"In the future," she said, "women will be bossing men around more and more. This will be a nuisance for the men, but there you are."Perhaps she was thinking about the relationship between one particular man and woman when her husband retires (probably) next year.* Talking of women in politics... Word has reached Paris that the new German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, was rude about President Chirac, and the French, when she dined with Tony Blair last week. President Chirac is under pressure to lead the march - something almost unheard of for a President. He should polish his walking shoes.It takes one to know oneS?l? Royal, who wants to be the first woman president of France, has a new fan. Bernadette Chirac says that Mme Royal, right, has the right "look" (she used the English word) to win the presidential election next spring.Mme Chirac is a shrewder (if unelected) politician than, say, the Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin. They casually tortured him for three weeks because he was Jewish.M.
Halimi's cruel death carries a much greater potential for racial conflagration than the November riots. Already, during a protest demonstration in Paris last weekend, radical and brainless young Jews attacked black and Arab bystanders.A large anti-racism demo is planned this weekend. They insist, however, that the main motive of the Barbarians was money, not race or politics. One police officer said: "If this gang had heard that all Martians were rich they would have tried to capture a Martian." This was meant to be reassuring It is not It is terrifying The gang abducted M Halimi for money. This is partly because the otherwise apolitical, suburban kids identify with the Palestinian cause. They also have the grotesque conviction that all Jews are super-rich and conspire to prevent other ethnic minorities from rising in French society.French authorities now admit that anti-Semitism was a "factor" in the torture and murder of M Halimi. All, that is, except for Jews.The "fuijs" or "feujs" (backward slang for juifs) have become an object of hate-filled fantasy among suburban youths (and not just youths).
They were driven by anger at their - admittedly partly racist - exclusion from mainstream French society.Anyone who has spent time in the banlieues will know that they are not race ghettoes but social ghettoes where different races are accepted reasonably well. In other words, the gang closely resembles the background, age and racial mixture, of the kids who set fire to 12,000 cars during the suburban riots across France in November.Much nonsense has been written and broadcast about these riots, which were not "Islamic" or even racial in the strict sense of the word The kids involved were black, brown and white. Halimi, have been accused of abduction but also of "pre-meditated murder for ethnic, racial or religious reasons". The self-proclaimed "Brain of the Barbarians", Youssouf Fafana, 26, has fled to his native Ivory Coast.His gang are mostly boys and girls from a public housing estate in Bagneux, west of Paris Some, like M Fafana, are black Others are of Arab origin Some are white. Halimi's family was right.Nine alleged members of "The Barbarians," the gang which kidnapped M. A couple of days ago the two magistrates investigating the case decided that M. The police insisted, at first, that the kidnap gang's motive was financial: to extort money from M Halimi's not-especially-rich family.
If so why the three weeks of torture? The young man was found, dying in agony, with burn marks and cuts covering 80 per cent of his body. His family was convinced from the beginning that their tall, handsome, 23-year-old son was the victim of an anti-Semitic crime. The mane's blond, a shade which is unfaithful to Fleming, and in alpha male terms hasn't recovered from Michael Heseltine, Dan Quayle or Frank Spencer Take to the bottle, Mr Craig Shaken, probably.. A young man is picked up by a pretty girl, abducted, savagely tortured, stabbed and left to die. This did not happen in Iraq or in Colombia or in Brazil but in France, last week. Ilan Halimi was Jewish, a mobile telephone salesman in Paris. His death has generated an anguished debate about the "new" anti-Semitism: the gut hatred of Jews, not on the far right, but among the deprived, multiracial youth of the banlieues, the poor suburbs which surround French cities. They should remember Prague, Bucharest, Berlin and Kiev: before we know where we are, actors will be running for roles decided by vote.
And you know what that means: more acceptance speeches.If people-power invades film-making, moreover, what will be next? JK Rowling forced to keep writing Harry Potters? Jeffrey Archer ordered to stop? The apprentices firing Sir Alan Sugar? Jamie Oliver the next England coach? The Prince of Wales made Ambassador to China?A concession is vital. Could Mr Craig be persuaded to speak Scots sibilantly? Or trained to lift an eyebrow, quizzically? Perhaps, but it's the hair colour that seems to have got them going. Unaddressed resentment turns to anger that turns to action that rapidly becomes irresistible. Bond executives are being flurried by e-mails announcing a boycott of the films unless the "short, blond, odd-looking" Mr Craig is replaced. Well This is an intriguing development The Bond camp should be very careful. And the latest news from that last is the birth of a movement dedicated to removing the new James Bond, Daniel Craig, before he's even got going. I am able to write this because we are attracting enough custom for it not to have dented our chances Our morale has not been deflated either.
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