France - General discussion

[haku]

Originally Posted by the unforgiven

I'm also glad that he's no longer a teacher in university Lyon 3

What a nightmare it would be to have him as a teacher. *gags*


I just watched Sarkozy's speech on his economic platform, he also outlined his European and international policies and wow, i was pretty impressed.

On economics, it was a very detailed speech and i agreed on a lot of his ideas, i don't think he's that far from DSK actually, of course Sarkozy is more liberal, but many core economic ideas are not that different, i can agree with what both of them are saying.

I was pleasantly surprised when he outlined his EU policy, he's closer to federalist ideas than i thought, i especially liked when he said that the EU can not expand indefinitely and must now define its final borders once and for all, i also liked when he mentioned that "variable geometry" should be allowed (meaning that EU states that want to go toward more integration should not be stopped from doing so by those that don't want to, contrary to how it works today). I couldn't agree more on all of that.

He's much more pro-American than i am though, LOL, but as long as he's very pro-European, i can live with that.

[haku]

Latest poll for the presidential election.
1st round
2nd round

[coolasfcuk]

dont take this the wrong, but i find it humorous how the frenchies are the onlyl ones discussing France (for the most part) ..... clearly Frace is no USA

[haku]

Haha, indeed we've lost all international importance a long time ago, but so have all other European countries in my opinion. As long as we won't create a true European federation, we won't have any weight in international matters.

[the unforgiven]

Originally Posted by coolasfcuk

i find it humorous how the frenchies are the onlyl ones discussing France (for the most part)

hehe you're right
french egocentrism pffff lol

troubles for Ségolène? huh?

yesterday, during my super interesting english lesson, I had read an article about Le Pen his popularity and his program ... omg! no more euro, no more europe, no more abortion, no more techno music etc etc
perfect illustation of madness

[haku]

Originally Posted by the unforgiven

yesterday, during my super interesting english lesson, I had read an article about Le Pen his popularity and his program ... omg! no more euro, no more europe, no more abortion, no more techno music etc etc
perfect illustation of madness

Haha, yeah, his daughter almost sounds like a reasonable woman compared to him, she has the same ideas though, she just hide them a bit better under a nicer package. The most disturbing is Chevènement who shares a lot of those ideas as well.


On a lighter note, i was reading that the top Google search containing the word "Ségolène" is "Ségolène Royal nue". "Clémentine Autain lesbienne" et "Clémentine Autain nue" are also popular searches apparently, LOL.

[the unforgiven]

last night, I talked about Nicolas Hulot with one of my friend and he thinks that Nicolas has good ideas cuz' he travels all over the world and knows the good side of each country ... hmmm what do you think about that?
I was pretty surprised that Nicolas Hulot wanna get into the race may be cuz' I'm too young and I'm not aware of his politician side

about Marine Le Pen, she's the witch of the new century lol
she knows how to convince people (as her father)
their way of speaking is the only thing I respect, I don't know how to say it in english but I find that Le Pen and his daughter have "une bonne rhétorique" they rarely make mistakes in their speechs and they always use the good words to brainwash people ... it's quite disturbing

[haku]

I don't think Nicolas Hulot is serious about running for president, he's trying to influence the platforms of other candidates, which i have no problem with since Nicolas Hulot has a lot of good ideas. But as popular as he is, he's not a credible candidate because his ideas are limited to the environment, a presidential candidate needs to have opinions and proposals about pretty much everything, not just one topic.


Here's a website that keeps tracks of candidates opinions and proposals, that's quite interesting.

[haku]

Sarko / Ségo … amour ou haine

And Florence Foresti does Ségolène

[the unforgiven]

LMAO! Florence Foresti rocks I miss Anne-Sophie de La Coquillette lol

[haku]

Ségolène Royal has won the socialist candidacy directly in the 1st round, she got probably around 60% of the votes.
I can't say i'm very happy about this, but oh well.


In unrelated news, Turkey has cut its military ties with France… I didn't really know we had military ties, but ok, lol.

[the unforgiven]

Originally Posted by haku

Ségolène Royal has won the socialist candidacy directly in the 1st round, she got probably around 60% of the votes

yay for Ségolène because she's a woman lol is it the first time that the socialist runner is a woman? huh?
she may become the first woman french president, it's cool

[the unforgiven]

A la fac de la précarité, option tapin
I've read this article in the subway today and I was pretty surprised that so many students prostitute to make money
1/57 if it's "true" it means that there's 526 hookers in my uni

[haku]

Originally Posted by the unforgiven

I've read this article in the subway today and I was pretty surprised that so many students prostitute to make money
1/57 if it's "true" it means that there's 526 hookers in my uni

2% of French students prostitute themselves? Oh yeah it's true, the number is probably much higher than that actually, the article says that 10% of English students prostitute themselves and i remember reading that 40% of Japanese students prostitute themselves.
It's a growing trend, more and more students sell sex, it's fast and easy money.

[the unforgiven]

Originally Posted by haku

It's a growing trend, more and more students sell sex, it's fast and easy money.

yeah, seriously when I read that I wasn't really schoked, surprised but not disturbed
I understand why some students choose prostitution, if it's safe, cuz' it's so hard to find a f*ckin job to pay studies etc etc

I've checked the comments about this article and one of them made my day "nous n'allons pas tomber dans la repentance, prsenté comme cela l'article choque, en prenant du recul a voir, mais j'a confiance avec Ségo tous cela va disparaitre"
Ségolène is the new Panacae LOL people are naive sometimes!

[the unforgiven]

happy b-day Jacques Chirac he's 74 years old, having health problems ... if I were him I won't get into the race for the next elections
but it's just my point of view, today when I read the newspaper I thought that if he's elected again he could die during his mandate

[haku]

I was reading the 2005-2050 population projection for France (Insee, in French), and it is estimated that France should reach a population of about 75 million people by 2050.
It's interesting because we're always told that the population is aging (which is true), but rarely that the population still continues to grow steadily nonetheless.
75 million won't be a problem anyway, the country is over twice larger in area than Great Britain for example, it could easily accommodate 100 million people.

I also noticed this table which shows that the greater Paris now has over 11 million people, i wonder where it will be in 2050… 15 million?

[freddie]

It's obvious population is aging since the age expectancy is rising streadily and compensates for decreasing birth rate. But it's still a mixed blessing at best. Europe is slowly becoming a continent of old people. Health care companies will be the masters of everyone's future.

It's kind of hard to believe that so many students are into prostitution. In France and UK no less. Two relatively wealthy countries. If that be the case than that figure would probably rise up to 90% in eastern & central Europe.

[haku]

Originally Posted by freddie

It's obvious population is aging since the age expectancy is rising streadily and compensates for decreasing birth rate. But it's still a mixed blessing at best. Europe is slowly becoming a continent of old people.

The situation is not too bad in France, the birth rate is currently 1.94 per woman and rising, there are good indications it'll go back over 2.0 pretty soon.

Here's a page that shows the population evolution in France for the past 20 years, the table is in French but easily understandable (all numbers are in thousand people), the first column is the total population, after that you have births and deaths, "Solde naturel" is the natural growth (difference between births and deaths excluding immigration), "Solde migratoire" is the number of immigrants who settle in France.
The situation is relatively stable, France gains every year an average of 250,000 people from natural growth, plus 80,000 people from immigration.
That's about 3 more million people every 10 years.

The population is indeed aging because life expectancy is increasing, but the number of young people is also increasing steadily.

As for the evolution in the coming decades…
Here's the conservative projection (based on declining natural growth, stable immigration) :
population would be 70 million by 2050 with 22% under 20, 52% betweeen 20 and 65, and 26% over 65.
And here's what is more or less the government's objective (stable yearly natural growth of 250,000 like for the past 20 years, slightly higher immigration) :
population would be close to 80 million by 2050 with 24% under 20, 50.5% betweeen 20 and 65, and 25.5% over 65.

The reality is likely to fall somewhere in between, with a population of about 75 million. And in any case, about a quarter of the population should be under 20, another quarter above 65, and the rest in between, which all in all is not that bad and manageable.


It's true that the situation is much worse in Europe as a whole though, those numbers are rather telling:
In 2004, the 25 EU states combined had a natural growth of 180,000 people, France alone had a natural growth of 279,000 people, which means many other EU states actually had a decrease!
2005 was a bit better, the 25 EU states combined had a natural growth of 439,000 people, but France alone had its usual natural growth of 270,000 people, which means the other 24 EU states combined only grew of 169,000!

Like i've said above, France has had an average yearly natural growth of about 250,000 people for the past 20 years, but many other European countries are indeed experiencing a sharp decline. Under the same projections which expect France to reach 75 million people by 2050, Germany is expected to drop to 70 million, and Italy to 45 million.

[haku]

Originally Posted by haku

The situation is not too bad in France, the birth rate is currently 1.94 per woman and rising, there are good indications it'll go back over 2.0 pretty soon.

Well, it's done. The INSEE (French national stat administration) has published today the demographic results for 2006, and the birth rate is back over 2.0!

The French population has gained 394,000 people in 2006 and is now of 63.4 million.

300,000 are from natural growth (830,000 births, 530,000 deaths)
94,000 are from net immigration
(source)

The INSEE is still projecting the French population to reach 75 million by mid century (with a birth rate peaking at 2.1).