tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post5059774880776020017..comments2023-08-29T03:31:24.755-07:00Comments on Under the Burning Bridge: France should understand that there is a difference between culture and cultural heritageFripouillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-8306011628459209232013-01-14T10:34:22.567-08:002013-01-14T10:34:22.567-08:00Hi Vagabonde and I'm glad you enjoyed the read...Hi Vagabonde and I'm glad you enjoyed the read. It's true that France is slow to change its ways, but the one thing that persuades them to do so above all others is the M word - Money.<br /><br />Wine and gastronomy are just two of many French industries which, because of their past tendency to sit back on their laurels and wait for the orders and world awards to pour in, ended up in dire trouble because of foreign competition. They have realised the danger now and have had to change their ways. Both are marketed in a more aggressive and competitive manner these days, and major efforts are being made to improve quality, particularly that of wine, most of which, apart from the more expensive bottles and grands crus, was almost undrinkable 20 years ago.<br /><br />As the French often say themselves 'France does modernise itself, but it just does it 20 years after everyone else.'<br />Fripouillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-67796764281315087992013-01-14T10:22:57.261-08:002013-01-14T10:22:57.261-08:00Hi Nadege, how's things? Yes, what you relate ...Hi Nadege, how's things? Yes, what you relate there is what all of us who live in other countries experience if we happen to be given to expressing opinions on current affairs. I was even told once "if you don't like France then you should go back to England." Ah, water off a duck's back. Rançon de la gloire? Fripouillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-75354512895612278532013-01-13T15:20:25.267-08:002013-01-13T15:20:25.267-08:00I enjoyed your post and the comments. You are tot...I enjoyed your post and the comments. You are totally correct about France and the French attitude, but it has been like that for years. I studied foreign cultures for my work and saw that culture moves at a glacial pace. It will take a long time for France to modernize their outlook – their thinking that the gloire that was France is enough to stop everyone in their tracks from now on. <br /> I have been living in the US for many years and have seen much of the same thing. They believe that their culture is the best in the world and it is not easy to show them that many mistakes have been made. Many believe that to criticize your country is to be unpatriotic. I believe that if you love your country you should know its weaknesses and try to correct them.<br />Vagabondehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-77822608114054068592013-01-13T14:17:05.772-08:002013-01-13T14:17:05.772-08:00I have been in the US since 1978 and I still have ...I have been in the US since 1978 and I still have my french accent. When baby Bush was in power, I was so angry that I was very generous about my opinion against him. People thought I was anti-American, which is not the case at all but I was trying to make people see the horrible "sacrilege" committed : water boarding, invading a country (Iraq)... I took a lot of flak and few times walked with my tail between my legs. I was just trying to educate people but one cannot educate someone who doesn't want to be . Such is your case for France, trying to educate, participate, but people don't want to accept you or your ideas, your criticisms.<br />Mon adresse a hotmail.com est lanadege<br />Just didn't want to write it in full. It might be on my blog though.Amandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06031276247743743680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-19257201461036951392013-01-13T13:18:12.747-08:002013-01-13T13:18:12.747-08:00You don't know how much pleasure and support y...You don't know how much pleasure and support your comment just gave me. Thanks. I know there are a lot of 'Francophile' blogs on the Internet, and I visit them with pleasure. After all, I too like so much about this country and its people, and I too like a good recipe for a Boeuf Bourgignon. But I can't be like them, for better or for worse.<br /><br />My take is that I live here, and although I love this country I, just like French people have to pay (substantial in my case, as a single man with no children and a relatively high income and a self-employed fiscal regime)income and local taxes and I too am affected by government decisions and other direct influences on my life, so not only do I have the right to discuss them and, where necessary, criticise them, but I have the obligation to as a participating member of French society. <br /><br />I'm not asking for national voting rights (ridiculous idea) but just to lend my voice to a debate, a voice which finds many echoes in those of French people who, like myself, would like France to resolve the current moral, existential and real-world dilemmas which confront it...<br /><br />'Qui aime bien châtie bien'?<br /><br />As you quite rightly and eloquently ask, "What do you think : sound or no sound? Should it be all about the finger or like in "the dictator" arguing in the hairdresser chair who goes higher and higher to the ceiling?"<br /><br />Perfectly put.....<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Fripouillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-52688723677784211522013-01-13T12:49:05.980-08:002013-01-13T12:49:05.980-08:00I am checking your blog again as I am sending your...I am checking your blog again as I am sending your link to a friend (American who lives in France).<br />I don't think you are french bashing at all. In your postings and comments, I feel a bit of nostalgia for my old France that was welcoming to strangers, more open to new ideas... (if that was really the case because I am not so sure anymore). I see comments from english natives who now live in France or just have a second home in France and I just skip their comments or stopped reading their blogs because they are not very interesting nor clever and are "comparers". But you are different.<br />I sent a Facebook private message to an American woman who lives in France. She wrote that she was tired of english people bashing France but there is an Englishman who never stops bashing the US. Charlie Chaplin would have a field day about all those finger pointing : "I am better than you, No I AM better". What do you think : sound or no sound? Should it be all about the finger or like in "the dictator" arguing in the hairdresser chair who goes higher and higher to the ceiling?<br />I don't know if you know this but the Olympics were not a huge success in the US. I watched the first 5 mn and turned off. NBC is notorious for turning the Olympics into a soap opera... Only US champs were shown on TV<br />apparently. If a category didn't have an american athlete, it was not shown at all. Amandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06031276247743743680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-60386610300680719752013-01-13T12:05:18.870-08:002013-01-13T12:05:18.870-08:00"Do you know, for example if there were criti..."Do you know, for example if there were criticisms in France (by french people) about the video that was submitted by "has been" France for the Olympics?"<br /><br />Hi Nadege, and that's a very pertinent question, because I didn't discuss reaction to the video in France at the time in this entry. Perhaps I should have, so thanks, and I'll do it here.<br /><br />I might have given the impression that I was just 'French-bashing' as a foreigner (and, even worse a crime, an Englishman!) but there was a certain amount of acknowledgement by some of France's more enlightened modern-minded journalists and press commentators that the video was ridiculously pompous. In fact I even remember reading one headline which went something like 'France hands the Olympics to Britain on a golden platter.'<br /><br />The same goes for other aspects of life in France. Again, I might sometimes give the impression that I'm French-bashing but there are many French observers, writers, journalists and others who share my views on subjects which I have written about on this blog, which include political corruption, the outdated concept of 'laïcité', 'cumul des madats', the élites who run the country, the appallingly bad efforts to integrate immigrants and others.<br /><br />There are quite a few people here who recognise the fundamental and structural reasons for the problems France faces, but they are, for the moment, heavily outnumbered. Still, little by little......<br /><br />Oh and Chaplin! An absolute genius. He was one of the first ideological rebels of western cinema, which is why although I too love Limelight, Modern Time has to be my number one. I read once that he was one of Coluche's heros and even though Coluche was never going to be the next Chaplin it was easy to see why he thought that.<br /><br /><br />Fripouillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14321346986665375480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435065948620169670.post-59186467816593444202013-01-13T11:33:45.180-08:002013-01-13T11:33:45.180-08:00I hope some french people fluent in english can re...I hope some french people fluent in english can read your blog. Do you know, for example if there were criticisms in France (by french people) about the video that was submitted by "has been" France for the Olympics? Too often, I read articles of a France that has lost its glory. Oh, they can hold on to it, but it doesn't mean it still has it! Like in the US, the level of education is declining and we all know that the strength of its population comes from a solid education. It is a powerful weapon after all! Unless, education is not primordial as it is easier to manipulate an uneducated mass.<br />(By the way, I rediscovered Charlie Chaplin. I loved "Modern time". He was brilliant and I didn't know he had been banned in the US. "Limelight was my favorite movie).Amandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06031276247743743680noreply@blogger.com