France's notoriously willful drivers were begged to take a leaf out of British motorists' handbook on Thursday, and behave in a "courteous, cautious and civil manner."
"Why can we not drive like the British?" asked the popular daily Le Parisien on France's sixth annual Road Politeness Day -- ? in itself a notion that all those familiar with French roads would unhesitatingly describe as something of a contradiction in terms.
According to the French Association for the Prevention of Bad Behavior at the Steering Wheel (AFPC), which organized the day of leafleting and safety demonstrations: "British drivers stop systematically at pedestrian crossings and, in exchange, British pedestrians do not take it into their heads to cross the road anywhere else."
This is just one example of the kind of exemplary motoring that saw a mere six British citizens in every 100,000 killed on their country's roads in 2003, compared with more than 9.5 in 100,000 French, it said.
"British courtesy behind the wheel is legendary," said Delphine Arbonne, the AFPC's London representative. "Add to that a preventive policy in place since the 1970s, and you have the safest roads in Europe."
New radar speed traps and an unprecedented police crackdown cut the number killed on France's roads to just over 5,200 last year, compared with more than 8,000 five years ago. But Frenchmen remain Frenchmen.
According to a survey carried out for the AFPC, 87 percent of Gallic pedestrians say they "often" or "sometimes" have difficulty crossing the road at a crosswalk.
The same percentage consider themselves "good" or "very good" drivers, while 37 percent admit parking illegally "often" and 40 percent confess to regularly jumping traffic lights.
More than 22 percent use their mobile phones while driving.
Perhaps most revealing on the eve of Easter weekend, traditionally one of the most deadly on France's roads, more than 60 percent of French motorists say their fellow road users -- though not themselves -- are "rude, aggressive, selfish and quick to insult."
France may cherish some rather outdated illusions about the British gentleman driver. But, it seems, it still has some way to go before it rids itself of the kind of attitude summed up by the late Francoise Sagan, who was once given the last rites after a car crash.
"You can always die getting hit on the head by a flower pot," Sagan said. "But to die suddenly in a fast car -- for a Frenchman, that's a fabulous death."
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to