Puppet Show Links French Modernism With Cambodian Tradition

By: Olivia Harlow
Produced & Edited by: The Cambodia Daily

Handmade leather and paper puppets, 2 meters tall, crinkle their way across the stage, dancing in sync with the music to tell the tale of a boy with only one eye who cannot hear, and his twin sister, who has one ear but cannot see.

This will be the scene on stage at the Institut Francais in Phnom Penh on Saturday night, when French theater group Compagnie l’Aurore and Phnom Penh’s Kok Thlok artists’ association present the fruits of their first collaboration, a show that gives traditional Khmer shadow puppetry a modern French twist.

The production—“Un Oeil, Une Oreille” (“An Eye, An Ear”)—which premiered last week in Battambang City, is a story of separation and reunification, the story of two children, one of whom experiences the world only through sight, the other only through sound.

“It’s a mythology story about two children separated when they’re born and then trying to join all their life,” explained performance director Francois Dubois of Compagnie l’Aurore, which is based in the southern French town of La Reole. “At the end, they will succeed, but they will be different persons.”

Mr. Dubois’s production uses the contrast between the “ear” and the “eye” to meld auditory and visual elements, as well as an interplay between French and Cambodian influences. Taken as a whole, the show is a bid to modernize one of Cambodia’s oldest art forms, one that is struggling to find a foothold in a world of television soap operas and Facebook.

Sbek thom—a traditional form of Khmer puppetry dating back to the Angkorian era and recognized on Unesco’s list of intangible cultural heritage—uses flat, intricately carved leather figures to tell stories of ancient deities from behind illuminated white screens.

After first witnessing the Kok Thlok artists practice sbek thom in Phnom Penh four years ago, Mr. Dubois was inspired to play with the art form and integrate it into his own work.

To see the rest of the story, see: https://www.cambodiadaily.com/culture/shadow-spectacle-102754/

French safe injection sites: From public health to politics

By: Jennifer Halliday 
Produced and edited by: Leisha Lininger 

In the 1970s, the Netherlands opened their first safe injection facilities, which provided a safe and humane environment for those marginalized in society by addiction to inject their drugs in a supportive, non-judgmental way. Safe injection rooms, or legalized “shooting galleries” are facilities where addicts can inject heroin and other drugs with sterile needles provided by medical professionals. Since the 1970s, these facilities have spread throughout several European countries such as Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, and Spain and have even moved across seas to Canada and Australia.

With growing concern for both drug-related injuries and transmission of blood-borne diseases in the country of France, Marisol Touraine, France’s health minister, has announced a trial run of safe injection facilities. 

“I hope that experimental trials will be announced before the end of the year,” Touraine told French BFM television.

France has become a natural distribution point for drugs moving toward North America from Europe and the Middle East. The country’s overseas territories in the Caribbean, its proximity to North Africa, and its participation in the Schengenopen border system, contribute to its desirability as a transit point for drugs. In fact, the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law EnforcementAffairs reports that drugs from Morocco, South America, Afghanistan, Turkey, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany all find their way into France.

“One of the most dangerous drugs, one of the most prevalent drugs, one of the most addicting drugs, that we’re dealing with is heroin,” said Dr. Michel Craplet of the Association Nationale de Prevention en Alcoologie et Addictologie.

Heroin is an opiate analgesic synthesized from the opium poppy plant. According to a study by Carpentier and Costes, an estimated 160,000 heroin addicts live in France alone.
The country currently offers three forms of drug addiction treatment financed by the French social security system: outpatient care, inpatient care, and treatment for prison inmates. 

“If you combined all three types of this treatment, there’s still only about 270 of these centers throughout the entire country,” said Craplet.

And according to Carpentier and Costes’ study, heroin-related deaths in the country have jumped thirty percent since 2000. As a result, many public health organizations are calling for a rapid start to the safe injection room program. 

“Other countries’ safe injection rooms have shown a benefit to the public health situation,” said Christian Andreo, manager of the French AIDES National Program. “They have proven to cause a reduction of HIV and AIDS contamination as well as provide more access to care.”

Supervised injection sites are credited with lowering overdoses, reducing the spread of blood-borne diseases, improving client heath and public health, providing entry to drug treatment and other medical and social services, and reducing public disorder. They have also been linked to reductions in neighborhood crime.

However, despite numerous studies that support the implementation of safe injection rooms, Andreo has serious doubts that they will be up and running by the end of the year.

“I have doubts concerning the possibility to open such a program by the end of the year,” said Andreo. “It’s a lot of work to do with the competition from local authorities and police.”
Opposition for the implementation of safe injection rooms is widespread throughout France.

In an opinion poll conducted in September by French polling agency Ifop, 55 percent of those questioned said they were against them, while 45 percent said they were in favor.
However, the program’s largest opposition is France’s conservative UMP party, which has said it was against the opening of such trial centers.

“Opening consumption rooms does not help fight against the scourge of drugs, but rather trivializes drug use and legalizes the use of the hardest drugs at the taxpayer’s expense,” said Camille Bedin, the party’s national secretary in a statement to the press.

The idea of safe injection rooms opening in France has made headlines in the country since 2010. However, public health organizations are asking people to put the politics aside.

“On the topic of drug rooms, it’s really hard to focus on just what the science says,” says the AIDES program’s Andreo. “We will always debate and we will have a political party in favor of the opposing side, but we must focus on the health involved.”

Despite heavy political opposition, the French public has shown signs of supporting the implementation of safe injection rooms. In April’s presidential campaign, the PS candidate Francois Hollande was elected over the UMP’s incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. During his campaign, Hollande said the he would oversee the opening of France’s first “shooting galleries.” Medecins du Monde, along with other organizations, has since called on Hollande to see his word into action.

“We advocate for the opening of safe injection rooms, but you can’t open these programs without a legal basis, we need that legal basis,” said Medecins du Monde’s Emmanuelle Hau.

President Hollande has received support for his move to open safe injection rooms from fellow party member Jean-Marie Le Guen, of the Assemblee Nationale.

“I would prefer that these destitute drug abusers inject themselves in specialized rooms, rather than in the street or apartment building stairwells, as is the case today,” says Le Guen. “I would prefer that they are surrounded by medical professionals.”

The political stigma that surrounds drug-related issues such as the opening of safe injection rooms led to a two-year debate, prolonging possible public health services to thousands of French citizens. Some public health organizations say that the best move for public safety is to remove this stigma altogether.

“We aim for the end of the criminalization of drug use,” said the AIDES program’s

Andreo. “We want to prove that, with certain practices, people can really reduce the risks.”

French Wine Tops Market Depsite Weather

By: Jennifer Halliday

Produced & Edited by:Kaylyn Hlavaty

For decades, France has been on top of the world’s production of wine, competing closely with Italy and Spain. However, the wine industry is changing; almost every wine-producing nation is suffering a severe shortage in materials, prices are increasing across the globe, and competition is emerging in the international market. Despite the odds piled against French vintners, their confidence, and their sales, appear unaffected.

Due to this year’s inclement weather and disease-damaged raw material, France is expecting a 20 percent drop in wine production. The current production forecast is estimated at about 40.6 million hectoliters, down from 50.9 hectoliters in 2011. According to a report from the French Ministry of Agriculture, “all the categories of wine will see their production decline compared to 2011. Production estimates are particularly tricky this year due to the variation in grape weight in most of the vineyards.”

“Grapevines, like any other crop, need a healthy climate to survive,” said Catherine Thevenin, creator of Fuguesen France “they need warm, dry summers and very mild winters, and we haven’t been seeing that kind of weather at all.

                               

    Bordeaux Grapes Courtesy of  non-profit worldwidewine.com Academic Fair Use

This year, French vineyards were damaged by cold and wet conditions as well as heat waves and droughts near the end of the summer. Grapevines in Burgundy and Beaujolais were destroyed in hailstorms, with surviving crops being ravaged by mildew and funguses.

“What has made this year so hard in particular is the fact that no one vineyard has been spared. Every region has seen at least some damage during this harvest,” said Thevenin.

France is home to several different wine regions and different species of grapes grow in each individual region. Therefore, production of certain wines will drop far more than others. Production in the Champagne region alone is expected to slump 40 percent after damage from frost and “particularly virulent” attacks by mildew and oidium, the ministry said.

Although wine may seem like a luxury commodity, it consistently brings in over seven billion euros annually to France. In 2011, France exported 7.17 billion euros of wine and champagne, accounting for 13 percent of the country’s farm and food exports. The expectation is that a lower yielding grape crop will result in a lower number of wine exports.

“Every month, the estimated [wine] production number seems to go lower and lower,” said Christophe Malvezin, an Agricultural Counselor for the French embassy, “but what we aren’t seeing is a negative effect on our international trade.”

In the first half of this year, wine shipments rose 14 percent to 3.57 billion euros. The main contributors were Americans, who are purchasing French wine and spirits in record amounts. Last year alone, America supplied 18 percent of France’s wine exports. This year’s shortage of supply has caused demand for wine to continue to grow, and French winemakers are taking advantage of it by raising the cost.

Prices on French generic red wine rose ten cents per liter last month. According to Anais Ricome, a winemaker for the Languedoc’s Domaine la Croix Gratiot, an increase in prices will not deter American consumers, who are looking for a more “sophisticated” taste.

“There seems to be a lot of young sommeliers and buyers who are interested in esoteric wines,” said Ricome.

In fact, even the French are amazed at how far American consumers will go to find the best French wine. Samuel Guibert, managing director of Languedoc producer Mas de Damas Gassac, remarked that he has been surprised how well French wines from outside the best-known regions have done in America.

“The rest of France is doing better than ever,” said Guibert, “five years ago you couldn’t fill a room if you had Languedoc wines. The whole emphasis on values is playing in our favor.”

With French wine stocking shelves all across America, American winemakers are trying their hardest to compete. In an attempt to sell more wine in their top export market, American vintners are trying to use chateau labels on their wine.

“What is at stake is the respect for tradition and quality,” said Laurent Gapenne, president of the Federation des Grand Vins de Bordeaux in an interview with The Associated Press.

French chateau bottles are wines made at the estate from grapes belonging to the chateau. The chateau wine tradition dates back centuries and the exclusivity of supplies makes it a more expensive product. However, the U.S. chateau definition is less stringent, including all “vines that have been traditionally used by this wine producer or producer group.”

Courtesy of wineterroirs.com, an association of wine makers. Academic Fair Use.

“The Americans could create ‘chateau’ wines from grapes from all over and prices would of course be much lower,” said Gapenne.

While some American winemakers may be trying to push French wines out of the market with lower prices, another group of American vintners is turning their attention away from France. The Wine Institute, an association of 1,000 California wineries and businesses, has decided to focus on Asia for its international wine trade.

“Asia is a strong wine market with long-term growth across the board for California wines,” said Linsey Gallagher, International Marketing Director at the Wine Institute, “California wine and its lifestyle and cuisine hold great appeal to consumers in China and our other key Asian markets.”

American wine exports to China provided $62 million last year, a 42 percent increase. However, French vintners do not appear to feel threatened.

“There is no fear from French winemakers about the position of China,” said Malvezin.

French wine exports to China have also jumped, rising 75.5 percent just last year. In fact, China rose two spots to become the third-largest importer of French wine and spirits. Despite rough weather trends and fierce competition, France still remains dominant over the international wine industry, both in market volume and value.