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Friday, May 12, 2006Jim Geraghty has a few notes on "The Ugly American" and efforts to clean us up before they turn us loose outside the country. While it's true that we can be a bit loud and brash, we're usually friendly. Every time I've been in France, I've been picked out as an American because a) I was smiling and b) I was looking forward, not down, as I walked through town.Truth be told, the easiest tourists to pick out are the Germans. They dress like American golfers and act like nothing could have a higher purpose than to be trod upon or photographed by them. A confession: During my trips to France, almost any time I've wanted pictures from a no-photography zone, all I've had to do is wait twenty minutes for a group of Germans to show up, replace my smile with a frown and snap away. I overgeneralize, of course, but so do these folks so fearful of the specter of the Ugly American. American tourists are no worse, I think, than Japanese or German tourists. The pamphlet doesn't offer the worst advice, but it is a bit patronizing. 
posted by gbarto at 12:54 PM Thursday, May 11, 2006The problem with French politics...Fausta has the latest on Chirac and company, specifically allegations that there's an account in Japan with $58 million that's got his name on it, and that he was directly involved in a plan to implicate political opponents in a fake scandal while covering up his own real one. Long a name in French politics, ChiChi started looking he had serious prospects after Le Canard enchaînée drove the Socialists out of power and the former Prime Minister, Pierre Bérégovoy committed suicide in 1993. From there, Chirac stuck Balladur with PM, setting himself up for the Presidency while Balladur got stuck defending how the government was actually in place. The difference between the Socialists of 1993 and the Gaullists (though philosophies have shifted, I think Chirac's main Gaullist sentiment - a desire to be as powerful as DeGaulle was at his peak remains) of 2006 is one of degree. Chirac has probably abused his power more in the pursuit of more power and filthy lucre. But both were highly corruptible and corrupted, if not inherently corrupt. (I think Béré probably started with good intentions and got swept up in his power and position; it is easier to believe of Chirac that he is essentially one very bad apple.) So, the problem with French politics... while there are different ideas about who should be ripped off and who should be paid off, all the parties have come to believe that the purpose of government is to control the economy and decide who gets what. We have our own mess with earmarks, and are getting a good reminder that the more money government controls, the more fraud, excess and economic idiocy will be perpetrated upon a society's economic engine. Now imagine the earmark mess expanded a thousandfold and taken for granted as being the right and proper way to do things. Voilà, you've got French politics. Fausta alludes to the curse of Matignon - the difficulty of ascending to the Presidency after being PM. The wonder, though, for all the ugliness involved in actually running the French government, is not that the second highest office in France is such a barrier to the highest, but that more PMs don't meet with endings as awful and ignominious as the poor, hapless Béré's. Like our earmarks, French politicking needs a serious overhaul. The excesses of DeGaulle's ego led from the Fourth Republic to the Fifth. The excesses of Chiraquisme point to the need for a Sixth.
posted by gbarto at 8:54 AM Monday, May 08, 2006 What an ugly image! Isn't it? I apologize for any turned stomachs or offended sensibilities. But at a time when the news media views anything American as awful and anything else as "needing context," I think it's important to take note of what the American media doesn't really think we need to worry about. The picture is of a torture victim that appeared with a PajamasMedia write-up on the Congo, Darfur and the amazing blindness - both figurative and moral - that the West displays when bad things happen on the Dark Continent. It's a bit long, but this bit on the horror of the Congo is a must-read for those who would claim to be conscious of how the world works. Hint: You may not know much about the Congo, but your cellphone and PlayStation wouldn't work if somebody else didn't. My question: PJMedia ran this photo. But walking by the news stands, I haven't noticed it all over the front pages. And I'm wondering how this was missed by the media that knew we needed to see the Abu Ghraib photos so we could, as citizens, decide what we wanted the government to do about it. As I said at the start, there is a double standard at work here. A double standard designed to squelch American action and promote inaction and indifference. Especially where the alternative, in media eyes, is to expose the extent to which things don't get done unless America and her Anglophone cousines do them and the extent to which the "international community" that so loves the Kerrys and Gores of the world fails to give a flying fig about people whose oppression is real and not of the "I have to live in a country where Bush nominates judges" variety. Look closely at the photo. That is what horror and oppression look like. That is what it looks like in those corners of the world where the U.S. fails to clean house. Remember that the next time you hear about the sainted "international community" and the evils of America.
posted by gbarto at 6:05 PM |
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