Book burning
- 04 October 2010 at 00:02
- Politik Pop
I'm against the principle of book burning...
Image credits: Unknown
...but some people look like they have it coming.
I don't protest that often so I'm trying to make some noise about it...
Last September 4th, the Human Rights League launched a protest that many organisations took part of, against the "scapegoat politics" led by the government. These policies have by the way been heavily criticised around the world.
I hadn't found anybody to come with me so I want alone to Place de la République, without anything, and I started following the march. I saw the president of the Left Party Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the region's socialist president Jean-Paul Huchon, ex-first lady Danielle Mitterrand, green MP Noël Mamère, and so on. SO A-list.
At some point, I found Act-Up and I started walking with them. They even gave me posters and stuff. I could chant stuff such as "A racist State is a murderous State".
We still managed to gather between 77,000 and 100,000 people. It is, however, much less than the 900,000 to 3 million protesters against the retirement reform last Saturday.
I'm against the principle of book burning...
Image credits: Unknown
...but some people look like they have it coming.
The French can't wait for 2012! After three years of Sarkozy, they can't take it anymore. But nobody knows who to give his seat to.
The prevalent theory until March was that he would get re-elected, but it was before the huge defeat his party suffered at the regional elections. Since then, the Left thinks it's got its chances and the Right doubts. The recent Woerth-Bettencourt scandal and then the security measures announced last July (the President decided to oust the Roma and take away the citizenship of French people "of foreign origin" who would try to kill a cop) just made things worse. Yet, it is still very possible that he wins.
And if he doesn't win, someone else from the Right could. Former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin presents himself as "the anti-Sarkozy", even if it means ignoring his own record regarding Roma. He's the one who made the speech of France's opposition to the Iraq war in 2003. If Sarkozy didn't run this time or fell at the first round of the election, Villepin could easily win against the Left as leader of the humanist Right, as Chirac did in 1995 with what he then called the "social breaking". Fillon as well could be a candidate.
It will be a very difficult one for the Left, who is in bad shape, despite the crisis of neoliberalism.
The legitimacy of the Socialist Party, who is strongly competed by the Greens, inside the Left is getting weaker, even though the regional elections seem to have stopped the votes hemorrhage. Nevertheless, the Greens are about to play a bet by choosing Eva Joly as their candidate. A bet because she's still quite unfamous, she's little of a speaker but she's got a very good CV: she's been an iron independent judge, she fought very hard against corruption and particularly Elf, everybody knows she's a honest and determined person. And after all of the scandals suffered by the main political parties, people will like that a lot. However, I don't think she'll get elected. I think she's absolutely great and I would be proud to have her for President but her political positions are unknown, she's got little experience in politics and then, after seeing her against right-wing commentator Eric Zemmour, I thought she wasn't capable of defending her convictions properly, and this can be very, very bad in a presidential debate.
Besides, the state of the economy is still very unstable, and a new crisis, with a tough plan de rigueur (economic drastic plan), would give wings to the radical Left. After the bank bailout, people started wondering about the economic system. It looks like they already forgot though, but if the crisis came again, despite the efforts we would have had to make, the economic situation would be a disaster, and radical Left Mélenchon could make it make to the second round of the Presidential election, because nobody would like a greek-style story: when socialist Prime Minister Papandreou, also President of the Socialist International, got elected, he realised the previous government hid the real accountacy and had to reveal the true state of greek finances and he got forced by his greedy European mates, as well as the IMF, to execute the most antisocial agenda ever applied in history!
Much will depend on the Socialist Party, its candidate and its program. Right now, it looks like it will either be current IMF director (!) Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Martine Aubry. DSK is given a winner in every poll, despite being at the head of the IMF, proving, to me, that the French don't really want the Left. DSK would also have a major asset: his part at the IMF give him international credibility and the French will be sure, or at least believe, that with him would come back the markets trust. Regarding Martine Aubry, it's quite unclear. She seems a risky choice for the Socialists as the Right has always accused her of damaging the French economy with her 35-hour week law. But indeed, if their rights are too much attacked under Sarkozy, the French may want someone who is attached to social rights. But even more important, is the strategy that the socialist candidate will commit to in the case of another economic meltdown. Greek-style plan or revolutionary plan? Will this question even be mentioned?
The biggest fear actually for 2012 is not the reelection of Sarkozy, it's that the real questions may get avoided: the economic crisis and the political crisis.
Far-right National Front also is going to play an important part, with Marine Le Pen who seems softer than father and current leader Jean-Marie Le Pen who shocked France by making it to the second round of the Presidential election in 2002. She might make a big score and reedit her father's 2002 success. In that case, it is very likely that she will make a better score on the second round than her father who had to compete with Chirac for the Presidency, whoever she will stand against, given the current gloomy political landscape. If Sarkozy faces her, the Left will have a hard time to vote for him. Likewise, if the Left faces her, quite a few right-wing voters might consider voting for her. We may then have to face a political crash.
2012 is going to be a very important year. Many important elections will happen, particularly in the USA, and France will probably have to make tough decisions, but once again, the real questions might not get discussed at all.
The Woerth-Bettencourt affair made the French suspect corruption inside the government and, as the spiral of revelations wouldn't stop, Sarkozy couldn't find any better than blaming immigrants and, just to make sure he's made enough noise, the "French of foreign origin". So, now hundreds of Roma are being deported (even though they're European!), parents whose children miss school could be financially penalised and go to jail, but it is also said that french people of foreign origin would be stripped of the french nationality if they try to kill policemen. I don't see how that would increase security in France. Since then, the UN condemned Nicolas Sarkozy's policies, the international press condemned Nicolas Sarkozy's policies, even the Pope condemned Nicolas Sarkozy's policies!
Image credits: Act-Up
The masks have fallen. Nicolas Sarkozy is ready to dangerously stir xenophobia in France, and to attack the basic principle of republican equality, just to get re-elected in the next presidential election. It's just revolting and I will be on Saturday September 4, on the Place de la République at 2pm to protest with the Human Rights League.
Sarkozy is still very low in the polls and since the huge defeat of his party last March for the regional elections, it now appears possible to beat him in the 2012 presidential election. Moreover, the economy is not going well and he's about to cut public spending and social rights, but not the "tax shield" (a law he implemented, that prevents very rich people from paying too much taxes). However, people could very well re-elect him if he keeps stirring tensions as he's doing right now. Yes, we found our George W. Bush, our own worst President of the Republic!
Have you heard of the Tea Party? It's a political movement that is on the right of the Republican Party.
Because Bush wasn't enough.
Here is the advert of one of the candidates they support for the November elections.
The credits of that video must be on the website hosting it.
It's been two months now that BP's oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people and letting oil flow uninterruptedly since, at a vertiginous rate that is impossible to estimate precisely. It's a real ecological cataclysm, the worst in US history (but don't worry, not of mankind history!).
BP has done everything to stop the leak but nothing works. The british firm has to recognise that it didn't properly assess neither the risks, nor the solutions. It also has to face accusations that it didn't respect security standards in order to save money. So it's trying everything it can to save its image, even by buying all the possible keywords on Google to redirect internet users to its website. It also said:
I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don't care, but that is not the case with BP. We care about the small people.
This "small people" thing has not been taken in a good way in the US. especially now that Tony Hayward, the CEO, is currently taking part of a yachting competition in England.
In a nutshell, BP doesn't need anybody to make things worse for itself.
And the other main characters of the story are getting trapped in the oil as well. The first of them is Barack Obama who keeps making speech saying "it's not right!", but only shows he can't fix it. You can't blame him: indeed, he can't do anything about it. Well yeah, he's the President of the United States, not God.
The american Congress is not spared either. This week, the lawmakers received Tony Hayward, and they couldn't stop piling on him (which is kind of easy). the funniest thing is that a Republican apologised over this "shakedown". And the Democrats replied the Republicans were trying to protect their friends the rich, and so on and so forth.
So Congress had this great idea: call actor Kevin Costner. Why? Because he owns a company that makes (and sells!) machines that can separate water from oil. Will it really work? Watch the next episode!
And when you thought the world was going really wrong, here comes Sarah Palin, on Twitter:
Gulf disaster needs divine intervention as man's efforts have been futile. Gulf lawmakers designate today Day of Prayer for solution/miracle.
Thank you Sarah. If it ever works, it will be thanks to God, and if it doesn't, it will be because of Obama!
So yeah, the new couple at the head of the UK is very glamourous. It is even said that David cooked the first night.
Yeah, I'm talking of David Cameron, the Conservatives' leader and Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrats' leader, the new Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. What an unlikely alliance... But hey, the political landscape is such a mess over-there. So far, everything was about the Conservatives and Labour, especially because of a very unbalanced electoral system. This time, Labour lost, as planned, but the Conservatives didn't manage to convince either, which deprived them of an absolute majority, in a system that was conceived in a way to create strong majorities, though. So they made a coalition withe the Nick Clegg's LibDems.
What actually surprises me is that the Conservatives didn't ally with Labour. These two parties seemed closer and they would have had a stronger government and a bigger majority in Parliament! Since the Labour Party became New Labour with Tony Blair, it moved to the right a lot, going even further to the right than the Lib Dems who are considered as centrists. During the latest election, Nick Clegg clearly represented the left!
It is by the way the second thing that surprised me: I thought Labour would lose the previous election, in 2005, because of the war on Iraq, just like in Spain. Actually, it is very strange, I have the feeling that Labour lost only because of Gordon Brown's personality. When he came to power in 2007, the newspapers were mercyless regarding him. He was always mocked at because of his lack of charisma, his overweight, and stuff. He did bad things, but compared to Blair, it was nothing! And still, he's the one who lost. I'm not complaining for Brown, I just would have preferred Blair to lose.
The new "Clameron" government looks so unlikely that it is possible it doesn't make it through the end of the year. Until then, I hope Nick Clegg will have passed his reform of the electoral system, which was a priority in the coalition agreement. It will be a first step for the improvement of the political landscape in the UK.
Menwhile, Labour has to choose a new leader and I hope it will seise that opportunity to go back to the left. For now, there is a very media-friendly fight between David Miliband, the former Foreign Secretary, a blairite, and... his brother, Ed Miliband, former Secretary for Energy and Climate Change, who is supposed to be more left-wing. The latter already said the war on Iraq was a mistake, while David tries to play down polemics by saying that you shouldn't look to the past, blah blah blah...
Anyway, this whole mess is not going to help the country which is going through a touch economic slump.
You must have heard of the National Equality March that happened last weekend in the US, where loads of LGBT people converged to Washington in order to ask Obama that he realises his promises towards lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals. On Saturday evening, there was another event, the Equality to End HIV/AIDS Rally and Vigil, in front of the White House for the struggle against AIDS, but it hasn't been as successful. Blogger Andrew Sullivan was there and didn't refrain from speaking his mind about the Democratic Party, as well as the HRC (the main organization for gay rights in the US).
The credits of that video must be on the website hosting it.
I loved the Lady Gaga bit.
Update: actually he's a fucking cunt.
Le Figaro claims Tony Blair is still the front-runner for the job of President of the European Council, but they also list other possible candidates, some unlikely, some expected. There's Gordon Brown, François Fillon, as well as Juncker and Gonzalez. Every candidate has their advantages and their drawbacks, but when one of them got my specific attention.
Image credits: Unknown
When I read the name of former irish President Mary Robinson, I thought I shouldn't get carried away because she's the only woman in the list. But when I read she was honorary President of Oxfam International, a powerful, famous NGO, I was stunned: you don't imagine politicians neither commiting themselves to charities, nor being supported by organisations they haven't created themselves! Then I saw that she had been High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations, and that she had been awarded by Amnesty International for her work there. Wow!
This profile looks almost too good to be true. I'm sure that if we look a bit further, we can find something wrong. A journalist at the Washington Post wrote she didn't deserve the presidential medal of freedom, awarded by Obama, roughly because something was missing in her resume: a real achievement. He accuses her of talking the talk, but not delivering. (It's almost ironic now that we know that Obama has just got the Peace Nobel Prize, hardly nine months after his inauguration...) Likewise, she was President of Ireland, and not head of the government. It makes a difference because in Ireland, the President has very limited powers. She could then be reproached her lack of executive experience. It could indeed be a problem if we want a strong President, to really give pulse to Europe.
Anyway, I guess the 27 european leaders, who will decide who will be the first President of the European Council, do not want to choose someone who would urge them to respect their promises regarding Congo, among other things.
Nevertheless, I would be proud to have someone whose commitment for the Human Rights and fight against misery will have been so strong, as Preisdent of the European Council.
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