Rolling Thunder

This week-end, we celebrate Memorial Day. It is like May 8 and November 11 rolled into one. Here, in the US, we do not have as many days off in May as in Europe (Ascension Day, Pentecost Day, Europe Day, May Day), which, in a good year, if strategically placed, give you practically a month off.
Here, we celebrate the fallen heroes of all wars, starting with The war between the States, or as it is called in Virginia, "the wah!"
There are many celebrations. It is the first day of official summer. All swimming pools reopen. The President, a fine warrior himself, makes a speech at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
All roads are clogged with traffic, as many, in spite of outrareous gas prices, hit the asphalt to go to the Atlantic Beaches, or the cool Blue Ridge Mountains.
The temperature has hit 90F (32C), as on cue.

But the biggest event, bigger than the obligatory backyard barbecue, is Rolling Thunder.
Back in the 80s', there were parades honoring the veterans of WWI, WWII, and Korea. In 1987, uninvited, a couple of hundred Vietnam war veterans joined the back of the parade mostly mounted on Harley Davidsons. I witnessed the event, and the acclamations that accompanied the bearded, pot-bellied riders , told me they were on to something.
Today, Vietnam vets, and their friends, converge from all over the US to the Vietnam Wall in DC. For days before the event, you hear the sweet rumble of shovelheads, and every motel in the area is surrounded by US iron.
Then, on Memorial Day Sunday, at noon, the parade of over 500,000 motorbikes starts from the Pentagon parking lot, over Memorial bridge, past the Vietnam monument and around the mall. The ride-past lasts the entire afternoon. Later, greybeard veterans dismount and descend along the black marble wall in search of their lost brother"s names. There is not a dry eye in the crowd.
Is it because we share the same generation, or because it is a day to reflect upon the inanity of war? I always feel a big knot in my throat.

Voyage éclair en Corée.

Je rentre de Corée, où je suis allé travailler la semaine dernière au congrès de la FIPA, l'association des producteurs agricoles. Heureusement ma profession me laisse des loisirs, et j'explore chaque fois des facettes nouvelles des pays où je me rends souvent.
Séoul est de plus en plus tentaculaire. Il faut plus de 3 heures d'autocar entre l'aeroport ultra moderne d'Ìnchon et le centre-ville. La circulation est intense et on ne voit pratiquement que des modèles Coréens, Kia, Daewoo, ou Hyundai, dont la plupart ne sont pas exportés.
Ce qui frappe le visiteur en Corée, c'est la jeunesse de la population. Les rues sont trés animées, et, les trés nombreux magasins attirent des foules impressionantes. La marotte, actuellement, est d'envoyer des messages SMS et c'est comique de voir toute une population marcher les yeux rivés sur de minuscules portables. Dans le Metro, ils regardent des feuilletons tv, payent leurs factures ou lisent la presse sur les mêmes appareils.

La Corée allie 6000 ans d'histoire à une vitalité économique fermement tournée vers la mondialisation dont elle est un des grands gagnants. A son heure de gloire, au Moyen Age, la Corée avait inventé l'mprimerie 200 ans avant Gutenberg. Devastée par la guerre de Corée , son niveau de vie était inférieur à celui du Ghana en 1954! Aujord'hui, 10ème puissance industrielle du globe, le pays est sur une dynamique qui va lui faire dépasser l'Europe sous peu, surtout vu la jeunesse du pays et l'absence de chômage.
La ville est doublée d'une ville souterraine de centres commerciaux. Ce labyrinthe avait été construit pour servir d'abri en cas d'attaques de la Corée du Nord, toute proche, l'état de guerre étant toujours en vigueur. Jusqu'en 1988, au moment des jeux Olympiques , la sirène retentissait à midi tous les jeudis et toute la population, circulation comprise, descendait aux abris.
Il est vrai que la ligne de démarcation n'est située qu'à 30km. La visite de la DMZ à Panmunjon est d'ailleurs trés intéressante et reste aussi tendue qu'ìl y a 50 ans. J'ai refait cette visite l'année dernière et , bien que les troupes US s'y fassent plus rares, cela rappelle en tous points le mur qui séparait les deux Allemagnes.
C'est bien là la raison pour laquelle les USA ne peuvent rien entreprendre contre Pyongyang. En cas de conflit, il faudrait quelques minutes aux Nord-Coréens pour incinérer Séoul!

Seoul, Korea.

I am now in Seoul, Korea, for the IFAP congress.
It is a meeting of farmers associations from around the world. Their main topic at this meeting is to discuss their situation after the WTO Doha round is completed. This meeting dovetailed nicely with the French Congressmen visit I accompanied last month in Washington on the same subject. It appears that the US will not move from their offer to reduce tariffs by 60% if the EU does not enlarge its market access. The EU is unwilling to move, ie. to reform the CAP any further since it just went through a very painful reform, valid until 2013. Doha is doomed. This means that further liberalization of exchanges is frozen, a huge brake is applied to world trade and the rest of the world is going to pay.
It was also my umpteenth trip to the "Land of the Morning Calm". By magic, nobody here talks about Jacques Chirac's latest Clearstream scandal, nor about GWB's dismal show in the polls. Koreans are busy working from dawn to dusk. Their capital of 14 million, is a beehive. traffic jams, of mostly new vehicles, are monstrous. A subway ride from A to B, might take hours, such are the distances.
There are a few demonstrations, mostly anti-US. The American presence is very discreet. Gone are the hordes of GIs walking the sidewalk of Itaewon with a young korean girl at their side. US military presence is down to a mere 35,000, mostly redeployed in the south of the country.

Korea is a land of contrast. Leaders in research, automobile, shipyards, and education, they are now turning their sight towards nanotecnology, medicine, and space.

The most intriguing sight on the streets of Seoul? 90% of the population walks like zombies, their eyes on their cellphones, constantly reading and sending SMS messages!

Tampa, Thionville, Seoul

Il y a du mouvement dans la famille.
David et Cristina vont demenager. Ils vont quitter la douceur de Durham en Caroline du Nord, pour Tampa en Floride. Tampa , un ancien repere de pirates, est aujourd'hui un grand port, sur le Golfe du Mexique, une superbe ville balneaire, et le QG de Centcom, le centre de la Guerre Mondiale Contre le Terrorisme, couvrant l'Afghanistan, l'Irak et...l'Iran! Une superbe baie separe Tampa de St Petersburg.
David et Cristina vont faire un voyage eclair a Thionville pour voir les grands parents. ils feront un petit sejour a Bruxelles pour voir les copains.

Quand a moi, je commence la saison de la transhumance. Mon premier arret sera Seoul, ou je vais passer une semaine a travailler pour la Fipa. Vol de Singapour Airlines par Los Angeles, sejour au Sheraton walker Hill, et , peut etre, un peu de temp pour faire du tourisme dans cette ville tentaculaire que je visite regulierement. Tous les francais devraient faire un sejour de "reveil" en Coree. Ils reviendraient effrayes et demanderaient a travailler 70h par semaine!

A Gas crisis?

Gas, or petrol, as it is more accurately called in Britain , has reached record prices in Springfield. My friendly gas station sells the stuff for over 3 $ a gallon. Back in 2000, it had reached a nadir of 99c!
So what happened? Is ist another feat of GW's malfeasance? The Jewish lobby? Are we running out of the stuff? Could be the "arabs" you know....
Mind you, it is still cheaper than a gallon of latte at Starbucks, of Evian at Wholefoods or even cheaper than a gallon of gas in 1973. Anyway it is still cheaper than a gallon of gas in Europe (7$).
The reason for these astronomical prices are many. Chief among them, speculation. Wall street golden boys, busy buying barrels of crude for October 2009, have already factored in all the possible nasty events we might encounter before that date: An invasion of Iran, a coup in Nigeria, a nationalization in Venezuela, a debacle in Iraq or even GW's impeachment. They are protecting themselves, that is hedging their price, by artificially adding a "risk" premium. The rise of China and India, the lack of new refining capacity and rumors of war, are not events that took anybody by surprise.We have a CIA to prepare us for all that!

Meanwhile, the majors, EXXON, Chevron, BP, are not investing one red cent in new drilling or refining capacity, because they know full well that they are not protected at all from a return to 10$ a barrel if things go wrong (wrong for them, right for us.)

But , not to worry, help is on the way. France is building one ethanol plant. The US already have 109 in operation and plan 60 more. By 2025, our engines will run on 85% ethanol. Better yet, the use of corn for the production of ethanol, will redirect that cereal from export, back to the homeland. Why fight for market access at the WTO if you can use your production at home? Even better, why waste billions of dollars subsidising farmers if they can get rich with ethanol?
And I forgot biomass, bio-diesel , switchgrass, and shale. Brazil is already self-sufficient thanks to sugar cane based ethanol. (The streets of Belo Horizonte smell like a bar!)

But wait, what if by the time our pipelines are ready to spew ethanol, our engines are ready for hydrogen? Or worse, what if , by 2025, oil is back at 10$ a barrel?