Bookeristas In The News

France: Rama Yade Supported By More Than 2/3 Of Public

More than 2/3 of French don't want Rama Yade, the outspoken Secretary of State for Sports and moderate-conservative, to be forced to resign even though some of her positions are at odds with the ruling center-right government (article in French). The national poll showed Ms. Yade as the only minister to receive more than 50% approval. The poll shows that 67% want the former human rights minister to stay right where she is, 22% want her to resign, and 11% were undecided.

Ms. Yade's support goes across the ideological spectrum, with 61% of self-identified center-rightists not wanting her to leave government (29% support her resignation). Meanwhile, 73% of self-identified center-leftists oppose her leaving government (20% support her resignation). "Rama Yade creates a rare unanimous vote, whatever the category of people", said BVA, who conducted the poll for Canal+ television.

Since becoming a minister in 2007, Ms. Yade has generated controversy for speaking out against France's embrace of African dictators, refusing to head the center-right UMP's list for the European Parliament last year (which many French politicos consider political Siberia), a recent nepotism scandal involving President Sarkozy's son, and recently dissenting from her party on the Parliament floor in opposing overturning tax cuts for French athletes. One UMP minister told her to "shut her mouth or quit", and Prime Minister Fallon recently said her days were numbered. Meanwhile, President Sarkozy is punishing her outspokenness for the nepotism scandal by demanding that she run for office in Val d'Oise (a poor, immigrant area where she has no ties) in March 2010 regional elections instead of in Hauts-de-Seine (her affluent home district where she grew up, where she is already an elected official and wishes to use the regional elections as a springboard to Parliament; this district is where many French politicians - including President Sarkozy - rise in French politics and where he wants his son to rise). Ms. Yade has adamantly objected to the Val-d'Oise placement, calling it "ethnic parachuting".

Ghana: Danquah Institute Objects To Impersonation

Danquah Institute has condemned what it calls misguided political lies by some individuals intended to dent the image of the institute. The Accra-based think tank said in a statement: “Information reaching our office suggests that some [New Patriotic Party] delegates and executives involved in the ongoing internal party constituency elections in the western region and elsewhere have been receiving calls and messages from unknown persons with hidden or private phone numbers claiming to be calling from the Danquah Institute. The messages of these unknown callers suggest that the institute views the current party executives as responsible for the party’s failure to retain power in the 2008 elections [where the NPP lost by less than 1% of the vote to the center-left National Democratic Congress] and hence is calling on delegates to ensure that all such current executives of the party should be voted out.”

Nana Attobrah Quaicoe, the head of research at the Danquah Institute, states that "while the institute as a liberal conservative think tank shares common philosophies and ideologies with the NPP, it is certainly not an organ, arm, department or wing of the NPP or any party, neither is it involved in the day to day running of the party’s activities including the ongoing elections. It is therefore preposterous and diabolical for any group or person to want to bring the institute into disrepute with such reckless suggestions. As our philosophy, the institute believes in the freedom of choice, association and the expression of such views including a free and fair casting of ballots. We therefore dissociate ourselves from such messages and phone calls.”

Nyamko Sabuni: A Top Swedish Power Broker

Fokus magazine (Sweden) has for the third consecutive year ranked Sweden's 100 most powerful people. There are 72 men and only 28 women on the list, to be compared with ten female ministers in a cabinet of 22, or the 47% female representation in the Swedish parliament. Nyamko Sabuni, the Minister for Integration and Gender Equality and member of the center-right Liberal Peoples Party (think classically liberal; not how Americans define liberalism) ranks #13 on the list. Born in Burundi, Minister Sabuni oversees consumer affairs, democracy issues, gender equality, human rights, integration issues regarding immigrants, metropolitan affairs, minority issues, non-profits and youth policy.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who leads the center-right Moderate Party and who has distant African-American ancestry, tops the power list.