Is France Once Again Looking for a Scapegoat?

On September 10, 2021, a special tribunal established by the French government launched an inquiry into the activities of former health minister Dr. Agnes Buzyn who was charged with “endangering the lives of others”. It is surprising to learn of this accusation and inquiry into the actions of a public health official whose response to the epidemic was, to all appearances, exemplary.

Les Enfants Perdus

Following the deaths of fourteen children at a children’s residential facility in Froissy in November 1968, a moment of national interest in France in the challenges facing disabled children led parents’ associations to press for systemic reform. Concomitantly, social critiques following the protests of May 1968 focused on poor institutional conditions as evidence of society’s failures. Though government inquiry into the incident placed the blame on the proprietors, media reports and advocates asserted the failure of the French government to protect the disabled. This viewpoint aligned with the rhetoric of reformers seeking to dismantle institutions to instigate social change. However, an alliance of reformers and parents’ groups did not materialize, even after the important reforms of the law of 30 June 1975. That law articulated the government’s commitment to the equality of disabled citizens, but it had limited impact due to its failure to address conditions for the mentally disabled.

France's Colonial Sins In Africa: Is France Really Not An Accomplice To The Rwandan Genocide?

Roughly speaking, the "Scramble for Africa" refers to the infamous invasion by the West European colonists between 1884 and 1914 of Africa and the dividing of the continent into different zones under the so-called names of protectorates, colonies, and free-trade areas. Hence, it can be said that West European colonialism set the stage for most of the deep sufferings of today's Africa by sowing the seeds of future conflicts through unbridled greed and selfishness. During the Rwandan genocide of 1994, members of the Hutu ethnic majority murdered as many as 800,000 people, mostly of the Tutsi minority. France did not have a direct role as a colonial administration in Rwanda. However, since France has historically played a leading role in the colonization of Africa, she tried to be the dominant actor in the region in every sense in the 1990s.France's efforts to manipulate domestic politics in Rwanda; its close ties with the ruling Hutu government; her arms sales to the country; her use of military force under the guise of defending the la francophonie (French-speaking world) and while doing so pushing aside the UN force; taking a stand with the Hutu forces in "Opération Turquoise" instead of being impartial as stipulated in the UNSC resolution caused France to be confronted with serious allegations that she was complicit with the Hutu in the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda.Recently published comprehensive report prepared by an US law firm upon the request of Rwandan government about the role of the French government in connection with the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda ends up with the conclusion that "the French government bears significant responsibility for enabling a foreseeable genocide."French President Emanuel Macron on 5 April 2019, by sending a letter to Prof. Vincent Duclert, a historian and Inspector General of French National Education, asked the establishment of a commission under his presidency to examine all the French archives concerning Rwanda, covering the years 1990-1994. The report prepared by the Research Commission (the Duclert Report) was presented to President Macron on 26 March 2021. It is mentioned in the report that "The Commission doubtlessly missed certain documents, those that either disappeared or were never deposited in public archival centers." It is understood from the statements of Duclert in the interviews he gave after the publication of the report that the President of the French National Assembly did not grant access to the archives of the Parliament on this subject. The Duclert report stated that “the French authority demonstrated a continual blindness in their support for a racist, corrupt and violent regime... The Rwandan crisis ended in disaster for Rwanda and in defeat for France.”. However, the report also claimed that France is not an accomplice to the genocide of the Tutsi. The report explained this point in the following way: “Is France an accomplice to the genocide of the Tutsi? If by this we mean a willingness to join a genocidal operation, nothing in the archives that were examined demonstrates this.”The 1990s constitute a "critical juncture" in world history.In this context, it should be remembered that notable political events and developments were concentrated in the 1990s.In fact, the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda is one of the most horrific chapters of this "critical juncture". Despite what was written about the actions of French governments in Rwanda in the 1990s before, during, and after the genocide, the truth about the responsibility of the then French authorities continues to be obscured.

Covid-19 Epidemic Prediction in France : the Multimodal Case

In two previous papers we have proposed models to estimate the Covid-19 epidemic when the number of daily positive cases has a bell shaped form that we call a mode. We have observed that each Covid variant produces this type of epidemic shape at a different moment, resulting in a multimodal epidemic shape. We will show in this document that each mode can still be estimated with models described in the two previous papers provides we replace the cumulated number of positive cases y by the cumulated number of positive cases reduced by a parameter P to be estimated. Therefore denoting z the logarithm of y −P, z follows approximately the differential equation ż = b −azr where a, b, r have also to be estimated from the observed data. We will show the obtained predictions on the four French modes April, November 2020, May and September 2021. The comparison between the prediction obtained before the containment decisions made by the French government and the observed data afterwards suggests the inefficiency of the epidemic lockdowns.

REVIEW: Moruroa Files: The files, the book and the lies

Toxique: Enquête sur les essais nucléaires français en Polynésie, by Sébastien Philippe and Tomas Statius, and the Moruroa Files microsite. Paris: PUF/Disclose, 2021. 192 pages. ISBN 9782130814849https://moruroa-files.org/ THE COMBINATION of nuclear expertise (Sebastien Philippe), inquisitive journalism (Tomas Statius) and the investigative approach by Interprt (a collective of architects specialising in the forensic analysis of environmental crimes) of around 2000 declassified French government documents in 2013 called the Moruroa Files, resulted in the explosive book Toxic about what was already known to the Ma’ohi Nui (French Polynesia) people. That since 1966 (55 years ago), the French government has consistently lied about and concealed the deadly consequences of their nuclear tests, which they now seem to acknowledge (French admit nuclear test fall out, 2006), to the health of the populations and their environment.

Data Operations and an Application for Translating Russian Speech to French Text

In 2006, the French government discretely asked for an assessment of the highest accuracy means available at the time to translate Russian speech into French text. One of us was working with the Grenoble HP site at the time, and so promptly assessed the possibilities using existing speech-to-text and translation software (Nuance and Speechworks). This article describes the surprisingly circuitous route to maximum accuracy (90.3%), and in so doing provides an unexpected insight into discerning the native language of software designed for speech-to-text and translation applications.

Tax justice

After his initial success in tax policy, the Moscos became more ambitious. Pushed by the French government and in competition with the OECD, they promoted an overhaul of the entire European tax system that would have allowed member states to tax multinationals more effectively, including a digital tax on the so-called GAFAs and the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB), creating a level playing field for corporate taxation. The commissioner promoted his ideas in different forums, including the G20 and in Washington. But after two years, this political work lost momentum, as a handful of governments managed to veto efforts in the Council. Despite the support of the European Parliament, the Commission’s efforts stalled in the Council, where the opposition of tax-light countries such as Ireland prevailed.

France: Republic against «Political Islam» (Part II)

From March 30 to April 12, 2021, members of the French Senate considered the government-prepared draft law on «countering separatism». His ideology is primarily aimed at curbing the increased activity of supporters of «political Islam» (Islamism) in France. Earlier, on February 16, 2021, the National Assembly (lower house of parliament) had approved the document. As shown in the first part of the article, the discussion of the draft deepened the split in the Muslim community of France between followers of moderate Islam, who supported the efforts of the government, and Islamists, who rejected the main provisions of the document. This article attempts to analyze a new stage of relations between the state and the Muslim community of the country – against the background of the decisions made by the senators. Accusing the French government of «Islamophobia»”, Islamic radicals appeal to the leadership of the European Union. Behind them, the figure of the Turkish President R.T. Erdogan, who is increasingly using religious rows in Europe for his own political purposes. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that the escalating confrontation in the Muslim environment and around it is acquiring more and more obvious political implications in France.