In his spare time Razik Menidjel is something of a "man of letters". He has published a number of books including poetry, drama and a novel co-authored with his brother Méki Menidjel.
A casual observer could be forgiven for assuming that Razik’s Menidjel’s written output is limited to dry-as-dust technical subject-matter, patent search and examination reports, articles about patent searching in the area of biomaterials and polymers, and scientific tracts such as his doctoral dissertation "Novel Syntheses for Precursors of Unusual Nitrogen-Heterocycles and Polyketides".
"The book is full of extravagant and inflated assertions about the military exploits of the "Turcos", in particular their contribution to Allied efforts during World War II."Over the course of the last three decades, despite his busy schedule at the European Patent Office Razik has managed to churn out several volumes of poetry, along with an occasional theatre play and a novel for good measure.
As far as can be determined, his literary début was a now out-of-print volume of poetry entitled "Plein Couer" published in 1991 by the Parisian publishing house Ãâ°ditions Saint-Germain-des-Prés which folded up in 1997.
His recent literary oeuvres have been distributed by Publibook, a small publishing house founded in June 2000. Publibook is located in Saint-Denis, a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, and is reportedly one of the leaders in the French Internet publishing market.
Razik’s most recent literary undertaking is a racy criminal thriller entitled "Baby-Sitter" which he co-authored with his brother Méki in 2018. In his day job Méki is a French civil servant, a senior administrator with the Regional Health Agency of ÃŽle-de-France.
Razik’s brother and sometime literary "collaborateur", Méki Menidjel, a French civil servant and senior administrator with the Regional Health Agency of ÃŽle-de-France.
"Cindy's scream catches the leader's attention. His eyes meet the children's. Cindy and Bruce rush to their room, frightened by the stranger. Julio, hiding by the door, grabs his knife and slashes the arm of the chief, who, wounded, retreats outside, cutting off the entrance to his three henchmen who accompany him. Julio violently closes the door and pushes the chest of drawers to the side in front of it before rushing towards Juliana."
Written by two brothers who show their taste for muscular films, "Baby-Sitter" pits Julio, a man with a dark past and two children whose lives he is trying to save, against a murderous commando ready for anything... and the worst. A confrontation that hides even greater stakes, since the father of the children is none other than the assistant of a senator himself in danger.
Manipulations and blackmail, fights and chases, tensions and notes of humour...
The Menidjel brothers brilliantly arrange and choreograph these elements throughout this text that ignores dead time and hides nothing of its references. Catchy and intense, a script-tribute to action cinema.
"Les Tirailleurs algériens" is a bombastic tribalistic rant dedicated to the French colonial troops recruited from the Arab and Berber communities of Algeria.
The "Tirailleurs algériens", nicknamed "Les Turcos" were regiments of indigenous infantry recruited from the Arab and Berber communities of Algeria and were used as cannon-fodder to serve French imperial interests during the 19th and 20th centuries.
"In the next part, our focus will shift back to EPO affairs and we shall see how the intrepid "Algerian Skirmisher" made further advances in his primary career when he replaced the "British Grenadier" Grant Philpott as Chief Operating Office in charge of ICT towards the end of 2019."The book is full of extravagant and inflated assertions about the military exploits of the "Turcos", in particular their contribution to Allied efforts during World War II.
Amongst other things, the author boldly claims that the losses inflicted on the Axis armies by these French colonial troops during the North African campaign were more decisive for the outcome of the war than the losses inflicted on the Wehrmacht by the Soviet Red Army on the Eastern Front.
It’s difficult to believe that the purveyor of such bombastic and jingoistic "ballyhoo" could rise to occupy a prominent position in an international organisation like the EPO. But given the levels of Francophone cronyism prevailing during the Battistelli era perhaps it’s not altogether surprising.
Before concluding this part, it seems appropriate to give a brief mention to Razik’s wife Nicola Kipper, another student of chemistry with artistic inclinations.
Nicola acquired a Ph.D. in natural substances chemistry ("Naturstoffchemie") from the University of Göttingen in 1997 with a dissertation about the structure and synthesis of dioxolides entitled "Struktur und Biosynthese der Dioxolide: Ein neuer Abzweig des Shikimisäureweges".
Nicola comes from Varel in Northern Germany and is more an aficionado of the visual beaux-arts rather than belles lettres. She exhibits her artworks regularly in the South-Holland region, including at the EPO’s annual Artists’ Exhibition "ArtEx", and won second place in the "Groene Hart" Art Awards in 2015.
Nicola Kipper won second place in the "Groene Hart" Art Awards in 2015 (l.).
Relaxing on the beach at Scheveningen near Rijswijk (r.).