Doing nothing in France is the one activity that does not require filling out endless forms. Doing anything in France usually gets so complicated that it is little wonder that so many people get worn out, decide to ‘do nothing’ as their life’s work.
I used to live in southwest Colorado: Durango, Bayfield, Cortez, the Four Corners.
Marlboro country (cough, cough).
Before the US of A was taken over by religious fundamentalists, this was God’s country.
When you’re there, you can feel the wind in your hair, watch the last of the bald eagles fly around like they still own the place. Trek through canyons that are as close to the primal rush as anything I’ve ever experienced. Your neighbors are Navajos, Mesa Verde is just up the road. You can even stand in four states at once, if you like that sort of thing and don’t mind feeling foolish.
So it is with great consternation that I just read that a woman in Pagosa Springs CO, a small town just up the road a piece from where I used to live, has been severely sanctioned by her neighbors for putting a Christmas sign on her lawn that had a peace symbol on it. You know, ‘Merry Xmas, Peace on Earth, good will towards men’ (and women, I imagine).
Unbelievably, 4 of her neighbors complained that such a sign was unseemly, unpatriotic, anti-war, satanic. Yeah, the devil’s own work. The president of the homeowner’s association has imposed a 25$ a day fine on her until she removes the sign. The advisory council (whatever that is) refused to support the president’s fiat and were summarily fired.
Our heroine is refusing to take down the sign, saying “Peace is way bigger than not being at war. This is a spiritual thing”.
This is democracy at work. What we wanted to bring to Iraq. If you’re curious, there’s more information here.
Just tripped across a long screen of social hints and tips for people (especially business types) who must interact with the French in France and not put their foot in it.
Some of the tips made me smile, some made me laugh out loud, some sounded like so-o-o 19th century (to be fair, much social interaction in France is so-o-o 19th century) but on the whole, for those who need to become a little more elegant while dealing in the Hexagon, this is a good starting point.
In this morning’s Guardian, talking about the damage that has been done, and the good, in spite of 6 years neglect, that still needs doing…
That long political hurricane has now at last blown itself out for a while, but not before leaving America with a terrible legacy that includes climate-change denial, the end of biological stem-cell research, an aid programme tied to abortion bans, a shockingly permissive gun culture, an embrace of capital punishment equalled only by some of the world’s worst tyrannies, the impeachment of Bill Clinton and his replacement by a president who does not believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution.
A friend of mine, who works at the European Commission, explained to me her theory about Iran and it’s president’s intentions. It has the ring of truth.
Ahmoud Ahmadinejad is not particularly evil, (no more so than any number of world leaders, certainly not in a class of evil with Cheney or Rove). Also, he is rather more intelligent than most american pols.
And yes, he is frightened of the Ruff Tuff Cream Puff (aka Bush’s America) which seems to love using its shiny new war toys and its love of warfare to create chaos Here and There. Ahmadinejad justifies this exotic view by looking over his border to Iraq. He is determined to defend himself and country.
So what he’s doing is generating just the credible minimum amount of signal to noise that would make it look like he is preparing a belligerent, nuclear Iran. This is the perfect country image to impress and perturb the imbeciles that create US foreign policy.
He is playing that image for all its worth. It is a very effective strategy.
Email sent this morning, after the results of the American elections were known, from a friend of a friend to a friend (both French):
Since yesterday, I love Americans…
Buried deep in a BBC article appearing today:
A recent poll found 53% of Americans opposed the launch of the channel [Al-Jazeera’s newly launched english version] and two-thirds of Americans thought the US government should not allow it entry to the US market.
Voila, the values of liberty, democracy, freedom of speech that America wants for the world. Truly noble, and for 67% of Americans, they only need apply to others.
The Chicago Tribune cites a University of Illinois study that estimates that the average American
and that this means that he/she has consumed approximately 938 million more gallons of gasoline annually than if they had all stayed circa-1966 svelte. The nearly one billion gallons can be attributed to the excess work that car motors, especially the inefficient ones that Americans love, need to provide to drag the extra tire around.
Is America obesity the principle factor causing climate change? The study does not say.
