Press review 19 November 2008

by Lance King

Article published on the 2008-11-19 Latest update 2008-11-19 08:01 TU

Left-wing Libération reports that Rwandan diplomat Rose Kabuye is to be transferred from Germany to France later today to be questioned in connection with the 1994 assassination of former Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana. 

Kabuye was arrested earlier this month in Germany, on a warrant issued by a French court.

Kabuye is the chief of protocol under Rwanda's current president, Paul Kigame, and her arrest has added to tension between Kigame's government and authorities in Paris.

Libération says that France's neutrality is questionable and isn't convinced that Paris is the best place to attempt the much needed judicial investigation into Rwanda's 1994 tragedy.  

In other news, the right leaning Le Figaro says the teachers here in France are going on strike tomorrow.  They're angry about the government's new law that guarantees a minimum service in schools in case of a strike. So they're striking.

The Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, told Le Figaro that it is impossible to implement the law. He said that previous experiments have shown that ensuring a minimum service while guaranteeing basic security can not be done.

In a move that really angered the right UMP government, Dalonoë invited all parents to not send their kids to school tomorrow.

And he's not alone; several other cities have refused to respect the law.  Xavier Darcos, the Minister of Education, argues that the left is just using this to political ends and said that it's only left wing cities that are refusing to obey the law.

However, Le Figaro points out that the Lille and Nantes, two socialist cities in France, are respecting the legislation.

The centrist daily Le Monde this morning says that surviving is not living.  According to the paper, life expectancy in the European Union in 2005 was 78.6 for men and 83.5 for woman.  However, living without   being incapacitated comes to just over 67 years of age for men and 68 for woman.  That's a much smaller margin between the sexes and considerably lower for both.

Le Monde's article examines a recent study published in the medical journal Lancet that set out to quantify the quality of life expectancy, rather than just figure out how long we can expect to stay alive.

The study found, interestingly enough, that life expectancy is just about the same in all  E.U. countries, but that life expectancy without being incapacitated differs quite a bit and getting old in a more developed country doesn't mean you're more likely to be dancing at 75.

For example, in Germany, a man can expect to make it to 63 without a reduction in his autonomy, while for a woman it's 62.

Denmark comes in first place at 73 for men and 74 for women. 

As Le Monde points out, this study raises many question concerning some European governments' plans to extend the age of retirement.  Here in France, the government wants to make it possible to work until the age of 70.  However, if the study's conclusions are right, not everyone can expect to be in shape to be working at that age.