Philippe Val receives the Morris Abram 2015 Award for Human Rights @UNWatch

What happened to the Left?

Islam has taken the passionate spot in the hearts of the world's intellectuals of the Left.

"We must not speak of Islam, because it stigmatizes the 'victim'"

Unfortunately it's only in French, but the speech is excellent.

Discours: Philippe Val reçoit le Prix Morris Abram 2015 pour les Droits de l'Homme



 See the video on YouTube here.

Maxi boots and mini controversies: The strangely close relationship of French politicians and journalists Politics #France The Economist

Politics in France

Maxi boots and mini controversies

The strangely close relationship of French politicians and journalists

Jun 9th 2012 | PARIS | from the print edition

 

Valérie keeps on working

IN THE 1960s a French magazine editor, Françoise Giroud, recruited a crop of female political reporters to L’Express in hopes that they would charm their way to scoops. Catherine Nay, still a working journalist, recalls that she “turned up at the National Assembly in a mini skirt and white maxi boots”. She ended up falling for a deputy, who later became a minister—but, she says, nobody worried then about a conflict of interest.

Times have changed, but ties between politics and media have not. Three Socialist ministers live with journalists. Valérie de Senneville, wife of Michel Sapin, the labour minister, works for Les Echos. Arnaud Montebourg, minister of “productive recovery”, is the partner of Audrey Pulvar, a broadcast journalist, whose employer has said she can no longer conduct political interviews. Vincent Peillon, education minister, is married to Nathalie Bensahel of Le Nouvel Observateur, which is running a cover: “Les Liaisons Dangereuses: women journalists and male politicians”.

Most arresting, President François Hollande, ex-partner of Ségolène Royal, a former Socialist presidential candidate, is now companion to Valérie Trierweiler, a journalist at Paris-Match and presenter of a cable-TV show. This week, the magazine decided to keep her as a journalist, while Mr Hollande runs the country—though she will not cover politics. Similar rules have been applied to others.

The French are not alone in mixing affairs of state and heart. Gerhard Schröder, a former German chancellor, met his fourth wife, Doris, when she was a journalist. Michael Gove, Britain’s education minister, is married to a journalist. But France seems more prone than others. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, disgraced former IMF boss, is married to Anne Sinclair, a former TV presenter who is editor of the French Huffington Post. Christine Ockrent, partner of Bernard Kouchner, a former foreign minister, was a TV news anchor. Nor is it just on the left. Alain Juppé, former foreign minister, and Jean-Louis Borloo, another ex-minister, are married to journalists.

In a country that sets official store by equality, nobody suggests ministerial spouses should stop work. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy released an album while her husband, Nicolas Sarkozy, was president. Indeed, some newly downgraded journalists are indignant, arguing that they are capable of separating professional and personal matters. On Twitter, Ms Pulvar mocked her demotion, referring to “when I had a brain”.

Since the public interest stops at the bedroom door, much in France is unspoken, as Jean Quatremer says in his book “Sex, Lies and the Media”. For years, the media kept quiet the existence of François Mitterrand’s out-of-wedlock daughter, as well as the predatory behaviour of Mr Strauss-Kahn. This is changing; one poll finds that 54% think political journalists living with a politician should not stay in their job. As a comfort for Ms Trierweiler, this view was shared by only 34% of those who voted for Mr Hollande.

The Economist print edition | Europe

Read the article online here: Politics in France: Maxi boots and mini controversies | The Economist

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Oman: The world's hostage negotiator | FP Passport

Oman: The world's hostage negotiator

Posted By Uri Friedman Monday, November 14, 2011 - 6:01 PM

Yes, it's Oman to the rescue yet again. Today we're learning that the Omani government helped negotiate the release of three French aid workers held by al-Qaeda militants in Yemen. A Yemeni tribal mediator tells the Associated Press that Oman and a Yemeni businessman paid an unspecified sum to the militants, who had been demanding $12 million in exchange for the hostages.
The state-run Oman News Agency reports that Oman's ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, directed officials to "provide all facilities" to help France in recognition of the "distinguished relations" between the two countries. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, for his part, has "warmly" thanked the sultan for his "decisive help." The aid workers crossed the Yemeni-Omani border by car, flew to Muscat on an Omani military plane, and then left for France.
If this scenario sounds familiar, that's because it is. In 2010, Omani sources paid $500,000 bail to win the release of American hiker Sarah Shourd, who had been detained by Iran along with her fiancé Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal a year earlier for straying across the Iran-Iraq border. This fall, Oman shelled out close to $1 million for the release of Bauer and Fattal. A diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks indicates that Oman helped secure the release of British sailors captured by Iranian forces in 2007 as well.
How did Oman become the Denzel Washington of Middle East hostage situations? The answer lies in Oman's pragmatic, Switzerland-esque approach to foreign policy. In 1970, Qaboos -- who maintains a tight grip on power and who Robert Kaplan has described as the "most worldly and best-informed leader in the Arab world" -- overthrew his father in a palace coup and set about transforming an isolated and unstable country into a nonaligned regional power. In the 1980s, for example, Oman somehow managed to maintain diplomatic relations with both sides in the Iran-Iraq war while backing U.N. Security Council calls to end the conflict.
This diplomatic balancing act has enabled Oman to enjoy good (but not excessively cozy) relations with both Iran and the U.S. and its Western allies. Qaboos, a supporter of the Shah before the Iranian revolution, has eschewed the hostile stance that Gulf neighbors like Saudi Arabia have adopted toward the Islamic regime. Instead, Oman and Iran cooperate to secure the Strait of Hormuz, which divides the two countries and transports 40 percent of the world's oil and gas.
"Oman views Iran as the strategic threat to the region but has chosen to manage the threat by fostering strong working relations with Tehran," a 2010 U.S. diplomatic cable explained. Iran, for its part, may not view the small sultanate as much of a threat and may value the alliance as it grows increasingly isolated. Oman has pressed Iran to negotiate with the U.S. over its nuclear program and even offered to facilitate secret talks.
America's friendly relationship with Oman, meanwhile, dates back to at least 1841, when Oman became the first Arab nation to recognize the U.S. The sultanate has a free trade agreement with the U.S. and has permitted American forces to use its military bases in the past (in 2010, however, Omani officials strongly denied reports that they had discussed deploying U.S. missile defenses in the country). Oman's role as a key interlocutor between Iran and the U.S. was underscored last month when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Qaboos following the revelation of an alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. "We would expect that Omanis would use their relationship with Iran, as they have in the past, to help the Iranians understand the implications of what they're doing," a U.S. State Department official noted during the visit.
The hostage deals, then, may represent just one more weapon in Oman's arsenal for neutralizing threats to regional stability like the political paralysis in Yemen and deteriorating U.S.-Iranian relations. In a 2009 diplomatic cable, the U.S. ambassador to Oman informed an Omani foreign affairs official that securing the release of the three American hikers in Iran would "remove an unhelpful irritant" between Washington and Tehran. When Bauer and Fattal arrived safely in Muscat two years later, an Omani foreign ministry statement expressed hope that the deal would promote a "rapprochement between both the Americans and the Iranians" and "stability in the region." Oman's millions have yet to accomplish those elusive goals, but they have purchased several people their freedom.
Oman: The world's hostage negotiator | FP Passport

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We have a Winner! @EconEurope

The Economist (@EconEurope) 10/17/11 2:07 PM François Hollande wins the French Socialist primary and will now join battle to topple Nicolas Sarkozy next year. We have a Winner! THE decisive victory of François Hollande at the Socialist Party primary yesterday marks the countdown to France's 2012 presidential election. A former party leader and long-time apparatchik, Mr Hollande secured 57% of the vote, next to 43% for his rival, Martine Aubry, the mayor of Lille. His nomination was backed by all four of the defeated first-round candidates, and the margin of victory was clear, raising hopes among left-wing voters that he will be able to unify the party around his candidacy. In a telling image broadcast live last night, Mr Hollande embraced Ms Aubry and each of the defeated first-round candidates before cheering crowds outside the Socialist headquarters on the Paris left bank. It was a carefully orchestrated show of unity, after a campaign that had exposed not only ideological but personal differences among the candidates. Beside Mr Hollande stood a grinning Arnaud Montebourg, whose protectionist campaign for "deglobalisation" secured him a surprise 17%, and third place, in the first-round vote, and even Ségolène Royal, Mr Hollande's former partner and mother of their four children, who was beaten into fourth place in the first round with just 7%. In the end, Mr Hollande benefited from his poll lead as favourite both to win the nomination, and to beat Nicolas Sarkozy, the incumbent president, in next spring's election. Mr Montebourg, who took great delight between the first and second rounds in playing an extravagant courtship game with the two finalists, finally announced that he would vote for Mr Hollande—but only because he looked the better-placed to win the presidency. Mr Hollande has topped such polls ever since Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF managing director, was excluded from the race after his arrest in New York on sexual-assault charges that were later dropped. The Socialist primary exercise has put the party in extraordinarily buoyant mood. For one thing, turn-out, already high in the first round, was even stronger yesterday, with 2.8m votes cast by left-leaning voters. This has lent the party a fresh, modern air. For another, the Socialists now seem set to rally behind Mr Hollande, an instinctive consensus-seeker. Last time round, when Ms Royal won the primary to become the Socialists' 2007 presidential candidate, the party was deeply divided, and she led her somewhat solitary election campaign from outside the party hierarchy. This time, Mr Hollande has urged unity, and reached out to his defeated rival. Like the Labour Party ahead of Britain's 1997 general election, the French Socialists seem to be so fed up with losing elections that they will do whatever it takes to win. The last presidential election they won was in 1988. Although all polls suggest that Mr Hollande would beat Mr Sarkozy hands down were the presidential vote held today—one this month gave him 60% next to Mr Sarkozy's 40%—there are plenty of obstacles in the way. One is that Mr Hollande now has to try to reconcile the left wing of his party, represented by Mr Montebourg, with the social-democratic middle. He needs the left-wingers if only to stave off a far-left threat from outside the party, where a grumpy anti-establishment politician, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, enjoys support. Yet Mr Hollande also needs to appeal to the centre if he is to pick up voters disillusioned with Mr Sarkozy. This will mean some complicated political gymnastics, and will expose him to a charge of incoherence that the right has already identified. During the primary campaign, Mr Hollande called in one breath for ambitious deficit-reduction and in another for the creation of up to 70,000 new teaching jobs. Mr Sarkozy, who has yet to declare his candidacy, has been notably absent from the airwaves in recent months. Once he throws in his hat officially, the poll gap between the two politicians could narrow, not least because the president is a formidable campaigner. Mr Sarkozy will doubtless make much of the inexperience of Mr Hollande, who has never held a ministerial job. Mr Hollande will point to rising debt and deficits on Mr Sarkozy's watch. In the end, the choice will be only partly political: it will also be between a big hyperactive personality with experience but mixed results, and a largely charisma-free alternative in Mr Hollande, who campaigns as a "normal" candidate. After the whirlwind of Mr Sarkozy, that could just be what voters want. ow.ly/6ZpuQ

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Sex, politics and the Vice-Squad

This article, published in France's Le Monde, analyzes the use of the police's investigations and information, by successive French Presidents….

De tout temps, la police a été l'instrument du pouvoir. Avant d'accéder à la présidence de la République, François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac et Nicolas Sarkozy sont tous passés par la Place Beauvau    

[Throughout history, the police has been the instrument of those in power. Before becoming president of the Republic, François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy have all passed through Place Beauvau]

It's in French, so use the Google translator tool to help you read it in the language of your choice.

Sexe, politique et police des mœurs - LeMonde.fr

Avertie en continu, la Préfecture de police de Paris centralise les informations sensibles.AFP/ERIC FEFERBERG

L'Elysée, bien plus que les médias, n'ignorait rien de la vie privée de Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Le pouvoir, alimenté par ses relais dans la police, sait tout des secrets les plus intimes des hommes politiques, jusqu'à user des informations graveleuses dont il dispose.

Ainsi, des proches de Nicolas Sarkozy avaient pris soin de laisser "fuiter" auprès du Monde, ces derniers mois, l'existence d'une note, rédigée peu avant la présidentielle de 2007, par un policier de la base. Quelques lignes signalant la présence de M. Strauss-Kahn, surpris en fâcheuse posture dans une voiture, à l'ouest de Paris, dans un haut lieu des rencontres tarifées, à l'occasion d'un banal contrôle.

Sollicités, ni la Préfecture de police de Paris ni le ministère de l'intérieur n'ont souhaité confirmer – ou démentir – l'existence de cette note. Trois sources différentes ont pourtant assuré au Monde que ce rapport avait existé, et qu'il avait été porté à la connaissance de l'entourage de M.Sarkozy.

Selon l'une de ces sources, l'original de cette note a été passé au broyeur. A l'époque des faits, il fut décidé, en haut lieu, de ne pas donner de suites à cette affaire sur le plan pénal – ou médiatique. Candidat malheureux à la primaire du PS fin 2006, DSK ne présentait pas alors le même enjeu pour le pouvoir. Et c'est en parfaite connaissance de cause que M. Sarkozy, une fois élu, le propulsa à la tête du Fonds monétaire international (FMI).

Mais ces derniers mois, au fur et à mesure de la progression de DSK dans les sondages, des hommes de confiance de M.Sarkozy se sont vantés devant des journalistes de "tenir" le patron du FMI, dont ils menaçaient de révéler les frasques. C'est ainsi que cette note a refait providentiellement surface. Au même moment, le chef de l'Etat se posait en "moine trappiste", par opposition à la réputation de coureur de jupons de DSK.

ÉQUIPE LA MIEUX RENSEIGNÉE DE FRANCE

C'est un fait : M.Sarkozy, depuis 2002, connaît certains aspects de la vie privée des personnalités susceptibles de présenter un jour un danger électoral. A son arrivée au ministère de l'intérieur, il a constitué une équipe de fidèles qui lui doivent tout. De Bernard Squarcini, patron de la Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur (DCRI), à Claude Guéant, ministre de l'intérieur, en passant parAlain Gardère, directeur adjoint du cabinet de ce dernier, ou Michel Gaudin, préfet de police de Paris, cette équipe est la mieux renseignée de France.

Fin avril, DSK avait d'ailleurs identifié le danger, comme l'a rapporté Libération : son appétence pour les femmes, certes, mais surtout les méthodes supposées de M. Guéant, à l'origine selon lui de la propagation des rumeurs sur sa vie intime.

De tout temps, la police a été l'instrument du pouvoir. Avant d'accéder à la présidence de la République, François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac et Nicolas Sarkozy sont tous passés par la Place Beauvau. Lors de son retour à l'intérieur, en juin 2005, M.Sarkozy avait confié :"Je serai mieux protégé."

The odd couple at Europe’s helm

The odd couple at Europe's helm
From The International Herald Tribune:

PARIS — She makes fun, in private, of the way he walks and talks, of his rapid, jerky gestures and facial grimaces. He mocks her deliberation, her reluctance, her matronly caution.
She has compared him to Mr. Bean and to the French comic Louis de Funès, with his curly hair and large nose. He sometimes calls her ''La Boche,'' the offensive French version of ''Kraut,'' and goes out of his way to give her an embrace and a double-cheeked kiss in the French fashion, the kind of contact that he knows very well, aides say, she cannot stand.

While the agonies of the European Union — sovereign defaults, deficits and bubbles — unfold like a great wonk drama, at their core is something more intimate: the fractured tale of Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy. They have been photographed across Europe giving the appearance of happy partnership. They are the best hope Europe has for continued unity. But they do not like each other at all.

As with any couple in trouble, economic difficulty has added to the strain. Two years ago, at the beginning of the crisis, Mr. Sarkozy burst out in public, saying, ''France is acting, while Germany is only thinking about it!''

Later, before an E.U. meeting in Brussels on the Greek bailout, the French president was in a rage at his inability to persuade Mrs. Merkel to do more for that country.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/magazine/16MerkelSarkozy-t.html

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Chinese Espionage and French Trade Secrets

Chinese Espionage and French Trade Secrets
January 20, 2011 | 0953 GMT

By Sean Noonan

Paris prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin on Jan. 14 began an inquiry into allegations of commercial espionage carried out against French carmaker Renault. The allegations first became public when Renault suspended three of its employees on Jan. 3 after an internal investigation that began in August 2010. Within days, citing an anonymous French government source, Reuters reported that French intelligence services were looking into the possibility that China played a role in the Renault espionage case. While the French government refused to officially confirm this accusation, speculation has run wild that Chinese state-sponsored spies were stealing electric-vehicle technology from Renault.

The Chinese are well-known perpetrators of industrial espionage and have been caught before in France, but the details that have emerged so far about the Renault operation differ from the usual Chinese method of operation. And much has been learned about this MO just in the last two years across the Atlantic, where the United States has been increasingly aggressive in investigating and prosecuting cases of Chinese espionage. If Chinese intelligence services were indeed responsible for espionage at Renault it would be one of only a few known cases involving non-Chinese nationals and would have involved the largest amount of money since the case of the legendary Larry Wu-Tai Chin, China’s most successful spy.

STRATFOR has previously detailed the Chinese intelligence services and the workings of espionage with Chinese characteristics. A look back at Chinese espionage activities uncovered in the United States in 2010, since our latest report was compiled, can provide more context and detail about current Chinese intelligence operations.

Chinese Espionage in the U.S.

We chose to focus on operations in the United States for two reasons. First, the United States is a major target for Chinese industrial espionage. This is because it is a leader in technology development, particularly in military hardware desired by China’s expanding military, and a potential adversary at the forefront of Chinese defense thinking. Second, while it is not the only country developing major new technologies in which China would be interested, the United States has been the most aggressive in prosecuting espionage cases against Chinese agents, thereby producing available data for us to work with. Since 2008, at least seven cases have been prosecuted each year in the United States against individuals spying for China. Five were prosecuted in 2007. Going back to about 2000, from one to three cases were prosecuted annually, and before that, less than one was prosecuted per year.

Most of the cases involved charges of violating export restrictions or stealing trade secrets rather than the capital crime of stealing state secrets. As the premier agency leading such investigations, the FBI has clearly made a policy decision to refocus on counterintelligence after an overwhelming focus on counterterrorism following 9/11, and its capability to conduct such investigations has grown. In 2010, 11 Chinese espionage cases were prosecuted in the United States, the highest number yet, and they featured a wide range of espionage targets.

Ten of the 11 cases involved technology acquisition, and five were overt attempts to purchase and illegally export encryption devices, mobile-phone components, high-end analog-to-digital converters, microchips designed for aerospace applications and radiation-hardened semiconductors. These technologies can be used in a wide range of Chinese industries. While the mobile-phone technology would be limited to Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as China Mobile, the aerospace-related microchips could be used in anything from rockets to fighter jets. Xian Hongwei and someone known as “Li Li” were arrested in September 2010 for allegedly attempting to purchase those aerospace-related microchips from BAE Systems, which is one of the companies involved in the development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Similar espionage may have played a role in China’s development of the new J-20 fifth-generation fighter, but that is only speculation.

Chinese Espionage and French Trade Secrets
(click here to enlarge image)

Five other cases in 2010 involved stealing trade secrets. These included organic light-emitting diode processes from Dupont, hybrid vehicle technology from GM, insecticide formulas from the Dow Chemical Co., paint formulas from Valspar and various vehicle design specifications from Ford. These types of Chinese cases, while often encouraged by state officials, are more similar to industrial espionage conducted by corporations. Since many of the major car companies in China are state-run, these technologies benefit both industry and the state.

But that does not mean these efforts are directed from Beijing. History shows that such espionage activities are not well coordinated. Various Chinese company executives (who are also Communist Party officials) have different requirements for their industrial espionage. In cases where two SOEs are competing to sell similar products, they may both try to recruit agents to steal the same technology. There are also a growing number of private Chinese companies getting involved in espionage. One notable example was when Du Shanshan and Qin Yu passed on technology from GM to Chery Automobile, a private, rather than state-run, manufacturer. In the five trade-secret cases in 2010, most of the suspects were caught because of poor tradecraft. They stored data on their hard drives, sent e-mails on company computers and had obvious communications with companies in China. This is not the kind of tradecraft we would expect from trained intelligence officers. Most of these cases probably involved ad hoc agents, some of whom were likely recruited while working in the United States and offered jobs back in China when they were found to have access to important technology.

WikiLeaks: France refuses to confirm Iran, Venezuela criticism | Reuters

France refuses to confirm Iran, Venezuela criticism

8:59am EST

PARIS (Reuters) - France refused to confirm on Monday scathing criticism of Iran and Venezuela by a senior French diplomat contained in U.S. State Department documents leaked by the whistle-blowing WikiLeaks web site.
A spokesman for France's foreign ministry branded WikiLeaks as "irresponsible" for releasing U.S. diplomatic correspondence which he said could "harm the resolution of issues essential for the security and stability of international relations and place at risk people's safety."
"We strongly deplore the deliberate and irresponsible disclosure by the WikiLeaks site of American diplomatic correspondence," the foreign ministry spokesman said.
"We do not confirm any of the points attributed to French authorities and diplomats in these documents," the spokesman said in response to a question about the reported criticism of Iran and Venezuela.
The Guardian, one of a handful of newspapers allowed access to the documents, reported that the top diplomatic adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy had told a senior U.S. diplomat in September 2009 that Iran was a "fascist" state and the time had come to decide on further steps.
The newspaper printed the text of a diplomatic telegram which said that Jean-Davide Levitte had described Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as "crazy" and said: "Unfortunately, Chavez is taking one of Latin America's richest countries and turning it into another Zimbabwe."
The foreign ministry spokesman said the disclosure of classified U.S. State Department cables constituted a violation of state sovereignty and of the Vienna convention, which guarantees the secrecy of diplomatic correspondence.
The spokesman said the U.S. administration had warned the French government about the leaks and Paris had offered to work together in response to any repercussions. (Reporting by Daniel Flynn; editing by Mark Heinrich)

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France refuses to confirm Iran, Venezuela criticism | Reuters

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Rosh Hashana Recipes Routed Through Africa - NYTimes.com

Rosh Hashana Recipes Routed Through Africa

Nanda Gonzague for The New York Times
From left, Carole Chaouat, Cathy Levy, with makroud, and Corynne Mas share recipes for the High Holy Days. Like many Jews in France, their holiday meals have North African influences.

August 31, 2010

Rosh Hashana Recipes Routed Through Africa

By JOAN NATHAN

Perpignan, France

CORYNNE MAS said the pastries she makes for Rosh Hashana were like teiglach, Eastern European cookies covered with nuts and honey.

But the version she’ll give her family when the holiday starts next Wednesday night will be stuffed with spiced dates and scented with orange flower water — Middle Eastern touches her mother, a French Jew with Eastern European roots, would not have recognized. They are called makroud, something she learned from her mother-in-law, an Algerian Jew.

Most of the dishes Ms. Mas cooks are North African. And when she gets together with her good friends Carole Chaouat and Cathy Levy, North African Jews, the food they share is more likely flavored with harissa, cumin and honey, than horseradish, dill or sugar.

The culinary transformation Ms. Mas experienced would feel familiar to many French Jews. About a quarter of the 300,000 Jews in France before World War II died in the Holocaust, and others later left for Israel or the United States. But as independence came to the former French colonies of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria in the late 1950s and early 1960s, many more Jews emigrated to France. The customs they brought came to define French Jewish food.

Ms. Mas, 54, said she was not raised with an appreciation for her Jewish background. “I have learned everything from my Algerian mother-in-law,” she said. “The Sephardic Jews are attached to their religion and are refueling Jewish life in France.”

Many of these Sephardic dishes actually have centuries-old roots here in southwestern France and Catalonia, from before Jews were expelled and settled in North Africa. Jewish cooks here still use the ingredients of those ancestors — anise, olive oil, rose water, and pine nuts — reimagined on stovetops in Marrakesh, Oran and Tunis.

The physical traces of these traditions here are literally cast in stone in the remains of Jewish quarters in nearly every town — Hebrew letters on a grave, the indentation on the right side of an ancient doorpost indicating a once-posted mezuza, names like Rue de la Juiverie or Rue de Jérusalem found on cobblestone streets.

But new synagogues in Perpignan, or nearby in Narbonne and Béziers, have only initials in French outside the door: A.C.I.N., for Association Culturelle Israélite de Narbonne. There is no clear indication to the passer-by that these are Jewish houses of prayer.

Ms. Mas; Ms. Chaouat, 54, born in Tunisia; and Ms. Levy, 45, born in Morocco, grew up in Perpignan, a center of Jewish culture during the Middle Ages. It now has about 450 Jewish families.

As the women gathered beneath an almond tree on the patio of Ms. Mas’s home, Ms. Chaouat served a potato salad, dipping two fingers in a jar of harissa and dabbing at the potatoes she had prepared, as she would do with other cooked vegetables.

“This is the way we share recipes,” Ms. Chaouat said. “Food is our identity, tradition and our roots.”

Each group of immigrant Jews brought its own influences.

“Moroccans like sweet and salty in everything,” said Ms. Chaouat, who works as a caregiver for the elderly. “Tunisians eat couscous, but it is always savory and we serve everything on the table at once.”

Vegetables stuffed with meat are a popular holiday dish. The stuffing sometimes is made with parsley or eggs, sometimes with nuts, and always cooked slowly. Ms. Levy’s version, a Moroccan dish with roots here, includes cinnamon, turmeric and nutmeg and is cooked at low temperature overnight to be ready on the first night of the holiday. (But it can also be cooked more quickly at a higher temperature.)

Ms. Levy, a deputy mayor in her village outside of Perpignan, is usually in charge of food for synagogue events, gathering her friends to cook with her.

“We cook everyday and our children like to eat our food,” she said. “Living in a small town, we don’t lose time in traffic. So we have time to cook.”

Ms. Levy added: “If you don’t make traditional recipes at Rosh Hashana or the Sabbath, it is the revolution. Every holiday meal starts with at least two dozen tapas. Once my son said: ‘Why do you work so hard at cooking? Why don’t you make just one salad for Rosh Hashana!’ ” The next holiday, she brought out one salad. Her son looked chagrined and said, “Where are the other 23?”

So she brought out the 23 other dishes that she had hidden in a cupboard.

Rosh Hashana Recipes Routed Through Africa - NYTimes.com: "

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KAL's cartoon | The Economist

KAL's cartoon | The Economist: "KAL's cartoon
Jul 15th 2010


The world this week"

L'Oréality check - Not so pretty Sarkozy...

Not so pretty Sarkozy.. 

Nicolas Sarkozy's approval ratings

L'Oréality check

Nicolas Sarkozy's approval ratings have hit a record low in recent weeks

Jul 13th 2010 | From The Economist online

“CALUMNY and lies!” was how a defiant President Nicolas Sarkozy countered the allegations against him and Eric Woerth, his labour minister, in an hour-long interview on July 12th. By appearing on live prime-time television, Mr Sarkozy hoped to defuse apolitical crisis prompted by a party-financing and alleged tax-evasion scandal centred on Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire. In recent weeks, the Bettencourt affair has dragged Mr Sarkozy’s poll ratings down to a record low. Dire as Mr Sarkozy’s poll numbers seem, however, they are not yet as bad as those of Jacques Chirac, his predecessor. In 2006 Mr Chirac’s approval rating sank to a miserable 16%, four years into his second mandate.

                  

Click below for the interactive chart

http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=7933596&story_id=16580631

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Sleaze Factor | Foreign Policy

It's not just the third world where they like unmarked envelopes....

Sleaze Factor

Is there an epidemic of corruption in the world's democracies?

BY JOSHUA E. KEATING | JULY 12, 2010

From Angola to Uzbekistan, Haiti to Zimbabwe, in far too many countries around the world, blatant official corruption not only goes unpunished -- it's the norm. But while we normally associate bribery, cronyism, and extortion with fragile developing states, the leaders of some of the world's most stable and prosperous democracies have recently been investigated on criminal charges. Is this a case of those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, or does it mean that we're getting better at catching powerful crooks?

FRANCE

The target: President Nicolas Sarkozy

The alleged crimes: Illegal cash payments

The investigation: French prosecutors recently investigated allegations that Sarkozy illegally received cash in unmarked envelopes from Liliane Bettencourt, France's richest woman, as a presidential candidate in 2007. According to Bettencourt's former accountant, the L'Oreal heir's financial advisor gave €150,000 to the treasurer of Sarkozy's campaign -- an allegation denied by both parties. The former treasurer, who is now labor minister, was officially cleared of wrongdoing, but opponents say the investigation by France's finance inspector was not impartial.

"L'affaire Bettencourt" is just the latest scandal to hit Sarkozy's administration, including the resignation of two junior ministers who spent thousands of dollars on cigars and Caribbean vacations, and a corruption scandal involving one of Sarkozy's closest friends and political allies who was implicated in a multimillion-dollar insider-trading scheme in 2007. But in the wake of the financial crisis and an unpopular pension-reform plan, this time the president might be fighting for his political career: On July 12, Sarkozy took the unusual step of appearing on national television to deny the charges.

Sarkozy's allies have denounced the allegations as a left-wing "political plot," and indeed there seem to be some large holesin the allegations made by Bettencourt's advisor. But Sarkozy's opponents will likely have little sympathy. His longtime political rival, former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, was the subject of a five-year investigation and trial over allegations that he faked documents that linked Sarkozy to bribes while the two politicians were angling for the presidency. De Villepin was cleared of the charges -- though three of his colleagues were convicted -- and has maintained that the investigation was nothing but a political vendetta by the president.

ITALY

The target: Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi

The alleged crimes: Corruption, organized crime

The investigation: Berlusconi claims with pride that he is "the most legally persecuted man of all time." More than 109 cases have been brought against him, ranging from nonpayment of taxes to false accounting, bribery to prostitution. By his own count, he has been subjected to more than 2,500 court hearings. But despite the best efforts of prosecutors and political opponents, the 73-year-old Berlusconi seems unlikely to ever see the inside of a jail cell or be forced to step down.

The Teflon prime minister has managed four times to pass laws granting himself immunity from prosecution, though each of which has been judged unconstitutional by the courts. For his part, Berlusconi has accused the Italian judicial system of having an ingrained left-wing bias.

The most recent legal scandal involving Berlusconi concerns his longtime friend, business partner, and political ally Marcello Dell'Utri, who has been convicted of serving as a liaison between the mafia and Italy's political elite. In the course of the trial, a convicted Mafia hit-man testified that senior Mafia leaders had boasted of their ties to Berlusconi during the 1990s.

ISRAEL

The target: Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

The alleged crimes: Bribe-taking

The investigation: With internal probes into the 2008 offensive in Gaza and the controversial boarding of a pro-Palestinian flotilla earlier this year, Israel certainly doesn't lack for high-profile investigations. But the country is riveted by the ongoing corruption investigation against former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was plagued by corruption charges throughout his term. New York businessman Morris Talansky claims he gave Olmert more than $150,000 for his campaign for mayor of Jerusalem in 1997, but the money was spent on fine hotels, cigars, and watches.

Perhaps more shockingly, Olmert is accused of charging multiple nonprofit groups -- including a charity for the disabled and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial -- for the same fundraising trips. Olmert announced his resignation in 2008 and wascharged with fraud a year later.

He has yet to be convicted, but investigations are ongoing. Most recently, Olmert was questioned over accusations that he accepted bribes in exchange for helping win contracts for a Jerusalem real estate developer. His administration didn't come off looking that clean either: A finance minister was investigated for embezzlement, a justice minister resigned after being convicted for sexual harassment, and President Moshe Katsav resigned amid scandal after allegations of sexual assault.

Olmert is the first Israeli head of government to be indicted on corruption charges, though current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been the subject of investigations in the past. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is also under investigation for a number of crimes, including bribery, fraud, and money-laundering.

TAIWAN

The target: Former President Chen Shui-bian

The alleged crimes: Corruption, embezzlement

The investigation: Chen was named as a suspect in a $450,000 embezzlement case within hours of stepping down as president of Taiwan in 2008 and sentenced to life imprisonment less than a year later -- an ignominious end to the political career of the once renowned human-rights-lawyer-turned-politician.

Prosecutors had long been gunning for Chen, who enjoyed immunity from prosecution as president -- his wife and son-in-law were arrested on charges of forgery and insider trading while he was still in office. Chen's political opponents also maintained that Chen faked an assassination attempt in 2004 to win voter sympathy in his reelection bid.

Chen and his wife, who was also given a life sentence, continue to appeal their convictions. Their sentences were reducedfrom life imprisonment to 20 years in June when the court found that less money was involved in the corruption than previously thought. The former president remains in detention as his appeal continues.

But the current administration isn't squeaky clean either: President Ma Ying-jeou, Chen's political rival, was twice tried and acquitted on corruption charges before taking office.

* A deleted section of this article implied that President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea is being investigated in connection with allegations of illegal surveillance. While several senior South Korean officials are being investigated, including several in the prime minister’s office and one in the president’s office, Lee has not been named as a suspect. FP regrets the error.

Sleaze Factor - By Joshua E. Keating | Foreign Policy