posted
I don't mind the USA not covering or care for our elections. It's a pretty self-centered country, and anyway, it's not the same thing when an election, like it was the case of your last one, concerns a war, and one of the biggest military and economoc power in the world. Of course we're concerned, because it will influence our life, in little or big ways.
[ November 06, 2004, 05:37 PM: Message edited by: Anna ]
Posts: 3526 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
I think that the general disinterest you’re describing regarding what is happening in the rest of the world is one of the reasons European media were covering the US election so extensively this time and why many Europeans are feeling so anxious about the re-election. Bush did not show great insight into cultural and historical conditions in Europe and the Middle East by his actions and rhetoric in his first period. The fact that he was re-elected would, from an outside point of view, seem to indicate that you couldn’t care less about the rest of the world. Of course I realize this is not true for those of you participating in or reading this thread. After all, you are interested and mostly very well informed. I’m just trying to give you my understanding of outside reactions.
Another four years with Bush seems frightening to those who are concerned with the overall international situation. Statistics (I’m sorry I don’t have them at hand now, but I will try to find them if necessary) show that acts of terrorism have increased greatly in other parts of the world after the invasion of Iraq. In Europe in particular, people are afraid that there will be such a polarisation between Muslim and western countries that the breach can never be healed. The consequences for Europe would be grave. To distance oneself from US policies might therefore seem wise, both to individuals and to nations.
And people are afraid that the UN, because of US policy in general and the war in Iraq in particular, will cease to be an international authority. The UN might not seem a big deal to those living in the world’s only superpower, but it looks a lot different if you are less powerful. When the US ignores UN resolutions and refuses to ratify international agreements, people around the world are made to feel powerless.
Kerry as president might not have been much different than Bush, but he at least had the advantage of not "having a record". So the reactions are against Bush in many countries. I’m sure the media are biased in their reporting, but at least they are reporting Posts: 99 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I just do not know a nice way to share my thoughts about France, There is the myth of France and then the reality. The Myth is that of our Co-Revolutionary partners at the beginning of the industrial age.
The Reality is one of an endless conflict that the French have been losing for two and a half centuries.
The French Indian War, The French taking the Souths part in the Civil War, conflicts of personality and the faulty resolution in WW I, Fighting through French Units to reach the Germans in Africa in WW II and trying to decide whether they were fools we were to liberate or collaborators in WW II (yes I said fools, do you think America would fall if Washington was taken? That kind of thinking went out with Napoleonic Warfare, Flags, ghaa...) Leaving out the excuse of being outflanked. I am sure it truly rankled to have us liberate them. A thing that was simply incidental by the way, we were in the neighborhood... No it was a major objective.
Sigh... I want to be nice about this, French is no longer the Lingua Franca, it is English that everyone speaks a bit of. Movies are todays canvas, and Brotherhood of the Wolf was the only French film I have seen that was up to Hollywood grade B standards. I have been around the world and what I see are fragments of American culture everywhere. It is a love hate relationship the world has, watching our latest movies on DVD while we are still seeing them in the theater. France is to the world what Iowa is to the American election, first with an opinion and last to be counted. They resent it and show it.
I had a waitress in Paris with straight face tell me that a Coke cost four Euros because it was an import. The train goes by the Coke plant in Paris where hundreds bottle it locally. It is petty and small from a country that longs for the greatness it thinks it lost. In a way it has this in common with Islam, its greatness is a matter of historical note.
The answer? Well I Guess they have decided to be the western anti-American option for the coalition of the wanna-bees. Extending a long tradition of being on the wrong side. Too bad, there is greatness to be had in the world yet. God how I loved Cousteau as a child, to see him riding on the back of a whale shark...
posted
Wow. I love that you are judging French history and culture when you (and most Americans, including me) know very little about it. If you don't watch foreign films, you don't see good foreign films. WOW, shocker.
And if you think that the anti-American sentiment in France is pervasive, you'd best look out for the anti-French sentiment in America, though it seems you're already intimately familiar about it. The looks I get when I tell people I speak French... Mon dieu. C'est comme j'ai dit que j'aime manger les bébés....
But of course, if someone expresses an opinion that's contre your particular sentiment, you obviously have to assume it's because they are a stupide foreigner, n'est-ce pas?
Edit: Additionally, about Coke? It costs money to sent the premixed secret ingredients over the Atlantic to the plant, my friend. But besides that, it's always good to judge an entire country on the ignorance of one person who lives in it. Because that's OBVIOUSLY why everyone LOVES America so much.
posted
As a very wise man once wrote, the only praise that matters is green and folding. Box office baby, and you know it.
I sighted one example, Coke was high everywhere, but a drunk French student tried to shoulder me out of the way in a street and whined about having to pick himself up. There were several others in a three day stay, please nobody assaults you in Des Moines Iowa while you visit the Botanical Garden...
I have long loved reading about French and Romantic History, do not assume I do not speak from some knowledge. I even chose French as an elective for a couple of years.
I never ever assume that people are less ingenious or "stupid" , but they can be wrong. Voltaire was fun, but look how he mocked the idea that we live in the best of all possible worlds, only to have it turn out that the slightest variation in the fundamental laws of the universe would make life impossible... the best indeed.
posted
Comparatively, the US is a large country. You have a very different experience in Des Moines, IA as you would in New York, NY. Or even Minneapolis, MN.
I apologize for doubting your knowlege of France and Francais. But I do not apologize for my insinuation that you do not understand the significance of cultural difference.
And I submit to you Titanic, USA's top grossing film ever as evidence that Box Office take is not an indication of what is a good movie.
posted
Oh yes, nothing like three days in Paris to have a plain and objective view of France. I understood you can easily be shot in the streets of a large number of your towns. That must may you violent barbarians, for sure. Posts: 3526 | Registered: Oct 2001
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True, Paris is Urban and likely stressed out about Tourist while still milking them. I would have liked to have seen more of France, but the Louvre alone would not let go of me for two days and I fumed that I could only glance at things that would have needed hours to a absorb. It is a daunting collection. (I do like Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry more, the U-Boat tour rocks! It is less of an assault on the mind)
There was the Cabaret and the Arc and that eye sore they are so proud of, and of course my girlfriend and I went shopping for the latest Paris Fashions and scents. It was quite fun divorced from a few incidents, but I would have liked to hear from the country folk with whom I might have more in common.
Still I did not find it so in Germany, there methods of farming and types of crops are quite alien to a Midwest boy, (Mannheim home of the white asparagus!) more like what I have seen in the Fresno area save only that the operations are smallish. Though I understand the Aussies think we have small farms and ranches!
My home in Iowa has less they 5000 in the county, so of course I ran into three people from there in Paris!
BC
PS tell me Titanic did not make you cry. I cry every time I see it, and I have not cried since my grandfathers funeral for any other reason! I have to avoid the thing so I am not a wreck after.
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