La Parisienne of Cafébabel.com - Events

Tolerance has its prize

BabelParis — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:33:00 +02:00

For its tenth anniversary, the Marcel Rudloff prize awarded to former senator Louis Jung on April, 4th. This award is given each year the action of a politician in support of the rize of exchanges between the EU members.

This tolerance prize given by the association of Marcel Rudloff’s friends, former mayor and senator of Strasburg (1923-1996), underlines this year Louis Jung’s commitment “in support of the French-German cooperation and for peace across Europe” according to Francis Hirn, honour president and vice CEO of the newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace. Louis Jung is also honour president of Council of Europe and president of the Robert Schuman Foundation. Described as “a great European and a great man of Europe”, Louis Jung holds all the characteristics of the Marcel Rudloff prize, “tolerance and respect of the competitor.”

During the ceremony, the laureate seemed moved to received this prize, all the more since it was named after one of his close friend.

-Johara BOUKABOUS

Picture: Mary Gober/Stock Exchange

Une grande authenticité des personnages

Jean-Séb 2.0 — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 20:26:00 +02:00

Integration, quest of the origins, search of belongings, death and forgiveness, the relationship between a father and his son or between a mother and her daughter – “Other side”, the new movie produced by Fatih Akin tackles many issues without looking too much. The most refreshing about this movie is the way it shows normal life in Germany, how it stresses today’s way of life without exaggeration and very little melancholy. The film was shown this week in Paris during the 12^th German movie festival.

"Other side" by Fatih Akin

Characters of great authenticity

For most of them, the characters are real ideals. Still, they remain credible. There is, for example, this son, a Turkish immigrant of the second generation, who embodies the representation of a successful integration : He is a university teacher in Arts. He teaches Goethe. But there is also this young German student coming back from a trip to India. She has many convictions but very few ideas of what she wants to do in her life. Her trip to India and, later on, to Istanbul, are not so special as her mother (who belongs to the “68^th” generation) followed the same path.

The success of German films abroad

Generally speaking, German films have encountered great success for the last few years and represent an important part of the domestic market. Still, what is shown abroad corresponds to a slight part of the German production and, most of the time, is not representative of its diversity. Great commercial successes that instantly come to our minds like “Goodbye Lenin”, “The lives of others” or “Sophie Scholl” mostly deal with German recent or more ancient history. Undoubtedly, these are movies of great quality, which manage to bring a critical eye on History, free of any complex.

But there is more to discover than discussing the past

However, with this year big successes in Germany, “Other side” and “Four minutes”, we can see that accurate topics are much more diverse and rich. Siding Fatih Akin, other producers, are working on multi-cultural society problems, depicting Germany as it is today. Detlev Buck’s “Knallhart” (released in 2006) called much controversy because of its brutal description of social life in a poor Berlin suburb, just like “Neukölln” did. Nevertheless, “Four minutes” is about a young pianist in a women’s jail.

In a nutshell, there is much to discover in the German film-making ! “Other side” and “Four minutes” will be released very soon in France.

Christine

Directly from the grandstands !

Jean-Séb 2.0 — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:15:00 +02:00

Some few more pictures of this famous “European July 14^th”, but these were taken from one of the official grandstands. Indeed my dear friends, Parisian Babelians are everywhere …

A new rubric in La Parisienne : the Album. Only photos with few commentaries. For the pleasure of watching. And for the launching, here are Sophie’s pictures. She was in the official stands during the July 14^th parade.

The 27 European Union flag holders precede the troops. They are moving forward drawing a V to stop in front of the presidential stand where José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, was sitting.

The German troops. It is the second time that they parade on the Champs Elysées. In 1994, they were invited as part of the Franco-German Brigade by the François Mitterant, French president at the time.

The Spanish Legion.

On the left, the Belgium troops. In the centre, the Austrian troops.

The unity of a brand new member of the European Union : Bulgaria!

They are newcomers too : Romania.

Deutsh unity (or maybe is it Luxemburg ? Given the proximity of the two flags, the debate is opened …)

Photos : Sophie Helbert.

On July 14th, Europe was in Paris

Jean-Séb 2.0 — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 15:37:00 +02:00

So as to stress “France’s way back in Europe” and “Europe’s way back in France”, the new French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, had decided, one day after his election, that July 14^th demonstrations would be the opportunity to have all the European countries parading together. He kept his promise and La Parisienne, was present to bring you back pictures.

Reaching the Champs Elysées on July 14^th is not that easy, especially if you don’t get a “VIP” invitation or a press card. There is no other solution that following the strollers along the path delineated by the police. Even if you come two hours earlier, the crowd is already formed. The safety gates’ area is already crammed full. In clear, you’d better be tall and find the best place remaining. But first of all: you shouldn’t forget to be body-searched.

All around, you can hear speaking French but many other languages too: English, German, Polish, Japanese, and many more. Tourists are also part of it. What is this year’s Special ? Answer : Some of these tourists will see their own army parade...

For the first time in history, the President of the French republic has invited all the European countries to march-past on the Champs Elysées to celebrate the French National day. All the 26 accepted. The total participants reached not less than 800 people, all dressed up in different uniforms but still parading under the same flag: the European Union’s. It was hold by Lieutenant Edouardo Gomes from the lancers’ ragiment based in Lisbon. The day preceding D Day, he declared during the training session: “I realize all the faith that my superiors have put in me. It is a great honour for me and I can’t deny that my concentration will be at its utmost on Sunday morning, and during all our marching down the most beautiful avenue of the world.”. Generally, the armies were composed of thirty soldiers. For some countries, the numbers were smaller : eight for Denmark, four for Malta.

The French Defence minister, Hervé Morin, expressed himself about the event: “ It is a great pleasure, a great pride too, to welcome a delegation of our 26 partners of the European Union for our National day and the maarching of our forces. France wanted to organize this gathering under this Portuguese presidency to illustrate our member States’ willingness to write a new page of our common history.”

A few minutes before the H hour, the European troops made a perfect line. The 28 flag holders, who were preceding the detachment, drew a V. In the forefront: Portugal, who leads the ongoing EU presidency, was siding Germany which had just passed its mandate, and Slovenia who will take the next January presidency.

When they were told to, soldiers started walking. The pattern was the same for all : 115 steps per minute. Everybody had to follow the French rhythm to keep a good balance. But specificities still remained: some raised their arm; others raised their foot or beat the floor more strongly, keeping a high chin. A feeling of diversity floated, but unity was still there.

The V kept straight, progressing towards the grandstand where all the highest officials of the European Union were sat: José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament and Javier Solana, High representant of the EU diplomacy. When the parade’s finished, the French President and themselves bow to the European flag holders.

José Manuel Barroso positively welcomed the initiative and declared that it was not a symbolic gesture but a strong message for France and for all Europe. “ In a world of globalization”, he said, “it is necessary to defend our own interest and values together, as Europeans”. Eventually, he underlined that there was no contradiction between patriotism and European spirit.

Among the crowd (120.000 people according to the police), some uniforms or flags puzzle many watchers, and some amazing remarks could be heard: “what is it this red and green flag ?” or “oh, really, those are in Europe too now ?” These few geography deficiencies did not prevent Parisian people from applauding with dew consideration their European neighbours, just like they did for the French troops.

Once the march-past finished, some of the European soldiers attended the Elysée’s Garden Party. But they could also be seen in the Parisian streets, lingering and discovering the French capital which had become, for one day, a symbolic European capital.