Burgers take Paris, with Philosophy on the Beach

A street scene from the river port of La Roche-Bernard, just up the road from us.


Haven't posted here for a while, but I did want to share two great articles I found online concerning life in France:

In Paris, Burgers Turn Chic

This is for anyone who ever wondered what a 35 € hamburger might be like. To me, they sound pretty good! Some examples -
“It’s not just a fad,” said Frédérick Grasser-Hermé, who, as consulting chef at the Champs-Élysées boîte Black Calvados, developed a burger made with wagyu beef and seasoned with what she calls a black ketchup of blackberries and black currants. “It’s more than that. The burger has become gastronomic.”
Yannick Alléno, who earned a third Michelin star in 2007 for his precise, rarefied cuisine at Le Meurice, serves a thick, succulent hamburger at his casual restaurant, Le Dali. Mr. Alléno’s baker, Frédéric Lalos, a winner of one of the country’s fiercest cooking competitions, makes the buns. With smoked bacon, lettuce, dill pickles, mustard, mayonnaise and fries, the burger at Le Dali costs 35 euros, about $56.

If I ever find myself in Paris, this place is on the list solely so I can check off "Ate a 35 € hamburger" as a life experience. And for something completely different, the other article of interest is-

France studies philosophy and sex on the beach

ONLY in France would you find an entire market of summertime beach books aimed at adults who want to refresh their school system education on Sartre. To quote-

This year, there's a splashy new category of best-seller -- the phenomenon known as cahiers de vacances, or holiday revision guide. The idea is that, instead of wasting your beach time with Steven King or Marc Lévy (French pop novelist of the moment), you use it to bone up on Nietzsche, quadratic equations, molecular science or some other discipline.

Sounds lovely, but I get enough creative and philosophical challenge from my working craft on a daily basis. I'll be a bumpkin and stick with Carl Hiaasen, I expect...

Elections improve US image abroad

Here's me waving hello from the beach at La Turballe. I love Brittany in June - perfect weather and empty coastline. I'm posting to share a good story I ran across on Digg the other day:

Democratic Primary Boosts U.S. Image Around the World


I can confirm the gist of the article. We've been somewhat startled and amused by the sheer intensity of the British and European fascination with the events of this election - Every tiny event has been headline news across France and the UK. There's a sense of hope and optimism that is positively tangible - No great surprise after the global disaster that the Bush presidency has been. On a personal level, I probably speak for a lot of US expats when I say what a huge relief it will be to no longer have to introduce ourselves at parties with, "Hi, I'm American, but please don't hate me, I didn't vote for Bush". It makes me a bit warm and sentimental to watch the sheer enthusiasm abroad over the possibility that the US may turn itself around on some of the policies that have made us international pariahs these past years. And I love the quotes from the article:

"The primaries showed that the U.S. is actually the nation we had believed it to be, a place that is open-minded enough to have a woman or an African American as its president," said Minoru Morita, a Tokyo political analyst.

"I think it will be put down as a shining, historical moment in the history of America," said Fumiaki Kubo, a professor at Tokyo University.

"Obama is the exciting image of what we always hoped America was," said Robin Niblett, director of Chatham House, a London think tank. (Of course, he's probably also the presidential candidate most likely to be assassinated since Kennedy....)

"Germany is Obama country," said Karsten Voight, the German government's coordinator for German-North American cooperation. "He seems to strike a chord with average Germans," who see him as a transformational figure like John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King Jr. (*Cough*, see comment above)

For my own part, I'm pretty much happy with all three nominees, though it now seems Hillary may be out for good. I do believe that come November, regardless of who ends up in the oval office, the US may find the rest of the world is a much more welcoming place.

In Today's Headlines

This photo was taken along the western coastline of the Guérande peninsula, where we pulled off to the roadside to watch the sun set into the ocean... again, a weird sight for a US East Coaster. This pic has been "enhanced", thanks to:

Picasa!
I just wrote about this in today's Pipe Blog posting about useful software, but wanted to mention it here too because of its incredible usefulness for anyone with a crapload of travel photos. Don & Carolyn, if you're reading this, you might want to download this program - It's amazingly handy for organizing the photos on your computer and presenting them in an easy-to-sort, easy-to-print way. One click of a nice big button will take you to online print services that can produce glossy hardcopy photos of your digital pics and mail them to you, just like a traditional developer. Finally, there is a simple solution for my eternally-leaning horizon lines! Et voila:









These are just a few "Version 2" shots from around our area of Brittany, after being run through the auto-lighting correction of Picasa. Trés cool!

Woof!
Apparently I'm not the only person who's noticed the peculiar French aversion to spicy foods, according to this article on Expatica. Having witnessed the exact arm-waving behavior described, it made me grin.

Brit'Mag-ged
We had a visit the other day from a photographer for Brit'Mag, an English language bi-monthly magazine for everyone living in Brittany. It's a beautiful magazine, with the usual nice travel photos and local culture articles, and apparently our article will be in the December issue. I can't say I'm very excited, because what these sorts of articles usually mean is a lot of random calls and surprise visits by total strangers who've read about us and find our story "just fascinating". Yes, thanks, glad you enjoyed, move along...
Although, they did get some nice photos of the 2006 FdP pipes in progress, so FdP members might be specially interested.

The One-Way Culture Door

Emily and I just recently watched the French TV series "Engrenages", a terrific and complex mystery/cop show. It took it a bit of time to get going, but it quickly turned into a noir thriller that rivalled the best (IMO) US crime series ever made, "Murder One" (First season only...). I wish now that I had recorded it, but maybe they'll air the eps again. Seeing it aired on BBC was both fun and startling - They don't show much French TV or film (Though they are multicultural paragons compared to the US, which would likely never, ever get the show as US viewers whine like mules when presented with subtitles).

Which leads me to the question of why so much US/UK TV and film gets into France, and why so little French TV and film get out. If I flip on TF1 (France's ABC/BBC), I see an unending stream of dubbed US TV shows - Lost, Survivor, even Walker, Texas Ranger - all of these are played here and no one seems bothered by the dubbing, or occasional subtitling. But if I turn to BBC... well, we've had the satellite for a year now and this is the first French TV series I've seen aired. It's frustrating for me, because I want to see more French TV yet I need it subtitled, which means I have to watch what British TV is willing to show. Grr. It leaves me to wonder if it's an attitude problem (Are British viewers as resistant to subtitling and dubbing as US viewers?), an interest problem (Does France just not make that many shows and movies that would interest a wider audience?), or a quantity problem (If BBC has 500 American shows available to run and 3 French shows, the imbalance could simply be in available numbers).

I can attest that there is a lively undercurrent of fun movies here that the outside world seems oblivious of. For better or worse, France has developed an international image as a producer of "art" movies a la française, which can usually be boiled down to "Miserable French cast have affairs behind each others' backs, protest the futility of existence, and then all go out to a restaurant together". (Lest I be accused of being low-brow, "My Dinner with Andre" remains one of my favorite films) But there is a lot of fun stuff here too, that just doesn't seem to make it to English-language screens except in rare instances (Amelie). Taxi, Bloody Mallory, Les Visiteurs, Crimson Rivers, Haute Tension, Wasabi.... France really does do genre movies, and they're both fun and fascinating in their cultural "differentness". I wish there were more French horror films! I can't help but think that something like Wasabi has a better chance of grabbing attention outside France than "yet another restaurant movie".... but then, I suppose if you've established a certain image, perhaps it's best to focus on exporting just that image, instead of superheroines fighting goblins and vampires.

The frustration for me, though, is that my only view into the world of French film and TV is through an English keyhole - There may be a lot more films and shows like Engrenages that would interest me, but I'll never know they exist if they don't turn up on English-language TV channels. And again I say, grrr.

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.

New Year's Revolutions

Our pic today is a little shot from the "back alleys" of Herbignac - This is a side street that we cut through often on our walks to visit some friends downtown. In theory, cars are allowed to drive through here, though we have rarely seen them. A much more frequent menace are those damned bumblebee scooters that zip through at 70 mph sounding like wheeled chainsaws.

I remember at the end of 2004, it was such a lousy year for everyone that we were looking ahead to 2005 thinking it couldn't possibly be any worse, but I think most would agree that 2005 can't go out the door quick enough. This leaves me cautious about looking forward to 2006, though. We have a variety of hopes for the coming year, both for ourselves and for our adopted country.

For France, my feelings are perhaps better expressed by the editor of Expatica News in her article. Given that China is about to handily pass both France and the UK on the ranking of world's largest economies, this isn't the time for sitting around moaning (while on strike, of course). For Emily and myself, our goals this year are almost entirely mercenary - get in better financial shape, stabilize the money picture, fatten our "cushion". If possible, I'd like to improve my French, but as has been the case these past three years, it isn't the priority that bringing in more cash is. I am continuing to work on my little private pipe project, but I doubt that finances will allow such a complex undertaking to come to fruition this year - we'll see. For now, though, Happy New Year to one and all, and let's try to forget that 2005 ever happened!

Vannes, EU Politics, and American Weeds

(Here's a nature shot taken on the network of forested trails that surround Herbignac)
As I mentioned in today's entry to our pipe blog, we've been extremely busy for the past week - too busy to keep the blogs updated, unfortunately! But, maybe I can make up for that today with a little bit of video. I put this slide show together a couple of years ago to fill out some CDs of pictures and videos that we made for our parents and friends in the states, but I've never posted it on the site until now. The photos are all from our first summer in Brittany, when our friends Beate & Micheal took us to the "old city" area of Vannes for a vacation day. Nice pics, nice music, and mostly nice people! The file is in WMV format, which I'm sure will provoke lots of complaining, but I made it back when Windows Moviemaker was all I had to work with (and I am entirely too lazy to try to go back and change it now). NOTE - This video was taken down to save server space and bandwidth, sorry.

We have to give a delayed welcome to Germany's new (and first female) chancellor Angela Merkel. She's been in all the news here, with everyone wondering which way she will go (not that she seems to have that many options considering the fractious coalition government she is leading). She's vowing to keep French-German relations close, but also to improve Germany's wobbly relations with the US. It's funny - I lived my whole life barely knowing the names of any foreign leaders, but now I follow closely the Unholy Trinity of French/UK/German politicking. It makes entertaining reading, especially as the UK slowly moves into a greater driving role in the EU after France shot its own feet off with that constitution vote. I do not mean to imply that I think the EU would be better off with the UK in the lead - I have no vested interest either way. It simply makes good drama to this outsider's eyes to watch the struggles between the very vested interests. I am particularly looking forward to the next presidential elections in France! Watching someone else's political system at work is a lot more fun than it sounds.

"There is a long, not so noble expatriate tradition of sitting around citing the faults of one's hosts, that is, the people who populate the country where you live."
So opens this book review of 'French and Americans, The Other Shore', which sounds interesting, more so if it is on the level with Raymonde Carroll's "Cultural Misunderstandings". That was probably the most serious, sociological consideration of US & French cultural differences that I've encountered, though it may be a bit outdated today. One of the more amusing insights I've read regarding the difference in national psyches was that the modern French person is like a delicate greenhouse plant - carefully, fanatically cultivated by his/her parents in a very controlled environment, with rigid standards of behavior, constant clipping & trimming, until they grow into a very specialized flower with exotic blooms which is totally dependant on its enclosed environment for existence and identity. By contrast, Americans were said to be like wildflowering weeds - pretty much left to make their own decisions from childhood, in order to develop toughness and durability and the adaptability needed to take root anywhere, at the expense of exotica. A fairly accurate assessment, from my experience! But, to get back to the quoted passage that started the paragraph, one thing that I try (accent on try) not to do with this blog is turn it into a long litany of whining about what's wrong with France or the French.

This brings me to a question - What would readers like to see in this blog? Email me or reply via comment please. I would be curious to hear what people want to read more of, be it food, culture, movies, travels, or whatever. Speaking of movies, we watched "Fantastic Four" the other night and it was quite fun (and nowhere near as bad as I was braced for). I grew up reading FF in the Silver Age years and they were my favorite comic for a big chunk of my childhood. I thought the movie did a good job of capturing the sense of fun in those old comics, before the 90's came along and all comicbook heroes became grim and borderline psychotic. While some of the actors were questionable (Alba as the matron mother figure of the Marvel universe?), I would recommend the movie to anyone who remembers the FF in the days of Willie the mailman and the Baxter Building, before the Invisible Girl became the Invisible Woman and shed her blue bodysuit for a spiked chrome bikini.

Tis the Season

For too much to do, and everything to be late. I haven't updated this page for several days now, primarily because we are neck-deep in finishing a box of pipes to ship to Pipe & Pint in time for their December shopping season. Times like this make me glad that we discontinued the Yule pipes, as it will be nice to finish this box up and be done with it, without the stress of trying to make a matched set of pipes following right behind the Halloween pipes work. But because of this, I don't have anything interesting or pithy to say.. except for all the subjects that I don't have time to write about!

The one topic I very much want to tackle in some future entry is the bizarre French resistance to everything "Anglo-Saxon". Chirac recently made a speech regarding the riots, and in this speech he declared again that France would not "follow the Anglo-Saxon model" of promoting racial integration through economic encouragement and quotas, but would rather continue the French tradition of pouring welfare money on the problem until everyone is quiet again. What strikes me is the automatic, totally unquestioned rejection of any "Anglo-Saxon" solution - it's as if the very idea of adapting something proven to work by the US or Britain is total anathema to the French political class. I find this, to use an American expression, like cutting your nose off to spite your face. Too often in this country, working solutions are ignored or rejected because they are "Anglo-Saxon" in origin. Sometimes it seems to me as though the government here is trapped in a straightjacket of petty spite, determined to reinvent the wheel because it isn't "French" enough, and perfectly willing to accept a rotating concrete block on an axle if it represents a "true French" alternative to a dreaded "Anglo-Saxon" concept.

And for what it is worth, I keep using "French" and "Anglo-Saxon" in quotes because I find the terms ridiculous... "Anglo-Saxon" as used in France seems to cover pretty much anything done by any country loosely connected with the US or Britain, thereby lumping all Scots, Welsh, Irish, Brits, Native Americans, African Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, (not to mention the vast numbers of American citizens who come from French, German, Spanish, Polish, etc, ancestry) into one generic pot. "French" is equally silly, because the context in which I so often hear it invoked is one of questioning whether an idea is "French" enough... and the Bretons of Brittany would probably tell you that they are Breton first and French a distant second. Just like the countries they stereotype, France is made up of many smaller regions with unique cultures and often incompatible personalities (with the sole exception that nearly everyone detests Parisians).

I was moved to write all this because of the front page poll on Expatica News yesterday. They posed the question, "Do you think the riots will lead to lasting change?" As I type this, the current votes are:
Yes, France will work harder for successful integration policies (17%)
Yes, France will take a hard turn to the far right (21%)
No, everyone will forget as soon as the flames are out (62%!!)

For some other, better written thoughts on the subject, see these articles:
French newspaper re-evaluates reaction to Katrina
What the French failed to learn

And for a very long, yet very insightful, examination of US-French relations, have a look here:
The Terms of US-French Engagement

Breaking News - In Today's Weather...

A friend of mine sent me this and I had to post it, it is too silly for words......

Another Crappy Home-Video Director is Born

Thanks to a very fortuitous windfall, we were able to do something yesterday which I had not dreamed would be possible, and get ourselves a tiny (and rather simple) digital video recorder. These have long been on my want-list, but practicality and survival kept us from getting one even though the basic ones today are fairly inexpensive. The reason I wanted one now was to make a video of my parents' trip here next month, but I also hope to start adding more video to the website in the form of Brittany travel vids and pipemaking videos. The real question will be how to host them, since my server (and wallet) will balk at the bandwidth issues.

Yesterday was another all-day trip into Nantes, to get our new year's residency visas - a fairly painless process these days, and more of an occasion for a good wander around downtown Nantes than for the sort of panicking deep-jungle-expedition mentality we used to have. Our friend Camille took us to "the best shop selling pain au chocolat in Nantes" - a little corner breadshop that looked much like every other corner breadshop in any French city.
But...
Wow. Yes, very good. I've had pain au chocolat before from plenty of different places, and it is usually really uninspiring, but yesterday's was orgasmic. For those unfamiliar, pain au chocolat is a very buttery, flaky croissant served light and hot, so fluffy it melts in your mouth, and it is shot through with heated and melted chocolate chips. Argh, says the diet. Yum, says my tongue. I'll have another dozen...

Despite news media reports of riots in Nantes, we saw no evidence of any troubles and everything was as bustling and busy as usual. The only unusual event occurred while we were relaxing at an outdoor café in the city center - there was some yelling across the broad square, and police officers seemed to materialize out of every alley and side street and converge. After a few moments, we saw them leading away some very grungy-looking drunk, not a band of rioters. I suspect that, like flying in the aftermath of 9-11, we're probably safer on the city streets now than we were before, given the increased policing!

Here are a few more comments I've received from locals about the riots:

This first post is in reply to some questions I directed to the Herbignac community forum.
"To your question "Have there been riots close to here?", here is my answer: in Herbignac and in the area, there was no problem. With your second question: "Does the town hall have plans.?". Answer = No, the town hall does not have any plan of repression for hypothetical problems of this kind. On the other hand, the answer that I posted you on the forum explains the means which proved reliable in the past and which are to be developed for the future. These means are simple and are not reserved to the only elected officials (mayor and advisers) but they are to be put into practice by each inhabitant of the commune; to maintain and create relations of mutual aid, solidarity, good closeness between the inhabitants. How? it is to each person to find the ways of acting with others to take part in the work of collective interest, in a spirit of community."
(A votre première question "y a-t-il eu des émeutes près d'ici?",un internaute vous dit que si vous êtes de la région, vous devez sûrement le savoir.Voici ma réponse : à Herbignac et dans la région, il n'y a eu aucun problème.Quant à votre deuxième question : "la mairie a-t-elle des plans ..?". réponse = non la mairie n'a aucun plan de répression pour d'hypothétiques problèmes de ce genre. En revanche, la réponse que je vous ai postée sur le forum indique les moyens passés qui ont fait leurs preuves et qui sont à développer pour l'avenir. Ces moyens sont simples et ne sont pas réservés aux seuls élus (maire et conseillers) mais ils sont à mettre en pratique par chaque habitant de la commune; cela consiste à maintenir et à créer des relations d'entraide, de solidarité, de bon voisinage entre les habitants. Comment ? c'est à chaque personne de trouver les façons d'agir avec d'autres pour participer à l'oeuvre d'intérêt collectif, dans un esprit de convivialité.)
Yes, I live in Mayberry RFD, French-style...

And here are some comments from a German friend:

"When the riots started in Paris suburbs, I did not understand what it was all about, the connection to the death of those two kids seemed too far-fetched. Some few days later a third kid - survivor of the same hideout, as far as I understood the news intro - stated that they had fled without being pursued. So that cause for anger against the police was gone. Also I did not understand why they burnt pre-schools and lots of cars."
(I will interject here to voice my annoyance at government plans to spend MY tax money rebuilding where the rioters burned down their own schools and neighborhood services.  While it may sound a bit harsh, my reaction is very much, "You burned down your own grade school?  Well, gee, that sucks for you...")
" Maybe I see a pattern now: they have been unhappy a long time, and like with Rosa Parks in the US in 55 (or the police-killed Student Benno Ohnesorg in Germany in 68) it just needed a spark to explode... Also, the spreading looks like some organizing guys just looked for angry=unthinking followers...
Concerning methods to subdue those riots, I think our European ones differ from US ones: Sarkozy sure would have liked to go in with force, I guess, but that would only have roused the silent crowd that was not yet ready to use violent words or deeds. The French society of today was built upon a (The) Revolution, and the Marseillaise still asks every Child of the Land to fight for what is Right! And as recently as WW2 the French resistance fought powerfully and relentlessly against the oppressors. So I think the calmer way they choose to go works out slowly, but securely, and the split method of on one hand looking what can be done to relieve the living circumstances of the angered depraved, and on the other hand to separate the really bad eggs from the rest, and to cast out the bad ones fast, will help to calm the rage and the fires. "

The Riots - 60 Million People, 60 Million Opinions

Emily and I drove back to Nantes today to pick up (or try to pick up) our renewed carte de sejours. Alas, the lady who said she'd be in the office all afternoon was not there, and we couldn't wait forever as we wanted to catch a VO (That is, "Original English version" to non-France-inhabitants) showing of "Wallace and Gromit". After walking at high speed halfway across the city, we reached the theater to find that the film had closed out yesterday. C'est la via! We did have a nice chance to stop into FNAC (a sort of French CompUSA or BestBuy) to look at the digital camcorders. It would be great if we could record some chunks of my parents' trip here to a DVD for posterity, though I'm not sure how they will feel about this when they come staggering off the airplane after 8 hours of sleepless flight to be greeted by "LIVE On Cam!"

Today's pic is another shot of the interior of the Passage de Pommeraye, a beautiful art gallery-turned-shopping mall in downtown Nantes. The decor certainly puts Hanes Mall to shame...

Yesterday I posted that I would try to gather some opinions on the French riots from our French friends, who surely have a better insight on the situation than we do. I'm going to post their opinions here now, and possibly for the next couple of days, in somewhat edited and translated form (At least, as best I can translate the texts - I'll post original versions also). So, without further babble:

"It is not easy to be informed in this moment in France on this problem. The media choose to mask the truth in order to calm the game."
(Il n'est pas facile d'être informé en ce moment en France sur ce problème. Les médias ont choisi de masquer la vérité afin de calmer le jeu.)

"There are in the Parisian suburbs (as in all the large cities of the world: N.Y., L.A., etc.) young people who are difficult to control. They are unemployed, live in gangs, and they live of what? Drug sales, crimes, etc. The various governments tried to maintain a "pretence of order" to avoid the embarassments. They have in 3 years, Sarkozy, Minister of Interior Department (Minister for the police force), to make economies, removed 1 police station out of 3 in these difficult suburbs and cut the budget of what we call the latter "the police force of proximity" (essentially, local police stations). These last did a splendid work for all those young people who are not malicious but who are bent by stronger heads or "gang leaders".
Many people (like me) said "one day or the other, this will explode! "I was even astonished that this has not occurred faster. And then one night (11 pm) Sarko went into one of these difficult districts and he" insulted "the inhabitants. In fact, he tried to make a media operation, to recover the support of the right-wing side for the next elections because, for some time, the surveys said that he had lost votes. Sarko never would have dared to go to Corsica (or Brittany) and say: "you are a band of rabble, I will clean the city with the power hose!" If he had said that to me to me, I would be insane of rage! Because in these suburbs, there are 80 % of people "decent" who work and live normally. I saw interviews of people of my age questioned on the spot and who said that they approved the reaction of these young people. Too much it is too much. This was foreseeable, that this ignited the gunpowder, and, very sincerely, I understand them (I do not approve, but I understand). The only solution to calm the situation would be that Sarko resigns, but he will not do it..."
(Il y a dans la banlieue parisienne (comme dans toutes les grandes villes du monde : N.Y., L.A., etc.) des jeunes qui sont difficiles à contrôler. Ils sont au chômage, vivent en bandes, et ils vivent de quoi ? Du trafic de drogue, de vols, etc. tout le monde le sait.
Les divers gouvernements ont essayé de maintenir un "semblant d’ordre" pour éviter les débordements.
Il y a 3 ans, Sarkozy, ministre de l’intérieur (ministre de la police), pour faire des économies, a supprimé 1 poste de police sur 3 dans ces banlieues difficiles et il a coupé le budget de ce que nous appelions « la police de proximité » cette dernière faisait pourtant un travail magnifique pour tous ces jeunes qui ne sont pas méchants mais qui se laissent entraîner par des fortes têtes « chefs de bandes ».
Beaucoup de gens (comme moi) disaient « un jour ou l’autre, ça va péter ! » J’étais même étonnée que ça ne se passe pas plus vite.
Et puis une nuit (11 pm) Sarko est allé dans un de ces quartiers difficiles et il a « insulté » les habitants. En fait, il essayait de faire une opération médiatique, pour récupérer des voix de droite aux prochaines élections car, depuis quelques temps, les sondages disaient qu’il avait perdu des voix.
Jamais Sarko n’aurait osé aller en Corse (ou en Bretagne) pour dire : « vous êtes une bande de racaille, je vais nettoyer la cité au karsher » ! S'il m'avait dit cela à moi, je serais folle de rage ! Parce que dans ces banlieues, il y a 80 % de gens "bien" qui travaillent et vivent normalement. J'ai vu des interviews de personnes de mon âge interrogées sur place et qui disaient qu'elles approuvaient la réaction de ces jeunes. Trop c'est trop.
C’était prévisible, cela a mis le feu aux poudres, et, très sincèrement, je les comprends (je n’approuve pas, mais je comprends).
La seule solution pour calmer le jeu serait que Sarko démissionne, mais il ne le fera pas … )