Thoughts on the end of 2008
Now, to close the page on this year, I bet anything, dear friends, that you expect me to reminisce - in my usual long-winded tradition - about all the landmark events of this year. I bet you would expect me to speak of the war in Aghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or some other rather depressing coming from the Middle East these days. Or, you would expect me to pitch in on the financial crisis, how it has knocked on the door of France - the failing banks, the layoffs, the faltering consumer confidence. I am afraid you might be deceived since I intend to do no such thing. Really.
This year, I decided to close this year with some humour, since I suspect we might all need it for next year. And as I look around me in France, I hardly find anything sufficiently funny to talk about - well, yes, there is Sarkosy, but that one has been picked on this year to the point that even I feel bad for him! Not so far away though, in Italy, the local authorities seem to have a much sharper sense of humour. How about the following for a holiday riddle?
Do you know what homeless people in Milan are having this holiday season? No, not nothing - common, I am not so cruel to make fun of hungry people! No, not soup and croutons, not chocolate cake, not meat roast - wrong, wrong, wrong! They will be having caviar. Yes, that's right - it is not a typo - they will be having caviar, not the artificially produced, but the real kind, all that curtesy of the local mafia. To be precise, it is not the mafia that experienced a bout of sudden generosity towards the homeless (on the latter, I suggest you see a brilliant film Gomorra that came out this year), but the Milanese police (not, that is not a type of pizza). Apparently, the Milanese police has crecently confiscated loads of illegal caviar in Italy and decided to give it away for holidays!
Lesson to be learned: next time you think of your holiday destination, I suggest you give serious consideration to Italy. After all who knows what else can the Italian police confiscate from the local mafia?
Happy 2009! For more of the same, and some of not the same, please keep visiting!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Political slogans across the Atlantic
What can be in can be in common between the politics in the United States and continental Europe, especially France, which many Americans regard as a bastion of socialism? After all, when France is evoked as an example of a country where social services actually provide (more or less) universal healthcare, this very idea results in revolt among many in conservative circles in the United States.
This should be convincing evidence that the average intelligence of the electorate, whether in France or in the United States, is sufficiently low, as to buy this sort of rhetoric! And that the rhetoric is aimed at Joe the Plumber! And for the rest of us outside the plumbing profession, I am afraid, we'll have to look beyond the political discourse to understand what we are about to get ourselves into.
What can be in can be in common between the politics in the United States and continental Europe, especially France, which many Americans regard as a bastion of socialism? After all, when France is evoked as an example of a country where social services actually provide (more or less) universal healthcare, this very idea results in revolt among many in conservative circles in the United States.
Well, judging from the rhetoric of our own hyperactive Sarkosy and president-elect Obama, more than one can imagine. It seeems that no one picked up on the similarities between the two presidental compaigns. The famous 'yes, we can!' has of course made rounds worldwide, even in France, where I doubt there are still many, politically aware or not, who are still not aware of the Obama's winning phrase. Of course, whether or not it was really Obama's is subject to debate - see for instance, http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0208/Yes_we_can_reuse_slogans.html.
That whole debate aside, did no one notice the apparent similarity between the 'yes we can!' and the 'ensemble tout est possible!' which, for those of you not french speakers (shame on you!) translates to 'together, everything is possible'! Now, in general, living in France, one has to note that the level of political awareness and political debate in France is much higher than in the United States, where sometimes it is difficult to separate the prayers from the political campaigning, where the preachers and the 'god help america!' is inseparable from the actual campaigning. In France, while Sarkosy has to some extent breached the norm of divorcing politicians' behaviour from the spehere of religion, thank god, there are no references to god in french presidential campaigning, neither on the right, nor on the left. no god is blessing france, and living here, I am quite content that our economic planning does not involve any religious hopes.
Given such great dissimilarities between the political discourse in the two countries, could the 'yes, we can!' and 'ensemble, tout est possible!' be some sort of a bizairre and meaningless coincidence? After all, there seems to be little contact between Obama and Sarkosy, the latter apparently getting snubbed by Obama on the occasion of the latest G20 meeting. (how dare he!) Not so fast.
First of all, let's see who the slogans apply to. In the US, it was the almightly Joe the Plumber, who has made rounds in local press, both by Conservatives and Democrats, to the point of almost becoming a family member of every US household. What about in France? Surely, the political elites in Frances would not build their political discourse on plumbers? Well, maybe it was not a plumber-figure that lit up the imagination of the French during the election, but - quand même - it was 'la france qui se leve tôt', literally translated 'the france that gets up early'. And just to clarify something, this is no accidental choice, since in france, no one in professional classes gets up early (working day starts about an hour later that in the US, and not because of time difference!) So, maybe we were not obsessed with plumbers, but the plumbers would certainly be part of this france which gets up early. Which, by the way, explains why I am not a plumber...
And if you are still unconvinced by the parallel, I suggest you refer to the following?
http://voiceswithoutvotes.org/2008/12/03/france-from-yes-we-can-to-yes-you-mustThat whole debate aside, did no one notice the apparent similarity between the 'yes we can!' and the 'ensemble tout est possible!' which, for those of you not french speakers (shame on you!) translates to 'together, everything is possible'! Now, in general, living in France, one has to note that the level of political awareness and political debate in France is much higher than in the United States, where sometimes it is difficult to separate the prayers from the political campaigning, where the preachers and the 'god help america!' is inseparable from the actual campaigning. In France, while Sarkosy has to some extent breached the norm of divorcing politicians' behaviour from the spehere of religion, thank god, there are no references to god in french presidential campaigning, neither on the right, nor on the left. no god is blessing france, and living here, I am quite content that our economic planning does not involve any religious hopes.
Given such great dissimilarities between the political discourse in the two countries, could the 'yes, we can!' and 'ensemble, tout est possible!' be some sort of a bizairre and meaningless coincidence? After all, there seems to be little contact between Obama and Sarkosy, the latter apparently getting snubbed by Obama on the occasion of the latest G20 meeting. (how dare he!) Not so fast.
First of all, let's see who the slogans apply to. In the US, it was the almightly Joe the Plumber, who has made rounds in local press, both by Conservatives and Democrats, to the point of almost becoming a family member of every US household. What about in France? Surely, the political elites in Frances would not build their political discourse on plumbers? Well, maybe it was not a plumber-figure that lit up the imagination of the French during the election, but - quand même - it was 'la france qui se leve tôt', literally translated 'the france that gets up early'. And just to clarify something, this is no accidental choice, since in france, no one in professional classes gets up early (working day starts about an hour later that in the US, and not because of time difference!) So, maybe we were not obsessed with plumbers, but the plumbers would certainly be part of this france which gets up early. Which, by the way, explains why I am not a plumber...
And if you are still unconvinced by the parallel, I suggest you refer to the following?
This should be convincing evidence that the average intelligence of the electorate, whether in France or in the United States, is sufficiently low, as to buy this sort of rhetoric! And that the rhetoric is aimed at Joe the Plumber! And for the rest of us outside the plumbing profession, I am afraid, we'll have to look beyond the political discourse to understand what we are about to get ourselves into.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)