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![]() Just Above Sunset
June 19, 2005 - While Fox, CNN, MSNBC and the networks deal with Michael...
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Our friend, the stunning Australian woman who has
lived and worked in Paris for many years, and who has never visited the United States, does point out there is more to the
news than Michael Jackson and his acquittal. (Minor note – on the telephone, Paris to Hollywood, she has that
Australian accent, but does she speak French with an Australian accent?) Isn't it strange that
Florence Aubenas the French journalist has suddenly been released in Iraq after five months captivity? [See this statement from UNESCO, Monday, June 13, 2005 – "The Director-General of UNESCO Koichiro Matsuura today welcomed the release from
captivity in Iraq of French journalist Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi assistant Hussein Hanoun after five months in captivity
in Iraq"] Yes, French influence has
waned, has it not? In the end, taking a French hostage probably seemed just silly. What was the point? And on another topic
- what the hell is going on in Oz? Thanks to the stupidity of another little weasel in the form of Howard, we have loonies
sending little packets of powder willy-nilly and creating havoc in a country where, until Howard decided that his ego wasn't
sufficiently taken care of in the world's fifth or sixth largest country (Ok, ok - I know there are more sheep than men, but
c'mon - sheep have ears too and make darn fine woolly turtlenecks), and decided to caress the inane smile on Bush's' face,
Australia was far removed (quite literally) from what was going on elsewhere in the world - and Aussies spent the time wrestling
crocodiles, surfing and drinking till their beer guts exploded (it does get terribly hot in Oz). Ah, those were the days.
No longer. See Powder scare shuts part of Australia parliament (Reuters - 14 Jun 2005 02:06:56 GMT) - "Part of Australia's Parliament House was shut down for the fourth time this month
on Tuesday after another packet of white powder was sent to the building, authorities said. The incident comes after similar
security scares at six embassies, including the Indonesian, U.S., British and Japanese missions, and the Department of Prime
Minister and Cabinet. All the contents of the packets involved turned out to be harmless. …" And one last thing, concerning
the young Schapelle Corby and being imprisoned in Indonesia for 20 years for "allegedly" smuggling drugs. As an Aussie, I
too understand the dismay and anger of Australians at this sentence - whether she did it or not - as quite frankly it doesn't
seem to fit in with the two year sentence the Bali bombers got does it?! Boycott Bali? What is our friend talking
about? Prosecutors on the Indonesian
island of Bali have formally asked for an increase in the sentence for convicted Australian drug smuggler, Schappelle Corby.
And from the attorneys
at the US site Talk Left there was this in real time from Friday, May 27, 2005 (one of many posts) – Time to Boycott Bali.
There's much more at the
Talk Left item, and it's full of links to source material, and photos of the woman.
Of course there was next to nothing on this in the mainstream US press. My friend Phillip says
the release of Florence Aubenas is being played over here as a hostage for ransom, not a hostage for a political agenda. Quibbles? Australian accents to some of us sound quite different than New Zealand ones, and different from those
South African white folks [Trevor Denman out here announcing horse races down at Del Mar] - but then that's a Henry Higgins
thing and it really doesn't matter. To Europeans, folks from Texas and Georgia
sound alike - but Jimmy Carter doesn't sound at all like George Bush, in so many ways. Here the release of Florence
Aubenas is being played as a hostage for ransom, not a hostage for a political agenda. More of a fundraiser motive than a
political statement vehicle. Well, Ric Erickson, editor
of MetropoleParis, and in these pages Our Man in Paris, explained that, yes, the rejection was all mixed up with the threat of that
hypothetical "Polish plumber" - see this from April 17, 2005 and from June 5, 2005 - Fallout from the French Kiss of Death - and mixed up with all sorts of fears and resentments. The only child of a well-to-do
businessman, Chirac apparently had a lively youth. He was expelled from school for shooting paper wads at a teacher. He also
sold the Communist daily "L'Humanite" on the streets for a brief time, and even worked as a soda jerk at a Howard Johnson's
restaurant in the United States, where he reportedly earned a certificate of merit for his outstanding banana splits. Good to know. That was in 1953 when he was at Harvard (more here). A long time ago. Angered that the French
people voted down the European Union's constitution two weeks ago, French President Jacques Chirac announced today that he
agreed with President Bush that the French suck. Our Australian friend in
Paris comments - "Well, is it better to suck - or be wanted dead or alive, as Bush once stated about nobody else in particular
in the past?" |
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This issue updated and published on...
Paris readers add nine hours....
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