France General Discussion II: Living under Marxism

[politicus]

Big anti-gay marriage demos in Paris. A lot of the family value crowd is bringing their kids despite being urged not to by the government. Massive police presence.

Any of you watching?

[politicus]

It did turn ugly in the end - as expected. Running battles with riot police, beating up TV crews etc.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/huge-gay-marriage-protest-turns-violent-in-paris-8632878.html

[politicus]

If you make them about even you get administrative units with a population like Denmark or Norway and thats a pretty efficient administrative size. From a democratic POV it makes less sense. Thirty would be about right for France IMO.

[politicus]

If you make them about even you get administrative units with a population like Denmark or Norway and thats a pretty efficient administrative size. From a democratic POV it makes less sense. Thirty would be about right for France IMO.

Well, we have 22 right now, halving them would make the average region more populous than Denmark as a whole.
Anyway, here's an alternative regions map I once drew, trying to both reduce variation in population and correct a few historical aberrations. That ends up with 20 regions for metropolitan France.


1. Île-de-France
2. Grand Paris
3. Lyonnais

I wasn't entirely sure about a few names, so if some have alternative proposals I'd be glad to hear them.

Not by much (less than 10% difference, so doesnt matter) - which was my point. Having regions the size of small nation states is a pretty efficient size.

Nice map. Also looks OK identity wise (from what I know of France).

[politicus]

Marine le Pen vs. Sarkozy in the second round?

[politicus]

Patrick Modiano wins the Nobel prize in literature. Fifteenth Frenchman to do it.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/09/patrick-modiano-wins-nobel-prize-for-literature

Only about a handfull of his books are translated into English - or anything else.. - even if:

"Peter Englund, the Nobel Academy’s permanent secretary, told the Guardian that Modiano was a very accessible writer. “He is not at all difficult to read. He looks very simple in a sense because he has a very refined, simple, straight, clear style. You open a page and see that it is Modiano, very straight, short sentences, no frills … but it is very, very sophisticated in that simplicity.”

Must admit I have never read any of his books, have any of you?

All the usual: "Another white, European male" complaints of course.

[politicus]

14th  price for French language (one Belgian) and 16th for writer living in France some period of their life (Bunin, Beckett, Gao).

I got 15 Frenchmen when I counted, which is also what Wiki says.

[politicus]

Bunin is classified as stateless but did live in Paris when got the price. Beckett was Irish and Gao Chinese.

Obviously not including Beckett and Gao (who had only lived in France for two years when he got it.

Its 14 + Bunin.

Prudhomme, Mistral, Rolland, Anatole France, Bergson, du Gard, Andre Gide, Mauriac, Camus, Perse, Sartre, Simon, Clezio, Modiano.

So:

16th for writer living in France some period of their life (Bunin, Beckett, Gao).

is incorrect, its 17th and nobody counts Beckett as French in any context (or Karl Gjellerup as German for that matter) - so you have a point, but your examples are rubbish.

[politicus]

... the best seller is Eric Zemmour, with his book The French suicide. The whole book explains why France is going down the brain because of immigrants, Islam, the US, the EU, women, gays, high finance, artists, etc... "France is dying, France is dead. Our elites . . . spit on her tomb and trample on her smoking corpse."

If you want to understand FN voters, read Zemmour. He is kind of the spokesperson and the intellectual hero of the FN supporters. Obviously I see him as a crazy man projecting its own nevrosis, sick obsessions and suicidal thoughts on others, but many are like him.

How does he unite his own background as the son of Algerian (Jewish) immigrants with being anti-immigration. Is it simply that it's only Muslim immigration he perceives as a threat? Or is it the size of immigration he views as problematic?

Also, I thought FN supporters were generally too anti-semitic to have a Jewish hero.

[politicus]

LePen re-elected FN-leader today with 100% of the delegates.

And look who was there as well:

 

Guess its some Austrian FPØ guy. Their chairman?

[politicus]

Hardly surprising.

[politicus]

but seriously, who moves to Israel to avoid terrorist attacks?

There as a big difference between being part of the general population in a country, even one with a high terror risk, and being a member of a targeted minority. Usually the former gives you far better odds.

[politicus]

Spectator on FN's LGBT support.

Interesting how fast she has changed their image. Right wing populists have significant gay support in the Netherlands and Denmark (and probably also in other northern European countries), but FN was so massively homophobic under her dad that FN and gays seemed like an impossible combo.

Given the homophobia of many Muslims it is not hard to understand why Islamophobic parties attract parts of the gay community.

[politicus]

ENA is adding an English fluency requirement for grads.

Quelle horreur!

[politicus]

France has adopted a new law banning ultra-thin and underweight models from working in the fashion industry. If people in the fashion industry violate the law, they risk fines or even prison sentences.

Israel imposed a similar law in 2013. Several other countries, including Spain and Italy, have issued a voluntary code of ethics for the fashion industry.

The law also means that it must be disclosed if photos rare retouched or altered to make models seem thinner.

Individuals who have a lower BMI than recommended by the Ministry of Health may no longer work as a fashion model.

Fashion models must in the future produce a medical certificate, which shows a BMI of at least 18 - for example, around 55 kg for a person who is 1,75 meters tall.

There will be carried out regular checks to enforce the law.

[politicus]

Marine Le Pen accuses her 86 year old dad of sabotaging the party's new course and attempts to establish the movement in the "broad political center"

Last week JMLP restated his old line about the Nazi gas chambers being "a detail in history" called Spanish born Prime Minister Manuel Valls "the immigrant" and topped it off by defending Pétain.

Marine has countered by saying that her dad  seems to the pursuing a strategy that is "a mixture of the scorched earth tactic and political suicide."

"His status as honorary chairman does not give him the right to hijack FN with vulgar provocations apparently aimed at me, but unfortunately harming the entire movement."

Wonder how long it takes before Marine arranges an "accident" for her old man.

[politicus]

Okay, I see there were two posts posted about this while I wrote mine.

[politicus]

Curious what French posters think about this long American Interest article on the Right's history.

Makes you wonder how French politics would have developed if no North African immigration had been allowed in the first place.

[politicus]

Thanks Tony. I was wondering about the culturally left wing thing as well.

[politicus]

The French Greens' ability to self-destruct has always amazed me.

Yes, its a really weird phenomenon.

[politicus]

The French Greens' ability to self-destruct has always amazed me.

It's amazing, right? They've basically single-handedly fucked up all the chances that voters have given them (and there have been more than a few) to become a consistently strong and relevant party - it's quite a feat. As far as I'm concerned it's something of a pity, because they're the only party which isn't completely awful.

Why is there this different to fx nearby German speaking countries on this? It seems the French Greens are the most malfunctioning in Western Europe.