Word: frenchness
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English author Lucy Wadham is well positioned to attempt the tricky feat so many other writers have taken on, usually without success: explaining to the rest of the world what makes the French so, well, French. In The Secret Life of France, she uses the insight she has gained from 25 years of living in France to bridge the comprehension gap between the nation in which she was born and the one she's come to love...
...Elsewhere, however, Wadham's obsession with what she considers universal French adultery becomes a major distraction. And similarly disappointing is her impression that the particular codes and mores of her husband's distinctly Parisian bourgeois milieu are applicable to wider French society. But, as with France itself, there's more to adore than despise in Wadham's effort...
...Call the story "The Decline of the European Democratic Left." The SPD has been trailing Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) by up to 15 points for months. The French Socialists were trounced by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 and have never recovered. The Italian left was bested by Silvio Berlusconi last year. And in Britain, the Labour party is staring at near certain defeat at the hands of Tory leader David Cameron in elections to be held by next year. (See pictures of world leaders on vacation...
...initiative is the brainchild of Philippe Douste-Blazy, a former French Foreign Ninister who is now a U.N. Under Secretary charged with finding innovative ways to finance projects. He runs an agency called UNITAID that is attached to the World Health Organization and already channels funds to fight disease in poor countries. UNITAID was founded in 2006. Its $400 million annual budget is funded by Britain, France, Norway, Brazil and Chile. Douste-Blazy is now trying to turbo-charge those efforts by bringing in private donations. He's set up a foundation linked to UNITAID that will collect the voluntary...
...does take off, it will mark a comeback for Douste-Blazy, a medical doctor by training who received withering press at home during his brief stint as Foreign Minister from 2005 to 2007. It's no accident that he's a Frenchman: the French have for several years levied a compulsory tax on airline tickets to help fund development projects and have long sought to get others to join them, with mixed success. Brazil is one of only a few countries to have followed suit. Norway also taxes airline CO2 emissions and uses the receipts for overseas aid. (Read "France...