Autumn at Gamone

The piles of brown leaves at Gamone have fallen, not from my lovely old linden trees, but from a couple of maple giants. A few years ago, I thought of cutting down these trees, for I'm afraid at times that they could be blown over towards the house. But it's probably preferable to let them live.

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The next photo shows my apple tree, which has provided me with small fruit this year.

Fitzroy has found a tiny apple, which he is keenly inspecting.

These apples are tender and sweet, and free of insects and worms.

Stepping back towards devils and witches

I wonder at times whether our advanced societies might not be stepping backwards, inexorably, towards devils and witches. In particular, the ancient theme of witches has appeared in my mind. Last Sunday, in the early hours of the morning, an unusual terrorist affair was revealed in Paris. In the vicinity of the great cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris (where Victor Hugo had invented and placed Quasimodo, better known as the Hunchback), inside an old vehicle without number plates, six bottles of gas were discovered. Five young women have been arrested, and there are no doubts that they were planning some bad work. They were described in French as "radicalisées, fanatisées”. That  means, to call a spade a spade, that these women were determined terrorists, on the point of committing serious crimes.

Now, I don’t intend to delve further into the details of this affair, which is still the most prominent news story this evening. What I wish to do is to reflect upon the possible evolution of thinking in France on such an affair, and the possibility that our society might be faced with the birth of very nasty attitudes towards terrorists.

Is my thinking influenced by the fact that the culprits were women, that they were determined to cause severe damage, and that their project for murder used material (gas bottles) that can be purchased at the local supermarket ? Yes, you can say that I was biased by those simple facts.

I wish to add an additional opinion, which is terribly grave. I believe that, to put it bluntly, there is no hope for such individuals. The possibility that these women might be magically “improved” is practically zero. In other words, it would be preferable, from many viewpoints, if these women were to simply disappear from our society. We have no place for them. For the moment, the only legal way of making them disappear from our society consists of putting them in prison, and making sure they stay there. No matter what their crime, there is no death sentence in France. So, they are likely to survive in prison for many years, and there is little likelihood that their years of suffering will have any positive benefits upon anybody, neither the women themselves, nor most members of our society.

In ancient societies, women of this kind might have been considered as witches, and they would have been put to death without too many questions being asked. That is the technique being used today by the USA to combat Daesh devils. I have the impression that, as more and more terrorists emerge, approaches for removing them might soon merge. But I don’t see how intelligent humans could ever survive in such a harsh new world.

Village festival

Saint-André-en-Royans is just across the hill from Gamone. Their annual village festival will soon be taking place.

If could be accompanied by a charming rural miss, with a taste for this stuff, I would be happy to get dressed up and go. But I don't have any misses in mind. So, without a miss, I'll have to make a miss.

President Hollande's Wagram speech

 

Christophe Ena / AP

The French president speaks wonderfully well. Often, people in the Wagram hall broke into applause, interrupting the speaker. It's reassuring to see, once again, that our president has the oratorical talents of a great theatrical actor playing a kind of Shakespearean role. I believe that this Wagram discourse will go down in French history Here are some extracts of his great speech.

Le président commence son discours avec cette phrase forte. "Malgré la peur, malgré la souffrance, nous vaincrons. La démocratie sera toujours plus forte que la barbarie qui lui a déclaré la guerre" poursuit-il.

 "Au terme de la lutte, la démocratie triomphera."

 François Hollande s'en prend à l'Etat islamique, qu'il décrit ainsi : "Voilà l'ennemi, nous le nommons, il est redoutable. Et même s'il recule en Syrie et en Irak, il s'installe sur d'autres terrains. cette ennemi est cruel, il endoctrine, il enrôle, il est insatiable."

 "Partout, les musulmans ont été les victimes des islamistes, y compris en France", poursuit François Hollande, qui explique les raisons de l'engagement de la France contre le terrorisme. 

Dès le début de son intervention, François Hollande pose le cadre: c'est par la "liberté" que nous vaincrons le "terrorisme islamiste". La liberté vue comme un atout dans cette lutte, face à une partie de la droite qui envisage de restreindre les libertés pour mener cette lutte. 

 Le chef de l'Etat embraie désormais sur la réponse que doit apporter la France face au terrorisme.

"Je fais tout pour protéger les Français mais je leur dois aussi la vérité. La menace va durer. Nous devons donc l'affronter avec sang-froid. Nous ne devons jamais nous laisser emporter par la déraison."

François Hollande s'en prend, en les énumérant, aux mesures prônées par la droite pour contrer le terrorisme. "Ces reniements seraient autant de renoncements sans nullement assurer la sécurité des Français, tranche-t-il. Est-ce que l'adoption du Patriot Act ou le camp de Guantanamo ont protégé les Etats-Unis ? Non", tranche-t-il. 

 D'emblée, le président l'a proclamé : "Nous vaincrons. La démocratie sera toujours plus forte que la barbarie qui lui a déclaré la guerre".

Le président vise directement Nicolas Sarkozy, qui parlait cet été d'"arguties juridiques", quand le gouvernement a rejeté sa proposition de centres de rétention préventive. "Les principes constitutionnels ne sont pas des arguties juridiques", lui répond-il.

Après une attaque en règle contre Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande donne sa conception de l'action du gouvernement contre le terrorisme. "Nous avons fait en sorte d'agir avec le droit. Nous ne menons aucune opération de guerre préventive. Qui peut dire avec un peu de sincérité que nous n'avons pas tout fait pour protéger nos policiers, nos gendarmes et nos militaires ?"

"C'est parce que nous sommes forts, que nous pesons dans le destin du monde, que nous sommes attaqués", affirme le chef de l'Etat, défendant la démocratie face à "l'état d'exception". 

"Ce qu'il nous faut réussir, c'est la construction de l'islam de France", dit François Hollande, qui défend la création d'une Fondation pour l'islam. 

François Hollande appelle les musulmans de France à "prendre leurs responsabilité de citoyens". "Je leur demande, pas plus qu'à d'autres concitoyens, de le faire", précise-t-il. 

"Il est faux de prétendre que l'état de droit entraverait la lutte antiterroriste ou que les démocraties seraient impuissantes face à la menace", a martelé le chef de l'Etat. 

Le discours de François Hollande prend un tour plus politique. Le chef de l'Etat attaque la droite : "Ils pensent que l'élection c'est la primaire, que les Français viendront juste signer au bas de la page !"

Dans ce discours consacré à la cohésion nationale, François Hollande se pose en garant du "modèle social" français. Selon lui, il doit cependant être "modernisé, réformé, complété, pour pouvoir être adapté".

François Hollande s'en prend maintenant aux "extrémistes", qui "prétendent incarner le peuple contre les élites, dont ils sont généralement issus". 

Clin d'oeil appuyé aux échéances électorales à venir et à ceux qui en rêvent. "Ah, ce n'est pas facile l'élection... Il faut la mériter. Il faut s'y préparer. Et il faut respecter les citoyens." 

"La Ve République, face à la menace, donne les moyens d'agir. S'il n'y avait pas eu cette possibilité au président de la République d'intervenir au Mali, en Syrie et en Irak, il eût été trop tard", affirme François Hollande.

"Je mets en garde ceux qui voudraient remettre en cause la fonction présidentielle."

François Hollande dresse maintenant une liste de réformes institutionnelles à accomplir. Il annonce ainsi vouloir limiter le cumul des mandats "dans le temps". 

François Hollande liste les enjeux, selon lui, de la prochaine campagne présidentielle : "la protection des Français, la cohésion nationale, le modèle social, la conception de la démocratie, la place de la France en Europe et dans le monde."   

Que retenir de ce discours de François Hollande ?
• Le chef de l'Etat a livré sa vision de la démocratie face au terrorisme. Et défendu "l'état de droit" face à "l'état d'exception".
• Avec une tonalité très politique, il a beaucoup critiqué les propositions de la droite, se posant en garant des valeurs de la République et de la démocratie.
• Sans se déclarer candidat, il a laissé entendre qu'il pourrait ne pas en rester là en 2017. "Je ne laisserai pas la France être abîmée, réduite, son Etat de droit contesté, son éducation réduite et sa culture amputée. C'est le combat d'une vie", a-t-il déclaré.
• Se projetant vers 2017, le président sortant a décliné les thèmes qui, selon lui, seront l'enjeu de la campagne présidentielle. "La protection des Français, la cohésion nationale, le modèle social, la conception de la démocratie, la place de la France en Europe et dans le monde."

Genetic tucker

The term "tucker" is Aussie slang, meaning food for humans.

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Several earlier posts in my blog have mentioned the CRISP-Cas9 system of gene editing. Click here to access a Wikipedia article on this subject. Well, for the first time ever, an edible green plant has been created by genetic editing using the CRISP-Cas9 system. It looks great. I hope it’s tasty. I’m sure it is. I’m a genetic optimist.

Accidents that should no longer happen

I wanted to cry in horrible sadness, a few minutes ago, when I heard that a young Rom girl of 14 was mortally electrocuted in Grenoble, in an insalubrious building, when a wire dropped into a basin of water in which she was bathing herself. [news from the 20 minutes website]

Certain weird Aussies won't admit that I exist

The behavior of the Australian book-sales business is unique. They don't seem to function in the same way as ordinary civilized bookshops elsewhere in the world. In a nutshell, they behave as if their country still lived in the days of bushrangers. For example, when a prospective customer attempts to purchase books that I've written and published, Amazon Australia simply tells the would-be customer that no such author or publisher exists.

It's amazing! When I discovered this state of affairs, a few days ago, I was utterly shocked. The primitive bastards don't seem to realize that, beyond the shorelines of their Antipodian island, a vast new world exists. To be honest, I don't know exactly why a few Australian Internet book shops behave in this weird manner.

I suspect, though, that it's because they discovered that I was an independent publisher, with my own successful business named Gamone Press, Choranche. What they dislike about me, I would imagine, is the fact that my book-printing platform is Lightning Source. Maybe there's some kind of gang warfare going on between Aussie bookshops and this platform. I'm merely guessing, because nobody seems to be able to tell me what's happening in the Antipodes. In any case, the situation Down Under truly sickens me... like many things, these days, that emerge from my land of birth.

Imagining the future in God’s Own Country

It’s perfectly possible that Trump could become the next US president. For the moment, polls put the two contenders in a dead heat. (What an ugly and somewhat terrifying expression!)

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I’m troubled by a not-impossible consequence of the not-impossible victory of Trump, particularly when I learn that Texas is against the candidate. In the USA, many brave folk would not accept his election as the president. And many of those citizens carry weapons. Put two and two together… I’m surely not the only observer who thinks that way. I hope my thinking is merely an empty nightmare. Not an empty charger.

To put it bluntly, this man has a screw loose

Click here to see Nicolas Sarkozy raving on about his "passion de la France". I'm convinced that French people—who aren't idiots—are going to wake up massively to the insane egocentric behavior of the ex-president. Let me remind readers that this man is currently faced with a possible trial for the illegal financing of his last electoral campaign. In my native Australia, we used to have nice expressions (rarely understandable) for such a fellow (rarely for a famous polly):

• "He's all over the road like a mad woman's shit."

• "He's as mad as a cut snake."

It's fascinating to study Sarko's facial movements. They offer such a pile of explicit psychiatric indications that a simple untrained observer like me can detect the presence of clues to the man's mind.

Pebble in Sarkozy’s shoe

That’s the metaphor invented by Le Monde to designate the suggestion that Sarkozy should be brought to trial.

The magistrates handling the Sarkozy case are not obliged to respect any kind of time delay before deciding whether to bring him to trial, or whether to establish what is termed an “ordonnance de non-lieu” : a ruling that simply states the absence of grounds for pursuing the affair. With respect to the presidential primaries to be held in November, this decision could be announced either before or after that time.

The journalist of Le Monde used the verb “pollute” to designate the possible effects of the Sarkozy affair upon those primaries.

Lawrence Durrell's Greece

Lawrence Durrell

Click the YouTube icon to see the video in a larger format

If Sarko is tried, how might it end?

The poor man (?) has just been told that he'll normally face a court trial. So, let's give him time to get himself organized for that ordeal. And above all, in the excellent time-honored French tradition, let us assume totally (I stress that adverb, seriously: totally) that Nicolas Sarkozy is indeed, for the moment, innocent. In other words, let us suppose that the man has been accused wrongly, unjustly... and that he will surely find ways of demonstrating, beyond any doubts whatsoever, that it was an error for people to drag him into a court of law. If events were to turn out in that way, then the case against Nicolas Sarkozy would be dropped, as it were. If I correctly understand French legal jargon (which is not necessarily the case), we would avoid saying that he was acquitted or shown to be innocent, because both those expressions might leave vague doubts suspended in the air above Sarkozy's head. The politically correct way of expressing such an outcome would consist of saying that it was decided by the parquet to abandon all pursuits against the man brought to trial.

If I make blunders in my understanding of French legal terminology, it would be nice if an educated reader were to put me on the right path.

Learning the facts of Sarkozy's future trial

I'm making an effort to master the facts of Nicolas Sarkozy's future trial... which could possibly take place next year. It seems to me that the very idea of trying a former president is enormous, which means that we should look gravely upon this future trial. It will be a most exceptional event. Besides, Sarkozy has been hoping to become the president of France for a second time. Instead of awaiting the results of a presidential election, he'll be awaiting the verdict of a court of law.

Sarkozy's lawyer is 60-year-old Thierry Herzog, who is a personal friend of the former president.

Already, this afternoon, Herzog has surprised observers by making erroneous statements. Up until now, Sarkozy has been subjected to a single legal operation, designated as an examination (mise en examen), which took place last February. The motive for his being examined was the illegal financing of an electoral campaign, and five facts were retained against Sarkozy. The examination was carried out by a body known as the parquet of Paris. The examination came to an end on August 30. The original motive and facts might have been totally replaced by new entities, but this was not entirely the case. In deciding that Sarkozy should be brought to trial, the parquet retained the same motive: namely the illegal financing of an electoral campaign. On the other hand, the parquet abandoned the first two facts, and only retained the last three :

1. Sarkozy had exceeded the ceiling of electoral expenses.
   
2. He had failed to respect the rules for establishing his campaign's accounting.
   
3. He had inserted, in the accounting, some elements that were deliberately understated.
   

Now, Herzog suggested today that the parquet, in moving from the examination to the present réquisitoire, had committed legal errors. Clearly, this is untrue, because no new elements whatsoever have been inserted. We have seen, above all, that the motive for sending Sarkozy to trial is strictly identical to the motive for examining him. So, it appears that Herzog was trying to pull the wool over our eyes when he suggested the existence of legal irregularities.

Copé reacts to an announced trial for Sarko

"This new element confirms my innocence in that affair,

wrongly designated as the Bygmalion Affair.

That affair concerns solely the campaign accounting of Nicolas Sarkozy."

What exactly did Jean-François Copé have in mind when he spoke of "this new element" ? I see no new elements thrown recently into what we designate, rightly or wrongly, as the Bygmalion affair. We simply learnt that the parquet has decided that Nicolas Sarkozy, deemed for the moment to be innocent, must face a court trial. And the motive for Sarkozy's being brought to face this future trial was the illegal financing of an electoral campaign. In other words, the trial is expected to determine whether or not Sarkozy did in fact finance illegally his electoral campaign. Now, that is not exactly what might be called a "new element" in this affair. It's merely the normal down-to-earth unfolding of ordinary French processes of law.

Once upon a time, they were friends

The smaller friend, on the right, is Nicolas Sarkozy, who used to be the French president. His friend on the left is Jean-François Copé, who used to be in charge of Sarko’s political party, the UMP. Then there’s an excellent news magazine, Le Point.

Last but not least, there's a mysterious French communications company named Bygmalion.

• In February 2014, Le Point said that Copé had favorized the Bygmalion agency, enabling it to pocket some 8 million euros during Sarkozy’s presidential campaign in 2012. Copé was obliged to resign, and the legal system of Paris opened an enquiry.

• Bygmalion revealed a ghost system of accounting.

• On April Fool’s Day 2015, Sarkozy was dragged into the affair.

• On September 4, 2015, Sarko blamed Copé for the mess.

• A member of Bygmalion, Jérôme Lavrilleux, counter-attacked Sarko, who was examined by legal authorities (along with 13 other individuals) for illegal financing of his political campaign.

And that’s about where we are today. You'll certainly be hearing more about this affair, in the French press, in the near future.

Remake of a famous French movie

Everybody in France loves Les Valseuses of Bertrand Blier, with Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Miou-Miou and Jeanne Moreau. John Turturro, who acted in Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski, is working on an updated version of the great French cult film. That explains—so I hear—last night’s crazy new hairdo of Audrey Tautou.

Is it really true that Audrey will be taking over the Miou-Miou role ?

Rope net dropped around Sarko

The Bygmalion affair has just been dropped onto Sarko's head. If he can succeed in escaping from that mess between now and the presidential election, he's a Houdini. But the guy is as cunning as an educated ferret. So, he'll possibly succeed...

Cartooning for Peace

A nice tweet from an admirable organization: @CartooningPeace

 

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For  reasons I don't understand, it took me some messing around to include both the Twitter name of the organization and the cartoon. Everything on the Internet is becoming more and more difficult...

Ancient history of my paternal family

It's a long time since I've mentioned my ancient ancestors in the Leicestershire village of Skeffington. I devoted considerable energy to the publication of my books A Little Bit of Irish and They Sought the Last of Lands. Today, I'm tremendously proud of both books, but I believe that I should no longer remain attached to such subjects. Nevertheless, I remain intrigued by ancient paternal genealogy, particularly since I persist—for reasons of genealogical genetics—in seeing myself as a rare survivor of the earliest imaginable patriarch in Leicester. If I were particularly energetic (which I'm not, particularly since falling down the stairs a year ago), I would pursue an interesting line of my paternal genealogy: namely, research into the identity of the Norman fellow who settled in the English place that came to be known as Skeffington.

When I left this subject, prior to falling down the stairs a year ago, I was particularly intrigued by the case of an ancient Norman family called Verdun, who were closely attached to the village of Skeffington. There's even a chance that my earliest male ancestor in Leicestershire might have been a member of this Verdun family.

So, I am still interested in contacting living descendants of this ancient family, to see if they have any Y-chromosome data they could show me (so I could compare it with mine). But there's a major unexpected hitch. The most prominent living Verdun descendant happens to be the husband of... Christine Dupont de Ligonnès. And I don't intend to start asking those people if they might assist me with DNA research.

Two different young politicians with a similar viewpoint

Click here to see François Baroin talking about Manuel Valls on the subject of Islamic head attire for females. It’s reassuring to find youthful French politicians, on opposite sides of the fence, sharing similar views concerning the challenge of chasing obscurity from modern France.