Florence Aubenas brings passion to prison reform
It was one of those rare, friendly, informal meetings with a top French journalist: Florence Aubenas, the prize-winning war correspondent and former hostage in Iraq, whose best-selling book Quai de Ouistreham, recounts her six months living as a lower-class cleaning lady, notably on an English ferry boat.
A dozen members spent two hours with her at Member John Morris' Marais apartment March 15, talking about her book, the realities and risks of being a foreign correspondent, and what it's like being both a journalist at Nouvel Observateur and president of France's leading NGO promoting reform of the nation's prison system.
The French media largely ignore the day-to-day lives of those living in constant jobless precarity, she explained, which inspired the idea for the book.
Regarding the delicate issue of paying ransoms for hostages, and without providing details of her own release in 2005 after several months of captivity in Iraq, Aubenas said that France's policy is the opposite of U.S. policy and does in fact pursue negotiations.
The final phase of the evening, graced not only by John's hospitality but the beverages and snacks volunteered by those who attended, covered a wide range of questions related to the reform of French prisons and her ability to be a journalist and an advocate.
"My position at the OIP, the Paris-based International Observatory of Prisons, is not political,” she said, “and involves being devoted to improving human rights...a devotion I apply in journalism and in my writing."
---Axel Krause
Renault's P. Pelata talks to AAPA
Renault's Chief Operating Officer Patrick Pelata spilled a few beans and created news when he met with the AAPA over breakfast on Dec. 17 at the auto maker's headquarters. Pelata disclosed that Renault is talking to other companies including Germany's Daimler AG and some in China about possible collaboration in making key car components.. He explained how Renault is trying to emerge fit and healthy from the unprecedented crisis that hammered the global automobile industry over the last 18 months. "We're trying to understand what went wrong, and to identify our weak spots," he said.
AGM elects a dynamic new management team
Our Annual General Meeting, held Nov. 12 and once again hosted by Member John Morris Nov. 12, elected a new slate of officers and committee for 2009-2010.
Virginia Power was unanimously elected president, pledging to lead actively and creatively, following a successful tenure of the co-presidency of Georgina Oliver and Gregory Viscusi, who will remain as ex-officio members for the new term.
Eleanor Beardsley and Anne-Elisabeth Moutet were elected Vice-Presidents; John Davidson was re-elected Treasurer and yours truly Secretary General. John Keating was elected Syndic.
The incoming committee appointed by election is: Crispian Balmer, Charles Bremner, Mildrade Cherfils, William Diem, Steven Erlanger, Vaiju Naravane, Catherine Nolan and David Pearson. And, amid a round of applause, Maria Vincenza Aloisi was confirmed as our hard-working coordinator.
The Association’s finances “are in much better shape than they were a year earlier,” the Treasurer said in his report e-mailed to the membership. Our investment nest-egg remained intact, and expenses have been significantly reduced. The sound financial situation has enabled the committee to vote a budget for the professional design of a new Web site, which should be on-line by the end of the year.
We gained and lost members in roughly equal numbers during the 2008-2009 term, and our roster of active and associate members now stands at 127.
Introduced and welcomed were new members who briefly explained who they represented: Millie Cherfils, Global Post; William Martz, Paris Magazine; Francois Picard, France 24; Brent Gregston, Radio France International; Mary Papenfuss, Newser and Eleaine Cobbe, CBS News.
The outgoing committee organized 14 events over the past year, compared to 16 a year ago and 20 in the previous year. Costs to members were reduced significantly by, for example, preferring breakfast events to lunches, and by meeting our guests in locales such as embassies, ministries, the OECD, UNESCO and the CAPE, the foreign press center.
The incoming officers and committee members are gearing up for another active year of activities, with some events already in the pipeline, including a meeting with a top executive of Renault.
------- Axel Krause
Une Grande Dame De La Chanson Française
--- Georgina Oliver
AAPA Members Meet New Head Of UNESCO
Some thirty members had a first-hand chance to probe Irina Bokova’s background, experience and plans for UNESCO following her successful election as Director General of the Paris-based agency, in a newsworthy, lively event on Oct. 7.
Our breakfast meeting with Bokova, still at that time Bulgaria's ambassador to France, took place at UNESCO headquarters, following a heated behind-the-scenes battle in which she narrowly defeated the controversial, Egyptian culture minister, Farouk Hosny.
Relaxed, forthcoming, and on-the-record, the 57-year-old diplomat told us about her background: how she had once wanted to be a foreign correspondent; why she supported and respected the role of her father, former editor of Bulgaria’s then-leading Communist Party newspaper, and who had proven a strong, anti-Nazi resistant leader during World War II; and how, over the years, as a trained diplomat, she came to actively support Bulgaria’s membership in the European Union and NATO.
Responding to many questions, Bokova outlined her plans for UNESCO as she prepared to take over from Japan’s Koichiro Matsura, who was our guest, nine years earlier. She pledged to address such key, global issues as climate change, gender roles, the financial crisis and said she plans to decentralize the organization with its 2,800 employees. Some thirty members had a first-hand chance to probe Irina Bokova’s background, experience and plans for UNESCO following her successful election as Director General of the Paris-based agency, in a newsworthy, lively event on Oct. 7.
Our breakfast meeting with Bokova, still at that time Bulgaria's ambassador to France, took place at UNESCO headquarters, following a heated behind-the-scenes battle in which she narrowly defeated the controversial, Egyptian culture minister, Farouk Hosny.
Relaxed, forthcoming, and on-the-record, the 57-year-old diplomat told us about her background: how she had once wanted to be a foreign correspondent; why she supported and respected the role of her father, former editor of Bulgaria’s then-leading Communist Party newspaper, and who had proven a strong, anti-Nazi resistant leader during World War II; and how, over the years, as a trained diplomat, she came to actively support Bulgaria’s membership in the European Union and NATO.
Responding to many questions, Bokova outlined her plans for UNESCO as she prepared to take over from Japan’s Koichiro Matsura, who was our guest, nine years earlier. She pledged to address such key, global issues as climate change, gender roles, the financial crisis and said she plans to decentralize the organization with its 2,800 employees.
---- Axel Krause