sickness and health

those who know me, are friends with me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, etc, know that earlier this year I was involved in an accident (no one else involved, I fell over while stepping over a low fence in the street in a town in England) in which I not only broke my left leg rather badly and now set off alarms at airports because the leg has a lot of metal in it, but subsequently experienced scar-tissue adhesions in the left knee which required further surgery to enable me to bend the knee, and meant that I had to learn to walk again. I haven't blogged about it, because while my recovery was interesting to me most of the time, I thought and think that it was and is deeply boring to everyone else. But then I discovered this column by Rebecca Armstrong, who is features editor of the Independent newspaper, and whose husband was hit by a car earlier this year and seriously injured. She doesn't describe his injuries in detail, or not in the columns I've read, but it appears that he is not mobile, or not yet, and that he has had some kind of brain injury. She says that since his injury she has had to deal with his personal paperwork and administration, as well as with the various kinds of health bureaucracy that are inevitable in this situation. She had never done this before, and it is making her miserable. That's what got me thinking.

I have been wondering why, now that I can walk again, though slowly and with a limp (thank you to the Clemenceau rehabilitation hospital in Strasbourg, France, where I live) I have been feeling so much sadder about the situation than I was six months ago. At the hospital I saw people trying to learn to walk on two prosthetic legs; my room-mate couldn't stand up at all; there were people doing wheelchair sport in the hospital gym (yes, this is France, where high-end health care is available to everyone) who would always have to use those wheelchairs; and my only problem was having a gammy leg that ached a bit sometimes. So, I felt quite good about it all really. Once I could get rid of the wheelchair, in May, throw away the crutches, in July (a wonderful moment, that) and use an exercise bike, in August (next goal a real outdoors bike) I felt able-bodied again. So why am I sad now?

Being immobilised as I was and as Rebecca's husband is messes up your life in more than one way. I have salaried employment that comes with health insurance, so the six months it took for me to be ready to go back to work didn't mess me up financially. I was lucky, you could say, and I have said so many times. But Rebecca is dealing with her husband's paperwork (and apparently he was not very organised) and feeling very lonely as she does so. If the boiler leaks or the pipes burst she has to deal with that too. My husband looked after me as best he could, but he is not a nurse. All the non-physical aspects of my life were put on hold while I was bed-bound. If I hadn't been able to do online shopping from my bed I'm not sure how I'd have managed. And the downside of France's magnificent health care system is the vast amount of bureaucracy it brings with it, as do other aspects of life in this country. And it's bureaucracy in a language which is not my first, which adds to the challenge. So I am still tying up loose ends of bill payments, insurance paperwork and so on that no one else could do for me and that I couldn't cope with myself for quite a long time. And it's depressing. French bureaucrats are an unforgiving breed. So that, I believe, is why I am sad.

Never underestimate the psychological after-effects of an accident. The fact that it was an accident, that it could not have been foreseen or planned for, messes with your head. And it always comes back to your brain, and your emotions, and your spirit, no matter which part of you has been physically damaged. A nurse in the UK hospital said to me that men deal with injuries much better than women do. They are more demanding, asking for painkillers and for things to be done for them much more than women do, but they don't agonise about the injury itself; they think of it as they would a car that needed repair. Women, on the other hand, agonise forever about how it happened, could it have been prevented, is it their fault (I did and do all these things) have they got arthritis now (in my case, yes, probably), have they passed on hip problems or brittle bones to their children, and so on. A physiotherapist in the French hospital said to me "Vous marchez avec la tete" ("You walk with your head") and she was right. To learn to walk again I had to believe I could. But no one else can do the paperwork for me. So, forgive me.

When I was using crutches people gave up their seats for me on the bus or tram. Now I'm not, they don't - and standing for any length of time is still difficult, especially on a moving vehicle. So, travelling is harder work than it once was. So, everything takes longer. I can't quicken my pace to catch an approaching bus or tram. I just have to miss it and wait for the next one. I can't yet ride my bike. I can't go to a concert or show unless I have a booked seat. I don't drink a lot of water any more, because if I need to dash to the loo - well, I can't. These are small negatives, but they add up over time.

This year I missed the spring altogether (the accident happened in early February and I was immobile for seven weeks afterwards). I was in hospital for almost the whole of June and July. The late summer I could go outside for wasn't enough. And now the days are shorter and darker, I still have paperwork to do. And it's making me sad.

If someone close to you goes through something like this, remember that it's when they are well recovered, some months later, that they will need support, when the professionals are gone but nothing will ever be the same again. I'm only sorry it took this to teach me that people do have needs which aren't visible - that even once you can walk again the path is stony, and you are afraid of falling.

Ingrid Betancourt, 'Meme le Silence a Une Fin' (Even Silence Has an End)

Do you remember the story of this woman, a Colombian senator, captured by guerrillas in the Colombian jungle and held for over six years? This is it, as told by her. Read my Goodreads review.

A little background perhaps: Ingrid Betancourt was born in Colombia and grew up in France. In adult life she returned to Colombia and became politically active. She became a senator, and then a candidate for president of the country under a green and anti-corruption ticket. She was kidnapped by FARC guerrillas and spent over six years as a hostage in the Colombian jungle. She and others were freed in 2008 in an operation by the Colombian military, after a long campaign by hostages' families and various senior figures in Colombia and France, including then President Sarkozy of France. This is a long book, and could certainly have been shortened, but I was never bored, and in fact found it utterly compelling. I'm not sure why. Constant route marches, changing of camp commandants, shifting relations among the FARC and also among the hostages, the death of her father while she was in captivity, her husband's abandonment of her, which she learned about on the radio - none of this should have kept me hooked, but it did. She is bilingual in Spanish and French, and wrote the book in French, the language I read it in - it has been translated into several other languages, including English and German -  and her writing has the slightly unnaturally bright clarity of that of a person who is focusing on the language itself as well as on the story being told. I would say - read this book,and make up your mind. A faraway country of which we know little, indeed. Betancourt herself is not an especially attractive character; she certainly seems to have a sense of entitlement and to hav failed to understand other hostages' resentment of it, and mostly not to have seen her captors, at least the male ones, as human at all. Her possible lack of self-awareness permits her to portray all this very frankly and not to try and make herself out as less selfish and arrogant than she was. All told, fascinating, and I am glad I read it. I'd like to know what she is doing now.

Central African Republic - a good intervention?

as you might expect, the Central African Republic is a lot better known in France than it is in other European countries. This piece gives a good rundown of what has been going on. Although it does have some yes-buttery, namely that France is doing it (the intervention) for uranium, that the Americans are behind the intervention (as if Obama's America would have the balls) because they want the deposed pro-Western president Bozize reinstalled - the usual stuff. The facts are these though - Bozize was kicked out in a chaotic kind of coup, and now Muslim militias are killing and terrifying the population, with Christian militias springing up in resistance and using similar terror tactics. About 15% of the population is Muslim. Sudan is known to be providing covert support for some of the Muslim militia outfits. France already had some troops there, and now it has a lot more. The UN has been talking about a peacekeeping mission, but no decision has yet been made as to whether there will be one.

Francois Hollande's France (and the tail end of the Sarkozy regime before it) has a pretty good record on intervention, unlike David Cameron's Britain, and especially unlike Obama's America. The rest of Europe are pussies by comparison. Bring back Tony, I say. But then I've been saying that since 2007.

pic: alJazeera

lies and the lying liars

I have mentioned before that I read a weekly magazine called Telerama, which is a kind of upmarket Radio Times. It is a TV guide, yes, but also a cultural guide to the week, and has articles on themes which are of varying interest. This being France, it has a depressing tendency to commission articles from philosophers who tell us how we think. Anyway, this week's theme is lying, and very interesting it was. I turned the pages to do a double take when I came upon a big picture of - Chris Huhne. Of whom nobody much  has heard in France, but that story caused a small stir when reported here. This was because all he had done was acquire some speeding points (in France you start with maximum points and then they get deducted for things like speeding) and would only have had to pay a fine. Everywhere else in Europe, said Telerama, this would be a trivial matter which would bother no one. But Les Anglais cannot tolerate such a thing. Their public schools teach them the art of "la dissimulation" and understatement, so they do not have to lie. There's some truth in this, of course, but it's also true that British people tend to think that politicians lie, and in fact they mostly do not. People in politics cannot afford to lie, because of the consequences if they get caught. Myself, I found it simply easier to tell the truth, then you never have to remember to keep your story straight. Disappointingly, the article quoted the misguided John Le Carre, who has said that the important thing in British society is not to get caught. Which, of course, it is not. And then the article trotted out the "Tony Blair lied on Iraq" line as if it were true. That particular canard has never become the truth, despite the best efforts of the Guardian and others, because, er, it's not true.

expats

I look at, and sometimes contribute to, a couple of sites which are aimed at anglophones who live in France. Some of the threads can be very interesting, and some controversial. Most of the Brit expats in France don't live like I do - they tend to live in houses not apartments and often run gites or have things like fields with horses in them, and they don't live in eastern France, largely because the weather is crap here. People mostly don't fit the UK resident's stereotyped perception of Brits in France, ie non-French-speaking and pining for Waitrose, although those people do exist. Sometimes you get really helpful information, usually to do with the nightmare that is French bureaucracy. Below is an excerpt from a comment that shocked me rather. Fyi: there are no charity shops in France. Emmaus is a charity that collects furniture, clothing and household goods, often when someone has died, and redistributes them at low cost. It is centralised, so you have to travel to them. The FN is the Front National, and I think we all know what that party are about. I'll comment further below, but would be most interested in what especially UK-based readers think.

"...yesterday I happened to be in Emmaus in Pau and saw a Roma Gypsy family begging at the gate - literally everyone looked on them with contempt - everyone watched their every move, even when a young gypsy girl pushed me and made my drink fly in the air ( she pushed into me hard) they then went to take their old threadbare buggy up towards the buggy area and replace it with a newer version - they unnerved everyone, and were thrown out several times. It's on these occasions that you sympathise with the FN - these people have no right to be in our country of residence, they have no moral values and no allegiance towards this wonderful country we live in! They contribute nothing to our social system, and do nothing but terrorise our nation! We have many friends who believe in the National Front in France - I completely understand their stance - is this a racist thing or is it based on morale values... I'll watch this thread with interest!"

Just a few remarks. Beggars, Roma or not, are a common sight in French cities, as they are in other countries. It may well be true that on the occasion described "everyone watched their every move" - how would you feel if that was done to you? I'm not clear about the law on begging in France, they may well have been behaving illegally, or not, I don't know. If they were, why did no-one call the police? In any event, if the people described were EU citizens, as is likely, they almost certainly had the right to be in France. They might even have been born here. Many Roma people work and pay tax, and more would do so if it were not for the prejudice they face, as we see here. They certainly were entitled to go to Emmaus and get a new buggy, which would have cost them a lot less than buying one in a shop. "They have no moral values"  - how does this person know that? And as for "terrorising our nation" - at first I laughed, but really, it's not funny.

It's not so much that these attitudes are present, it is that they are expressed in a fairly public forum - you have to join this site, but you are not vetted in any way, at least I wasn't - without apparent embarrassment.

follow the money

Cahuzac with Swiss emblem and Hollande with first aid box (pic: Le Monde)

Jerome Cahuzac is a former Socialist deputy in the French National Assembly, a former Budget Minister, and mayor of somewhere or other, as they mostly are in France. He spent months denying that he had any secret bank accounts in which money destined for the administration of public services had been squirrelled away. Then the MediaPart website managed to obtain the information (sought by prosecutors since Cahuzac was sacked as budget minister in March) that in fact he did have a bank account in Switzerland, and that it contained some 600,000 euros. It seems that this money may have come from sources identified as public funds, the administration of which was in part Cahuzac's responsibility. Cahuzac fessed up yesterday (just after texting President Hollande to tell him that he was going to) once he knew the jig was up. You can find Cahuzac's statement on his blog here.  He's now been expelled from the party, and told that he is "expected" to resign from elected office. President Hollande is going to make a televised statement this afternoon.

It's all a very bad business. Governments have fallen because of such things. I do not expect this government to fall over this, but it's hardly been helpful. Hollande has had some very poor polling lately, before this latest business, and is going to have to find a way to pull back. The intervention in Mali did him some good (and I congratulate him for it) but not enough it seems.

cry-babies cry

these vehicles have cry-babies in them

Paris north-west and western France have a lot of snow, and sub-zero temperatures, and have had for several days. They don't usually get much of that in the winter. Here in Alsace we do, every year, and there is rarely any disruption to transport or other services. Although at present we have no snow in town, and temperatures are above freezing in the daytime. There are so many people who have been in vehicles on main roads like the one pictured for a long time that the Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, a man of quite startling dullness, has made a statement this morning. I managed to stay awake for most of it. He appeared to blame lorry drivers (not French, most of them, you see), who did not follow the  advice to stay off those roads, broadcast on most of the French media a day or two ago. Hmmm. A driver who has been in her car for 28 hours was interviewed this morning. She sounded worn out, as well she might. She moaned and complained that although the firefighters were doing a good job of visiting cars and asking if their occupants needed anything, the people in the cars were getting no real help. The State should do something, she said, and the broadcasters interviewing her agreed. Yes. Weather, hey? I blame the Government. Me? I blame the cretins who go out on icy roads in their stinky tin boxes, engage in risky behaviour, and then expect to be bailed out by State employees (and how did the firefighters reach the cars, huh?) Those drivers CHOSE to spend 28 hours in their cars. Idiots. I like most things about living in France, but the constant cry-baby behaviour is not one of them. Grow up, La France, and take responsibility for  your actions. Oh and stop State funding of homeopathy. Homeopathy is BOLLOCKS.

Bonne journee peeps. Have a nice day.

by candlelight

we had a power cut last night. It started early evening, when the rugby was on, and people had come in from whatever they were doing and had started cooking and generally using power. It is a shortage of capacity at peak times, not the first time it has happened - you switch something on, the trip goes and then there is no power until - well, until it comes back. Which, this morning, it has. Last time, also on a very cold day as yesterday was (and today is too) we got candles, and put them where they could easily be found. I even (which I had forgotten I had done) put in with the candles a little cigarette lighter I had found on the tram. How organised is that? Anyway, we had some marinated magret de canard, which at least did not have to be cooked, but it was a very modest dinner indeed. I had thought, as we had both done so well with our weight loss, we could permit ourselves a baked potato each, but no chance. I can remember the power cuts of the early 1970s, and we had candles then, and I think an oil lamp. I was a student then, and lived in a hall of residence which had its own generator, so did not notice much. Also, all that happened back then was that the telly went off. These days we depend much more on electricity. Sig other and I were both greatly concerned that, in the brief interludes when power was back, our phones should charge. He was following the football on his phone, and I was looking at Facebook. For a while I read a physical book by candlelight, which was OK. But we could not, much, go on line, and both felt a bit bereft. Home wifi of course disappears quite quickly once the router box has no power, so you are dependent on your phone for access to the world. While your phone still has battery life. And I have an iPhone 3 (yes I know, how charmingly retro of me) whose battery life is quite frankly shite. I have to take the charger to work with me and keep the phone charging under my desk, or it will not last the day.

France has nuclear power, and depends on it quite a lot, but less than it did. Our local power station, Fessenheim in Alsace, is set for closure at some point, though the government, which included closure in its election campaign, is rowing back on that, as well it might. Because reduction of dependence on nuclear means lack of capacity. We already buy electricity from Germany, in this part of France, and France as a whole sells electricity to the UK. I support nuclear power, but as part of a package of power sources, including wind and wave as well as solar in the sunnier places. Cyprus hardly has a roof without a solar panel on it. Here in Alsace, where the sun hardly ever shines, there would be less point. When we bought our place here it was inspected as part of the compulsory environmental impact assessment, and we were told that it scored quite low, because the long rather cold winters in Alsace mean that carbon consumption is always going to be quite high. We are always warm, because unlike in the UK the windows actually fit and do not let the wind blow in. We have building heating, so all ten apartments in our building have the same heating source, which is fuel oil. It comes on in late September and goes off usually in early May.

Last night we wanted to check and see if there were many power cuts locally - but how to do that? Computer not working, TV not working, radio not working, phones only kind of working. In the 1970s we waited until the next morning and bought the newspaper. On paper. Oh, but here they are currently on strike. Newsstands empty. Ah well.

shopping our love around

I am indebted to "Libby T" at Harry's Place for citing a popular actor named Charlie Condon, who is in a soap which I believe may be named Coronation Street, who has this to say:

There remains the problem of the opt-out: individual churches can “opt out” of gay marriage on grounds of religious “conscience”. Does this mean that if we get married, we are going to have to shop our equal love around to various churches until we find a priest who is willing to allow it to be equal? That isn’t really equal.

Well, actually, it is. As Libby T says. Better than I can. I cannot, these days, call myself a secularist. Although I do, increasingly, believe in the separation of church and state. But think about it. If you believe that, then the state's laws (such as on gay marriage, abortion, racial discrimination, whatever) are just that. Anything which is state funded should comply with them. But a voluntary organisation need not, so long as it does not breach any law. If a church will not bless your union because you are gay, then personally I think that would be wrong, but that church is free to do so. And I, or you, would be free to attend a different church, or no church at all. Some churches today will not marry those who have been divorced. The Catholic church has a whole set of rules about that, and many other things, It remains my abiding view that someone who says they are Christian and therefore may object to housing, or working with, or dealing with, people who are gay, is utterly wrong. But the state should not be trying to stop them from holding or expressing that view. It just should not be funding them to do so.

One of the last things the murdered Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid wrote before he was killed (in daylight, outside his home) was "They can kill me, but they cannot silence me".  Those of us who live in places where being gunned down outside your home is unlikely to happen cannot really conceive of how much courage it takes to write that. He knew that he, and his family, would be safe if he just shut up and went away. But he didn't. I have had death threats myself for writing things which some people have not been comfortable with. I  have not taken them seriously. I have been condemned and criticised, and campaigned against, for writing what some people do not like. I treat that as cry-baby behaviour, and do not take it seriously. Read the comments on previous posts, especially about Israel and about Islamists, and you will see what I mean. Nobody is going to gun me down in the street. Largely because I am not an important person, just an individual. But not only because of that. Also because I live in a country where there is democracy,human rights and the rule of law. Which didn't just happen. In France, in living memory, Jews were rounded up and sent away to be killed. Sometimes their neighbours helped in this. The rule of law, which keeps most of us safe most of the time, can be damaged or destroyed. All it takes is for people who know something wrong is happening to do nothing.

two girls

those two girls

this picture has gone everywhere in the last couple of days, and I think it's great.  I especially love some of the faces in the background.   This happened in France, at a rally against equal marriage, and the two girls, age 17 and 19, happened to be walking by.  I've just seen them interviewed on TV. They did it to make a gesture, they said, because they thought the people at the rally were motivated by hate, and they wanted to do something that was the opposite of hate.  They're not lesbian, not  that that matters here.  They were roundly abused by people attending the rally, they said, and called disgusting, and worse.  I love them.

MoToons - to the barricades!



this is satire - Charlie Hebdo

 the weekly satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is publishing - not sure if it is on newsstands, my tabac did not have it this morning - pictures including the cartoon shown here.  It was scary to see Marine Le Pen of the Front National interviewed this morning and to agree with just about everything she said.  Not the language she used, which was pure dog-whistle - "en France" punctuated every sentence, because Muslims are of course Foreign and Not Like Us and Not From Here - but she said that freedom of expression and the rule of law are not negotiable.  Which they are not.  And that if anyone thinks these cartoons have gone too far in the direction of causing racial injury (which is a criminal offence in France) then let them go to court.  The Prime Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said the same thing, just phrased rather differently and without the dog-whistle, and also cautioned against "provocation".  The editor of Charlie Hebdo said the magazine takes the piss every week using cartoons, and only when the cartoons represent (apparently, allegedly) the Prophet Mohammed does it become "provocation".  Anyway, the Charlie Hebdo offices are in lockdown today and surrounded by CRS.  Makes you wonder - Jesus and Mo do cartoons several times a week, most recently captioned "R.E.S.P.E.C.T., I'll burn down your embassy!"  Wonderful stuff.

did he say sorry?

M. Hollande, the President of the French Republic, speaking on the 70th anniversary of the round-up of 13,000 Jews from Paris and its suburbs, to die in the camps, that is.  The answer is, no, he did not.  He said this:

 La vérité, c'est que le crime fut commis en France, par la France. " La France, et non pas l'" autorité de fait dite "gouvernement de l'Etat français" ", comme il était de tradition de qualifier le régime de Vichy jusqu'à ce que M. Chirac, le 16 juillet 1995, ne rompe avec la périphrase officielle utilisée depuis la guerre en déclarant que " la France, ce jour-là, accomplissait l'irréparable ",

So, he acknowledged the resonsibility of "France" and not that of the Vichy government, for a part of the Holocaust, and also paid a kind of tribute to Jacques Chirac*, the first to acknowledge the responsibility of "France", on the same anniversary in 1995.  The atrocity is known as "Vel d'Hiv" after its location, the former Velodrome d'Hiver (Winter Velodrome) in Paris - no French person will speak or write a word in full if it can be abbreviated.

Norm has posted on this today, too.

It seems a good and dignified way to acknowledge that historical responsibility.

Not one German soldier was involved in the Vel d'Hiv.

*Hugely admired by local librarian and former politician Dictatorship Dave Sutton

right or left? it's all kicked off in Strasbourg

Dieudonne

Dieudonne, pictured left, is a "humourist" who was very popular in France in the 1990s, and still I think draws big audiences.  He has been booked to appear at the Zenith in Strasbourg, a very large venue, on 12th June, which is between the two rounds of voting in the presidential election.  This is controversial (a number of his shows have been cancelled by local authorities in recent times) because Dieudo, as he is known, is a very political figure.  He was thought to be on the left in the 90s, and was active in circles which condemned France's colonial past, and still describes himself as of "the real left".  In fact he is on the Jew-hating far right, and has stood for election more than once on an anti-Zionist ticket, fulminating against "the lobby" - well, you get the picture.  Marine Le Pen jumped at the chance for him to be godfather to one of her children, and you can see why from his picture. Our Socialist deputy, Armand Jung, candidate in the elections to the National Assembly, which take place on 10th and 17th June, takes a dim view, and has put out a statement to that effect, in which he expresses dismay that "ce triste individu"  should be appearing in Strasbourg, capital of human rights, to promote values which are contrary to those of the French Republic, in an attempt to influence the elections. He says it is for the local authorities in Strasbourg to take responsibility and take a decision, and he is right.  He notes that the UMP candidate has chosen to write to the President about it.  As far as we know the Front National candidate has remained silent on the matter - so far.

Write a letter to the President, when something actually needs doing?  That's not how to get things done.  An elected representative, or someone who hopes to be one, should be taking action, not writing letters.  Remind you of anyone?

the French language

I have been in France for almost five years now, and though I speak English at home and work almost entirely in English, I do have to speak French every day, and I watch French TV, read French magazines and newspapers etc - I was recently congratulating myself that I speak it quite well these days.  I am even at the top level (nationally) in French classes, which I still take very week.  Wrong.  It is a plateau thing.  I know enough now to know how much I don't know.  Lady Jennie, a blogger who is American, married to a Frenchman and has been here a long time, educates us about the French language here.  Who knew?  "Bof", which people say all the time to express disdain, lack of approval (it's used in film reviews to mean "not up to much") is an acronym, "beurre, oeufs, fromage" (butter, eggs and cheese) which used to be a sign on creameries some decades ago - it has to do with the black market, especially during the German occupation.  (Here in Alsace the German occupation signifies something rather different, but that's another matter).  Read it anyway, francophone or not, it's interesting.

politics in France

Yesterday, 18th May, was the deadline for candidates' names to go forward for the parliamentary elections.  The Left has been trying to form an accord in 55 constituencies where the Front National (which was in third place with 18% of the vote in the presidential election) has a chance of winning, by standing one candidate, from the party of the left with the best chance.  The Front de Gauche, consisting of the Parti de Gauche and the Parti Communiste, has not been able to  reach agreement with the Parti Socialiste.  The Greens, the other party in this "coalition", have less say, because their vote in the presidential was so small at 2.3%.  But the head of their party, Cecile Duflot, has got ministerial post. Anyway, agreement has mostly not been reached.  Pity.  The Front National may well elect one or more deputies next month.  Marine Le Pen is certainly cock-a-hoop, especially at the apparent disunity of the Left.  As well she might be.

In other news, a Francois Hollande election pledge was to return to a five-day week for schools.  At the moment there is no school on Wednesdays or Saturdays.  From now they will have the choice - Wednesday mornings or Saturday mornings.  The teachers are against a return to five days, and the tourism industry is against a return to Saturdays, as it says people won't go away for the weekend so much.  The school day is long, from about 8 a.m. to as late as 6 p.m. in secondary schools, though there is a two-hour lunch break for most.  It is quite hard to get a response from many offices which deal with administration of various kinds on Wednesdays, as they are mostly staffed by women of an age to have children at school, and very many of these women work a four-day week so as to be able to take care of their children on Wednesdays.  Women's participation in the workforce is high, largely because of the amount of state-funded childcare which is available.  There is free full-day care available for children from as young as two, so long as they are toilet trained.

So you see, it's all a bit different on this side of the Channel.  Fabulous health system, lots of tedious bureaucracy, bakeries to die for, everything closed on Sundays.  No car tax.  VAT at 19% on lots of things.  Everyone goes on holiday at the same time.  Concept of customer service non-existent. No school uniforms.

ladies and gentlemen, introducing...

photo Le Monde

the new government of France, under Prime Minister Ayrault (who?), looks like this, well, some of it does.  There are 34 ministers, 17 of them women.  Pretty good going, but Sarko's government looked like this at first, and it didn't last.  But hostilities have already kicked off.  Martine Aubry, who wanted to be prime minister and is not, has declined to be in government.  She remains first secretary of the party, and as such has control over selections and nominations for constituencies.  The parliamentary elections are on 10th and 17th June, so she has moved fast, putting one of her own in the constituency of the Somme and deselecting one of Hollande's most loyal lieutenants - and so it goes.  Constituencies in France do not have names but numbers - we live in Strasbourg constituency no. 1 - which has taken some getting used to.  Another difficulty for the parliamentary elections is that the Parti Socialiste is in partnership with the Greens, and so must deselect some of its candidates and replace them with Greens.  This is not going down well. Also, those appointed to government have been told that if they are candidates for parliament they will lose their ministerial jobs if defeated at the election - and there I was thinking that separation of powers was not properly understood in the UK. Sigh.

But people seem to be prepared to give Hollande a fair go, although without much enthusiasm.  That's pretty much how I feel too.

Le Monde sucks up to the new President

Francois Hollande of course, who takes office tomorrow.  In a piece with a large picture of DSK and entitled "the debt the French Left owes to Nafissatou Diallo" (the chambermaid, remember?) and which begins by saying that a statue of her should be put up, the newspaper (which has a philosophy corrrespondent btw) disses DSK all round the houses and praises Francois Hollande's political flair - which we have not had a chance to observe yet.  If Diallo had not raised the complaint she did, causing the police to be called,  it says, the affair of the parties in Lille at which prostitutes were present, attracting an action for "proxenetisme" (pimping) against DSK (he says he didn't know they were prostitutes) might have hit the public domain during the primaries, or worse, during the presidential campaign.  Well yes, it might.  But was it the left which removed DSK as candidate?  I think not.  There is some evidence that it was in fact Sarko's people.  We may never know.  But there is no evidence, nor any likely to emerge, that it was anyone close to Francois Hollande or the Parti Socialiste.

Julien Dray, a Socialist deputy, a man of the left (also a Jew and a freemason and someone who was sufficiently out of favour with the PS leadership in recent times, over matters financial as it happens, though no evidence of wrongdoing was found, to be deselected as candidate for the regional elections) had a birthday party on 28th April, during the presidential campaign, to which he invited many senior PS figures - including Francois Hollande.  Who didn't go, because he found out DSK and his wife were going to be there.  How embarrassing that would have been, trills Le Monde, although it does note in the same paragraph that the whole campaign was darkened by the shadow of DSK.  Embarrassing for Francois Hollande to be upstaged, is more like it.

In February 2011, before the Sofitel affair broke, DSK allegedly met Hollande in Paris in a borrowed flat, and asked him if he, Hollande, would stand against him, DSK, as he, DSK, was considering putting his name forward.  According to DSK's friends, Hollande gave a non-committal and equivocal answer.  According to Hollande's friends, Hollande said "I'm taking it all the way, and I'm going to beat you".  Hmmm.  Hollande managed to fight the whole campaign without once mentioning DSK, although provoked many times.  Sarko mentioned him before the campaign proper started, describing Hollande as a second-choice candidate, and then not until 2nd May, between the two rounds of voting, when he felt threatened and judged the DSK brand toxic enough to change voters' minds - he said he would "take no lessons from a party which had rallied round DSK".  He was wrong in that judgment, as the result shows us, and you can interpret that as you wish.  I know how I do.  Namely that the brand was not that toxic.  Which says to me that the French public could have supported DSK.  We'll never know now.

The piece, by Ariane Chemin, ends by citing Sarko, on 13th May 2011, just before the Sofitel affair took place, as saying to journalists that Hollande was lucky, because DSK was a product not to be found on this earth (hard to translate, that bit) and "comme un ovni qui arrive" ("like a UFO coming in to land").  Sarko allegedly then scanned the horizon, hand over the eyes, as if looking for an approaching craft.  The next day flight AF023 came in from New York, with a seat booked in the name of Dominique Strass-Kahn.  DSK wasn't on it. 

And so we are on the eve of the handover to President - Hollande.

Love. poverty and war

is the title of a book of essays by Christopher Hitchens, published in 2005, which I re-read very recently because I was thinking about him when he died earlier this year.  He was such a great writer and such a clear thinker.  No-one writing now seems to come close.  Unless, readers, you know different...

I thought about Hitch because I happened today, by chance, on an interview with Andy Kershaw, who used to do world music on Radio 4,  Kershaw quoted the title and referred in the interview to Hitchens himself.  Apparently they went to North Korea together.  How cool is that?  I used rather to like Kershaw's radio stuff, being a Womad fan and all - the only festival where you spend most of your time with your back to the stage.  Anyway, that's in the past - the last Womad festival I went to was in 2003 and I won't be going again, but that is another story.

Kershaw was being interviewed because he was appearing at the Hay festival, so naturally enough he has a book out.  Damn, one-click ordering, curse you, there it was on my Kindle before I knew what I was about.  You'll remember Andy Kershaw, with his Lancashire accent - he went a bit bonkers a few years ago on the Isle of Man, and was a bit down and out and a fugitive from justice for a while, but now he's a lot better.  I thought his book might be interesting.  We'll see.

Hitchens was wonderful.  In the very first essay in  his book he debunks Churchill and prays in aid Josephine Tey's book 'The Daughter of Time' which is one of my great faves - I bought it recently for a young Australian relative who is studying Shakespeare.  Where was I?  Focus, woman, focus.  Ah yes, the Second World War.  He reminds us that the British burned the French fleet in north Africa, with many French lives lost, and that the fleet was there to get it away from the Germans, who did not acquire a single vessel.  He also reminds us that the Roosevelt administration recognised Vichy France.  He points out, probably rightly, that Churchill's demarches were opportunistic, vainglorious, and, crucially, lucky.  More Hitchens jewels later.  I have to go and celebrate Manchester City's victory with significant other.

the boomer President

Only a few months ago I was having a conversation with someone in which I remember saying that the baby boomers - my generation - have had their day in the sun, they have been n political power and are now out of it, the world's leaders are a new generation.  I was thinking of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton now out of power, and of Obama, Cameron and Clegg, all born in the 1960s, but I wasn't right.  Francois Hollande, the new President of France (technically not yet, as the investiture has not yet happened) is my age.  There have been a number of programmes about him, his family and his political career so far, as you might expect, given that he is France's second Socialist president ever and the first one was Francois Mitterrand, whose shoes cannot be filled by anyone alive.  And of course pictures of a young Hollande, the clothes, the hair, all that, remind me of my youth.  Though Hollande was too serious and too political even in his teens to have been in any way counter-cultural (as we used to call it then) or cutting-edge (as we didn't).  But none the less, we are talkin' 'bout my generation.  Here, and not only here, the boomers are giving something back.  Because that's what we wanted.  We didn't want to tear down the society we lived in, despite what the older generation said, we wanted to improve it.  That's why we didn't do much in the way of creating paintings and symphonies, we were more of an activist generation.  The Beatles were the soundtrack of our youth, but they were older than us, war babies.  The visual artists shaking things up in the 21st century are younger than us.  Writers, yes, there are some.  William Boyd (whose latest, Waiting for Sunrise, is unopened on my table in hardback, a pleasure to come) and Hilary Mantel (whose latest, Bring Up The Bodies, currently has me in thrall to my Kindle) were both born in 1952.  Ian McEwan and Martin Amis were both born in 1949.  So those are all boomers.  But you don't find out much about how our generation grew up from any of their books.  Interesting that you don't.  What they all do is tell stories, mostly from other times and other places.

The surname Hollande comes from how those Protestants fleeing religious persecution in the Low Countries, then under Spanish rule, were dubbed by the locals in northern France, where some of them found refuge.  So Hollande may well have Protestant heritage.  This would be most unusual for a French President.  It would be most unusual for a French person outside this part of France, which anyway has been German in living memory. Although I suspect Hollande is an entirely secular individual, and the question does not arise.  His predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, has Hungarian Jewish antecedents, and that was never really an issue, despite the terrible history of Jews in France in the twentieth century.

It's too soon to say what Francois Hollande will do.  I fear for the international future - I cannot see him providing the kind of leadership Sarkozy did in the Arab Spring, but I hope I am wrong.  He is going to reduce France's dependence on nuclear power, he says.  Wrong.  And the unionised workers at the Fessenheim power station not far from here will not like it one bit when he closes them down.  His government will be formed next week, and will probably include at least two Greens (those Greens are not a bit high-minded, you should see them treading on each other's heads in the hope of a ministerial post) which will tie his hands a bit.  Parliamentary elections take place next month, and in some places the Parti Socialiste is trying to kick out PS incumbents or selected candidates to make way for Greens.  With predictable and messy results.  This is happening here in Strasbourg too.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the left candidate for the presidency, is to stand against Marine Le Pen of the Front National in Pas de Calais in the north.  Should be fun.  What's going to happen there?

France votes, and Hollande has already got it wrong

this pic taken last week in Goersdorf in the Vosges

This post might be illegal, as in France you are not supposed to publish or broadcast anything that might influence people's votes on the last two days of an election.  So sue me.

Francois Hollande is likely to be the President of France by this time tomorrow.  Here at rue de Molsheim we are making no plans for this evening, other than to watch the results coverage.  Our satellite channels, whose reception is erratic to say the least, appear to be being received correctly today (fingers crossed) so we will have more than French terrestrial coverage to choose from. Tomorrow is not a public holiday in France, as it is in the UK, but Tuesday is (VE Day, the cheek of it, considering France's contribution to the defeat of fascism in Europe) so a great many people have "fait le pont" and taken tomorrow off work too, as I have.  We thought we would hop across the river to Germany on Tuesday, where, surprise surprise, that day is not a holiday.

Anyway, while I would have voted Hollande if I had the vote in French national elections (give it time give it time) I am worried for the future of France, and of Europe, under his presidency.  He appears to be clueless about world politics, he has never held ministerial office (though neither had Tony Blair) and if he has a core of steel, as all politicians must, it is well hidden.  They are voting in Greece too today, and I believe they are hoping for a beginning of the end of "Merkozy", but I would say to them - be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.  Oh and good luck May Zanni, if I could speak enough Greek I would be in Athens now, campaigning for you.

M. Hollande, if you are elected today, think on this: you will owe your victory to the people of France who work hard, and who think they deserve better than high prices and rising unemployment (they do).  You will also owe it to the failure to vote by thousands of people who voted Front National in the first round.  You will need to ask those people why, and you will need to take them with you if France is to prosper in polity as well as economically.  I do not think you can do this.  I do not think you want to.  You will need to consider France's place in Europe and in the wider world.  France's colonial past gives it a voice in Lebanon and in north and west Africa that other great powers, to use that old-fashioned moniker, do not have.  Use it well, and lose the Guardianista non-intervention mask.  It doesn't suit you, and it shouldn't suit France.

he's the man

And be a bit more grown-up.  Politics is not nice sometimes.  People in it do not always behave nicely. Tell your party to be grown-up about DSK.  Walking out of a birthday party just because he was invited, this is playground stuff.  Besides, I think DSK may be right.  I shall read the Epstein book about the affair, which comes out next week, with great interest.  And of course you know, M. Hollande, that DSK is head and shoulders above you in intellect, political stature and world statesmanship.  What's that you say? You knew that but you don't want to discuss it?  Francois, come back!  Francois?  Francois! *sound of tumbleweed*