The way of all French

PARIS, the pride of the immaculate and
stylish French people, is growing dirty:
it has joined the ranks of the world's
polluted cities. For some time now, the pollution monitoring equipment
around the city have been displaying
nigh readings, but the message was driven
home very sharply only on July 13,
when the environment ministry
instructed the residents "not to use their
cars except in absolute emergencies" in the weekend.

Parisians till now have resisted
using catalytic converters on cars,
are yet to come up with a proper recycling policy and even use detergents
with phosphates that harm lakes and
streams. The environmentalist Greens
party, however, is trying its best to remedy the situation. It has dragged the
issue to the centrestage by regularly
publishing the soaring pollution levels the city.