Month: May 2017

A routine roadside inspection shortly after midnight at the Jardin Exotique surprised the policemen on duty on April 24. When one of the officers asked the driver if he was carrying drugs, the 24-year-old suspect unbuttoned his pants and handed over a bag of 23g cannabis from his boxers.

Asked about the origin of the hemp, he said he bought the drug the same evening from an individual in the parking lot of the cinema Pathé Lingostière in Nice for the sum of €70.

In her statement, using carefully-chosen language, prosecutor Cyrielle Colle defined the defendant as “a personality inclined to transgress the law”. He has 13 criminal citations in France from 2009 until 2015, including for violence and narcotics offences.

The accused was absent from the hearing, but communicated to the court that on the day in question he had come to Monaco to buy cigarettes and to refuel his BMW. He admitted smoking one to two joints a day. Despite his absence, he was sentenced to one month in prison.

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An “Ultra” supporter of AS Monaco who punched a steward has appeared before Monaco’s Criminal Court. The steward refused access to the accused when his ticket didn’t correspond to the position he wanted at Stade Louis ll in the game against Turin on
May 3.

The 23-year-old Mali resident admitted the offence and apologised to the court. He was arrested as he left the stadium on the night of the match. “I regret my gesture,” he said. For his part, the steward said he would not be bringing a case for damages, but instead he wanted “justice to do its work”.

While the prosecutor asked for 15 days in jail, citing the need for stewards to do their work, to help avoid a tragedy when crowds move suddenly – a reference to the Hillsborough disaster in the UK – the defence lawyer called for a conditional sentence. The tribunal decided on eight days in jail.

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France’s Court of Cassation has ruled on Thursday, May 18, that businessman Bernard Tapie repay the €404 million originally given to him in 2008 by a tribunal of arbitration to settle his dispute with Credit Lyonnais on the sale of Adidas.

The case has raised serious questions about the probity of a number of top government officials, including Christine Lagarde, now Managing Director of the IMF, who was finance minister at the time.

Tapie, 74, is well known in the South of France, having been owner of Olympique Marseille football club before becoming the owner of La Provence daily newspaper. The magnate has a fondness for the printed press, and was recently involved in the ownership of the Nice Matin Group – publishers of Monaco Matin – alongside an employees’ collective.

He has specialised, during a colourful career, in the rescue of near-bankrupt businesses. He served as Minister of City Affairs under President Mitterand from December 1992 until March 1993. During his time in football, he was accused of match fixing. In 1995 he was sentenced to two years in jail, including eight months non-suspended. In 1996 he starred in Claude Lelouch’s movie Men, Women, A User’s Manual.

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Faced with the unprecedented food crisis that threatens 20 million people in Africa, the Monaco Government has just released some €500,000 in response to several emergency requests.

The funds will be used to support crisis operations by the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Committee of the Red Cross, and two Monegasque NGOs: Fight Aids Monaco and Interactions & Solidarity. The aid will directly benefit several thousand people.

Eight countries among the most vulnerable, most of them in Africa, will be direct beneficiaries of these food aid, following repeated droughts and conflicts that have caused massive population displacement and which have affected millions of people. The eight countries due to receive the emergency aid are Kenya, Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia, Lake Chad region, Mali, South Africa, and Yemen.

Support is also being provided to the National Bureau of Risks and Disaster Management in Madagascar following the cyclone Enawo, which, by devastating many crops, has led to an increase in rice prices and severe food shortages.

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Mark McFadden watches paint dry. Literally.

A self-taught artist from Falcarragh, Co Donegal, Mr McFadden spent the first part of his career working in bars and nightclubs on the Champs d’Élysées in Paris, and Monaco, but his childhood dream of becoming a painter was never far from his daytime thoughts.

In his late thirties, at the end of a shift at a bar, somewhere near the hour of 4 am, Mr McFadden knew it was time to hand in his notice. He did so the next morning.

His foray into art started in 2009 with a visit to an art supply shop in Italy, where he bought for the first time oils and canvases, and palette knives even though he had no idea how to use them.

His first attempt was trying to negotiate a 1.5 metre canvas. He picked up the palette knife to correct a stroke, and never put it down. He can have seven paintings on the go, and spends hours watching the layers dry.

“Within a year, I had my first exhibition with a dozen or so works at the Metropole Shopping Centre,” the long-time Monaco resident told Monaco Life. “I was finally going to answer the question: Could I be an artist?”

Ten years on, the answer is clear from Mr McFadden’s current month-long exhibition at the Gildo Pastor Centre, on 7 rue du Gabian, which runs until the last Friday in May.

The fifteen portraits and abstracts are a “cross-section of my earlier work”, with many familiar faces on the wall, including a large piece on Nelson Mandela.

“I work from photos, and spend a lot of time reading autobiographies and painting their images,” Mr McFadden explained, adding, “I love bringing a blank canvas to life with a face.”

Perhaps this “life” is what caught the eye of Prince Albert, who purchased a portrait of James Joyce at the Hôtel des Ventes during another event. “I was very flattered,” Mr McFadden said.

The Joyce painting was part of Mr McFadden’s Literary Greats Series that debuted in Dublin. The collection now has 16 works, including Oscar Wilde, WB Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, John and Colm Tóibín.

“As time goes on, I see my technique developing and I gain confidence in my ability as an artist,” Mr McFadden explained. “I am pleasantly surprised when I look at my work and think ‘I did that’.”

Mark McFadden’s exhibition is open from 9 am to 7 pm at the Gildo Pastor Centre until May 26.

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