Much as I have come to like France and the French ever since my stay in Luxembourg I still find much to say about many of their practices and politics. Take my recent rant about the media skewering of the facts of the boat incident involving a Maltese flagged ship. I was angry at the fact that the French journalists seemed more intent on the (irrelevant) fact of the Maltese flag being involved than on the crash at sea itself. Their intention to depict the Maltese sea-going flag in a bad light is ever-so evident. I wonder what our friends at Le Monde and Liberation are going to make out of this....
BBC (yep les rosbifs) reports that the Clemencau (a decommissioned French warship) has been granted transit through Egypt. Egypt is satisfied that it does not pose a threat to any environmental hazard.... to Egypt. Greenpeace (not a big fan of France - remember the Rainbow Warrior) says that the ship is carrying hundreds of tonnes of asbestos and should not be allowed to reach its destination - an Indian scrapyard.
Workers in Gujarat scrapyard will have a serious health hazard in their hands when it comes to scrapping the glorious Clemencau. For the effects of working with asbestos read this article. While France claims to have removed 15 tonnes of asbestos, Greenpeace claims that hundreds more remain. An Indian Court Commission has recommended that the boat does not enter Indian Waters. A Court ruling is expected.
A case of leur drapeau, leur bateau, leur Clemencau, leur merde I guess.
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