The French-American Foundation Weekly Brief

France

The Iranian revolutionary court is expected to rule on Clotilde Reiss’s fate this week, according to the AP. The 24- year-old French scholar who was arrested on espionage charges in Iran at the height of the anti-government protests is among more than a hundred people who have been brought to trial for allegedly seeking to overthrow the government. Reiss was released on bail after a month and a half in custody but only under the condition that she remains at the French Embassy in Tehran until her trial is over. According to RFI, Reiss’ lawyer is confident that she will be acquitted.

The Telegraph reported on Monday, January 18 that French international cooperation minister Alain Joyandet has accused the US of “occupying” Haiti, as about 12,000 of American troops have flooded into the country since the recent earthquake. Joyandet called on the UN to “clarify” the American role in the Caribbean nation, claiming that the American military presence was hindering humanitarian efforts. French President Nicolas Sarkozy intervened quickly, praising Washington’s “exceptional mobilization” and “essential role … on the ground,” according to AOL’s Sphere.

Le Monde appointed a woman as its new executive editor on Monday, January 18, a first in its 65 years of history, the New York Times reported. Sylvie Kauffman, 55, who has worked for Le Monde since 1988, replaced Alain Frachon. Kauffman accepted the position with joy, but called the promotion a “huge challenge” in view of the crisis of the printed press. 

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– Le Figaro reported that the French national assembly has adopted a bill on Wednesday, January 20 that was submitted by UMP President Jean-Francois Copé to facilitate parity between men and women within major firms’ boards of directors. The law aims at imposing a 40-percent quota of women within major firms’ boards of directors in the next six years.

French’s most prestigious schools or grandes écoles agreed on Monday, January 18 to take on the government’s objective to raise to 30 percent their share of students from low-income backgrounds in the next three years, after a meeting with Minister for Higher Education and Research Valérie Pécresse, according to Les Echos. 

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– Le Monde draws an interesting parallel between  affirmative action in the United States and the French initiative to include more low-income backgrounds students in grandes écoles, with comments by Daniel Sabbagh, Senior Fellow at the Centre d’études et de recherches internationales (CERI-Sciences Po) and Scientific Advisor to the Equality of Opportunity program of the French-American Foundation.

– The web site Educpros.fr also provides an American perspective on equal opportunity initiatives to promote minority students, including research conducted by the French American Foundation on access to selective higher education.

United States

President Barack Obama and predecessors George W. Bush and Bill Clinton gathered in the White House Rose Garden on Saturday, January 16 to show their support for Haiti and plan joint aid effort, USA Today reported. Clinton announced the creation of the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund to help the Caribbean nation. This initiative is reminiscent of the fundraising effort that Bush’s father and Clinton made for the victims of the 2004 tsunami in Asia. Bush — who was heavily criticized for the government’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 — praised Obama for the government’s prompt initial response to the situation in Haiti.

In celebration of Martin Luther King Day, a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation — the executive order that President Abraham Lincoln issued in 1863 to free slaves in the Confederate states — was installed in the Oval Office, The New York Times reported. Obama encouraged Americans to use the holiday as a national day of service, which he exemplified by serving lunch at a soup kitchen with his wife Michelle and their daughters.

The New York Times reportedon Thursday, January 21 that a growing number of American schools have begun to favor Chinese language instruction over other foreign languages. The Chinese government has been sending teachers from China to schools all over the world and paying part of their salaries. Chinese instructors are therefore often less expensive than other foreign language instructors and, in turn, more attractive to American schools.The number of students taking the Advanced Placement test in Chinese, introduced in 2007, has also grown so fast that it is likely to pass German this year as the third most-tested language, after Spanish and French.

During an interview on ABC News on Wednesday, January 20, President Barack Obama took some blame for Democrats’ loss of Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat to Republican Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown, the New York Daily News reported. Brown’s victory threatens the fate of the existing health care reform bill and will likely complicate Democrats’ plans moving forward, as his election marked the crucial 41st vote that the GOP needs in order to block a bill in the Senate.

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– Le Figaro has compiled a series of interviews with French expatriates living in the US detailing the impact that Barack Obama’s election and presidency has had on their lives.

Business and Economy

The Associated Press reported on Tuesday, January 19 that the famous British candy maker Cadbury Plc has accepted a $19 billion offer by Kraft Food Inc. to take over the company. The decision comes after months of negotiations. The news did not please Felicity Loudon, the great grand-daughter of George Cadbury, the company’s founder, who previously described Kraft as an “American plastic cheese company,” according to The Telegraph. “It’s desperately sad that yet another British icon could go abroad,” Loudon said.  

Japan Airlines Corp. (JAL) filed for $25 billion bankruptcy on Tuesday, January 19. Much like Washington’s takeover of General Motors Co., JAL has been bailed out by the Japanese government with no less than 1 trillion yen ($11 billion) in financial support. According to the Wall Street Journal, JAL will still have to significantly shrink its operations: a third of its work force will have to be laid off.

According to Reuters, President Barack Obama proposed a plan on Thursday, January 21 to limit the size and scope of US banks and the financial risks they can take on. The White House plan would prevent commercial banks and institutions that own banks from owning and investing in hedge funds and private-equity firms, and also limit the trading that they can do for their own accounts.

Apple is considering replacing Google as the default search engine on its iPhone with Microsoft’s Bing. According to BusinessWeek, Apple is taking a big risk, since Google’s name has become “practically synonymous with search” for consumers.

International

Agencies trying to evacuate children whose parents died in Haiti’s recent earthquake have been criticized for bypassing proper adoption processes, according to The Independent. Children’s advocacy groups have warned against the risks of ending up in a chaotic situation in which thousands of children would be shipped overseas without having their family background being properly checked. Even before the earthquake, Haiti, one of the world’s poorest countries, counted a large number of orphans, with 380,000 children living in orphanages or group homes, according to The Canadian Press.

CNN caused a stir on Monday, January 18 by airing footage of one of its star anchors Anderson Cooper dragging an injured boy away from a chaotic scene of looting in Haiti. While the video clip is very graphic, it confronted viewers with the increasing violence in the Caribbean nation and the desperate need for international help.

The World Bank said on Thursday, January 21 that it was waiving Haiti’s debt payments for the next five years and working towards a way to cancel the Caribbean nation’s remaining debt. According to The Herald Sun, Haiti’s debt amounts to $41.83 million or around four percent of the nation’s total external debt. Last week, the World Bank said that it was planning to provide an additional $100 million in emergency aid to Haiti. In an interview featured on CNN’s “Amanpour,” the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said that Haiti needed “some kind of a Marshall Plan” to reconstruct itself.

The AFP reported that a musical version of President Barack Obama’s rise to the White House has recently opened in Frankfurt (“Hope — The Obama Musical Story“). The musical was written by American composer Randall Hutchins who said he wanted to show how the Obama campaign was able to inspire people and restore their faith in the future, according to Deutsche Welle’s web site.The musical includes love songs by the president to his wife Michelle and duets with Hillary Clinton. John McCain and Sarah Palin are also given stage time. While Obama’s domestic approval ratings have fallen, he remains popular in Germany, where a November poll found 44 per cent named him as their political role model according to the AFP.

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