The French-American Foundation Weekly Brief

France

President Nicolas Sarkozy asked France’s most prestigious schools — the grandes écoles — to raise their share of students from low-income backgrounds to 30 percent, according to Le Monde. The Conférence des Grandes écoles rejected the new admission target, arguing that it would simply lower their standards. Their intransigence triggered a passionate debate about meritocracy through education, a value that is supposed to be one of the cornerstones of the republican ideal, as explained by The Financial Times. Education Minister Luc Chatel said that he was “shocked” by the schools’ rejection of the quota and that he was determined to see the measure through, Le Figaro reported.
See also:
– The French-American Foundation’s ” Equality of Opportunity ” Program and its comparative report on French and American strategies to promote access to selective higher education institutions.

First Secretary of the French Socialist Party Martine Aubry unveiled plans on Tuesday, January 12 to push for a bill allowing foreigners residing in France to vote in local elections, the AFP reported. As a reaction to Aubry’s declaration, Immigration Minister Eric Besson said that it would be “counter-productive” to open the debate in the current “tense economic and social period.” Besson added that he believed that non-EU residents should eventually be allowed to vote in local polls within the next 10 years. According to L’Express, President Nicolas Sarkozy said during his 2007 campaign for the presidency that he supported giving foreigners the right to vote in municipal polls but never took action. Allowing legal foreign residents to vote for local politicians could lead to drastic changes in election results.

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s recent proposal to honor iconic French writer, philosopher and journalist Albert Camus by having his remains moved to the Panthéon — the resting place for French national heroes — provoked a wave of protest among members of the French left, such as Olivier Todd, Camus’ biographer. Todd accused Sarkozy of trying to “hijack the writer’s legacy for his own political benefit,” Le Monde Diplomatique reported. Born in Algeria in 1913 in a working-class family, the author of “The Stranger” (“L’Etranger,” 1942) and “The Plague” (“La Peste,” 1947) received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957.

On Tuesday, January 12, Prime Minister François Fillon told a meeting of deputies from his governing right-wing UMP party that the French parliament should adopt a resolution banning the wearing of the full Islamic veil or burqa in public places, the AFP reported. President Nicolas Sarkozy told the parliament the next day that he shared Fillon’s opinion and that the first step for parliament should be to adopt a resolution and then consider a law, Le Figaro reported. However, the French President said that no decision should be made until the results of a six-month commission on the effects of such a law were available. He thus opposed UMP President Jean-Francois Copé who is in favor of immediate measures.

Eric Rohmer, the film director, screenwriter, critic and one of the key figures of the post-war French New Wave, died on Monday, January 11 at the age of 89, the AP reported. Rohmer began his career as the editor of Cahiers du cinéma, the influential film journal where he worked alongside prominent French directors Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Rohmer directed more than 20 films, including 1969’s “My Night at Maud’s” (“Ma Nuit chez Maud“) which earned him a best foreign language film nomination from the Academy Awards, as described by the web site Artinfo.

United States

When he took office, one of President Barack Obama’s first acts was to order the closure of the Guantánamo Bay prison on the US naval installation in Cuba within a year. The directive was welcomed worldwide after allegations that the prison violated civil rights. However, as the January 22 deadline approaches, The New York Times reported that Obama admitted on Wednesday, January 13 that the goal will not be met. Obama explained that he hoped to shut down the detention facility next year but did not provide a deadline.

The New York Times‘ Media Decoder blog reported on Monday that Former Alaska Governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin of Alaska had signed on to be a commentator for the Fox News Channel. Le Figaro referred to Palin’s broadcasting roots by posting a video on its web site in which she appears as the sportscaster of an Anchorage TV station in Alaska back in the 1980s, and questioned her ability to work as a journalist.

The publication of the book Game Change this week triggered an uproar when it was revealed that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had described then-candidate Barack Obama as attractive to voters because he is a “light-skinned” African-American  who does not use a  “Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” MSNBC reported that President Barack Obama has already accepted Reid’s apologies, which led Republicans to accuse Democrats of double standards, citing the example of Senate Republican leader Trent Lott who stepped down in 2002 after he was accused of making racially insensitive comments.

On Friday, January 15, NPR reported that US President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats scored a victory in healthcare talks, winning labor union support for the “Cadillac” tax on high-cost insurance plans and possibly clearing the way for a final agreement.

Business and Economy

In response to what Le Monde called the “giant” bonuses recently given to financial industry traders, particularly those in the United States, the United Kingdom and France, governments are stepping up and writing legislation in order to assert some control over the bonus-giving practice. According to the AFP, all traders in France who have earned more than 27,500 euros in bonus money will be taxed 50 percent on their earnings, and in the UK, a similar 50 percent bonus super tax will be applied to bonuses above a certain amount, according to Business Week. As for the United States, President Barack Obama explained in a speech on Thursday, January 15, that he wants to impose a levy on as many as 50 large financial firms to get back “every single dime” of taxpayers’ money, Bloomberg reported.

A new bill is set to alter, and perhaps “modernize” the French agricultural industry, according to a report by Le Monde. The bill, which was introduced to the council of ministers on Wednesday, January 13, is meant to bring French agriculture out of a “brutal drop in revenues.” One of its main features includes firmer agreements on price between producers and buyers, a topic that has been the source of heated conflicts between both parties in the last several months.

Olivier François, the new head of Marketing for Chrysler, has received mixed reactions for his recent ad campaigns, according to an article in The Detroit News. The article notes that François has been applying his marketing approach for Fiat (where he is also the head of marketing) to Chrysler, which focuses more on “brand image” than “product and price.” According to the article, Chrysler dealers would prefer the second approach. However, an article in Le Monde paints a more flattering picture of François, as a well-rounded executive with a clever approach to marketing, and predicts a positive outlook for a slight increase in Chrysler’s sales in 2010.

International

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti on Tuesday, January 12 and governments around the world are organizing massive relief efforts to provide emergency aid to the Caribbean nation, as reported by The New York Times. The Red Cross said that the quake may have killed up to 50,000 people, according to the AFP.

According to an article in the Christian Science Monitor, Israel is planning to build two massive walls along its southern border with Egypt, in order to stem the immigration of African asylum seekers  and “ensure the Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel,” according to a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A recent article in the Telegraph covered the story of the owners of a French bakery in Afghanistan who are reaching out to the local community. The owners of “Le Pelican,” which is located just outside of Kabul, have been running a program over the past few years that provides bakery training for Hazara women and children who are part of one of the most marginalized ethnic groups in the country. Owners Jacques and Ariane Hiriart hope that the training will lead their trainees to jobs in the food service and hospitality industries, and towards a future with greater financial and professional opportunity.