FRENCH was once the language of diplomacy; the hangover of this legacy is why passports still bear headings such as "Name/Nom" and places to fill in the holder's "Adresse du titulaire a'l'etranger" (that is, where you're staying overseas). But even though the world's diplomats no longer chatter to one another en francais, the French government still likes to pretend it is the top chien on the world stage. Which is why, given France's increasing irrelevance in global affairs, Jacques Chirac's petulant outburst last Sunday to Russia's Vladimir Putin and Germany's Gerhard Schroeder is both amusing and understandable.
For those who missed it amid all the Live8 hoopla, France's leader was overheard in a meeting in Kaliningrad telling his two fellow heads of state that "the only thing that [the British] have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease", adding, "You cannot trust people who have such bad cuisine. It is the country with the worst food after Finland."
Leaving Finnish food aside for the moment (presumably Chirac hasn't had a good plate of kaalikaaryleet lately), the French president's comments are further proof that his country has once again missed the bateau. Britain has become something of a culinary superstar. London is home to 35 Michelin-starred restaurants, second only to Paris, and British chefs from Jamie Oliver to Gordon Ramsay are famous the world over. France, meanwhile, can boast that its McDonald's franchises are the best-performing in Europe in terms of income per restaurant, serving a million customers a day nationwide.
All of which suggests that the French president may have been suffering from what psychiatrists call "projection" when he made his critique of the British and their food: recognised since the time of Freud, projection is a psychological defence mechanism that occurs when a patient transfers his own -- often negative -- urges or impulses on to someone else.
Think about it: Chirac wanted to stop Tony Blair from joining the US's toppling of Saddam Hussein, but all that came out of his blustering was a captured dictator and an oil-for-food scandal that hasn't reflected all that well on his government.
Likewise, Chirac's great hope for the future -- along with his fellow food critic Schroeder -- was the ratification of the EU Constitution. Unfortunately for him the whole thing was spectacularly derailed by French voters, who delivered a resounding Non! at the ballot box -- a great example of people doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. (According to the polls, French voters were concerned that the final plunge into the EU would force them to become -- quelle horreur -- more capitalist.)
Of course, the whole impenetrable 852-page scam of a document was never going to get past the British voters, who still cling to romantic ideas such as accountable governments, national sovereignty, and individual-based civil society -- factors which, as James Bennett has pointed out in The Anglosphere Challenge, make England far more closely connected to Australia and the US than their counterparts across the channel. Not being able to blame Britain for the failure of Europe must have been a great disappointment to Chirac.
About the only thing on the horizon for French pride for Chirac is Paris's bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games - for which London is also bidding, and in with a chance at that. If that doesn't wind up going France's way, there won't be much left for Chirac to do, even in the playground of the European Union. Because on Friday, the rotating presidency of the EU transfers to - you guessed it - Britain.
#7
When will France stop having such a hard time believing that the world detests them even more than they detest themselves?
Their foul-honking, fowl-beaked leader, Chirac, had a less than 28% approval polling domestically. And that was before he pissed away this desperately sought Olympic welfare check with his formula chauvanistic pomposity.
There is always the Bizarre Foodstuffs Olympics for the misfit French to vie for. But those damned Chinese will probably beat them out of that one, too. Better to deploy your Minister of Surrender next time.
Posted by: Rufus Lee King ||
07/06/2005 13:34 Comments ||
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#8
In Heaven you are greeted by the British, cooked for by the French, organized by the Germans and provided fun and games by the Italians.
In Hell you are greeted by the French, cooked for by the British, organized by the Italians, and provided fun and games by the Germans.
Posted by: Rufus Lee King ||
07/06/2005 13:51 Comments ||
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#9
Hell has Russian TeeVee and Cigarette.
Heaven Russian parties and spring vegetables.
Title is misleading, actually about the "color" revolutions. Long, see text at link.
Note that John Rosenthal's excellent "Transatlantic intelligencer" blog has a whole special section in its sidebar focusing on the Ukrainian orange revolution 's dark side, including the way orange blogger Discoshaman fooled the conservative blogosphere.
http://www.trans-int.blogspot.com/
Ukrainian postmodern coup completes testing of new template
By Jonathan Mowat
Online Journal Contributing Writer
No link (little freebie from Stratfor); long, *definitively* needs to be p.49-ed.
By Peter Zeihan
The process of integration for the European Union has always been on a two-steps-forward, one-step-back kind of program, but recent setbacks mean that this time is different. Following the failures of two key referendums on the draft EU constitution, the Union has lost public confidence, the ratification process has been suspended indefinitely, the organization lacks a budget, leaders of key states are bickering like children, and the institutional framework of the Union has all the beauty, grace and dexterity of a Frankenstein's monster -- sans lightning.
Into this milieu comes the United Kingdom -- that most euroskeptic member of the 25-state union -- which took the six-month rotating presidency July 1. Conventional wisdom tells us that British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- like other EU presidents before him -- will fail at all of his declared initiatives, and this time conventional wisdom holds water. What this logic does not include, however, is the fact that London already has won the fight over the future of Europe.
Go to link, use right-arrow to go to page 19. I can't find it in the electronic version, or even Google.
I never even heard of this guy until I started coming to Rantburg! Those of you here that have heard of him will find this interesting, I'll bet.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/06/2005 09:29 ||
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#1
"What would Noam Chamsky do?
Unless it's drop dead, can't say that I give a rat's ass.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/06/2005 10:06 Comments ||
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#2
Actually, it's pretty funny. Never heard of the DC Examiner. Anybody know anything about it?
It's doubtful this would get published in the NYT, which I think reflects well on the author. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/06/2005 10:14 Comments ||
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#3
Knome Chumpski? Less a person than a cult of personality sans any real personality or thought beyond vomitted pretzel logic that missed the toilet. Endured having to hear the little troll of a tool do his spiel at a graduation years ago. Had a real desire to ask him about Cambodia and the doctrine of Chumpski infallability. He should stick to linguistics.
From what I hear, Pepe, he's not very good at that either.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/06/2005 10:20 Comments ||
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#5
The Examiner is a free daily owned by Phil Anschutz that's been publishing for a few months. I think the plan is to have a string of them in cities across the country. I've picked one up from time to time, but have so completely lost the dead tree habit I never wind up reading them.
2. it has a feature called 'jokes too tough for late night' e.g., former President Clinton says the US should either clean up or close down Gitmo; he also says that the Men's room at the Chappaqua Hooters could use some new urinal cakes.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
