Our new President!Follow

Is a cUnt.

Grats on the stupid French voters, who will have to live with their fatal mistake for the rest of their stupid sorry little lives.

Or, well, until the next election at least.

Still, he said he wanted to build bridges with the US, so I'm sure he'll come to pay you guys a visit soon.

Sorry about that.

In other news, you guys better vote for Obama now.

Seriously.



Edited, May 8th 2007 10:56am by RedPhoenixxx

Hence the "cUnt" comment.

Though I don't think he's a "racist" per se, just a fear-mongering, demagogic, hateful, immigrant-bashing, weak-beating, short-diCked prick.

Doesn't France have unemployment problems with post graduate kids anyway?




Probably all them damn immigrants stealing their jobs. I'd imagine.

Edited, May 8th 2007 9:22am by remorajunbao

dead language.

I remember something from Economics about France having big employment problems because the French kids that get outta uni can't find a good job or something like that.

They took your jobs!

It won't be long before we spill over

Well, i think the situation would have to be pretty desperate for Frenchies to go and live in those places

We can't help it, we're just sooooooophisticated!

Well yea I mean you are more likely to get stabbed in the surrounding areas of Basingstoke (Popley, Buckskin) but it's still a lovely place...

If you don't mind the occasional chav.

Or Bloody pikey.


Or the ****** kids. Those bloody school kids......

Well, first of all, Van Damme is Belgian. Just want to amke sure there isn't any confusion.

Second, it's funny the difference between what goes on, and what the media report. Especialy when it's foreign.

In the foreign papers, everyone portays Sarko as the reformist candidate that will put France back into globalisation, open the markets, get tough with the rowdy kids, etc...

What they don't say, is that he was in government for 5 years before this election, at the Interior Ministry, and then in the Finance Ministry. And he did nothing in either of those to suggest he would either deal with rowdy kids, or change France's economy.

Third, the "right" in France is not like the right in other countries. They are not free-market liberals. The French right is interventionnist, believes in a strong state (Gaullism), and believes in prtecting its industries. Sarko did just that when he was Finance Minister. He "rescued national champions", meaning that he used the state to bail out companies that were threatened with being brought by foreign companies. He's currently arguing that the WTO rules should be re-written to be more "fair". He argues that the EU has acted as a "trojan horse" for "ultra-capitalism.

These are not the hallmarks of a free-market reformer. And this is not surprising, because he is not one.

Now, I understand that French politics are a bit special, and that things need to be simplified for a foreign audience. But Sarko is not, and will never be, the "French Thatcher". If anything, he is the "French Berlusconi". Thats the closest comparaison.

He did make me laugh when he said he would push the US on global warming, though. Good luck with that!

As for the whole "nationalistic pride" thing, fUck that. We did all that in the 20th Century, it was fun, but now this era is gone. Nations, especially tiny nations like Europeans ones don't mean Shit anymore. France can't compete with the US, or China, or India, or Brazil. The days of "national pride" are over. We must be Europeans now, and forget about all these patriotic bullShit.

And the worse is that Sarko knows this. He's only playing to an old and stupid electorate that somehow still believes that France could be important on the world stage, if only it wanted to.

It can't. These days are over, and the sooner we all get over it, the better.

So, I'm not impressed by that either.

We'll see what he does, and the crucial test will be unemployment in the suburbs, and the EU. If he can make serious progress on those two topics, I'll congratulate him, and maybe even vote for him.

But I'm not holding my breath.

I knew he was the "muscles from Brussels".

You're right about international politics though, you never hear the whole story. There is more going on here in the states, that you don't even hear in other states, so I can imagine that international news is even worse.

I am saddened by your statements on nationlistic pride, though. To me, it's all most nations have left, now that they've whored themselves to whatever cause they could, or even worse, their officials whored themselves to whomever or whatever. Even smaller nations have something great to offer, it's just making sure that people think of that greatness when they think of that nation.

Personally, when I think of France, art and history come to mind, especially the fact that most of English history is dependant on French leaders and culture. There is that whole cowardly image in there too, but that's more of a joke to me, doubly so now that I've trained with the Legion, and seen them in action.

Being part of a larger entity is one thing, but losing your national pride, and what makes a country great in the process is another. I'm not going to lecture you on it, because I understand where you're coming from, but sometimes you've got to say "enough is enough", and put your foot down. One man putting his foot down is often enough to start a chain of events that brings on a new revolution. Or you could just ***** and moan, and post about it here, where we'll all bicker over it, and then whine about our leadership not being able to figure out how old the queen is (seriously, 1776? Come on George...).

That's very close to me. What if I want to go shopping?

How close is close? Also, how French are you?

"Nationalism" is great on a superficial level. During the World Cup, for banter when you're with foreign friends, or on an internet board.

In terms of policy, though, it's a huge mistake today for European countries. "French interests" are completely undefendable alone. So much so, that they barely exist anymore. In the medium-term, our interests are European ones. That's teh only way we can have a voice in world affairs, let alone a real influence. And that's just not militarily, it's economically, politically, culturally. Today, in France, the UK, Germany, Spain, we all have the same broad goals and the only way we'll get there is by having a united front.

Second, most of th real problems in the world today are completely transnational: global warming, terrorism, ecomomic crisis, wars, immigration, the drugs trade, the arms trade, you name it. Every action that one state makes can be comprehensively undermined by the actions of another state. And yet, our interests are fundamentally the same. So the only way to deal with these problems efficiently, is on a transnational level.

Finally, and this is where it's relevant to Sarko himself, in terms of "national identity", its pointless. I don't want our immigrants, or our French kids from Arab origins who are stuck in a crappy suburb, to feel "proud" about what the Gauls did, or Asterix, or Napoleon. They don't have to drink red wine, or love Godard, or even know the freaking Marseillaise.

First, because it's pointless. We want these kids to feel at home, to do what makes them happy, and to not bother other people too much. That's it. If they can do that, and do what every other white French kid does, go to school, get a job, have a wife, get kids, and die, everything will be rosy. What matters is integrating these kids into the system, through schools, and universities, and work. That's it.

And second, because it is unrealistic anyway. I don't feel "proud" about what people from my country did 500 years ago. Why should I? It's not me, it's not my close friends and family, it's a bunch of people that happened to be born not too far away from where I was born, just five centuries earlier. Big deal.

So why should these kids feel any different?

Anyway, I'm rambling, but all this to say that "National Identity and Nationalism" has no place in policy. We can't force people to feel French, nor to be proud of it. It's not the government's role either. Put a system in place so that they can prosper, and then they'll love the place.

But telling them they'd better start loving our country, or else, doesn't seem to me to be what a Presidential candidate should be blabbing about.