What is the most hotly debated topic right now in France?
the presidential election? nay. for sure we are proud of being part of a global world : great countries after all elected parangons of the free world such as Vladimir Putin, Silvio Berlusconi or George Bush … so we are catching up!
BTW in my hometown run by a coalition of Yuppies , working-class and new migrants (under the aegis of the communist party!) everyone is looking at his neighbor suspiciously : may be he is the one who did vote for “young nick”
So our attention is focused on something much more important: champion swimmer Laure Manaudou declared she will flee to Italy to live with her boy friend! She is leaving her (dictatorial) trainer and that might be bad for her career since she is an Olympic hopeful!
Unanimous reaction is: love is much more important than Olympic medals
(or even: love will help her win olympic medals!).
isn’t that touching? in a country loosing values by the bucket … where people get fat flocking to MacDonalds, where people turn to couch potatoes watching “uncultural” things on the TV … romanticism is still valued above success!!!
(first notes of “la marseillaise” then “all you need is love … ta da da da da …”)
Love is nice, but she needs to know she’s in love before potentially damaging an Olympic-related career. What if she just wants to get laid, or get away from her trainer? Olympics is tough. With a four year window, you have to time things right to be ready for even one games. Even if you medal, it does not guarantee a career in your sport so it’s up to her to decide if all that effort is worth it.
The olympic games are only a veiled excuse for overt nationalism-- attach any significance here that you feel necessary.
I saw Dans la peau de Jacques Chirac a few weeks ago and I can only wonder if Sarkozy even had a theme song that was nearly half as catchy as his predecessor… “la marseillaise” then “all you need is love … ta da da da da …” is probably the best thing for France right now.
I agree in that I’d rather see it be about the athletes rather than about the countries. If you ignore the nationalities and watch the athletes, then I think you see what the Olympics is supposed to be. At least what it’s supposed to be to me.
I’ve given this some thought because the nationalism argument came up at Unicon last summer. The hosts, in wanting to be more like the world’s largest international sporting event, chose to play national anthems at the award ceremonies for the top awards. This led to some silent protesting which led to some massive misunderstandings, rudeness, and I must admit, ugly nationalistic remarks from some of my felow Americans.
If it’s possible to separate the nationalistic part from the athletic part, I’d like to see Unicon (and the Olympics) move in that direction. One of my least favorite parts of (American) Olympic TV coverage is the constant obsession with the medal count. Which country is bagging the most medals? Well, of course the big, rich countries with a wide range of terrain and climate are going to get more medals than Jamaica. So what are we proving with that? It’s really not supposed to be a “competition of nations.”
Some countries spend huge amounts of their own money to train athletes and put together national teams, while others have minimal budget for this. Other countries do much of it with private monies (including the USA). Other countries have no money for any of it, and athletes are completely on their own or nearly so. With Unicon we mostly have this sense of “equality,” which is nice.
Sorry, what were we talking about again? Oh yeah. She’s in love. Or, cynically perhaps, maybe she’s in love or she thinks she’s in love. I know, not very romantic, just trying to stay objective until all the facts are in…
Well it is a well known fact that Laure is often in love … but my post was about the public reaction: why care about nationalistic olympic medals? we are not going to impose to someone to live a hard life for the glory … so again romanticism against realism! isn’t that cute?
I will add another example of this: In Serbia one Miroslav Miki Djuricic became a star by leaving voluntarily the “big brother” show where he was about to win because he thought there were things much more important than money!
If this story is the only news and “the most hotly debated topic”, then I start to wonder… is this a kind media manipulation?
Or do you get the footage from what IS going on?
Some foreign press took an opinion against Royal, saying/convicting the French media was irresponsible the moment they reported her quote about riots (that now in deed started all over again).
C’mon Leo: my initial post was supposed to be a remark on multidimensional aspects of public interest. After a very good political campaign and near 85% vote the public at large hotly debated interesting topics on about everything and realism clashed often with idealism.
Then as a side dish there came a sudden burst where idealism crushed realism! People were happy to deal with a refreshingly unimportant topic: well “media manipulation” if you want but between consenting parties! The public reaction is more important than the fact : nationalistic tendencies were flattered during the campaign and suddenly, just as if to wash out a sin, they thought it was normal she will go for another country! the public voted for “young nick” who campaigned for efficient cynicism in life and suddenly applauds romance over success!
life imitates art!
Your post, this thread, is a breath of fresh air.
Even on these fora where things sometimes gets a bit heavy.
It’s so nice to read something as ‘uplifting’ as this.
Thanx for posting it.
for those interested in apparent contradictions of elections in France (as elsewhere in Europe) : http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,2075293,00.html#article_continue
(Oops! it’s from the Guardian -Mikefule you seem to say that “Guardian reading” is a mark of upper-lip stiffness … IMHO since I recently discovered this newspaper I stopped thinking that saudi-arabian press was more interesting than britain’s ).
things on the TV … romanticism is still valued above success!!!
