Éric Besson

Eric Besson,

Éric Besson (born 2 April 1958 in Marrakech, Morocco) is a French politician. He is presently Minister of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Mutually-Supportive Development in the government of François Fillon.

He left the Socialist Party in 2007 to found The Progressives, a social democratic affiliate party of Nicolas Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). He has been Deputy Secretary-General of the UMP since 2009.

Biography

Eric Besson was born in Morocco. His mother is from Lebanon and his father, a flight instructor in the French Air Force, was killed in a flight accident three months before Éric's birth. At 17, he settled with his family at Montélimar, France and studied at École supérieure de commerce in Montpellier, then in the Institut d'études politiques de Paris. Besson joined the French car company, Renault, then worked for Challenges, a business monthly, before joining the Vivendi foundation.

Besson was married from 1983-2009 to Sylvie Brunel, a geographer and writer, former president of Action Against Hunger and they have three children. Their eldest child, Alexandra (born 1989), is a novelist.

Besson is engaged to Yasmine Torjeman, a 24-year old art student from Tunisia. Torjeman belongs to a prominent Muslim family with connections to former Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba.

Political career

Besson was a member of the Socialist Party from 1993 to 2007. He has been mayor of Donzère since 1995 and was the député for the Drôme between 1997 to 2007 (he did not stand for re-election in 2007). Besson began the 2007 French presidential election as a member of Ségolène Royal's campaign team, but defected in a blaze of publicity, proclaiming that he felt the Socialist campaign's economic policy to be deeply flawed. He then joined Nicolas Sarkozy's first government.

In May 2007 he served as State Secretary for Prospectives and Evaluation of Public Policies. That year, he launched a new political party, The Progressives, affiliated with the Union for a Popular Movement, Nicolas Sarkozy's party through the Liaison Committee for the Presidential Majority. In January 2009, he was appointed Minister for Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Mutually-Supportive Development in the government of Prime Minister François Fillon

As successor to Brice Hortefeux in charge of immigration and national identity he announced the objective of ensuring 29,000 compulsory repatriations per annum. He said that legislation enacted penalizing assistance to illegal immigrants (with up to 5 years imprisonment) was not intended to discourage the general public but only traffickers. Éric Besson has endeavoured to overturn the role of Cimade in offering assistance to illegal immigrants held in the expanded network of detention centres in France by opening bids for offer of these services by other agencies. In September 2009, Besson effected the clearing of an area known as the Jungle near Calais, where cabins and shacks housed mainly illegal immigrants desiring to settle in Great Britain and primarily of Afghan or Kurdish stock.

Offices

Governmental functions

Minister of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Mutually-Supportive Development: Since 2009.

Secretary of State in charge of exploration, appraisal of public policies and development of the digital economy : 2007-2009.

Electoral mandates

National Assembly of France

Member of the National Assembly of France for Drôme : 1997-2007 (Became minister in 2007). Elected in 1997, reelected in 2002, 2007.

Municipal Council

Mayor of Donzère : Since 1995. Reelected in 2001, 2008.

Municipal councillor of Donzères : Since 1995. Reelected in 2001, 2008.

(source:wikipedia)

Eid: is the agonising wait almost over?

Pinpointing the end of Ramadan and start of Eid al-Fitr isn't a precise art, which only makes those final hours of fasting worse

• 
• • Nesrine Malik
  • guardian.co.uk, Thursday 9 September 2010 15.30 BST
  • Article history

Eid celebrations begin with sighting of the new moon that signals the end of Ramadan.

The wait for Eid al-Fitr to be announced at the end of Ramadan never gets less agonising. As Usama Hasan explained on this site back in 2008, because Ramadan and the month that follows are lunar months, their arrival can only be determined by the first sighting of the sliver-thin new crescent moon.

This year has been particularly painful. The first few days of Ramadan were the longest days I have ever fasted due to the fact that the month is creeping further into the long summer days of the northern hemisphere. But like other feats of endurance, the last few steps are the hardest. Everybody has a different experience of the month but for me, it is not so much the hunger/thirst/insert substance withdrawal here that starts to grate. It is the feeling of incarceration. Confined in a cage of abstinence, especially in a non-Muslim country, I feel detached from the rest of the world. While one can savour this isolation as an opportunity to commune with God or reconnect spiritually in general, towards the end of the month the tension and anticipation reach breaking point. Release is imminent, and hence every passing hour is more arduous, because you don't know when it will come.

There was a wicked rumour yesterday circulating that Eid in the UK may fall today, but this was quickly dispelled by Saudi Arabia, which announced that Eid would fall on Friday, with the sighting of the moon tonight. Minorities in Europe usually follow the Saudi's lead and the UK apparently decided to follow suit. But I only know this from a few texts received yesterday saying that we are to fast one more day. The London Central Mosque's website is frustratingly non-committal; announcing the timetable for Eid prayers, but not the day. But the European Council for Fatwa and Research has declared that Eid is today and thus most of continental Europe is already celebrating. The confusion is exacerbated by the flurry of premature Eid Mubarak ("Happy Eid") texts and emails – and, particularly annoying, Facebook statuses – which usually start a couple of days before Ramadan actually ends. So I find myself not reciprocating with grace, but demanding an official confirmation that it is indeed Eid, and not merely people jumping the gun. This is rather unkind, as I do not usually demand that people only say "Happy New Year" or "Merry Christmas" on the actual day of the calendar when the felicitation applies. But usually I have not just fasted the better part of a month at the time.

The confusion and globally staggered breaking of fasts is because "the orbit of the moon around the earth is such that it can take up to three days for the whole world to actually see the crescent for the first time each month, even after clouds have cleared" (Usama Hasan again). All very charming and antiquated. But when can I eat? The irony of it all struck me while immersed in web 2.0, emailing, and trawling Facebook and Twitter for Eid verification. Surely, in this day and age, there must be a more technologically advanced way of determining whether the moon is in waxing or waning crescent other than waiting for religious representatives to spot it with the naked eye. Indeed, surely there is a way of predicting when it will occur? So that there would be one clear day, and that I can speed past the finish line in a flush of pride and joy in my achievement. But alas, still fasting as I type this, I am limping towards it, warily, in fear that it might move a little bit further ahead once more.

(source:guardian.co.uk)