FRANCE

International School Manila

University Parkway

Fort Bonifacio

Taguig City

1634 Philippines

April 25, 2008

Ms. Jost

I am writing this letter to request your help in a school project. The 8^th grade students of ISM are participating in an expo project in which we are studying a country in a group. My group is studying about France and we are hoping you can assist us in our pavilion display.

I am hoping you might have some items or artifacts you can lend us. My group intends to display the items on a table or wall. To show our pavilion is authentic. I will return the items to you between May 28-30.

I plan to stop by your classroom on May 20 to pickup the items. I will always transport the items in a hard plastic box. I will make sure the items are away from smaller children. Also only my fellow group members will be able to handle the items and artifacts.

Thank you for assisting my group in this project.

H

Sincerely,

Christian Huang

Huangc@ismanila.org

“I have won many awards and I am very happy about this, but I am not the best player in the world.” This statement was made by Zizou. His real name is Zinedine Yazid Zidane or simply Zidane. Zidane is a genius and an incredible and legendary soccer player. He was born on June 23, 1972 in Marseille, France. In reality, he’s actually an immigrant from Algeria. Zizou’s parents, Ismail and Malika, immigrated to France before he was born. Nevertheless, he grew up in France and became a French citizen. He is the youngest of 5 children. Zidane married to Veronique Zidane, a French Dancer of Spanish origin. Currently, they have 4 sons: Enzo, Luca, Theo, and Elyaz.
To be a soccer player, was his dream since he was 16 years old. Later then, this ambition became a passion that turned this 17 year old Zidane into an accomplished famous soccer player. He believes that everyone can do something to make a better world. Zizou’s father was one of the keys to his success. His father once taught him to respect everyone so he would earn respect from others.
Zizou has been active since then, and he played for several clubs in various countries. He started his career by joining Cannes. Next, he was transferred to Bordeaux. Tired playing for French soccer clubs, he finally moved to Italy. There, he played as a playmaker for a well known Italian club, which was Juventus. At the FIFA World Cup 1998, he attracted numerous teams by scoring two goals for France which brought fame and success to the French soccer team. In 2001, he became the most expensive player when Real Madrid acquired him for 46 pounds. Likewise, this amazing soccer player certainly won many awards and honors for his loyalty as well as for his contribution to the world of soccer. He received World Soccer Player of the Year 1998 award, Golden Ball in 2006 and many more. Zidane’s name is also listed in Pele’s list as one of the 125 Greatest Living Soccer Players. He is now considered as one of the greatest soccer players of all time, and to be the best soccer player of his generation.
Quick temper is one of the biggest problems that Zidane has. He was sent off 14 times. The last incident that he got into trouble was in the FIFA World Cup 2006. Zidane was given a red card after giving a head butt to Matterazzi, an Italian soccer player. In fact, that was not the first time. He head butted Jochen Kients as well while playing for Juventus. Probably, his short temper comes from his unfortunate childhood. Zizou was raised in a tough district in Marseilles. He often endured racism and hostility from local inhabitants during that time. Even now, he keeps struggling to secure widespread acceptance form the French public.
Zizou has risen to shine and fame. He is a man with a generous heart. He donates his money to the unlucky people in several ways. He has played many game and given the proceeds to charities. As such, Zizou played a match for the Keuydaroon charity for the children with HIV/ AIDS.
On May 7, 2006, Zidane played his last game for Real Madrid. He was given a warm farewell by millions of fans, who waved him good bye with tears and fond memories. Zidane encountered his very last game in the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals against Italy. From a simple and unknown Algerian immigrant, to a national hero of France. This is Zinedine Yazid Zidane’s career, the career of a maestro in the soccer field.

Bibliography:

An Online Encyclopedia Article:
Encyclopedia Britannica. “Zinedine Zidane.” School Ebonline

Magazine Article-One Author:
D.J., Wilson. “The Beautiful Sport.” August 2005

World Wide Web Sites (WWW):
Garcia, Fernando. “Zinedine Zidane.”
May 2008

World Wide Web Sites (WWW):
Lee, Mike. “Zinedine Zidane – It’s All About Respect.”
2008

World Wide Web Sites (WWW):
Wright, Simon. “Biography Zinedine Zidane”
2002

World Wide Web Sites (WWW):
Famous Muslims. “Zinedine Zidane”
http://www.famousmuslims.com/zidane.htm 2003

World Wide Web Sites (WWW):
BBC.co.uk
2004

Global citizenship

1. What was the last conflict your country was involved in? Does it currently have any negative relations with other nations?
Frances last recorded conflict was on Tuesday, March 18, 2008. The conflict was on the street as protesters want to boycott the Beijing Olympics. France has become involved in the freedom of the Tibetan people in China but China is refusing to listen. The Dalai Lama has spoken that the Tibetan people don’t need help from the French government because they believe that they can fix the problem without any help. The French government has become involved because there had had been reports of said 13 people have been killed by gang related violence in the main city of Lhasa. Tibetan exiles have pegged the death rate at 80 protesters, and blamed the government of China.
2. Outline the political situation in your country (this can be given in a timeline). How stable is your nation? What type of government is in charge of your country? What is its rank on the corruption index (look this up on transparency international)?
France is a stable country, but there are still lots of arguing going on due to the elections and immigrant issues. The president today is Nicolas Sarkozy, the most popular president that has run in France. He has changed a lot of bad things that previous presidents started. The presidents before have spoken to the public that Sarkozy should change the way he runs France but the people like his methods and is not listening to the former presidents. Sarkozy has said to the people that the old presidents are only saying what they like and not what any other people like. The immigrants that have come in to France is, because of what the old presidents have said. The immigrants refused to show his ticket. The officers claim the 33-year-old man “attacked staff”, while witnesses declared he was “manhandled.” The immigrant that did this was sent to Gare du Nord police station to wait on to see what was going to happen.

The government in France is a democratic Republic. The republic government is a representative democracy in which the people elected deputies representatives not the people themselves, vote on legislation. The power that France has is Executive president, chief of state, prime minister, Head of government, and the Legislative bicameral Parliament with 577-members and the National Assembly 319 member Senates. The corruption index is France is Ranked 19th out of 179 countries which is good for France.
19 France 7.3 6 6.9 – 7.8
3. Be critical: is your country a hindrance to global peace? Does your nation engage in ‘questionable’ activities? What is your nation’s reputation globally? Is it a pariah state or a global citizen? (You may use information derived from your interviews to address this question and the state of the world atlas).
France does have global peace with other nations. They are against war and they don’t want to be involved in any situation with war. When they get a chance to speak up for human rights they do. France’s reputation is good. France is known for how environmental friendly they are since there new president Sarkozy came on the scene. There was a time though when France was known for their emissions going in the air. This happened when the former president didn’t change much about France and he let the emissions so CO2 pour out into the environment rapidly. France got criticized as a bad nation and they needed to change. After the people had heard of this they elected a new president. The president was Sarkozy said that he would change France to get their good reputation back. When the former president of the United States Al Gore showed people what was happening to our earth, Sarkozy heard of his actions and then helped France change to become more environmental friendly. France is a global citizen, because France is a safe country with a government that doesn’t want to get involved with wars that are going on today. The country France isn’t dangerous at all they can keep a controlled nation and if there was an act of violence they would keep it under control
4. What is your nation’s human rights record? Check out how they are doing according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and Transparency International.
France’s human rights record is at a low level. The human right in France has been good for a long time but recent news has said that France has violated human rights. The people that are affected by this have gone to court in April. When France started going against their rights they have failed to help out. The UN have came in to help out France get back their human rights so that they can help keep the risk of people going to court at a low time record. There were no reports that the government, police or the government agents were involved in any killings during the year. Police reportedly shot and killed one person during the same year. Again police were involved in traffic accidents resulting in three civilian deaths. On July 28th a police officer at the Parisian train station shot and killed a man who brandished and shot a pistol at three officers. The police carried out that they were shooting only for self-defense. Police in France were repeatedly committed of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman offences. The constitution and law prohibits such practices however, there were occasional accusations of police violence and use of excessive force in making arrests. On February 9 reports went out that two police officers were involved in the deaths of two teenagers. The deaths set off three weeks of urban rioting across the country. The officers were accused of not taking action to ensure the safety of the teenagers (Zyed Benna, 17, and Bouna Traore, 15,) who were electrocuted by a power transformer as they hid from the police in Clichy-sous-Bois.

5. Would you be proud to be a member of this country? Why or why not?
Yes, I would be a proud member of France, because France is a wonderful place to visit. There are many historic landmarks that are fantastic to see. The people of France are caring, the culture is amazing and every one gets along with each other. The best part of being a citizen in France is the great food they have and the huge monuments that are located in Paris and they are something out of this world. France is a safe country where as a citizen you are protected by human rights, and there government is not corrupt.
6. If you were a policy advisor to the leader of your country, what would you recommend to him/her to make your nation a better GLOBAL CITIZEN?
If I was a policy advisor for France, I would recommend that they should lower the nuclear power. There could be a dangerous spill and then there is a nuclear radiation leak because France is taking in so much energy that they could eventually lose in times to come. They should resort to better power sources like windmills, and water to generate power. The affect of the nuclear power is that the temperature in France has increased so the power factories are increasing because of how hot it’s getting and the energy consumption is at a high rate and could cause problems for France. The best solution that I would recommend is for the factories to maintain there power and don’t let it increase so it is over the standard rate for the power. The Solution for dropping the power could be that they build windmills so they can generate power efficiently and also using water generators could help the problem if it exceeds over the high mark

as shown in one of the previous articles i’ve posted, Sarkozy has been giving france a lot of empty promises. and now, will this be another?

http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/05/20/afx5028789.html

PROTESTS AGAINST SARKOZY

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKL1931703220080520

PROTESTS AGAINST SARKOZY

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKL1931703220080520

PROTESTS AGAINST SARKOZY

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKL1931703220080520

May 7th, 2008 by Kieran Harris in
The informational text I chose to analyze, “Napoleon Still Haunts France,” is a news article published on the online edition of BBC news. The author is a BBC journalist, Caroline Wyatt, works as a journalist inside Paris, France. Wyatt works inside Paris so she is able to get the information she needs on the history of Napoleon Bonaparte. She is physically in the country but she is not an insider. The significance of her being in Paris is that she gets to hear from other people’s perspective and how they fell about Bonaparte. The places intended to read this are history museums and other places involved with or involved in French history. She also wrote it for any of the public to read so they are knowledgeable about Bonaparte.
This text was written for the purpose of people knowing more about Napoleon Bonaparte and how he was so successful in his time, she also explains a brief summary of his history. The writer is trying to be objective because she is explaining how great he was and the history of him. The writer does not have strong emotions, but she does explain in great detail how his reign was great and how wonderful he was as an emperor.
The point of view of the author is that she is a knowledgeable about him and she has spoken to museums that have explained to her details about Napoleon. She has got information from people about how much they know of him. She quotes Peter Hicks from the Napoleon Foundation, who said, “There’s enough genius to go around, we don’t have to talk him up.” The article was written Thursday, 2 December 2004. This date is significant because she wrote this on the 200th anniversary of the coronation of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4061461.stm

Country: France

Group Members: Christian, Kieran, Henny, Josh, Jaime

Sport/Activity: Tennis

History of the Sport:

Tennis originated in France in 12^th century from the French game ‘paume’ coming from the word palm. It soon became very popular and even was played by the French royalty. It soon spread to other European countries like Switzerland and Spain. The most famous tennis tournaments around the world are Wimbeldon -in London-, The U.S. Open, The Australian Open, and the French Open. The first Wimbeldon tournament was in 1877. In 1873, Major Walter Wingfield invented the game spharistike, which evolved into outdoor tennis.

Factors making the sport relevant to the country: Tennis originated from France in the 12th century.

Social Factors to the Country: One of the most presigeous tennis tournaments in the world takes place in France; The French Open.