Hello everyone,
Amuse-Bouche No. 29: Striking differences
by Julia Frey
julia.frey@aya.yale.edu
Il y a grève dans le RER, et manif chez Chanel
Il y a grève (there’s a strike). Encore ! (Again!) C’est la énième fois ! (It’s the nth time! ) In Marseille, garbage hasn’t been picked up for days; in Paris the RER (Réseau Express Régional d'Île-de-France: suburban train system) is on service minimum, and worse, the petroleum industry has called a rupture de stock (delivery stoppage), causing a pénurie d’essence (gasoline shortage). C’est la galère (literally, the galleys, where people are enslaved to hard labor⎯i.e., it’s pure hell). Huge, unruly lines wait for hours outside the stations service (gas stations). Fights break out. For certains (some people), essence feels essential.
La nation is paralyzed. This isn’t even une grève générale (a general strike). It’s a grève partielle, sometimes called une grève bouchon (logjam), where key industries partially close down, provoking just enough disruption to drive the population générale around the bend. We, for example, were supposed to take the TGV (train à grande vitesse: fast train) to Paris this weekend. Manque de pot (tough luck⎯as in losing the pot in poker). Nous sommes coincés (we’re stuck). You can no longer get there from here. The verb coincer is also used when you pinch your finger in a door, or when the flics (police) close their dragnet on a crook; if you feel coincé/e, you’re uptight.
But back to la grève. Historically, the noun la grève means shore or beach. In Paris, the square in front of l’Hôtel de Ville, at the edge of the Seine, was originally a wide beach called La Place de Grève, created by silt washed up from the river. It held un gibet (gallows) and un pilori (stocks), popularly known as une justice et une échelle (ladder). These were used for public entertainment⎯like decapitations, hangings, the rack, etc. Life’s a beach.
Etymology, though, is a slippery slope. Apparently faire grève took on its current meaning during the Industrial Revolution when travailleurs quit work and went into the streets (or marched to La Place de Grève) to insist on a raise. Before that, faire grève meant the opposite: to be out in the street looking for a job.
Curiously, although there’s abundant legislation in France to determine when it’s legal to strike, the law contains no official definition of une grève. My dictionary says it’s a prolonged collective work stoppage used as a means to acquire professional, economic or moral benefits. This last concept⎯striking for a moral cause⎯is virtually unknown in the United States. But in France, la grève politique, pressuring the government to correct perceived social inequities, is very common. And a lot of the time it works.
Many Americans don’t get this principle. When people in the US go on strike, it’s labor against owners, which was the case in the 2009 French strike of the Chanel fashion industry employees. But in 1981, when there was a national air-traffic controllers strike in the United States, then-President Ronald Reagan fired anyone who wasn't back at work within 48 hours. After that, air-traffic controllers, if they were lucky, could just about get a job at the dime store. In France, on the other hand, millions nationwide march in des manifs (demonstrations) to protest raising the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62. (Paradoxically, before President François Mitterrand lowered it to age 60 in 1982, French retirement age was 65.) And in the United States a year later, when full retirement age was raised from 65 to 67, nobody went on strike! It wasn’t that Americans liked it. They were just emberlificotés (bamboozled). If you weren’t an employee of the Social Security Administration, how could you go on strike against it? In France and plenty of other countries, this is a minor detail. If enough people don’t like something, nobody goes to work at all; you just close down the country.
France has a creative range of strike possibilities: A grève perlée (literally, like a string of beads) is a work slowdown, considered illegal. In une grève du zèle, each employee zealously follows all work orders to the letter, producing the same effect but within legal bounds. So as to spread the effort, sectors sometimes organize une grève tournante, in which different groups take turns stopping work, one at a time. Alternatively, in une grève ponctuelle all work stops briefly at specific times⎯as when, say, in une grève de solidarité, (also illegal), the contrôleurs aériens (air traffic controllers) stop work for five minutes an hour, closing down all the airports. Similar results are achieved with une grève sur le tas (on location), also known as des bras croisés (with folded arms). Employees are physically present, but don’t do anything. Sometimes, in labor disputes, businesses organize their own kind of illegal strike⎯un lock-out (verb: lock-outer). They collectively lock shops and quit paying their employees.
But back to the grève des retraites (retirement pensions) that recently provided such great photo ops for the TV. Students marching next to their striking teachers. Violent adolescent casseurs (rioters: from casser, to break) busting shop windows and burning cars. And everywhere the walking masses, chanting and carrying banderoles (banners) with slogans of wonderful verbal richness. One announces “LA RETRAITE AVANT L’ARTHRITE” (retirement before arthritis). Another, playing on the familiar expression “métro, boulot, dodo” (subway, workday, hit the hay⎯i.e., the monotony of everyday life), changes it to “METRO BOULOT CAVEAU” (cemetery vault). Another reads “ BOUCLIER POUR LES UNS, BOUCLEZ-LA POUR LES AUTRES” (for some, shields from tax / for the rest, shut your traps).
A little obscenity always serves to pimenter (spice up) a manif. One banderole refers to current president Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife: “CARLA, ON EST COMME TOI, ON S’EST FAIT NIQUER PAR LE CHEF D’ETAT” (Carla, we’re like you, we’ve been screwed by the head of state). The chants are good too: “Pour ceux d’en haut, des couilles en or, pour ceux d’en bas, des nouilles encore” . This contrepèterie (spoonerism) translates approximately “those on top have golden cojones, the lower classes live on macaroni.”
Still, I’m taken aback when on the evening news, a little gray-haired lady who has been waiting an hour and a half to gas up her car announces, “Ils nous font chier!” (literally, “they [the strikers] are making us crap.”) Now MY mother wouldn’t be caught dead using the English equivalent ("pissing us off", or "fucking us up")⎯at least not on national TV. Can "faire chier" be used in normal conversation? I check with Gérard. His reply is swift and unambiguous. Only if you’re an ado’ (teenager). A polite alternative would be faire suer (making us sweat), because suer conveniently sounds a little like chier, but smells better. The vieille dame indigne (undignified elderly lady) must have been very indignée (indignant, upset).
© Julia Frey 2010
J'ai posé la question aux élèves de 1st grade, de manière à savoir quelle était la réelle motivation pour être dans cette classe particulière avec un "Dual Language Program".
Apprendre le Français... :
- Pour 3 élèves, c'est pouvoir communiquer avec la famille, les amis.
- Pour 3 élèves, c'est "fun". Le Français est leur langue préférée (!).
- Pour 2 élèves, c'est pour être DANS la classe de Français (?).
- Pour 2 élèves, il faut être "intelligent" pour apprendre le Français.
- Pour 1 élève, c'est pour conserver la langue maternelle.
- Pour 1 élève, c'est pour réaliser le rêve des parents.
- Pour 1 élève, parce que les parents pourront apprendre avec lui.
- 3 élèves ne savent pas.
Tout simplement, apprendre le Français, ou toute autre langue, c'est le plaisir d'échanger, de communiquer, de trouver ça amusant, de transmettre à son tour autour de soi. C'est un peu tout à la fois. Et malgré leur jeune âge, les élèves de PS 73 ont résumé avec leurs mots la motivation qui guide l'attirance vers une langue plutôt que vers une autre.
Really so cute!
Merci les enfants!!!
JASON GOLDNER, PRINCIPAL
50-05 31 AVENUE, QUEENS, NY 11377
Phone: 718-728-2676
Authors interview authors
Within days of Time magazine's publication of Don Morrison's article on the decline of France as an international cultural power, French media "lit up like the Eiffel Tower in full sparkle". Major French figures like Didier Jacob, Maurice Druon, Teresa Cremisi, Olivier Poivre d'Arvor, and François Busnel, weighed in. The blogosphere went wild. Even foreigners got involved. US Ambassador Craig Stapleton wrote a letter--defending France. Feeling that 3000 words were insufficient to explore such a complex subject, Morrison has now written an expanded book: The Death of French Culture, with a response by Antoine Compagnon, Professor of Literature at the Collège de France. Questions by Laurel Zuckerman, of Paris Writers News.
LZ: Why do you think your original article caused such a strong reaction in France?
DM : More than almost any other country, France takes culture seriously. For centuries, it has been an element of French diplomacy, national identity and the "gloire" that sets France apart from lesser nations. Only France proclaimed a "civilizing mission" to imbue colonial subjects with, among other gifts, France's cultural heritage. Even today culture remains one of France's unique selling propositions. As, a French diplomat once proclaimed, "Germany may have Siemens, but we have Voltaire." So anyone who makes critical remarks about French culture, no matter how accurate or well-meaning, should be prepared for a strong reaction.
LZ: How did you get interested in the question of French culture?
DM :I went to a small high school in a small mid-American town, where a small but very tough nun pounded a few words of French into my skull -- along with a lifelong fascination with the culture and history of this seemingly exotic country. I thought I'd never visit the place. But when I did, many years later, I was astonished to find that people pretty much understood the strange sounds I was able to summon from the mists of memory. One thing led to another, and I'm still here, still fascinated.
LZ: You point out how language, education, cultural bureaucracy contribute to the death of French culture. Let’s talk about language first.
Use of French is declining very quickly. Only 33 high Chinese high schools out of 15,000 offer French classes. In England French is no longer required and major US universities are dropping their French departments. Is this inevitable? What is to be done?
DM :This trend troubles me greatly, considering how hard I've tried -- and largely failed -- to master French. I used to applaud France's strenuous efforts to promote French as an international language, but I'm beginning to think it's not worth the trouble. A French president walking out of an international forum because one of his countrymen addresses the audience in English? French diplomats slowing down the work of multilateral organizations with demands that French be an official language? Quotas limiting other languages heard on French radio and TV? Millions of euros a year spent on La Francophonie and similar extension efforts? I wonder if those resources could be put to better use. They aren't going to halt the rise of English. That's a fact of globalization. It affects German, Italian, Gujarati and Cantonese just as it does French, but for some reason other countries don't twist themselves into pretzels trying to resist it. I wonder if France's resources would be better spent ensuring that its culture is more robust and exportable, rather than produced in French.
LZ: Should the French communicate in English in order to be heard? What options do they have?
DM : For good or ill, English is increasingly the language that other countries use to speak to each other. They still retain their national languages, as France surely will. Actually, despite its protestations, France is dealing with that reality fairly well. English is widely taught in schools from an early age. Many French multinational companies use English as a working language. French rock and pop musicians perform in English. French is never going to disappear. But even if it is less widely spoken than it was a decade or two ago, France is no less prosperous or secure as a result. On the contrary.
LZ: French education policies have devastated the study of French literature in France : destruction of the L bac option, ruin of literature and social sciences in French universities (“Three times more space for a Bresse chicken than a French university student.”) Why this neglect? Will the 5 billion euro "Plan Campus" improve things? Autonomy?
DM : The sad state of French universities has been a topic of national debate for years, and I'm pleased that the problem is being addressed. It's obvious that a country's future is linked to the quality of its education, and universities have long been a weak link in the French system. In particular, France could improve the vigor of its culture by turning its universities into centers of cultural excellence -- where literature and the arts are not just studied intensively as academic subjects but also as performing professions, with appropriate performing facilities. That would help develop not only the next generation of writers and artists, but also the next generation of cultural audiences. Other countries do this. France can too.
LZ: “Excessive cultural subsidies suffocate creativity” how? Who decides which artists get support in France?
DM : On a per-capita basis, France subsidizes culture more heavily than just about any other country. It's a well-meaning attempt, but it has the perverse effect of promoting safe, predictable works by cultural producers seeking subsidies. It doesn't help that the subsidies are doled out by cultural bureaucrats. True, they tend to be functionaries of impeccable taste and exacting standards, but they are bureaucrats nonetheless -- not audiences. This intensive subsidization also encourages the production of culture that appeals to a national audience, as distinct from an international one. Thus, French culture has a tendency to become "franco-francais" rather than internationally appealing. French artists and writers are encouraged to address a French audience, and not to produce works that succeed outside France. Similarly, subsidies and other protectionist measures tend to insulate France from foreign cultural influences, to the detriment of its culture. History has shown that exposure to and competition with foreign influences keeps a nation's culture vital. Of course, everything I've just said is a generality. In practice, French culture is alive and well, and some of it exports well. But that's despite subsidies, not thanks to them.
LZ: What is the role of favoritism and incompetence in the failure of official French cultural organizations to spread French culture?
DM :These practices are surprisingly rare among French cultural officials, who in my experience are mostly fair and scrupulous in their duties. But the bureaucratic structure in which they operate -- the system that gives them vast power over who gets rewarded, hired, promoted and subsidized -- is inherently open to abuse. It's an accident waiting to happen.
LZ: Is a Ministry of Culture harmful? Or is it the quality recent ministers (Jacques (‘loi’) Toubon, Chrisine Albanel (who so infuriated the brilliant Bartabas that he wrecked her office); Frédéric Mitterand (currently in hiding)? Could a great Culture Minister turn things around? How?
DM : Nearly every country has a culture ministry, but few have one as big and powerful as France's -- one that sucks all the air out of the cultural space in France, that makes all the big decisions about culture. The effect is that the French tend to view culture as a public utility, one they have no control over and feel little responsibility for. Actually, I think France has had some effective and truly visionary culture ministers, from Andre Malraux right down to Frederic Mitterrand -- who, by the way, is not in hiding. He's in the papers nearly every day, and I'm going to see him at a conference in a few weeks. But does any country need an all-powerful minister to determine the course of the nation's culture? Or would culture be better served by making its beneficiaries, i.e. you and me, more responsible for its progress, and more empowered to help decide its future?
LZ: Why do French writers make such a small splash outside France? Is this really a quality problem or one of industrial organization?
DM : You could argue that it's a quality problem, that French writers since the dawn of the nouveau roman have favored spare, elegant, bloodless fiction beloved of critics but shunned by readers, especially those abroad. But it's also a problem of competition: too many writers in other countries produce novels bursting with plot, character and color, which do indeed travel well. I'm not talking just about commercial novels, but also "literary" fiction. You see these writers, mostly foreigners, all over the best-seller lists, even in France. There's also a problem of publishing economics. Translations cost money, and foreign publishers are facing hard times in many countries. It's easier for them to feast on the abundance of local writers. But mostly I think it's the fact that too many French novelists are not focusing on the real state of contemporary France, its fascinating national debates and its very serious problems. In my admittedly biased view, contemporary French fiction can be thoughtful, introspective and formally inventive -- but not especially connected to contemporary France.
LZ: You've said that French writers tend not to engage with current events. What is the role of taboos in stifling French writers? (A few years ago, telling the truth about Algeria was still a punishable offense; French students study the Vietnam War more than the colonial war in French Indochina; and the American slave trade more the history of slavery in French colonies).
DM : I'm not sure taboo is the right word. It's more a matter of timing and priorities. It took American novelists two decades to address the Vietnam war in a serious and concerted way. Somehow, the subject was considered too sensitive, too unresolved or otherwise not ripe enough for thoughtful engagement. France's behavior during World War II is finally getting its due, and I'm sure other sensitive historical subjects will follow. We are, for instance, beginning to see some good writing about the immigrant experience in France. As the country's dispossessed minorities find their voice, we'll see more good, topical fiction.
LZ: How to write the Great French Novel ? Should an outsider write it? An expat, for example?
DM : I don't think you'd have to be an outsider to capture the essence of France, Frenchness and all the other things that might constitute a great national novel. After all, being a writer means being able, or at least willing, to look at the world through different eyes, to apply imagination to reality. That said, it's interesting that so much great American and British fiction has come from first- and second-generation immigrants, including the great postwar Jewish-American writers, and the impressive younger writers with roots in Britain's former colonies. I expect to see a similar wave of excellence coming from the margins of French society.
LZ: Many of the great internationally known icons of French culture were (or are) Jewish. (Proust, Perec, Marcel Marceau, Goscinny, Levy Strauss, Derrida, Aron, Bergson, Durkheim, Cyrulnik, Gainsbourg, Barbara, JJGoldman, Berger, Truffaut, Simone Signoret, Reza, Finklekraut, Glucksman, BHL) Has French culture been permanently impoverished by its treatment of Jews in WWII?
DM : The entire world has been impoverished by the Jewish tragedy of World War II. France is not alone. And coming to terms with the war is a task for France, not for me. But I do live in France at a time when, for rather shabby political reasons, other French minorities are being marginalized, told what not to wear and where not to live and, in one shocking case, singled out for deportation. I wonder if, someday soon, we might start asking ourselves how many potential French cultural geniuses were lost or thwarted by such policies.
LZ: Let’s talk money. For a foreigner the treatment of billionaire François Pinault, who wanted to turn Ile Séguin into a great art museum but got so frustrated by French politicians and bureaucrats that he moved the project to Italy, is absolutely inexplicable. What happened here? Is this why French billionaires give so little to culture?
DM : You'd have to ask M. Pinault what went wrong, but I suspect he grew tired of dealing with a glacial bureaucracy. He is not alone. You'll recall that Helmut Newton decided not to give his photographic collection to France after a similar experience. The overweening power of France's cultural mandarins may have something to do with this. In addition, France is still in the process of developing a habit of cultural philanthropy. Recent tax reforms should help encourage donations. But the mere existence of a giant bureaucracy subsidizing and controlling French culture tends to make the French feel that supporting culture is not their individual responsibility.
LZ: What is culture? How is it spread? What makes it powerful? Could we imagine the Chinese taking cultural leadership?
DM : To quote the great Duke Ellington, when asked where jazz was headed: If I knew the future of culture, I'd be there. There are many definitions of culture, but if you're talking about serious works of literature and the plastic arts, then its global influence can be measured, imprecisely, by such things as reputational surveys and auction results. This isn't the same as quality or vitality, which remains largely subjective. By the first set of measures, France is not doing so well these days. But I think books like mine are starting to ignite a national debate on re-invigorating French culture and making it more successful abroad. As for China, I recently returned from two years of teaching there. The country has a long and distinguished cultural tradition, and the contemporary art and literary scenes are exciting. But culture thrives in a climate of openness, and China is just beginning to confront this fact. The next few years will be interesting.
LZ: Should an English-speaking writer publish in France? (given how hard it is to sell foreign rights from France).
DM : A number of English-speaking writers do quite well in France: Douglas Kennedy, Nancy Huston, Diane Johnson, Stephen Clarke, Paul Auster. Many French publishers provide the kind of attention and support that their Ango-Saxon counterparts no longer do. That was certainly my experience, with Editions Denoel. And France is a warm and welcoming place for foreign writers. Even annoying ones like me. In China, I would ask my students to imagine that a foreign writer came there and wrote a book about "the death of Chinese culture." What would happen to him? I asked. Would he be fired from his teaching job? (Heads would nod around the room.) Arrested? (More heads nod.) Deported? (Everybody nods.) Well, I tell them. I am that man. And here is what happened to me in France. My arguments were reported faithfully in the major media. I was a frequent guest on French TV. France's top cultural officials invited me to have lunch, speak at their conferences and write for their in-house publications. And a pillar of the French publishing establishment gave me a book contract. So that's how you deal with your critics. And that's why I think France will always be a great place for the people who make culture, no matter where they're from.
The Death of French Culture, by Donald Morrison and Antoine Compagnon, Polity Press
Donald Morrison is former editor of Time magazine's European and Asian editions
Laurel Zuckerman is the author of Sorbonne Confidential and the editor of Paris Writers News.
WRITERS: ONLY TEN MORE DAYS TO SUBMIT TO THE PARIS SHORT STORY CONTEST!
Vickie Frémont has been designing and creating since she was 8 years old, drawing and painting without having ever been taught. At the age of 12 she began to sew, making dolls for her little sister. She was rather shy and spent most of her time as a child alone, reading, writing or knitting, beading… Vickie was born in Cameroon, but left at an early age. With her parents, she lived in Morocco, and many years in the Ivory Coast and in France. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree, in France, and planned to teach Spanish. She also studied anthropology and economics. However, at one point she was working in the neighborhood of the Beaux Arts (fine arts) school and started studying Arts techniques, realizing that there was her calling.
She operated a knit textile company for several years, employing 10 people, creating knit designs for such well-known brands as Georges Picaud, Anny Blatt, Pingouin, Phildar, Sonia Rykiel, Torrente, Dorothée Bis, Daniel Hetcher and Issey Miyake. She created and sold jewelry in her shop located in the fashionable Marais neighborhood (Paris).
Ten years ago, at a crossroad in her life, she made the momentous decision to move to New York City to further her dream of being engaged in art on a full-time basis. Her first position in the United States was as store manager and buyer for the Museum for African Art, which was at the time located in Soho.
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Basket made with bottle caps |
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Puppets of Cameroon |
Currently, she designs and makes jewelry and other items, which were also sold at the Soho Museum Store, and can be currently found at the Brooklyn Museum store. She focuses on what she loves: jewelry, bracelets, necklaces, earrings with recycled materials but also with beads, African materials, stones, brass beads etc..; sculptures, puppets, baskets that include beads, textiles, and different kinds of recycled materials such as hangers, cardboard, plastic baskets (for example, strawberry containers). She works with anything that’s easy to carry, to cut or to adjust, clean materials, such as toilet paper rolls that she uses to create dolls or jewelry. Since her position at the Museum for African Art, she has participated in many cultural programs. She participated at Beads, Body and Soul, a Yoruba-theme exhibition; the Hair exhibition; the Baoulé pottery exhibit... In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Cameroon’s independence, she created a series of puppets representing the ten main regions of Cameroon. She has been featured in the media: in Amina, the most popular African women’s magazine; in television documentaries; the well-known singer, Kaïssa, wears her jewelry.
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Amina Magazine, Cameroon edition |
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Kaïssa wearing Vickie's beaded bracelet (photo: Maciek Schejbal) |
Her life philosophy is that beauty can be found everywhere. It is a challenge to give a new life to what people call trash. As an educator, she thinks that the progressive transformation of objects is like a miracle, a “re-creation”. She also notices that the activity, for many people helps to restore self-esteem, as it opens a door into the unlimited world of creativity. Her guiding emotion? “To keep a part of my childhood, and to center myself.”
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Young student with doll |
Vickie provides educational programs: The Recycling Art Program. As a young girl, Vickie did not own manufactured toys, but she was happy with her own “made by myself” toys, made with all kinds of materials (stones, wooden sticks, scraps of fabric). She says: “Creating something from ‘nothing’, art from what many would consider trash, is not only a worthwhile undertaking but one that brings personal and mutual pleasure and understanding.”
The program can be adapted for primary school children, high school and college students, teachers, parents, and seniors, people working in stressful occupations. It can be considered a distraction or a recreational activity, but also as training for work with young people. It has been of particular interest to those involved in the fields of education and health.
Her website is http://vickiefremont.com/ and she can be reached by e-mail.
The 2010 Jerome Lohez Foundation Scholarship recipients are:
Ms. Henin’s academic brilliance was clear at young age. She was recognized by the Mayor de Sevres for outstanding results in the French Baccalaureate exam. Paula then went on to study International Relations and History at the London School of Economics (LSE). She specialized in the Middle East and public international law. Paula was among the top one percent of students in her year. Paula felt compelled to try to shed light on the situation in which there seems to be such misunderstanding and sometimes animosity between the west and the Arab world. Her dissertation thesis, “A French perspective on the British and American interventions in the Levant, May – November 1958,” was commended by the LSE’s Board of Examiners and awarded the Hue Wheldon Prize.
Paula has received a 2010-2011 Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarship to participate in a dual degree program at Columbia Law School and Univiersité Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. She is a board member of the Columbia International Arbitration Association. Paula has a strong interest in international law; her ultimate goal is to work as a legal adviser for a major international organization, the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, or an international court or tribunal.
Ms. Henin speaks French, English, Spanish and Arabic and is a passionate guitar and saxophone player.
Ms. Francineau completed a journalism program at Sciences Po Paris and programs in International Affairs and Chinese Language and Culture at Sciences Po Bordeaux.
Hélèn then worked for Le Monde and Slate in Shanghai and Paris ; she wrote news on the Shanghai World Expo, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and Muslim minority riots in Xinjiang province. In 2009 Hélèn interned at The Washington Times foreign desk where she covered policies on climate change.
Hélèn plans to do multimedia journalism, which she considers to be the future of journalism. She chose to study in the United States because she believes it has been far ahead of European countries in developing this kind of journalism.
She enrolled at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism this fall. She is interested not only in story-telling, but also in blogging, radio editing, photography and video, and the social media.
Ms. Francineau speaks French, English, and Chinese.
Mr. Pétré worked at Société Générale for the global head of Risk Assessment and Controls. He worked on the creation of a methodology to improve web-browsing control of Societe Generale system users and other security-related projects. He was praised by his professors and supervisors for his creativity and attention to details and his team spirit.
Alban visited New York for the first time in 2009 and fell in love with the city. He will enter Stevens Institute of Technology in spring, 2011. He looks forward broadening his vision through an American educational experience, and he hopes that his time in the United States will allow him to promote cultural exchange while here and when he returns to France .
The Award Presentation Gala will be held in spring 2011.
The Result will be published on our foundation's web site www.jl911.org soon.
Jerome Lohez 2010 Scholarship Selection Committee
Professor Elizabeth Roistacher (Committee Chairman)
Captain Jordan Becker (2009 Scholarship recipients),
Mr. Stephane Bouniol,
Mr. Philippe Carls
Mr. Mark Denne,
Mr. Florent D’Halluin (2009 Scholarship recipients),
Mr. Brian T. Kelly,
Mr. Vincent De Laggabe, Ms. Dening Lohez (Founder),
Ms. Barbara Wing
Professor Elizabeth Roistacher is an economics professor at Queens College and the Graduate Center , City University of New York. She has previously served as deputy assistant secretary for economic affairs at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and as a Brookings Economic Policy fellow. Professor Roistacher has also served as director of the Office of Honors and Scholarships at Queens College . Professor Roistacher received Ph.D. in economics from University of Pennsylvania.
pour Le Monde.fr | 13.10.10 | 09h58 • Mis à jour le 13.10.10 | 16h51Par quel miracle le nombre de francophones dans le monde est-il passé de quelque 200millions de personnes en 2007 à 220 millions de personnes en 2010,d'après le dernier rapport de l'Organisation internationale de la francophonie (OIF), publié mardi 12 octobre ?
Pour la première fois, répondent les dirigeants de l'OIF, leur jeune Observatoire de la langue française a pu se fonder, non plus sur desévaluations parfois sommaires, mais sur des sources statistiques, desenquêtes nationales ou internationales et, quand elles faisaient défaut,sur des études ad hoc menées par des organes de la francophonie.
De plus, outre les 70 pays membres de l'OIF (dont 14 pays dits "observateurs"), ont aussi étécomptabilisés les francophones d'Algérie (évalués à 11,2 millions depersonnes), ceux des Etats-Unis (2,1 millions), d'Israël (plus de 300000 personnes) et même du Val d'Aoste (Italie, 90 000 personnes).
NEUVIÈME LANGUE DU MONDE
Dans les pays africains, seules les personnes sachant non seulement parler mais aussi lire et écrire le français ont été prises en compte.C'est l'un des facteurs qui permet aux responsables de l'OIF d'assurerque ce chiffre de 220 millions de francophones reste sous-évalué.
Le français, neuvième langue parlée au monde et deuxième langue enseignée (avec 116 millions de personnes qui l'apprennent, selon l'OIF)se développe-t-il vraiment, envers et contre l'attraction de l'anglais ?"Depuis cent cinquante ans, le français n'est plus la seule langue universelle, on a tardé à en prendre conscience, constate Frédéric Bouilleux, directeur de la langue française et de la diversité linguistique à l'OIF. Aujourd'hui, on parle le français parce qu'on en a besoin, pas seulement au niveau des élites."
D'après le rapport, le français se développe en Afrique, principalement pour des raisons démographiques, stagne en Amérique duNord, et décline en Europe, où le Royaume-Uni, par exemple, a décidé, en2004, que la langue de Molière n'était plus indispensable à l'examenfinal du cycle secondaire.
RÉGRESSION DANS LES ORGANISATIONS INTERNATIONALES
La régression est aussi patente dans toutes les organisations internationales et sur leurs sites, même quand le français y est langueofficielle ou langue de travail. Ainsi, constate Alexandre Wolff,responsable de l'Observatoire de l'OIF, seulement 15% des textes de laCommission européenne de Bruxelles sont émis initialement en français etservent ainsi de base de discussion avant traduction.
Dans les instances de l'ONU, à Genève, ajoute-t-il, 90% des textes sont d'abord rédigés en anglais. A toutes ces organisations ainsi qu'àcertains de ses pays membres comptant relativement peu de francophones,l'OIF tente d'imposer un "vade-mecum", rappel à la diversité culturelletimidement suivi d'effet, souvent faute de moyens.
Dans ses projections, l'OIF anticipe que l'Afrique, où vivent déjà environ la moitié des francophones du monde, en regroupera en 2050environ 85%, sur 715 millions de locuteurs, toujours en vertu de sondynamisme démographique. Et à condition que la scolarisation continue deprogresser sur ce continent et que le français y demeure une langueenseignée (le Rwanda a, lui, opté pour l'anglais).
D'où l'emphase accrue que demande Clément Duhaime, administrateur de l'OIF, dans la formation des maîtres et dans les programmesd'alphabétisation pour les pays africains, avant le 13e sommet de l'OIF prévu du 22 au 24 octobre à Montreux (Suisse).
Eating and reading have been two of my greatest pleasures for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I spent hours next door in my grandparents’ kitchen. My grandmother made breakfast, bananafritters, apple pies and coconut cakes. My grandfather, a former chef, prepared everything else. If I close my eyes, I can still see andsmell his beef stew even though it has been over 25 years since I last tastedit.
As for my second love, when I was around eight or nine years old, a cousin gave me a book for Christmas, one in the BobbseyTwins series. My mom often took meto the library and I borrowed books from school, but that book was the veryfirst brand new book I could call my own. I have been in love with books ever since.
I am amazed that I only recently combined those two loves and discovered the world of food books. I am not talking about traditionalcookbooks. I now search out booksabout cooking, chefs and adventures in food. It began in 2008, when my best friend Martha came to visitme during my sabbatical in Arles, France. She brought along a copy of TheSharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn. At the age of 36, Ms. Flinn lost herjob, decided to move to Paris, and use her life savings to enroll in the famedCordon Bleu culinary school. The first chapter is entitled “Life is not a dress rehearsal” and itbegins with a Julia Child quote: “I didn’t start cooking until I wasthirty-two. Until then I justate.” Once I started the book, Icouldn’t put it down.
Since finishing that book, I’ve struggled with Julie Powell as she cooked her way through every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking,blogged about it and then turned it into a novel, Julie and Julie. Thatled me directly to Julia Child’s memoir, MyLife in France. (And yes, Idid love the movie based on those two books.) Next, I discovered M.F.K. Fisher and her novels about livingand eating in France, Map of Another Town,set in Aix-en-Provence, Long Ago inFrance, set in Dijon, and AConsiderable Town, set in Marseille. French Dirt by Richard Goodmanis the story of a man and his garden in the south of France. This is the love of food at itsmost basic level. A friend lent mea copy of Bill Buford’s Heat, thestory of the author’s foray into the kitchen of Chef Mario Batali, with aninterlude in Tuscany, working with an Italian butcher. This book was eye-opening and left mewandering why anyone would become a chef or even work near one.
My friends are always on the lookout for new books for me, especially ones about food and Provence. I received Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunée as a gift. The story follows Ms. Sunée, a Korean orphan adopted by anAmerican couple, as she searchesfor her own identity while preparing feasts for friends in Paris andProvence. She includesrecipes, as do many of the other authors. Clémentine in the Kitchen bySamuel Chamberlain, published for the first time in the 1940’s, is the story ofan American family living in Senlis, France, a town I know well. Clémentine, their cook, left behindnotebooks full of her handwritten recipes and many of them are included in thebook. The Tenth Muse by Judith Jones, the editor who published works bythe likes of Julia Child, M.F.K. Fisher and James Beard, was a joy to read as Ifollowed her discovery of good food in France and the revival of the Americanfood scene in the late ‘60’s and ‘70’s which she was privy to as part of herwork. I would be remiss if Ididn’t mention Peter Mayle’s hilarious FrenchLessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew, with a chapter devotedto the blessing of truffles at a special mass followed by a lunch featuring thesacred diamants noirs or blackdiamonds, as they are called in French. There is also a chapter about a festival for lovers of frog legs, orthighs, as they are called in French, in the town of Vittel in April. Frog legs are on my to-eat list.
Every spring I eagerly anticipate the Used Book Fair at Durham Academy. One of my favorite finds this year was Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman. He wrote about the Culinary Instituteof America’s master chef competition and then spent time with leading Americanchefs, including Thomas Keller of The French Laundry, trying to figure out whythey are successful. This book isa follow up to The Making of a Chefabout his time as a student-journalist at the CIA in Hyde Park, New York. His third one, The Reach of a Chef, is on my to-read list.
Anthony Bourdain, another celebrity chef, found his way into my bookshelf. Iread Kitchen Confidential and foundmyself once again wondering why anyone would choose the torturous life found inthe kitchen of a chef du jour. I am amazed that Bourdain is stillalive to travel the world looking for interesting culinary delights to show uson The Travel Channel, but I loved the book.
Returning to the theme of food and Provence, I recently read Mary Ann Cawes’ ProvençalCooking: Savoring the Simple Life in France. The author and her husband bought a small stone cabanon, or cottage, in the south ofFrance and spent their summers making it inhabitable. Ms. Cawes tells of the markets she visits and the neighborsand friends with whom she lingers over long meals of wonderful traditionalProvençal dishes. Her recipes tookme right back to Arles and my many meals and picnics there. (A little cabanon in a small village in Provence is my fantasy, not theCordon Bleu or the CIA!)
On my bedside table at the moment is The Perfectionist by Rudolph Chelminski. It is dedicated to thememory of Chef Bernard Loiseau, a French chef whose goal was to own arestaurant with a Michelin 3-star rating. He achieved this goal with his restaurant La Côte d’Or after 17 years ofintense labor. At the time of hisdeath in 2003, at the age of 52, there were rumors that he would lose his thirdstar. He had confided to acolleague that he would kill himself if that ever happened. The plot of the Disney movie Ratatouille is supposedly based onLoiseau’s life. It is a fascinating look at the French system of chefapprenticeship and some of the big name chefs who have come out of France inthis century, including Paul Bocuse, Fernand Point and the Troisgros brothers.
Just last week I read a children’s book entitled It’s A Book by LaneSmith. Monkey, one of thecharacters, is reading a book and Jackass, his friend, doesn’t know what a bookis. He is only acquainted with theinternet. He asks Monkey a lot ofannoying questions and, in the end, takes his book and won’t give it back. I intend to read it to my students atschool very soon. I vow to do mypart to pass on my love for books to the younger generation.
As for my love of food, it seems that certain foods and smells can take me back in time and even across theocean. Meals are special becauseof who we share them with, I believe. This is what I hope I am able to pass on to my own children. And to be able to write a book thatmakes a reader hunger for the sights, sounds, and smells of my own life? Well, that would be a dream cometrue.
I’ve tested these two recipes and they are truly simple and delicious. Enjoy thepasta with a glass of chilled Provence white wine for a simple feast.
Recipes:
Mousse au Chocolat
(from Clémentine in the Kitchen by Samuel Chamberlain; Modern Library, 2001)
Bittersweet chocolate, eggs, rum or vanilla
Serves 8
In the top of a double boiler over simmering water, melt ½ pound of bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces,with ¼ cup of water. Stir until itachieves a beautifully smooth consistency. Remove the top of the double boilerfrom the heat and stand it in cold water to cool, stirring occasionally.
Beat well the yolks of 5 eggs and add these to the chocolate, together with 1 teaspoon of rum or of vanillaextract. Transfer the chocolatemixture to a large bowl and carefully but thoroughly fold in 5 stiffly beatenegg whites. Put this delectablesubstance into a serving bowl or individual ramekins and chill at least 2 hoursbefore serving.
Note: This is the simplest recipe for chocolate mousse you are likely to find and also very likely the best. You must, however, use chocolate of the finest quality. Also, use very fresh eggs, or the moussemay separate.
Midnight Pasta #3: Penne with Popped Tomatoes, Anchovies, and Onions
(from Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunée; Grand Central Publishing, 2008)
1 to 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pint ripe cherry or grape tomatoes
Salt and fresh-ground black pepper, to taste
Pinch of sugar (as needed)
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
Hot red pepper flakes, to taste
4 to 5 anchovy filets
Handful of black olives or 1 teaspoon black olive tapenade
½ pound penne
Garnish: Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano
Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium high to high heat. Addtomatoes and cook, tossing often, about 10 minutes. Cover and let cook about 3 minutes. Uncover, season with salt and pepperand a pinch of sugar. Add onion,toss, and cook about 2 minutes. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, anchovies, and olives. Lower heat.
Cook penne in salted boiling water just until al dente. Drain,reserving about ¼ cup pasta water. Toss in pasta and heat for about 1 minute, adding some of the reservedpasta water if too dry. Toss tocombine. Divide pasta into 2warmed bowls. Serveimmediately. Add another crack ofpepper, if desired, and garnish with cheese.
Amuse-Bouche No. 27: Words à la Mode -- or how to be out of date fast
by Julia Frey
julia.frey@aya.yale.edu
Cool expressions revolve faster than une porte à tambour (revolving door).
Does everybody read the newspaper with a yellow marker, or just me? At Sunday lunch, I regularly ask Nicole’s family to solve my word mysteries. But this week, before I even get out my (14-page) list, Nicole me pose une nouvelle colle (slang usage of colle, glue: asks me a new “sticky question”). “Veux-tu le sot-l’y-laisse?” I stare stupidly at the roast chicken, translating mentally: “Do you want the idiot leaves it there?” Quoi? The sot-l’y-laisse, she explains with a laugh, describes delicious but hard-to-find parts of the bird, tiny muscles on each side of the backbone. They’re called le sot-l’y-laisse because only an imbécile would leave them uneaten. In Nicole’s family, they fight over these morsels, found just above the croupion, and sometimes erroneously confused with it. The croupion, au contraire, is the fatty tissue holding a bird’s tail feathers. The verb, croupionner, can describe a woman who wiggles hers as she walks, presumably to attract attention. Ornithologists call the croupion the pygostyle, but hoi polloi call it the “Pope’s nose” or the “parson’s nose” depending, I suppose, on whether you prefer to insult Catholics or Protestants. So try asking for the pygostyle next Thanksgiving.
But I digress. After a character in the movie Amélie ("Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain" 2001) referred to the sot-l’y-laisse, spectators began wondering what it meant. The 18th century aristocratic culinary expression was reborn. Recipes, usually for the near-by muscles we call “chicken oysters”, appeared in a number of cooking publications, and in 2007, Le Figaro newspaper published a whole article on exactly what part of a roast bird sot-l’y-laisse refers to. Now there are at least eight restaurants called “Sot-l’y-laisse” !
This article is the first of an occasional series on what I call “mots-mode”, my own term for words à la mode—not like apple pie with ice cream (a non-French usage of à la mode), but like clothing styles, which are à la mode if they’re the latest thing. Normally not part of the ever innovative genius of argot (French slang), “mots-mode” are trite yet often paradoxically obscure words and expressions that spread like a virus for a few weeks or months, then fade. As I write, I’ll identify the culprits with the abbreviation mm (mot-mode), or worse, p (passé: out of style).
Just like clothing, mots-mode reflect one’s pretensions: political, economic, social or intellectual. Each clan— from gauchos (mm leftists) to taggeurs (mm graffiti artists) to bobos (p bohemian bourgeois)—has its own markers of who’s in and who’s out. Since frequently the general public has no clue (p) what the expressions mean, people use them to show they’re branchouillés. Of course, I’m using branchouillé humorously here, as a pejorative variant of the word branché (plugged in, i.e., hip) to imply that the speaker is p, i.e., not really branché. And by now the word branché is definitely p.
Even the French make fun of their tics de langage. In January 2009, Le Figaro asked its readers to choose the most overused word of 2008. Nominations included subprime, buzz, Facebook, bling-bling, pirates, récession, développement durable (sustainable development), récolement (inventory—often in context of bankruptcy), Livret A (a savings account) and Grenelle. Of the 10 mm, let me point out in passing, six were English or bilingual. And nine had to do with either fame or money. Or both.
The last word, Grenelle, is a perfect mm because even if you’re French, it’s totally esoteric. It refers to the Accords de Grenelle, agreements resulting from government-vs.-labor negotiations during the 1968 turbulence, held at the Ministère du Travail on Rue de Grenelle in Paris. J’hallucine! (mm Give me a break!). Nobody can understand that! In 1968, half the population of France wasn’t even born yet. Later, in 2007, important meetings on long-term environmental policy became known (abusivement, since they weren’t held on Rue de Grenelle) as le Grenelle de l’Environnement. Now, by analogy, a Grenelle refers to any important French policy debate among multiple interest groups.
What is horripilant (mm irritating) is not so much the actual words (except perhaps bling-bling), as le caractère tyrannique with which they’re used everywhere, then never. They revolve faster than une porte à tambour (revolving door). You constantly used to hear Santiags— a fashionista (p) mot-mode for heavily decorated, expensive cowboy boots— meaning shoes -- in the expression traîner (to drag) ses Santiags (i.e., to hang out). So “il traîne ses Santiags au Buddha Bar” used to mean he frequented that bar scene. However, suddenly tongs (thongs or flip-flops -- the ones we used to call “go-aheads” because they fell off if you tried to walk backward) hit Paris like a plague of plastic locusts. Now il traîne ses tongs au Mood. Where it’s highly unlikely he’ll get served le sot-l’y-laisse.
©Julia Frey 2010
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