In her first state visit to France, Governor-General Michaëlle Jean has been extolled in the media as the "almost Queen of Canada" and a symbol of successful multiculturalism - and all in this decidedly anti-monarchist country where immigration is widely seen as a problem.

"I perceive my role as a kind of catalyst," she said in an interview yesterday. "And I find myself in that role here."

Ms. Jean met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and is scheduled to join him again today in Normandy for memorial services marking the anniversary of the Second World War armistice in Europe. They are also to visit a Canadian military cemetery.

In interviews with the French press, Ms. Jean said one of her aims is to impress upon French officials that French-speaking Canada extends well beyond Quebec. While her comments were welcomed in Paris as confirmation of the health of what the French call the francophonie, they prompted indignation from the Bloc Québécois. Pierre Paquette, the Bloc's deputy leader, called Ms. Jean's statements an insult to Quebeckers.

The other theme to Ms. Jean's visit was the 400th anniversary celebrations of the founding of Quebec City. She will spend half a day in La Rochelle, the port city that was the embarkation point for Samuel Champlain, founder of Quebec, and for later French settlers sailing for Canada in the 17th and 18th centuries.

[. . . T]he French government has signalled a possible policy shift away from official neutrality on the issue of Quebec sovereignty.

Last month, Alain Joyandet, the French minister in charge of relations with francophone countries, said France considered the political question of separatism to be a "non-issue." But he also said Mr. Sarkozy favoured a "direct and privileged" relationship with the province that could include special agreements on trade and labour exchanges.

Ms. Jean's five-day state visit ends on Saturday with another ceremony in Bordeaux, once a thriving port for the African slave trade, where she will join French government ministers to commemorate France's abolition of slavery 160 years ago.

One of her public themes for her visit is what she called "the duty of memory." As the great-great-granddaughter of slaves, she said the Bordeaux leg of the trip would be a particularly personal undertaking.

"I know it's going to be a deeply emotional experience for me to be there on the docks in Bordeaux," she said, "there where at least one of my ancestors was probably selected for transfer ... and where slaves were loaded onboard the boats like cargo."

Lazare Ponticelli, who outlived more than 8.4 million other soldiers who fought under the French flag in World War I to become France’s last living veteran of the war intended to end all wars, died Wednesday at his home in Kremlin-Bicêtre, a Paris suburb. He was 110.

Fewer than two dozen World War I veterans are thought to be alive. Six have died this year, including the last German veteran and the next-to-last French one.

Survival in itself is not necessarily an achievement, and Mr. Ponticelli said in an interview with Reuters last year that he “never knew how I got to this point.”

He was always emphatic that the glory belonged to the more than 1.3 million French soldiers who were killed. Last week Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates honored the war’s survivors, including the last American veteran to serve overseas, Frank Buckles, 107.

By contrast, the German government paid no attention to the death on Jan. 1 of its last veteran, Erich Kästner.

When Jacques Chirac was president of France, he vowed to honor the last veteran with a state funeral, but Mr. Ponticelli fought the idea, saying it would be an insult to all the men who died without commemoration.

But after the death in January of the only other French veteran of the war, Louis de Cazenave, also 110, Mr. Ponticelli agreed to a smaller ceremony to honor all veterans. “No racket, no procession,” he specified.

Lazare Ponticelli was born on Dec. 7, 1897, near the northern Italian village of Bettola. Poverty drove him to leave the village alone to go to France, which he considered “paradise,” according to Agence France-Presse.

He worked in Paris as a chimney sweep and paper boy, and in 1914 he lied about his age to join the French Foreign Legion. He was the last veteran of the legion to have fought in World War I.

He was soon at the front line in the forest of Argonne, where the French were hampered by not having trenches. The Germans did. He also fought at Verdun. Reuters reported that he once rescued a wounded German and a wounded French soldier caught between the front lines.

At an Armistice Day ceremony last year, he said he had only one thought during combat: “We’re all going to die.”

When Italy entered the war in 1915, Mr. Ponticelli was drafted into the Italian Army and fought against the Austrians in Tyrol, where he was wounded in the face.

He returned to France after the war and started a piping company with two of his brothers, which now employs 4,000 people, Agence France-Presse reported. He became a French citizen in 1939.

[. . .]

Mr. Ponticelli’s view of war was dispirited. “You shoot at men who are fathers,” he once said, according to an obituary by Reuters. “War is completely stupid.” He kept his many war medals in a shoe box.

Because of the clandestine nature of the business, it is not known how many migrants are processed or how many fishing boats set sail from Elinkine, nestled in the deep mangroves on the mouth of the Casamance River, in Senegal's southern province of the same name.

But what is certain is that it is a key departure point for west African illegal emigrants trying to cross the Atlantic Ocean to the so-called European Eldorado and that a network of smugglers are raking a fortune from the trade.

"Here everybody benefits, that is why people are careful," says Alioune who identifies himself by a pseudonym.

Residents of this tiny, leafy village are very cagey when it comes to talking about the booming trade that has prospered in recent years, from desperately poor Africans who exhaust their family's meagre resources for the risky 1,000-plus kilometre-long (625-plus miles) trip on high seas in ramshackle fishing boats.

When and if they talk, they neither give their full names nor details for fear of upsetting the system.

Boat owners and smugglers are directly involved in the trafficking, as are fishermen enlisted to sail the pirogues.

Along a sandy village street, a ferryman sitting on his veranda who gives his name as Joseph says that he is aware that he is on a police wanted list.

"We can make lots of money, but a lot of smugglers have been arrested," he said before dodging away.

According to Alioune, an average two boats set sail from Elinkine aiming for the Spanish Canary Islands every week, but it is generally not a subject of open discussion because "it is a very dangerous game" that concerns the entire village.

Some homes around the village serve as "lodges" where days before takeoff, the prospective migrants are gathered and prepared for the trip.

"Everybody is well aware and most of the people are involved. It comes with lots of money, it's a mafia here," added Alioune. Boats owners have created what he called a commission that "facilitates" the departures, he said.

Each boat owner contributes an annual fee to this commission of three million CFA francs (4,500 euros, 6,600 dollars) "and in return the departures are facilitated and the police get their share," he said.

The first wave of out-migration to Europe took place during the First World War, when many Senegalese worked in France as infantrymen (“tirailleurs” in French) (Guèye 2002: 284; Robinson 1991: 166). After Senegal gained independence from France in 1960, an increasing number of Senegalese left for France and settled in Paris and the main industrial centres such as Marseille. These migrants are mainly Soninké, Sereer and Tukulëë (Timera 1996) who lived primarily in the Senegal River valley regions. They were attracted by the European economic boom, and their out-migration was mainly supported by their families and facilitated by the fact that all Senegalese citizens at the time had both Senegalese and French citizenship. This structural affiliation to France continued for more than 20 years after Senegal’s independence (Garson 1992: 84–85). The out-migration of Senegalese citizens to France increased from 5,688 in 1968 to 32,350 in 1982 (INSEE 2004). Growing mass migration was also a response to the persistent drought as well as economic and politicalpressure on Senegal from the international community. For example, one of the major economic problems with deep social repercussions was the devaluation of the Franc CFA in 1994, which precipitated a harsh social crisis, particularly in the cities. The devaluation halved purchasing power, and resulted in price increases of 25–30 per cent for basic food stuffs such as rice. The high price of food had far-reaching effects on all social classes (Sane 1998; Vengroff and Creevey 1997). Thus, the deep economic and social crisis Senegal was facing induced more and more Senegalese from all social strata and ethnic and religious groups to migrate. Internally migrants went to the capital city Dakar; internationally, destinations included not only to France, but also new countries, such as Spain, Italy, Germany and beyond Europe to the USA, thereby shaping a new transnational space (see Guèye 2002, 2003; Robin 1997; Tall 2002).

In 1943, Louis-Ferdinand Céline wrote that the German army at the Volga was the last bulwark of Europe; after that the deluge, les Chinois à Brest. He meant not Brest-Litovsk on the Polish-Russian frontier but Brest at the westernmost tip of Brittany, of Europe. He lamented that the Germans lost the battle at Stalingrad and that their retreat westward then began (45-46).

Europe -- Europe is facing a demographic disaster.

ROMNEY: That's the inevitable product of weakened faith in the Creator, failed families, disrespect for the sanctity of human life, and eroded morality.

Some reason that culture is merely an accessory to America's vitality. We know that it's the source of our strength. And we will not be dissuaded by the snickers and knowing glances when we stand up for family values and morality and culture. We will...

(APPLAUSE)

Conservatives here and conservatives across the country will always be honored to stand on principle and to stand for principles.

France's Muslim minority, the largest in Europe, is becoming increasingly more observant, with more of them saying daily prayers, visiting mosques and fasting during Ramadan, a new survey said on Thursday.

This appeared to reflect in part a reaction to discrimination against Muslims in France, and a growing number of new mosques being built in the country.

Thirty-nine percent of Muslims surveyed by the polling group IFOP said they observed Islam's five prayers daily, a steady rise from 31 percent in 1994, according to the study published in the Catholic daily La Croix.

Mosque attendance for Friday prayers has risen to 23 percent, up from 16 percent in 1994, while Ramadan observance has reached 70 percent compared to 60 percent in 1994, it said.

Drinking alcohol, which Islam forbids, has also declined to 34 percent from 39 percent in 1994, according to the survey of 537 people of Muslim origin.

There was strong progression among Muslims under 25 for both mosque attendance and Ramadan observance. "There is a general tendency among the young to reaffirm their (Islamic) identity," Islam expert Franck Fregosi told La Croix.

He said this was partly a reaction to discrimination against France's Muslim minority, at five million the largest in Europe: "This 'Islam as a refuge' can be a way to respond to an environment that is not favorable to young Muslims."

Until Bruni became public, Indian analysts were discussing the French president's visit in terms of drier issues, such as India's cancellation of the recent multi-million dollar Eurocopter helicopter deal due to supposed US pressure and a controversy over French Scorpene submarines.

Yet, the visit of a French president never attracts the kind of frenzy or attention that accompanies a US presidential visit or the interest that a Russian or Chinese head of state can create.

Sarkozy, with the comely Bruni, however, tilts the balance and has already evoked the expected response from tabloids and the increasingly aggressive Indian paparazzi that feed the very competitive TV channels. Sarkozy's pictures with his pretty companion during recent travels to Egypt have been given prominent display.

[. . .]

However, Bruni and Sarkozy will perhaps need to watch out for the rising numbers of hyperactive, hypersensitive radical elements referred to as the "moral police" who love to pick on celebrities, especially film and sports stars, usually on charges of indecent portrayal of women, hurting religious sentiments and - a more recent concern - "disrespecting the national flag".

Although we knew the area we were moving to, we hadn't taken on board its linguistic complexity. If I look out of the window now I can see areas where four distinct languages are spoken.

Our house is on the northern boundary of the old kingdom of Béarn and the view is across the lovely Béarnaise countryside to the Pyrenees on the skyline. Now Béarn is part of France and its official language is French although that is a recent phenomenon.

Many of our older friends in the area only started to learn French when they went to school and their parents' generation never spoke it at all. But also we can see the (Spanish) Pyrenees - another language which is the main means of communication in a number of the mountain passes on the French side of the border.

La réalité, c'est que la société flamande, cette petite Bavière maritime, est en proie à un dynamisme économique et social remarquable, ayant réussi sa mutation linguistique, et dispose d'une population exactement équivalente à celles du Danemark ou de la Norvège. Méfiante à l'égard de la Hollande voisine, la Flandre indépendante serait en fait, assez vite, le plus francophile et le plus latin des États germaniques de l'Europe du Nord. Le dogme de la diplomatie française consistant à tout faire pour maintenir la Flandre en Belgique doit donc être révisé d'autant plus vite et radicalement qu'en prenant en main la revendication nationale, les chrétiens sociaux et leurs alliés libéraux et socialistes ont fait reculer l'extrême droite locale aussi efficacement que Sarkozy, en France.

The reality is that the society of Flanders, this small maritime Bavaria, enjoys a remarkable economic and social dynamism, having succeeded with its language issue, and has a population just as large as those of Denmark or Norway. Being wary with regard to neighbouring Holland, the independent Flanders would in fact rather quickly become the most francophile and Latin of the Germanic states of northern Europe. The dogma of French diplomacy that Flanders must be kept in Belgium thus should be revised, all the more quickly and radically since by creating an independent Flanders, the by taking in hand the national claim, the Christian Democrats and their liberal and socialist allies would push back the extreme right just as effectively as Sarkozy in France.

Mais voilà, les Wallons et les Bruxellois n'auront aucune envie de former un État croupion symétrique. Comme chacun devrait le savoir, c'est le 14 Juillet que l'on fête à Liège, c'est à Paris que l'on a sacré Michaux, Marguerite Yourcenar, Simenon et même le prix Nobel de littérature belge, Maurice Maeterlinck, qui jugeait sa langue natale flamande impropre à la littérature. En se choisissant une non-capitale à Namur, en intitulant sa représentation à Paris « communauté française » et non « communauté francophone », nos compatriotes d'outre-Quiévrain nous ont déjà tout dit. Comme Helmut Kohl en 1990, Nicolas Sarkozy a donc toutes les chances de devoir gouverner une France plus grande, un peu appauvrie par la crise industrielle chronique de ses nouvelles régions irrédentistes, et un Parti socialiste certes écrêté de ses élites les plus parisiennes, mais recentré sur la vieille base populaire du Borinage et de la vallée de la Meuse, pour ne pas parler des bobos bruxellois qui valent bien les nôtres.

But the Walloons and the Bruxellois will not want to form a symmetrical rump state tail. As everyone should know, July 14th is the holiday of Liège, and it is in Paris that literature crowned Michaux, Marguerite Yourcenar, Simenon and even the Nobel Prize-winner of Belgian literature, Maurice Maeterlinck, who considered his native Flemish language unsuitable for literature. By choosing a not-capital with Namur, by entitling its representation in Paris "French community" and not "French-speaking community", our compatriots on the other side of the Quiévrain said it all. Like Helmut Kohl in 1990, Nicolas Sarkozy has every chance to control a larger France, a bit impoverished by the chronic industrial crisis of his new redeemed areas, while a Socialist Party that has recently chopped off its Parisian elites could recenter on the old popular base of coal-mining and the valley of the Meuse, not to mention the sores of Brussels which are ours as well.

• Otto Spijkers at 1948 explores the way in which the candidates in the recent Fnench election used the terms "globalisation" and "mondialisation" in ways that suggested that these two words weren't synonyms of the same phenomenon.


• Alpha Sources' Claus Vistesen links to a contrarian analysis of his about the French economy, arguing that compared to many of its Eurozone neighbours France has what is in fact a relatively strong economy with good fundamentals.


• Aziz Poonwalla at City of Brass links to and comments upon an interesting article regarding conversions to Shi'ite Islam in Sunni-majority Syria.


• Joe.My.God touches upon the fallout of the failed relationship of Lord Browne (formerly of British Petroleum) and Canadian Jeff Chevalier, the whole sad story demonstrating that adequate amounts of palimony and a clean breakup are good things to have in a failing relationship regardless of sexual orientation.


• Bert Archer wonders why the press has such an adversarial relationship with authorities, arguably more so than in the not-too-distant past.
  
• Diane Duane reviews one of her favourite cafe/restaurants, Le Cirio in Brussels.


• Otto Pohl commemorates the 63rd anniversary of the beginning of the Soviet ethnic cleansing of the Crimean Tatars from their homeland.


• Edward Lucas' blog and Peteris Cedrins' Marginalia both have extensive, accurate coverage of the recent controversy surrounding Estonia's removal of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn from its former position of prominence in the Estonian capital.


• feorag at the Pagan Prattle links to news reports of a Satanic-conspiracy mania in an Italian kindergarten, twenty years after the North American wave.

imomus

imomus

Why is it a woman and not a man who represents the Republic? To start with, Liberté and République are both feminine nouns in the French language. One could also find the answer to this question in the traditions and mentality of the French, suggests the historian Maurice Agulhon, who in several well-known works set out on a detailed investigation to discover the origins of Marianne. A feminine allegory was also a manner to symbolise the breaking with the monarchical regime headed by men. Note also that even before the French Revolution, France or the Kingdom of France were embodied in masculine figures, as depicted in certain ceilings of Palace of Versailles.

imomus

Royal continues to snipe from the sidelines about Operation Iraqi Freedom and advocates America's withdrawal from Iraq. She believes that decisions about Iraq's transition should be made solely by the Iraqi government, barely concealing her implicit criticism of American involvement in the region. During her keynote manifesto speech outlining her presidential platform, she not only acknowledged the divisions caused by France's vocal opposition to the war in Iraq, but even pledged to speak "louder and stronger."

She has also made diplomatically crass comments about President Bush. "I do not mix up Bush's America with the American people," she has said. "The American people are our friends."

More than half of French Muslims are concerned about joblessness, according to survey data collected by Pew in April 2006. But unlike their coreligionists elsewhere, a substantial majority embraces the customs of their countrymen.

"Nearly eight in 10 French Muslims generally say they want to adopt French customs," Allen said. "And this high preference for assimilation certainly compares with that in Spain, although Spanish Muslims tend also to come from North Africa. Only 53 percent of Muslims in Spain say they want to adopt Spanish customs. Only 41 percent in Britain say the same about British customs. And nearly 30 percent in Germany say that. So you can see that in some sense the Muslims in France feel more at home in that country."

As with the Paris riots last fall, the arrests of British-born Muslims in London in connection with an alleged plot to blow up airliners have prompted speculation that ethnic discrimination and joblessness have made Islamic extremism attractive to British Muslims. But French Muslims also face unemployment and prejudice. In fact, 37 percent of French Muslims reported a bad experience due to their race, ethnicity, or religion, compared to 28 percent among British Muslims.

Yet, the worldviews of French and British Muslims are worlds apart, according to Allen.

"When you ask questions about things like [potential] Iranian nuclear weapons -- this is a very striking finding," Allen said. "When we asked whether they favored or opposed Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, fully 71 percent of French Muslims opposed it, whereas only 41 percent of British Muslims opposed it. You just sort of see a different worldview operating there. I think it is partly French culture, and it is also partly the culture that their family lived in North Africa, too, in a more secularized outlook and a feeling that religion can be separated from the state."

As one Toronto reporter put it, this was the "safer" World Cup final.

The one with France involved.

Italy vs. Portugal?

"It would have been a war zone," one fan said.

Chaos on the streets.

Little Italy vs. Little Portugal.

Adding up to big tension in the Big Smoke.

Italy vs. France?

Not so much.

In fact, where are the French?

In France, mostly.

Here in Ottawa, there is no Preston Street equivalent for expatriates, fervent followers of Les Bleus. Just pockets of activity to hint at the fire and passion back home on the streets of Paris.

The simple truth is that there aren't enough French expats in Ottawa to create much of a stir (that's not meant as a challenge, mes amis).

[. . .]

[French embassy staff member Olivier] Roy estimates there are at least 1,000 expats in this region. Nation-wide, about 100,000 former French nationals live in Canada, half of them in Montreal.

"Unlike other countries in Europe, France has been a place of immigration, not emigration," Roy said.

"There have been no diseases, no dictatorships," Roy said. "During World War II, France was invaded by the Germans. Otherwise, it has not been hard to live there."

Or to visit.

Vineyards, cheese, two mountain ranges and a place on the Riviera. What's not to like, except the occasional abrupt waiter?

In an essay distributed by the French embassy in 2005, sociologist Emmanuel Peignard wrote that France has had a tradition of immigration dating back 150 years, as a means of combatting declining birth rates and an aging population.

The French National Front party has a firm stance against immigrants and a solid "Frenchmen first"-policy. But in some regions, for instance in the Nord department bordering Belgium, one third of the members are of Polish origin. When asked about this state of affairs by the Polish press, National Front senior ideologist Bruno Gollnisch saw nothing strange in this. He said the Polish immigrants, who arrived in the 1940 or earlier, were hard-working and loyal to their new homeland. Dominique Slabolepszy, a National Front representative from the Nord-Pays de Calais-region and son of a Polish immigrant, said to the Polish daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita that he joined the Front 20 years ago. His family had been supporters of President Charles De Gaulle's party, but he believed that its ideas had been betrayed by its subsequent leaders, such as Jacques Chirac, the current president of France.

In 1999, 23% (13.5 million out of 59 million) of the population were of immigrant origin – 4.3 million were migrants themselves, 5.5 million were children of immigrants, and 3.6 million were grandchildren. Of these, 22% were connected to north Africa, 5% to sub-Saharan Africa, and 53% to other European countries (mostly Italian, Spaniards, Portuguese and Poles, who also took decades to integrate). To understand the complexity of this situation, a reader might try to imagine what such percentages could mean for his or her own society.

In targeting only "coloured" and Muslim immigrants – less than 30% of the total – some French politicians seem to be playing with fire. Moreover, they run the risk of alienating former French (and francophone) Africa where France's influence has been paramount since it reached independence in the 1960s. The magazine L'Evènement (Burkina Faso) recently quoted the late Ivory Coast president, and former member of the French government, Felix Houphouët-Boigny, who once said: "I waited for the bride in front of the church with flowers in my hands but she didn't come. And my flowers have wilted". The magazine added a comment on Jacques Chirac's last visit to Africa: that, if France couldn't come out with a new and more sensible African strategy, she "could miss her second rendezvous with the Africans. And, this time, it could mean divorce."