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A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 1 december 2022

Crunch time: The baguette gets UN world heritage status

By THOMAS ADAMSON not come until the 1920s,
Associated Press with the advent of a French
PARIS (AP) — The humble law preventing bakers from
baguette the crunchy am- working before 4 a.m.
bassador for French baking The baguette’s long, thin
around the world is being shape meant it could be
added to the U.N.’s list of made more quickly than
intangible cultural heritage its stodgy cousins, so it was
as a cherished tradition to the only bread that bak-
be preserved by humanity. ers could make in time for
UNESCO experts gather- breakfast.
ing in Morocco this week Despite the decline in tra-
decided that the simple ditional bakery numbers
French flute made only of today, France’s 67 million
flour, water, salt, and yeast people still remain vora-
deserved United Nations cious baguette consum-
recognition, after France’s ers purchased at a variety
culture ministry warned of a of sales points, including in
“continuous decline” in the supermarkets. The problem
number of traditional bak- is, observers say, that they
eries, with some 400 closing can often be poor in qual-
every year over the past ity.
half-century. “It’s very easy to get bad
The U.N. cultural agency’s Bakery owner Florence Poirier, LEFT, smells the fresh baguette who comes out of the oven as baguette in France. It’s
chief, Audrey Azoulay, said Mylene Poirier stands next to her at a bakery, in Versailles, west of Paris, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022. the traditional baguette
the decision honors more Associated Press from the traditional bakery
than just bread; it recog- sions inherited from our an- prised. companies dinner.” that’s in danger. It’s about
nizes the “savoir-faire of ar- cestors and passed on to “Of course, it should be Although it seems like the quality not quantity,” said
tisanal bakers” and “a daily our descendants.” on the list because the quintessential French prod- one Paris resident, Marine
ritual.” With the bread’s new sta- baguette symbolizes the uct, the baguette was said Fourchier, 52.
“It is important that such tus, the French government world. It’s universal,” said to have been invented by In January, French super-
craft knowledge and social said it planned to create Asma Farhat, baker at Ju- Vienna-born baker August market chain Leclerc was
practices can continue to an artisanal baguette day, lien’s Bakery near Paris’ Zang in 1839. criticized by traditional
exist in the future,” added called the “Open Bake- Champs-Elysees avenue. Zang put in place France’s bakers and farmers for its
Azoulay, a former French house Day,” to connect “If there’s no baguette, steam oven, making it pos- much publicized 29-cent
culture minister. the French better with their you can’t have a proper sible to produce bread with baguette, accused of sac-
The agency defines intan- heritage. meal. In the morning you a brittle crust yet fluffy inte- rificing the quality of the
gible cultural heritage as Back in France, bakers can toast it, for lunch it’s a rior. famed 65-centimeter (26-
“traditions or living expres- seemed proud, if unsur- sandwich, and then it ac- The product’s zenith did inch) loaf. q

Colombia asks for legal status for its people already in U.S.

By MANUEL RUEDA and EL- the United States for help, In a letter to U.S. Secretary of temporary status called The White House and
LIOT SPAGAT saying that in addition to of State Antony Blinken Deferred Enforced Depar- Homeland Security Depart-
Associated Press Venezuelans who stay and and Homeland Security ture. ment had no immediate
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — work, more than 80,000 mi- Secretary Alejandro May- “Migration is a regional comment late Tuesday on
Colombia wants the Biden grants pass through Colom- orkas, he asks President Joe issue that should be ad- Colombia’s request.
administration to grant bia each year on their way Biden to grant Colombians dressed under the principle It is unclear how many Co-
temporary legal status to to other countries. already in the U.S. a form of shared responsibility, lombians are living in the
its citizens now living in the strengthening regional co- United States without legal
United States, noting its operation to ensure migra- status. The Migration Policy
own efforts to address re- tory regularization,” Murillo Institute estimated 171,000
gional migration by hosting Urrutia wrote in a letter dat- in 2019 but that was before
2 million Venezuelans who ed Nov. 17 and released tens of thousands arrived at
fled their homes. Tuesday by Colombian of- the U.S. border with Mexico
Gustavo Petro, who was ficials. this year, many of them re-
elected Colombia’s first That language echoes leased to pursue their cases
leftist president in June, is an agreement that Biden in immigration court.
committed to the “incred- struck in June in Los Ange- U.S. authorities have
ibly generous policies” of les among Western Hemi- stopped Colombians
his predecessor, which in- sphere countries, includ- 131,890 times at the Mexi-
cludes temporary status for ing Colombia under then- can border during the first
1.8 million people who fled President Iván Duque. “The 10 months of this year, in-
neighboring Venezuela, Los Angeles Declaration” cluding 17,195 times in
said Luis Alberto Murillo Ur- was billed as a roadmap October, a sharp increase
rutia, Colombia’s ambassa- President of Colombia Gustavo Petro arrives for a diner at the for countries to host large that has made them one of
dor to the U.S. Elysee Palace to close the Peace Forum event, Friday, Nov. 11, numbers of migrants and the largest nationalities at
But the diplomat asked 2022 in Paris. refugees. the border. q
Associated Press