I’m going to tell my son about this (he’s keen on these games); I bet he’ll be so pissed off, he’ll invent a game with his friends to give electronic arts inc sods a “run for their money.” (Once he and his friends swamped some game makers with crap because they didn’t like what they had projected — can’t remember what it was but he and his friends were proud of it.)
The Times has a full-time French basher in Paris disguised as a journalist who doesn’t hesitate to give his column a decided slant all in the name of Murdoch. His name: Charles Bremner.
Don’t be fooled by Bremner — he declares he’s an unavowed Francophile — great pretext to earn his bread and butter while he wacks the French at every turn.
My sis lives in Calgary and told me that this Don Martin fellow has a chip on his shoulder! He is to be pitied — as a Canadian, he’s looked at by Americans in contemptuous manner while French Canadians despise him.
The guy is also a joke — he envies and is jealous of everything French. The guy seriously uncouth and has not much by way of culture. Long winters in Calgary probably has frozen his brain.
I agree with Hillblogger re Charles Bremner.
And it doesn’t tak a genius to figure it out. One of Bremner’s regulars on his blog is a pathological French hater named rocket.
Never has Bremner condemned French-bashing, never has he written anything even remotely positive about the French.
The fact that Canal+ regularly invites him on one of their shows really piss me off.
I have emailed Canal+ several times but they never replied.
1) Postcard campaign: Expensive and not very cost-effective, in my opinion. It would probably only reach a very small percentage of people.
2) Writing to the WGA: We should get to work on that. I am at your disposal, in particular in what regards history. I can have access to the Spanish CSIC (consejo superior de investigaciones científicas) library for first-hand sources.
3) A DVD campaign: Youtube all the way. People are cheapskates — they probably won’t bother to buy an amateur DVD. But if it’s on Youtube, and we manage to get sufficient publicity, then we just might have something here. How about an updated, video version of “112 gripes”? Each video would be a particular gripe.
A popular webpage: could work. A humorous, bashing-back webpage, catchy and attractive. Coupled with serious webpages such as Miquelon.
The celebrity idea is also quite good; let’s hope they’ll pay attention…
Re: “In a previous entry, whilst describing the new Koko hotel in Montréal, Ken Scrudato described French-Canadians as “those artful, Frenchie Quebecois”. ”
And French Canadians didn’t rise to the occasion to correct Scrudato’s ‘disdainful’ use of the descriptive artifact, i.e., ‘Frenchie’? Extraordinary!
” “Who says the French surrender too easily? Le big shot chef Alain Ducasse, for one, is a Gaul with gall.” (…) “After his eponymous and debut New York restaurant finally raised the white flag in 2007″”
White flag? I feel like we should raise the oriflamme…
Come on, the guy’s a comedian… I’m French, my grandfather was in the Resistance during WWII and thus all this “surrender” and France bashing stuff really pisses me off, but I can take a joke.
This won’t prevent me from watching The Daily Show. Jon Stewart makes jokes about pretty much everything, that doesn’t mean he hates everything… That’s just his job as a comedian.
I don’t think he did. There’s a difference between insults and jokes. Let’s show French people do have a sense of humour too. As I said, he makes jokes about everyone, but no one ever complains about it.
Anyway, Jon Stewart is not anti-French. Actually, I think he doesn’t care about France at all. He made fun of Bill O’Reilly quite often when he was boycotting France for no reason.
Don Martin’s statement that French troops will reluctantly step into the line of Taliban fire after six years of lollygagging around Kabul wearing “cheese-eating surrender monkey uniforms like a legion-of-honour” completely disregards France’s commitment in Afghanistan. It is disrespectful to the 1,500 French troops present in Afghanistan since day one, who have contributed in protecting the Afghan institutions and securing the area of Kabul, and to the 14 French soldiers lost in this country.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has decided to send 700 additional troops in the east, near the Pakistan boarder, which is as dangerous as the south. There are three strategic regions in Afghanistan and France is in all of them: Kabul, threatened by increasing Taliban infiltration; the south, where the French air force has six fighter planes in Kandahar assisting Canadian troops on the ground; and the east, where most of the French operational mentoring and liaison teams are already posted. French instructors embedded in Afghan battalions are not in classrooms: they are fighting alongside the Afghan soldiers. There are no caveats for the French troops or any deadline imposed by our parliament.
Daniel Jouanneau,
Ottawa
Daniel Jouanneau is France’s ambassador to Canada.
Hi, SF.
What do you think of this statement made by Greg on your blog ?
“Greg says:
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:20 am
People who scour the internet everyday looking for something negative written about the French, and then who find themselves outraged when they find it, remind me of the numerous Imus fans who suddenly decided Imus had to go after he uttered the words “nappy headed ho’s.”
The Guardian is offensive, as any self-respecting American who has had the misfortune of reading it can tell you. It’s just about the most anti-American rag in the western world. Why, just recently on their “Comment is Free” page, there was a debate on just how fascist America is these days. One reason among many I don’t read the Guardian.
Oh, wait, you say Superfrenchie.com just had the same debate? Oh, er…
Anyway, I thought Zombie’s letter was good, but it won’t change a damned thing. Sean Michaels is happy so many people are reading his column, and the Guardian website can brag about the extra “hits.”
Marc, I’ve been giving the subject some thought, and I thought that a manifesto, brief but clear enough, in which we enounce that what we intend to fight and what we shall not tolerate, and who we are (expats, Frenchmen, &c), which could be posted in various webpages and copy-pasted freely.
The bashers couldn’t care less, but, as a movement, it would make us be known. Of course, the manifesto would include references to Miquelon.org and Superfrenchie.com as our organizing centres, and so that people may visit the sites and be informed. What say you?
What I had in mind was more of a pamphlet — a FAQ could be useful, but that could be something like “the francophile’s handbook”: a modern version of 112 gripes, only for civillians and our modern times. That could even be a section on your website, which would give nonbelievers a primer in what French-bashing is and why it must be fought.
Now, the pamphlet would be in prose; brief, clear, poignant. I’d say one A4 page in Times New Roman 12 should do. That would make it brief enough to be read quickly and without getting bored. The text must be both gripping and concise, making use of the elements of classical rhethorics in order to shock the reader and make him understand our plight.
The text would be signed in name of both Frenchmen and expats.
I could give it a go, but I need material. We need to decide what “matter” we intend to cram into the pamphlet and what we intend to leave out.
Great idea, André! Would be happy to sign post such Francophile handbook on my own blog page and if you permit, would appreciate signing one said handbook.
Ooops, falling asleep here; let me make that a bit more clear:
Great idea, André! Would be happy TO POST such Francophile handbook on my own blog page and if you permit, would appreciate signing the handbook when it’s out.
It’s fair to say that 99.9% percent of French people do not really care about what the Americans may think of us.
It is very easy to lie to the American people: Most of them are unable to understand any language apart from English, and they have no source of information apart US and UK’s ones. Given the 1000 years old rivalry (and friendship too…) between UK and France, it is difficult to say that their official point of view is completely fair. The Americans should remember that their former Kingdom lies just 20 miles away from France, took about 25% of its language into theirs, and an important part of its genetic pool.
Anyway, this bashing might have a deeper motive: Maybe some kind of fear to realize that after having been nearly destroyed twice in the XX-th century, France is still living, with its industry, its language, its culture, and still do not plan to be a satellite country of USA.
Despite that, Americans are welcome in France, and we generally consider us as friends of USA and UK – whatever the way their Government intoxicate them.
If you want to have a more accurate idea of what France really is, just ask to the millions of British people going to France what they saw.
“More recently a light-hearted piece on the Guardian’s music site resulted in angry emails from three readers. It said that Sebastien Tellier, the French singer-songwriter, had succumbed to pressure to change lyrics in his song for the Eurovision contest from English into French. “Tellier, in true French fashion, appears to have surrendered,” the author joked. This was “outrageous” said a reader, who complained about stereotyping and the author’s disregard for French people who died in the second world war.
The author says he did not intend his quip to be taken seriously. “The tone of these articles is very, very light,” he told me. “I cannot imagine seriously disparaging France or the French – let alone the bravery of French soldiers – and I regret some readers interpreted it in that way.”
Like cliches, stereotypes are familiar and overused – reason enough to delete them from any draft article – but stereotypes are cliches with a kick because they have the ability to offend, insult and alienate. They’re an invitation to agree with limiting, questionable, generalisations and fixed ideas – writers shouldn’t be surprised when readers decline.”
From Miquelon.org » Blog Archive » Background chatter
on
Freedom Fries™?
[…] by a pro-war Republican names Joe McLaughlin. Jones won the primary by 20 points, and despite his repentance, is constantly associated with that epithet. Freedom fries now seem to have become a politically […]
Beaucoup,beaucoup d’américains le pensent, mais aucune personnalité publique n’a encore eu le courage de contredire les Leno, Stern et autres Crapauds Baveux.
Patience,pendant des années l’opinion publique étasunienne a villipendé les vétérans du Vietnam et puis tout soudain, ce sont devenus des héros, grace à “Rambo”, “Platoon” et compagnie, alors…!
The more I read and I learn about America the more convinced I am this is the crux of the relationships Americans have with Europe in particular and the rest of the world in general
I am just speaking for myself (by the way i’m French). I’m not really waiting apologies, I just hope that the American administration will one day think that two countries could be allied, without sharing the same point of view on everything. Allied doesn’t mean being submissive. (By the way sorry for my mistakes but english isn’t my first language)
Ho and by the way, this “Freedom fries” thing made a lot of people laugh here in France, because fries aren’t French, they come from Belgium.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a widely used manual for diagnosing mental disorders, defines histrionic personality disorder as a pervasive pattern of excessive emotionality and attention seeking, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
1. Is uncomfortable in situations in which he or she is not the center of attention
2. Interaction with others is often characterized by inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative behavior
3. Displays rapidly shifting and shallow expression of emotions
4. Consistently uses physical appearance to draw attention to self
5. Has a style of speech that is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail
6. Shows self-dramatization, theatricality, and exaggerated expression of emotion
7. Is suggestible, i.e., easily influenced by others or circumstances
8. Considers relationships to be more intimate than they actually are.
It seems to be an anglo-saxon character trait. The Brits also liberated Spain from Napoleon singlehandedly (never mind the Spanish “resistance”, they were the biggest mythical joke that ever existed…) beat Boney at Waterloo without Blücher (that Prussian old fart? Ha!) and Malborough’s army had no allies in it at all. Not one filthy continental wog amongst that blessed band, they few, they happy few, those fine honest tommies.
Vous savez le Drudge Report n’est pas franchement connu pour sa neutralité, il est malheureux que ce site est autant d’influence, et pas seulement à cause de sa francophobie.
Pour ce qui est du Times, et bien c’est le Times que voulez-vous : il est francophobe par nature ainsi que la plupart de ses lecteurs. C’est The Sun, la culture en plus.
Je ne pense pas qu’il faille s’en inquiéter outre mesure, sauf si ça atteint le reste des médias (la TV surtout). Mais après tout Marion Cotillard peut remettre en cause la thèse officielle du 9/11 et s’en tirer à peu de frais, alors pour une histoire vieille de 60 ans…
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