France I - The Strikes

Perhaps it is French laicité , a concept going back to the French revolution, that is behind this regular screwing up of the pre-Christmas period by French unions. December seems to be the month, in which they like to make life miserable for their own countryfolk and terrorise whoever is in power. 

On a more serious note, it must also be the French revolution that explains the mega-aggression, whenever the French go on strikes. Blocking the roads throughout the country is standard. Some years ago, I read that a French historian explained the difference in striking patterns between France, where strike action often precedes negotiations, and other countries, in which strikes will be undertaken when negotiations fail. The French are proud of their revolution and consequently there seems to be more acceptance of violent behaviour to further one’s aims. Guillotine anyone?

The latest strikes have come about to prevent Macron’s government from going ahead with its plans to reform the pension system. I can well understand the frustration of many, who feel that the rich are getting richer, whilst they are facing old-age with not much bread and definitely no cakes.

They are right but preventing a reform in the pension system will not put the burden on the rich. It will simply pass the burden to the next generation: that is, to the children of those who are striking. Is that what the strikers want?

Macron the Feeble

On more than one occasion has French President Macron proven not to be very good under pressure. Last week, he panicked again, as in reaction to recent Antisemitic incidents, he announced that France would now consider anti-Zionism as a form of Antisemitism.

This, of course, is somewhere between ignorance and dishonesty.

I believe that it was morally right to establish the Jewish state and thus define myself as a Zionist. I, however, accept that some people – for whatever reason – do not share that view and therefore define themselves as anti-Zionists. There will be antisemites, whose hatred of Jews, will also make them anti-Zionists. This, however, does not mean that their anti-Zionism = antisemitism. 

Israel and its supporting Jewish lobbies have been very successful in their push to delegitimise critics of Israel by defining them as antisemites. With Macron they can add another notch to their belts. 

Hit by State Agents

President Macron’s 26-year-old “senior security aide” –  whatever that may be – was filmed violently abusing demonstrators in Paris. For 2½ months Macron’s office apparently tried to cover it up. Fortunately, they were unsuccessful.

Lawyers can do wonders, and it remains to be seen if and how they seek to make it all end as fireless smoke.

And yet, whether this man will be found guilty or not is not the main issue. Deriving satisfaction and even pleasure from exercising violence is – as we have learnt over history – much more common than we would like to think and most of us like to have. Law enforcers can often do so with the formal or informal backing of their colleagues.

France is not alone. Despite our commitment to human rights and to the rule of law, we are regularly confronted with the ugly face of supposedly lawful aggression by agents of the state. This is going to become an even more pressing issue, as our countries are moving right.

Macron and the Jews

French president Macron turns out to have a knack for theatrical productions. (Any connection to the fact that his wife was his high school theatre teacher?) He persuaded the universally despised Trump, (who is on record with “I was in Paris recently, and Paris doesn’t look like Paris anymore”) to fly to Paris, just three days after he came back from the G20 Meeting in Hamburg, by inviting him to a military parade (that Trump apparently likes). As an add-on, dinner was served at the top of the Eiffel Tower. In fact, so big was Macron’s success, that Trump must have overlooked the “my tower is bigger than your tower” aspect of this part if the visit. 

Next in line was Israel’s also despised prime minister Netanyahu. To create the right atmosphere for a meeting with the recalcitrant Netanyahu, the work meeting at the Élysée palace was preceded by a Holocaust memorial event – specifically, the annual remembrance ceremony for the 1942 deportation of French Jews. The mass arrest and deportation of over 13,000 Jews to their deaths in Auschwitz was organised and carried out by French police. In his moving speech, Macron again pointed out to French responsibility for this act, in which, he said, no German was involved.

Netanyahu – who likes to present himself as the prime minister of the Jewish People, which he is not – was allowed to fit into that role by Macron. The real present, which Macron gave Netanyahu, was his statement that anti-Zionism is a new form of antisemitism. This plays right into Netanyahu’s hands. It is, however, patently NOT TRUE, M. Macron.

Macron should not have politicised this ceremony commemorating France’s shameful deportation by giving Netanyahu a stage. Moreover, Macron should not have come out with a blanket ruling on Antisemitism, as if he was an expert in this highly disputed area.

Say YES to UN observers in Jerusalem

The 1947 UN Partition Plan for Palestine foresaw a special status for the greater Jerusalem area, as a corpus separatum, under a special international regime and administered by the United Nations. Unfortunately, this resolution was never implemented.

Now, because of the current tension in Jerusalem, France is promoting a plan to deploy international observers at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Sounds like a good idea to me. But, Israel objects.

Having one-sidedly annexed East Jerusalem, Israel wants to avoid any act that might question its self-declared sovereignty over the city that contains sites holy to all three monotheistic religions. Sadly, the US will side with Israel on this matter and thereby prevent the necessary Security Council resolution.  

France and her Prostitutes

French parliamentarians have a habit of dealing with the truly important issues: In 1913, they lengthily discussed the colour of their soldiers’ trousers and rejected the suggestion to issue French soldiers with camouflage coloured trousers. No dull colours for French soldiers. They should appear on the battlefield in bright red trousers. “Le pantalon rouge c’est la France” was the explanation given by the War Minister. Now, as Europe is descending into what may become war-like chaos, the French parliament had nothing better to do than pass a decision on what French men should do when they take off their red or other coloured trousers: under a new law, clients of prostitutes are to be criminalised and prosecuted.

With London disconnecting from the Continent again, we could offer frustrated French males some …what’s the French word for massage?

The F.. French, Eggs and Nurses.

The other day, in a small town in the Alsace, I entered a Leclerc store, one of those enormous French hypermarkets, when the cashier called after me to tell me that I had entered the wrong way. It was forbidden to enter by the tills, she said and insisted and made me go back and re-enter through the special entrance aisle.

I wanted to know why and was told “c’est le règle”, this is the rule. I asked why it was the rule and her explanation was “par c’est que”, because.

The cashier may have been just a stupid French girl but her thinking seems to shed light on what is wrong in the European Union. When the precursor to the EU, the European Economic Community, was created, the two main players were France and Germany. France that had twice failed to fight the Germans was afraid that Germany might at some point want to start another war. It wanted to hug Germany into a collaborative structure. Germany, at the time still a pariah, was grateful for anyone who was willing to partner with it. Germany a federative state, allowed France a super-centralised state, to structure the European institutions as it wished.

The result of this marriage of Mr Guilt and Mrs Fear, are bloated and wasteful EU institutions and a constant downpour of directives with which the administration of the European Union makes our lives a misery. Recently, UK hospitals were instructed that they were not permitted to test foreign nurses from European countries to ensure that their standard equals that of British nurses. Would it not be terrible if one such untested nurse would mistakenly poison the originators of this directive? The latest idiocy is a European directive that sets the number of eggs to a carton throughout Europe at ten. Sell twelve eggs in a carton and the EU will fine you.