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Day: 20 October 2020

Cap d’Ail bid to name school after slain teacher

by: Stephanie Horsman
20/10/2020

An exceptional municipal council meeting will be held this Friday in Cap d’Ail to propose naming the new nursery school located in Zac Saint-Antoine after murdered school teacher Samuel Paty.
Cap d’Ail Mayor Xavier Beck has called a special municipal council meeting for this Friday 23rd October to propose the naming of the town’s new nursery school after Samuel Paty, the history and geography teacher beheaded by a crazed fundamentalist last week in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a town just to the north-west of Paris.
If approved, the council would then approach Mr Paty’s family to ask express permission before finalising the decision.
“The fear aroused by this crime cannot be erased by simply respecting a minute’s silence or yet another gathering of people of good will, as our country has unfortunately experienced very regularly since the attacks of March 2012 in Toulouse,” said a statement published by the town hall.
The French government’s reaction to the crime has been decisive and swift, with police raiding dozens of Islamist groups and the homes of suspected extremists. According to The Guardian, police sources have said they are “preparing to deport 213 foreigners who were on a government watchlist and suspected of holding extreme religious beliefs, including about 150 serving jail sentences.”
80 investigations into radical preachers and hate-spreading extremists are also already underway.
Meanwhile, public displays of unity have been demonstrated with crowds gathering all over the country decrying the incident, not just for the heinousness of it, but also because of the attack on the French state’s views on non-secularism and freedom of expression.

Prince Albert 1st commemoration plans continue

by: Stephanie Horsman
20/10/2020

In the lead up to the June 2022 memorial of his death, the Albert 1er Monaco Committee has launched the next round of commemorations to honour the Prince and his legacy.

The Albert 1er Committee have been busy preparing for the upcoming two years of commemorations marking one hundred years since the death of Monaco’s first 20th century prince.  

Since January 2019, the committee has been installed at the Oceanographic Museum, the beloved institution founded by Albert 1st, and in July of the same year, they unveiled his century logo at the Yacht Club of Monaco.

On Monday 19th October 2020, the committee held another event, fittingly at the Albert 1er High School, marking the launch of commemorations to come with the presentation of the celebratory programme to the public.

With Prince Albert II in attendance, the committee debuted a trailer produced for them by the Audio-Video Institute. This was followed by Robert Fillon, President of the committee, disclosing the highlights of the planned programme which will commence at the end of this year, and go on until the end of 2022.

They include a study day focussed on the 1911 Constitution, a tribute to Prince Albert I at the Naval Academy in Paris, and an exhibit of the Arctic expeditions of Prince Albert I and his cooperation with Norwegian scientists and explorers: 1898-1907.

Monday’s evening also celebrated another famous Monegasque, former Albert 1er high school teacher, writer and philosopher Armand Lunel. Lunel taught philosophy at the school from 1920 to 1953. This year marks the 100th anniversary of his arrival and to honour that, the school is naming their multi-purpose hall after him.

Prince Albert II revealed a dedicatory plaque in his memory in the presence of his family and Jean-Yves Giraudon, president of the PEN-Club, an association founded in 1968 by Armand Lunel himself.

Lunel received the first Renaudot prize in 1926 for his novel Nicolo-Peccavi or the Dreyfus Affair in Carpentras. He was also a symbolic figure of the Monegasque Jewish community during the Second World War.

To see the schedule of events, click here.

 Photo: The Sovereign Prince surrounded by Albert 1er High School Principal Pierre Cellario (left) and Robert Fillon, Chairman of the Prince Albert I Commemoration Committee (right), courtesy Communication Department of the Prince’s Government

 

Police force joins Energy Pact

by: Stephanie Horsman
20/10/2020

The National Pact for Energy Transition has just gained more than 600 new individuals thanks to the recent signing by the Public Security Department.
Public Security is the newest member of the growing group of businesses, associations and institutions to become part of Monaco’s Energy Transition Pact. In an official ceremony held Monday with Prince Albert II and several high-ranking government officials, Director of Public Safety Richard Marangoni put pen to paper, committing the nearly 600 state agents and civil servants that make up the department.
The commitment of the police force is therefore a significant one and will be instrumental in adding even more signatories by agreeing to hold awareness workshops led by the Mission for the Energy Transition (MTE).
“The personnel of the Public Security have been working for several years to apply the recommendations to raise their participation in sustainable development,” said Mr Marangoni in explaining that this next official step had been years in the making.
Recent acts that back up the claim include the creation of a 10-person Living Environment Preservation Unit (UPCV) whose aim is “to ensure the preservation and improvement of the living environment of residents of the Principality”, and the crackdown on those disposing of rubbish, namely masks and gloves, incorrectly on public streets since June.
In her speech, Minister of Equipment, Environment, and Urban Planning Marie-Pierre Gramaglia, expressed the urgent need to make the transition, saying: “Looking at our world, we can clearly see that the challenges are equal to the climate emergency resulting in increasingly frequent and violent episodes such as the devastating storms that have hit the three valleys of the Alpes-Maritimes so hard: la Roya, la Vésubie and la Tinée.”
“Faced with these terrible events, more than ever before, I am convinced that our individual and collective awareness cannot be relaxed,” she added. “Our commitment must be total and lead us towards the decarbonisation of our country by 2050. This mobilisation brings us all together: Monegasques, residents, employees, all socio-professional categories, all stakeholders in our community, and now Public Security.”
The Energy Transition Pact has added close to 1,500 individual signatories in its four year history.
 
Photo from left to right: Minister of the Interior Patrice Cellario, Director of the Mission for Energy Transition Annabelle Jaeger-Seydoux, Minister of State Pierre Dartout, Prince Albert II, Director of Public Security Richard Marangoni and Minister of Equipment, Environment, and Urban Planning Marie-Pierre Gramaglia © Communication Department / Manuel Vitali
 

New ambassadors: Lithuania, Armenia, Colombia and Ethiopia

by: Cassandra Tanti
20/10/2020

Four new ambassadors have presented their Letters of Credence to HSH Prince Albert and have been officially welcomed by the Monaco government.
Minister of External Relations and Cooperation Laurent Anselmi received on Tuesday 20th October Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania Nerijus Aleksiejunas, Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia Hasmik Tolmajyan, Ambassador of the Republic of Colombia Viviane Aleyda Morales Hoyos, and Ambassador of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Henok Teferra Shawl.
The diplomats had presented their Letters of Credence to HSH the Sovereign Prince in the morning.
Nerijus Aleksiejunas began his diplomatic career in the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania in 2000. The following year he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). After a stint at the European Commission and the European Union, he was appointed Deputy Director of the European Union Department at the MFA in 2014, then Foreign Affairs Advisor to the President in 2015.
Hasmik Tolmajyan joined the Armenian MFA in 1995 where she held various positions before being appointed Advisor to the Minister in 2008. In 2014, she was promoted to Minister Plenipotentiary at the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to the Swiss Confederation.
Senior official of the Colombian Ministry of Economic Development from 1986 to 1990, Viviane Aleyda Morales Hoyos was elected to the Colombian House of Representatives in 1991, and re-elected in 1994. Senator of the Republic of Colombia for eight years, she was also the first woman to hold the post of Attorney General of the Nation.
After a seven-year course at the Ethiopian MFA, Henok Teferra Shaw was successively appointed Director in 2010, then Vice-President of Communications and International Affairs in 2013 at Ethiopan Airlines. He was subsequently tasked with implementing the five-year growth strategy of ASKY Airlines, and then returned to Ethiopian Airlines as Vice President for Strategic Planning and Alliances.
 
Photo from left to right: Henok Teferra Shawl, Viviane Aleyda Morales Hoyos, Laurent Anselmi, Hasmik Tolmajyan, and Nerijus Aleksiejunas, courtesy Communication Department of the Prince’s Government / Michael Alesi
 
 

Silversea wins award for sustainability

by: Staff Writer
20/10/2020

Monaco-based ultra-luxury cruise line Silversea Cruises has been awarded the 2020 Seatrade Cruise Award for Sustainability.
The award recognises the recipient for having shown that it put sustainability, both socially and environmentally, at the forefront of its business operations over the past 12 months. The winner was announced on 6th October during the Seatrade Cruise Virtual event, and was determined by an independent panel of 14 experts from across the international cruise community.
The company was recognised for its pioneering Silversea Fund for the Galapagos, which is among a number of Silversea efforts aimed at enriching the communities and landscapes visited by its ships.
“Seatrade’s Sustainability Award is an important recognition of our efforts to protect the natural environment and wildlife of the Galapagos through education and building relationships with the local communities. We are truly delighted to receive this award,” said Fernando Delgado, Vice President and General Manager of Silversea Cruises Ecuador.
Silversea fund for the Galapagos
Established in partnership with the Galapagos Conservancy – the only U.S.-based organisation focused exclusively on protecting the Galapagos’ unique ecosystems and biological integrity – the Silversea Fund for the Galapagos educates and supports the archipelago’s local communities by financing projects related to youth empowerment, education and training, and science, technology and conservation. The fund welcomes both formal and grassroots project proposals from the Galapagos’ four inhabited islands: San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz, Isabela, and Floreana.
 
Donate to the Silversea Fund for the Galapagos: https://galapagos.bsd.net/page/contribute/silversea
 
Photo: courtesy Silversea Cruises