Monday, November 13, 2006

Segolene Versus Sarko

For the next five months, my blog will be coming to you from Menton, France. I’ll be there working on two books, one on a comparison of the American Empire with its predecessors, to be published by Penguin Books next fall. The other book, titled Oil, is also to appear next fall in the Groundwork Guide Series.

(I’ll be puttering away, as well, on a book I’ve been writing for fifteen years on the wacky life of the exile in France. It’s working title is Jamais Provence, and I haven’t yet pitched it to a publisher.)

I will post regularly from Menton on my usual subjects, and to these I’ll add observations about French and European society, especially on the hugely important issue of “belonging and not belonging”, how Europeans are coping with multi-cultural challenges.

I’ll write about the upcoming Presidential election in France. At present the leading candidate for the Socialists is Segolene Royal. The front-runner for the right is Nicolas Sarkozy, the law and order, minister of the interior, who shows up within hours on the scene of any protest from minorities against their lot in France, driving home his message that with him in the Elysee Palace, security will be the leading priority.

I also plan to write a series of posts arguing the case for the withdrawal of Canadian soldiers from Afghanistan.

In a few days, I’ll be checking in from Menton, as soon as France Telecom sets up my Internet access.

2 comments:

Harrap said...

I hope France will be a great experience, though it seems you'll mostly be busy writing ;)

I look forward to your blog postings as a "Canadian in France"

The French Presidential Elections should be interesting. On economics and social programs they seem well to the left of Canada but on issues such as immigration even some of the Socialists can sound very right wing.

James Laxer said...

I'll be checking in regularly to get your take on the Graham government.