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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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 Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:19 am Post subject: The Bananas Have Come to France, Too, I Am Afraid... |
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A former French foreign minister, Roland Dumas, is on trial, accused of pillaging up to �6m in gifts and cash from a state-owned company. Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, the son of the late French president, is under criminal investigation, accused of taking millions of pounds in commissions for brokering illegal arms sales to Africa. President Jacques Chirac is besieged by allegations that he funded his political party, and his own interminable rise to power, by stealing money from the taxpayers of Paris.
A former French foreign minister, Roland Dumas, is on trial, accused of pillaging up to �6m in gifts and cash from a state-owned company. Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, the son of the late French president, is under criminal investigation, accused of taking millions of pounds in commissions for brokering illegal arms sales to Africa. President Jacques Chirac is besieged by allegations that he funded his political party, and his own interminable rise to power, by stealing money from the taxpayers of Paris.
"France is not a banana republic. You must not believe that all French politics or that all French politicians, are corrupt," Raymond Barre, the former French prime minister, now the mayor of Lyons, told a group of European journalists recently.
Mr Barre's own reputation, after 30 years in public life, is stainless. He is right to try to place the scandals erupting across the face of French politics like a rash of putrid boils into some kind of context. French public life is not universally rotten. It may, in some ways, be cleaner than at any time in the last century.
Nonetheless, the three cases listed above are just a "best of" selection from the scores of political scandals that have stained France in the last 12 years... |
Has France Become a Banana Republic? |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:25 am Post subject: |
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| Gopher has gone bananas. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:28 am Post subject: |
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| And I am having bananas, strawberries, and blueberries for breakfast today, per usual. Especially appropriate living as I do, in a banana republic, Kuros. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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Enrico Palazzo
Mod Team
Joined: 11 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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Gopher,
Is it necessary to provoke people on a political discussion forum? I know you are trying to be sarcastic, but this way of going about it if others did the same would lead to chaos. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:29 pm Post subject: |
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On the other hand, there is a danger of the CE forum becoming too sterile. I think a certain amount of provocation goes with the territory of this forum, and I don't see anything wrong with posting in playfulness, even by the likes of the horrid Gopher. 
Et voila, une chanson appropri�e... |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Big_Bird wrote: |
On the other hand, there is a danger of the CE forum becoming too sterile. I think a certain amount of provocation goes with the territory of this forum, and I don't see anything wrong with posting in playfulness, even by the likes of the horrid Gopher.
Et voila, une chanson appropri�e... |
I join with Big Bird on this issue. I'd rather err on the side of too much leeway, than not enough.
Multiple "agenda" threads are nothing new around here. If people don't like Gopher's "banana" threads, the simple solution is to not post on them, thus letting them drown into obscurity. |
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BS.Dos.
Joined: 29 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:32 pm Post subject: |
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| I for one welcome the banana threads. |
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Enrico Palazzo
Mod Team
Joined: 11 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:37 pm Post subject: |
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| On the other hand wrote: |
| Big_Bird wrote: |
On the other hand, there is a danger of the CE forum becoming too sterile. I think a certain amount of provocation goes with the territory of this forum, and I don't see anything wrong with posting in playfulness, even by the likes of the horrid Gopher.
Et voila, une chanson appropri�e... |
I join with Big Bird on this issue. I'd rather err on the side of too much leeway, than not enough.
Multiple "agenda" threads are nothing new around here. If people don't like Gopher's "banana" threads, the simple solution is to not post on them, thus letting them drown into obscurity. |
I can understand it's intended for humor. It's not something that people voted on last year that they said would be a big deal unless the forum was basically flooded with stuff. It hasn't happened. As long as it's not overdone, fine. I did look into it, as I should, and I wasn't alarmed, and I am not others on the mod team would be, not that I can speak for everyone, but ad-hominem attacks are frowned upon somewhat, and we won't ban people or place temp bans on people just because others request it. We look into the facts to see if there has been any real "damage". We don't go into who has received such bans or what actions we've taken, generally. We try to give folks some leeway, but we have our limits. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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| How about a banana republic sticky, Enrico? |
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