The Paris Blog: Paris, France Expat Tips & Resources » Politics

French Tapped to Compose Obama Reelection Song

Laurel Zuckerman — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:18:12 +0000

According to Le Figaro, United States President Barack Obama has chosen two French composers from Bordeaux (yes, France!) to write his campaign theme song. The ditty, entitled “What’s More,” was written by Tony Jazz and Mathieu Billon.

Raised in the infamous 9-3 (the Seine Saint Denis region just outside Paris), Jazz at 26 had already racked up credits at Universal and Sony and founded his own communications company specializing in musical design. Billon is a case study in finding one’s talents. After a two-year DUT diploma, he entered a work-study (alternance) program in Bordeaux with the hope of founding a restaurant. An internship in marketing at Kaizen Marketing Group opened up a whole new world for him, an “American vision of entrepreneurship” with bosses barely older than himself.

One thing led to another and the two young French entrepreneurs met. In January last year Jazz and Billon created On Air Agency.

How did these two Frenchmen with no connections seduce the president of the United States?

“Talent,” says le Figaro, “Simplement du talent.”

This clip that Tony Jazz made in honor of Obama’s 2008 election caught the eye of Obama’s campaign, which led to a meeting with Charles Rifkin, the US ambassador to France.

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The Next Prez?

Rue Rude — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:02:52 +0000

While the French occasionally cast a horrified eye on the U.S. presidential campaign, the average American knows nothing about the French one. As a long-term expat, I enjoy the spectacle of French politics. Just like a baseball game, it becomes more interesting as you get to know the characters of the players.

So here is my far-from-disinterested and full-of-random-factoids rundown on the Présidentiables for 2012. (I’m only mentioning the ones who seem to be taken seriously by large numbers of people.) The election is sooner than the American one– the two ballots will be held in April and May of next year. There is a by-election for the Socialists, France’s apparently biggest party, coming up the 9th and 16th of this month.

Nicolas Sarkozy is still Président de la République and eligible to run for a second five-year term. His second wife Cecilia (a descendant of Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz) dumped him for millionaire ad man/events organizer Richard Attias shortly after his election and moved to New York. Sarkozy rebounded with gorgeous Italian model and his third wife, Carla Bruni, who before she met him told a friend, “I want a man with nuclear power.” They are expecting a baby any minute. Sarkozy, formerly mayor of Neuilly, a posh suburb of Paris, is known for being intelligent and driven, but also extremely sensitive about his education (he did not go to a Grande École), his social status, and most notoriously, his height. There’s no doubt that it was convenient for him that Dominique Strauss-Kahn had that unfortunate interlude in a New York hotel. DSK was unquestionably the front-runner.

Dominique de Villepin (whose de is not noble, by the way), another Sciences-Po and ÉNA graduate among so many, was just declared innocent in the Clearstream affair, which frankly was not a surprise: when was an important French politician ever found guilty of anything? He was Prime Minister of France for two years. He has published, among other books, a volume of poetry and has a daughter who was a fashion model in New York. He has returned to the political struggle, criticizing Sarkozy and his “imperial” manner.

Strange Bedfellows

Margie Rynn — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 22:43:21 +0000

Imagine the scene: A televised presidential debate between six male and female candidates from the same party. But here’s the hitch—two of the candidates lived together for 25 years and had four children! Sounds like a doofy plot for a situation comedy, right? Well, no, that actually happened Thursday night on French TV (read this article in The Guardian for more).

How do they do it? How do François Hollande and Ségolène Royale manage to remain civil to each other during a presidential debate when their very public split up a few years ago is still in the minds of one and all? And here I thought French politics couldn’t get any weirder after the president divorced his wife and married a pop star one year into his mandate. Of course, this is all private stuff and nowhere near as pertinent to the country’s future as the current campaign financing scandals or the state of the French economy. Still, you can’t help but wonder what is going through their minds during the taping…

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France: Always Behind the US?

Rue Rude — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:38:40 +0000

It’s a strange thing how trends work in France. Many things here become fashionable only after the Americans have started the fashion. Offhand I can think of: blue jeans, living in former industrial spaces, and the riots of 1968. Sometimes this is a good thing; but there are certainly American trends I would not like to see arrive in France, like Crocs, obesity and tasteless tomatoes. But as for sexual harassment being treated seriously, most Frenchwomen, I suspect, think it’s about time.
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What’s Missing in the DSK Debate

Margie Rynn — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 10:56:41 +0000

While there is no end of soul searching going on over here over DSK, the voice that is consistently missing from the discussion is a female one. A few brave women have managed to make themselves heard, but I find it appalling that most of the panel discussions are exclusively male, and that there isn’t more talk about the Dark Side of male-female relations in France. Because it is doubtful that this scandal would have ever broken had it happened in France. I ask you: would a black, immigrant cleaning lady press charges against a powerful man in France? And if she did, would anyone have believed her?

Rape isn’t just about sex — it’s about power. What does it say about a society when a powerful man thinks that he has every right to force a woman to satisfy his needs? And here’s another question that needs some answers: why is it so difficult for some men to see the line between seduction and harassment? We are not talking Clinton here, or even Mitterand. We are talking violence. Why was a man as intelligent and “good” as DSK incapable of seeing the difference?

Sigh. I think I’ll go read about Carla’s baby.

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Will France Ever Dump Nukes?

Laurel Zuckerman — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 16:55:30 +0000

Japan, Switzerland, Italy and now Germany have called into question their nuclear power programs. Despite similarities in the industrial organisation of the French and Japanese nuclear industries, real debate has barely begun to appear in France. How long will close ties between the French government and its untouchable industrial champions–EDF, AREVA–be able to stave off serious discussion? Can questions about the risks and costs of nuclear energy be stopped, like the Chernobyl cloud, at the borders of France? Nuclear power has long been seen as a source of pride in France, an indicator that, whatever else happens, it is still a contender. Yet, even as Anne Lauvergeon, the head of Areva, dismisses Germany’s decision as “pure politics”, change may be a-coming.
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DSK–an Expat’s View

An American Mom in Paris — Tue, 31 May 2011 06:30:37 +0000

Greetings from 1950s America! No, not really. But yes, really.

I disappeared last week because I was working on an article for my friend’s Seattle news website about the Dominique Strauss-Kahn debacle — a first-hand report from someone living in the Paris hot zone. It’s not the kind of writing I usually do and I got very wrapped up in it because I wanted to hit the right tone — you know, not too screechy as I screeched about suddenly realizing I’m living in an old-fashioned culture full of misogyny and cavemen.

I can’t begin to get into all the things I’ve heard and read in the French press the past couple weeks. I can tell you it would give many Americans a sense of déjà vu, as I imagine these are the kinds of titillated “tough shit, ladies” attitudes that got tossed around fifty years ago in the States.

I don’t know what the guy did or didn’t do. Maybe he’s guilty, maybe he’s innocent. I am fairly certain he’s an asshole either way — but that doesn’t matter and his innocence or guilt is not even my point. My point is, this case has opened the floodgates and revealed the deep-seated misogyny in French culture. (There are many reasonable voices calling for cultural introspection, too, but from what I can tell they seem to be the minority?) Truth is out. France is way behind the times. Way. Behind.
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It’s Official: No Veils in Public

Rue Rude — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 03:00:19 +0000

As of this past Monday, the wearing of any kind of face cover is illegal in public spaces in France. An officer of the forces de l’ordre is not allowed to take off the veil but can order the person to be brought to the nearest police station to have her (or his) identity verified. Under normal circumstances the fine is € 150, but if the veiled person is a minor, the fine is doubled.

I’m curious what will happen with this law. There aren’t many women in France who wear a burka–one estimate I saw was twelve of them–but there are some who wear niqabs, which allow only the eyes to show. I saw one yesterday at the Eurostar, along with a jolly-looking man and a teenage girl wearing an I ❤ London t-shirt. They didn’t look French, but this law applies to tourists too.
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France: No Escape from Meltdowns?

Laurel Zuckerman — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 01:53:07 +0000

Unlike previous nuclear disasters, Fukushima is contaminating a high-density population center of 127 million (337 inhabitants per km2),

Three Mile Island occurred in the vast United States of America (33 inhabitants per m2). Chernobyl hit the former Soviet Union, a sprawling empire so sparsely populated (13 inhabitants per km2) that the accident site could literally be spun off into independent countries, Ukraine and Byelorussia.

And France? With 115 inhabitants per km2, and a precious patrimony of famous wines, cheeses, agricultural crops and livestock in the millions, what would be the impact of a nuclear accident, whether explosive or slow leak on the future of the country?

As the map of nuclear power plants shows, there is literally no place in France that is “far away” or protected.
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Mitterand Luvs Pop Culture

Laurie — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 02:52:55 +0000

And you thought awards season was over. Not quite. Sunday night in Beverly Hills, accolades were made into a microphone, sculptural pieces of medal were handed over, thank–you speeches were made. It was the government of France handing out the prizes: insignias for the order of arts and letters. Frederic Mitterand (left), nephew of the late president Francois Mitterand and the current Minister of Culture and Communication, exhibited unfettered delight in pinning a filmmaker and a television producer. That’s natural, since Mitterand used to be a film critic and is conversant in pop culture. “At last I can kiss him!” the minister said after bussing Gus Van Sant (right). In French, he told the audience assembled in the French Consulat’s home “His films are not just lessons in the art of cinema, but in the art of looking at others and liking others.” Van Sant, accepting the award, expressed admiration for the Rene Magritte painting on view at the Residence of France, as the house is called, and cried, “Vive la France!” before exiting the stage. Matthew Weiner, creator of the “Mad Men” TV series, was also decorated. “My own personal relationship with France is imaginary,” said Weiner, who had brought wife, kids, and parents to the ceremony. “It extends to owning a Citroen Pallas in the 1990s and driving around Los Angeles. I would imagine Catherine Deneuve pulling up beside me.”