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TOPIC: france

Geopolitics

Morocco, Libya And Doubts About The True Motivations Of Western Humanitarian Aid

The practice of sending humanitarian aid to foreign countries has always been political, but Morocco's decision to refuse offers of search-and-rescue teams raises questions about national sovereignty and politics in times of crisis.

-Analysis-

PARIS — A deadly earthquake in Morocco, catastrophic flooding in Libya – two disasters in two countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean have sparked strong emotions, and revived an old debate about humanitarian aid.

France dispatched a field hospital Thursday with 50 personnel to the region of Derna, on the Libyan coast, where the tragedy has claimed thousands of victims. The medical aid will be welcome in the country, which, after 10 years of instability, has no unified government.

At the beginning of this week, France was ready to send civil search and rescue experts, dogs and equipment to earthquake-struck Morocco – just as France did earlier this year after the earthquake in Turkey, and as it has done on many other occasions. But Morocco never gave the green light, and the search and rescue teams stayed in France. The same goes for teams offered by the U.S.

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When French Restaurants Go Vegetarian, From Michelin Stars To Le Burger King

From temples of gastronomy to fast-food restaurants, it's easier than ever to find items on the menu without any meat or fish as restaurants are increasingly responding to a growing demand for vegetarian and vegan options.

PARIS — Vegetarian and vegan alternatives are gaining more and more ground on French restaurant menus. This phenomenon is spreading across a wide range of establishments. According to the Food Service Vision firm, out of the around 630 Michelin-starred restaurants in France, 145 of them now offer a vegetarian or vegan menu.

On the table service side, according to the same firm, 11 of the 12 largest French restaurant chains included vegetarian options in their autumn-winter menus, while in fast-food restaurants, 11 out of 14 chains offered vegetarian options as well.

"The big names in gastronomy, from Alain Passard to Alain Ducasse, were quick to embrace this change," says François Blouin, Food Service Vision president-founder. "The leading chains also quickly took into account the rising demand. Today, all levels of the market are affected."

Indeed, the trend has expanded beyond those who only consume vegetarian or vegan meals. According to a study by CHD Expert-Datassential conducted for the latest Sandwich & Snack Show, over 40% of French people had consumed at least one meal without meat or fish in a week.

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Why Morocco Still Won't Accept Earthquake Aid From France?

Time is the most precious resource when it comes to disaster relief, and yet French teams have been left waiting for Morocco's approval for their aid. Looking at recent tensions might explain why the country is hesitating on accepting help in a time of such dire need.

Updated September 12, 2023 at 1:20 p.m.

-Analysis-

PARIS — Major humanitarian disasters can sometimes provide an opportunity to overcome hostilities between nations – but they can also be missed opportunities.

The earthquake that struck Morocco on Friday night has had a significant impact in France, not only due to the large Franco-Moroccan community here, but also because of the longstanding human connection between France and its former Maghreb protectorate.

Yet 72 hours after the disaster, the offers of assistance from the French government, including those from Emmanuel Macron himself, had still not received a response from Rabat. Meanwhile, Morocco had given the green light to relief efforts from Qatar, Tunisia and Spain. Spain is the only European country with 56 military rescuers already on the ground.

France possesses undeniable expertise and resources in the field of emergency relief, and if there is one area where every minute counts, it is the search for survivors. By Tuesday, the death toll had topped 2,800. Yet French teams, including search dogs and equipment, are still awaiting clearance to deploy from French soil. The Americans find themselves in a similar situation.

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This Happened — September 12: The Lascaux Cave Paintings Are Discovered

The Lascaux cave paintings were accidentally discovered by four teenagers on this day in 1940. Marcel Ravidat, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel, and Simon Coencas stumbled upon the entrance to the cave while searching for their dog. They later informed local authorities, leading to the exploration and subsequent recognition of the site's historical and artistic significance.

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Economy
Valérie de Senneville

Gustave Eiffel: 100 Years Later, Still Defining 'French Entrepreneur'

The memory of the famous engineer-entrepreneur who designed much more than Paris' iconic Tower will be honored throughout 2023, on the occasion of the centenary of his death.

PARIS — He never stopped creating. Although the collective memory of Gustave Eiffel today only includes the name of the 330-meter-high iron tower that symbolizes the city of Paris, he was, throughout his life, an engineer and inventor genius inventor.

From the buildings he designed all over the world, to his discoveries in meteorology and aeronautics, his work is abundant and still largely unknown.

Says Myriam Larnaudie-Eiffel, a descendant of the inventor and head of the Association des descendants de Gustave Eiffel (ADGE, Association of Descendants of Gustave Eiffel in English).

Eiffel died in 1923, at the age of 91. To mark the centenary of his death, the association decided to draw up an inventory of his work. It's a titanic task: "We've listed 500 works in over 30 countries on five continents, but we know that there are between 700 and 800 others," says Larnaudie-Eiffel.

Eiffel's distinctive style of heavy yet airy steel structures is visible in a multitude of works that symbolize an era marked by a post-1870 recession economy, but also by the development of railways and industry, which needed to be built and rebuilt quickly and cost-effectively. Eiffel was to ride the wave of emerging steel construction, constantly improving and developing.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War
Viktor Kevlyuk

In Wartime Ukraine, That Fine Line Between Surviving And Collaborating With The Enemy

More than 6,000 collaboration cases have already been filed in Ukraine — but how does the law distinguish between wilful collaboration and simply trying to survive? And what should happen to the guilty?

KYIV — After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many more Ukrainians have been forced to survive under occupation. That means the question of collaboration with the Russian occupiers, and how to determine responsibility for it, is a pressing issue.

The term "collaboration" appeared in Ukrainian legislation only in March 2022, but it has a far longer history. Collaboration was first used to describe the cooperation of local residents with occupying German authorities in France and Belgium during World War I. At the time, it did not yet have a sharply negative connotation.

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The more widespread use of "collaboration" appeared during World War II, when it became the official name for cooperation between Germany and France's Vichy government.

But how to define the term remains ambiguous, and it is difficult to draw a clear line between actions necessary to survive an occupation, and true cooperation with the enemy.

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Society
Yannick Champion-Osselin

"Cancel" That National Anthem? When Patriotic Lyrics Of The Past Hit Wrong Notes Today

Spain's national anthem, dating back to 1770, is the oldest in continual use — it also happens to be wordless. For other nations, what can be done about aging anthem lyrics that may need to be placed in their original context to avoid upsetting or offending contemporary ears.

PARIS — Algeria’s national anthem, Kassaman (Oath), is a war song penned by jailed nationalist and poet Moufdi Zakaria in 1955 during the Algerian War of Independence against the French colonialists. Three out of five verses evoke fighting the colonization of Algeria, with the most controversial verse being the third, which calls out France directly.

In the 1980s, to avoid diplomatic tensions with Paris, Algeria decreed that the third verse could be omitted if the circumstances called for it. But on June 11, a presidential decree restored the controversial third verse, making all five verses obligatory. Now, Kassaman will be performed in its ‘full form’ at official events – allusions to imperialism included.

There was backlash from Paris, as French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna called the decision “outdated.” Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ataf responded quickly that he was "astounded by the fact that the French foreign minister thought she could express an opinion on the Algerian national anthem."

Alas, this is far from an isolated topic, as people have vehemently expressed their views on whether anthems should be maintained, modified or scrapped for years.

While national anthems are often marches or hymns celebrating a military event, some are considered too bloody and graphic for modern times. Amongst those which literally evoke blood, often that of their enemies, are Algeria’s Kassaman, Portugal’s A Portuguesa, France’s Marseillaise, Vietnam’s Tiến Quân Ca (The Marching song) and Belgium’s La Brabançonne.

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In The News
Worldcrunch

Worldcrunch Magazine #48 — African Flares

August 28 - September 3, 2023

Here's the latest edition of Worldcrunch Magazine, a selection of our best articles of the week from top international journalists, produced exclusively in English for Worldcrunch readers.

>> DISCOVER IT HERE <<

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Society
Katarzyna Skiba

The Four-Day School Week, More New Experiments Around The World

As a new school year begins, educators from Poland to Australia to the U.S. are implementing four-day weeks, in a variety of ways. Will this be a short-lived fad, or the beginning of a new approach to education that can reduce stress for students, help recruit teachers and rethink learning altogether?

Beginning this year, students in Wodzisław Śląski, a city of 50,000 in southern Poland, will only have four days of traditional school classes per week. The reduced schedule — which comes along with fewer tests and new assessment criteria — were an initiative that came from the citizen grassroots level and ultimately was approved by municipal authorities, reports Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza.

The experimental four-day school week, for students in grades one through three, as well as certain older classes, will be instituted in all 13 public elementary schools within the city. Beginning in September, students will devote one day a week to carrying out non-traditional educational projects, such as going to science centers, learning craftsmanship, or taking walks through the local forests. The measure has been widened from a smaller pilot program tested last year, which included only a few of the city’s public schools.

Joanna Kulińska, principal of Primary School No. 2 in Wodzisław Śląski, explained that classes in select subjects will be combined into blocks, during which students can carry out a thematic project, go to a science center or take part in a non-traditional nature lesson. “This is a fantastic idea that allows us to transmit knowledge in an interesting and modern way – through experience and practice”, Kulińska added.

The new policy in Poland is part of an expanding interest in the four-day school week, with similar experiments in the United States, Australia, and France, with some instituting one full day of “non-traditional” learning, or simply an extra day off, as a means of reducing student stress and increasing engagement in class time. Some also see it as a way to reduce costs at a time of economic constraints.

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Geopolitics
Pierre Haski

First Niger, Now Gabon: What's Triggering The Coups d'État In Francophone Africa?

Is it a Russian conspiracy or anti-Paris bias? Or a sign that democracy has never really taken root in post-colonial realities?

-Analysis-

PARIS — It's a spectacular phenomenon, and not easily explained. Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and yesterday, Gabon: five African countries which have all seen military coups in the last two years. This raises many questions.

A simplistic explanations might label this a wave of coups, a Russian conspiracy or a rejection of France — and without a doubt these factors may be at play here, to some extent. But we need to dig deeper.

Something else these countries have in common is the failure of post-colonial states, which have been shaped under strong French influence. They have experienced two phases: one authoritarian, the other democratic – or, to be more accurate, pseudo-democratic.

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Sources
Pierre Haski

Why Ukraine Is Turning To France For Help In Africa — And How That Could Backfire

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba is in Paris seeking help to convince Africa to abandon its wait-and-see attitude, which benefits Russia. It's an extraordinary illustration of how Africa is singularly focused on emancipating itself from its former colonizers.

-Analysis-

PARIS — The African continent and its 54 states lie at the heart of the world's current restructuring. Courted for its raw materials, Africa has become one of the main arenas for global power struggles — with votes at the UN scrutinized for what they may say about different countries' alignments.

France has been shaken in its former colonial stomping grounds in French-speaking Africa, with French President Emmanuel Macron speaking firmly Monday in response to the crisis that erupted with the military coup in Niger. But this is just one example of the great geopolitical chess match being played out in Africa.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba is in Paris on Tuesday, as guest of honor at the annual French Ambassadors' Conference. He will be attending an unprecedented meeting with all the French ambassadors to Africa. The aim: to help Ukraine develop its message towards Africa, to convince it to abandon its wait-and-see attitude, which benefits Russia.

It's an extraordinary move, which illustrates the difficulty of dealing with an Africa that wants to emancipate itself from the tutelage of its former colonizers, at the risk of sacrificing state sovereignty in the process.

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This Happened

This Happened — August 19: Liberation Of Paris

Paris was liberated from Nazi Germany occupation on this day in 1944.

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