NewsTrust - France - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Those Revolting Europeans

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - May. 06 (Opinion) - The French are revolting. The Greeks, too. And it's about time.

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Germany’s Denial, Europe’s Disaster

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 02:20:53 -0800

New York Times - Nov. 30 (Opinion) - The only way to restore market confidence is with a real bailout fund financed in Europe.

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France, Islam and the banlieues: a debate on the place of Islam and class in the suburbs

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Michèle Tribalat, Gérard Mauger - Nov. 01 (Opinion) - In an effort to allay concerns about Islam in France, policymakers and analysts have either tried to play down its importance or sought to blend it into the landscape. Islam is often portrayed as an integral part of French history: its presence simply follows on from ancient history. The basis for this argument is shaky, for it refers to an era when Christendom – not yet referred to as the west – was in retreat, driven back by the force of Islamic arms.

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Op-Ed Columnist: The Age of Outrage

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 16:56:47 -0700

New York Times - By By ROGER COHEN - Aug. 13 (Opinion) - In Europe, August morphed into the serious season and the beach lost out to the barricades.

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Werner Herzog Enters 'The Cave Of Forgotten Dreams'

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

NPR - By Terri Gross, Werner Herzog - Apr. 25 (Interview) - In 1994, three French cave explorers discovered hundreds of prehistoric paintings and engravings on the walls of the Chauvet Cave in southern France. Carbon dating has since shown that the depictions of rhinoceroses, lions, cave bears, horses, bison, mammoths and other animals are between 30,000 and 32,000 years old. That doesn't mean the ancient drawings are any less sophisticated than what artists create today, says filmmaker Werner Herzog. "Art ... as it bursts on the scene 32,000 years ago, is fully accomplished. It doesn't start with 'primitive scribblings' and first attempts like children would make drawings," Herzog says. "It's absolutely and fully accomplished." The acclaimed German director, who has produced, written and directed more than 40 films, gained exclusive access to the Chauvet caves. He tells their story and the story of the world's oldest cave paintings in The Cave of Forgotten Dreams, a 3-D documentary film. "Since early adolescence, I have been fascinated by cave paintings," Herzog tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "It actually was my personal intellectual awakening ... and shook me to the core — seeing an image of a horse [from the] prehistoric Stone Age. I couldn't believe it." Part of Herzog's interest in the paintings, he says, is the knowledge that tens of thousands of years ago, humans had the instinct to make art in order to represent the world around them.

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The Libyan mission is creeping, no doubt

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Simon Tisdall - Apr. 19 (Opinion) - With Britain sending a 'military liaison advisory team' to Libya, how many more boots on the ground will follow?

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At War in Libya

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Mar. 22 (Editorial) - The allied attacks on Libya were perhaps the only hope of keeping more people from being slaughtered. But there is much reason for concern.

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France, S'il Vous Plaît, A Burqa Ban Isn't The Answer

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

NPR - By Anyshay Hossain - Jan. 26 (Opinion) - The issue of banning the burqa in France has generated so much heat over the past few months that one would assume the ban had already come into effect. Not so. Since French President Nicolas Sarkozy famously stated that, "the burqa is not a religious sign, it is a sign of the subjugation, of the submission of women...it will not be welcome on our territory," a parliamentary panel has spent the past six months looking into why Muslim women wear the burqa, and what it means for France. The roughly 170 page report released today recommends the burqa be banned in all public spaces such as schools and hospitals, but does not make it illegal to wear on the streets or in "private buildings." The panel had to be very careful with their stipulations because a full ban would have been unconstitutional.

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World Focus: Al-Qa'ida keeps its promise to be 'bone in crusaders' throats'

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - By Robert Fisk - Aug. 21 (Opinion) - Is it worth it? This is the question that the Iraqis and the Algerians and the Afghans and the Pakistanis now have to ask themselves. In answering this question, they will have to ask whether we care about them - we do not, of course - and whether the money they make from working for us is worth their lives. The mere fact that 10 French dead matter so much in Afghanistan - when 10 Afghan villagers matter so little when they are killed off in our anti-Taliban air raids - speaks mountains about our love for the Muslims of this towering, massive landscape.

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A few good people

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:35:00 -0800

Chicago Tribune - By Victor Davis Hanson - Nov. 30 (Opinion) - In the last few years, it has become popular to say that history is determined largely by sweeping inanimate forces of technology, the environment, gender, class or race. We play down the role of individuals -- as if the notion that one person can shape history is old-fashioned. But that's hardly the case. Take Nicolas Sarkozy, the new president of France. For 60 years, the power of the state in France had steadily increased. Government workers were handed lavish entitlements and retirement packages while French competitiveness diminished in a new globalized world. But this spring, Sarkozy arrived on the scene with visions of France as a world diplomatic player that would be known for its principled behavior and defense of Western values.

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A New French Revolution

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:55:09 -0800

Newsweek - By Fareed Zakaria - Nov. 26 (Opinion) - If France fixed its problems with labor flexibility, it could be catapulted forward by higher growth and lower unemployment, which would make the whole system much more sustainable. Generations of French would still be able to take their long lunches and longer vacations.

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What France can do in Iraq

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 08:32:30 -0700

International Herald Tribune - By Bernard Kouchner - Aug. 26 (Opinion) - I have just returned from three days in Iraq. I went to listen to the candid views of its people - Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians - in order to get a feel for what they think. I also wanted to express France's complete support for the crucial goal of national reconciliation and for the inclusive dialogue that is needed to bring this about. In my conversations there, I perceived a deep need among many Iraqis for recognition and for new ties with France and Europe. The Iraqis have been isolated for too long and feel abandoned by the international community. After years of debating the American presence in Iraq, the time has come for us to turn our attention to the Iraqis themselves.

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Goodbye to la belle France?

Thu, 17 May 2007 12:25:17 -0700

The Guardian - May. 17 (Editorial) - the fact that the French have chosen such a civilised, civilising state over the barbarities of the US, and delivered good public services with a quality that shames their British equivalents, only shows their commitment to making the revolutionary values of liberty, equality and fraternity real. Or so it seems if you can blind yourself to the huge problems of unemployment among young people and the poverty and alienation of those from ethnic minorities.

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Can an American lead the French?

Wed, 16 May 2007 12:57:47 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Patrick Belton - May. 16 (Opinion) - Nicolas Sarkozy may be his country's most unabashedly pro-U.S. leader since Lafayette. France's assertive new president has promised drastic economic reforms ï¿½ la Anglo-Amï¿½ricain, and believes he has a mandate for change. He vowed a modernizing "rupture" with French politics during the campaign and said French politicians should emulate Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. He speaks often of his admiration for the United States, and his rhetoric of hard work and appeals to the "France that gets up early" is pure Ronald Reagan. Accordingly, his proposals include lower corporate taxes, smaller public sector pensions, and a relaxation of the sacred 35-hour workweek. Make no mistake, France needs Sarkozy's medicine--badly. According to the Economist, its growth rate is the slowest of any large European country. Government spending eats up half of gross domestic product--the highest share of the major economies. During the past quarter century, France's per capita GDP has dropped from seventh to 17th in the world. Unemployment is entrenched around 10 percent nationwide, and it is at least twice as high in the banlieues, the hardscrabble suburbs dominated by marginalized North African immigrants and their descendants.

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L'Adulte: Can Sarkozy reform France?

Mon, 07 May 2007 10:47:07 -0700

Opinion Journal (WSJ) - By John Fund - May. 07 (Opinion) - Conservative Nikolas Sarkozy's comfortable victory over Socialist Ségolène Royal in France's presidential race may indicate that Europe's slowest-growing major economy is finally ready for some change. Long derided as a "center of social rest" for its cradle-to-grave welfare state, mandatory 35-hour work week, public-sector strikes and ossified employment rules, France has voted for a new president who claims he wants to shake things up. "France does not fear change," Mr. Sarkozy told his supporters as the vote progressed yesterday, "France hopes for it."

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Will France choose Sarko or the road to ruin?

Sat, 05 May 2007 10:47:36 -0700

Daily Telegraph - By Simon Heffer - May. 05 (Opinion) - It rarely happens to a country that a clear opportunity is presented to it to save itself from ruin. Only once since the war has it happened to Britain, in 1979, when the people realised that the end of the road had been reached with the consensus that had prevailed since the Second World War, and it was time to start again on a different basis. Tomorrow, France can choose to have its 1979.

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Bill Maher on the French

Sat, 05 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700

HBO - By Bill Maher - May. 05 (Comedy News) - The French have a different approach to elections than we do: They Vote.

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France's undemocratic election

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 09:39:10 -0700

RIA Novosti - By Pyotr Romanov - Apr. 23 (Opinion) - The real task of democracy is not so much to determine the winner in a presidential race, as to find the most suitable leader for the country. The current election system cannot do this. It is not a subtle competition involving may players, but a battle of giants that divides the battlefield between winners and losers. The former usually believe that victory gives them the right to do whatever they please, whereas the latter reject the winners' policy outright and start preparing for a new battle immediately after the elections. [The conclusion was quoted here.]

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A vote for change

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 09:14:49 -0700

The Guardian - By Martin Kettle - Apr. 22 (Opinion) - French voters have very clearly chosen the main candidate of the centre-right, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the main candidate of the centre-left, Sï¿½golï¿½ne Royal, to contest the second round of the 2007 presidential elections in two weeks time. Between them these two traditions have dominated French politics since 1958. Yet paradoxically this is a vote for change not a vote for no change, The contrast between this first round and the first round in the last presidential contest five years ago is dramatic. In 2002, Jacques Chirac came top of the first round poll with only 19.9%, followed by Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front on 16.9% and the Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin on 16.2%. That election was a revolt against the established parties: between them the Gaullist Chirac and the Socialist Jospin polled just 36.1% of the votes. Led by Le Pen's surge into second place, fully 63.9% of voters turned against the two main parties.

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France's chance

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:11:26 -0700

Economist - Apr. 12 (Editorial) - No French presidential election in 50 years has looked as unpredictable as this year's, the first round of which takes place on April 22nd. This is so even though the leader in every opinion poll so far has been Nicolas Sarkozy, the candidate of the ruling centre-right UMP party. His support may be overestimated, just as that of the far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen may be underestimated. The rise of the centrist François Bayrou, who at one point almost overtook the Socialist Ségolène Royal, has muddied the electoral arithmetic. And with only ten days to go, more than two in five voters are undecided. This election matters. France is the euro zone's second-biggest member and home to ten of Europe's 50 biggest companies. But it is deeply troubled. It has the slowest-growing large economy in Europe, a state that soaks up half of GDP, the fastest-rising public debt in western Europe over the past ten years and, above all, entrenched high unemployment. Over the past 25 years French GDP per person has declined from seventh-highest in the world to 17th. The smouldering mood of the suburbs (banlieues), home to many jobless youths from ethnic minorities, blazed into riots in 2005 and lay behind new trouble that flared recently at a Paris railway station. The disenchantment of voters is reflected not only in opinion polls but also in their rejection of the European Union constitution in 2005. Tellingly, they have not re-elected an incumbent government for a quarter-century.

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