Mr Béatse, for icy open air market places : sand of a beach!

If Angers city is sentenced after a passer-by slipped on the ground and injured herself within the limits of the open air market, the mayor may have had reason to cancel that event a few weeks ago when the weather was snowy. The case was judged on February 1st by the administrative court of Nantes and that jurisdiction could decide to sentence the city up to € 15 000.

Credit Pictures : Angers city

A few weeks ago, Angers town council minority launched an attack on Frédéric Béatse because he had decided, too cautiously according to the opposition members, to cancel the weekly open air market of Leclerc square. The decision triggered complains from mobile store owners and even from inhabitants who love to walk around the stalls of fruits and flowers. 

Of course, it would have been possible to spread sand on the parking lot to prevent accidents, sometimes dangerous for elder persons who are fond of that moment whatever be the weather. The accident which led the town in front of the court occured along a fish shop. The ground was covered by ice, necessary to preserve the fish.  Next time, Mr Béatse will be well advised to cover the ground around the mobile fish shops with sand. Seafood lives above the sands and Angers inhabitants love seaside!

The minority launches the Angers municipal polls of 2014

Nothing works any longer between majority and minority inside the Angers town council. On February 1st, the minority will publish a manifesto against its "opposition". "Angers, danger, the other assessment of the majority 2008-2012" where several aspects of the management of Jean-Claude Antonini, then Frédéric Beatse team are questionned : economy, employment, districts and political governance of the town.
The critics have not, apparently, been disclosed to the public so, the minority succeeded to create a buzz around its initiative. 

The left majority is angry. On behalf Frédéric Béatse, mayor, several deputy-mayors stepped up to the plate and accused the minority of a sabotage of the last city council meetings. These "have been the place of sad politician moves of the minority. Openly contradictory with the political balanced history of our territory, the behaviour of the minority is outrageous and disrespectful". The majority leaders point out that t"he title of the manifesto is disgraceful and warn they will not give way to provocations".

The publication of the booklet indicates that the minority group has now started the reconquest of town hall.  That initiative predicts a long and hash campaign. With the economic problems France presently face, the way to keep the power in Angers is not yet won for Mr Beatse and his team.

The Angers Tuareg reappears by the sides of a liberation movement of Northern Mali

Credit Angers city

A Malian, former Angers inhabitant up to January 2012, whom it was believed he joined islamists fighting African and French armies in the Northern Mali, is, in fact the spokesperson in Europe of the liberation national movement of Azawad (Mnla), according to the interview he granted to Le Figaro. The Mnla is an armed and "secularist" Tuareg group which aims to get the independance of Azawad, a region which covers the Northern part of Mali. Moussa Ag Assarid, who had settled in Angers as writer and storyteller, vanished at the beginning of last year.

Credit Wikipedia

His sudden departure caused a huge emotion in the Malian community of Angers which  believed he was in fact an Islamist. And it is possible that Mr Ag Assarid is still in France, but not in Angers. The surprise and the disppointment of the Malian community of that city was due to the fact that the Mnla was at the origin of the uprising of 2012 in the Northern Mali. But its members were, later, toppled by jihadists coming from abroad, but also from the Tuareg population. Moreover, Azawad has its own islamist movement.

If Mr Ag Assarid is not critical about the French army intervention in Mali which was threatened by an islamist coup d'Etat, he nervertheless condemned the fact France brought back in Norhern Mali the Malian army he accuses of exactions. In Mali, recent reports notice a resentment between Black and Tuaregs Malians.

The university enters in permanent expenses while some allocations are no renewable

The Angers University has just got a deferment thanks to Angers Loire Métropole which granted a "one-time" allocation. After a new round of talks between its president, Jean-Paul Saint-André, and the Higher education and research ministry, the 2013 budget of the university will be less in the red than foreseen. A month ago, the deficit was estimated at € 4 millions. But after new allocations from the ministry (a supplement of € 350 000), from others departments of the state (€ 500 000) and also from Angers Loire Métropole (€ 200 000) on one side, and savings of the Angers university on the other side, the deficit will be lowered at € 1,5 million.

Credit Picture Angers University

But Mr Saint-André looks incurable. After he stated that the staff expenses counted for more than 80% of the budget of the university, the president has announced the appointment of 67 persons in 2013 and 24 others in 2014! But these will undoubtedly make the expenses more difficult to reduce if ever the allocations from the state, or others partners, were do disminish. 

But how, Mr can Saint-André recognize that some buildings of the humanities college need desperately works (while students are working in unendurable conditions) and, at the same time recruit new employees ? Angers Loire Métropole said its help exceptional, i.e. no renewable. So Mr Saint-André should consider that he can't finance supplementary expenses with a grant which can never come back.

Wastes sorting : Angers Loire Métropole takes positions...

It is not sure all Angers students will like the advertising campaign of Angers Loire Métropole about the Kamasutri. The Kamasutri is a sum-up of gestures and movements students must adopt about the selective sorting of wastes.

It's true that there is nothing less sexy than sorting the wastes. "Many students do not stay in Angers more than a few months" and don't care about the cleanliness of the city, explains Gilles Mahé, deputy-president of Alm in charge of environment. He hopes through the distribution of a leaflet on "the pleasures of sorting without complexes", Alm will touch the target. 

Here the territorial authority has been less ambitious than the 64 positions of the original Kamasutra... not very appropriate to deal with the problem. Alm will teach the students boys how not to be troubled by wastes just a little bit and explains to the student girls simple positions to adopt in front of a bin.

The Malian community of Angers and city representatives side by side in the Mali crisis

Credit Pictures : facebook angersbamako

The Malian community of Angers pointed out on January 26th its frontal opposition to the Angers committee of the Mouvement pour la paix which, a few days ago, critized the involvement of France in the war against the terrorism of islamists in Mali. Malians living in Angers accompanied by the mayor of Angers, Frédéric Béatse, and the president of the Conseil général, Christophe Béchu, demonstrated side by side in Angers streets to support Malian population, victim of a conflict between its armed forces and islamist terrorists.


"The Malian community living in Angers launches an appeal for peace, for national integrity of [the country], secularism, tolerance, unity, security and democratic stability", said Lanse Coulibaly, president of the Malian community of Angers. A company of the 6th engineering regiment located in Angers has recently been sent to Mali to bring technical support to other French armed forces involved in the fight againts the islamists.

Another Malian association of Angers, Devoir de génération, pointed out that it was the the Malian people itself which asked the intervention of France "against terrorists". From the references to Malian unity of the two movements, it's cleart that those do not support the idea of independance claimed by a Malian  writer settled in Angers, Moussa Ag Assarid, whom it was said that he may have joined armed rebels forces in Mali a few months ago. Angers city brought aid to the capital of Mali, Bamako, a city the town of Anjou is twinned with.

The Angevins are able to be counted during the discount days

A quick walk in the Angers streets on Saturday 26th gives to the pedestrians the city has not yet completely recovered after the end of year 2012 holidays and no working days. In spite of the sunny weather that made disappear the nightly snowfall, and the absence of closing order to the weekly open air market, purchasers were not so numerous on the main ways of the city. The mobile store retailers themselves were not as numerous as previously : many locations usually occupied by various stalls were free.

In the downtown streets, the mood was not busy. Of course, couples were there to take benefit of the discount days : shoes and clothes were the most frequent items purchased that morning. But a glance in the stores, small and big, allows to notice that the sales have not been (yet?) very intense. Many items of good qualities at discounted prices (-30 or 40%) have not yet met their owner. The sales employees are not overloaded by shoppers.



As many French, Angers inhabitants looks cautious, even worried, about the evolution of their purchasing power, recently decreased by the first third of income tax. National medias have just reported bad trend of the unemployement rate whose increase was almost 12% in 2012 while the rate is at 9,7% was now very close to the French one (9,9%). This could explain that.

The Angers court will "now" seize the dealers' money

The magistrates of the Angers correctional court warned the offenders convinced of drug trafic. "From now", indicated the deputy public prosecutor, they will take money in the wallet of culprits. A 28 years old Angers inhabitant who sold drug has been sentenced to two years in jail with even for one of those two years a deferment. But the court that time ordered the "savings" he had in his parents' home and on a life insurance (both equal to 8 300 €) be taken. 

That is fair because the man sold drug for money, with of course, a little margin. To take the profit of this deadly trade is appropriate because these persons didn't had the least interest for the health or the lives of their customers nor the fate of their families. Because of the drugs they sold them, some consumers, mostly youngs, have became mentally or/and physically ill. Others are even dead. And their families endure a ordeal for life. A sentence they didn't deserve. But the dealers don't care.  

What is the most surprising in that case is the fact the magistrates only will start now to implement such sentences. Why they haven't done it before? That should have been done for long! The money, the sport cars, the luxury clothes and so, all should have been taken off for long. And that will not refund their victims or the families" victims. "Ill got, ill spent".
 

The "Long walk" of China in Angers

Angers already had, for years, numerous chinese restaurants. Since 2000, the city hosts more and more chinese students mainly trough the Centre international d'études françaises of the Université catholique de l'Ouest. And, since 2009, a Confucius institute settled in Angers in order to make the town more familiar with the chinese language and culture. On February 2nd, the Chinese New Year event will parade in down town.
A giant snake made of plastic bottles will animate stretts of down town and especially on Ralliement square on Saturday. The place will display several animations on the Chinese historic myths and environmental stakes (event if China is not the most worried country by ecological issues).
The Angers inhabitants are already used to meet Chinese students who, in the city, are great users of the free bike service, a transport mean still very common in that country. But in Angers, the Chinese community seems to be a world apart which doesn't mix with other categories of inhabitants. But not a single problem has ever been reported. As if a mental "great wall"  had been erected between them and other people.

Angers companies are not always "maids in Angers"

"Made in Angers" is back. From February 18th to March 15th, the thirteenth edition of the event tries to reinvent itself through a focus on the jobs which raise work to art forms and another one about innovation. Innovation, incidentally, would be appropriate to give a new look to the event. That one gives more and more the feeling that Angers is indulging in navel-gazing. Would it be possible to open the scheme to somebody else than Angers inhabitants?

The mood of Angevins towards companies doesn't appear to have change funda-mentaly over the years. Even the authorities consider the entre-preneurs only through what these can offer : jobs, well before growth. And in Angers Loire Métropole, the website introduces the event through the phrase "100 boîtes" to visit, what looks a little bit nasty... ("boîte" has no equivalent in English). The job dating which is planned at the end of the event is praiseworthy, but is it efficient? And the president of Angers Loire Métropole in the leaflet detailing Made in Angers aknowledges that Made in Angers is the opportunity for companies to enforce their links with the territory. And what about the opposite?

Other perspective would be possible. The first one would be to give a wider fame to the event by inviting neighbours of other western cities to come. And why not from Paris, with tours around Angers? A second way could consist in turning Made in Angers towards professionnal circles : investors, managers from France or abroad. It's not good to walk round and round. Made in Angers could become mad. Some managers would probably think that their companies are sometimes considered as important, because most of the year, they are considered, through fiscal pressure, as "maids in Angers".
 

The 2014 municipal polls, first serial of the new Angers télé

Olivier Hamon, manager Angers télé (Credit Angers city)

Is it a coincidence? Just two days after the end of the 25th European first films festival, Angers télé will say "action". And the city will be able to look itself on the cathodic mirror. The absence of a local channel could not go on, writes Angers town hall on its website, pointing out the gap of the state channel : "Angers was never provided with a local editorial board of France 3"...

But on February 29th, serious things are starting. If Angers tele starts, rightly, at low scale, the first time schedule is not very convincing : sports on Monday, economy on Tuesday, associations on Wednesday, soccer on Thursday (what are sports on Monday?) and culture on Friday. On Saturday and Monday, news are in weekend... It sounds like fish and ships on Sunday, roasted pork on Monday... Twice a month, Angers télé will dedicate a programm to one of the districts of the city : they are twelve. What it will cover after?

Hopefully, the starting will concide with the municipal campaign of 2014 and that is a good serial. The debate between left and right and inside left and right should ensure long hours of programs. Those circumstances will also allow the viewers to check the independance of the editorial line. The first shots will be a festival. Good luck!

Snowballs fight in Angers town council over the Saturday open air market

The cancellation of the open air market of Saturday triggered critics of the minority Angers representatives and beyond that municipal circle. After the mobile stores owners expressed their sorrow for that measure and the financial loss it involves, the opposition town councillors choose a more sarcastic mood. "Do we have to give a barometer to Frédéric Béatse, the only mayor of the Maine-et-Loire who didn't forecast the snowfalls of last year, nor the mild spell of Saturday. Last year, he sinned by carelessness. That year, because of an excess of zeal", they wrote in a press release. 

But the most intriguing statement was those of Christophe Béchu, which can't be explained other than he will be candidate to the next municipal polls (2014). According to the president of the Conseil général de Maine-et-Loire, the Angers mayor's decision was "sudden" and let foresee that "he didn't estimated all the consequences for the mobile store owners".

The deputy mayor, Jacques Motteau, is also blamed by the storekeepers who said they were not warned of the Angers town hall decision. The weather conditions will be carefully examined both by the minority and majority sides of Angers council next Saturday, and maybe next year. With such a weather, the chances of snow is uncertain, but the snowballs fights are sure!

European first films festival : Angers supporters behind the screen

Angers city has got an award for hosting the European first films festival for 25 years. That award, a little specific, was granted to the city by Claude-Eric Poiroux, managing director of the even, by a tribute. "If the festival broke through, it is because a cinematographic culture has rooted here. That, thanks to a work along the year with the Premiers plans team", he said on the Angers city website. "The festival has developed actions qwith about sixty local parters, associations, authorities, schools...". 

Who are they? Regarding the public authorities, the festival got the support of Angers city and the Conseil général de Maine-et-Loire (their union is not very frequent...). More than 30 local companies from very different horizons help the event to go on : finance (Crédit Mutuel d'Anjou, Harmonie Anjou), public buildings and works sector (Coignard, Comec, Maleinge), communication (Andégave communication), associations (Adrama-Chabada, Mécène et Loire, Cci de Maine-et-Loire), industry (Eolane, Scania), stores (Abg, La Sadel), wines (Bouvet) as well as brands of the culture sector : cinemas (Gaumont Angers, Le Quai, Les 400 Coups), tourism (Angers parc Expo Congrès) and Angers university.


But British organizations granted their support like the Bristish Council which promotes cultural relations with Uk and the Institut français in London which encourages cross-cultural exchange and presents the best of French culture.

The adjournment of Angers open air market has not been sold to mobile store owners

The decision of Angers townhall to prohibit the opening of the Saturday open air market fueled lack of understanding among mobile store owners. While the major part of the Leclerc square, usually dedicated to that weekly activity, was, on January 18th, empty of stalls... and cars, a few mobile store owners selling fruits and vegetables nervertheless decided to confront the cold. A few dozens of meters further down, fishshops and others food mobile stores were working as usual.

That scene reminds another issue largely discussed by the Angers retail and large trade owners : the prohibition to open on Sundays, even the Sundays before the end of year holidays. That decision of Angers Loire Métropole authority was widely criticized because that period of Christmas and End of year day is usually very profitable for their sales.

The weather conditions are the obvious reasons which made the Angers city to decide the closing that Saturday of the the open air market. But, were the temperature and wind in Angers so hard to justify the stop of trade activity? Are not the mobile store owners the best entitled to decide what is best for their job?

Pasteur crime scene stays with the knock of the fright

Eight days ago, Nicole Châtelain had her throat cut by a man she helped a few years before through the caritative community she managed in Angers. Since that ugly day, the blood of the woman has been swept. The glasses of the entrance door of her building smashed by bullets and hammer knocks has been replaced. And the few humble bouquets of flowers put by neighbours on the steps have been removed.

All the marks of the horrible, and beyond understanding, death of that peaceful woman who, a week ago came back home from her market, have vanished. Probably the rememberance of the woman, few by few, will disappear except for her former neighbours. Their goings and comings by the entrance of their common building will always meet the shadow of the victim. In the Angers community Promojeunes, where she dedicated her time, probably the souvenir of her actions will be kept as a model to follow. While people walking along the scene crime may think : "Is that so sure?".


But what this "news item" will suggest to Angers city responsable in charge of the hosting of displaced populations? Is it possible to welcome people unprepared for such a change of universe without giving them the intellectual tools to melt in Angers and among its inhabitants? Are they sure they can behave as if they were God?

Angers inhabitants civic mindedness frosted

The snow which felt over Angers city in the early morning of January 17th had nothing to see with the snowfalls of February 2012. But, its predictable arrival was an opportunity for Angers city to deal with the difficulties triggered by such meteorological conditions for inhabitants, drivers and mainly pedestrians. If, generally, the situation today has improved in comparison with those of 2012 for trafic, the state of Angers pavements were far from safe for people.

In a city which is looking to promote walking instead of driving the first advice to inhabitants or store owners had neverthless sense of timing. "Angers city recalls that everybody is due to clear the snow from the pavement along one's home or store", indicated the city website. But apparently, the warning has been far from recorded.

That time Angers townhall took care of detailing on its internet page all the measures of caution it implemented regarding trafic, cancellation of events or clorure of public places. But the worst is maybe to come : the night from Friday to Saturday will be icy. So trafic will be hazardous till Sunday. Townhall which ordered a few days ago to close the ski-trail should order to reopen it.

Letter from the editor

Dear Mr. Lewis,
Thank you for your kind messages. How do I do? I don't know but I would like to do more and better.
Best regards.
Edgar

Avalanche of bad news on Angers students

If snowfalls are predicted on Thursday to Friday night, it's an avalanche of bad news which stormed over Angers students on January 17th. They had been informed that the dean, Jean-Paul Saint-André, didn't got a single euro more for the management of his university current fiscal year, that one being already considered by hom as "under provided" in allocations by the ministry of higher education and research. The second news came from Angers city itself who announced (what was predicted on December 19th by Angers Daily News) that the Saint-Serge parking lot, where students of the law university park their cars, will be from now charged (while it was free).

The origins of such a decision could come from the wish of Angers city to deter inhabitants to use their cars and lead them to choose the tramway, their bikes or their feet... According to town hall, facilities to park the cars are too much important in Angers compared to other cities. So the "incentive" consists in the reduction of those facilities. The second element would be the need of Angers to get more resources. A few months ago, fares of other car parks of down town had been dramatically increased what infuriated retail store owners.

That policy doesn't fit with the attempt to bring back in down town student population which is an important leverage of consumption nor the claim to revitalize the core of the city. The money they will pour in new ticket machines will not go elswhere.  If the policy is to oust cars from town, a simple prohibition would have been more effective.

The Angers universtiy didn't got additionnal money for the current year

The president of Angers university, Jean-Paul Saint-André didn't got, from the French ministry of higher education and research, the additionnal allocation he asked during an appointment on January 16th. The Angers university said Mr. Saint-André was "very resentful" when he left the ministry without a single euro more. That will not allow to the Angers University to recruit new teachers or employees in 2013, a situation Mr Saint-André considers it is "unacceptable". But given the explanations detailed on January 8th during a public conference, it is difficult to opt for another way.
 
During that conference, the president recalled the origins of the "critical situation" of Angers University. While 80% of the expenses of the university were already related to wages, between 2009 and 2011, the board give tenure to 100 persons, depriving itself of all possibilities of a regress in case of financial difficulties. "That reccruitment of an important number of persons had a direct impact on the payroll", said Mr Saint-André. That one recognized that the 2012 budget was moreover built on "unrealistic hypothesis" : under valuation of expenses and over valuation of receipts which triggered a savings plan last year which reduced the deficit.

Credit pictures Angers university

But apparently, the university shoud have considered cautiously a ministry hypothesis. After a meeting with the French minister on December 14th, who told to Mr Saint-André that the 2013 allocation would be "between 1,5 and 3% above that of 2012", the university considered it will be 3%. Moreover, the Angers university board refused the "freeze" of recruitments. A new information conference is planned for January 28th.

The financial problems of Angers university didn't rallied Angers students

About 1 000 students were in the streets of Angers on January 15th demonstrating against the insufficient allocation their university has received from the French ministry of higher education and research. One thousand persons is not a very important figure compared to the importance of the situation and compared to the number of students of Angers university, more than 20 000... Moreover, there were not only students who demonstrated in down town, but also teachers and trade unions representatives of the campus.

That proportion could have many meanings. January is generally a period dedicated by students to work on mid-year exams. So some of them were not available that day. But some demonstrators could have the same constraint. More generally, that week involvement may indicate a focusing on one's inner self in spite of an accumulation of short and long term difficulties for young people today : work, housing, money...

The Angers mayor, Frédéric Béatse, and the university president, Jean-Paul Saint-André, were in the cortege; That last havd an appointment the same evening at Paris to get supplementary resources (€ 4 millions are needed to balance the 2013 budget). According to M. Saint-André who considers Angers is one the most poorest universities of France, the financial situation is "critical".