France: Reaction To Rama Yade's Transition From Human Rights Minister To Sports Minister

As Booker Rising readers know, yesterday French President Nicolas announced his cabinet reshuffle which is making big news in Europe. He has sidelined our girl, who was the French Secretary of State for Human Rights and is a popular moderate-conservative known for her outspokenness, by eliminating her position and moving her over as French Secretary of State for Sport.

Does Sarkozy Devalue Human Rights?

President Sarkozy is being criticized for the move. "This is a political signal that the government has given up on promoting human rights as a top priority," said Jean-Marie Fardeau, director of Human Rights Watch in France.

At the blog of Le Figaro (a leading French newspaper), Fabrice Nodé-Langlois asks (in French): "why remove Rama Yade from her position", arguing that human rights is central to French foreign policy.

Gruni, a French liberal writer, opines that Ms. Yade is a "broken headstock" (in French): "Rama Yade, the young beautiful black woman with the slim physique worthy of a mannequin, with the radiant smile, blazing youth and with communicative enthusiasm, has unfortunately lost her Secretary of State for Human Rights position. The boss sliced in the sharp one, but to hear it the Secretary of State is not a sanction, everyone knows that true punishment is the European Parliament. Rama Yade already has the beauty, but that is not enough, she wants glory and money, she is even ready to even lose her heart to remain in this government."

Her First Blunder: Confusing Two Important Points In Sports History (Involving Blacks, No Less)

France Info argues that Ms. Yade best brush up on sports history (in French): "In her first speech as Secretary of State of Sport, yesterday during the transfer of power with Bernard Laporte, Rama Yade has seems to confused two important sporting history facts....She wanted to exalt the values of sport, to pay homage to those which defended them throughout history: Nelson Mandela 'carrying the shirt of Springboks at the end of apartheid' to South Africa, or 'the Afro-American Jesse Owens holding up his rebellious fist against the Nazis'…It is there that the pack pounced: if Jesse Owens actually defied Hitler at the time of the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, it was only on sporting grounds. The American athlete gained four gold medals under Fuhrer's watch, thus ridiculing Hitler's theories about the superiority of the Aryan race. Those who 'held up the fist', to take again the expression used by Rama Yade, were John Carlos and Tommie Smith in Mexico City in 1968: the two athletes, black and American like Jesse Owens, thus intended to denounce the condition of American blacks."

Le Post, a French news site noticed the same mistake (in French). Oh boy, Le Post is raking ol' girl over the coals for that blunder! It even created a "Rama Quiz: Do You Have The Knowledge To Be Sports Minister?" (in French).

"We Like The Appointment"

Fabien Barcella, a rugby player, gave his two cents at a press conference (article in French): “To start, she is very pretty. It is already a very good thing. (Laughter) Bernard Laporte [former Sports Minister] made expenses. French sport is doing rather well even if there are still regular cases of doping. There are cheaters and it is necessary to regulate.”

A news website in Réunion - an island off the southeastern coast of Africa which is an "overseas department" of France - is glad for the change, while arguing for the necessity of a Réunion Sports Institute: "Laporte, bof! Rama Yade, ah good!"

Rama Yade Vs. Alain Duhamel

She's in a public row with a prominent French journalist and political commentator who argues that the move amounts to a demotion and punishment, and argues that she's in love with her own image (article in French). There's back and forth between the two.