MPS is fortunate enough to be spending time in Provence, France.
Aaah....The countryside is delightful and what is there not to like about the cuisine and wine? Wonderful fish and vegetables, olive oils and, of course, those wonderful rosé wines.
Coincidentally, Maureen Dowd's latest column "Goodbye Old World, Bonjour Tristesse" in The New York Times reflects on the state of play in France. Many of the stats she brings forward are troubling - and present a "picture" of the nation quite different to the general image of the country which seems to have it together so well.
"A 2011 BVA-Gallup poll conducted in 51 countries revealed that the French were even more pessimistic than Afghans and Iraqis. As the sociologist François Dubet told Le Monde, “If France doesn’t get all the Olympic medals and all the Nobel Prizes, the French consider it hopeless.”
*****
"The French have higher rates of taking antidepressants and committing suicide than most other Europeans. And while arguing about how to move forward, they feel trapped in the past, weighed down by high unemployment and low hopes, the onerous taxes that drove Gérard Depardieu to flee, conflicts with immigrants, political scandals, Hollande fatigue, Germany envy, economic stagnation, a hyperelitist education system, and cold, rainy weather that ruined the famous Paris spring. Instead of confronting the questions at hand — how to adjust to globalization and compete with the Chinese — the French are grieving their lost stature and glorious past, stretching back to the colonial empire, the Lumières, the revolution, Napoleon, even the Jazz Age writers and artists. They’re stuck in a sentimental time warp as vivid as the one depicted in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris.”
Aaah....The countryside is delightful and what is there not to like about the cuisine and wine? Wonderful fish and vegetables, olive oils and, of course, those wonderful rosé wines.
Coincidentally, Maureen Dowd's latest column "Goodbye Old World, Bonjour Tristesse" in The New York Times reflects on the state of play in France. Many of the stats she brings forward are troubling - and present a "picture" of the nation quite different to the general image of the country which seems to have it together so well.
"A 2011 BVA-Gallup poll conducted in 51 countries revealed that the French were even more pessimistic than Afghans and Iraqis. As the sociologist François Dubet told Le Monde, “If France doesn’t get all the Olympic medals and all the Nobel Prizes, the French consider it hopeless.”
*****
"The French have higher rates of taking antidepressants and committing suicide than most other Europeans. And while arguing about how to move forward, they feel trapped in the past, weighed down by high unemployment and low hopes, the onerous taxes that drove Gérard Depardieu to flee, conflicts with immigrants, political scandals, Hollande fatigue, Germany envy, economic stagnation, a hyperelitist education system, and cold, rainy weather that ruined the famous Paris spring. Instead of confronting the questions at hand — how to adjust to globalization and compete with the Chinese — the French are grieving their lost stature and glorious past, stretching back to the colonial empire, the Lumières, the revolution, Napoleon, even the Jazz Age writers and artists. They’re stuck in a sentimental time warp as vivid as the one depicted in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris.”
Comments