Nation Topics - Paris | The Nation

The article offers a case for an oversight of homeland security measures and for the upholding of civil rights and liberties. In early December 2004, some police at Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport planted a packet of plastic explosives in an innocent passenger's suitcase, "chosen at random." The bomb-sniffing dog flunked the test, the suitcase went down the conveyor belt, and it was apparently loaded onto an airplane destined for parts unknown. If ever there was an object lesson illustrating the need both for sane oversight of security measures and for the vigilant upholding of civil rights and liberties, this would have to be it. As a culture of secrecy and a habit of anything-goes settles over the "war on terror," the failure to hold police, soldiers and spies to the highest levels of accountability can only enhance the likelihood of stupid mistakes. What might have happened if the unsuspecting owner of the suitcase in question had collected it at his destination, only to be sniffed out by better-trained, more highly professional hounds at the receiving end. Surely carrying plastic explosives aboard an international flight would get you instant casting as a terrorist or an enemy combatant. Errors of surveillance come in all sizes; some go on for ten years, or possibly forever. That is why we have habeas corpus. At least that is why we used to.

Reviews the book "Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology," edited by Adam Gopnik.

The author discusses the controversy surrounding the French government's move to ban the wearing of Islamic head scarves in public schools. For several months now France has been obsessed with an item of women's clothing. The garment in question is not the skimpy lingerie modeled in a Paris Metro ad by a pubescent girl (paedophilie publicitaire, scolds the graffiti) but the Islamic hijab, increasingly in vogue among French Muslim women. The French law is meant to protect the republican principle of laï cité, a strict form of secularism established after bitter struggles at the beginning of the last century to keep the Catholic Church out of politics. A second-generation Algerian is three to four times more likely to be unemployed than, a "native" French person; schools in the banlieues are bleak and badly funded, experienced by teachers and students as the front line of confrontation. The rise of the far right's Jean-Marie Le Pen is one consequence of this: President Jacques Chirac, who was re-elected in 2002 on the back of Le Pen's success against the Socialists, is mindful both of his debt to his onetime ally and of the threat he represents. Outside the Lycée Suger in the suburb of St. Denis, Samia, Rania and their friend--all 17--clearly don't want to be a battlefield. They say no one is for the law; they don't see why there's such a fuss about a piece of cloth. Banning the hijab at school won't rescue girls from fundamentalist fathers or weaken the Islamists, who will exploit it as another instance of anti-Muslim prejudice. Instead, it weakens liberalism.

This section presents brief news and comment pieces. The US media had nary a harsh word to say about the President's Thanksgiving flight to Iraq. The foreign press was less obeisant. Some prizewinning comments: Best Headline: "The Turkey Has Landed"--Independent (London). Runners Up: "Electoral Raid on Baghdad"--Libération (Paris); "I came, I saw nothing, but I will conquer"--An-Nahar (Beirut). Best Capsule Descriptions: "one of the most audacious publicity coups in White House history"--The Times (London). Matt Gonzalez, San Francisco's Green candidate for mayor, is shaking things up in a city long run by Democrats. Gonzalez, president of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors and a former Democrat, has invigorated a progressive coalition of artists and community activists in a grassroots effort to defeat the well-connected, well-funded and wealthy Democrat, Gavin Newsom. Until his death on November 26, at age 87, John Patrick Hunter maintained that it was the job of journalists to defend democracy and the liberties that underpin it. He despised the Patriot Act, the internment of immigrants and other assaults on liberty by John Ashcroft and his ilk in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack.

Presents a review of the performing arts festival, "Diaghilev Seasons: Penn, Petersburg, Paris," held in Perm, Russia, which featured performances by the Perm Tschaikovsky Theater of Opera and Ballet and local ballet, modern dance and opera companies.

Presents tributes to author George Plimpton, who died on September 25, 2003, and to lawyer Arthur Kinoy, a contributor to "The Nation" who died on September 19, 2003. George Plimpton wore lightly his New York upper-class WASP heritage, but it was the real thing. Scorning entitlements of birth, he followed the young writers' trail to Paris in the 1950s and co-founded "The Paris Review". Thanks to Plimpton's dedication and perseverance, it survived and continues to set the gold standard for literary magazines. Meanwhile, Plimpton was becoming a celebrity by acting out sports fantasies and writing up his experiences in bestselling books. Though basically nonpolitical, he was a friend of "The Nation"; volunteering to emcee fundraising events. Arthur Kinoy never really believed that lawyers bring about social change. The lesson he took from years in Southern courtrooms fighting segregation and defending civil fights activists was that "legal battles to enforce freedom and equality had potential only when they were intertwined with the daily struggles of black people and their supporters to transform these constitutional promises into reality." It was in the defense of civil rights groups and local desegregation campaigns--SCLC, Freedom Summer, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party -- that Kinoy helped shape a revolution. In 1966 he helped found the Center for Constitutional Rights, which carries on his fight.

This article describes the French anti-war movement in opposition to the Iraqi War. Following the first attack at 3 AM French time, the morning papers were ready with generic "War Is Here" headlines, accompanied by full-page images of dark skies. Students of my son's lycée went through with their planned walkouts, joining with students from across Paris. Outside, heavy police guards were protecting the US Embassy and barricaded consulate, normally heavy traffic was halted within a 500-meter radius and an eerie silence hung over usually congested streets. Leaders from diverse leftist parties, so often at odds, marched arm in arm in an unprecedented show of unity.

Discusses an issue of 'Salmagundi' which has a section regarding so-called "Femicons" a category which includes articles on Emma Goldman, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath and Willa Cather. Other contents of the issue including a 'Letter from Paris' by the writer and philosopher Tzvetan Todorov, on the French use of torture during the Algerian War and a review of the French television program and book by Patrick Rotman called 'L'ennemi intime.' How Todorov's essay examines the root causes of the torture, including the demonization of the enemy, the youthfulness of the French recruits and their isolation in Algeria. Efforts made by the French Army to develop a political rationalization for the systematic torture of Algerian rebels. A hypothetical case always cited is that of the captured bomber who has killed once and set other bombs to go off shortly.

The ballerina as a species of theater artist has been endangered worldwide for a quarter of a century; however, two organizations still regularly produce new generations of them. One is the Paris Opera Ballet; the other is the Kirov. Both are huge companies with old, distinguished schools, and both have large repertories stocked with works that require a ballerina's presence. Ballerinas require a special setting-a surround of music, space and light in which they can grow-and partners who think of them before they think of themselves.

This article focuses on the book "No Peace, No Honor," by Larry Berman. In the book, Berman does an exemplary job of showing how the peace negotiations fell apart in December 1972. Along with other writers, Berman acknowledges the resemblance between the final Paris treaty and proposals offered by North Vietnam as early as 1969. disadvantageous peace agreement. He actually concludes his book with the sorrowful reflection of Gen. Vernon Walters: "We let 39 million people fall into slavery."