Why are we asking now? Kylie Minogue, the Australian actress and pop singer, has just been made a French cultural knight - or "chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et Lettres". She cannot, unfortunately, call herself "Sir Kylie" but she joins the large battalion of foreign popular entertainers - from Ella Fitzgerald to Bob Dylan - who have been given France's premier, national, cultural honour. As Ms Minogue might have remarked: "I should be so lucky..." What has Kylie done for French culture?Er, rien. But France has a global concept of culture. You don't have to to be French artist to qualify to be a French cultural "knight". The order, created in 1957, is open to all people who have "distinguished themselves in the domain of artistic or literary creation or for the contribution they have made to the spread of arts and letters in France and the world".In presenting her with the award, the French Culture minister Christine Albanel described the Australian singer as a "princess of pop", adding: "Everything you touch turns to gold, from your discs to your micro-shorts." This is thought to have been the first mention of micro-shorts during the formal presentation of a French national honour.Mme Albanel also paid tribute, however, to Ms Minogue's courage in revealing that she was receiving treatment for breast cancer. The minister said she hoped that this would produce a "Kylie effect" in persuading more young women that they should seek cancer screening.
Why are we asking now?
Kylie Minogue, the Australian actress and pop singer, has just been made a French cultural knight - or "chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et Lettres". She cannot, unfortunately, call herself "Sir Kylie" but she joins the large battalion of foreign popular entertainers - from Ella Fitzgerald to Bob Dylan - who have been given France's premier, national, cultural honour. As Ms Minogue might have remarked: "I should be so lucky..."
What has Kylie done for French culture?
Er, rien. But France has a global concept of culture. You don't have to to be French artist to qualify to be a French cultural "knight". The order, created in 1957, is open to all people who have "distinguished themselves in the domain of artistic or literary creation or for the contribution they have made to the spread of arts and letters in France and the world".
In presenting her with the award, the French Culture minister Christine Albanel described the Australian singer as a "princess of pop", adding: "Everything you touch turns to gold, from your discs to your micro-shorts." This is thought to have been the first mention of micro-shorts during the formal presentation of a French national honour.
Mme Albanel also paid tribute, however, to Ms Minogue's courage in revealing that she was receiving treatment for breast cancer. The minister said she hoped that this would produce a "Kylie effect" in persuading more young women that they should seek cancer screening.
Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev is the country's first leader in decades with no known links either to the former Soviet Communist party or secret services. However, Mr Medvedev - a 42-year-old lawyer by education - is extremely close to his predecessor Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent. He campaigned as Mr Putin's protege and tied himself to his policies as soon as his victory became known in the March elections. "We will be able to preserve the course of President Putin," he said, celebrating his landslide victory in Moscow after the polls.
Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev is the country's first leader in decades with no known links either to the former Soviet Communist party or secret services.
However, Mr Medvedev - a 42-year-old lawyer by education - is extremely close to his predecessor Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent.
He campaigned as Mr Putin's protege and tied himself to his policies as soon as his victory became known in the March elections.
"We will be able to preserve the course of President Putin," he said, celebrating his landslide victory in Moscow after the polls.
Let's not get too silly here.
you are the media you consume.
A gob-smackingly beautiful morning - just saw one of our three local roe deer picking her way through the mist on her way to an old abandoned orchard.
Summer's arrived here in Linlithgow with a rush, I'm full of hay fever (tree pollen) to prove it and the trees are green like we wouldn't believe - except every year we forget..... "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
Sebastien Loeb's long hair and stubble causes more of a row than Max Mosley Its President faces possible deselection amid reports that he indulged in a Nazi-themed orgy with five prostitutes, but the governing body of world motorsport knows what really hurts its image: a driver who forgets to wash and shave. There were howls of indignation yesterday when Sébastien Loeb, the world champion rally ace, was taken to task by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. Just before Max Mosley, the FIA chief, was exposed on film appearing to enjoy his exotic encounter, the head of its rally division endorsed a complaint over the unkempt appearance of Loeb, 34. The Alsace-born driver, world champion for the past four years and one of the biggest stars in rally history, has recently adopted longer hair and stubble. "The same thing happens in football and other virile sports. Of course such people are an insult to real men," Morrie Chandler wrote in an e-mail, according to Le Figaro newspaper. He asked the FIA's television body to limit the air time given to scruffy winners and avoid close-ups, to avoid bringing the sport into ill repute.
Its President faces possible deselection amid reports that he indulged in a Nazi-themed orgy with five prostitutes, but the governing body of world motorsport knows what really hurts its image: a driver who forgets to wash and shave.
There were howls of indignation yesterday when Sébastien Loeb, the world champion rally ace, was taken to task by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile.
Just before Max Mosley, the FIA chief, was exposed on film appearing to enjoy his exotic encounter, the head of its rally division endorsed a complaint over the unkempt appearance of Loeb, 34. The Alsace-born driver, world champion for the past four years and one of the biggest stars in rally history, has recently adopted longer hair and stubble. "The same thing happens in football and other virile sports. Of course such people are an insult to real men," Morrie Chandler wrote in an e-mail, according to Le Figaro newspaper. He asked the FIA's television body to limit the air time given to scruffy winners and avoid close-ups, to avoid bringing the sport into ill repute.
btw: long hair and stubble don't actually mean 'not washing', but I suppose that the opportunity to renew the old prejudice against the French not washing was too irresistible to pass. (My experience of Paris and London metros is that people stink a lot more in London) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
First, the explicit conclusion:
In this regard his friend, Tony Blair, has a telling piece of advice. In 2005, after eight years in Downing Street, the then British prime minister reflected on his experience of implementing change. "Every time I've ever introduced a reform in government," he said, "I wish in retrospect I had gone further." Words for Mr Sarkozy, the architect of rupture-lite, to reflect on.
And then this paragraph struck me:
Reform of higher education was among the first, and most urgent, of Mr Sarkozy's reforms. Only one of France's 82 universities makes it into Shanghai University's top-50 ranking. Most research is done off campus, in separate state-sponsored bodies. Auditoriums are overcrowded, campuses drab and deserted at weekends. Some 46% of all first-year undergraduates drop out. The brightest students do their best to avoid universities altogether, and instead fight to get into one of France's excellent grandes écoles (exclusive institutions outside the main system). Last summer Mr Sarkozy granted the universities autonomy from central state control. This has freed them to recruit the lecturers they want, at salaries they negotiate, and to set up private foundations--with tax breaks for donors--to complement public finance. The idea, says one government adviser, is to encourage a dozen of the most go-ahead universities, such as Toulouse l, to transform themselves into centres of excellence, even if the rest carry on churning out unemployable sociology graduates as before.
Last summer Mr Sarkozy granted the universities autonomy from central state control. This has freed them to recruit the lecturers they want, at salaries they negotiate, and to set up private foundations--with tax breaks for donors--to complement public finance. The idea, says one government adviser, is to encourage a dozen of the most go-ahead universities, such as Toulouse l, to transform themselves into centres of excellence, even if the rest carry on churning out unemployable sociology graduates as before.
So the explicit goal of university reform for the Economist is to create a small layer of elite universities, while the rest of the students can go on being entitled to mediocrity and hopelessness.
But, given that France already has the ("excellent", in the Economist's words) Grandes Ecoles to fill in that niche, I must admit I am a bit confused as to what the point is?
Last week I noticed a small problem with my website. Usage seemed to be up a little, in particular a picture of the pantheon that now accounted for 24% of my bandwidth. Well, I then went to look at my referring pages and noticed a site that hadn't appeared before, www.storace.it. This site belongs to an Italian politician called Francesco Storace. He is the founder of a political party called La Destra (The Right), and a former member of the National Alliance. He left the NA after falling out with its leader, Fini, because he (Fini) wasn't right wing enough. More information about Storace can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Storace
