French residents in Monaco voted in greater numbers in the first round of France’s Presidential election on Sunday, April 23. Turnout was 55.8 percent, considerably higher than in the 2012election, when the figure was 45.86 percent.
The candidate receiving the most votes was François Fillon of Les Republicains, with 43.5 percent of the Monaco vote, far ahead of Marine Le Pen (23 percent), and Emmanuel Macron (18.8 percent).
In France as a whole, the centrist Macron won 23.9 percent of the vote, 2.5 percent ahead of Marine Le Pen of the Front National on 21.4 percent. The financial markets breathed a sigh of relief.
The winner of the Startup Weekend 2017 was the group Atletude – the Airbnb for tennis court owners and tinder for tennis players – which will receive marketing and business support over the next year.
Another edition of the Startup Weekend Monte Carlo came to a close Sunday night at the Columbus Hotel, with over 80 participants from Monaco to Marseille.
Organised by Startup Weekend 2017 Director Maxime Douce and members of Monaco’s Junior Chamber of Commerce (JCEM), this fourth edition brought nine teams to the stage on Sunday to make their 5-minute presentations to a panel of judges. Each pitch had to include a business plan, customer validation and execution of the project, and was followed by a 3-minute question period.
The six-person panel comprised National Counsellor Thierry Crovetto, Stephane Garino, a partner at KPMG, Fabrice Marquet, the Director of the new incubator project, MonacoTech, Laurence Garino, Director of the Welcome Office, Emmanuel Falco, Private Advisor of the Prince’s cabinet, and Olivier Mura, President of JCEM and Manager of MyWay.
Over 54 non-stop hours, engineers, developers, entrepreneurs, marketing specialists, graphic designers and artists – all strangers on Friday afternoon – worked together over the weekend to establish their new business.
The schedule was broken down into: Day One – 60-second Pitch & Team Up, Day Two – Learn & Work, and Day Three – Present & Chose.
From beer distribution to making music for commercial premises to influence shoppers, and from the creation of the eco-coin to a netflix for financial services, many of these business ideas had already gone live by Sunday evening.
Laetitia Noyow Zwaans
Laetitia Noyow Zwaans, who has lived in Monaco since the age of 12, came to the event with an idea that she’s been thinking about over the past year. She spoke to Monaco Life, sleep deprived, about You. We. – “You drink, we drive.”
“One night in Monaco, I was out and I couldn’t drive home because I’d had too much too drink,” the 35-year-old, who had never before met her team members, said. “All I could do was to leave my car, take off my heels and walk home.
“So I’ve been working on this since last year, looking for viable solutions, and realised there’s a demand for this product. We did a market study on how much people are prepared to pay to be picked up and driven home in their car and balanced it with my financial necessities to run the company. It will take about two years before we turn a profit but it would be a sin not to move forward with the business after this weekend.”
The winner of the Startup Weekend 2017 was the group Atletude – “the Airbnb for tennis court owners and tinder for tennis players” – which will receive marketing and business support over the next year.
Startup Weekend was founded in 2007 by Andrew Hyde and is a non-profit organisation with its headquarters in Seattle, in the US. Thanks to the concept, more than 2,500 businesses have been created around the world in the last five years. The global sponsors are Google, Eventbrite and CO.
Monte Carlo Rolex Masters medical service led by IM2S’ Dr Patrick Coudert. Photo: Twitter IM2S
Monaco’s IM2S is a medical and surgical orthopaedic clinic known for its expertise in sports medicine, and its highly specialised medical team.
Dr Patrick Coudert, a sports doctor at IM2S, has been the head of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters medical service for 30 years, offering the best in innovative therapy to the world’s top tennis players.
Dr Coudert is a pioneer in the use of ultrasound for diagnosis as well as therapy a technique that he began using in the early 1990s at the Monte-Carlo tournament. This technique is now used in most major tournaments.
The innovative treatments offered by the medical service include Focus Shock Wave Treatment used to “destroy” calcifications mostly in cases of tendinitis, but which can also be effective in stress fractures, periostitis, an inflammation of
the connective tissue that surrounds the bone, and other bone diseases.
Mesotherapy is a non-surgical technique particularly used in sports medicine because of its safety and very high efficiency. It consists of injecting a drop of a specially selected medicated cocktail adapted to the pathology. There is no cortisone involved and the procedure is not painful.
Other so-called “soft” medicines such as Homeopathy, Micronutrition or Osteopathy can also improve the management of certain pathologies in sports medicine or rheumatology, in particular because they have no side effects. They were also offered to athletes at the Rolex Masters tournament, as not everyone is-supportive of anti-inflammatory drugs.
The diversity of therapies available, and the proficiency of the medical service team under Dr Coudert are now well known to tennis players. The Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters medical service has been awarded by the ATP , which regularly places it in first place on the ATP World Tour.
Celebrated author and award-winning photojournalist Nick Danziger, who has just returned home to Monaco after a visit to North Korea, is organising another Creative Workshop from September 25 to 29, together with writer Rory MacLean. This will be the seventh Monaco workshop, as two of Europe’s most intrepid and intuitive chroniclers guide and support selected individuals on the exclusive writing and photography journey, and those interested in registering can email danzigerexhibitions@gmail.com.
Additionally, Mr Danziger’s NGO, “Cinema, Human Rights and Advocacy” will, this May, be running a workshop in Mandalay in Visual Storytelling and Advocacy. This will be the workshop’s fourth year in Myanmar and it’s run in conjunction with the British Council, Witness, and Equality Myanmar and has the support of the Bertha Foundation, Picture People and STAMPS, the School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan.
Mr Danziger, whose exhibition “Women Facing War” continues until 14th May at the Parliamentarium in Brussels, is also in the process of publishing “Another Life”, his 10-year project on the Millennium Development Goals. While over 300 people have pledged and will consequently see their name appear in his book, he’s still looking for the “final 29 percent” of funding. The book can be viewed here.
Ben (in cap) and Emily Rolfe greeted by the rest of the family. Photo: Tim Humphrey
On Monday, April 17, Ben and Emily Rolfe returned to Monaco from Morocco, and were greeted with a hero’s welcome with banners and well-deserved fanfare.
The father and daughter running duo successfully completed the Marathon des Sables (MdS) – what the Discovery Channel calls “The Toughest Footrace on Earth” – which takes place every year in southern Morocco, in the Sahara Desert. The equivalent of six regular marathons, it’s 237 kilometres over seven days. The two Monaco runners battled stomach issues, fatigue and blisters “the size of golf balls” all to raise money and awareness for Diabetes UK.
Taking on an endurance race – not to mention one that is multi-stage and with no beds, showers, toilets or solid food – by yourself is mentally tough, but tackling it with a family member can add another dimension to the game, particularly when you look at the stage distances that Ben and Emily Rolfe covered the week of April 8.
Day 1: 31k, 6.3 hours Day 2: 40k, 10 hours Day 3: 31k, 9 hours Day 4: 86k, 27 hours Day 5: 0 (finish day four) Day 6: 42.2k, 10.5 hours Day 7: 7.7k, 2 hours
In this year’s 32nd edition of MdS, 1250 people signed up but only 1170 started. Some 100 did not finish.
The terrain in the Sahara varies, from what Mr Rolfe described as “dunes as big as houses, flat plains with unforgiving slate rocks, mountains – or “jebels” – and the relentless sand that sucked your feet in up to the ankles”.
The highest temperature recorded by the race organisers was 51°C, yet it wasn’t just the heat they had to manage. “We saw snakes, small rodents and scary looking bugs, but, fortunately, no spiders or scorpions so our anti-venom pumps remain unused.”
Add to these conditions the fact that runners have to carry on their backs all the food they need for the week. “Our packs without water weighed 10.5 kg at the beginning of the week,” Mr Rolfe explained, adding they even cut the handles of their toothbrushes to reduce weight.
Then there’s the issue of recovery. “We had to sleep in open-sided tents,” Mr Rolfe said, “but we were fortunate to only have a few windy nights. I will say that waking up at 2 am with a mouthful of sand is not something I want to repeat in a hurry.”
They also both suffered from stomach issues at various points. “I was up all night after the first day with illness and subsequently felt awful on Day Two. Emily made sure I was hydrated, made me eat and cajoled me through the dunes and over the last mountain, using ropes, to the finish of that day. We made a great team.”
Mr Rolfe painted a picture of Day Four, when they completed 86 km. “We managed our hydration well during Day Four, and made the decision not to rest more than 30 minutes at a time. We had ‘Tasty Beef Stroganoff” at around 10: 30 pm around a campfire with Duncan, a double amputee, who was eating Chicken Korma. We powered through the night, treating blisters when we could using a lighter, needle, antiseptic and ‘Second Skin’ paint on Elastoplast.
“This worked quite well until two of my blisters popped and started to fill with sand, and then Emily’s became so big it was the size of a golf ball and I couldn’t pop it as the cap was too hard. We carried on as the sun came up, enjoying a power bar breakfast in the dunes at around 8 am just before CheckPoint 7, where Patrick Bauer gave us both a much-needed cuddle as our tear streaked faces showed our suffering.
“The last 10km were interminable, but our tentmates were there to greet us at the finish around 11:30 am. We then tried to eat, but the heat and exhaustion made it hard. We queued for two hours to get our blisters treated by the doctor, who basically took all the skin off my toes and strapped them back up ready for the marathon the next day.
“I tried to eat some more while Em was interviewed a couple of times by the press. As the youngest equal female finisher she became a bit of a star in the camp.
“I collapsed on the floor of the tent at 7pm and we were up at 5am the next day to start the marathon at 7 am, probably the worst prepared I have ever been for a marathon – and no pasta party the night before!”
The Rolfes are incredibly thankful to everyone who supported their endeavour – from the words of encouragement in the build up to the extremely generous sponsorship to and the emails received while in the desert, which after a hard day of running and hiking were “a tonic to our weary bodies”.
“We have managed to raise an amazing £21,648 for Diabetes UK, and the number is going up all the time. Thanks to everyone that has donated to this great cause.”
The justgiving site will stay open for a month, and although the family has exceeded their goal to pay for a microscope to enable the study of kidney disease, which one in three diabetics suffer from, the additional money will be put to good use by Diabetes UK.
“To have shared this experience with my 16-year-old daughter was truly amazing,” Mr Rolfe shared. “It was hard with a capital H but we both made it. The emotions and sense of achievement when we finished, together, is something that is going to be hard if not impossible to repeat.”
Celebrated author and award-winning photojournalist Nick Danziger, who has just returned home to Monaco after a visit to North Korea, is organising another Creative Workshop from September 25 to 29, together with writer Rory MacLean. This will be the seventh Monaco workshop, as two of Europe’s most intrepid and intuitive chroniclers guide and support selected individuals on the exclusive writing and photography journey, and those interested in registering can email 
