Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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The finger-wagging summit

Obama wasn’t the only shaking his finger at someone; Medvedev and Sarko indulged in what is now becoming an international sport, too:

What are you nukin’ at, pal?

Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy went ballistic during a finger-pointing talk as they sat side by side at the windup of President Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.

But the two presidents later broke into smiles before the leaders of 47 nations got down to business and agreed on a pledge to safeguard nuclear materials and keep them out of terrorist hands.

Or, as Ethel Merman used to sing it, “there’s no business like show!”

Sing it, Ethel!

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The plot against Carla & Sarko?

Not part of the vast right wing conspiracy, at least, but part of the vast French soap opera readers of this blog know I’ve been following for a while:

French First Lady Quells Talk of Plot

France’s first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, went on national radio Wednesday evening to quell talk that an international plot was behind recent infidelity rumors within the presidential couple.

“We’re not victims of any kind of plots,” Ms. Bruni-Sarkozy said in an interview with French radio Europe 1. “I came here to prevent a matter of no importance taking on proportions that I find ridiculous.”
…
Earlier this week, two people close to Mr. Sarkozy—lawyer Thierry Herzog and communications adviser Pierre Charon, who also manages the presidential hunting grounds—said the rumors could have been the product of a plot, planted to discredit France’s president or move financial markets at a time Mr. Sarkozy was promoting new global financial regulations.

This is starting to smell,

Their comments, made in separate interviews with French media, created a distraction for the administration of Mr. Sarkozy, who had just pledged to return his focus on reducing unemployment after his ruling party had been thrashed in regional elections last month.

The plot theory also unleashed a political witch hunt, as various allies to Mr. Sarkozy pointed fingers at each other. On Wednesday morning, Rachida Dati, who was Mr. Sarkozy’s Justice Minister until last year, went on radio and denied playing any role in spreading rumors about the president. “This must stop,” she told French radio RTL.

Uh-hu.

Would Sarko be above creating this brouhaha?

You decide.

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Sarko weighs in on healthcare

While doing his media thing in New York, Sarko weighed in on healthcare, saying,

“Welcome to the club of states who don’t turn their back on the sick and the poor,” Sarkozy said, referring to the U.S. health care overhaul signed by President Barack Obama last week.

From the European perspective, he said, “when we look at the American debate on reforming health care, it’s difficult to believe.”

“The very fact that there should have been such a violent debate simply on the fact that the poorest of Americans should not be left out in the streets without a cent to look after them … is something astonishing to us.”

Then to hearty applause, he added: “If you come to France and something happens to you, you won’t be asked for your credit card before you’re rushed to the hospital.”

That’s IF you get to the hospital. Poor Princess Diana wasn’t rushed to the hospital even when she was clearly injured in a car accident.

But let us take a look back at that statement of Sarko’s, compared to a few hard facts on France’s healthcare: Almost exactly four years ago I did a roundup of articles from the BBC on France’s disastrous healthcare situation:

May 10, 2005

Hundreds of French surgeons have begun a symbolic “exile” in Britain to demand the right to charge higher fees

Jan 22, 2004

Thousands of French health workers have held a one-day strike to protest against government plans to cut costs in the country’s health system.

Jan 22, 2004

Doctors, nurses and other health professionals have taken to the streets of Paris to protest against government plans to cut back on a health service which has a projected overspend this year of eight billion pounds.

15,000 elderly and frail dead during a heat wave in 2003
Aug 14, 2003

With temperatures soaring above the 40C mark over a two-week period, France’s poorly-prepared hospitals never stood a chance,

since they lack air-conditioning.
Sept 9, 2003

French doctors have angrily hit back at an official report which said their “massive” holiday exodus last month had contributed to the heatwave tragedy.

Aug 13, 2003

A widow is demanding to know why her husband lay dying in a French hospital for nine days without his family being informed, say reports

Jan 3, 2002

Gynaecologists in France are refusing to carry out ultrasound scans on pregnant women after a court found they could be liable should a disabled child be born.

Jan 22, 2002

A national strike of hospital workers was called on Monday to protest about staff shortages after the introduction of a 35-hour working week.

Dec 30,2002

Doctors at French ski resorts are staging a 24-hour strike over complaints they are not paid enough for treating winter sports injuries.

At least half of patients in Europe with muscle or joint pain are not receiving treatment, research suggests.

The chronic shortage of doctors and medical personnel, the strikes, and the restricted treatments continue.

But, Sarko’s right: “Welcome to the club,” America.

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Sarko does Columbia, heads to DC

Bringing his own color-coordinated lectern yesterday, Sarko made a media appearance in front of a friendly audience, the Columbia University World Leaders forum,

Columbia organizers said the French provided their own white lectern and light gray rug for the speech, and also requested a special espresso machine.

The podium and rug complemented the color-coordinated French first couple – including his black suit and white tie and her wraparound black top, gray skirt and black-and-white umbrella.

In a change from the usual protocol, Sarkozy entered the Low Library by walking up the middle of the grand staircase that faces the Columbia campus, instead of from behind a gold curtain like most other speakers.

While at it he asked for more government intervention,

“The world needs an open America, a generous America, an America that shows the way, an America that listens,” he said, calling on the U.S. to champion firm regulations of financial systems, from tax havens to hedge funds.

So much for his old days of being a leader interested in promoting free enterprise.

Sarko and Carla made a big show of affection for the media,

After arriving in New York on Sunday, the presidential couple left their hotel with arms wrapped around one another, smiling for cameras and kissing before going to lunch at the Boathouse restaurant in Central Park with Sarkozy’s son from his second marriage, 12-year-old Louis, who goes to school in New York.

There are [LANGUAGE WARNING: LINK NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK] rumors about the marriage.

Let’s hope the perineal training was worth it and things work out between the two.

Meanwhile, Carla and Sarko are having dinner with Michelle and Obama tonight. Michelle Obama’s Mirror hopes Carla wears underwear.

Sometimes the news cycle outdoes the tawdry reality shows in the battle of the botox. This is one of those times.

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Polanski apologist self-declared pederast

I had mentioned this in passing, but now the BBC is reporting on it,

In his 2005 book The Bad Life, he [France’s Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand] wrote: “I got into the habit of paying for boys,” saying his attraction to young male prostitutes was not dimmed despite knowing “the sordid details of this traffic”

“All these rituals of the market for youths, the slave market excited me enormously… the abundance of very attractive and immediately available young boys put me in a state of desire.”

He says

the term “boys” was used loosely

No pun intended?

The perv is finally getting some heat,

But the BBC’s Emma Jane Kirby, in Paris, says that the revelation that a senior cabinet minister was involved in sex tourism, just as the country holds negotiations with Thailand to discuss ways of fighting it, will inevitably embarrass Mr Sarkozy’s government.

It won’t embarrass Mitterand, but it ought to embarrass a government who has him as culture minister.

Related
The other apologists,will they contribute to Polanski’s defense fund?

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Obama did not want to “spoil the image of success”

Reading this article at the Telegraph, one phrase jumps out,

Brown and Sarkozy rowed with Obama over Iranian nuclear announcement
Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy had a behind-the-scenes row with Barack Obama over last week’s announcement about a secret uranium enrichment plant in Iran.

The Prime Minister said it was time “to draw a line in the sand” on Tehran’s nuclear programme while the Frenchman mocked Mr Obama for the naivety of his “dreams” of eliminating nuclear weapons.

According to French officials, Mr Brown and particularly Mr Sarkozy wanted to make a declaration on Sep 24, either at the Security Council meeting chaired by the US president or just afterwards.

The Europeans considered that there was no better stage from which to tell the world that the three countries’ intelligence services had worked together to uncover an underground uranium enrichment facility under construction at Qom.

But Mr Obama did not want to “spoil the image of success” of his disarmament session, which passed a resolution to work towards a nuclear-free world and a host of measures designed to control the spread of nuclear weapons and reduce existing stocks.

It’s only the image what matters.

Nuclear threats from a fanatical regime? Pshaw!

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Obama: Outclassed by Sarko

It wasn’t the first time Sarko has derided Obama; during the campaign Sarko even called Obama an empty suit.

At that time, Sarko pronounced Obama’s policy towards Iran as ‘utterly immature’, but back then Obama was only a presidential candidate. Now Obama is POTUS, and Sarko’s making himself clear:
Sarkozy Mocks Obama at UN Security Council: Hello, Big Media?

Obama: “We must never stop until we see the day when nuclear arms have been banished from the face of the earth.”

Sarkozy: “We live in the real world, not the virtual world. And the real world expects us to take decisions.”

The rest of Sarkozy’s remarks were, well, remarkable:

“President Obama dreams of a world without weapons … but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite.

“Iran since 2005 has flouted five security council resolutions. North Korea has been defying council resolutions since 1993.

“I support the extended hand of the Americans, but what good has proposals for dialogue brought the international community? More uranium enrichment and declarations by the leaders of Iran to wipe a UN member state off the map,” he continued, referring to Israel.

The sharp-tongued French leader even implied that Mr Obama’s resolution 1887 had used up valuable diplomatic energy.

“If we have courage to impose sanctions together it will lend viability to our commitment to reduce our own weapons and to making a world without nuke weapons,” he said.

One can only agree with Sarko. Obama’s message is that Iran is “on notice,” as if it were a truant child or a delinquent debtor. Scott Ott managed to inject some humor from this in his post, Iran Claims U.S. Operates Underground Scolding Facility

Next? An October 1st meeting, but no desire to win:

“This isn’t a football game,” Obama said. “So I’m not interested in victory, I’m interested in solving the problem.”

Well, big whoop-dee-doo. Surely that statement must have the mullahs quaking in their boots.

As Anne Bayefsky puts it,

when President Obama addressed the General Assembly and Security Council he already knew that Iran was ignoring international standards, and its latest violations endangered international peace and security more than ever before. And yet he deliberately refused to put Iran on the agenda of the Council summit — the same Council that he claimed bore responsibility for responding to such threats.

President Obama knew that if the magnitude of the Iranian threat were revealed yesterday, the emptiness of his resolution would have been embarrassingly obvious and his cover blown. In public, at the highest levels of the U.N, he heralded generalities as significant. In private, he was petitioning lower levels of the U.N. to act on startling specifics of the Iranian threat.

Why did the president not present this same evidence to the Security Council, the body with “the authority and the responsibility to respond”? Why did he not challenge world leaders to deal with the same Iranian threat that he privately was pressing upon U.N. bureaucrats?

There is only one possible answer: President Obama does not have the political will to do what it takes to prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb.

Sarko understands this.

And so do the Iranians.

Related:
Iran Aiding Venezuela In Uranium Studies – Official (h/t Monica)

UPDATE
Nuclear Kumbaya

To top that off, Brazil’s vice president and former defense minister, Jose Alencar, told journalists that “we have to advance on” developing nukes “as an instrument of deterrence” because of Brazil’s massive western border and oil-rich territorial sea.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace last week warned: “Venezuela’s pursuit of nuclear power is moving forward in ways that are increasingly worrisome and possibly illegal.” Leftist President Hugo Chavez may get Iranian nuclear technology in exchange for 20,000 barrels of gasoline, defying U.S. sanctions on Iran. And Russia talks of helping Chavez build a nuclear reactor.

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