France Annoys Another Friend
France is thinking about making it an offence to deny the Armenian genocide and a bill is passing through their parliament.
If you don’t know about the genocide, this is the first few paragraphs from the Wikipedia article.
The Armenian Genocide also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was implemented through wholesale massacres and deportations, with the deportations consisting of forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees. The total number of resulting Armenian deaths is generally held to have been between 1 million and 1.5 million. Other ethnic groups were similarly attacked by the Ottoman Empire during this period, including Assyrians and Greeks, and some scholars consider those events to be part of the same policy of extermination.
It is widely acknowledged to have been one of the first modern genocides, as scholars point to the systematic, organised manner in which the killings were carried out to eliminate the Armenians, and it is the second most-studied case of genocide after the Holocaust. The word genocide was coined in order to describe these events.
If you read the article, you’ll see that it was probably one of the most barbaric acts of history at the start of the twentieth century. And let’s face it there were quite a few atrocities.
The French action in their parliament, is very much resisted by Turkey, who still deny that the genocide happened There was a protest in Ankara yesterday, which is reported in the Guardian.
France in a Fitch
The French have been blaming everybody except themselves for the pickle the Euro is in.
They have used their biggest guns against the UK. But they have also had a go at the rating agencies, saying that they are part of the Anglo-Saxon plot against the euro. This report on the BBC concerns the view of the rating agency Fitch on the euro.
But Fitch is a French-owned company. Even so, they give France a less than perfect rating.
I shall be watching what they say in the future.
Transmanche Metro
This is an idea that I found on Wikipedia for Stratford station, which talks of the proposed “Transmanche Metro” service to Calais via local stations.
It appears to contain a certain degree of kite-flying and some of the references seem to link it with French politics. There is this article on a holiday home web site.
On the other hand a direct route from Stratford in East London to Lille, via Ebbsfleet, Ashford and Calais might prove to be a lower cost alternative to Eurostar, especially for commuters, business and families, especially if it offered a virtually turn-up-and-go service.
The problems with setting it up would probably be more to do with the vested interests of Eurostar and SNCF, than anything to do with access to the Channel Tunnel or safety issues.
Will it ever happen?
Probably not for a couple of years or so, but then who’d have thought that such as Ryanair and easyJet would grow so big, when they started by providing a low-cost alternative to the major airlines. So don’t predict anything!
The Palm Dog
Most cinema enthusiasts have heard about the Palme d’Or awarded at the Cannes Film Festival for the best film.
I hadn’t realised until today, that there was also a Palm Dog, awarded to the best performance by a canine. The award this year was won by Uggy, a Jack Russell, in a film called The Artist.
I Bet Elliot Morley Wishes He Was French!
Elliot Morley has just been jailed for expenses fraud for sixteen months.
What would he have got in France?
After all, the French believe that Dominique Strauss Kahn is innocent and it’s all a setup, so I suspect someone like Eliot Morley would have probably been given a guided tour of the Bastille.
Strauss-Kahn Reporting in the United States and France
I have read this enlightening report on Bloomberg about the difference of the reporting of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest in New York, in the United States and France.
Here’s a typical couple of paragraphs.
For the U.S., the public’s right to know about an arrest is paramount, while in France the privacy — even of a criminal suspect — takes precedence.
“For the moment, the French media has been very restrained” in avoiding saying or writing anything to imply guilt, said Dominique de Leusse de Syon, a member of Strauss- Kahn’s legal team. “The problem is the images, whether they convey Mr. Strauss-Kahn as guilty.”
In other words anything goes in France, if you are French.
After all, the French published any old tosh they could find about Princess Diana, when at the time several high-profile French politicians were as crooked as a hurling stick.
Strauss-Kahn may indeed be innocent, but then seeing the allegations that have appeared in respected newspapers, he doesn’t appear to hsve been a saint in matters sexual.
Bedbugs In New York
Two stories from New York catch the eye today; Bedbugs bite into the US economy and the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
The latter of course would have like to be a bedbug, but didn’t go about it in the right way. As he was one of the most important of the wunch of the great and good trying to sort out Greece, we’re all going to pay for his indiscretions. I do hope the man gets a sentence in jail, even if it is less than what the prosecutors seem to be demanding, as he seems to be rather a serial whatsit and we don’t want people like him in public life, if all the stories are true. After all, how can he make a proper decious, if all he’s thinking about is the next legover.
But then the French see things differently and the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair could all lead to some serious problems between the United States and France.
What is so stupid about all this, is that several times in my life, when I’ve stayed in top-class hotels alone, I’ve been offered serious ladies by the staff for my pleasure by the concierge or other staff. I’ve never taken them up on their offer, as I’m not that sort of person. I say person, as once in the Copley Plaza hotel in Boston, I was having a late night drink and talking to the barman, as one does, when he discretely fixed-up the lady at the other end of the bar, with someone twenty or so years her junior. All it took was one quick phone call on his part. And this was in a pre-mobile age. That lady incidentally was French and the barman said she was a regular customer.
So the French do do things differently.
A House In France
Yet another of my friends have said they are going to buy a house in France. I could be rude about the idea, but I won’t be. On the other hand, I have been there and done it and it never works out how you think it would.
When we bought Les Ondes, we saw it as an investment, a place to stay on holiday and also a place to move to, if we ended up with an extreme left-wing socialist government.
So what happened? In those days getting to the South of France by the airlines was expensive and difficult, but I did have my Cessna 340 and I could fly easily to Cannes and get a hire car to the house.
- The low-cost airlines came along and opened up lots of other places to visit for weekends and longer.
- Small repairs and the builders proved difficult, and things that take a few hours here, took a few weeks there.
- We got burgled a couple of times and had three hire-cars stolen.
- Our children always had other things to do and didn’t want to come.
- We got more involved in horse racing in the UK and this took up more of our time.
- Something you wanted was always in the other house, so you had to have two of everything.
- We missed the theatre and the cinema and started spending virtually every Saturday in London.
So circumstances change and the ideals of the first few holidays quickly disappear.
We sold the house, when we moved to Newmarket to open the stud and then there was another set of problems; the French taxation system, which meant we didn’t get some of the money for ten years.
I’m glad that we sold the house in France, as now after my stroke and C’s death, it would be yet another millstone around my neck and a worry on my mind.
To me now, properties are for two things; living in and for renting out. I have a few of the latter and they give me some income, that if I wanted to, I could use to travel the world. But at the moment, I’m enjoying doing up my new house and travelling all over the UK by train. I’m actually now starting to plan an adventure and it might be somewhere like the Amalfi Coast by train, where I’ll stay somewhere warm for a week or so. There is also Berlin, where I want to see the new museum. But I’ll wait for warmer weather for that.
So although it’s a nice idea on paper, a house in France, is a money pit, that restricts you in your enjoyment in life, by tying you to one place.
Incidentally, I know lots of people with second houses. The ones who use it most have a beach hut on the North Norfolk coast.
So take the money you would spend, invest it wisely and use the returns to rent some other fool’s house when you want a long stay in the sun.
Zoe Renault
Another legal spat reported in the Telegraph.
Interestingly in France, where I thought they had better things to do.
The Anonymous Widower 