There's a French phrase used to describe being very happy - 'nager dans le bonheur'. They have literally been swimming in happiness this week with a flood of medals for French swimmers in Budapest, even outdoing the athletes. Cue the sounds of cocks crowing and the fanfare of vainglorious trumpets…
Elsewhere France has fared less well on the international stage. Earlier in the week the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination slated Sarko and the French government for showing a 'lack of willingness' to combat the rise in racial violence and discrimination. Committee members all but pointed the finger directly at Sarkozy and government ministers for contributing to racism in France, citing the recent speech by Sarko threatening to strip citizenship from convicted criminals 'of foreign origin', and the forcible clearing of travelling community camps in the last fortnight. About time someone called a racist a racist…
Closer to home, barely a kilometre from here, the body of a 70 year-old man was discovered in a chest freezer in the apartment he shared with his wife, 20 years his junior. Neighbours talked of 'violent arguments' between the couple, but nobody had seen or heard the old man for 18 months. All goes to show how easy it is to live a totally secretive and isolated life in an apartment building…
