Wahhabism is the reactionary branch of Islam from Saudi Arabia said to be ‘the main source of global terrorism’.

In July 2013, Wahhabism was identified by the European Parliament as the main source of global terrorism.

Wahhabism has become increasingly influential, partly because of Saudi money and partly because of Saudi Arabia’s central influence as protector of Mecca.

The members of the Saudi ruling class have applauded Wahhabism it for its Salafi piety – i.e. its adherence to the original practices of Islam – and the movement’s vehement opposition to the Shia branch of Islam.

In the 1970s, with the help of funding from petroleum exports and other factors, Saudi charities started funding Wahhabi schools (madrassas) and mosques across the globe and the movement underwent “explosive growth”.

The US State Department has estimated that over the past four decades Riyadh has invested more than $10billion into charitable foundations in an attempt to replace mainstream Sunni Islam with the harsh intolerance of its Wahhabism. EU intelligence experts estimate that 15 to 20 per cent of this has been diverted to al-Qaida and other violent jihadists.

The movement now has worldwide influence inspiring the ideology of extremists worldwide.

I’d like to have a tranquil garden in which to sit, write, read and have barbecues with friends. Here in Paris, a garden is a luxury. Everyone I know lives in an apartment with a teeny-tiny balcony overlooking a noisy, congested street. I crave nature. It’s true that where I live there are parks and the river nearby, so I can’t complain too much. But still, what with the warm weather coming and all …

Here are two beautiful gardens we can only dream about.

Here’s what all of France was talking about today: Brigitte Macron, brand-new First Lady of France whose husband was sworn in yesterday as Prez, wore an outfit exactly the same color as Melania Trump’s outfit on her husand’s inauguration day. Why? Pourquoi ?

Analysts are busy analyzing the significance of this seeming coincidence.

At least we were spared those godawful elbow-length gloves. A major fashion faux pas, they wouldn’t have passed public approval here. At all. If elbow-length gloves aren’t made of fine leather, aren’t snug-fitting and aren’t of a dark color, don’t do it.

It’s a shame that women, other than queens and duchesses, no longer wear hats. Brigitte Macron could have really wowed us with a totally different outfit in a totally different color (powder blue is so namby-pamby and indecisive, don’t you think?), topped with a stylish hat. Like these, for example –

this is called a fascinator. I think it’s lovely, especially the color

Hats, big or small, make a marvellous statement. They suggest confidence and individuality. But then again, not all women can wear them. You either have the head and face for it … or you don’t.

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The next thing all of France was talking about this morning was this: who will President Macron choose to be his prime minister??? All morning long, bulletins were dispatched over French TV and the internet, blaring –  l’annonce de la désignation est imminente !! (the announcement of the appointment is imminent!!). The whole nation was whipped into a frenzy. At the office, everyone was checking the internet and their iPhones every five minutes, and I kept running down the hall to Reception to look at the big TV screen. After my fourth run down the hall and back again, I suddenly realized how ridiculous we were being. The French media was playing us and we had fallen into their trap.

“I don’t care who the next prime minister is!” I said to my colleagues and went back to work. This week is the company’s AGM (Annual General Meeting) of Shareholders. I’m the organizer, so I’m busy. And then in the afternoon it was announced. The new prime minister is a man no-one’s heard of. Edouard Philippe. Who? The nomination, we’ve been told, is a shrewd one because he’s a “juppéiste“.

France’s new 46 year old Prime Minister

What’s a juppéiste, you might ask? No, not someone from Jupiter but rather a politician who’s a follower of Alain Juppé. It turns out that progressive Alain Juppé has reached cult status in France. He himself was prime minister to President Jacques Chirac from 1995 to 1997 and later Mayor of Bordeaux. (In between there was a criminal conviction for abuse of public funds, but this ‘incident’ seems to have been erased from the French collective memory.) Never mind that Juppé was, literally, the most hated man in France during the period from ’95 to ’97 because he wanted to push through major social reforms (there were massive transportation strikes and protests that paralyzed the entire country for two whole winter months.) I remember walking to work every single day and home again (two hours each way), falling into bed every night too exhausted to eat, only to get up at the crack of dawn the next morning to trudge through snow-covered streets to get to work. (If anyone reading this knows Paris, at that time I lived in Courbevoie and worked at Place St. Augustin!)

But I’m digressing. Flash-forward to now and Juppé, at the age of 71, is regarded as a respected elder statesman and sort of mandarin. This fellow who was nominated today to be Prime Minister is, as I said, a protégé of Alain Juppé.  46 years old, he’s the Mayor of Le Havre and member of the centre right-wing Republicans party. Macron desperately needs to strengthen his fledgling party, République en Marche, and by appointing someone from the right he hopes to persuade others from Juppé’s party who will stand as MPs in June’s parliamentary elections. 

Tonight President Macron is dining with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, and on May 25th he’s scheduled to have “a long lunch” in Brussels with Dump, Hump, Frump … I mean Trump!

66.10 per cent of the French electorate kicked Marine Le Pen and her National Front party in the teeth and voted Macron. Bravo.

Marine, daughter of neo-fascist, xenophobe thug, Jean Le Pen, and racist xenophone yourself … you had your pitiful 15 minutes of fame. Now, dégage et va te faire foutre !!! (beat it and fuck off). Coz we don’t like having you around.

As for Emmanuel Macron who created his political party, En Marche, from his own initials … you’re our Prez now.

Don’t let us down, Monsieur le Président.