France writes itself off as arrogant failure: New books see a country in decline

The Times ^ | September 26, 2003 | Charles Brumner

[Timesink]

September 26, 2003

France writes itself off as arrogant failure

by charles brumner

New books see a country in decline

FRANCE is a nation in decline, blind to its failings and living beyond its means while strutting with empty arrogance on the world stage.

That may sound like the standard Francophobe rant from across the Channel or the Atlantic but it is, surprisingly, a view gaining ground in France.

Doubts about Gallic supremacy have been a periodic feature of France for centuries. They have now returned, fed by economic gloom and amplified by bestselling books. France, according to the thesis, has been overtaken by Britain and others because it atrophied as a centralised welfare state in the 1970s.

Before leaving to lecture the United Nations on the superiority of the French world view this week, President Chirac was forced to respond to the doom-mongers with a morale-boosting speech. France was bursting with health, he insisted to a provincial au- dience. In Paris, the claim was given as much credence as his line that “France has no quarrel with the United States”.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the Prime Minister, hammered home his boss’s message this week, saying: “I do not believe that France is in decline.”

The words of the now unloved Prime Minister were undermined yesterday when he unveiled a 2004 budget that expects minimal growth, takes national debt up to record level and busts a hole in the EU’s ceiling for public deficits for a third successive year.

Big corporate bankruptcies and spring strikes by the public sector and entertainment workers preceded a summer of forest fires and a heatwave that was officially blamed yesterday for 14,800 deaths.

The mood is being fanned by three books which argue that there is nothing temporary about France’s troubles. With its chronic unemployment and dinosaur centralised state, France can no longer pose as a universal model of progress and civilisation, they argue. In L’Arrogance Française, Romain Gubert and Emmanuel Saint-Martin, both journalists, say that France infuriates the rest of the world with its discredited diplomacy.

In Adieu à la France qui s’en va (Farewell to a France that is departing) Jean-Marie Rouart, a novelist and member of the august Académie Française, says that France is losing its soul to mediocrity and needs a great leader to restore its grandeur. The biggest splash is being made by La France Qui Tombe (Collapsing France) by Nicolas Baverez, an historian and economist.

Baverez says that, after three postwar decades of progress, France lost its way under the fourteen-year left-wing reign of François Mitterrand and eight years under M Chirac. Hostages to tyrannical state sector unions, farmers, subsidised film-makers and other interest groups, successive governments have squandered national wealth and heritage to maintain a protectionist, Soviet-style state, he says.

He also draws unfavourable comparisons with Britain, the favourite destination for French emigrants in the past decade. British per capita income has overtaken that of France, where taxes are now much higher. Britons pay 45 per cent of their income to the state in taxes, compared with 75 per cent for the French. Baverez says that Britain has taken over the European Union, monopolising its top jobs and imposing a British stamp on the new draft constitution. France, in turn, has alienated its neighbours by playing fast and loose with the EU rules.

Abroad, M Chirac’s posturing had made a laughing stock of France. “In the Iraq crisis, France has suffered a diplomatic Agincourt,” he says.

France faces a choice, Baverez concludes: “Shock therapy that will modernise the country through a forced march” or the pursuit of decline that will produce social upheaval and feed the far Right of Jean-Marie Le Pen. France, he says, is ripe for a near-revolutionary change such as when it summoned Charles de Gaulle as its saviour in 1958.

The Left is accusing him of “declinism”, an old right-wing obsession that fed Fascism in the 1930s. Attacks are also coming from the Right. Figaro said: “This mood of ‘francopessimism’ is creating an unhealthy atmosphere which carries the stigma of the 1930s.” But, it added: “The roots of the evil are in our statist culture, something that the British threw out ages ago.”

The bulk of the reaction, holds that Baverez makes good points but neglects France’s qualities, such as the reforms that have opened markets, its place as Europe’s top recipient of foreign investment, and a quality of life that remains the envy of the world.

A powerful defence of the decline thesis came in Le Monde from Marc Fumaroli, an eminent historian and a professor at the University of Chicago, who said that France, for all its undoubted glories, was suffering from a general “irritation, frustration and demoralisation” that was more bitter and deep than anywhere else in Europe or in the US.

Deprived of a leader with the vision of Thatcher, Reagan or Blair, it had been left to stagnate, he said.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Those who accused Rumsfeld of being "unhelpful" will forever eat their remarks.

Ping! Thanks, seamole.

Great headline. 'Bout time the anti-Americans learned about the real Old Europe.

 Thanks, Tonkin!

If you want on or off my Pro-Coalition ping list, please Freepmail me. Warning: it is a high volume ping list on good days. (Most days are good days).

[Only1choice____Freedom]

France surrenders to the truth.

---Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the Prime Minister, hammered home his boss’s message this week, saying: “I do not believe that France is in decline.”

It appears not all of them.

[nosofar]

Wrong! France is ripe for a revolutionary change--and it's going to be much worse than M. Baverez thinks! Unless the French people wake up soon and face reality, the revolutionary change is going to be a Muslim takeover, and it's going to be much worse than the 1789 revolutionary change.

This won't be a revolution. It'll be a civil war.

[nosofar]

France is Europe's California

I resent that. The weather is better here.

[Grampa Dave]

Lets help make France truly irrelevant in this decade!

French Products to Buycott

Make it a lifestyle to avoid French products or products made by what appear to be a non French company in America. The reality is that many of these companies like Wild Turkey are owned by the French.

Let them fear the American Street---our combined wallets.

"France has burned too many bridges!"

Lets keep burning those bridges that the slimey and worthless frogs keep trying to build post Iraq.

$crew the $limey Frogs with a Boycott and no vacations in Slimey Frog Land!


French Products to Buycott

We can resist their wines which usually come in behind the good Napa Valley Wines and Australian wines in blind tasting without French Judges like in the Winter Olympics.

We can do without French Products and services for the rest of this decade. Here is a list of French companies and their products to avoid for the rest of this decade. Please keep this list and send it to your relatives, friends and fellow conservatives via e and snail mail!

*New additions to the list.

Air France

Air Liquide

Airbus

Alcatel - Based in Paris France, Provider of communications equipment, including ADSL equipment, terrestrial and submarine optical networks, public switching, fixed wireless access and intelligent networks.


Allegra (Allergy Medication) - Produced by Aventis Pharmaceuticals based in Strasbourg, France

Aqualung (Including: Spirotechnique, Technisub, US Divers, and SeaQuest)

AXA Advisors

*Bacou-Dalloz-Makes Industrial protective devices

Bank of the West - Owned by BNP Paribas

Beneteau (boats)

BF Goodrich - Owned by Michelin

BIC (Razors, Pens & Lighters) - Started in 1945 by Marcel Bich. Originally based just outside of Paris. Began trading on the Paris Stock Exchange in 1972. 40.5% Publicly traded. Bich family still owns 33.5%.

Biotherm (Cosmetics)

Black Bush

Bollinger (Champagne)

*Browning Firearms**

Car & Driver Magazine

Cartier

Chanel

Chivas Regal (Scotch)

Christian Dior

Club Med (Vacations) - Owned in part by Paris based CDC (Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations)

Culligan (owned by Vivendi)

Dannon (Yogurt & Dairy Foods)

*Danone -Lea and Perrin, Evian and other food/water

*Decatholon Super Sport Stores or MVP Sport Stores*

* Dassault Systemes-(CATIA design software)*

DKNY - LVMH acquired 100% of Gabrielle Studio Inc., the privately owned licenser of Donna Karan trademarks back in 2001.

*DMC THREADS

Dom Perignon

Durand Crystal

Elle Magazine

*Emile Henry French Cookware

*Enertec makes high speed recorders used in Recon aircraft p>Essilor Optical Products

*Essilon- Varilux Progressive Lenses for eye glasses

Evian

Fina Oil - Billions invested in Iraqi Oil fields -FINA GAS STATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES ARE NOT FRENCH-OWNED AND ARE NOT PART OF TOTAL-ELF-FINA ... FINA GAS STATIONS ARE OWNED BY ALON ISRAEL OIL COMPANY ..

First Hawaiian Bank

George Magazine

Givenchy

*Grey Goose Vodka

*GroupeSEB owns Krups, Moulinex, Roweta and Tefal Cookware

*Groupe Shneider, owner of Modicon and Square D

*Guerlain Fragrances

*Hachette Filipacchi owner publisher of many magazines sold in the USA. See the list below:***

Hennessy

Houghton Mifflin (books) International Herald Tribune - 181 ave Charles-de-Gaulle - F-92521 Neuilly - FRSource:World Business Council for Sustainable Development '00 [Domain Registration], [Corporate Profile]

Jacobs Creek - Owned by Pernod Ricard since 1989

Jameson (whiskey Owned by Pernod Ricard )

Jerry Springer (talk show)

Krups

****Lagardere****

Lancome

*Lea & Perrins a product of Danon

Le Creuset (Cookware)

L'Oreal (Health & Beauty Products)

Louis Vuitton

Marie Claire

Martel Cognac

Maybelline

Méphisto (Footwear & Apparel)

Michelin (Tires & Auto Parts) - Their phone number is: (33) 1 45 66 15 53 in France

Mikasa Crystal and Glass (purchased by ARC int'l in 2001)

Moet (Champagne)

Motel 6 - 33, Avenue du Maine- 75755 Paris Cedex 15 France

Motown Records

MP3.com

Mumms (Champagne)

Nissan (Cars) - Majority owned by Renault

Nivea

Normany Butter

Parents Magazine

*Perrier

Peugeot (Automobiles) - Pronounced "Pooh Joe", must be French

Pierre Cardin

Playstation Magazine

ProScan - Owned by Thomson Electronics, France

Publicis Group (Including: Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising)

RCA (televisions & electronics) - Owned by Thomson Electronics, France

Red Magazine

Red Roof Inns - Owned by the Accor group based in France

Renault (Automobiles) major owner of Nissan

Road & Track Magazine

Roquefort Cheese - All Roquefort cheese is made in France

Rowenta (Toasters, Irons, Coffee makers, etc)

Royal Canadian

Salomon (Skis)

Seagram's Gin

Sierra Software and Computer Games

*Sodexho Alliance* French Food Caterer for the US Marines

Sofitel (Hotels) - Owned by the Accor group based in France

Sparkletts (Water) - Owned by Danone, based in France

Spencer Gifts

Sundance Channel

Taylor Made (Golf)

Technicolor

T-Fal (Kitchenware)

The Glenlivet (Scotch) *Top Tobacco - Dist. by Republic Tobacco L.P., Glenview IL, made in France

UbiSoft (Computer Games)

Uniroyal

Uniroyal Tires - Owned by Michelin

Universal Studios (Music, Movies & Theme Parks) -

Universal Studios is owned by Vivendi-Universal, headquartered in Paris France

USFilter

Veritas Group

Veuve Clicquot Champagne

Vittel

Vivendi - Vivendi Headquarters, Paris France

Wild Turkey (bourbon)

*Winchester Firearms (US Repeating Arms)**

Woman's Day Magazine

Yoplait - France-based Sodiaal owns a 50% stake of Yoplait

Yves Saint Laurent

*Yves Rocher Cosmetics

*ZigZag (tobacco papers and roller products)*

Zodiac Inflatable Boats

*New additions to the list thanks to Freepers. If you have an addition, Freepmail me with the URL showing French ownership.

** Sad news but these two companies are owned by the Belgian Company Herstal, (French Light)

***List of 18 magazines sold in USA by Hachette Filipacchi with an estimated 50 million readers: American Photo, Boating, Car Stereo Review's Mobile Entertainment, Cycle World, ELLE Decor, ELLEgirl, Flying, Home, Metropolitan Home, Popular Photography, Premiere, Sound & Vision, Travel Holiday, Woman's Day Woman's Day Special Interest Publications.

****Lagardere owns the Virgin Megastore group in France, which it bought from Richard Branson three years ago. Its Hachette media division publishes a battery of magazines including Elle , see *** Hachette Filipacchi above. Lagardere also has a stake in the Airbus manufacturing operation. The company is capitalised at over €5bn.

[razorback-bert]

Between 1995 and 1996, the mandatory withholding tax rate increased from 42.9% of GDP to 44.8%.


The Government has eased the tax burden on those with low to median incomes by decreasing the basic VAT rate from 20.6% to 19.6%

From the French government web site http://www.archives.premier-ministre.gouv.fr/jospin_version3/en/ie4/contenu/29984.htm

[prairiebreeze]

BUMP! Quote of the Day nomination.

Prairie

[MEG33]

"Chirac's posturing has made France a laughingstock?"Iraq a diplomatic Agincourt?The Dems told me it is Bush that failed !I just loved this article!

[Valin]

If things don't go well for Davis in California, there's always France.

Oh come on now. You hate the french that much? Now Belgium...that's a different story.

[razorback-bert]

French tax rates

http://www.allez-francais.com/lib/pe1202.htm

[razorback-bert]

Adding VAT, provincial, and local taxes to those rates, I bet the average middle class French citizen pays 3/4 of their income to government of one form or the other.

[GOPJ]

Bump

FRANCE is a nation in decline, blind to its failings and living beyond its means while strutting with empty arrogance on the world stage.

[Alamo-Girl]

Bump!

[blackie]

The french are irrelevant!

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

My dad was on Omaha Beach, alot of sons, brothers, husbands, fathers were on those beaches. There are Americans in their cemetaries. It would be nice to see that they are at least trying to get it.....but nooooo!
Weeee weelll du eet ur weeee. DoH!

[jpl]

Bet as you please. I don't quite understand why it worries Americans so much. Why should non-French people care?

Under ordinary circumstances we wouldn't care. The problem though is that we have a media elite and an entire major political party wholly dedicated to the proposition that we should tear our country and culture apart and remodel ourselves after countries like France and Sweden. They never come out and directly state this of course, but we can read between the lines. The behavior of these other countries very much effects us in the modern world.

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

Very well stated.