French press review 5 July 2011

An Indian temple gets a windfall. Will Dominique Strauss-Kahn be able to run for French president? Boomburbs spring up like mushrooms. Looking for a job? Become a miner - a data-miner, that is.

What would you do if you found 15 billion euros of diamonds and jewellery in your basement?

Indian authorities are asking themselves the same question on the front page of Le Figaro, after they found exactly that in a temple’s basement. According to the article, 15 million euros is bigger than the education sector’s yearly budget in India.

The local government wants to reinvest the money in the temple where it was found. But for now, the treasure is being guarded by hundreds or armed guards.

Also in Le Figaro, a déjà-vu. Will Dominique Strauss-Kahn run for president, or won’t he?

According to the article, it’s all going come down to these next couple of week:

• Will he be cleared of charges in New York?
• and what’s going to happen with the rape charges here in France?

But, the article says, the number of people who believe in his return is shrinking by the day.

Le Monde published an article called “Mushroom cities are growing in France”.

The reason they’re called mushroom cities is because they literally just pop up around bigger cities, especially in the greater Paris region. They are also called “Boomburbs,” a fusion of the words “boom” and “suburb,” and there are currently some 54 of them in France.

These are suburbs that have seen 12.5 per cent growth in the past 20 years, shifting the importance from the city to the outer rings.

Another article in Le Monde that caught my eye is called “rare jobs.” The article says that here in France companies are beginning to look for jobs that didn’t even exist a few years ago, like experts in “e-reputation,” or “data miners".

It says if you want to be sure to have a job in the coming years, read books like Technology for 2015.

The article also says, these qualifications are popping up much faster than universities are setting up new courses. So if you want to become an expert in “e-reputation,” you would have to go to training centres or night school, places that are able to adapt much quicker than traditional schools.