Sunday Reading
The best from the web and the international press, collected for you by Frogsmoke. Happy reading!
France decided Friday to invoke an EU safeguard procedure to bar a strain of genetically-modified corn after a watchdog said it had doubts about the product. The government was invoking the procedure “until European authorities re-evaluate the authorisation on commercialisation” of the product.
Smelly Champagne sausages. Champagne is the unlikely home of France’s andouillette sausage, which is not one for the fainthearted. “I would never have discovered Troyes, a beautiful medieval town of timber-framed buildings, were it not for a pale, lumpy sausage made from pigs’ intestines that smells like a pissoir.” Full story (Times)
“French Anne Frank” Diary Enthralls France. The diary of Helene Berr, a young Jewish woman who witnessed the Nazi Occupation of Paris before being deported to Bergen-Belsen, has just been published in France, to great critical and commercial success. With the diary “We have a historic document written as a tragic novel,” says one historian. Full story (CBS News)
News TV staff slam Sarkozy’s French-only plans. Trade unions at international news channel France 24 have criticized President Nicolas Sarkozy for saying the broadcaster should ditch its English and Arabic services and stick to French. “How does one measure the world influence of a country and its culture? Is it by counting the number of people who speak its language? Or is it by counting those interested in its views and cultural knowledge, irrespective of language?” Full story (Boston.com)
Anger at demise of regional number plates. A rebellion is brewing in the French provinces against plans to introduce new EU-style car registration plates and scrap the country’s much-loved system of “departmental” numbers. From next January, all new French vehicles will be fitted with European “XX-123-XX” format registrations. In parts of the country campaigns have been launched to preserve what is seen as essential component of regional identity. Full story (Sunday Herald)
How France Snubs Startups. Instead of backing young, innovative companies, the government is handing out billions in research aid to rich corporations. Most developed countries that boast strong economic growth achieve this by boosting the excellence and competitiveness of universities and by betting on young, innovative enterprises that grow fast into large companies. France still doesn’t get this. Full story (BusinessWeek)
A Cathedral Resists the Label ‘Property of Russia’. Last spring, leaders of Orthodox churches outside Russia that had broken with the Russian Orthodox Church after the Bolshevik Revolution returned to the fold in services in Moscow that received Putin’s blessing. But in France and other parts of Europe, some Orthodox church groups refuse to return to a union with the church leadership in Moscow. Full story (New York Times)
The best new French holiday ideas. From galloping in the Tarn and traveling on heritage trains to surfing in Basque country and cooking with Alain Ducasse… the pick of France’s best holiday ideas. Full story (Times)
Also in the Times: A Rough Guide: the best of France
Europe’s Philosophy of Failure. In France and Germany, students are being forced to undergo a dangerous indoctrination. Taught that economic principles such as capitalism, free markets, and entrepreneurship are savage, unhealthy, and immoral, these children are raised on a diet of prejudice and bias. Rooting it out may determine whether Europe’s economies prosper or continue to be left behind. Full story (Foreign Policy)
Sun 13-Jan-08 | Posted in: General
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