Factors and directions of revision of the French social paradigm

Historically, France is home to a number of concepts and practices for the creation of the welfare state (État providence). The state social policy is organically woven into the economic mechanism of this country and, it seemed, is its integral part. The purpose of the article is to identify the main directions of the revision of the social French paradigm. The generalization of the bibliography, historical and statistical analysis made it possible to identify a number of factors of such a revision, including the processes of transnationalization of French business, the scaling of trade, and the crisis of the post-industrial phase of global capitalism. The conclusion is substantiated that the shocks of the 2019 pandemic at the beginning of 2021 accelerated the evolution of French social policy in favor of the communitarian level due to the limited opportunities for social reforms at the country level. The antithesis of the initiatives of Emmanuel Macron is the growth of nationalist sentiments and ideas of Charles de Gaulle against the background of the crisis of convergence of the economies of the member countries.

Comparison of Cabin Noise of Airport Express Rail Systems

In this paper, the cabin noise of four airport express rail systems, namely the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT, the Hong Kong Airport Express, RER B service from Paris Gare du Nord to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, and the Shanghai Maglev, have been measured. These four airport express rail systems have different specifications and maximum speeds, ranging from 100 to 300 km/h. The results show a significant low-frequency noise content below 100 Hz, which would not be captured if the measurements were conducted in dB(A). The difference between Leq in terms of dB(C) and dB(A) ranges from 11.3 to 17.0 dB. The maximum speed of the Taoyuan Airport MRT was found to be the lowest at 100 km/h and with the lowest Leq in terms of 66.4 dB(A) and 81.4 dB(C). The Shanghai Maglev has a maximum speed of 300 km/h but a relatively low Leq of 69.7 dB(A), although its top speed is almost three times the maximum of the other airport rail systems. It also has the lowest Lmax of 73.1 dB(A) among the four rail systems. Moreover, the Paris RER B railway system, with its top speed of 120 km/h, was measured to have the highest Leq and Lmax values of 72.8 dB(A) and 83.8 dB(A), respectively.

Inspiracje podhalańskie w meblach regionalnych Józefa Kulona

Abstrakt: Twórczość Józefa Kulona obejmuje szereg dziedzin związanych ze sztuką użytkową. Najbardziej znanymi jego projektami są meble regionalne, zwane także wiejskimi, inspirowane formami mebli ludowych. Były one wykonywane w spółdzielniach należących do Cepelii. Najliczniejsze tego typu projekty Kulona powstały dla Zakopiańskich Warsztatów Wzorcowych. Analizując ich formy, można wydzielić dwa typy. Pierwszy – najliczniejszy, charakteryzuje się użyciem wyraźnie zaznaczonych elementów konstrukcyjnych z płycinami wypełnionymi deseczkami lub ażurem o pofalowanych krawędziach, naśladujących ornamenty ludowe, do niego możemy zaliczyć takie zestawy jak Janosik, Kierdel, Redyk czy Kacwin; i drugi – różniący się nie konstrukcją, a jedynie ornamentyką, to meble o miękkich liniach zdobionych stylizowanym, wyciętym konturowo dłutem ornamentem animalistycznym. Ich powierzchnia była często opalana i szczotkowana, tak by uzyskać wyraźny, jaśniejszy rysunek słojów. Przykładem mogą być komplet Miś czy nieznane mi z nazwy meble, które można artyście przypisać. Od lat 60. artysta tworzył wystrój licznych wnętrz użyteczności publicznej, by wymienić tylko kilka: świetlicę Spółdzielni Pracy „Pieniny” w Krościenku (1968), świetlicę Spółdzielni Pracy AW, Koniaków (1968), część wyposażenia schroniska Ślęża (1966). Józef Kulon projektował również pojedyncze sprzęty dla osób znanych, na indywidualne zamówienia, m.in. w 1966 r. ławy dla wiceprezydenta USA H. Humphreya, w 1967 r. łóżko dla gen. Charlesa de Gaulle’a oraz łóżko dla Jana Pawła II w ośrodku wypoczynkowym biskupów polskich w Zakopanem. Summary: Józef Kulon’s oeuvre includes a number of branches related to applied art. His best known designs encompass regional furniture, also called cottage furniture, inspired by forms from folk furniture pieces. Kulon’s furniture was manufactured in Cepelia-run Cooperatives. The biggest number of his designs were created for the Zakopane Model Workshops. When analysing their forms, two types can be distinguished. The first, and the most numerous, is characterized by the use of clearly pronounced structural elements with panels filled with slats or openwork of wavy edges imitating folk ornaments, which include such sets as Janosik, Kierdel, Redyk, or Kacwin; the second type does not feature a different structure, but differs in ornamentation, with its pieces boasting soft lines decorated with a stylized contour chisel-cut-out animalistic ornament. The pieces’ surface was often scorched and brushed in order to obtain a clear lighter outline of rings. The latter type is exemplified by the set Miś [Bear] or other furniture pieces, unknown to me by their name, and which can be attributed to Kulon. Beginning with the 1960s, the artist created the décor of numerous interiors of public service, such as, to name a few: the common room of the ‘Pieniny’ Workers’ Cooperative, Krościenko (1968); the common room of the AW Workers’ Cooperative, Koniaków (1968); and a part of the furnishing of the Ślęża mountain hostel (1966). Furthermore, Józef Kulon designed customized furniture pieces for celebrities, e.g. in 1966, benches for US Vice President Humphrey; in 1967, a bed for General Charles de Gaulle; and a bed for John Paul II in the Zakopane Holiday Resort of the Polish Bishops.

Africans Had No Business Fighting in Either the 1914–1918 War or the 1939–1945 War

The wars of 1914–1918 and 1939–1945 are without parallel in the expansive stretch of decades of the pan-European conquest and occupation of Africa in creating such profound opportunity to study the very entrenched desire by the European conqueror-states in Africa to perpetuate their control on the continent and its peoples indefinitely. The two principal protagonists in each conflict, Britain and Germany, were the lead powers of these conqueror-states that had formally occupied Africa since 1885. Against this cataclysmic background of history, Africans found themselves conscripted by both sides of the confrontation line in 1914–1918 to at once fight wars for and against their aggressors during which 1 million Africans were killed. Clearly, this was a case of double-jeopardy of conquered and occupied peoples fighting for their enemy-occupiers. In the follow-up 1939–1945 war, when Germany indeed no longer occupied any African land (having been defeated in the 1914–1918 encounter), Britain and allies France and Belgium (all continuing occupying powers in Africa) conscripted Africans, yet again, to fight for these powers in their new confrontation against Germany, and Japan, a country that was in no way an aggressor force in Africa. Hundreds of thousands of Africans were killed in this second war. In neither of these conflicts, as this study demonstrates, do the leaders of these warring countries who occupied (or hitherto occupied) Africa ever view their enforced presence in Africa as precisely the scenario or outcome they wished their own homeland was not subjected to by their enemies. On the contrary, just as it was their position in the aftermath of the 1914–1918 war, Britain, France, Belgium, Spain and Portugal in 1945 each envisaged the continuing occupation of the states and peoples of Africa they had seized by force prior to these conflicts. Winston Churchill, the British prime minster at the time, was adamant: ‘I had not become the king’s first minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire’. Charles de Gaulle, leader of the anti-German ‘free French forces’, was no less categorical on this score: ‘Self-government [in French-occupied Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, South America, the Pacific and elsewhere in the world] must be rejected – even in the more distant future’.

GENERALS DE GAULLE, DUMITRESCU AND HERUVIM, GRADUATES OF SAINT-CYR

A very important Romanian historical event took place on 14 May 1968 when General Charles de Gaulle, the president of The French Fifth Republic, visited Bucharest, an initiative stemming from this visionary head of state’s idea of a unified Europe stretching “from the Atlantic to the Urals’. Have you heard of Romanian generals Polihron Dumitrescu and Ioan Heruvim? Charles de Gaulle’s visit proved quite difficult to manage for the communist regime, one of the difficulties being the French general’s meeting with these two generals, former classmates from the Special Military School of Saint-Cyr. His itinerary included the cities of Craiova and Târgoviște because of these expectedly emotional meetings with Dumitrescu and Heruvim, the former having been de Gaulle’s class president, and the latter one of its most brilliant students, and the city of Cetatea Băniei where the French general performed an official military salute.

illusion of the Oracle:

The familiar face of empires is external intervention as opposed to local culture. We follow Michel Onfray's thesis about the oracular illusion when one more individual or country tries to avoid the fulfillment of a nefarious prediction, which materializes as a catastrophe. Algeria conquered in 1830 was incorporated into French territory. In 1954 the FLN rebelled, and in 1961, General Charles de Gaulle negotiated the independence of Algeria, causing the disastrous departure of 750,000 French settlers and the death of French supporters. From 1962 to 2021, the withdrawals of imperial powers from their colonies, France from Algeria, the United States in Afghanistan, resulted in catastrophes and uncertainties. The imperial power of the United States aimed to defeat its bipolar antagonist, the USSR when it invaded Afghanistan. They conducted an inconsequential policy to beat their rival, arming and financing the Taliban's victorious resistance, the freedom fighters. The oracular illusion led the United States to support the future antagonist, Islamic fundamentalism, destined for the world caliphate. After the departure of the USSR, American power despised the Taliban, who harbored al Qaeda, leading to 9/11. In 2001 the United States invaded Afghanistan and abandoned it after 20 years of war without the precaution of obtaining plans or safeguards for the government in Kabul. After the disastrous retreat, the victorious Taliban demonstrated, like the FLN in Algeria, the fulfillment of the oracular illusion.

Build the imaginary: Urban futures and New Towns in post-war French spatial planning

Post-war France was reshaped by a sustained period of spatial planning and modernization. This was particularly so during the presidency of Charles de Gaulle (1958–69), as the country positioned itself as a modern European nation after decolonization. In its approach and execution, French spatial planning represented the sort of imperious state intervention critiqued by radical spatial theorists such as Henri Lefebvre. Yet it remained the case that the planners articulated a rich vision of France’s future, filled with space and light. Not only that, but they had the means to bring their vision into being. During the mid-1960s, the building of New Towns became central to their thinking. This article revisits spatial planning as a realm of the imagination and considers how the nation’s future was portrayed in textual and visual forms. It explores how the translation of dreams into built realities became a source of political tension, and how those tensions found public expression in the visual media.

The evolution of integration policy of Charles de Gaulle (mid 1950s – late 1960s)

This article traces the evolution of the Western European policy of the General Charles de Gaulle during his presidency. In the early 1950s, he willingly cooperated with the European countries in terms of creating the economic union; however, in the course of solution of decolonization issues and, namely the Algerian problem that constrained the implementation of the key vectors of state policy, the president began focused on advancing the concept of national mightiness of France and commitment to the principles of intergovernmental cooperation in the development of integration. Charles de Gaulle fought for the foundation of the political union “Europe of the Homelands”, in which France would be assigned a significant role. The article analyzes de Gaulle’s failures in negotiations with the “P5+1” countries, which once again demonstrated to the Europeans that building integration is a long and complex process that does not tolerate rapid decisions and requires the ability to compromise. Special attention is turned to the development of integration policy of the General Charles de Gaulle based on his formal speeches, correspondence, and memoirs. De Gaulle's efforts in the sphere of integration policy of the Fifth Republic yielded certain results. First and foremost, he was able to establish the superiority of national principles in addressing the general policy issues in the European Community. Secondly, he prevented the Great Britain from joining the Common Market, as from his opinion it was an economic and political competitor of France. Thirdly, de Gaulle strengthened the international reputation of France as the country that was at the dawn and in the lead of the integration processes in Europe.