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Week 23, 2004
THE REGULARS: Summary
A) Song of the week: "June is busting out all over" from the musical "Carousel" by Rogers and Hammerstein
B) Le texte plus abordable de la semaine/Penguin Dossiers: Harry Potter book and film [Alors qu'un nouveau film va sortir, un regard en arrière vers le premier de la série.]
C) CNN/Global Office: Business embraces Euro-skyscraper [Une nouvelle déferlante de gratte-ciel en Europe.]
D) The New York Times/The Ethicist: The Prosecution Rests [Conseils sur l'éthique et la déontologie : Je suis ancien procureur. Puis-je fumer de l'herbe ? / Mon voisin s'exhibe dans sa porte. Dois-je le dénoncer à la police ?]
E) Slate/Dear Prudence: It's a Family Affair [Conseils sur la vie sentimentale et la vie tout court : Mon amante tient à profiter de ma présence lors de sa fête de baccalauréat pour annoncer son homosexualité à l'ensemble de ses parents et amis. /J'ai une copine qui me bouffre toute mon energie avec ses emmerdes. / Je veux rompre avec mon compagnon, mais le bail est à nos deux noms et il refuse de dégager. / Comment annoncer à mes petites amies que je tiens à rester célibataire ?]
F) Washington Post/Miss Manners: Guess What! [Conseils sur les bonnes manières : Je voudrais renouveller mes voeux de mariage avec ma femme lors du dîner préparatoire du mariage de notre fille. / Comment ouvrir une porte pour une dame alors qu'elle s'ouvre vers l'extérieur. / Nous faisons tout ce qu'il faut lorsqu'un couple particulier nous invite chez eux ; sommes-nous vraiment obligés de les inviter chez nous à notre tour ?]
G) NPR/Day to Day: Origin and Importance of Muslim Head Scarves [Entretien sur l'histoire et l'important du foulard islamique. AUDIO : Vous pouvez écouter l'entretien en ligne.]
H) The Entente Cordiale series: The new battle of Agincourt [Dernier d'une série d'articles publiés dans Libé et The Guardian à l'occasion de la commémoration de l'Entente Cordiale. Ici, une nouvelle bataille à Azincourt, celle-ci sur l'installation d'éoliennes. Voir ci-après l'article original en français paru dans Libé.]

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A) Song of the week: "June is busting out all over" from the musical "Carousel" by Rogers and Hammerstein

June is bustin' out all over
All over the meader [meadow=pré] and the hill
Flowers bustin' out on bushes
And the roughen river pushes
Ev'ry little wheel that wheels beside the mill

June is bustin' out all over
The ocean is full of Jacks and Jills
With the little tail is swishing'
Ev'ry lady fish is wishin' that a male would come
And grab 'er by the gills
Because it's June... June, June, June
Just because it's June, June, June!

Fresh and alive and gay and young
June is a love song, sweety song
June is bustin' out all over
The branches are bustin' out with sap
Love has found my brother
And my sister's even loonier
And my Ma is gettin' kittenish with Pap!

June is bustin' out all over
The sheep aren't sleepin' anymore
All the rams are chasin' ewe-sheep
All determined there'll be new sheep
and the ewe-sheep aren't even keepin' score
Because it's June... June, June, June
Just because it's June, June, June!
It's June...It's June, June, June
Just because it's June, June...

March went out like a lion
A-wavin' up the weather in the bay;
Then April cried and stepped aside,
And lone came pretty little May!
May was full of promises
But she didn't keep it quick enough for some
And the crowd up doubtin' of promises
Was predictin' that the summer'd never come

But the summer's by God,
We can feel it come,
You can feel it in your heart
You can see it in the ground
You can see it in the trees
You can smell it in the breeze
Look around! Look around! Look around!
June in bustin' out all over
The ladies and men are payin' court
Lots of ships are keepin' anchor
Just because the captains hanker
For the comfort they can only get in port
You can hear it comin'!

June is bustin' out all over
The moonlight is shining on the shore
And the girls who were contrary
With the boys in January,
Aren't nearly for contrary anymore!
Because it's June... June, June, June
Just because it's June, June, June!

^RETURN TO TOP^

Millions of readers around the world are waiting for magic in their cinemas this month. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the most popular book in the world today. (One hundred million Harry Potter books have sold in forty-two languages!) Now, can the film win the world’s imagination in the same way?

Harry’s fans want to see a film that is exactly like the book. They already know the characters like close friends – and they love Harry’s magical world in their hearts. The British author, J.K. Rowling, wanted the film to be like the book too. ‘Why should you take a book that works so well and change it?’ she said.

But Harry’s adventures are unique – with strange characters and places from another world. Harry and his friends live and go to school in England – but this is a magic England with its own streets, shops and schools … even its own language! (In fact many of Rowling’s words come from old English. Did you know that the headmaster’s name, ‘Dumbledore’, is an old English word for bumblebee?!)

How can the film-makers, Warner Bros, make this unique magical world? Rowling was there to help at every stage. She worked hard to help turn her famous words into real things. Months of work and £100million later, the special effects are ready. Everyone is waiting to see their favourite characters. We want to see Hagrid’s frightening animals, the strange teachers, and Harry’s clever white owl. The big question is, what will the actor playing Harry be like?

Sixteen thousand British and American boys auditioned for the part of Harry Potter. Rowling did not want an American to play Harry. The American director, Chris Columbus knew about Daniel Radcliffe from the BBC’s TV film David Copperfield. Columbus asked Daniel’s father to send Daniel for an audition. When Daniel walked into the room, Columbus knew. This is Harry Potter! Rowling agreed. She felt she was brought back together with a long-lost son.

Ten years ago JK Rowling was a young English teacher; today she is one of the richest and most famous people in the world. Harry has helped thousands of people – young and old – to enjoy reading and he hasn’t stopped yet! Now Rowling has to turn quickly to her fifth Harry Potter book. After the film more people than ever will be waiting for Harry’s next adventure!

^RETURN TO TOP^

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/05/25/go.swiss.re.building/index.html
Business embraces Euro-skyscraper
By Nick Easen for CNN

(CNN) -- Like other European metropolises, London has relatively few high-rise office buildings compared to cities in the U.S. and Asia. But it is catching up.

The latest addition is a prominent 40-story tower built for the reinsurance company Swiss Re.The company moved in last month and the building has quickly become a landmark on the London skyline.

Affectionately known as the "erotic gherkin" for its curved shape, the 180-meter (590-foot) creation by architect Sir Norman Foster also has raised the profile of the company that commissioned it. "Five years ago if you had asked a man on a bus who Swiss Re was they would have gone, 'What?'" Sara Fox from Swiss Re told CNN. "Now, many people may not be able to tell you exactly what we do, but they sure know who we are. People say, 'Oh yes, Swiss Re is that new building'."

The owners occupy eight office floors half way up the tower, which means the company can charge higher rents to those firms interested in taking the upper floors with better views.

First green skyscraper
The building at 30 St Mary Axe, in the heart of the City, is not just a commercial symbol -- it is London's first green skyscraper. Low energy consumption and a reduction in carbon emissions formed a central part of the designer's brief.

"The spaces that spiral around the building act as the lungs," says Foster, whose Foster and Partners was the architectural firm behind the design. The company also is responsible for such well-known structures as the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank tower in Hong Kong, the renovation of the Reichstag in Berlin and the Millennium Bridge in London. "It is not a sealed building. It delivers a lot of fresh air -- 40 times the amount of fresh air. That is good in terms of carbon emissions. It is also good in terms of energy," Foster says.

The tower incorporates innovative environmental technology and a sophisticated building management system that balances external weather conditions with internal office needs. Windows up to the 32nd floor open to admit natural ventilation when the external temperature is above 20 C (68 F) and wind speeds are below 16 km/h (10 mph). Its aerodynamic gherkin-like shape also causes wind pressure changes that help ventilate the building naturally, reducing the need for conventional air conditioning.

CNN's Andrew Carey contributed to this report.

^RETURN TO TOP^

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E) Slate/Dear Prudence: It's a Family Affair [Conseils sur la vie sentimentale et la vie tout court : Mon amante tient à profiter de ma présence lors de sa fête de baccalauréat pour annoncer son homosexualité à l'ensemble de ses parents et amis. /J'ai une copine qui me bouffre toute mon energie avec ses emmerdes. / Je veux rompre avec mon compagnon, mais le bail est à nos deux noms et il refuse de dégager. / Comment annoncer à mes petites amies que je tiens à rester célibataire ?]

It's a Family Affair

Dear Prudence,
I'm a 20-year-old lesbian who recently started dating an 18-year-old friend I've known for years. The problem: She isn't out of the closet yet to her (very conservative) mother. She's planning a dramatic coming-out at her high-school graduation party, and she wants me to be there so she can introduce me to pretty much her entire extended family as her girlfriend. The situation seems to be engineered for maximum emotional bloodshed. I've tried talking her into breaking the news about her sexuality to her mother more privately, and on a less important occasion, but she is determined. My question, then, is this: How likely is my presence to make the situation worse? I want to be there as my girlfriend's emotional support, but I'm afraid of being cast by her mother as the Evil Older Woman who seduced her child into a Sinful Lifestyle—something that would undoubtedly (knowing my girlfriend) turn into a huge and possibly irreparable fight in front of all her relatives. Of course, if I'm not there, the fight may occur anyway—but I'd prefer my presence not be the reason her family disowns her. What should I do—accede to my girlfriend's wishes and be there as emotional support and Exhibit A for her homosexuality, or let her go it alone in hopes that the explosion will be smaller? Thanks very much for your help.

—Last Straw?

Dear Last,
Guess what? If you're not there, Prudie doesn't think the graduate will announce anything. You sound very emotionally smart about all this, for which you are to be complimented. Your pal's plan for the knock-out punch to her mother reeks of hostility ... not unlike (true story) the man who, at his 25th wedding anniversary black tie dinner, announced—with dessert—that he'd been unhappy for a long time and was leaving his wife. Perhaps give your lady love a choice: You will be with her at her graduation party with there being NO announcement, or if she is dead-set on coming out then, you will not be present. Offer to join her and her mother the next day for a discussion. If you can't get through to her, explain that your good judgment is telling you that an announcement of homosexuality is not something to be sprung on a room full of celebrating relatives and to call you when it's over.

—Prudie, judiciously

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Dear Prudie,
I met "Liz" 12 years ago. We both worked for the same company and became good friends. As time went on, the friendship became strained at times due to her ongoing mental health issues. These included panic attacks and severe depression. During her bouts with depression, she would use me as her analyst, something I am certainly not qualified for, and I would always beg her to seek professional help. Finally, about six years ago, she did start on antianxiety medication, but the prescription came from her gynecologist, never a licensed psychopharmacologist, much to my dismay. She did start getting better, however, and when she became involved with a guy, all symptoms went completely away. For the past four years—since she broke up with the guy—all symptoms have returned. This took quite a toll on me because when she was in a low period, I had to "talk her down." I finally told her that I was feeling quite overwhelmed by it all and said she must seek professional guidance. She did not take this well at all. Now she has entered into an affair with a married man who has moved into her home and is waiting for his divorce so they can marry. My problem now? She has asked me to be her matron of honor, something I do not want to do both because of the 12-year history and thinking it's just wrong, what she and this man did to his wife. Any advice?

—Dazed by Friendship

Dear Daze,
This would be a natural point at which to ring off from this woman who has been leaning on you for 12 years. You've been held hostage to this woman's neurosis for more than a decade, and it's time for your declaration of independence. Tell her you wish her well, but, for many reasons, you would not feel comfortable being part of her wedding. Do not succumb to any entreaties. It will feel good, and you will have your life back.

—Prudie, unwaveringly

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Dear Prudence,
For the past two years, I have shared an apartment with my boyfriend. I no longer wish to be with him, but we have a lease in both of our names. I lived there for four years before he moved in. When we fight, he refuses to sleep on the couch. The bed, along with all the furniture, belongs to me. He's actually tried to kick me out of the bedroom! I have two questions: 1) Is it unreasonable for me to feel he shouldn't be able to sleep in MY bed? 2) He refuses to move out, so am I really stuck living with him until the lease is up several months from now? I also don't want to lose the apartment, and I am the one who paid the security deposit six years ago. What can I do?

—Looking for a Sofa Bed

Dear Look,
The thing to do is tell Mr. Sensitive the romance is O-V-E-R and, with it, the living arrangements. Tell him you will be happy to sign a document stating that you are fully responsible for the rent until the lease is up, should he throw up a supposed legal roadblock. Also tell him you're sure he's not the kind of guy who would stay with a woman who no longer wants him there. If he balks, threaten taking him to court. (Since Prudie has no idea which municipal court evicts former boyfriends, call Legal Aid and ask for advice.) Good luck.

—Prudie, solitarily

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Hi Prudie,
Love your column. I'm a 28-year-old man who has no desire to get married. Unfortunately, it appears most women my age don't share that view. I do enjoy dating and having relationships with women, as long as they don't go on for more than a year or two. How and when is the best way to let potential romantic partners know this? It seems like an odd thing to bring up in the first five minutes of meeting, but it also seems unfair to wait until they've invested a lot of energy in the relationship if they're looking for something I don't want to give. Thanks for your help!

—Permanent Bachelor

Dear Perm,
Prudie has met your kind before. You say you're not a marrying man, but one day along will come a dish who will turn your world upside-down. But in the meantime ... you are right that one cannot say, in the first five minutes, "You have really nice eyes, and, oh, by the way, I have no intention of ever being anyone's husband." Perhaps your best bet is casually dropping it into conversation that you are loving being a bachelor and don't see yourself married. And Prudie suggests such a ploy when you sense there is real interest and not after having played house for several months ... if you really want to be fair.

—Prudie, honorably

^RETURN TO TOP^

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F) Washington Post/Miss Manners: Guess What! [Conseils sur les bonnes manières : Je voudrais renouveller mes voeux de mariage avec ma femme lors du dîner préparatoire du mariage de notre fille. / Comment ouvrir une porte pour une dame alors qu'elle s'ouvre vers l'extérieur. / Nous faisons tout ce qu'il faut lorsqu'un couple particulier nous invite chez eux ; sommes-nous vraiment obligés de les inviter chez nous à notre tour ?]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56022-2004May25.html

Guess What!
By Judith Martin
Wednesday, May 26, 2004; Page C03

Q:
Dear Miss Manners:

I wish to surprise my wife and renew our wedding vows. It just so happens that my daughter is also getting married. She and I were talking and we thought, "Why not renew them at the rehearsal after my daughter is done with her practice?"

My wife would be very surprised.

The first thing is, should we tell anyone other than the people who will be there, or keep it quiet? Second, I am already paying for some of the people to eat at the rehearsal dinner and there is no way to pay for more. How would I tell the others that if they want to come to the dinner, they will have to pay for themselves?

A:
You seem to be full of surprises. Perhaps some of these people will have surprises for you.

Miss Manners might have thought that a lady would want to participate in the decision about repeating her vows, rather than have it sprung on her in front of others, but you and your daughter presumably know your wife well enough to predict a favorable reaction. There are some ladies who, when neither consulted about the idea nor warned about the timing, would take the opportunity to see about canceling the vows they had already made.

Another surprise could come from those whom you invite to attend your family celebration on condition that they pay their own way. No matter how you tell them that they will not be among your real guests, you may discover that they are not interested enough in your family occasions to pay admission to attend.

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Q:
Dear Miss Manners:

While it has never really seemed to be an issue, I have always wondered about the proper action to take when a door opens away from you. Should one push open the door and let his date walk through first, or should he walk through first and then hold the door?

A:
Stand near the hinged side of the door and push. The door, that is -- not the lady. That would make it an issue.

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Q:
Dear Miss Manners:

We have enjoyed dinner on three occasions at a friend's home. Each time we presented a hostess gift upon arrival, and sent a proper handwritten thank you note the following day. We have never invited this couple to our home for dinner.

Is it required that we entertain this couple, or have we fulfilled our obligation by taking a hostess gift and writing a thank-you note? We appreciate the invitations, but we don't wish to entertain them in our home.

A:
Why not, since you apparently enjoy their company enough to keep accepting their invitations? Do they destroy the furniture when they turn jolly, and you don't mind as long as it is their own? Or do you simply prefer to have them serve you without your having to exert yourselves on their behalf?

Your thanks are obligatory and the optional little presents you bring are nice, but neither constitutes payment of your social debt. Miss Manners believes that what you are doing is popularly known as freeloading.

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G) NPR/Day to Day: Origin and Importance of Muslim Head Scarves [Entretien sur l'histoire et l'important du foulard islamique. AUDIO : Vous pouvez écouter l'entretien en ligne.]

http://www.npr.org/programs/day/transcripts/2004/mar/040317.benard.html
Interview: Cheryl Benard of the Rand Corporation Discusses The Origins ot The Muslim Tradition of Women Wearing Head Scarves
Day to Day: March 17, 2004

MADELEINE BRAND, host: French authorities today are investigating threats of a possible attack against France from a shadowy Islamic group. In a letter mailed to several French newspapers, the group indicated one of the reasons behind the threat was France's recent decision to ban all religious clothing, including Muslim head scarves, in schools. Earlier I spoke with Cheryl Benard, a senior political scientist at the Rand Corporation in Doha, Qatar. She says that not all Muslims believe the head scarves are a necessary part of their faith.

Ms. CHERYL BENARD (Rand Corporation): In fact, I mean, the orthodox Islamic authors and thinkers believe is that it is not a religious obligation and therefore has no actual legitimate religious meaning. It is invested with such a meaning by some people.

BRAND: So it's not a religious obligation in the Koran?

Ms. BENARD: That's right. There are a couple of passages in the Koran that touch on issues of dress. One of those says that men and women should dress modestly, and it doesn't specify what modest means. The other is a paragraph that actually those people who claim the head scarf to be Islamic rely on. And that is a paragraph that refers specifically to the wives and family members, close family members of the prophet during his lifetime. And the ironic thing is that that paragraph makes it very clear that it applies only to that group. The paragraph makes it clear that the purpose of that rule is to distinguish them from all other women, because at that point, you know, the community was larger, and they weren't being recognized and treated respectfully enough anymore. So the purpose of that rule was to make sure that they would be seen as totally distinct from all the other Muslim women. To apply this rule to all Muslim women now is really contrary to its obvious intention.

BRAND: And so now it's commonly perceived as a religious symbol. Why the confusion?

Ms. BENARD: It's a very complicated issue because you have very different kinds of women wearing the scarf. You have traditional old-fashioned or older women, especially in immigrant communities, who just grew up wearing it ever since childhood and would feel very uncomfortable and very odd without them because it's a part of their garment that they wear every day. And to them, it's not any sort of a statement; they simply believe rightly or wrongly that their religion requires them to wear that. Then you have young people, teen-agers or young adults, women, who wear it, some, because they've--trying to rediscover their religion and they do legitimately believe that the head cover is required. But some wear it to be provocative. Some wear it out of teen-age rebellion. We've encountered, for instance, in interviews, diaspora families who say that they have two daughters, one of whom has gotten her belly button pierced and the other one of whom has decided to wear the head scarf or Hejab.

BRAND: Why do you think the head scarf has become so controversial?

Ms. BENARD: Yeah, I think there are two reasons for that. One is that one of the really pivotal things that distinguishes radical Islam from other positions in Islam is the issue of women's rights. You can see that whenever they come to power. For instance, if you recall, when the Taliban took over in Afghanistan, I mean, they were dealing with a country that was totally devastated, totally ruined, a population that was on the verge of extinction, practically. And the one thing that they picked up to deal with first was women covering up. Were the chadors that the women were wearing, you know, were they all wearing them? Where they long enough? Was the cloth thick enough? This was an obsession to them because it symbolized a certain status, that women should have a lower status, that, to them, was part of their worldview. That's one issue.

Then the second one is that it's an easy issue to politicize because it's so ambiguous. It's difficult to criticize the scarf because it's difficult to criticize what someone else is claiming is their religious belief. So this makes it a kind of a safe symbol in some ways and an easy one. You don't have to do a lot to take a stance; all you have to do is take this piece of cloth and put it on your head.

BRAND: And in which Muslim countries is the head scarf optional?

Ms. BENARD: You're speaking to me right now in Qatar, for example; it's optional in Qatar. You see women wearing various kinds of garb, from full veils, but you also see them with no kinds of head coverings at all, and you can sense a strong spirit of tolerance here. There is a sort of a coexistence among all these different individuals. And here you very strongly see and feel that it is not a political symbol; here it really is a personal statement. Whatever that woman and her family feel is the right thing to do, that's what she's doing.

BRAND: Cheryl Benard is the senior political scientist at the Rand Corporation in Doha, Qatar.

Thank you for joining us.

Ms. BENARD: My pleasure.

This is DAY TO DAY. I'm Madeleine Brand.

^RETURN TO TOP^

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H) The Entente Cordiale series: The new battle of Agincourt [Dernier d'une série d'articles publiés dans Libé et The Guardian à l'occasion de la commémoration de l'Entente Cordiale. Ici, une nouvelle bataille à Azincourt, celle-ci sur l'installation d'éoliennes. Voir ci-après l'article original en français paru dans Libé.]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1185736,00.html

The new battle of Agincourt

The English attack at Agincourt on October 25 1415, was unrelenting. In this little Pas-de-Calais village of 290 souls, the English archers, led by Henry V, rained arrows upon the French knights and won a decisive victory in the Hundred Years War. Nearly six centuries after the scenes that inspired Shakespeare, a new battle is being joined in the village of present-day Azincourt. A plan to install four 80m-high wind turbines within sight of the battlefield is causing something of a stir.

"The English were on the left, towards Maisoncelles, and were heading for Calais when they came face to face with the French. Although exhausted and hungry, they still won through, by firing off 10 to 12 arrows a minute." Patrick Fenet has lived a stone's throw from the battlefield for 30 years. He has soaked up the history of the area and quotes Shakespeare in the original. A youth worker, he even gives lessons in longbow, the legendary weapon of the Welsh archers. He is also one of the most passionate opponents of the project. He points an accusing finger at the virtual masts, then the high-voltage pylons that have already been spoiling the scenery since 1983. "One transgression doesn't justify another," he blurts out. Fenet indicates, behind him, the last resting place of 6,000 combatants who might also be up in arms about it.

The bulk of the resistance to the wind farm, however, comes from Monmouth, the Welsh town where Henry V was born. A petition, which considers that "it would be tragic if today's planners were allowed to desecrate the area, destroy history and ruin a key part of Anglo/Welsh/French heritage", has to date collected 600 signatures, 500 of them British. It is hoped that Kenneth Branagh, an unforgettable performer of Henry V, may be enlisted in the crusade.

It was a landowner from Azincourt who, off his own bat, decided to offer one of his fields to SIIF Energie. A subsidiary of Électricité de France, specialising in renewable energy, SIIF offers €5,000 (£3,200) per wind turbine per year, over 15 years. It plans to put up four wind turbines on this site, the closest of which is more than a kilometre from the battlefield. The town council has recommended the planning application and the process is now taking its course.

The battlefield itself, about 5km², has no protection or conservation designation; just a sign saying, "You are on the battlefield of Agincourt." Eighty percent of its 32,000 annual visitors are British tourists, tramping across and trying to imagine the clash of the two armies that rainy day in 1415. "They come to breathe the air breathed by their ancestors," says Claude Delcusse, director of the medieval centre. "They come to see by what miracle a ragged band of English crushed the French nobility." When it comes to the English opinion on the Azincourt wind farm, his tone is less affable. "What's it got to do with them?"
--Frédérique Roussel

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http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=191769#

Terre/Libération/The Guardian/Environnement.
Un projet d'installation d'éoliennes déclenche la colère des amoureux français et britanniques du site historique.
Vent de bataille à Azincourt

Par Frédérique ROUSSEL
lundi 05 avril 2004

L'attaque anglaise ne désarme pas à Azincourt. Dans ce village du Pas-de-Calais, les archers anglais menés par Henri V mirent la pâtée aux chevaliers français ­ pourtant trois fois plus nombreux ­ dirigés par le connétable d'Albret, le 25 octobre 1415. Une victoire décisive de la guerre de Cent Ans. Six siècles après ce haut fait d'armes qui inspira Shakespeare, un nouveau combat agite le village de 290 âmes. Un projet d'implantation de quatre éoliennes visibles du champ de bataille, resté relativement préservé, met en émoi des écolos du coin. Et des Anglais, appelés à la rescousse, crient leur opposition à ces mâts de 80 mètres de haut, 120 mètres pales comprises, soit «un tiers de tour Eiffel». Because gêne visuelle et sonore, et profanation d'un site historique.

600 signatures. La fronde menée par Don Baggs, un consultant gallois venu l'an dernier en chambre d'hôte chez Patrick Fenet, l'un des plus fervents opposants au projet, a mis le feu outre-Manche. Le gros de la hargne vient de Monmouth, ville galloise où naquit... Henri V. Même son maire, Susan White, ferait amoureusement pousser dans son jardin une bouture de chêne ramenée d'Azincourt. Selon l'appel à pétition, il serait «tragique, si ces projets étaient autorisés, qu'ils profanent cette région, détruisent l'Histoire et ruinent une partie majeure de l'héritage franco-anglais». Le texte a recueilli à ce jour 600 signatures, dont 500 britanniques. Depuis novembre, à Arras, la boîte e-mail de la préfecture s'est engorgée de 150 messages rédigés dans la langue de Shakespeare. Du coup, le préfet Cyril Schott s'est fendu d'un modèle de réponse en français et en anglais. En Angleterre, le célèbre acteur et historien Robert Hardy a déclaré dans le Daily Telegraph qu'«il est temps de faire une nouvelle bataille d'Azincourt». «Un champ de bataille est plus qu'une tombe, c'est un lieu de vérité et de mémoire», estime-t-il. Don Baggs espère enrôler dans la croisade Kenneth Branagh, inoubliable interprète d'Henri V.

C'est un propriétaire d'Azincourt qui a proposé l'un de ses champs à Siif Energie, une filiale d'EDF spécialisée dans les énergies renouvelables. La société offre 5 000 euros par éolienne et par an, sur quinze ans, à répartir entre le propriétaire (60 %) et le locataire (40 %). Elle a prévu d'élever sur les lieux quatre éoliennes, dont la plus proche se trouve à plus d'un kilomètre du champ de bataille. Un conseil municipal du 22 novembre 2003 a donné un avis favorable à la demande de permis de construire. Celle-ci a été déposée en préfecture le 28 novembre, et l'instruction suit son cours. Mais le préfet a sur le feu, outre Azincourt, 341 demandes de permis en attente de feu vert, préalable au lancement de l'enquête d'utilité publique.

Longbow. «Voyez, les Anglais se trouvaient à gauche, vers Maisoncelle, et se dirigeaient vers Calais, quand ils se sont retrouvés face aux Français. Pourtant épuisés et affamés, ils s'en sont sortis triomphalement, en tirant dix à douze flèches à la minute.» Patrick Fenet vit depuis trente ans dans un hameau d'Azincourt situé à deux pas du champ de bataille. Il s'est trempé dans l'histoire du lieu, cite Shakespeare dans le texte. Cet éducateur qui donne des cours de longbow, l'arc mythique utilisé par les archers gallois, pointe un doigt accusateur sur des mâts virtuels. Ils n'effaceraient pas les pylônes haute tension qui gâchent déjà le fond du tableau depuis 1983. «C'est pas une raison pour rajouter une poubelle à une autre poubelle», lâche-t-il. Patrick Fenet montre aussi, derrière lui, la dernière demeure de 6 000 combattants qui pourraient s'en trouver outragés. Peut-être par défi, il organise un week-end «Cent ans de paix près d'Azincourt», les 10 et 11 avril, avec campement médiéval, archerie et buvette. Mais, en délicatesse avec le maire, il a dû se rabattre sur la commune voisine de Tramecourt pour célébrer le centenaire de l'Entente cordiale.

Le champ de bataille lui-même est un mélange de parcelles cultivées par des agriculteurs. Ni protégé ni classé. Une simple pancarte signale : «Vous êtes sur le champ de bataille d'Azincourt.» En tout, une surface de un kilomètre sur cinq, que les touristes anglais arpentent à pied en tentant d'imaginer le fracas des deux armées, un jour pluvieux de 1415. Au centre historique médiéval, ouvert en juillet 2001 dans la rue centrale du village, la bien nommée Charles-VI, on a mis le paquet avec une efficace reconstitution vidéophonique. Sur les 32 000 visiteurs annuels, 80 % sont des Britanniques. «Ils viennent pour respirer ce que respiraient leurs ancêtres, analyse Claude Delcusse, directeur du centre historique médiéval. Ils viennent voir par quel miracle les Anglais dépenaillés ont écrasé la noblesse française.»

Sang brassé. Quand il s'agit des éoliennes, le ton est moins amène. «De quoi se mêlent-ils ?» demande Claude Delcusse. «Quand l'agriculteur remue son champ avec son tracteur, il brasse indifféremment le sang anglais et français», s'énerve Mario Bernardo, directeur de projets à Siif Energies. «Quand ils vont arriver de Calais vers Azincourt, ils auront le temps de s'y faire», s'amuse le maire, Bernard Boulet, qui précise que les mâts de la discorde ne prendront pas racine dans le champ de bataille. Il rappelle qu'à dix kilomètres de là, plus de 130 éoliennes vont pousser comme des champignons. Et, franchement, «je préfère avoir des éoliennes que de voir doubler la centrale nucléaire de Gravelines».

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1) Slate/Moneybox: The Rise of Compliance Man [La montée en puissance des "compliance officers", ces responsables du respect de la loi et de la réglementation au sein des entreprises.]
http://slate.msn.com/id/2101198/

moneybox: The Rise of Compliance Man
Ignore him at your peril.
By Len Costa
Posted Wednesday, May 26, 2004, at 4:08 AM PT

In the golden age, back Before Enron (B.E.), Compliance Man was a figure of fun. Compliance Man wore bad suits. He never went for a beer after work. He toiled in obscurity, in a location known derisively as the "back office." Compliance Man was a lawyer or controller by training and a rule-follower by temperament. He made an earnest living enforcing corporate ethics codes—or trying to—and keeping up with all those federal and state regulations his bosses didn't care about, from equal-opportunity employment to health care to corporate securities laws.

In those B.E. days, successful companies employed Compliance Man grudgingly and listened to him rarely. The prestige (and paper wealth) flowed to the casual-dress strategy guys moving on "Internet time." Compliance Man enjoyed a stable career—rules never disappeared completely, after all, and the paperwork!—but he had no chance of reaching the top. He ate lunch at his desk, a sandwich from home.

But suddenly, Compliance Man is the alpha male. In response to the business scandals, the government has flooded corporate America with regulations and laws. And companies are actually obeying them. As public scrutiny has intensified, Compliance Man has been thrust into the limelight. Today he must track, interpret, and enforce an expanding number of complex rules—including those once forgotten—with the goal of shielding his company and his fellow employees from regulators, class-action lawyers, and minimum-security prisons.

Today Compliance Man routinely lectures C-level executives. In fact, Compliance Man can now aspire to a variety of fancy C-level titles all his own, including chief compliance officer, chief legal officer, chief regulatory officer, chief ethics officer, and chief risk officer.

Awake, Compliance Man! You have earned the respect of your colleagues, or at least their obedience.

Many of Compliance Man's colleagues are alarmed and befuddled by this brave new world of paperwork. No one is more scared than the CEO, who now must personally certify his company's financial statements. But Compliance Man is always there to reassure him.

Compliance Man's newfound importance is not without its perils, however. In legal parlance, government rules and regulations are "incomplete contracts." That means interpreting them is like interpreting modern art: The meaning is ambiguous, there are plenty of competing theories, and none are wholly satisfying. So what's Compliance Man to do?

Compliance Man must translate rules into English, must fill the gaps left by the incompleteness of law. He must imagine all the ways it could be implemented—and all the ways it can be broken. Compliance Man must write new policies and procedures to bring life to his interpretations. Most difficult of all is the final step, when Compliance Man must communicate yet another new policy to fatigued non-lawyers who are already wrapped up in red tape.

In this technological age, Compliance Man is no mere commentator. He can also be spy and enforcer. His "corporate compliance management" software can help prevent book-cooking. His spyware can scan employee e-mail and track Web browsing, helping guard against "information boundary breaches," "document-sharing violations," and "inappropriate disclosures."

Customers don't know Compliance Man, but they see his handiwork. He has given us such noteworthy phrases as "results not typical" and "past performance is no guarantee of future results." From drug ads to mutual-fund prospectuses, his ever-expanding disclaimers, which read like legal briefs, are crammed into the ever-shrinking white space in our visual landscape.

For better or worse, Compliance Man's future burns bright. The law protects Compliance Man. Companies can reduce their criminal fines if they can show they have an effective compliance regime. And Compliance Man has protected himself. Only he truly understands the rationale for the policies and procedures he creates. This makes him indispensable. Compliance Man interprets the rules. He writes the rules. He is the rules. You ignore him at your peril.

Len Costa writes about business and finance from New York.

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4) The Telegraph: Women aspire to be housewives, without any of the housework [Dernière tendance, les femmes qui veulent être des femmes au foyer mais sans faire de ménage.]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=
/news/2004/05/11/nwife11.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/05/11/ixportal.html
Women aspire to be housewives - without any of the housework
By Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent

Mothers are rejecting equality in the workplace and prefer the idea of becoming full-time housewives - but not ones who actually do housework. This is the overall conclusion of research among 2,100 British adults that says women are happy to abandon the workplace but not if it means spending all day at home cooking, cleaning and looking after children. I nstead they want to play the "role" of housewife with a little help from, for instance, a nanny, and someone who does the ironing. And unlike Kylie Minogue, they don't want to do any dusting either.

The report, by Marian Salzman, chief strategic officer of Euro RSCG Worldwide, the world's fifth largest advertising agency, describes these women as princess-style "domestic divas" who effectively exploit their husbands. "Today, 'women's lib' means wanting to be liberated from the intense pressures of the modern-day working mum," she said. "And what we're seeing is a serious gender divide regarding women in the workplace. This time around, it is the women who want to stay at home and the men who want to keep them in the offices and factories."

Miss Salzman, 45, who does not have children, is well known in the United States for spotting trends before they go mainstream. She predicted the rise of 1970s fashion nostalgia and, on the eve of the Bridget Jones phenomenon, spotted that single professional women would become the new, free-spending yuppies. Her report last year, the Future of Men, predicted that "metrosexuals" - straight men who care about fashion, food and grooming - would be the new target of advertisers.

Yesterday she said 69 per cent of women thought it perfectly acceptable for females to be housewives and not to earn a salary. In contrast, only 48 per cent of men felt that women should remain outside paid employment. Her research suggested that the motivation to spend more time at home was "self-centred" for some women. "There are many women who choose to stay home out of concern for their children's quality of life," she said. "But there are plenty of others who are paying lip service to being the 2004 version of the perfect mum. "In reality they are domestic divas who want the flawless kids, courtesy of the nanny; a spotless home, thanks to a cleaning service; and a reputation for being a fabulously put-together homemaker. "These are the women who are becoming a target of disdain and rage on the part of spouses who didn't expect to be shouldering the financial burden single-handedly."

She said she was not talking about mothers with very young children but those whose offspring were older and in full-time education. "My two closest friends are stay-at-home women and I have no idea what they do all day. One of them has a daughter at university and a second daughter at high school."

Jill Kirby, the chairman of the family group at the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, said: "It's very clear that women who have the choice between working and being at home with their children still want to prioritise their home life and life with their children." She denied claims that women who wanted to be at home were often lazy, with their reliance on paid help. "We can't create a world where people just do what they want," she said, "but women do need fulfilment."

Last week the actress Gwyneth Paltrow reignited the debate over career versus children for working mothers, saying: "I can't understand mothers who put their career before children. There are certain women in this business who have children and I just think 'you must never see them'. You can't do movies back to back and see your child if they go to school."

Holly Hamilton-Bleakley, of Full Time Mothers, a lobbying organisation, said she abhorred the idea of women buying in child care so that they could simply sit in a coffee shop, but she did not believe this was an accurate picture. "The dual income, two-career family is becoming outdated. Parents are finally recognising that children need time with them. Time spent with children is well spent and makes a major difference to a child's life."

But Miss Salzman said the reality was that women with older children were increasingly becoming self-indulgent. "They look at the realities of paid work - the stress, the politics, the pressure, the dress code - and they say that it would mean less 'me' time. "And we are not just talking about women who earn lots of money. Women who earn £27,500, or £55,000, or more than £55,000 did not want to work, and men are feeling a great deal of financial pressure.

"Women think: 'What's mine is mine, and what's his is mine.' "

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7) The Onion: Photo ID shows toll job has taken on employee [Article satirique traitant du badge d'un salarié, dont la photo prise à son arrivée dans la boîte il y a deux ans témoigne des effets néfastes de son emploi.]

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4019&n=2

PHOTO ID SHOWS TOLL JOB HAS TAKEN ON EMPLOYEE

CHARLESTON, SC—Seth Poole's employee-identification card is a revealing indicator of the toll that two years of work at Blue Juice, Inc. has taken on the internal auditor's appearance and overall health, sources close to the 37-year-old revealed Monday.

"I happened to see Seth's ID sitting on his desk the other day, and I let out a gasp that could be heard across the hall," Blue Juice accountant Joan Brandywine said. "It didn't look like the same person. I thought, 'Dear God, what happened to that young, vibrant man who walked into the May 2002 employee-orientation session?'"

Blue Juice, whose sales topped $50 million last year, is one of the fastest-growing organic-juice brands in the country. Hired by Blue Juice CEO Benjamin Valdavia, Poole said he was initially excited to join the small but rapidly expanding company.

Poole's ID card, however, reveals his growing disillusionment with both Valdavia and Blue Juice. Assigned the task of assisting Valdavia in the expansion of the company's operations in order to ready it for a broader domestic market, Poole said he soon found his job to be "less engaging" than he had originally expected. As evidenced by the ID, over the course of 24 months on the job, Poole was transformed from a boyish-looking 35 to a haggard, sallow 37.

Other Blue Juice staff members who have seen the card attest to Poole's dramatic aging.

"That ID shows a man who's excited to be working for a company that offers a high-quality, all-natural product," executive assistant Mandy Keefer said. "That's not really what Seth is like. Not anymore. At our last team meeting, Seth kept repeating that the package redesign we're planning is a big waste of money that the company doesn't have. Then he said, 'I don't know why I even bother coming in to work.' I'll bet he can blame at least a couple of those crow's feet of his on those redesign prototypes."

Keefer estimated that, every time Valdavia says "vision can't be charted on spreadsheets," Poole loses 75 hairs.

"Yesterday, I walked into the breakroom and found Seth leaning over the donuts, picking frosting off a Long John, and mumbling, 'If Ben does his fishing-out-of-his-wastebasket gag one more time, I walk,'" Keefer added. "It wasn't pretty."

Jason Marshall, a security guard in the building where Blue Juice is headquartered, said he was initially confused by the image on Poole's ID card.

"I saw this old guy flashing some young guy's ID, so I stopped him," Marshall said. "Once I saw the photo up close, I could tell it was [Poole]. Man, the last couple years have been hard on that guy."

While Poole seemed unaware of the dramatic change in his appearance, he did report that his health has taken a turn for the worse in recent months. He said he developed a duodenal ulcer earlier this year, shortly after he discovered that Valdavia had extorted cash from the company's 401K matching fund for renovations on his Vermont lake house.

"When I found out [about the embezzlement], I said to him, in a tone of voice you'd reserve for a child, 'Ben, you know this is stealing, right?'" Poole said, his scowl forming deep lines on his forehead. "And he said, 'How was it stealing when I paid it back within a month?' So I asked Ben if he had heard of any of those recent corporate financial scandals, and he answered that those companies were publicly owned, whereas most of his assets are tied up in Blue Juice. He thought that meant he was entitled to borrow from the employee-retirement account fund for personal reasons."

Poole's face has also borne the ravages of his boss' inconsistently implemented "open communication" policy; Valdavia's recent declaration to investors that, unbeknownst to his staff, an IPO was imminent; and his tendency to call Poole into his office for lengthy chit-chats when Poole is about to leave for the night.

Poole's photo ID does not tell the whole story of his decline. The face on his card only hints at the 10 pounds now missing from his once-muscular body.

"I used to go to the gym, but I haven't seen the inside of Gold's since we started on this new distribution structure," Poole said. "I used to eat fairly healthy, too, but I've grown pretty accustomed to snacking on whatever's in the breakroom all day and then grabbing some McDonald's on the way home. I always pair it with a 32-ounce Coke. That's right—sugary, empty-calorie-laden Coke. I refuse to choke down another fucking Blue Juice as long as I live."

Leo Drake, president of Safeguard Solutions, the security-consultant firm that sold Blue Juice its ID-card machine, recommends that companies update their employees' photo IDs annually to prevent a "reverse Dorian Gray" effect.

"Regularly renewed IDs will reflect the subject's likeness with greater accuracy, improving the ID's functionality as a tool for identity verification," Drake said. "In addition, employees won't be confronted every day with proof of their ongoing personal decline."

Drake added: "By no means should employees be allowed to keep their old IDs, lest they make the connection between their workplace struggles and their unnaturally aged appearances."

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It begins with a potted history of the company's legal form in America, noting the key 19th-century legal innovation that led to treating companies as persons under law. By bestowing on them the rights and protections that people enjoy, this legal innovation gave the company the freedom to flourish. So if the corporation is a person, ask the film's three Canadian co-creators, Mark Achbar, Joel Bakan and Jennifer Abbott, what sort of person is it?

The answer, elicited over two-and-a-half hours of interviews with left-wing intellectuals, right-wing captains of industry, economists, psychologists and philosophers, is that the corporation is a psychopath. Like all psychopaths, the firm is singularly self-interested: its purpose is to create wealth for its shareholders. And, like all psychopaths, the firm is irresponsible, because it puts others at risk to satisfy its profit-maximising goal, harming employees and customers, and damaging the environment. The corporation manipulates everything. It is grandiose, always insisting that it is the best, or number one. It has no empathy, refuses to accept responsibility for its actions and feels no remorse. It relates to others only superficially, via make-believe versions of itself manufactured by public-relations consultants and marketing men. In short, if the metaphor of the firm as person is a valid one, then the corporation is clinically insane.

There is a tendency among anti-globalisers to demonise captains of industry. But according to “The Corporation”, the problem with companies does not lie with the people who run them. Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, a former boss of Shell, comes across in the film as a sympathetic and human character. At one point, he and his wife greet protesters camped on the front lawn of their English cottage with offers of a cup of tea and apologies for the lack of soya milk for the vegans among them. The film gives Sam Gibara, boss of Goodyear, time to air his opinions, which are given a reasonably neutral edit. Ray Anderson, boss of Interface (which claims, with psychopathic grandiosity, to be the world's largest commercial carpetmaker) is given the hero treatment. Having experienced an “epiphany” about the destructive and unsustainable nature of modern capitalism, Mr Anderson has donned the preacher's cloth to spread the religion of environmental sustainability among his peers.

The main message of the film is that, through their psychopathic pursuit of profit, firms make good people do bad things. Lucy Hughes of Initiative Media, an advertising consultancy, is shown musing about the ethics of designing marketing strategies that exploit the tendency of children to nag parents to buy things, before comforting herself with the thought that she is merely performing her proper role in society. Mark Barry, a “competitive intelligence professional”, disguises himself as a headhunter to extract information for his corporate clients from rivals, while telling the camera that he would never behave so deceitfully in his private life. Human values and morality survive the onslaught of corporate pathology only via a carefully cultivated schizophrenia: the tobacco boss goes home, hugs his kids and feels a little less bad about spreading cancer. Company executives and foot soldiers alike will identify instantly with this analysis, because it is accurate. But it is also incomplete.

The greater insanity

Although the moviemakers claim ownership of the company-as-psychopath idea, it predates them by a century, and rightfully belongs, in its full form, to Max Weber, the German sociologist. For Weber, the key form of social organisation defining the modern age was bureaucracy. Bureaucracies have flourished because their efficient and rational division and application of labour is powerful. But a cost attends this power. As cogs in a larger, purposeful machine, people become alienated from the traditional morals that guide human relationships as they pursue the goal of the collective organisation. There is, in Weber's famous phrase, a “parcelling-out of the soul”.

For Weber, the greater potential tyranny lay not with the economic bureaucracies of capitalism, but the state bureaucracies of socialism. The psychopathic national socialism of Nazi Germany, communism of Stalinist Soviet rule and fascism of imperial Japan (whose oppressive bureaucratic machinery has survived well into the modern era) surely bear Weber out. Infinitely more powerful than firms and far less accountable for its actions, the modern state has the capacity to behave even in evolved western democracies as a more dangerous psychopath than any corporation can ever hope to become: witness the environmental destruction wreaked by Japan's construction ministry.

The makers of “The Corporation” counter that the state was not the subject of their film. Fair point. But they have done more than produce a thought-provoking account of the firm. Their film also invites its audience to weigh up the benefits of privatisation versus public ownership. It dwells on the familiar problem of the corporate corruption of politics and regulatory agencies that weakens public oversight of privately owned firms charged with delivering public goods. But that is only half the story. The film has nothing to say about the immense damage that can also flow from state ownership. Instead, there is a misty-eyed alignment of the state with the public interest. Run that one past the people of, say, North Korea.

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9) Forbes: he Six Most Common Outsourcing Mistakes [Les six erreurs les plus courantes des entreprises qui délocalisent. VIDEO : Vous pouvez voir un entretien vidéo à ce sujet sur le site indiqué.]
http://www.forbes.com/management/2004/05/26/cx_ld_0526mistakes.html

The Six Most Common Outsourcing Mistakes
Lisa DiCarlo, 05.26.04, 6:00 AM ET
NEW YORK - The Outsourcing Debate

Lost in much of the public debate about offshore outsourcing is the actual process of transferring business operations to a third-party company outside the U.S. It's time consuming, complex and fraught with peril. Fortunately, most companies make the same mistakes.

Big American companies have been outsourcing ever-more critical aspects of their business to offshore companies in an effort to cut costs and improve efficiency. Offshore companies can also provide better quality than the U.S.

But make no mistake. Planning, execution and continued oversight of an outsourcing strategy requires a lot of work. The benefits will not be realized immediately and cost savings will probably not be as significant as predicted.

Experts in the growing field of outsourcing advisory services say companies tend to fall into the same traps when planning, executing and maintaining an outsourcing strategy. We spoke with two such experts: Mark Hodges, CEO of Equaterra, and neoIT CEO Atul Vashistha.

Click here for the six most common outsourcing mistakes, and you just might avoid making one yourself. [sur le site vous trouverez la diaporama]

1. Most companies woefully under invest in the ongoing governance and management of the service provider relationship and underestimate the time, money and people it takes to manage far-flung operations effectively. The savings won't be as great, but companies must invest in overseeing the partnership for the long term. This includes establishing a dedicated team of people, on both ends, to ensure compliance and adherence to agreed-upon service levels.

2. Labor and other costs are lower elsewhere, but companies need to keep an eye on an upward trajectory. Wages in India, which accounts for the bulk of outsourcing work, are rising 10% per year. Using Dublin, Ireland and Manchester, England, as examples, Mark Hodges of Equaterra says that a region can maintain low-cost, highly educated leadership for only about 20 years. He predicts that India will not be cost competitive in five years.

3. Before deciding on a country or service provider, first determine the cost of running your business processes and what your objectives are. If your service levels and costs are already competitive, it won't make sense to farm it out. Study the expertise of each potential partner, considering proximity, costs, cultural and language barriers, telecom infrastructure and tax laws among other factors, before making a decision. India will not always be the right answer.

4. Before deciding on a country or service provider, first determine the cost of running your business processes and what your objectives are. If your service levels and costs are already competitive, it won't make sense to farm it out. Study the expertise of each potential partner, considering proximity, costs, cultural and language barriers, telecom infrastructure and tax laws among other factors, before making a decision. India will not always be the right answer.

6. Competition for talent is heating up in India and elsewhere, as more American and European companies move work outside their borders. Experts say talented engineers and software developers can easily shuffle between companies, and these employees should be secured. Work with your service provider or offshore subsidiary--many American companies have established international development centers--to maintain your best assets.

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