[Dean's World] Mary Madigan: April in Paris

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
April in Paris
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1144428829.shtml


   [1]Richard Landes writes about his recent visit to France

     Nous sommes tétanisés,â said my French friend. [We are
     paralyzed.]

     The French are beginning to wake up, beginning to lift up their
     Ostrich head from the sand. As opposed to the frequent dismissals I
     ran across in the past â when it wasnât accusations of racism â I
     now met an increasing number of people willing to say, "we donât
     disagree" (the French really donât like to say "youâre right").
     But, as my friend put it, we donât know what to do. "Weâre
     paralyzed."..

     ..One might even say, some of the Gaulois were finding some clarity
     on who were the good guys. At the first café we went to, late
     Saturday night, the waiters, who began the evening making snide
     remarks about us behind our backs (including the way I wore by
     beret), upon realizing that were Americans who spoke French, grew
     quite warm. It turned out that at least two of them wanted to move
     to America.
     "What about anti-Americanism?" I ask the waiter who was marrying an
     American girl and hoping to go to the States to start a restaurant.
     "Oh, that was bad back at the time of the Iraq war, but no longer,"
     he said, with a reassuring confidence...

   Landes' essay is long but well worth reading. He concludes:

     Attacking the most powerful is not courageous, especially when the
     most powerful is a friend and ally and will not strike back.
     Attacking enemies who will punish you violently for any affront,
     that is civic courage. When will the Europeans realize that?

   Currently, in the Paris tourists know and love, they've shut down the
   Eiffel Tower. Railway service is limited and the garbagemen are on
   strike.

   [2]A motorist drove a car through a crowd of protesting students,
   slightly injuring seven. The demonstrators overturned the car and
   tried to kick its windows out. Police in riot gear and helmets worked
   to disperse the crowd.

   Some businesses are targets of the demonstrators while others appear
   to be safe. Via [3]No Pasaran:

     The two McDonalds near the Place d'Italie were boarded up
     yesterday, Gulf of Mexico hurricane style, to provide some modest
     protection against the hoards of rampaging youths who have a
     tendency to blame the youth labor law on American imposed unbridled
     capitalism. Other businesses don't have to worry so much. Take
     Quick Burger. They're promoting their new Cauet Burger, named after
     a popular French radio and TV personality and professed anti-Semite
     (he compared Auchwitz to a vacation colony on his radio show back
     in the 90s). Nothing like a little anti-Semitism to boost sagging
     sales and keep the casseurs away.

   Things are changing in France, but it's not clear where they're going.
   In his post, [4]Piaf no more, Roger Simon says:

     It's fun to gloat over the problems of the French, since they have
     such wonderfully "appealing" politicians and they are so generous
     in their evaluations of les américains (and, yes, I have been
     guilty of this gloating in the past). But as with Dick Nixon, I'm
     tired of kicking them around. In the end, I suspect many of us
     would like to have our dream France back.... Jean Gabin, Arletty,
     the Resistance. But I am afraid we may not. It may be over, if it
     ever was there.

References

   1. http://www.theaugeanstables.com/essays-on-france/paris-notes-spring-2006/
   2. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1817566&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
   3. http://no-pasaran.blogspot.com/2006/04/lantismitisme-en-fwance-un-effet-de.html
   4. http://www.rogerlsimon.com/mt-archives/2006/04/piaf_no_more.php