French Malaise

"While the French are trying to take their defeat philosophically, the result has reinforced a sense of gloom here - and the feeling that France itself is no longer a lucky nation."
Quoted from BBC News

I guess by now everyone knows that France lost the World Cup last night, by the narrowest of margins, and in the process had their star athelete go berserk and get booted off the field for his final game before retirement. Yesterday evening the entire country was excited - lots here were filled with cars as people waving red, white, and blue flags went to pubs to cheer their team. Nobody had expected anything of the French team this year - Their own media had jeered them as being too old and poorly coached, so it came as a pleasant surprise that they went all the way to the final game without much real encouragement going in.

During the past week, the news had shifted - Suddenly papers were writing stories about the renewed sense of optimism here; the sense that something good was happening again. Now, I didn't watch the game, and personally don't give a damn about most organized team sports in general, but I'm highly annoyed that the French team lost for one simple reason:

It means a lot more news reports about "French malaise".

I am sick beyond tolerance of the twisted fascination that both the French and the British media seem to take in over-examining, and endlessly commenting on, a sense of gloom in France. Yes, they're stuck with Chirac. Yes, they lost the Olympics. Yes, they experienced some nasty riots. Growth is slow, unemployment is high. And now they've lost the World Cup at the last minute, which I'm sure is going to produce another torrent of navel-gazing analysis about just why the French are glum and confused, mostly by talking heads cashing paychecks. It begs the question - Are the French really miserable and sullen, or do they just think they are because that's what their own media keeps telling them they are? !!

My own observations are that there are as many smart, hard-working, savvy people here as there were in the US, and also as many assholes (They just have a culturally different style...). It feels as though the whole country is just treadmilling - ticking off time until Chirac gets booted from office and replaced by... who? A lot of the French dislike Sarkozy, but he's probably the best choice for turning the country around - providing that he isn't blocked at every step by striking unions, which seems most likely to happen. Royal easily wins the popular vote and lots seem to like the idea of a female president, plus her less-confrontational style may actually make her more effective than the in-your-face Sarko.

Personally, I don't care, I just wish A) the media would shut up for a bit about how depressed everyone is supposed to be, so everyone might B) realize that this is a country filled with intelligent people with excellent education and a highly sophisticated social system, be proud of themselves, and get the hell on with working and making things better. Jeez!

There's my outsider's rant for the day ;) Now I'm off to the beach!

EDIT: Well, that didn't take long - It was less than a day before I ran across this article on BBC. Though, it has a bit of the curiousness that sometimes creeps into the Beeb news site - "Zinedine Zidane has managed to unite the nation in a way that no politician French can dream of doing." It is good that they English speak.