Douce France

Russell Brown linked to this blog of reactionary Francophobia. It just made me sad. The hate seems so infantile, and yet completely sincere. And all based on a Plantu cartoon and this article in Le Monde, which seems to have been taken completely out of context.

On both sides of the Atlantic (and even on both sides of the Channel) there seems to be a unusual level of mutual incomprehension. Among certain groups of American bloggers and even some right-wing commentators, France is little more than a failed state in Old Europe. There is gleeful derision of supposed French incompetence in the art of war over the centuries, and that old chestnut of French military contracts with Saddam Hussein comes up time and time again. It seems bizarre that such a massive level of derision and disdain for a country can exist based on such a lack of knowledge...

I hope I am wrong, but it appears that the rift appears to run a lot deeper than the "French Fries/Freedom Fries" non-issue that received so much media attention in the lead-up to the Second Gulf War.

Everyone should go and live in another country for a while where they speak a different language. This would be good for the whole world.

Meanwhile, the BBC has this report on the decline of Catholicism in an increasingly secular France.