The Principality has a new unofficial anthem: Love the Ocean, created by local Monegasque talent Olivia Dorato and produced by Oceanoscientific. It’s hoped the song will help mobilise today’s youth to save the planet’s precious resource.
Monaco’s connection to the ocean goes back to Prince Albert I, who devoted much of his life to oceanography, exploration and science in the early 20th century.
Today, Prince Albert II of Monaco not only continues in his great-great-grandfather’s footsteps, he has forged a very significant legacy of his own.
To celebrate Monaco’s deep commitment to the ocean, and to encourage a new generation to do the same, a new song titled ‘Love the Ocean’ has been released by Monegasque singer and rising star Olivia Dorato.
The song was produced by the Monegasque association Oceanoscientific, based on an idea by Yvan Griboval and Cécile d’Estais-Griboval. They entrusted the concept to 20-year-old Olivia Dorato, who wrote the lyrics, composed the music and sang the song, with art direction by Creativ Mess.
Didier Favre scored the philharmonic arrangement for the recording by the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte-Carlo (OPMC), conducted by Peter Szüts.
The anthem begins with an orchestral introduction before launching into the upbeat pop that Olivia is known for.
It is clear that the song is targeted to the people who will determine the future of the oceans – today’s youth.
“Did you know it’s up to you, to change the world if you want to. The power’s in your hands… Together, take the helm,” sings Olivia.
Love the Ocean was broadcasted for the first time on 29th October when Olivia Dorato presented the anthem to the Sovereign Prince for the arrival of the OceanoScientific Mediterranean Contaminants Expedition 2020 at the Yacht Club of Monaco.
It is now available on streaming platforms: https://fanlink.to/OdLTO
Listen to Love the Ocean here:
Minister of State Pierre Dartout has revealed during a National Council assembly that the public can expect the first of three Covid vaccines to be rolled out in Monaco next month.
The Covid pandemic topped the agenda of the National Council meeting on Thursday, and of particular interest was Covid inoculations. The Minister of State, Pierre Dartout, laid out the plan noting that the availability of the jabs will be different according to the maker.
He estimates the first rollout will be in January and February, using the Pzifer-BioNTech vaccine, then in March and April with Astra Zeneca, and by year’s end, the Sanofi Pastuer vaccine will be added to the arsenal.
“We are positioned to have all types of vaccines when they benefit from the authorisations of the health authorities. We have also ordered the essential equipment for their storage,” Dartout assured the Council. “The participation subscribed for this summer provides for the pre-purchase of 15,600 doses (two per person) for 7,800 people corresponding to 20% of the national and resident population. This is a first step.”
With regard to concerns over supply and administration, he confirmed that, “We have logistical and supply support from our French partner within the framework of the Franco-Monegasque health assistance agreement.”
The vaccines will be free of charge to residents, the Minister assured the assembled group.
Other health news showed a sunnier picture than in previous weeks, with Dartout laying out the latest statistics. “30 positive cases have been detected in Monaco during the past week against 120 during the first week of November. The incidence rate, that is, the number of positive cases per 100,000 population over seven days, is 78.95. It was 315.79 in the first week of November. The number of patients in intensive care at the CHPG is three compared to six at the beginning of November.”
The Council requested that a large-scale testing programme be implemented at the end of the holiday period to help keep the virus in check, as well as the continuation of curfews and obligatory mask wearing.
Dartout indicated that a free screening without medical prescription will be offered at the Espace Léo Ferréupon appointment from 15th December to students returning to the Principality, for teachers of school children,and residents during and upon return from Christmas holidays. Over 20,000 tests have been bought by the government in anticipation.
Self-isolation solutions were also discussed for those who are not infected, but have a person in their household who is, and the Novotel has agreed to house them at preferential rates, the cost of which will be borne by the state.
The government is still encouraging working from home when possible and has assured the Council that economic measures to support those financially impacted by the crisis will continue.
Amongst other topics on the table were a maritime shuttle plan between Cap d’Ail and Nice for summer 2021, a parent educational plan to alert them to the signs of addiction in their children, gender equality in the administration and the 2021 budget.
Photo: Minister of State Pierre Dartout and National Council President Stéphane Valeri, courtesy the National Council of Monaco
The 2020 Peace and Sport Awards will be given out from 14th to 18th December, only this year, all the action will be online.
The Peace and Sport Awards are a much-anticipated annual event in Monaco, but organisers have had to change their format this year due to the ongoing health situation. So, they have decided to hold their ceremonies digitally over four days.
This temporary new format does not mean less excitement for the recipients and those interested, as fans can follow along to see the nominees and winners announced on social media as well as on the organisation’s website.
The five categories for nominees are the April6 Initiative of the Year, the Sport for Development and Peace Program of the Year, the Innovative Action of the Year, the Special Jury Prize, and the Champion for Peace of the Year, and the winners of each category will be revealed on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn from 14th to 18th December.
“In these challenging times, sport remains a universal language,” said Joël Bouzou, President and Founder of Peace and Sport. “Its role is vital to promote essential values such as respect, diversity and inclusion. The peace-through-sport community must stay active and connected in order to share best practices contributing to peace, dialogue and social change across the world with innovative ways.”
The jury is made up of South African rugby player Siya Kolisi, who is also Jury President. He will be joined by President of the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation Kerrith Borwn, Advisor of Sport and Development for the Agence Française de Développement Laetitia Habchi, Columbia’s Minister of Sport Ernesto Lucena, CEO of My Coach Cedric Messina, Chairperson of CIGEPS Rosa Rakotozafy, and President of the Hellenic Community of Monaco and Director of Brooks Brothers Monaco Sophia Vaharis-Tsouvelekakis, who draws strong links between her sporting achievements and success as a businesswoman.
“In Greece we have a saying: a healthy mind in a healthy body,” Sophia Vaharis-Tsouvelekakis told Monaco Life. “Sport allows you to measure your strengths and your limitations; to put in place goals that you can surpass; to collaborate with your team – as I did when racing at Les 24h Chamonix sur Glace – and to respect others. It allows you to learn from losing and understand why you lost; to congratulate the winner and be humble when you win. I think all of these apply to sport as well as to business.”
Peace and Sport was founded in 2007 by Modern Pentathlon Olympic Medallist and World Champion Joël Bouzou. It is a Monaco-based independent association that promotes peace by introducing sports programmes to those in the world affected most by poverty, war and instability, the idea being that friendly competition builds bonds and communities.
The Peace and Sport Awards “reward organisations and individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to peace, dialogue and social change in the world through sport.” The nominees for the April6 Initiative Award are:
• International Judo Federation.
• Kosovo National Olympic Committee.
• Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Georgia.
• Palestine: Sports for Life.
• Secretary of State for Youth and Sport, within the Ministry of Education of Portugal. The nominees for Sport for Development and Peace Programme of the Year are:
• Football for Change Outreach Project – Indochina Starfish Cambodia (ISF) Cambodia.
• Free football-for-youth-development programs – America SCORES.
• Volleyball4Life program – Dutch Volleyball Federation-Nevobo. Nominees for Innovative Action of the Year are:
• FLAG21@Home campaign – FLAG21.
• Online SAMBO Cup – International Sambo Federation.
• Sa7ti Friyadti project (Empowerment through sport) – TIBU Maroc For the Special Jury Prize, the nominees are:
• ERC Cyprus rally 2019 – International Automobile Federation.
• The Olympic Day Workout social media digital campaign – Olympic Channel.
• Together against Covid-19 – Olympique Lyonnais Foundation
The Champion for Peace of the Year is announced at the awards ceremony on the 18th and all the winners will be celebrated throughout the four days.
Monaco police now have a new tool in their arsenal against driving whilst under the influence. In addition to alcohol controls, they have a new saliva swab that can be used to detect the presence of a variety of drugs in a person’s system.
With the single use mouth swab, officers can see if a person has taken any drugs, such as cannabis, opiates, methamphetamines or ecstasy, in a matter of minutes.
If there are traces of any narcotic substances on the driver’s swab, a more formal procedure then takes place, starting with the transfer of the driver to the Princess Grace Hospital where they will receive a blood test. The blood sample will be sent to Nice for analysis to further confirm the earlier result and after this, a formal charge can be brought if drugs are indeed detected.
Screenings such as this can be legally carried out by police who note certain tell-tale signs in a driver, such as bloodshot eyes, incoherent speech or dangerous or erratic driving.
The protocol is adapted to ensure safety for both police and driver under current health statutes.
“This is identical to the blood alcohol control procedure,” Commander Fabien Vachetta, head of the Division of Events and Preservation of the Living Environment told Monaco Matin. “The officers are masked and gloved, and the sample is taken with outstretched arms, while respecting the physical distancing necessary to prevent the spread of the virus.”
Since the implementation of a new Monegasque law in November 2019, judges have been given the freedom to “personalise” sentences for those who come before them. This does not mean that judges can arbitrarily hand out inconsistent sentencing for the same crime, but it means that first-time offenders, for example, could receive a different sentence than repeat offenders.
The law on drugs in the Principality are fairly strict and clear cut though, stating the perpetrator “is punished by imprisonment from one to six months and a fine provided for in paragraph 2 of article 26 [from €2,250 to €9,000] or one of these two penalties only, the one who will have driven a vehicle while using substances or plants classified as narcotics.”
In addition to the above, it is also possible that offenders can lose their driving privileges for two or more years or lose their licenses outright, without the possibility to reapply for five years. For unlicenced drivers, they may not be able to apply for one for a period of five years at most, and for foreign drivers, a ban on driving in the Principality which can last up to five years. Drivers with suspended licenses can count on an additional five year extension to the suspension.
It is also possible that a convicted person’s car can be impounded for up to six months.
Clearly, Monaco is heavily discouraging driving under the influence within its borders with the new test. Drug users would do well to take heed.
France will lift its lockdown on 15th December as planned, however some restrictions will remain in place including an 8pm curfew on New Year’s Eve.
During an address to the nation on Thursday night, French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that it was “impossible” to reach the 5,000 Covid cases a day before lifting lockdown, as originally planned.
So, people will be able to visit friends and family over the holidays – and go to second homes in Monaco’s case – within the week.
From Tuesday 15th December, lockdown will be lifted and a curfew from 8pm to 6am will come in to force. An attestation will be needed for all trips out of the home during curfew hours.
Cinemas, theatres and other cultural centres will stay closed until at least 7th January. Bars, restaurants and gyms will remain closed until at least 20th January, as planned.
The curfew will be lifted on 24th December, but not on 31st December, as had previously been suggested.
Working from home will still be recommended.
From racing the world’s fastest cars to selling the planet’s most expensive private airplanes, Thierry Boutsen has always been a man on a mission.
It is impossible to talk about Thierry Boutsen without first acknowledging his incredible racing career. He competed in 164 World Championship Grands Prix finishing 4th in 1988, winning three races, achieving 15 podiums and scoring 132 career points.
It is not something that he is eager to forget either. The Cannon Williams F1 car that the Belgian was driving when he won the Canadian Grand Prix in 1989 is proudly suspended on the wall of his office in Monaco.
But for the past 23 years, Thierry Boutsen’s acceleration has been in the air, not on a race track.
And while business took a nose dive during Covid, Thierry tells Monaco Life that things are gradually picking up in the aviation industry, with plenty of great deals to be had for buyers. Monaco Life: When did your passion for flying begin?
Thierry Boutsen: I honestly had no idea that private jets existed until I was 18-years-old. I had just finished school and had two months off before going to university to study mechanical engineering. A family friend was CEO at Abelag (a private jet operator) in Brussels and he invited me to work there as a mechanic in the aircraft maintenance department. I enjoyed every minute of it – discovering these extraordinary flying machines. I was even invited on board to do a post maintenance test flight.That is when I promised myself, should I one day have earned enough money, I would buy and fly my own plane. I had to wait 12 years for that. Since then, flying has been a passion, like driving race cars. When did your passion for flying turn into something more?
I had no intention of starting a company in the beginning. I was always flying my own plane from racing event to racing event, or marketing event to marketing event, for private or business purposes. Then I had a request in 1997 from a colleague of mine, former F1 driver Heinz Harald Frentzen, who wanted to buy the same plane I was using at the time but he didn’t know how to get it or how to complete the paper work etc. So, I said I would do it for him, and he ended up being my first customer. Immediately afterwards, I had a request from Keke Rosberg to buy a similar airplane for him; then I had to buy one for Mika Hakkinen, and then Michael Schumacher came to me and said he wanted to sell his Challenger. I did about 10 transactions, just in the racing world. I was doing the job as if it was for me – with a lot of passion, dedication and attention to detail. People loved it.
So, we decided to go further and explore Europe. My wife Daniela and I started Boutsen Aviation: she was in charge of the marketing and presentation and I was in charge of the commercial side.
At the end of 2000 we had our first employee, Dominique Trinquet – who is still with us today and is now president of the company. We have nine people working with us here in Monaco, and we have representatives in India, Russia, northern Europe, eastern Europe and Switzerland. Thierry Boutsen flying his aircraft before hanging up the pilot wings in 2013 How many planes have you sold since the company was founded in 1997?
We have sold 385 planes to date, and every time we make a sale, we celebrate it is a success for the whole team. Our team in aviation is like a racing team – everyone is working together to get the job done and using their capabilities to 100%, or sometimes even more. It will be a very important milestone when we get to 400, but it is due to the hard work of everybody of the company. Do you have a typical client profile at Boutsen Aviation?
There is no such thing as a typical client. However, I would say that 50% of the deals that we do are with brokers who have their own clients that want to buy an airplane. The other half are heads of state, international companies or private individuals. Can you tell us about the relationship you have built with the Princely Family as their official supplier of airplanes?
A few years after I started the company in Monaco, a contact at the Palace said to me that Prince Rainier would like to sell his plane and he asked if I was interested in cooperating with the sale. I of course said “yes, sure”. That was in the year 1999 and since then we have sold all of the airplanes that have been the property of the Principality. How often in a regular year do you normally fly?
I was flying my own plane until about 2013 but then the business developed and I just ran out of time. You see, to be able to fly a plane safely you need to spend a lot of time in a simulator for training. Being in the office from 8am to 8pm every day, there is not enough time left for this kind of stuff. Since then, I have only been flying friends’ airplanes, which I did a couple of weeks ago and I really enjoy it.
Before Covid, I spent 350 hours a year on a plane flying for business, around two to three times a week. What did it mean for you when lockdown hit Monaco in March 2020?
Our biggest markets are the United States, China and India, and the lockdowns in these countries started in December, so we lost our activity and customers from then on. Lockdown in Europe was just a consequence of that. When we went into confinement here in Monaco, we put all of our staff on temporary unemployment and we didn’t do any transactions between March and August. So, for us it was a complete shutdown businesswise. Dominique and I tried to keep ourselves busy so we didn’t disappear from the scene, but we were disadvantaged enormously compared to the US or other European countries which could continue working.
We lost a lot of time and opportunities between January and the end of July. Contracts that had been signed were cancelled because we could not deliver planes. We had two planes due to go to India for six months, and only one could finally leave because we couldn’t get the other plane into the country.
But we have been fully active since August. We delivered two planes recently and we have another four ready to go before the end of the year, hopefully. We are catching up, which is a relief. Inside a Gulfstream G650 How many planes are currently on your listing and what type of aircraft are they?
We have 16 planes for sale on an exclusive basis. We sell all types of business jets, but
70% to 80% of our planes are transatlantic, like Challengers, Gulfstreams, Falcons… big planes that can travel from Nice to Los Angeles, for instance. We also sell biz-liners like the Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) and Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ).
Covid may have stopped people from flying, but people are now buying planes because of Covid, as the prices have dropped dramatically. The majority of pre-owned planes have fallen in value by as much as 20% in the last three to four months. So, opportunist buyers are entering the market now compared to three months ago. How much money are we talking?
These planes used to sell for between 20 and 35 million. Today, it’s between 15 and 25 million for exactly the same airplane. This is because the inventory has increased. During lockdown, some people wanted to get rid of their planes because they had no need for them. A plane is expensive to buy and maintain, so if you have one that just sits in a hangar for six months, it’s not worth it. What are your clients looking for when buying an aircraft?
The best price, comfort, space, quietness, and range. They want to buy a plane that can get maintenance anywhere in the world; some people want to fly to small runways, others want to go to the big airports, but mostly they use the aircraft because of the flexibility and the confidentiality. Falcon 2000LX Have you noticed any changes in client or customer demand over the past 20 years?
Yes, business aviation has become more common. Most of the big listed companies have their own planes. And not only one – they have three or four. Volkswagen, Swiss watch, pharmaceutical companies… they all have their own planes because they want to be flexible and well organised. So, when we are doing deals with these companies, we mainly speak with their flight department manager or director, who is there to advise companies on what to buy and when to sell. We are talking with professionals much more than 15 years ago. You are an incredibly entrepreneurial spirit, so what is next for Thierry Boutsen?
Boutsen Aviation has been growing and developing, and we have taken quite a good position in the world market. But today we have absolutely no visibility into the future, so our priority is to work to maintain the level where we are at, with the amount of planes that we sell each year, and the quality of work that we deliver.
As the world economy is in chaos, we just want to keep our heads above water.
I am also the Chairman of the Boutsen Group which includes Boutsen Design, run by my wife Daniela, to offer a bespoke and individual design and decoration service for business jets, superyachts and residences. I also run Boutsen Classic Cars, sourcing and selling high-end classic road and race cars for discerning collectors. Then we have the Boutsen Racing Team, and we compete all over the world.
So, personally, I am trying to maintain the four companies to be in good operating condition and be as profitable as possible.
