French MPs recommend that Totalfina

[dawnstar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Re: French MPs recommend that Totalfina pull out of Yadana

Look Eric, David has  made a good attempt at translation french to
english, don't be too concerned about the exactness; there isnt any. You
would be amazed and maybe you know already, the liberty french give in
translation from english into french; from movies to documents, movies
are the most blatant example. in documents, the linguistic variables at
play resist literal translations; they often fail.

In any event, this french inquiry commission is yet another
demonstration of how the french will do nothing to stop the pipeline.
the inquiry commission will not go anywhere within the legalistic
labyrinth and potholes of french parliamentary democracy between
Matignon, now led by prime minister Jospin, of the socialist majority
government, a free for all coalition between the fractured green party
socialists and communists,  and the French executive, the Elysee Palace,
institution of Presidential power, Chirac. 

what the inquiry commission does is frenchify the european resolutions
and the SI resolutions last November as well as the ILO documents.
However none of these resolutions have any firm or binding effect.
These teeth don't bite. A little barking, thats all. 

What might be better said is that, the French democracatic system does
not function very well, like the Ratchaburi plant. It is more a
demonstration of their ineffectiveness, and it comes at a time when
TOTAL has never been stronger, or bigger, or more apparently influential
over the entire french nation. For example, no one here is talking about
the millions of dollars in the holdings of the president and his Excom
board of directors and board members, but they do attack the fall-man
Philippe Jaffre, an ex-Balladur govt appointee, who has taken some 50
million dollars to leave Elf, and to set up the takeover by Total. No
one really talks about the fact that Desmarest of Total, is an ex govt
functionary, when Jacques Chirac was Prime Minister under Giscard, 1976.
If you look closely, real closely at the govt connections and the rise
of Desmarest and the evolution of TOTAL, more will become clear to you
that trying to stop TOTAL now, inside France, is like asking a
supertanker at sea to change course because there is a sailboat dead
ahead. It just wont happen. ds



Eric Snider wrote:
> 
> How loose a translation of the expression 'soit fige' has our doughty
> translator
> given us here in saying that the parliamentarians recommended that
> TotalFina
> 'pull out' of Yadana?
> 
> It's really not very clear from the fragment we have here what the
> parliamentarians are recommending.  In saying that it would be opportune
> for the investment to be 'congealed' or 'frozen' it sounds more like they
> are against any further investment, certainly by French interests, in view
> of the potentially damaging effects of a boycott.
> 
> ----------
> I HAVE MADE A LOOSE TRANSLATION
> 
> Now would be a good time to pull out of this investment, given that the
> Rachaburi power station is still not operating.
> 
> "Il serait opportun qu'un tel  investissement soit figé d'autant que la
> centrale de Rachaburi en thailande ne fonctionne toujours pas."