· December, 2006

Stories about France from December, 2006

Martinique, Guadeloupe: A Star is Born

  26 December 2006

Atout Guadeloupe is happy (Fr) that 19 year-old Martiniquan Cyril won the Star Academy reality show/music contest, a French equivalent of American Idol. Says the feed: “19, millions of Euros, a budding career. Guadeloupe joins the pride and joy of Martinique for Cyril's victory… [We] predict a wonderful career for...

Guyane: Forest In Danger from Gold Digging

  21 December 2006

Blada.com (Fr) points to a Mongabay.com english-speaking series on the French Guianese environment and says: “Illegal gold digging is threatening the forest, biodiversity and indigenous populations of French Guiana. The biggest European tropical forest is invaded by clandestine gold diggers.” The site also deplores that France –of which Guyane is...

Guadeloupe:Celebrating Chevallier de St-George

  21 December 2006

Guadeloupe Attitude is happy (Fr) a Guadeloupean school chose to rename itself after local historic figure Joseph Bologne a.k.a. Chevallier de St-George, the child of a white French planter and freed african slave woman who lived in the 18th century and conquered classical composing and military skill in both Europe...

France, Minorities: Integration v. Identity Politics

  20 December 2006

Pondering the tension between integration and now fashionable identity politics, Fenetres Sur/Windows On writes (Fr): “Can we really demand recognition of our “community”, desire to live as such, outside of the common trunk of citizens and at the same time ask for the same rights as everybody else? We need...

DRC, France: Dear Pascal Sevran

  12 December 2006

In response to comments about Africa, Africans, African penis size and its relationship to famine on the continent made by French TV personality Pascal Sevran in a recent book, Congolese-origined blogger Alain Mabanckou writes (Fr):”Dear Pascal Sevran, Africa does not need your diagnosis. Must we remind you that a sane...

Rwanda: African Bloggers on Kagame Judgment

  10 December 2006

French Judge's Arrest Warrant From Cameroonian Diaspora Blogger Sanaga Peregrinations: Un bref résumé des épisodes (récents) s'impose pour ceux qui n'ont pas suivi. 1. Le juge antiterroriste français Bruguière, clôture son enquête sur l'attentat du 6 avril 1994 et qui fut le declencheur du genocide qui couta la vie a...

Senegal: Migrants to Spain Repatriated

  9 December 2006

Le Pangolin provides an update on the status of Africans who have migrated to Spain on rafts in the thousands in the past year (Fr): “Spain, which in an initial phase had decided to welcome them under pressure from France and the UK, just changed its position and has hardened...

Rwanda: hidden agenda?

  5 December 2006

Angelo Izama writes about the French-Rwanda diplomatic fall-out, “It is not news that France and the Kigali regime are on competing sides of the politics in this grave-filled but resource-rich Great Lakes region. The contest to assign blame for the genocide is a dangerous extension of that competition. It is,...

CAR: France Military Support Against Rebels

  1 December 2006

The blog of CAR presidential candidate Olivier Gabirault points to a Liberation article stating (Fr): “In 1997, Paris, linked to its former colony by a defense accord, disengaged by closing its two military bases (Bangui and Bouar) for economic reasons. Ten years later, French soldiers are back to support President...