Posted on 04/09/2003 2:26:30 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The French practice expressing disagreement all the time, at home, at school, out eating or even shopping.
Ever since an American foundation sent us to France in 1999, we have been marvelling at how easily France wins the starring role as the enemy of American interests in any international dispute.
We moved to France for a two-year fellowship to study why the French resist globalization. We had only been there for three weeks when we saw that that the French weren't resisting globalization at all, if ever so slightly - which left us two years to figure out why everyone thought they were.
The real puzzle about the French is not so much their attitude.
The puzzle is why Americans always single them out for going against the grain in international affairs. After all, France is not the only country that opposes the U.S. decision to declare war on Iraq, just like they wasn't the only so-called "resister" to globalization.
The French were slow to adopt the Internet, but they weren't the only ones.
They also weren't the only country that refused to sign the Mutual Accord on Investments in 1997. Yet they were singularly targeted in all these issues.
So the question is: Why are the French so often labelled as reactionary, protectionist, racist, Anglophobic and anti-American, not to mention immoral, self-interested and rude?
What we observed, during and after our time in France, is that the French are almost always singled out as the enemy of American interests.
We boiled our observations down to five factors. What we saw was that behaviour dismissed as French "attitude" was usually rooted in fundamental aspects of France's history, culture and political structures.
The French are never afraid to speak out.
In 1997 the OECD's Mutual Accord on Investments was sunk because France refused to sign it. In truth, many member countries, including Canada, also winced at the idea of not being able to regulate foreign investments. Yet only France openly expressed doubts - much to the relief of Ottawa - and the MAI was sunk.
Again, France took flak over Iraq, even though six G-8 countries and three of five Security Council members with a veto had doubts about the wisdom of immediately invading Iraq.
There's a reason the French are at the forefront of the dissenters: They're good at it. Debate is a central element of French culture. The French practise expressing disagreement all the time, at home, at school, out eating or even shopping.
Eloquence is their true national art, much like theatre for the British and singing for Italians. The French cultivate the art of speaking and debating from a young age and they expect it from public figures - especially politicians. You can always count on the French for a good spat. It's their national pastime.
France has the biggest Muslim population in Western Europe.
A glance at any French phone book will show that the purebred, old-stock French barely form a majority in France. After World War II, the country welcomed thousands of Arabic workers. Today, 5 million French citizens are Muslim, which makes France home to the biggest Muslim population in Western Europe. Just imagine what U.S. foreign policy would be if Muslims outnumbered Hispanics.
France has more than America on its radar screen.
France is one of the few European countries that still have genuine global aspirations. Since 1945, unlike the British, the French have refused to make the U.S. the most important element in their foreign policy.
Like the U.S., France has overseas properties that are an integral part of its national territory - Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guyana, St-Pierre et Miquelon, French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Reunion. This makes France a neighbour of Canada, Brazil, the United States, Australia and Madagascar.
France has several military bases in foreign countries. It is the world's second biggest exporter of weapons. It runs the world's only commercially successful space launching program. Agence France-Presse is the only major news wire agency that publishes in Arabic.
France has maintained a free trade zone in West Africa. It heads its own commonwealth of French-speaking nations (la Francophonie), which tends to vote en bloc on many issues at the U.N.
French multinationals are involved everywhere - Renault successfully purchased Nissan and their food distributor Carrefour is second only to Walmart and involved in 52 countries. The French may need the U.S. more than they think they do, but very few among them believe that U.S. interests are the only ones that matter.
The French are grateful to the U.S., but only to a point.
The French feel indebted to the American, British and Canadian soldiers who liberated their country during WWII. But thankfulness has its limits, especially when the French perceive the U.S. as using past services to further its present interests.
The French have always been wary of U.S. intentions. After WWII, France refused to let Americans run their liberated country. (Who but the French remember that one condition for receiving billions of American dollars of aid for reconstruction was that European countries had to allow the free entry of American cinema?)
France is America's oldest ally and more often than not, it agrees with the U.S. government. But it has never been afraid to say no when it disagreed. It was Charles de Gaulle who used to say that countries have no friends, only interests. This is as true for France as it is for the U.S.
The French are an old people.
This may seem like a banality, but the French are French in much the same way that the Crees are Cree, the Navajos are Navajo, the Danes are Dane and the Japanese are Japanese. France is a country with ancient roots that has undergone many transformations.
When we lived in France, we often met seasoned international travellers who had had no problems accepting the cultural differences of Turks, Japanese or Indians, but who summarily labelled the French rude and offensive when French attitudes clashed with their own.
The French have ancient idiosyncrasies like the Japanese, the Turks or the members of any African culture.
The Iraqi crisis is only a chapter (and hopefully just a footnote) in the story of a very, very old people. But the French will always be singled out, like they always have been.
Shallow pool, gene.
Because they are? This is not just an American view either. I have been to England and Italy. The best I can tell they also hate the French. Why? See above.
Oh the inhumanity!
Laffing...
Can you believe it?
More than a week ago a group of anti-war hoodlums defaced the graves of British soldiers killed during World War I and buried in the northern city of Etaples.
``Dig up your rubbish, it is contaminating our soil,'' read one of the spray-painted messages. ``Saddam will win and he will make you bleed,'' said another. Red swastikas also marred the headstones.
The incident prompted a personal letter of apology from French President Jacques Chirac to Britain's Queen Elizabeth, which said, in part, ``You know that at a time when your soldiers are engaged in combat, the thoughts of the French are naturally with them.''
That is, as the French would so eloquently put it, merde.
Because just days before Chirac sent his heartfelt note of apology, a poll appeared in Le Monde that found 33 percent of the French people hope Britain and the United States lose the war against Iraq.
This has been a week of serial apologizing in France. (It seemed the closer coalition troops got to Baghdad, the more earnest were the apologies.) It began Monday with Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin saying, ``Just because we're against this war doesn't mean we want dictatorship to defeat democracy. We are in the democratic camp. The Americans are not enemies.''
On Tuesday, Raffarin told his nation's parliament, ``It is indispensable to be vigilant against all displays of anti-Americanism, which would be unacceptable.''
On Wednesday, his spokesman added, ``We have no leniency toward the Iraqi regime. Of course, we want to see Saddam Hussein's regime ended.''
Even German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder joined the ``old Europe'' chorus of those singing a slightly different tune this week. In a speech to the German parliament, he called for ``the defeat of the dictatorship'' in Iraq, but never mentioned who might actually be doing the ``defeating.''
Well, Saddam will be defeated and that is what the French and German governments fear most: a free Iraq, grateful to its liberators and its new allies and with no particular need to curry favor with those who made a nice, fat living doing business with Saddam.
This is no longer about freedom fries and boycotts of fine Bordeaux. This is about trade and reconstruction contracts and the future of Saddam's favorite oil company, TotalFinaElf.
So, how do you say ``go pound sand'' in French? [End]
It's hard to defend them. Speaking of dumb.
Mon Apr 7, 2003 - Bottle deposit takes fizz out of German beer sales [Full Text] BONN (AFP) - Environmentally friendly rules imposing a deposit on cans of drink have led to a sharp fall in beer sales, Germany's main brewing organisation said. The German Brewers' Union said the fall in sales of cans and bottles liable to the deposit had not been compensated for by a corresponding upturn in sales of reusable containers.
Its head, Peter Hahn, said brewers reckoned on a drop of up to 10 million hectolitres this year alone, which could endanger thousands of jobs. Germans are already famously obsessive about recycling. Citizens carefully separate waste into as many as four separate containers, and many supermarkets give shoppers a refund at the checkout. The new rules, which took effect at the start of the year, put a deposit of 25 to 50 euro cents on carbonated drinks such as beer, fizzy mineral water and lemonade. The aim is to turn Germans even more off non-reusable containers and encourage them to take their refuse back to the shop where they bought it, provided they have proof of purchase. [End]
Jeez!....I just woke up..That Thought is gonna cast a shadow over the entire day! :^(
but the French are French in much the same way that the Crees are Cree, the Navajos are Navajo, the Danes are Dane and the Japanese are Japanese.
Trying to have it both ways.
We moved to France for a two-year fellowship to study why the French resist globalization.
So we get the idea where this couple is coming from. These authors get paid to be global lefties. A fellowship from whom, I wonder?
This is a stretch. I think we only have one overseas property, Guam, if you don't count Puerto Rico, which is more than a property. It sounds to me that the French government is a lot more imperialistic than the U.S. How come we don't here about that?
It is the world's second biggest exporter of weapons.
Well, now who are they exporting these weapons to? I would bet mostly these terrorist countries. Who are they second to? My guess is Russia, because if it were us then they surely would have mentioned that in this oh so subtle slam piece to America.
For most Americans, France is more puzzling, exasperating, bemusing, and downright inexplicable than any other country on earth. The French beguile, befuddle and infuriate us all at once. And no wonder: to American eyes France looks like one giant paradox. Consider: The French smoke, drink and eat more fat than anyone in the world, yet they live longer and have fewer heart problems than Americans…. In spite of high taxes, a bloated civil service, a huge national debt, snarls of red tape, double-digit unemployment and low incentives for entrepreneurs, France has the world's highest productivity index, is the fourth biggest economic power and has become Europe's economic powerhouse…. Although France ranks as the world's third largest exporter, the French rant against globalization seems hysterical - at least to American ears.
In SIXTY MILLION FRENCHMEN CAN'T BE WRONG: France in the Era of Globalization two bicultural Canadian journalists explore the soul of France, explain what's behind the paradoxes, penetrate the enigma of French culture and reveal how they see globalization. To find the answers, the authors take readers along on a journey through the French psyche, from working-class neighborhoods in Paris to the mosques of Marseille to the MacDonald's trashed by French peasants. The result is a book that traces the source of the misperceptions about France and shows how the country really works. France not only functions differently from the U.S.; the French see the world differently and always have.
Both veteran journalists, the authors came to France with a grant from a New Hampshire-based private foundation to study why the French resist globalization. Jean Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow approached France like anthropologists, making friends, finding an apartment and interrogating all facets of life. Using their skills as cross-cultural analysts, they were able to solve riddles and debunk myths where other observers saw only stupidity, narrow-mindedness or just plain old French orneriness.
E-Mail us at nepa@nepa.com if you are interested in obtaining the rights for this book. Please let us know which rights you are seeking.
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