Another day, another reason to like France: A Paris court has convicted the cult of $$$cientology of fraud, fined it more than half a million euros and given suspended sentences to several of its leaders. The judge stopped short of banning the cult in France, which was the prosecution’s request, but he did cite its “obsession” with financial gain and its shady methods based on bringing members into a “state of subjection”.
The first step toward solving a problem is admitting that the problem exists, and the French seem to be the only people in Europe still willing to do so:
France is to launch a hard-hitting campaign aimed at ‘reaffirming pride’ in the country and combating Islamic fundamentalism.
As well as providing civic lessons for adults – including classes about the country’s Christian history and liberal political institutions – the government will encourage school children to sing the national anthem at least once a year.
In words which are certain to infuriate ethnic minority groups, Immigration Minister Eric Besson even suggested that ‘foreigners’ should learn to speak better French.
His proposed measures contrast sharply with the situation in Britain where ‘citizenship education’ centres on multicultural diversity and the European Union, while ‘God Save The Queen’ is not even taught in schools.
In an interview broadcast on national TV, Mr Besson said : ‘It’s necessary to reaffirm the values of national identity and the pride of being French.
‘I think, for example, that it would be good for all young French people to have the chance to sing The Marseillaise at least once a year.’
Mr Besson, who was himself born in the former French protectorate of Morocco, also suggested an immediate two-month long ‘great debate on national identity’ entitled ‘What does it mean to be French?’
Making clear that radical Islam was a threat, Mr Besson said: ‘In France, the nation and the republic remain the strongest ramparts against … fundamentalist tendencies. France is diversity, and France is unity.’
They even want to ban burkhas on French streets:
‘For me, there should be no burqas on the street,’ said Mr Besson. ‘The burqa is against national values – an affront to women’s rights and equality.’
Say what you will about the French, but they love their country too much to allow it to become Francostan.
Thirty-two-year-old Stephanie e-mailed her father moments before jumping from her fourth floor window at the firm last month, saying: “I can’t accept the new reorganisation in my department. I’m getting a new boss and I’d rather die.”
As opposed to, I don’t know… Finding a different job?
The trial is not about semantics like whether Scientology is a church or something else (it’s already considered a sect in France) but about seeing whether crimes have been committed and whether the organization should be disbanded in this country:
The Church of Scientology could be dissolved in France if it is convicted in a trial that opened Monday in a Paris court, where the group and seven of its French leaders stand charged of organized fraud and illegal pharmaceutical activity.
Investigating judge Jean-Christophe Hullin spent years examining the group’s activities, and in his indictment criticized practices he said were aimed at extracting large sums of money from members and plunging them into a “state of subjection.”
The whole and sole purpose of Scientology is to make its leaders rich. I don’t know of any other religion like that.
Alain Bauer, who is a criminologist from the Sorbonne University in Paris and a writer on terrorism, says alarm bells should be ringing, and makes a comparison with the situation 30 years ago.
“Action Directe and the Red Brigades appeared then in two distinct stages,” he asserts.
“Stage one was purely intellectual, with no attempt at violence. Stage two was plots, assassinations and violence.
“We need to learn from the past. When you write a paper on how to start a civil war, how to destroy public amenities and power supplies, this is very different. You are potentially taking things to a new level.
“Our job as criminologists is to read the books and notice that something is going on”.
Apparently, the Minister of Justice of France, Rachida Dati, is causing quite a stir as she showed up to a political event five days after having a cesarean section. The controversy comes from many areas, but one concern is that her actions imply the unimportance of a significant maternity leave. People worry that employers will try to hurry women back prematurely from excessive maternity leave.
A 43-year-old single mother, Dati is not telling who the child’s father is, and the French press is having fun guessing.
[I]n the 1960s, alcohol was a continuous ritual for many a French working man: coffee and calvados to start the day, maybe “le blanc,” a glass of white wine later in the morning, l’apéro, or aperitif, before lunch, red wine with the meal, another calvados, another apéro in the afternoon, more red wine with dinner.
And they are protesting on the streets in the nude under trade union banners, demanding job security, access to subsidised municipal sports facilities to keep in shape for their jobs and other goodies, but most of all – respect for their career choice. All in all, “a lovely protest in the French, gaulois spirit of resistance”, in the words of Paris’s deputy mayor for culture who used to be a nude model himself.
This article first appeared back in September, but it is worth re-reading today, on Victory in Iraq Day, as it tells about the respect Americans in uniform earn from European soldiers who share the dangers of combat duty with them. An excerpt:
Heavily built, fed at the earliest age with Gatorade, proteins and creatine – they are all heads and shoulders taller than us and their muscles remind us of Rambo. Our frames are amusingly skinny to them – we are wimps, even the strongest of us – and because of that they often mistake us for Afghans.
[...]
And they are impressive warriors! We have not come across bad ones, as strange at it may seem to you when you know how critical French people can be. Even if some of them are a bit on the heavy side, all of them provide us everyday with lessons in infantry know-how. Beyond the wearing of a combat kit that never seem to discomfort them (helmet strap, helmet, combat goggles, rifles etc.) the long hours of watch at the outpost never seem to annoy them in the slightest. On the one square meter wooden tower above the perimeter wall they stand the five consecutive hours in full battle rattle and night vision goggles on top, their sight unmoving in the directions of likely danger. No distractions, no pauses, they are like statues nights and days….
And combat ? If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all – always coming to the rescue when one of our teams gets in trouble, and always in the shortest delay…. [T]hey switch from T-shirt and sandals to combat ready in three minutes. Arriving in contact with the enemy, the way they fight is simple and disconcerting: they just charge! They disembark and assault in stride, they bomb first and ask questions later – which cuts any pussyfooting short.
We seldom hear any harsh word, and from 5 AM onwards the camp chores are performed in beautiful order and always with excellent spirit. A passing American helicopter stops near a stranded vehicle just to check that everything is alright; an American combat team will rush to support ours before even knowing how dangerous the mission is – from what we have been given to witness, the American soldier is a beautiful and worthy heir to those who liberated France and Europe.
To those who bestow us with the honor of sharing their combat outposts and who everyday give proof of their military excellence, to those who pay the daily tribute of America’s army’s deployment on Afghan soil, to those we owned this article, ourselves hoping that we will always remain worthy of them and to always continue hearing them say that we are all the same band of brothers.
It would be nice to hope that when the terrorists in Afghanistan are defeated and the American, Canadian, French and other troops are ready to come home, we will not have to fight a wall of silence in the media to declare the Afghan War won as we have to do now, after the Iraq War. It would be nice to hope that the troops’ sacrifice will at least be recognized with an official victory day. That would be a nice hope indeed - if it had any basis. As it is, though, we know that someone like the blogger who started the V.I. Day movement will again have to shout a rallying cry to give the heroes their own victory day – V.A. Day.
