jeudi 27 février 2003

Le clash de cultures I've referred twice to a paper unlooked at in years before the anti-French rant was distributed in the thousands in Paris. I said people were "bemused" by The Sun's "Chirac is a Worm" front page: That same day, Libération headlined, rather, "Chirac, parrain d'Afrique". The Godfather. Amid conflicting views over whether Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, pariah and bane of Blair, should have been invited to the Franco-African biennial love-fest. What perplexed my French mates more than The Sun's banner, which merited little more than a shrug, was the inside: headlines such as "LOVELY BRISTOLS" and "Nice hooters, Amanda". "What's with the Brits? Nation de coincés?" Of course, there's a gutter press here too. But different things faze different peoples. Chirac may be widely regarded as a thief and a villain, but the French press would not say so and he is, still, Monsieur le Président. Blair is such a clean Crusader. While US papers were full of Monica Lewinsky, the French found it perfectly normal that the late president François Mitterand's mistress should attend his funeral along with his wife. That's just how it is, was and always might be. Amid the furore last week, Le Monde saw fit not to bother with any of it. The 50th anniversary of Stalin's death was far more to its taste: The inside pages followed through on the theme. I collect things like this. The day the Berlin Wall fell. Mandela's release. 9/11, as some of my American friends insist on calling it. Dozens of others. Someone very special will get the lot on her 18th birthday. And what's the betting she'll turn to the fashion pages instead? My first month in France, somebody thrust the dreaded Becherelle into my hands and ordered me to get a grip of those fearful verbal conjugaisons. Ouch! But she also suggested I read Theodore Zeldin's 'The French'. It's still one of the best there is. 10:15:25 PM  link   your views? [] Skew(er)ed? Rarely do I listen to Britain's parliamentary debate, but the wrap of yesterday's had to be an exception. In the House of Lords - its demise or overhaul indefinitely put on hold yet again - speeches were measured, weighty, ponderous. The "rebellion" in the Commons was presented as something else. Had the fat lady sung, nobody would have heard her! Tony Blair took the biggest slap in the face anybody can ever remember for a serving prime minister from his own side remarkably calmly. I thought I might catch a tremor in the voice, a hint of uncertainty. But no. Well, he got backing this morning from one tabloid in the wilderness: The Sun, whose Chirac est un ver stunt bemused the French last week. The Mirror saw it all otherwise. But then John Pilger had used that platform for his strongest outburst against the trans-Atlantic alliance well before the huge street protests. One voice of the "chattering classes", the Guardian, attempted a "best of" summary of conflicting views. Just a few jottings from the mainstream. Me? As complex as it is simple: I see no moral case for a pre-emptive war on Iraq. None whatever. But it was good to hear some key points brought back into that mainstream this morning, rather than having to try to see over the mud of the biggest propaganda barrage, on all sides, journalists have had to endure since 1991. 10:45:26 AM  link   your views? []

nick b. 2007 do share, don't steal, please credit under artistic licence terms; contributing friends (pix, other work) retain their rights.