Welkom op het Backpack forum

Monday, March 15, 2010

What France is Great At

A translation of a blog by Jean-Michel Aphatie on FTL at
http://preview.tinyurl.com/74d4zEvleths where we comments on air:

A week of vacation can be a wonderful thing. A bit different than the
news, but not too far either, because it let’s you tune into the
Zeitgeist.

On Thursday the President made a speech on industry, whose prospects
are gloomy. Since 2000, industrial production in France fell by 15%,
and 535,000 manufacturing jobs have been eliminated. What to do?
Simply put, because it is always better than doing complicated, the
president has proposed that industrial production increased by 25% by
2015. If you want more than that just write it down. A pessimist would
ask why only 25%? Or, why wait until 2015? But official minds say
bravo.

This kind of political will is exactly the essence of French identity
that we have sought to define for months. A problem? The President
replied: track opportunities, and expands horizons. He analyzes and
proposes. How very talented and courageous he looks when he’s being
decisive. That's how it always goes in France.

Is it different elsewhere? Maybe. The low spirits that govern other
countries are apparently more inhibited than we are by the reality,
truth, the global context, the autonomy of economic actors, etc...
Their public speeches are taken seriously. They are less likely to
make promises than we are. As a result, they are often re-elected.

We have not had a re-election at the national level since 1978, which
is a world record for a democracy. France is the country of the
political mess. Elsewhere, Great Britain, Spain, Germany, United
States, officials are often re-elected once. With us, not so.

But the big difference is that our leaders are beautiful. At the
forum, so proud they men or women is the same. They understand, they
know everything, and they make declarations, on everything, all the
time. Some think that the first obligation of the policymaker is to be
pedagogical in order to understand the real way forward. But we are
not likely to think that. The more that political thought dominates
the world, the more likely it is to submit to his wishes all the other
stakeholders in society.

This is what yields the rhetoric, such beautiful emotions, such
wonderful elections, a nation that commues around slogans of “changing
life”, “reduce the social divide," and "work more to earn more." It’s
after that where things go wrong. Bad luck sometimes, international
crisis some other time. Each time, bad luck, external factors conspire
to prevent France, led by great men, to spread its wings and fly.
Without reality, we are the leading world power, thanks to our
superior intellect that inspires us and guides us. What a pity.

Fortunately, we will leave. In five years, if there are many, 2015 -
2010, five, so yes, in five years, our industrial production will have
increased by 25%. That means hundreds of thousands of jobs, a flood of
tax revenue, and public deficits will be a memory, with the new social
taxes filling the gap in Social Security entitlements.

And if this does not occur? Inimaginable! Our president has declared
it, and that’s the end of it.

Here’s a small gag that went unnoticed last night: Yesterday, the
President of the French Republic has received the Greek Prime
Minister, and not to let the Greeks down. If they have money problems,
France will lend. The gag? The Greeks believed it, and left happy.
Funny, no?
And of course the first few comments have nothing to do with Alphatie,
and pedantically repeat the unrelated trope that Éric Zemmour is a
racist, and the usual fixation with throwing Muslims out of the
country.