B.U. Bridge

DON'T MISS
George Stephanopoulos. ABC News, moderates: American Power and Global Security, 7 p.m., Tuesday, October 19, Tsai Performance Center

Week of 15 October 2004 · Vol. VIII, No. 7
www.bu.edu/bridge

Current IssueIn the NewsResearch BriefsBulletin BoardCalendarAdvertisingClassified AdsArchive

Search the Bridge

Mailing List

Contact Us

Staff

Bonhomie? Michel Rocard, prime minister of France from 1988 to 1991 and a member of the European Parliament, described the “absolutely incredible” relationship between the United States and France during a lecture at The Castle on October 6. “Two friendly nations sharing largely the same ideals and values, which, in the strange world in which we live, have never been at war against one another — in 230 years, this has been unique,” he told the overflow crowd. “The first orange I ever ate in my life was given to me in August of 1944 by a black American soldier. The way you liberated us has created — at least for my generation and for some of those immediately following — an immense feeling of gratitude.” And yet, Rocard said, squabbles about international affairs traditionally have been magnified by each country’s insularism. “ France is affected with what I would call provincialism with universal pretension,” he said. “Within Europe, France has the fewest citizens who speak more than one foreign language, and French news consumers are largely disinterested in foreign affairs. The French people have not traveled enough, and don’t know enough about the world, and this has sometimes affected even the top of our political hierarchy.” The United States is similarly provincial, Rocard said, but “it is wished for here, rather than unconscious.” Too, he said, the United States is drunk with power: “This enormous, unequilibrated, uncounterweighted power, with weak experience of history” is a great problem. Rocard is unsure about the future of Franco-American relations. “My great fear,” he said, “is that this rift between France and the United States could be deepened. That’s one of the challenges that could be addressed in your upcoming presidential election.” The lecture was sponsored by BU’s Institute for Human Sciences, the Consulate General of France in Boston, and the French Library and Cultural Center/Alliance Française of Boston and Cambridge. Photo by Vernon Doucette

The annual United Way fund drive began October 1. Participants who contribute $75 or more ($1.45 a week) will be eligible to win incentive prizes, which will be raffled off at drawings every Friday from October 15 through November 12 and at the University Holiday Party on December 16. “This year we have eight terrific incentive prizes,” says Cook. “I encourage employees to make their contributions early so that they will be eligible for all the drawings.” The prizes include a 15 GB iPod, a pair of varsity level premium seats for the January 15 BU-BC hockey game at the new Agganis Arena, a $200 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble, a dinner cruise for two aboard the Spirit of Boston, four first-balcony seats for BU Night at the Pops in May, four tickets to the May 21, 2005, all-University buffet celebration, $200 worth of Terrier Convenience Points, a weekend getaway for two at the Hotel Commonwealth, and a travel package for two to any location in the continental United States.

As of October 8, Boston University employees had contributed more than $68,200 to the United Way Campaign, representing 41 percent of BU’s $165,000 campaign goal.

For more information on giving to the United Way, call 617-358-UWAY, or visit www.uwmb.org.
       

15 October 2004
Boston University
Office of University Relations