 6 pm Orange Prize–winner We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Post-Birthday World, A Perfectly Good Family, Game Control, Double Fault, The Female of the Species, Checker and the Derailleurs, and Ordinary Decent Criminals

Wed 11 January, 2012 – PARIS - NYU Paris - « They write in english, they write in french. They write from the borders » Lecture with the author, Eugène Nicole at Bibliothèque François Mitterand 6:30 pm

Wed 11 January, 2012 Lionel Shriver best known for her novel, We Need to Talk about Kevin, at the American Library of Paris 7:30 pm

Thursday, January 12th at 7pm Village Voice Alba Arikha discusses Major/Minor A Memoir

Wed 18 January, 2012 – Beth Epstein presents her book Collective Terms: Race, Culture, and Community in a State-Planned City in France. at The American Library in Paris: 7:30 pm

January 19 Cherie Burns on her book Searching for Beauty--The Life of Millicent Rogers, the first comprehensive biography of the Standard Oil heiress and fashion icon. at the American Library Iin Paris 7:30 pm

January 22, Play reading of "Public School" by Kartik Singh at Carr's Restaurant and Pub with Moving Parts, 7:30 pm 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris

January 24 Arthur Phillips presents The Tragedy of Arthur. At the American Library of Paris 7:30 pm

January 25 Sophie Hardach presents her debut novel The Registrar’s Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages, a novel about identity, immigration, love and marriage. At the American Library of Paris 7:30 pm

January 26, 7-8 pm WH Smith, Sheila Kohler presents and signs Becoming Jane Eyre interview

Thu 26 January, 2012 – PARIS - NYU Paris - «The Francophone Americas: Perspectives on Haiti» Lecture on Voodoo with Dimitri Bechacq 7:00 pm, New York University in Paris 7.30 pm

Friday, 27 January 5:30 - 6:30 pm David Lodge will sign his new book A Man of Parts, followed by reading and Q&A 7-8 pm AT WH SMith Paris

Tue 31 January, 2012 – WICE @ The Library - Writers on Writing with Jeffrey Greene 7:30 pm, American Library in Paris

NEW BOOKS --

Blossoming in Provence by Kristin Espinasse, author of the delightful French Word a Day blog

Failing Paris by Samantha Dunn, a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Fiction Award

Lessons for Madame Chic: the Top 20 Things I learned While Living in Paris by Jennifer L. Scott

Between Soul & Stone by Margo Berdeshevsky

Paris : Portrait of a City by Jean-Claude Gautrand

Paris Versus New York: a Tally of Two Cities by Vahram Muratyam

Chronicles of Old Paris: Exploring the Historic City of Light by John Baxter

A Chateau in Provence by Charles Wood

An American Provence by Thomas P. Huber

Gourmet Paris on a Shoestring by Kristin Dorman, Nina Louchard

Waking up in France by Sarah Meade

Obama taps young French talent to compose official 2012 campaign song What's More

Laurel Zuckerman — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:25:25 +0100

Who's got talent? French guys!!

According to Le Figaro, United States President Barak Obama has chosen two French composers from Bordeaux (yes, France!) to write his campaign theme song. The ditty, entitled What's More, was written by Tony Jazz and Mathieu Billon, who, in addition to being young, very young, are immensely talented and energetic.

Raised in the infamous 9-3, Jazz at 26 had already racked up credits at Universal and Sony and founded his own communications company specializing in musical design. Billon, also ridiculously young, is a case study in finding one's talents. After a DUT he entered a work-study (alternance) program at INSEEC Bordeaux with the hope of founding a restaurant. An internship in marketing at Kaizen Marketing Group opened up a whole new world for him, an "American vision of entrepreneurship" with bosses barely older than himself.

One thing led to another and the two young French entrepreneurs met. In January last year Jazz and Billon created "On Air Agency".

How did these two Frenchmen with no connections seduce the president of the United States?

"Talent," says le Figaro, "Simplement du talent".

A clip (see above) that Jazz made in honor of Obama's 2008 election caught the eye of Obama's campaign, which led to a meeting with Charles Rifkin, the US ambassador to France.

And the rest was history.

A stunning acknowledgement of young French talent!

Veolia poised to extend shuttle monopoly lobbied for by mayor's lover after council disqualifies rivals

Laurel Zuckerman — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:22:54 +0100

Veolia Transportation and Phoenix City Council get along well

France rarely makes headlines in Phoenix, Arizona. So I was delighted to see a well-known French company Veolia on the first page of the Arizona Republic business section.

Then, I read the article.

The Phoenix City Council again has rejected a startup business' bid to provide shuttle-van service for passengers at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The decision could enable Veolia Transportation's SuperShuttle to continue a 23 year monopoly over shuttle service at Sky Harbor Airport.

Bo-ring, right?

Well, it would be except for the sex.

Veolia Transportation's dealings with the city are under investigation by the Federal Transit Administration because Veolia's lobbyist, Elissa Mullany happened to be in a "romantic relationship" with then-Mayor Phil Gordon during the hot summer when the council awarded to Veolia a five-year, $385 million contract for managing most of the city's bus routes.

The muckraking Phoenix New Times summoned Phil Gordon and Elissa Mullany to explain their complicated intermingling of interests in 2009 when its reporter Sarah Fenske discovered Gordon's multiple payments to his girlfriend Mullany as well as trips and favors.

Mullany worked for Gordon's campaign and maintained a romantic relationship with the mayor while working as a paid lobbyist for numerous businesses dealing with the city Gordon ran.

The Federal Transit Authority is investigating how Veolia Transportation Services was awarded a $385 million, five-year contract to run 33 out of 99 Phoenix bus routes.

Says the New Times:

Mayor Phil Gordon first professed support for Veolia Transportation to win the city's huge bus contract at a June 2009 City Council meeting. The mayor's endorsement came even before competing business proposals were on the table and during a time when his relationship with Elissa Mullany was the stuff of City Hall rumors.

Causing concern, after the mayor said he wanted the contract to go to Veolia, was that the company had hired Mullany, his then-alleged love interest, as a consultant in 2007 and still was cutting her checks as it competed for the city's business.

Veolia was just one of many businesses that Mullany lobbied for as the mayor's (well paid) girlfriend.

Phil Gordon's term as Phoenix Mayor ended this month, leaving a legacy which includes a light rail system, new university campuses and serious questions about mixing personal with business affairs. (See the Tucson Citizen.)

Veolia Transportation is a division of Veolia Transport Worldwide, a subsidiary of Veolia Environnement, the world leader in environmental services which was originally founded as the French water company, Compagne GEnErale des Eaux. CGE changed its name to Vivendi in 1998. Veolia Environnement was spun off as a separate company in 2000.

Fortunately, no one in Arizona knows it's French...

Ecologist Presidential Candidate Wants to Add Holidays for L'Aid El Kebir and Yom Kippour

Laurel Zuckerman — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:11:45 +0100

Secular = holidays for everyone, says Eva Joly

As a long time ecologist, I'm confused.

The Greens nominated an intrepid former judge who despite her many astonishing virtues has no track record whatsoever in ecology. Her main selling point: she's honest. And that's not nothing.

But when Le Point columnist Patrick Besson poked a little fun at her accent "(Zalut la Vranze ! Auchourt'hui est un krand chour : fous m'afez élue brézidente te la République vranzaise.") our lady of integrity went ballistic.

Now, many of us non-native speakers are sensitive about our accents (especially when our own children mock us) but the truth is we do sound a little funny, and that's part of expat living and even imigration. But an enraged Eva Joly called the joking a “a racist attack, a form of ostracism” “symptomatic of the French state” and devoted an entire page in Le Point to denouncing Besson.

Patrick Besson, columnist for Le Point. Not Eric Besson, ministre de l'Industrie, de l'Energie et de l'Economie numérique, and as such, arch defender of nuclear power.

Such an opportunity lost!

And now, in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression with Greece and Italy under massive threat, interbank money markets seizing up, the euro on the brink of falling into the abyss and shattering and France clinging with two fingers to its AAA rating, the Green candidate Eva Joly proposes, wait for it, TWO additional holidays. One for Muslims, and one, to be fair, for Jews.

Oh, Eva, Eva, Eva, it's nice to not work. And it's lovely to want to be generous. But WHAT ?

In other countries ecologists often actually focus on ecology. Not, however, in France.

Abuse of pesticides, reliance on nuclear energy, agricultural subsidies for intensive agriculture, polluted rivers and lakes, energy conservation, GM crops--these questions always seem to take second place to the weirdness of the day.

It's inexplicable. Ecologists in France count a number of heavy hitters: former ministers Corrine Lepage, Dominique Voynet, the up and coming Cecile Duflot, as well as talented but mercurial figures such as Daniel Cohen Bendit and Nicola Hulot.

And we find ourselves talking about foreign accents and holidays for everyone.

There is a real and important discussion to be had about ecology in France. But this, sadly, is not it.

Former head of scandal-ridden French drug agency named to top Education post

Laurel Zuckerman — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:17:00 +0100

The French drug agency (Afssaps) failed to protect women from Mediator and defective PIP breast implants. But no one is responsible...

In the French meritocracy, competence is supposed to be rewarded.

So when the Mediator scandal broke last year (500 deaths estimated, years of warnings ignored, whistle-blowers hounded, massive cover up...) it was not surprising that the Afssaps, the astonishingly ineffective French version of the FDA*, decided to change Directors.

Less obvious is how they went about it.

The General Director, Jean Marimbert, who had run the agency since 2004, was not arrested, put in jail, questioned or even reprimanded, even though it was on his watch that a French company, Servier, had managed to peddle Mediator, a dangerous and potentially lethal drug originally meant for diabetics, to women whose only crime was to want to lose a little weight. And on his watch (and despite warnings) that the French company PIP managed to inundate the world market* with cheap French silicon implants.

No, no hint of disciplinary action.

Monsieur Marimbert (HEC, Sciences Po, ENA) was simply placed in a new position: Secrétaire général de l'Education Nationale.

So what? you might say. After all, no one leaving Afssaps had trouble finding work.

Well, I've been following French Education for several years now, and have always hoped that reform was possible. (I couldn't have written Sorbonne Confidential if I hadn't believed in the possibility of change.) But this is just too much.

France's Education Nationale needs the best, most committed and competent people.

And here our Mammouth is being used--abused--as a refuge not just for failed administrators, but ones whose professional disasters have led to entirely avoidable deaths by innocents.

It is too much.

Messieurs Xavier Betrand, Luc Chatel, Nicola Sarkozy: why did you do this?

(And teachers, don't you care that your leaders use France's proud education bureaucracy as a dumping grounds for failed functionaries?)

American readers might remember "Brownie", the joker President Bush appointed to run FEMA before Katrina, and whose incompetence left the disaster agency entirely unprepared to do its job when the crisis hit. It was a telling moment. The American president cared so little about the people he served that he named incompetents to key positions.

I had hoped France was better than that.

But, according to Le Point, it's not.

This week's Le Point features excerpts from a new book entitled "L'Oligarchie des Incapables" by Sophie Coignard and Roman Guber. The article "Les Secrets Inavouables de la Caste" may be the single most depressing item about France that I have ever read.

Many of us love and appreciate France in all its glorious contradictions. But the rot is deep. Much deeper, unfortunately, than many of us can imagine. All who serve France are not corrupt, of course. But the system is clearly in need of profound, far-reaching reform. For it is not just corrupt but corrupting.

Elections approach.

As good a time as any to start.

*The FDA outlawed both Mediator and PIP type silicon implants years ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/health/scandal-widens-over-french-weight-loss-drug-mediator.html?pagewanted=all

http://sante.lefigaro.fr/actualite/2011/09/21/16060-mediator-ex-cadres-lafssaps-rebondissent

http://www.afssaps.fr/var/afssaps_site/storage/original/application/378999314804f90c94f51787bf91ad9b.pdf

http://sante.lefigaro.fr/actualite/2012/01/05/16754-dangerosite-protheses-pip-lafssaps-alertee-2008

http://www.actu-environnement.com/ae/news/defaillance-systeme-vigilance-11767.php4

http://www.lepoint.fr/economie/les-secrets-inavouables-de-la-caste-06-01-2012-1415989_28.php

French diet guru suggests awarding thin students extra points on school leaving exam

Laurel Zuckerman — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:29:51 +0100

Would Dukan give this girl extra points on the French bac?

Millionnaire French best-selling diet book guru Pierre Dukan has a new best idea!

Give thin kids extra points on the French bac--like for Latin or special sports skills!

Dukan, famous for his anti-carb weight loss diet (Régime Dukan) will apparently stop at nothing to sell his books. Who was it that said there's no such thing as bad publicity? Well, the man responsible for François Hollande's new slim look has embraced that maxim with passion.

His idea? An option "poid équilibre (which I guess means "the right weight") on the French school leaving exam. Extra points would be awarded to students who gain no weight in their last two years of lycée.

Think of it! The official weigh-in for our daughters at the sturdy age of 16; then again at 18, presumably in the middle of the bac, which as all French parents know is a time of no stress whatsoever.

You gotta admire the greedy scribbler's chutzpah! What better way then to get free media than to float a lethal idea as a public health service! (book he's floggin: Lettre ouverte au futur président de la République )

Read more on L'Express Education blog Mammouth Mon Amour.

A note to authors: no matter what book marketing gurus tell you, there is a limit.