March 2022
Queen of light took her bow
And then she turned to go
The prince of peace embraced the gloom
And walked the night alone
Oh dance in the dark of night
Sing to the morning light
The dark lord rides in force tonight
And time will tell us all
Oh throw down your plow and hoe
Rest not to lock your homes
Side by side we wait the might
Of the darkest of them all
I hear the horses’ thunder
Down in the valley blow
I’m waiting for the angels of Avalon
Waiting for the eastern glow
The apples of the valley hold
The seas of happiness
The ground is rich from tender care
Repay do not forget no no
Oh dance in the dark of night
Sing to the morning light
The apples turn to brown and black
The tyrant’s face is red
Oh the war is common cry
Pick up you swords and fly
The sky is filled with good and bad
That mortals never know
Oh well the night is long
The beads of time pass slow
Tired eyes on the sunrise
Waiting for the eastern glow
The pain of war cannot exceed
The woe of aftermath
The drums will shake the castle wall
The ring wraiths ride in black
Ride on
Sing as you raise your bow
Shoot straighter than before
No comfort has the fire at night
That lights the face so cold
Oh dance in the dark of night
Sing to the mornin’ light
The magic runes are writ in gold
To bring the balance back
Bring it back
At last the sun is shining
The clouds of blue roll by
With flames from the dragon of darkness
The sunlight blinds his eyes
“The Battle of Evermore,” from the 1971 Led Zeppelin album popularly known as Led Zeppelin IV, is a folk duet whose lyrics allude to J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings.
I discovered this band in junior high and immediately became a fan. These lyrics are very allegoric in the style of J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing and maybe in that way are describing today’s war in eastern Europe. All the same, considering what is at stake, I wanted a title that could be linked to that crisis. I was a fan then and still listen to their albums as often as I can, although not as background music, their music keeps me from working.
EASTERN EUROPE, NOT JUST UKRAINE
As I write, Russian troops are in Ukraine and appear poised to move westward. Everybody seems to have an opinion about this. Many are talking about WWIII.
My December 2019 issue was titled “The Wall,” after the eleventh studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 30 November 1979. This is what I wrote then:
I much prefer the first part of their career when Syd Barrett’s influence was significant, even when he was not there anymore. I often prefer the lesser-known, so my favorite recording is Live at Pompeii, a 1972 concert documentary.
I often thought of choosing it when the border wall policy was making the news for months on end, but that would have been too easy. A very long time ago, I used the Bee Gees song “How deep is your love?”, but adding “how tall is the wall?”, illustrating the fact that when people’s absolute despair pushes them to flee, no barriers, regulations or military border enforcement will deter them: many of them will make it to the other side.
In recent weeks a different wall has been in the news – the Berlin Wall, and with it what was then called the Iron Curtain that split Europe in two. Of course the division of Germany through the creation of Eastern Germany under Communist rule scarred Europe for almost 40 years. Very few were able to get through the Iron Curtain alive in order to escape these Communist regimes. At the same time, many managed to defect during official trips to the Western countries because they were athletes, musicians, scholars, and they asked for asylum in the countries where they found themselves. They obtained it right away with virtually no procedure.
Remembering my youth growing up in Europe and being aware of the alienation created by this physical wall were some of the reasons that I chose this title. This album is about a man suffering from mental alienation, isolating himself, suffering from paranoia. Having this idea that the wall protects him also played a role in my choice, as it resonates with the news I am getting.
THE 30th ANNIVERSARY OF THE TEARING DOWN OF THE BERLIN WALL
From Wikipedia
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Construction of the Wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic on 13 August 1961…. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin, ultimately resulting in the demise of the Wall.
Many have written about and commented on the 30th anniversary of the fall of this wall. Many have published articles, videos, testimonies from that time to commemorate this groundbreaking event, which certainly reshaped the Western world, and in my view most if not almost all the international political crises that exist today. This belief stems from the fact that there was a balance of power between two superpowers – the USA and the USSR, which involved their allied countries. This balance, dangerous because it was backed up by nuclear arsenals, forced those two superpowers to refrain themselves from going too far in the direction of declaring war and invading countries. From the American side the Vietnam War can be looked at from this standpoint. I believe that the invasion of Afghanistan shows the same on the side of the USSR side. At the risk of sticking my neck out too far, I might add that the more recent invasion of the Ukrainian provinces of Crimea and Donbass might not have taken place, had such a balance continued to exist in a different form. Indeed Ukraine has been asking to be part of the EU and is allied with the USA.
The vast majority of the people living in the USA, as well as many Europeans, have never experienced what it meant to face that wall. In reality most of those who had a personal experience were those who lived where these Soviet walls existed. The wall was not a tourist attraction as such until it was torn down.
It so happens that during the summer of 1975, travelling with my parents, our family experienced first-hand what it meant to face this wall. We were staying with my aunt and uncle in Helsinki in Finland, from where we made several day-trips by car. So one day we were driving East in very thick Finnish forests when we saw road signs telling us to turn around, because the road on which we were traveling led to the border with the USSR, which today would be Russia. For miles and miles, my father ignored those signs, which were in just about all the languages that one can think of, with very explicit images. He drove until we met Finnish army personnel holding their machine guns horizontally in shooting position. We could see the tall concrete wall with barbed wire all over it. We could see the Red Army military personnel on top of several watchtowers who spotted us, pointing their machine-guns at us. Very politely the Finnish soldier explained to us in perfect English that we had to turn around immediately and leave the premises. We did!
The USSR was governed by one of the bloodiest and all-around worst dictatorships that modern world history has known.
This concludes my digressions about these topics, or maybe just one topic with several facets. I had no idea that I would be receiving so many testimonies, most of them heartbreaking, but never bitter or angry. I believe that they shed a very interesting light on the two very different narratives told by each side of the argument. I fully agree that there is a need for policies, for enforcing laws, and therefore the establishment of a comprehensive immigration policy. This is true for all the Western countries faced with both an influx of asylum seekers and a large number of undocumented aliens. The truth is that this policy deals with people who are deeply scared by what they went through in their own country, as well as by what they have experienced following their arrival in the West.
Today most Western media are calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a dictator or an autocrat. I believe he wants to be some kind of modern czar, like the rulers of Russia before the 1917 revolution. This fits the Russian way of looking at the situation. It is also clear to me that he is trying to resurrect the former USSR one way or another, or at least regain some control or influence over most of the countries that were part of it.
THE FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
In France, presidential campaigns and voting are conducted very differently from those in the USA. American elections are almost always between two candidates – a Democrat and a Republican. Only in rare cases is there a significant third candidate.
The French election is in two rounds. This year the first one will be on April 10th. Ten or more nationally recognized candidates will have airtime on national TV. Their campaign financing will be paid in part by the government in an attempt to give everybody a fair chance. The second round will be on April 24th. The maximum amount that can be spent is 16.85 million euros for the first round and 22.51 million euros for the two or possibly three candidates allowed to compete in the second round. For months, French media have published the results of polls trying to determine who will be the candidates competing in the second round. Currently such polls indicate about five candidates who could make it to the final round: the incumbent President Emmanuel Macron; one leftist candidate; and three from extreme right or conservative parties.
Another issue that the media is now covering extensively and that the public is observing closely to involves the need for any candidate to have at least 500 elected officials as sponsors to be allowed to compete in the first round. Usually national politicians have no problem passing this test, while lesser-known ones from small political parties face a real challenge. Right now there is outrage in some corners over the fact that less than two weeks before the March 4th deadline to secure sponsorship and be declared a candidate, eight candidates have done so while two of the best-polling candidates were still short. This has never happened before. Many believe some candidates and political parties have such a stranglehold on this procedure that they will be able to prevent two of the extreme right candidates from competing. If this is true, it is undemocratic. The voters should choose whom they want to elect. Polls indicate that the excluded candidates could be in second and third place after the first round. This would also mean that five candidates who have enough sponsors would, according to the same polls, have zero chance of reaching the second round.
It will be interesting to find out in the future how this situation came to be and who, if anyone, orchestrated it.
A NEW WAY TO HANDLE A WATER DAMAGE CLAIM
I have often addressed the somewhat unusual way water damage insurance claims are handled in France. It starts with filling out a form, the constat amiable de dégâts des eaux, describing what happened. It gives the location and origin of the leak as well as the extent of damage to both apartments. Both insurance companies are informed and open a claim file. After that, the procedure is regulated by the Convention d’Indemnisation et de Recours des Sinistres Immeuble, or IRSI agreement, which replaced an earlier convention called CIDRE on June 1st, 2018.
The tenant’s insurance covers damage of up to 1,600€ HT, so below that amount the insurance companies do not try to establish liability. They figure it is cheaper to reimburse the insured than let the procedure drag on. In the case of water damage costing between 1,600€ HT and 5,000€ HT to repair, the landlord’s insurance handles what is considered to be real estate damage, while the tenant’s policy covers damage to the furnishings and decor. Consequently, the landlord’s insurer requires an evaluation of the damage so the responsibilities can be determined to start the compensation process.
If the cost of repairing the damage exceeds 5,000€ HT, the IRSI agreement does not apply; the insurance company of the party responsible for the damage pays for everything.
The insurance companies are trying to be cost-effective, but may be going too far. Some issue compensation based on a description of the damage – for example, a wall needs to be repainted. Compensation may be based simply on the surface area needing work. Recently I encountered a new way of evaluating damage: to see the condition of the apartment, the insurance valuer took control of the occupant’s smartphone and recorded what the rooms looked like.
In the old days there would have been in-person meetings involving the tenants, the landlord, the property management firm and each insurance company’s valuer. Such meetings could drag on forever because of the conflicting interests represented. At the same time, the policy holders felt recognized and defended by their insurance company. Today, in the vast majority of water damage cases, your insurance company defends its best interests, not yours.
MY FEES WILL INCREASE ON SEPTEMBER 1st, 2022
I continue to slowly move toward working fewer hours in the hope of having a lifestyle more compatible with my age. As I have done in the past, I am once again scheduling an increase in my fees. I expect my assistant to continue to pick up more tasks linked to the URSSAF, CPAM and other public offices procedures. She already handles most dealings with the offices who register self-employed people.
1st meeting/1st work: 350 euros for 2 hours
Extra per hour: 150 euros
Handling mail in my office: 50 euros per month
Handling mail at my home: 60 euros per month
Surcharge for out-of-office meetings: 80 euros, assuming less than 30 minutes’ transportation
Surcharge for meetings and phone calls at the client’s request after 7PM weekdays, all weekend, on national French holidays and during vacations: 30%.
OFFICE CLOSED FOR SUMMER VACATION
The office will be closed for three weeks over the summer holidays, starting on Friday, July 8th, in the evening and reopening on the morning of Monday, August 22nd. As always, I will be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed. Of course, Sarah or I will honor prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a couple of other engagements.
MY BUSINESS HAS A NEW FACEBOOK PAGE
Over the holidays, my assistant, Sarah, took an interesting initiative and created a new Facebook page. It is a good move for her since she and I both moderate it. She can show off her expertise and her ability to give good advice and clearly explain solutions. She does this in French, leaving the queries in English to me.
Since I am already active in a few Facebook groups and my website is my main showcase, I did not feel I needed such a page. On the other hand, it will no doubt benefit her. I do not have the time to monitor this forum and so far, it has been fairly quiet. Sarah is still figuring out how to handle this new task, being quite busy herself. I am sure it will be a great space for exchanges and hope it will pick up soon.
You are welcome to join:
https://www.facebook.com/rattachement
Best regards,
