₦airaland Forum

A European president steals a pen, stylishly!

   

[flash=900,600]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFoYkWulKOI[/flash]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFoYkWulKOI

Okay, I'll back up.

Point made:

These politicians are the same!

[quote author=Ileke-IdI link=topic=644157.msg8103540#msg8103540 date=1302543304]Is this sarcasm?

Even IF PDP is the only party capable of election rigging (which I doubt), PDP would no way help ACN win. . . .dude this ideology doesnt even make sense. Esp since Tinubu(ACN) and OBJ (PDP) are in no way on a common ground.[/quote]Interesting, so it is not only PDP that rigs?

Have you forgotten that it is only the PDP that is capable of this sort of a thing?

There are speculations that the Libyan rebels (who are tacitly backed by the western allies) were trained by Al-qaeda (something even Gaddafi has alluded to).

Strange isn't it?

Looks like the 'revolution' has been hijacked.

Too bad but expected.

My fear now is what happens if there is division among the soldiers.

That would be bloody.

Some are openly siding with the people against the orders of the high command.

PDP (People Deceiving People/Poverty Development Party/the monster/rigging machine)  is responsible for removing LP's Logo so that ACN could win sweep (no pun intended) the elections.

Init?

Reminds me of a certain election in which the photograph of a certain 'popular' candidate did not appear on the ballot paper in the same state.

What a coincidence.

11 April 2011 Last updated at 15:06 GMT

Egypt blogger Maikel Nabil jailed by military court

Maikel Nabil has been arrested several times for his political activity Continue reading the main story

A military court in Egypt has sentenced an internet activist to three years in jail for criticising the armed forces.

Maikel Nabil was arrested last month for blogs that criticised the army's role during anti-government protests.

The 26-year-old is thought to be the first blogger jailed in Egypt since the osuting of President Hosni Mubarak.

Activists said the trial set a dangerous precedent at a time when Egypt was trying to move away from the alleged abuses of the Mubarak era.

Lawyers representing Maikel Nabil have criticised the conduct of the military court.

"We are in a state of shock because [on Sunday] they told us the decision would be on Tuesday, so the family and lawyer left. Afterwards the court announced its decision," said Gamal Eid, a lawyer who heads the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information.

Mr Eid said the trial was unfair because the court did not even consider the content of Mr Nabil's blog posts.

He said he would petition the head of the court to reverse its decision and free Mr Nabil.

Last week, Human Rights Watch called for the charges against Mr Nabil to be dropped.

This was the first trial of a blogger by a military court since the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces assumed control after Mr Mubarak resigned on 11 February, following 18 days of street protests.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13038937

This is very interesting!

Both of them were at one time 'stars' in PDP!

This sounds/looks like a campaign from one of the PDP opposing parties, doesn't it?

That photograph is photoshopped.

Women and 2003: How They Fared

Since independence there has been a clamour for Nigerian women to join the fray for elective offices. Senator Franca Afegbua made history as the first female senator during the Second Republic. Since then a host of other female politicians have made their mark. The first phase of the Fourth Republic had three female senators, a female deputy governor and the first female speaker of a state House of Assembly. With the elections into the various levels of government almost concluded, Utibe Uko chronicles female politicians who won as well as those who were unsuccessful in their bids in both the governorship and National Assembly elections

Gbemi Saraki-Fowora

Gbemi Rukkyat Saraki-Fowora daughter of strongman of Kwara politics, Dr. Olusola Saraki is moving from the House of Representatives to the Senate. Fowora was in 1999 elected into the House of Representatives on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). She decamped from the ANPP shortly after her father also switched allegiance from the ANPP to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Largely quiet in the House she was not known to have made any landmark contribution and analysts aver she is not likely to improve on her performance in the senate. The only reason she got the mandate in the first place is that she is a Saraki in the state where her father calls the political shots. Given that she is only one of three female senators, however, there will be a lot of attention on her and this, many posit, could ginger her to do better than her former outing.



Daisy Danjuma

Danjuma who is the wife of the present Minister of Defence, retired General Theophilus Danjuma is a new face in the senate. She is in the senate on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and she is representing Edo South senatorial zone. Though a newcomer to the political terrain without any antecedent, her position as the spouse of the incumbent Defence Minister puts her in a good position to wield some influence. Her electoral success can be traced to the pedigree of her spouse as well as a close relationship with Chief Tony Anenih who is widely regarded as the political godfather of the Edo/Delta political axis. As a lawyer, it is expected that she will be an active participant and a voice essentially for women and children in the Senate.




Iyabo Anisulowo

Anisulowo is a former Minister of State for Education between 1995 to 1998 under the late General Sanni Abacha administration. She defeated Chief Kola Bajomo of the Alliance for Democracy in the quest for the Ogun West senatorial district seat by 85,673 to 69,716. Though new to the National Assembly she is not new to politics and government administration. Her experience in both areas would stand her in good stead during her tenure at the Senate where she will be in good company with Daisy Danjuma and Gbemi Saraki-Fowora.



Khairat Gwadabe

Khahirat Gwadabe was one of the out-going senate's active participants. One of the three female senators in the outgoing senate, Gwadabe who represents the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was defeated at the PDP senatorial primaries which was won by retired Colonel Isa Maina. She has since decamped from the PDP to the ANPP.


http://www.thisdayonline.com/archive/2003/05/11/20030511ins01.html

HER foray into politics took many by surprise. It was not an era when female politicians were reckoned with. Then in the Second Republic when she contested and won senatorial seat in the male-dominated senate, a female needed more than just guts. Then she had guts. But she also had a quiet resolve that got her focused on the goal she was set to achieve.

Tall, youthful, elegant and still smarting from a relationship with Senator Joseph Tarka that went sour, Franca Afegbua set off to her home state, the old Bendel State to seek to represent her people in the senate. Although, Bendel State was controlled by the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, under the control of the late Professor Ambrose Folorunsho Alli, Afegbua, a member of the opposition National Party of Nigeria, NPN, decided to stoop to conquer and that took her far. Employing her strategies as a woman, Afegbua worked up the feminine sentiment that endeared her to many and made the women to fall in love with the svelte figure that wore hats and visited their homes by night to solicit their support.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200304120154.html

UK Prime Minster in f-word outburst at journalist over British empire ‘gaffe’

UK PRIME MINISTER David Cameron is reported to have sworn at journalists when he learned of the row caused by his comment that Britain was to blame for many of the world’s problems.

The Prime Minister apparently turned on reporters on a plane journey back from Pakistan saying: “You f*****!” to one journalist when he learned of the controversy surrounding the publication of his remark, reports the Mail on Sunday.

Last week, while on an official visit to Pakistan Cameron responded to a question about how to solve the conflict in Kashmir, which is the subject of a long dispute between Pakistan and India, by saying:

I don’t want to try to insert Britain in some leading role where, as with so many of the world’s problems, we are responsible for the issue in the first place.

The remark drew some controversy with the letters pages of The Daily Telegraph, a paper traditionally supportive of the Conservative party of which Cameron is leader, carrying plenty of criticism of the Prime Minister, as did the Daily Mail.

Cameron only learned of the controversy surrounding his comment when he was on the plane home from Pakistan and wasn’t best pleased.

He is reported to have sought out the journalist who had written the story and told him: “You f*****!”, maintaining the comment had been blown out of proportion.

http://thedailyedge.thejournal.ie/uk-prime-minster-in-f-word-outburst-at-journalist-over-british-empire-gaffe-118644-Apr2011/

Audit of Pentagon Spending Finds $70 Billion in WasteBy

CHRISTOPHER DREW
Published: March 29, 2011

Despite improvements, more than half of the Pentagon’s big weapons systems still cost more than they should, with management failures adding at least $70 billion to the projected costs over the last two years, government auditors said Tuesday.

The Government Accountability Office, a Congressional watchdog, said the biggest program, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, accounted for $28 billion of that increase. Other systems also had significant cost overruns, the agency said, adding that the increases could force the Pentagon to cut the number of ships and planes it buys.

The auditors said many of the problems occurred because the Pentagon began building the systems before the designs were fully tested.

The findings were significant because Congress and the Obama administration have promised to change many of the practices that have long allowed weapons costs to spiral out of control.

President Obama signed a law in 2009 to improve contracting. The accountability office said that Pentagon officials had done a better job in starting new programs. But the agency also found that most of the new programs were not “fully adhering” to the best procedures, leaving them “at a higher risk for cost growth and schedule delays.”

Pentagon officials questioned some of the calculations. But Nancy L. Spruill, a Pentagon acquisition official, added in a letter to the auditors that the military was determined to “address cost growth where it is real and unacceptable.”

The defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, has acknowledged that the Pentagon lacked discipline as its budget more than doubled after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But with military budgets tightening, Mr. Gates has canceled several expensive systems and sought simpler alternatives.

All told, the accountability office said, the projected cost of the Pentagon’s largest programs has risen by $135 billion, or 9 percent, to $1.68 trillion since 2008.

It estimated that about $65 billion of that increase resulted from decisions to buy more of some systems, like mine-resistant vehicles and Navy destroyers, than had been planned.

But it said the other $70 billion of increases appeared “to be indicative of production problems and inefficiencies or flawed initial cost estimates.”

The auditors also found that a significant part of the total cost increase for nearly 100 programs came from just a few of the largest and oldest ones.

The F-35, which is supposed to become the main fighter for the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines, had by far the worst problems. The Pentagon has revamped the program, led by Lockheed Martin, twice over the last year. It has budgeted an additional $6 billion for development, as well as the projected $28 billion increase in production costs, for a program that is expected to cost well over $300 billion.

The report indicated that the Pentagon also had to spend $9 billion more on research and development to fix problems with satellites and other systems that had already entered production.

The auditors said the biggest problems occurred when the Pentagon changed the capabilities it sought or started production before critical technologies were ready.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/business/30military.html?_r=1&WT.mc_id=BU-PS-E-OB-PS-TXT-TH-ROS-1010-NA&WT.mc_ev=click

Results so far

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/pdp-survives-acn-gains-but-cpc-underperforms/89433/

Franca Afegbua of the NPN was Nigeria's first female senator.

Our problem is not any particular political party but the political class.

And that is a universal problem.

What we should do is to identify individuals who can deliver the goods and support them.

Some of the contestants in the other parties are ex-PDP members. Should we now vote for them just because they are no longer PDP members?

.

Tinubu thereafter threw more light on the appointment of members into the State Executive Council of Lagos State. He said it is not the business of the governor to appoint commissioners into his cabinet maintaining that it is the sole responsibility of the party to do so because, many trusted people campaigned with the governor on the field and hence should be rewarded.

"If it were to be Fashola and Co. Company, Governor Raji Fashola would have had the power to choose whoever he wanted to appoint to work with him in his chamber. But contrary is the case when we talk of the appointment of commissioners and special advisers," Tinubu further stated.


http://thewillnigeria.com/politics/7650-OBJ-PDP-Killed-CPCACN-Alliance-Talks-Tinubu-Says-Fashola-Has-Business-Appointing-Commissioners.html

Tinubu’s political metamorphosis

The political history of Tinubu who is leader of the ruling ACN is dogged by controversy. Tinubu was introduced into Lagos politics by the Sarumi group of the then SDP in 1991. The Sarumi group at the time wanted somebody who could challenge the candidate of the powerful Jakande group at the primaries of the SDP. To win the Lagos West senatorial ticket of the party with ten local governments, the Sarumi camp wanted somebody financially buoyant to outspend Jakande’s candidate, Dr. Adegbola Dominic. One of the strongest party leaders in the Sarumi group, Alhaji Olatunji Hamzat who was identified as a rich businessman turned down the offer to contest the Lagos West senatorial ticket of the party. His reason: To waste about N2 million on a senate election that may be truncated by the unpredictable Babangida transition programme was unwise. Another Sarumi faithful, Dr. Ayo Kolajo turned down the offer and opted to go to the House of Representatives.

A party faithful brought Bola Tinubu who was ready to spend the money. One of the party leaders told this reporter that: “We recommended that the boy (Tinubu) should give each of the delegates that would vote N250. To our surprise, he gave each delegate N750. At the time, it was a lot of money. He won the primary election convincingly with the backing of the Sarumi group.”

Tinubu who was residing in Victoria Island rented a flat owned by Kolajo in Orile -Agege. The receipt was backdated by two years in order to meet the requirement of the law that a contestant must have lived for at least six months to contest election in an area. His opponents in the Jakande camp never discovered it. He would have been disqualified even after winning the election.

On getting to the Senate, Tinubu mixed with the big guns in Abuja and was one of the closest senators to Moshood Abiola the uncrowned winner of June 12,1993 presidential election. Jakande told reporters when marking his birthday last year that it was Tinubu who came with Abiola to convince him to take up appointment with the General Sani Abacha government.

He was to be deputy governor to Olagunsoye Oyinlola before the military high command decided against having civilian deputies. According to those close to Oyinlola, Tinubu sat with him to decide those who would be commissioners. He later became disenchanted with the Abacha government. He teamed up with others to form the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) that fought the government of Abacha to stand still.

He went on exile when Abacha turned the heat on leaders of the NADECO. When Abacha died and Abdulsalami Abubakar gave those in exile the nod to contest election, Tinubu initially wanted to go back to the senate. He gave Dr. Wahab Dosumu every assurance that he will support his bid to be governor on the ticket of the newly formed Alliance for Democracy (AD). The story changed when Tinubu returned to Nigeria. He contested for the governorship ticket.

The question of who won the AD governorship primaries between late Funso Williams and Tinubu in 1998 may never be resolved to everybody’s satisfaction. What was obvious was that the late Afenifere leader, Senator Abraham Adesanya made sure that the electoral officer in Lagos gave Tinubu the upper hand when he annulled results in places where Williams scored high votes. Not even the Acting national chairman, Chief Ayo Adebanjo could give a satisfactory answer to the question on who won the primaries between Williams and Tinubu. Many were convinced that Williams was robbed because he served in the Abacha administration.

The second time Williams encountered Tinubu as candidate of PDP was in 2003 and many also doubted Tinubu’s victory. When the first set of results from six local governments were announced, Williams was winning. The six local governments are: Ajeromi Ifelodun, Apapa, Badagry, Mainland, Ojo and Amuwo Odofin. Suddenly, the result from Alimosho and Lagos Island wiped off the lead. An angry party member placed the results at his possession, which declared Williams as winner on the Net without the knowledge of party leaders, including Williams. No party leader was ready to make public statement on it. Bode George; the leader of the party in Lagos could do nothing because he had no fact to act on. Again, many believed Williams was cheated. By the time 2007 election was few months away, Williams was killed in his bedroom. His killers were never found.

Tinubu brought Fashola on board and without a strong contender from PDP and with Williams’s supporters backing Fashola, victory was easy.

Tinubu has since expanded his political empire. At least, three governors in the South West are described as his boys. Political opponents refer to the governor of Osun and Ekiti as judiciary governors. The judgment that gave Tinubu’s men victory still rankles in the judiciary. A probe has been instituted.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/politics/2011/mar/26/politics-26-03-2011-002.htm

Get the transcript for the episode here:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1103/06/se.02.html

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST: This is a GPS special -- "Restoring the American Dream, Getting Back to Number One."

Welcome to all of you in the United States and around the world. I'm Fareed Zakaria.

I'm going to begin with a cliche. We face new challenges in a new world. Now that much is obvious. But it seems very difficult to get the American system to recognize that this means fundamental change, radical change.

Both political parties play the usual political games. No one seems ready for big compromises, big sacrifices. It is as if we can afford to tinker, because in the end we're so rich and strong and it always works out.

After all, we're number one. Right? The most exceptional country in the history of the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I believe in American exceptionalism.

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: The exceptional character of the nation we serve.

SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: This belief in American exceptionalism is something that every new generation has got to make its own.

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: This is the greatest country in the world.

HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: I think this is the greatest country in the world.

OBAMA: The greatest nation on earth.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ZAKARIA: Now I'm an immigrant. I'm not an American by accident or birth but by choice. I voted with my feet and came to this country. So of course I do believe that America is exceptional. But I think it's important to examine the facts carefully to figure out just where we stand in today's world. America is indisputably number one by some key measures. We have the world's largest economy, military, scientific establishment, the biggest technology companies. We are just as indisputably falling behind in many other key areas, well behind other countries.

Let's take a look at some recent rankings. The United States is the fourth most competitive country in the world economically. Good. We're only the fifth best country in which to run a business.

America's enrollment rate for elementary school, however, ranks 79th in the world. We're only 12th in the percentage of college graduates among rich countries. America's 15-year-olds are ranked 19th in science and 24th in math. Our infrastructure ranks 23rd. We're 41st in the world on infant mortality, 49th on life expectancy.

Perhaps most worrying -- America is no longer a place where anyone can make it. Last year the OECD issued a study of social mobility across generations. Basically that's how likely is it you'll jump out of your parents' income group.

The U.S. did surprisingly poorly coming in behind Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Canada. Two other such studies confirmed this reality.

Now I know what my perception is about America. Anyone can make it here. And there are lots of high-profile examples of that. But those are anecdotes. The facts say that for the average Joe in recent years, social mobility has slowed and other countries have moved ahead.

Similarly, among rich countries over the last 25 years, our growth rate per person has not been the strongest. Now there are clearly places where we are still number one. The number of guns we own far exceeds any other country. We account for 50 percent of the world's annual production of weapons.

We are number one in our terms of our total debt to other countries. But there are really many positive places where we are still number one. That's what I began by listing.

But my point is the picture today is a lot more mixed than boastful rhetoric about America is number one suggests. The question I have really is, what would it take to keep America clearly and comfortably at the top and to restore it to that place in areas in which it has slipped.

For those using USA as the standard for development, read this:

Friday, March 04, 2011
Fareed Zakaria Looks At "Restoring The American Dream"
CNN Domestic debuts a new Fareed Zakaria special this weekend. Details from CNN are below.

CNN Press Release: Getting Back to Real Exceptionalism the Focus of New “Restoring the American Dream” FAREED ZAKARIA GPS Primetime Special

Restoring the American Dream: Getting Back to #1 – A FAREED ZAKARIA GPS Special debuts Sunday at 8:00pm ET and PT

America used to be on top of the world across the board, besting the rest in education, innovation, wealth, and life expectancy – but now it’s falling behind other nations, in some instances way behind. America is now number 49 among the world’s nations in life expectancy, number 79 in elementary school enrollment, number 23 in infrastructure, and only the fourth most competitive economy.

CNN and TIME magazine’s Fareed Zakaria says the U.S. has arrived at a crowded crossroads where much of the rest of the world is catching up. He interviews some of the best minds in science, economics, leadership and innovation on the challenges we face, and offers his own solutions on how America can regain its number one status.

Foursquare co-founders Naveen Selvadurai and Dennis Crowley, Harvard University professors Joseph Nye and Niall Ferguson, international macroeconomist Dambisa Moyo, Swedish physician and statistician Dr. Hans Rosling, Columbia University economist Jeffery Sachs all weigh in on the best way forward for America.

Restoring the American Dream: Getting Back to #1 – A FAREED ZAKARIA GPS Special debuts Sunday, March 6 at 8:00p.m. and 11:00p.m. ET/PT on CNN/U.S. It will replay on Saturday, March 12 at 8:00p.m. and 11:00p.m. ET/PT on CNN/U.S.

Fareed Zakaria’s TIME magazine cover story, “Are America’s Best Days Behind Us?” hits newsstands today, Friday, March 4.

http://cnnobservations..com/2011/03/fareed-zakaria-looks-to-restoring.html

^^

Good question!

So the handouts were for the Egyptian military not the people.

It was a greek gift to gain control of the military.


I can forsee the type of government that would emerge from the ongoing political process in Egypt.

Please tell the Yanks that we our military don't need such handouts.

The same handouts they gave to Mubarak to prop him up and then saw him off when it became convenient to appear as defenders of democracy on the side of the people?



The same handouts they are giving to the Libyan opposition but bombing them in error?

Let's begin to make some comparisons now:

Nicolas Sarkozy scandal goes back to Hungarian roots
The case of L'Oréal heiress, Liliane Bettencourt, has enraptured France and forced Nicolas Sarkozy into the spotlight.


One secret cash payment to Mr Sarkozy's presidential election campaign was said to be worth as much as ?150,000, or £125,000


by Anne-Elisabeth Moutet in Paris 8:00AM BST 11 Jul 2010

Before becoming a scandal about money, politics, art, history, café society and power, the Affaire Bettencourt, now threatening the Sarkozy presidency, is the story of two ferociously ambitious young Hungarian outsiders and their success at storming the citadels of the French establishment.

One, Nicolas Sarkozy, the son of a womanising émigré aristocrat and a doctor's daughter, used to be told by his (twice) remarried father on visiting Sundays that he would never amount to anything much in France, because of his foreign name, small stature and below-average school grades.

The other, François-Marie Banier, né Banyiaï, was regularly beaten by his Renault migrant worker turned ad-man father for being a dilettante, an aesthete, and a high-school drop-out. (By coincidence Pál Sarkozy, Nicolas's father, also dabbled in advertising for a while).

Mr Sarkozy has mentioned the slights he suffered as the least well-off boy of his chic school in Neuilly, Paris's richest suburb. Mr Banier neglected even to complete his baccalauréat, haunting luxury hotel lobbies from his teens on, becoming in rapid succession the favourite of such luminaries as the painter Salvador Dali, the Nobel-prize playwright Samuel Beckett, and the couturiers Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Cardin. The Communist poet Louis Aragon enthused about the first novel Mr Banier published, aged 22.

Mr Sarkozy came to the attention of Charles Pasqua, the Gaullist party stalwart and key power-breaker who was to help shape most of his career, with his first public speech at a national rally: he was just 20 at the time.

Today Nicolas Sarkozy is president of the French Republic, while François-Marie Banier, a polymath photographer, painter and novelist, has recently been ranked 917th richest individual in the world, having accepted fabulous gifts from a string of wealthy old ladies, ranging from the viscountess Marie-Laure de Noailles to the actress Silvana Mangano - and especially from his latest patron, Liliane Bettencourt, the 87-year-old L'Oréal heiress.

The two men, no longer so young (Mr Banier is 63, Mr Sarkozy 55) nor as pretty as they both once were, stand at each end of a glittering chain of achievements, events, relationships, networks and rivalries now threatening to engulf France in the kind of political meltdown not seen here since the 1930s.

Mr Sarkozy's poll ratings, already dire, have plunged to ominous lows, with fewer than 32 per cent saying they still trust him. The latest projections are that the 2012 presidential race wil be won by the lacklustre Socialist leader, Martine Aubry, who in a second-round run-off against Mr Sarkozy would win 52 per cent of the vote.

But that's only if the second round is a traditional contest between Right and Left. Other, more worrisome, figures show that French public opinion holds politicians of both main parties in equal contempt, with only the Front National's Marine Le Pen showing a strong improvement in her rating, albeit still behind the others.

If that trend isn't reversed, France could see a repeat of 2002, when the Front National won second place in the first round of presidential voting, allowing its leader - Ms Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie - to challenge Jacques Chirac in the second round.

All French scandals are complicated (they're never about something so depressingly simple as sex), partly because they hide within layer upon layer of secrets in a country which has never believed in transparency.

"Pour vivre heureux, vivons cachés" (To be happy, live hidden), a maxim of the 18th-century poet Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian, remains a byword here.

The political revelations of L'Affaire Bettencourt came out almost by accident. Françoise Meyers-Bettencourt, Liliane's daughter, 57, brought to court a case against Mr Banier, whom she accuses of abusing her elderly mother's trust to gain favour - specifically, being showered with gifts of cash and artworks.

This was three years ago, soon after the death of her father, Mrs Bettencourt's husband, André. (She may have feared that her newly-widowed mother was dangerously unmoored; after Bettencourt's death there was talk of Mr Banier being adopted by Liliane.)

The case dragged on. The daughter tried to prove that her mother's mind was befuddled. The mother refused a psychiatric evaluation, countering that her daughter was jealous of Mr Banier, who was "more amusing, more interesting" while Françoise was "dull" and had "no conversation."

Mrs Bettencourt's worth is estimated between 17 and 20 billion euros. "If you can afford it, it's very nice to be able to be generous," she recently said in a television interview.

If it wasn't for the Monopoly money amounts (993 million euros given to Mr Banier over four years in the form of Matisses, Picassos, life insurance contracts and a Seychelles island), it would look like every mother-daughter bitter feud, writ large.

Still handsome and elegant today, Liliane Bettencourt was for decades one of France's great society beauties. (The stylised woman painted in the early 1960s by the celebrated illustrator René Gruau, to figure on the golden cans of L'Oréal's best-selling Elnett hairspray, was modelled after Liliane. The hairspray container is unchanged today, an example of timeless design.) Françoise Meyers-Bettencourt, not to put a fine point on things, is rather plain.

Liliane's adored father Eugène Schueller, the founder of the L'Oréal fortune, was a notorious Collaborationist, who financed a number of fascist parties in the Thirties, was a Vichy regime enthusiastic supporter, and paid for the exfiltration to South America of some French Nazis at the Liberation.

Françoise married the grandson of Neuilly's Résistant rabbi, who died in Auschwitz.

Liliane Bettencourt's help – her butler, her secretary, her accountant, her driver – started taking sides. Those who showed too much favour to Françoise (or didn't hide their distaste for Banier, an increasingly frequent, often rude visitor) were fired. With compensation, but fired.

As it turns out, this was a spectacularly bad decision. The family's butler had started taping the conversations taking place in the expansive neo-Art deco Neuilly house, where Mrs Bettencourt has lived since commissioning it in 1951. (This is very much a tale of Neuilly, a kind of French South Kensington where the residents voted against having a second Métro line extended from Central Paris, because it would bring petty crime to their doors. Not long after that vote, Nicolas Sarkozy was elected Mayor, aged 28.) This was, the butler said, because he felt his boss was being taken advantage of.

Upon getting the sack, the butler went to Françoise (a mere 50 yards away, in a house almost as grand) and gave her a computer memory card containing the recordings, made on a tiny machine hidden on the drinks trays. (The Liliane-Banier camp counter that Françoise paid him all along to make them).

Three weeks later, Françoise handed 28 CDs of the recordings to the police. For good measure, she also gave them to an investigative website and a news magazine, which published very long excerpts. One can't but assume she had listened to them. Did she realise the conflagration they would trigger?

The recordings were dynamite. Not so much because, at times, Mrs Bettencourt did sound forgetful and hazy about the whereabouts of her immense fortune (she had, for instance, completely forgotten about two Swiss bank accounts containing over 100 million euros) and how much of it she'd given Mr Banier - but more because of the personalities and doings of her chief financial adviser and her lawyers.

[b]Patrice de Maistre, the head of her "family office," a Jockey Club member, is heard advising her on where to hide large amounts of money from the French taxman (Singapore is in, now that Switzerland has become leaky). He boasts of having hired the then-Budget Minister Eric Woerth's wife, herself a former Rothschild banker, "to oblige him" - although he also badmouths Mrs Woerth, "who really puts on airs, playing too much the minister's wife."

Mr de Maistre angles to be given (tax-free, in Switzerland) a 60-foot sailing boat. He drops a few unsavoury comments about John Elkann, Gianni Agnelli's grandson, who is Jewish ("isn't it typical how they always gravitate to money?" he laughs, which Liliane interrupts with "I'm absolutely not anti-Semitic".

And he explains how cheap it is to contribute officially to a French politician's campaign, since individual gifts are capped at 7,500 euros. ("They are so grateful, and it really isn't much at all."

In other recordings, lawyer and money manager discuss on their own how best to prevent Banier from getting even more. It makes for a riveting read – and a rare bird's eye view of the vernacular of France's super-rich, where tax evasion and influence-currying come naturally. [/b]

Having the wife of then minister in charge of tax employed, at the very least, in a place where fraud took place, was bad enough. How much did she know? asked the predictable headlines.

Worse was to follow. The usually tame French press took the bit between their collective teeth, and in the intervals between clamouring for Mr Woerth's resignation from his current job as labour and social affairs minister (a key post since he's in charge of pushing through Mr Sarkozy's great pension reform), went digging.

Soon, Mediapart, the investigative website, found another fired employee, an accountant, who blithely told how for years she collected large wads of cash from Mr and Mrs Bettencourt's bank to give to politicians in brown envelopes – most recently 150,000 euros to Mr Sarkozy's presidential campaign in early 2007.

The accountant was subsequently harshly grilled by the police and seemed to withdraw some of her accusations (she had been told by Mr de Maistre who the money was for, but had never actually seen it given out), then recanted her recant. Meanwhile the bank balances did show withdrawals for the various amounts she'd mentioned at the given dates.

"This proves nothing!" Mr Sarkozy's supporters and assorted lawyers roared. But by then it was of course too late – the general impression of cronyism and corruption was disastrous, compounded by the stonewalling, in time-honoured fashion, from the Elysée. (Earlier in the month, two cabinet ministers who'd abused their expenses in an unrelated polemic had to step down, which was seen as too little, much too late.)

Mr Sarkozy won't go and can't be investigated, because of the same presidential immunity that so often shielded Jacques Chirac. I wouldn't put good money on Mr Woerth staying, even though the current wisdom at the Elysée is that he is necessary to the pensions law, and that if he steps down Mr Sarkozy's most emblematic reform, on which he was hoping to be reelected, is toast.

But it's increasingly obvious that we have reached a paradigm shift, where the old Chirac saw, "Never admit to anything, never answer on anything", finally no longer applies in France.

The French, from a unique, centuries-old mix of Catholic and Marxist distrust hardwired in their collective psyche, have always despised money and mistrusted the rich.

At the very time when he is asking for belt-tightening and rallying together, Mr Sarkozy, the bling-bling president of the early days, the outraged victim of the Clearstream smear campaign, appears himself finally to have stepped over the line.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7883220/Nicolas-Sarkozy-scandal-goes-back-to-Hungarian-roots.html

Corruption scandals in the Paris region

In the 1980s and 1990s there were, in the Paris region (Île-de-France), multiple instances of alleged and proved political corruption cases, as well as cases of abuse of public money and resources. Almost all involved were members of the conservative Rally for the Republic (RPR) ruling party, which became the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) in 2002.
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Central role of Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac was mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995 and has been named in several cases of alleged corruption and abuse, some of which have already led to felony convictions.

Chirac, as president of France (until 16 May 2007), enjoyed virtual immunity from prosecution for acts preceding his tenure as president, following from decision 98-408 DC of the Constitutional Council on 22 January 1999. This decision itself was highly controversial: the council was consulted on the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, not about the status of the president with respect to the national criminal justice system. At the time, the president of the council was Roland Dumas, who later had to retire from his functions because of his implication in the Elf Aquitaine scandal.

Chirac refused to testify before investigating magistrate Éric Halphen, arguing that this would be incompatible with his presidential functions.

On 10 October 2001, the Court of Cassation ruled that, while the president cannot be prosecuted by normal judicial means during his mandate, such an impossibility suspends the delays of prescription (statute of limitation). If Chirac does not run for office again in 2007 or is not re-elected, he may then be prosecuted on the several affairs he is involved in. This might explain why in 2003 some in the presidential entourage floated around the idea of Chirac running for a third term.

Chirac's foremost critic was deputy Arnaud Montebourg of the Socialist Party, who filed a motion to bring him in front of the High Court of Justice (a procedure similar to impeachment, which has never been applied).

Vote rigging in Paris
In several districts of Paris, people were allegedly illegally registered on the electoral rolls in an attempt to modify the outcome of elections. In some egregious cases, people were registered at the address of a hotel or of a shop.

• In the 3rd arrondissement, 859 (being 5% of the registered voters) were, according to enquiries, fraudulently registered on the electoral rolls between 1988 and 1995.

• In the 5th arrondissement, mayor Jean Tiberi, his wife Xavière Tiberi and alleged accomplices were put under formal investigation. According to the instruction, 7,228 people were fraudulently registered in the 5th arrondissement in 1997 and 3,315 of them voted when Jean Tiberi was elected deputy with 2,725 votes more than his opponent. On 21 March 2005, Jean Tiberi was put under criminal investigation for his alleged role in the altered electoral rolls.[5] He denied having had anything to do with the action and pointed that he was re-elected by wide majorities, thus not needing fake voters.

Manipulated biddings for public procurement

Paris public housing projects

There was a shock when a videocassette of businessman Jean-Claude Méry was disclosed after his death in 1999, with Le Monde publishing its full contents in September 2000. In the tape, Méry gave details of kickback schemes in the Paris region; in particular, he said that he delivered FRF 5 million in cash to Michel Roussin, chief of staff of then prime minister Jacques Chirac, "in Chirac's presence". "We only work on Mr. Chirac's orders," Méry said in the video. It was on these grounds that investigating magistrate Éric Halphen summoned president Jacques Chirac in March 2001 as witness, declaring that there were sufficients "clues" to warrant a full investigation. In September 2001, the Paris Appeal Court cancelled part of the proceedings on procedural vices, and removing the affair from judge Halphen's hands.


In February 2005, investigating magistrate Armand Riberolles, who succeeded Halphen, abandoned charges against Jean Tiberi (who succeeded Chirac as mayor of Paris), who as former president of the OPAC (Office Public d'Aménagement et de Construction) of Paris, was prosecuted for "complicity in corruption" (complicité de traffic d'influence).

As of January 2006, several CEOs had been prosecuted in the trial, but not one politician. 49 businessmen, among them Francis Poullain, CEO of SAR company and close to Chirac, were prosecuted. According to Le Monde, this trial was met with "relative indifference". The previous investigations had led to the resignation of magistrate Éric Halphen after several cases of intimidation and a tight struggle against the executive power. Personalities such as Michel Roussin, Robert Pandraud or Jean Tiberi, former mayor of Paris, had all been previously acquitted. Investigating magistrate Armand Riberolles, who succeeded Eric Halphen, wrote that the "instruction hadn't been able to formally establish the personal involvement of responsible members of the higher echelons of the RPR", while noting that "a large number of testimonies, cross-checked by various factual elements, show that Jean-Claude Méry had been commissioned to ensure the financing of the RPR's political activities by collecting funds, in particular through the firms working with the OPAC." All proceedings leading to president Chirac had been thrown out in September 2001 by the Paris Court of Appeal, leading to the resignation of judge Halphen.

High-schools and other public works in the Île-de-France region
About 40 are under investigation for the alleged corruption at the Ile-de-France regional council. Inquiries showed that 2% of the payments from the Ile-de-France council to companies involved in building or repairs on the region's high schools were to be channeled as kickbacks to political parties, either through legal contributions (permitted under the 15 January 1990 law then in force), or through cash deliveries of fictitious employment (i.e. staff of political parties or politicians being paid by the involved companies). According to the enquiry, 1.2% went to the RPR, 0.8% to the French Socialist Party. Michel Giraud, then president of the Ile-de-France region, was one of the prime suspects. The following companies admitted to such practices: Sicra, Baudin Châteauneuf, GTM, Bouygues, Nord-France, Dumez, Chagnaud, Fougerolles.

In March 2005, the case went to trial before the Paris correctional court On October 2005, former president of the Ile-de-France region Michel Giraud was condemned to four years of prison on probation and to pay an 80 000 euros fine; Michel Roussin, former chief of staff of Jacques Chirac, was also condemned to four years of prison on probation and to a 50 000 euros fine. These sentences were accompanied by a 5 years suspension of civil and familial rights. Louise-Yvonne Cassetta and Guy Drut were also condemned on probation. Among the 47 persons prosecuted, only Gérard Longuet, former president of the republican party, was acquitted. Libération could state that: "Only one - big - absence in this trial and judgment: Jacques Chirac, whose shadow has constantly towered this four months debate".

Fictional jobs in government offices

City of Paris

[b]During the tenure of Jacques Chirac as mayor of Paris, some people paid by the city government actually worked (full time) for the RPR party.

Alain Juppé, former secretary-general of the RPR (1988–1995) and former deputy mayor in charge of finances of the City of Paris (1983–1995) was convicted along with accomplices Louise-Yvonne Casetta and Patrick Stefanini of abuse of public funds when he employed people on the city's payroll to perform tasks wholly for the benefit of his party. On 31 January 2004, Alain Juppé was sentenced by the correctional court of Nanterre to 18 month suspended sentence, as well as the deprivation of the right to vote for five years and the right to run for national office for 10 years (reduced on appeal to one year). On 1 December 2004, the Versailles court of appeals reduced the sentence to a 14 month suspended sentence and a deprivation of the right to hold political office for one year. Juppé did not go to the Court of Cassation over this sentence, and had to resign from his position as mayor of Bordeaux. [/b]

Another scandal erupted after the ruling when the judges of the Nanterre court alleged that their offices and computers had been searched. President Chirac ordered an administration inquiry commission, composed of high-level magistrates (the vice-president of the Council of State, and the first presidents of the Court of Cassation and the Court of Auditors), to investigate the matter. This decision was criticized because there was no legal nor constitutional basis for it: normally, questions of judicial honesty are handled by the Conseil Supérieur de la Magistrature (CSM), which (politely) protested Chirac's action. The Nanterre judges refused to be heard by the commission, arguing they should see the CSM. The commission concluded that there had been security lapses at the Nanterre court, but did not conclude that there was any wrongdoing. A criminal investigation has also been opened.

On 3 December 2004, the Court of Cassation ruled that a court of appeals had incorrectly ruled that some cases of employment by or payments received from the City of Paris (under the Chirac and Tiberi administrations) for fictitious work fell under prescription (statute of limitations). The court announced that the cases were now referred to the Versailles Court of Appeals. The current administration of the City of Paris, led by Socialist mayor Bertrand Delanoë, had appealed the prescription ruling before the Court of Cassation. Among the suspects are the deputy of Paris Jean de Gaulle, former minister Robert Pandraud etc

Essonne

Xavière Tiberi, the spouse of mayor of Paris Jean Tiberi, received FRF 200,000 (approx. €30,000) for a report on francophonie for the general council of the Essonne département. This 36-page report, possibly written after the payment as a justification, was extremely poorly written and contained numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes.

Illegal use of government services

Usage of City of Paris gardening services for private purposes

In 2004, mayor Bertrand Delanoë filed a complaint for the past abuse of City of Paris gardening services for private purposes, estimating the public losses to at least €700,000. Individuals close to the RPR allegedly enjoyed free gardening services from City of Paris employees in their houses of the upscale areas of Paris and suburbs. City supplies were allegedly also taken for private usage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_scandals_in_the_Paris_region

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