French Language Blog

Nicolas Sarkozy is a man of contradictions: When a handful of delinquents welcomed him with rotten eggs at one of the Parisian banlieues, he didn’t hesitate to call them racailles (scum.) Yet he never shied away from using un langage de voyou (thuggish language) himself: To an old man who refused to shake his hand, he said “Casse-toi, pauv’ con” (“F*** off, you loser”), and shortly before the Presidential Debate was scheduled, he promised his political pals that “il va exploser“ (“he will blow up”) his opponent, François Hollande!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4m6jp

Tum Sally made a whole song about Sarkozy’s infamous “Casse-toi, Pauv’ Con” (“F*** off, you loser”)

Let us resume the debate: The topic is also quite “explosive”: l’ÉCONOMIE… 

HOLLANDE vs. SARKOZY: The Big Debate

• For 00:00:00 -00:19:33: 
• For this segment of the video, check the posts:
• Hollande Vs. Sarkozy: Get in the Ring!
• Hollande Vs. Sarkozy: Comics, Economics, and Freakonomics! (Part I)

• 00:19:33 – 00:24:30:
• Sarkozy:
• Let us be very precise, Monsieur Hollande. You will admit that there was une crise financière (a financial crisis) for the past four years. You will also contend that I wasn’t in power in the United States, Spain, Italy, and other places.
• After you criticized its policies for so long, now you talk about Germany as a model to criticize me! Well, Germany never launched les 35 heures. Germany’s economic policies are diametrically opposite to yours. I’d rather be inspired by what works than by what doesn’t. I’d rather follow the example of Germany rather that of Greece or Spain.  Therefore I’m afraid that this argument turns itself violently against you.
• As for the deficit, it is true that it reached 70 billion Euros high. Do you know how much l’énergie fossile (fossil fuel) represents in this deficit? It’s 63 billions. That is why I think it is totally irresponsible to suggest dismantling our nuclear agency capability when the cost of energy is that high.
• The number of 10% formed unemployed is accurate. But did you know that the responsibility of forming them is shared by the syndicats, the regional authorities, and the State. It was mainly the fault of the regional authorities who didn’t do well their job.
• 00:24:30 – 00:27:20:
• Hollande:
• Monsieur Sarkozy, things with are you all always so simple: It’s never your fault! You always have a un bouc-émissaire (a scapegoat): With the lack formation of the unemployed, it’s not you, it’s the fault of the regional authorities. For le chômage (unemployment), it’s not you either, it’s the fault of the financial crisis! For the German model, it’s not your fault, it took you five years to realize that it was better than the Anglo-Saxon model.
• Your suggested TVA anti-délocalisation will only undermine le pouvoir d’achat (purchasing power), and won’t help enough our industry to be competitive.
• When the Socialists left the government for good in 2002, our commerce extérieur (foreign trade) was still balanced, whereas with you as a President, it kept going skyrocketing.
• Your propositions will also affect la durée légale du travail (the legal length of work.)
• 00:27:20 – 00:32:15:
• Sarkozy:
• You can try to criticize me for a lot of things, but not for assuming my responsibility, which is normal when one is a President of the Republic.
• If my TVA proposition is that bad, tell me why your porte-parole (spokesperson) made it the main theme during the Socialists Primaries?
• I also don’t get it: You say Germany is doing better than we do, but we won’t be taking any of the measures that Germany took in order to succeed? Germans voted for the TVA, and they also voted for les accords compétitivité-emploi (the competitivity work agreements), which means that it is totally up to the employers and the employees to decide the salary and how much they want to work—unlike the law of les 35 heures. That, Monsieur Hollande, is called “trust.” That means a modern economy.
• And seriously, you’ve got some serious problems with counting. Aren’t you into accounting? I mean, you worked for la Cour des comptes (the Court of Audit), or not? Ten years ago, when the Socialist Lionel Jospin was Prime Minister, the budget was in deficit.
• Hollande:
• Yes, I am from the Court of Audit, and no, the budget was not in deficit. You will verify it yourself.
• Sarkozy:
• Why did you veto everything I proposed to promote innovation during the past five years, and now come to us and say: “J’ai changé d’avis” (“I changed my mind”)! Do you know the only country that didn’t go through a trimester of recession before 2009? Well, that is France.
• Hollande:
• That’s amazing! From all the people in France, why are you the only one happy?
• Sarkozy:
• That is an outright lie. You are shamelessly lying.
• Hollande:
• When did I lie?
• Sarkozy:
• When you say that I was always happy about myself.
• Hollande:
• Ok, fine. My bad, you too are unhappy with your work. I was wrong!
• Sarkozy:
• Monsieur Hollande, this is not a competition of la petite blague (one-liner jokes)!
•  Hollande:
• No, it’s not a joke, but I didn’t come here to be called a menteur (liar) either.

In the wake of the tragic tremblement de terre (earthquake) that devastated Japan a few days ago, an overheated debate has re-emerged on the international scene concerning the risks associated with the development of l’énergie nucléaire for civilian purposes.

Many opponents of the use of this form of energy are undoubtedly well-intentioned, and are quick to point out previous nuclear-related accidents, such as the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania (an accident that, eerily enough, seems to have been announced to the “grand public“ 12 days before its occurrence, in the famous American thriller “The China Syndrome“, starring Jane Fonda and Jack Lemon), or the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the only of such accidents to be classified as a niveau sept (level seven) on the “Échelle internationale des événements nucléaires” (“The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.”)

But, in the same time, and beyond these very legitimate fears over the safety of our planet and its environment, several leaders of emerging countries, such as China, Brazil, India, and South Africa, suspect less laudable motivations behind re-launching the “nuclear debate”, as was the case with the “CO₂ cap-and-trade” issue, whose true designs, in some powerful circles, had less to do with l’environnement per se than with issues of domination géopolitique and économique.

* * *

But before going further into this topic, which can be the subject of a separate post here on the French Blog, you are invited today to watch a very valuable documentaire français called “les dessous des cartes” (literally and figuratively, “The Lower Side of the Cards“), which I trust you will find very insightful.

“Le Dessous des Cartes“—”Le civil nucléaire” (“Civilian Nuclear”)

And whether your French level is “beginner” or “intermediate”, here is for you a list of some key terms and expressions translated in English that can help you understand this documentaire:

• Réacteur nucléaire: Nuclear Reactor
• Centrale nucléaire: Nuclear power plant
• Fission de l’atome: Atomic fission
• Liquide caloporteur: Heat-transfer fluid
• L’eau d’une rivière: The water of a river
• La réaction en chaîne: Chain reaction
• Génération de réacteurs: Reactor generation
• Réacteur “EPR”: For “European Pressurized Reactor”
• Combustible: Fuel
• Pays reserves: Reserve countries
• Pays producteurs: Producing countries
• Compagnie minière: Mining company
• AREVA: The leading French company in nuclear energy
• Uranium enrichi: Enriched Uranium
• Usine nucléaire: Nuclear factory
• Déchet radioactif: Radioactive waste
• Demi-vie: Half-life
• Fût en acier: Steel barrel
• Radioactivité naturelle: Natural radioactivity
• Site de stockage: Stockpiling site
• ANDRA: “L’Agence nationale pour la gestion des déchets radioactifs” (The French”National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management“)
• Sûreté: Safety
• Enfuissement: Burrying
• Séisme majeur: Major earthquake
• Enjeu: What is at stake; issue
• Dépôt radioactif: Radioactive deposit
• Geler un programme nucléaire: To freeze a nuclear program
• Charbon: Coal
• L’éolien: Wind-born