Quote of the Day:
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that because what the world needs is people who have come alive.".
Howard Thurma
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Griechenland: Quo Vadis?
By Costas Ayiotis
The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso announced today that the EU had reached agreement on a bail out plan for Greece. It seems that the risk of Greek default and contagion spreading to other EU countries like Spain and Portugal has been contained for now. Greece has been a delinquent member of the EU for many years with its serial flouting of the financial rules, running a budget deficit of 12, 7% of GDP; the highest in the EU and more than four times higher than the 3% limit which EU rules allow. As a result the country ran into serious financial trouble amassing sovereign debt of close to a whopping Euro 300 billion. Currently the debt to GDP ratio runs at over 120%. Greece’s debt primarily lies in global bond funds, pension companies and sevral banks including French, Swiss and German banks.
The fiscal accounts and cash flow of Greece are to put it mildly, in a disastrous state and it will take many years of painful and unpopular austerity measures to rehabilitate the troubled country. The Government of Prime Minister George Papandreou now faces the unenviable task of finding the cash it needs to inject into its economy, while simultaneously drastically slashing government spending, freezing the wages and the hiring of government workers, raising the retirement age and increasing taxes on alcohol, tobacco, income and property. The burning question now on everyones lips: Can Greece afford to service its soaring debt and interest payments without outside help?
It was clear to see who the main architect of the latest bail out plan was. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany emerged out of the EU meeting all smiles and reassuringly announced: “Greece is part of the EU and will not be left on its own.” Without losing her smile for a second, she rather ominously also added: “but there will be strict rules!” And we all know what happens when the Germans impose and apply strict rules. But this may not be such a bad thing. So it is clear that German assistance in whatever form, will come with intrusive conditions. Maybe the concept of economic sovereignty is overrated after all.
Meanwhile the USA faces its own Greek style fiscal crisis. The USA for too long has behaved like an over-indulged and spoilt brat. It has shown that it is equally incapable of running its own finances with China owning a great big chunk of the USA’s debt. The fiscal position of the US does not inspire much confidence with the federal debt running into trillions of dollars. Unlike Greece the USA sets its own monetary policy and has tried to delay the pain with "quantitative easing." This is a nicer way of saying that they potentially have an unlimited capacity to print money and thereby buy time and secure more debt but I still don’t quite understand how you cure debt by getting deeper into debt. Maybe they're hoping that soaring inflation will erode the value of the debt and mop up the excess liquidity injected into their system to rescue US banks and soften the recession.
The markets indicate that as a result of non-specific pledges of EU support for Greece, it has become a little less risky to own Greek debt. But as a bond investor would you have confidence in Greek or for that matter US debt? The USA is certainly no safe haven when it comes to money matters, be it their banks or bonds and even if the dollar still remains the world’s reserve currency for now. As for Greece, on a personal note I would sooner owe money to a Greek than have him owe me money. And whether you are a country or a household, the same old-fashioned golden rule applies: always spend less than you earn. But maybe that is being too simplistic.
Critics will of course point out that there is no comparison between the size and complexity of the US economy which looks more and more like a giant pyramid or Ponzi scheme and the world’s first tzatziki economy. They will point out that the USA has an undervalued dollar and an ever increasing tax-paying, working age population to fuel growth in its consumer driven economy. Greece on the other hand, like many of the other weaker countries in the EU, produces very little and when it does like Spain has high production costs and low productivity. Greece sweats it under an overvalued Euro and would benefit from a weaker currency to stimulate domestic growth. Greece in contrast to the USA has a working age population that is in severe decline and even when working, highly evasive when it comes to paying taxes. Retiring from your strenuous half-day job as a bank teller at the age of fifty is common place. It’s not surprising then that some enterprising but unscrupulous Greek politicians were so keen to import Albanians into the economy, initially to mix concrete and push wheel barrows but now these same Albanians are now building contractors and Egyptians and Pakistanis push the wheel barrows.
Nobody disputes Greece’s enormous contribution to Western civilization in diverse fields such as politics, architecture, art, aesthetics, science, mathematics, medicine and literature. The country has produced many great thinkers and philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle but unfortunately in more recent times it has also produced many unprincipled rogues, brigands and goat thieves who could not find gainful employment in the towns, cities, mountains, the plains or on the farms so they became politicians.
How did Greece get into this mess? The usual litany of ills, come to mind. Greece like South Africa is run by kleptocrats. Years of economic mismanagement, a succession of inept and corrupt governments from both sides of the political spectrum, a lack of political will and fiscal discipline, access to unlimited, cheap & easy credit, endemic short term thinking and disastrous internal policies, a bloated and inefficient civil service used as a dumping ground by politicians to secure sheltered employment for family, friends and cronies, an ageing population, unacceptably high levels of tax evasion, endemic bribery and corruption at all levels of society and numerous high level scandals involving embezzlement of funds by top government officials.
Transparency International lists Greece alongside Bulgariaand Romania as the most corrupt countries in the 27 member EU, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Colombia. The Greek Finance Ministry reports that a massive 30 % of all economic activity in Greece produces no revenue for the government because of active cheating on taxes by companies, employees and professionals like doctors and lawyers.
The EU should have seen the makings of this Greek tragedy coming. This toxic brew has been bubbling away for years. Crisis and deficits are not something new in the Aegean. They have known about Greece’s irresponsible behaviour as a member state for years and did nothing to bring Greece to order. Therefore they are partially to blame for this fiasco. Some countries are good at balancing the books while other countries are good at cooking the books. Greece clearly falls into the latter category. And Greece is not only good at cooking the books; it has also shown remarkable flair in fiddling with all sorts of statistics. The old saying was: beware of Greeks bearing gifts. It is now beware of Greeks bearing statistics.
I read recently in John Mauldin’s Investor newsletter that a prominent Swiss investor pointed out that Greece has been in default in 105 of the last 200 years. Not a great track record but he is stating the obvious. Greece has always been a volatile country battling to overcome the legacy of Turkish rule and the lack of vision of its own rulers. The Greek people will ultimately foot the bill as they always have throughout history for the stupidity and greed of their political and economic oligarchy or elite. I use these words deliberately because Greece has never had leaders in the true sense of the word, a leader being someone who is prepared to serve and protect the interests of others. I would also like to remind our Swiss commiserator that Switzerland may have clean streets but it also has dirty money. It's banking record is not something to inspire confidence and pride. Self-inflicted deficits and defaults morally speaking, are infinitely less objectionable than protecting the money of despots and dictators or hoarding the treasures, gold and artworks looted by the Nazis from the Jews of Europe.
Nonetheless the unruly Greeks should never be entrusted with state funds and high finance. I would happily outsource the running of Greek finances to a secretariat sitting in Berlin as long as I get an ethical pledge and clearance certificate from Angela Merkel that Siemens will have nothing to do with it. And I would rather live with Germans running Greece’s fiscal policies under German rules than those of the USA or China. Germany is after all the richest, largest and most economically advanced state in Europe. Greeks wearing aprons, a form of national dress in many parts of the country, have in any event been serving wealthy German tourists for years and occasionally stealing their wives. We all get a bit nervous when the Germans are around mainly because the serious-minded, work-seeking, uber-efficient Germans have been known to invade the odd continent in search of lebensraum but thankfully that’s all in the past.
Germany today is an uneasy giant, an embarrassed, bashful power almost reticent to flex its growing financial and political muscle in Europe. They need someone like the hyper-active and energetic Sarkozy to occasionally prod them out of their collective guilt and self-reflective stupor. But Germany also faces a domestic problem. With elections coming up soon, even limited German participation in a Greek bail out plan will not be very popular across the Rhine and may come at a considerable political cost. German taxes are already very high and the disciplined German electorate has very little excess debt to pay off. Why should Germany care and what does Germany get in return?
I don’t know why they are complaining. Angela Merkel may simply be protecting the exposure of German banks to Greek debt. Besides we didn’t ask them to invade us in 1941. Greece also provided German factories with cheap labour in the 50's and 60's. Will the country ever eventually free itself from the guilt of its old sins? Normally we should not hold sons accountable for the sins of their fathers but nor should we forget what they did under Hitler and maybe the Germans should shoulder the burden for Greece’s future stability especially if Germany benefits in the long term as well. The Germans should see the bailout plan as a form of minor reparations or pay back plan for wiping out entire Greek villages and flying the swastika over the Parthenon.
Anyway it seems the Greeks for once are not asking for money. They may be simply be asking France and Germany if they can rely on the superior credit record of these two countries, so that Greece can raise money on the international bond markets at less crippling rates. Being the reluctant financial custodian of the county which gave us democracy may not be sufficient reward. Greece does not contribute much to the GDP of the eurozone but the future viability of the EU may be at stake here. Allowing Greece to collapse may be the fall of the first domino which threatens the very future of the EU, an EU with Germany at the head as its pre-eminent political and economic power. Germany has always been the biggest contributor to EU finances but with the EU a bigger market than the USA, if the EU fails everyone suffers including Germany. The bottom line as other experts have pointed out is that Germany may have to continue paying to maintain its leadership position and to make things work in Europe.
Greece has quite sensibly resisted the urge to follow the American example and sell the country to China. The Greeks don’t like melamine in their famous yoghurt. This anti-China sentiment has mostly been as a result of persistent pressure on the government from the very powerful souvlaki vendors lobby which has vowed that dog meat will never find its way into the venerated souvlaki. In the past dogs were not treated very well in Greece and packs of stray dogs roaming the streets was a common sight. Today following the example set by Diogenes the Cynic who in ancient times roamed the streets of Athens with his staff, lantern and faithful hound at his side searching for an honest man, dogs in Greece have made a fashionable come back and are now understandably more loved and trusted than people.
Greece will never die, so says a famous line in the Greek national anthem and the Greek people are a resilient lot. The country has faced far greater perils than a fiscal crisis in its long and bloody history and endured with its ancient fighting spirit intact. It has resisted invasion from Persian hordes, accommodated Roman occupation; lived through the devastation of its lands by invading Goths and Huns, survived four centuries under the yoke of the Ottoman Turks and more recently Nazi occupation during World War II. Living with German financial planning now necessarily imposed on Athens is a welcome picnic by comparison. And things won’t be so bad. It may be blitzkrieg by other means but rule by the cheque book is far better than Stuka bombardments and Panzer invasions.
Most of the Greek debt is due in four years time but of more immediate concern, the country has to honour an important debt and interest payment in May with more than 50 billion Euros needed just to make it through 2010 alone. The old stock market adage may well apply in reverse. My advice to my compatriots: Pay in May and go away. Go away and lick your wounds. Go away and sing and dance and drink your troubles away as you always have done when things looked bleak. The world is dysfunctional. It has gone mad and nobody should be pointing fingers. We are all collectively responsible for the mess this fragile planet finds itself in today.
And go away they will this summer, to their villages, country homes and islands. The islands will still look beautiful; the Greek flag will still fly over the Parthenon although I suspect the flag pole is made in Germany. And when the sandal clad German tourists come visiting, either be nice to them or lose them to Turkey. One hope of lifting Greece out of this mess is to boost tourism.
Even with limited means, people will still go to the pavement café’s, to the tavernas, to the open air theatres, cinema’s and the bouzouki joints because that is the Greek way of life. With Germany’s help Greece will survive this crisis. Stranger things have happened. The German-Greek partnership may not be such a mismatch after all. Let us not forget that it took a German coach behaving like a Greek and unfancied Greek soccer players behaving like Germans to win the coveted UEFA European Football Cup in 2004. And if things don’t work out and the German financial Polizei from Berlin turn native, go Greek on us and lose their will to work, the ever resourceful Greeks can always follow Diogenes’ celebrated frugal lifestyle and live on the side of the road in a barrel. It’s only money and the ancient Greeks admired austerity and never trusted great wealth anyway.
11 February 2010
By Costas Ayiotis
The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso announced today that the EU had reached agreement on a bail out plan for Greece. It seems that the risk of Greek default and contagion spreading to other EU countries like Spain and Portugal has been contained for now. Greece has been a delinquent member of the EU for many years with its serial flouting of the financial rules, running a budget deficit of 12, 7% of GDP; the highest in the EU and more than four times higher than the 3% limit which EU rules allow. As a result the country ran into serious financial trouble amassing sovereign debt of close to a whopping Euro 300 billion. Currently the debt to GDP ratio runs at over 120%. Greece’s debt primarily lies in global bond funds, pension companies and sevral banks including French, Swiss and German banks.
The fiscal accounts and cash flow of Greece are to put it mildly, in a disastrous state and it will take many years of painful and unpopular austerity measures to rehabilitate the troubled country. The Government of Prime Minister George Papandreou now faces the unenviable task of finding the cash it needs to inject into its economy, while simultaneously drastically slashing government spending, freezing the wages and the hiring of government workers, raising the retirement age and increasing taxes on alcohol, tobacco, income and property. The burning question now on everyones lips: Can Greece afford to service its soaring debt and interest payments without outside help?
It was clear to see who the main architect of the latest bail out plan was. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany emerged out of the EU meeting all smiles and reassuringly announced: “Greece is part of the EU and will not be left on its own.” Without losing her smile for a second, she rather ominously also added: “but there will be strict rules!” And we all know what happens when the Germans impose and apply strict rules. But this may not be such a bad thing. So it is clear that German assistance in whatever form, will come with intrusive conditions. Maybe the concept of economic sovereignty is overrated after all.
Meanwhile the USA faces its own Greek style fiscal crisis. The USA for too long has behaved like an over-indulged and spoilt brat. It has shown that it is equally incapable of running its own finances with China owning a great big chunk of the USA’s debt. The fiscal position of the US does not inspire much confidence with the federal debt running into trillions of dollars. Unlike Greece the USA sets its own monetary policy and has tried to delay the pain with "quantitative easing." This is a nicer way of saying that they potentially have an unlimited capacity to print money and thereby buy time and secure more debt but I still don’t quite understand how you cure debt by getting deeper into debt. Maybe they're hoping that soaring inflation will erode the value of the debt and mop up the excess liquidity injected into their system to rescue US banks and soften the recession.
The markets indicate that as a result of non-specific pledges of EU support for Greece, it has become a little less risky to own Greek debt. But as a bond investor would you have confidence in Greek or for that matter US debt? The USA is certainly no safe haven when it comes to money matters, be it their banks or bonds and even if the dollar still remains the world’s reserve currency for now. As for Greece, on a personal note I would sooner owe money to a Greek than have him owe me money. And whether you are a country or a household, the same old-fashioned golden rule applies: always spend less than you earn. But maybe that is being too simplistic.
Critics will of course point out that there is no comparison between the size and complexity of the US economy which looks more and more like a giant pyramid or Ponzi scheme and the world’s first tzatziki economy. They will point out that the USA has an undervalued dollar and an ever increasing tax-paying, working age population to fuel growth in its consumer driven economy. Greece on the other hand, like many of the other weaker countries in the EU, produces very little and when it does like Spain has high production costs and low productivity. Greece sweats it under an overvalued Euro and would benefit from a weaker currency to stimulate domestic growth. Greece in contrast to the USA has a working age population that is in severe decline and even when working, highly evasive when it comes to paying taxes. Retiring from your strenuous half-day job as a bank teller at the age of fifty is common place. It’s not surprising then that some enterprising but unscrupulous Greek politicians were so keen to import Albanians into the economy, initially to mix concrete and push wheel barrows but now these same Albanians are now building contractors and Egyptians and Pakistanis push the wheel barrows.
Nobody disputes Greece’s enormous contribution to Western civilization in diverse fields such as politics, architecture, art, aesthetics, science, mathematics, medicine and literature. The country has produced many great thinkers and philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle but unfortunately in more recent times it has also produced many unprincipled rogues, brigands and goat thieves who could not find gainful employment in the towns, cities, mountains, the plains or on the farms so they became politicians.
How did Greece get into this mess? The usual litany of ills, come to mind. Greece like South Africa is run by kleptocrats. Years of economic mismanagement, a succession of inept and corrupt governments from both sides of the political spectrum, a lack of political will and fiscal discipline, access to unlimited, cheap & easy credit, endemic short term thinking and disastrous internal policies, a bloated and inefficient civil service used as a dumping ground by politicians to secure sheltered employment for family, friends and cronies, an ageing population, unacceptably high levels of tax evasion, endemic bribery and corruption at all levels of society and numerous high level scandals involving embezzlement of funds by top government officials.
Transparency International lists Greece alongside Bulgariaand Romania as the most corrupt countries in the 27 member EU, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Colombia. The Greek Finance Ministry reports that a massive 30 % of all economic activity in Greece produces no revenue for the government because of active cheating on taxes by companies, employees and professionals like doctors and lawyers.
The EU should have seen the makings of this Greek tragedy coming. This toxic brew has been bubbling away for years. Crisis and deficits are not something new in the Aegean. They have known about Greece’s irresponsible behaviour as a member state for years and did nothing to bring Greece to order. Therefore they are partially to blame for this fiasco. Some countries are good at balancing the books while other countries are good at cooking the books. Greece clearly falls into the latter category. And Greece is not only good at cooking the books; it has also shown remarkable flair in fiddling with all sorts of statistics. The old saying was: beware of Greeks bearing gifts. It is now beware of Greeks bearing statistics.
I read recently in John Mauldin’s Investor newsletter that a prominent Swiss investor pointed out that Greece has been in default in 105 of the last 200 years. Not a great track record but he is stating the obvious. Greece has always been a volatile country battling to overcome the legacy of Turkish rule and the lack of vision of its own rulers. The Greek people will ultimately foot the bill as they always have throughout history for the stupidity and greed of their political and economic oligarchy or elite. I use these words deliberately because Greece has never had leaders in the true sense of the word, a leader being someone who is prepared to serve and protect the interests of others. I would also like to remind our Swiss commiserator that Switzerland may have clean streets but it also has dirty money. It's banking record is not something to inspire confidence and pride. Self-inflicted deficits and defaults morally speaking, are infinitely less objectionable than protecting the money of despots and dictators or hoarding the treasures, gold and artworks looted by the Nazis from the Jews of Europe.
Nonetheless the unruly Greeks should never be entrusted with state funds and high finance. I would happily outsource the running of Greek finances to a secretariat sitting in Berlin as long as I get an ethical pledge and clearance certificate from Angela Merkel that Siemens will have nothing to do with it. And I would rather live with Germans running Greece’s fiscal policies under German rules than those of the USA or China. Germany is after all the richest, largest and most economically advanced state in Europe. Greeks wearing aprons, a form of national dress in many parts of the country, have in any event been serving wealthy German tourists for years and occasionally stealing their wives. We all get a bit nervous when the Germans are around mainly because the serious-minded, work-seeking, uber-efficient Germans have been known to invade the odd continent in search of lebensraum but thankfully that’s all in the past.
Germany today is an uneasy giant, an embarrassed, bashful power almost reticent to flex its growing financial and political muscle in Europe. They need someone like the hyper-active and energetic Sarkozy to occasionally prod them out of their collective guilt and self-reflective stupor. But Germany also faces a domestic problem. With elections coming up soon, even limited German participation in a Greek bail out plan will not be very popular across the Rhine and may come at a considerable political cost. German taxes are already very high and the disciplined German electorate has very little excess debt to pay off. Why should Germany care and what does Germany get in return?
I don’t know why they are complaining. Angela Merkel may simply be protecting the exposure of German banks to Greek debt. Besides we didn’t ask them to invade us in 1941. Greece also provided German factories with cheap labour in the 50's and 60's. Will the country ever eventually free itself from the guilt of its old sins? Normally we should not hold sons accountable for the sins of their fathers but nor should we forget what they did under Hitler and maybe the Germans should shoulder the burden for Greece’s future stability especially if Germany benefits in the long term as well. The Germans should see the bailout plan as a form of minor reparations or pay back plan for wiping out entire Greek villages and flying the swastika over the Parthenon.
Anyway it seems the Greeks for once are not asking for money. They may be simply be asking France and Germany if they can rely on the superior credit record of these two countries, so that Greece can raise money on the international bond markets at less crippling rates. Being the reluctant financial custodian of the county which gave us democracy may not be sufficient reward. Greece does not contribute much to the GDP of the eurozone but the future viability of the EU may be at stake here. Allowing Greece to collapse may be the fall of the first domino which threatens the very future of the EU, an EU with Germany at the head as its pre-eminent political and economic power. Germany has always been the biggest contributor to EU finances but with the EU a bigger market than the USA, if the EU fails everyone suffers including Germany. The bottom line as other experts have pointed out is that Germany may have to continue paying to maintain its leadership position and to make things work in Europe.
Greece has quite sensibly resisted the urge to follow the American example and sell the country to China. The Greeks don’t like melamine in their famous yoghurt. This anti-China sentiment has mostly been as a result of persistent pressure on the government from the very powerful souvlaki vendors lobby which has vowed that dog meat will never find its way into the venerated souvlaki. In the past dogs were not treated very well in Greece and packs of stray dogs roaming the streets was a common sight. Today following the example set by Diogenes the Cynic who in ancient times roamed the streets of Athens with his staff, lantern and faithful hound at his side searching for an honest man, dogs in Greece have made a fashionable come back and are now understandably more loved and trusted than people.
Greece will never die, so says a famous line in the Greek national anthem and the Greek people are a resilient lot. The country has faced far greater perils than a fiscal crisis in its long and bloody history and endured with its ancient fighting spirit intact. It has resisted invasion from Persian hordes, accommodated Roman occupation; lived through the devastation of its lands by invading Goths and Huns, survived four centuries under the yoke of the Ottoman Turks and more recently Nazi occupation during World War II. Living with German financial planning now necessarily imposed on Athens is a welcome picnic by comparison. And things won’t be so bad. It may be blitzkrieg by other means but rule by the cheque book is far better than Stuka bombardments and Panzer invasions.
Most of the Greek debt is due in four years time but of more immediate concern, the country has to honour an important debt and interest payment in May with more than 50 billion Euros needed just to make it through 2010 alone. The old stock market adage may well apply in reverse. My advice to my compatriots: Pay in May and go away. Go away and lick your wounds. Go away and sing and dance and drink your troubles away as you always have done when things looked bleak. The world is dysfunctional. It has gone mad and nobody should be pointing fingers. We are all collectively responsible for the mess this fragile planet finds itself in today.
And go away they will this summer, to their villages, country homes and islands. The islands will still look beautiful; the Greek flag will still fly over the Parthenon although I suspect the flag pole is made in Germany. And when the sandal clad German tourists come visiting, either be nice to them or lose them to Turkey. One hope of lifting Greece out of this mess is to boost tourism.
Even with limited means, people will still go to the pavement café’s, to the tavernas, to the open air theatres, cinema’s and the bouzouki joints because that is the Greek way of life. With Germany’s help Greece will survive this crisis. Stranger things have happened. The German-Greek partnership may not be such a mismatch after all. Let us not forget that it took a German coach behaving like a Greek and unfancied Greek soccer players behaving like Germans to win the coveted UEFA European Football Cup in 2004. And if things don’t work out and the German financial Polizei from Berlin turn native, go Greek on us and lose their will to work, the ever resourceful Greeks can always follow Diogenes’ celebrated frugal lifestyle and live on the side of the road in a barrel. It’s only money and the ancient Greeks admired austerity and never trusted great wealth anyway.
11 February 2010
La Regime du President
By Costas Ayiotis
The eating habits of a nation’s president may be a useful indicator of the state of a country’s psyche and where a country is headed. The presence or absence of certain foods on the presidential table may not only reveal a lot about the state of a nation but also his state of his mind. What happens when a president who hails from Texas refuses to eat broccoli and when another from Arkansas gorges himself on fattening southern style foods such as hamburgers, fried chicken, barbecued steaks and sticky pork ribs? We get two major wars against Iraq, mayhem in Afghanistan, global warming, melting glaciers and a massive global recession.
Sparta was the dominant military power in ancient Greece. Spartan soldiers consumed a vile, evil smelling broth every day of their lives. They were formidable warriors who picked fights with all the other Greek city states. Maybe there’s a strong case to be made that the more refined, sophisticated and varied a cuisine is, the less belligerent the nation. We also know for instance that an ancient civilization like the Chinese, the people who gave us ice cream and noodles can and will eat anything that moves hence the renewed scramble for Africa and that the leaders of certain African countries are blessed with remarkably strong digestive systems, so like locusts they devour everything in sight. Our former Minster of Sport, who is well known and even admired for his gargantuan appetite, has fittingly been nicknamed “Buffet” Balfour. In a similar vein, others have been called “Pork ribs Radebe”, “Chicken feet Chuene”, “Mincemeat Mahlangu” or the “Mieliepap Mampara.”
Around the corner from where I live and next door to Bicccs, my regular early morning coffee spot, the political elite of South Africa are doing very well for themselves. Regime or diet is simply no longer part of their otherwise colourful lexicon. They have reassuringly robust and roving appetites and are in rude health. They regularly indulge in long lavish lunches at their favourite Pretoria restaurant, Ritrovo. The honourable cadres and ministers of our nascent elite couldn’t care less about La Regime et son Politique. And these are not ordinary lunches. While Diepsloot burns, they enjoy multi-course banquets reminiscent of ancient Greek and Roman symposiums. Under the expert care of Chef/Patron Fortunato and his father Commendatore Giovanni Mazzone, they feast on the finest Italian fare and enjoy the best wines and brandies South Africa has to offer.
Some leaders like “Emperor” Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic took matters a step further. He found a unique way to deal with his political opponents. He ate them. So if you’ll pardon the pun, when you become fed up with your politicians and want to put them to good use, you simply recycle them.
Good food and good eating is the mark of a civilized nation and here the emphasis should be on fresh local produce. Conversely when nations adopt the banal and mindless mass culture of fast food and franchised eating, they quickly slide into mediocrity and decline. How many more themed or franchised food stores does the world need? A recent American study has shown that although more and more people go to Starbucks they don’t necessarily create or enjoy a sense of community. They don’t socialize, talk to each other, debate or exchange ideas. Although they drink coffee, they are not true pavementistas having meaningful and spontaneous conversations with each other free of agendas or ulterior motives.
This brings us to France, the country which gave us Brigit Bardot, professional boulevardiers and crème brulee. When Ernest Hemingway lived in Paris in the 1920’s he cleverly solved the café problem by having three regular cafes which he frequented. One nobody knew about, where he went to read and write in private, a second to entertain his mistress and a third café where he went to meet and socialize with his friends. So why not rather support the brave and solitary chef patron or proprietor of the stand alone, high street, neighbourhood or village café and reject the ersatz or manufactured pseudo culture of imitation and replication forced down our throats by the dubious forces of globalization. Consider that even in café friendly France the war of attrition against independently run establishments continues. In 1960 there were 200 000 traditional style cafes in France. Today their number is down to a mere 40 000. France is a country with a proud and distinguished culinary tradition which goes back hundreds of years. France and Italy have long stood at the pinnacle of what good eating is all about. In the days before Italy’s unification, the two countries even took time out from their endemic fighting and fornicating, to collaborate on the culinary front. When Catherine de Medici married the King of France, she brought along her chefs, a host of elaborate new recipes and even introduced the French court to the fork, a rather useful Florentine invention.
The neighbouring Belgians of course will splutter over one of their famous beers and dispute the pre-eminent position of the French and the Italians in the culinary stakes but nobody in their right mind takes them too seriously or even listens to them and the other bureaucrats loitering in Brussels. To be fair though, the city did have a sprout named after it. Except for a minor blemish in their colonial history, their cruel and bloody legacy in the Congo, the Belgians are the Canadians of Europe.
Now it turns out that the hyperactive President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy has chosen to forego the pleasures of the palate. While his insatiable neighbor Silvio Berlusconi behaves like an irrepressible rogue, grabs the bottoms of meter maids, cavorts with twenty year olds and eats spaghetti, Sarko has taken up jogging and eats like a supermodel. This is in part to please and impress his wife Carla Bruni, a former supermodel turned chanteuse and now the first lady of France. In short, Sarko is behaving like a New Age Wimp. I don’t think the French public is very impressed. If reports coming out of the now redundant kitchens of the Elysee Palace are to be believed, the diminutive Sarko survives on a diet of cottage cheese, fruit compote and mineral water. Now there’s a simple test to determine whether something constitutes real or desirable food. Would a prisoner condemned to the gallows request a tub of cottage cheese as his last meal?
Being labeled a lightweight is not a good thing for an ambitious politician yet the slightly built Sarko has already lost 7 kilograms. Then Sarko met the world’s sexiest male politician. He bumped into the tall and athletic looking Barack Obama and he noticed the way Carla looked appreciatively at the fine figure of the photogenic pin up. Sarko immediately felt jealous and he became even more determined to get fit and stay in shape. A tan is not on the cards. He now also follows the example of recent US presidents and jogs every day. Carla’s personal trainer also introduced him to the joys of pelvic floor exercises and leg squats.
As the president of the world’s greatest cheese eating nation, Sarko’s every move is closely watched by his political opponents, by the ministers in his cabinet and by the French public. The president’s opponents criticize his diet and his leadership style as infantile and dismiss it as la Politique de la Silhouette. Also his choices, preferences and behavior send clear messages to the nation at large. When he first took office he behaved like a pop star and became known as the “bling-bling” president. He wore branded clothes and took great pleasure in showing off his Rolex. Then Carla Bruni came along and changed all that. She whispered into his ear and told him that the best way to show off was by not showing off at all.
The problem now is that Sarko wants to surround himself with thin people and imposes his will on others close to him. Reliable sources in Paris reveal that he “persuades” his cabinet colleagues to lose weight, stay in shape, get better haircuts and dress more stylishly. One can just imagine the type of late night pillow talk that takes place between him and Carla at the apartment they share in one of the city’s more fashionable Arrondisements.
“Mon dieu! He looks and dresses like a butcher from Marseilles. He and his frumpy provincial wife need a complete makeover. Either that or I demote him when I next reshuffle the cabinet. I’ll make him our ambassador to Vanuatu or Kiribati. Either he shapes up or he ships out. ”
Sarko’s ministers have got the message. Eager to please him, get noticed, get promoted, or simply to keep their jobs, they are behaving like most unimaginative and spineless corporate weasels and slavishly copying the boss. One minister has even taken to eating soup, fat free cottage cheese and berries to impress Sarko. No need for that Florentine fork after all. A spoon will do just fine for the nouvelle cuisine pour bebe. Aides at the Elysee Palace confirm that at formal functions, on Sarko’s orders, court or banquet cuisine is now officially out. Meat, pomme frites, cheeses and rich desserts are no longer served to guests. Instead, fish, salads and sorbets are served. Wine is served to those who want it but Sarko sticks to mineral water. This also signals a clear departure from his predecessor Jacques Chirac, who famously favoured beer. Chirac championed the cause of farmers and his aides would warn the staff at cafes, bistros and even four star Michelin restaurants to always put a beer on the table in front of him. This was designed to show that he was the president who was in touch with the common man. Wine was considered too snobbish and elitist.
Now you may reasonably argue that Sarko is setting a good example by encouraging healthy eating habits and maybe also be doing his bit to save the planet by not eating meat. After all is simplicity, self-restraint and moderation not the way to go in a world destroyed by greed and excess? But is a diet of cottage cheese and fruit compote the right way to go? Madame Hortense de Marigny Chabrol, a leading Parisian dietician who operates from a tres chic bureau in the 7th Arrondisement, clearly believes it isn’t. She maintains that the president’s diet is an unbalanced and unhealthy crash diet.
“Maintaining a good silhouette is one thing but the president’s diet is unfortunately an unsustainable and dangerous fad diet over the long term. Mr. Sarkozy is obviously a busy man with a hectic and punishing schedule. His body needs proper fuel to give him the energy he needs to satisfy Carla. That can only come from the correct combination of healthy fats, good carbohydrates and lean protein. It’s no wonder he collapsed recently.”
So what message is Sarko sending to his compatriots and to the world with his exercise regime and his frugal and uninspiring diet? What can we make of his new dining philosophy? Sarko it seems is determined to show the French public and the wider world that he is a fit, healthy, virile and vigorous leader. OK so we know that he tries his best to keep Carla happy, not an easy job. We know he is not a glutton and probably does not suffer from constipation. But in avoiding or shunning the wide variety of gourmet delicacies and sublime regional dishes France has to offer, he is also thumbing his nose at the traditions and culture of his country. Food and gastronomy is a matter of national pride in France. It is an integral and undeniable part of the country’s heritage. Can we imagine France without its world famous chefs, its Michelin rated restaurants, its bistros, patisseries, chocolatiers, boulangeries, charcuteries and epiceries? They form part of the wealth of the country, its patrimonie, its legacy and its very essence. You don’t mess with that if you want to get re-elected.
Sarko is a determined and driven man and clearly he wants to be taken seriously on the global stage and be seen to punch above his weight. Watching him address international events, one can clearly see that he is enjoying himself immensely. He is animated, expressive and gesticulates a lot. He can’t believe his luck, a case of the school nerd who is now accepted by the big boys.
He also has a passion for service delivery, a concept completely alien in some parts of the world, especially in South Africa. Sarko wants to instill German productivity levels and a Thatcherite work ethic in the French. He’s mad. The diet has obviously made him unstable. The French have no business copying the nasty habits of the Germans or the English. It used to be that if you were fired or retrenched in France you became an overnight hero. It was like winning the lotto. You received two years compulsory severance pay and you celebrated with your friends and family over pastis at your local café. The French know what the rest of the world has yet to figure out; the rampant growth model has ruined the world and work is seriously overrated.
If he wants to copy the English he should consider the fine example set by one of Britain’s best loved leaders, Winston Churchill who in marked contrast had a hearty appetite and ate and drank his way to the brink of bankruptcy. He presided over long lunches and dinners at his Chartwell estate featuring several courses. He loved alcohol and had he met the old soak Boris Yeltsin, he would have drunk him under the table. He also smoked 3000 Cuban cigars a year, more than quarter of a million in his life time. He saved his country from wearing lederhosen, socks with sandals and drinking schnapps. He also authored several impressive volumes and lived to a ripe old age.
Although he holds one of the most powerful executive posts in the Western world, unfettered by the kind of checks and balances which restrain the US president, at least Sarko is sensible enough not to tell the French public what to eat. He wouldn’t dare. Marie Antoinette tried that and we all know what happened to her. Was it not another Frenchman, no less than Napoleon Bonaparte who believed that an army marches on its stomach? Well the same can be said of a nation. A well fed population glued to their TV sets is unlikely to start a revolution.
I believe that the diet will eventually lead to Sarko’s demise. The regime will make him irritable, miserable, irrational and impossible to live with which could be a short term inconvenience for France but a long term blessing. But then politicians are unhinged and unreliable at the best of times and one should not get too attached to them. Their political lifespan should ideally be brief like a Hollywood marriage. Like overpaid investment bankers, the function they perform is socially useless. I still find the idea rather quaint that we are required to vote for people who we know are lying to us but then so much of what we are duped into doing by society, by large corporations, by institutions, by what the French call La Systeme, is based on a monumental lie.
Nicolas Sarkozy is at best a temporary aberration and an amusing distraction. He is a passing fad like his diet. Thankfully his habits are not a reliable indicator of where France is ultimately headed. While the rest of the civilized and thinking world wants to live in a village and emulate the hedonistic French diet and lifestyle, he wants to act like a neurotic Upper East Side Manhattanite. All that his diet tells us is that he is a vain man and a president increasingly isolating himself and out of touch with his people. And the damning evidence against him is mounting. Only last week, in an act of hubris and blatant nepotism, he broke his 2007 promise to the electorate and appointed his son as the head of EPAD, the organization which runs the controversial La Defense business district.
Sarko’s diet is bad for the image and prestige of France. The French public, have quite sensibly chosen not to follow his example. They shrug their shoulders with supreme Gallic indifference, pour themselves a fine glass of Bordeaux and tuck into a hearty cassoulet. We all marvel at the French paradox. We love the French because they are refreshingly different in a world obsessed with uniformity and compliance. Their cars are different, their aircraft are different, their women and their films are different. We love the French because they smoke, they drink and eat whatever they want and yet they still manage to outlive the stressed out of their minds Americans crippled by fear.
Charles de Gaulle once remarked, “France cannot be France without glory.”
I say bollocks! The price of glory is too high and always paid with the blood, guts and sacrifices of ordinary people, by citizens like you and me. There is nothing glorious about being dead. Two million people died because of Napoleon’s quest for glory. Another fifty million died when another megalomaniac, Adolf Hitler pursued his twisted idea of glory for a greater Nazi Germany.
I say forget glory, forget silly diets and forget politicians. France cannot be France without gastronomy. France cannot be France without its villages, its café’s and its legendary culinary traditions. France cannot be France without its celebrated cheeses, its rich pates, its excellent wines and crusty baguettes. But France can and will be France without Nicolas Sarkozy.
Anyone for crème brulee?
By Costas Ayiotis
The eating habits of a nation’s president may be a useful indicator of the state of a country’s psyche and where a country is headed. The presence or absence of certain foods on the presidential table may not only reveal a lot about the state of a nation but also his state of his mind. What happens when a president who hails from Texas refuses to eat broccoli and when another from Arkansas gorges himself on fattening southern style foods such as hamburgers, fried chicken, barbecued steaks and sticky pork ribs? We get two major wars against Iraq, mayhem in Afghanistan, global warming, melting glaciers and a massive global recession.
Sparta was the dominant military power in ancient Greece. Spartan soldiers consumed a vile, evil smelling broth every day of their lives. They were formidable warriors who picked fights with all the other Greek city states. Maybe there’s a strong case to be made that the more refined, sophisticated and varied a cuisine is, the less belligerent the nation. We also know for instance that an ancient civilization like the Chinese, the people who gave us ice cream and noodles can and will eat anything that moves hence the renewed scramble for Africa and that the leaders of certain African countries are blessed with remarkably strong digestive systems, so like locusts they devour everything in sight. Our former Minster of Sport, who is well known and even admired for his gargantuan appetite, has fittingly been nicknamed “Buffet” Balfour. In a similar vein, others have been called “Pork ribs Radebe”, “Chicken feet Chuene”, “Mincemeat Mahlangu” or the “Mieliepap Mampara.”
Around the corner from where I live and next door to Bicccs, my regular early morning coffee spot, the political elite of South Africa are doing very well for themselves. Regime or diet is simply no longer part of their otherwise colourful lexicon. They have reassuringly robust and roving appetites and are in rude health. They regularly indulge in long lavish lunches at their favourite Pretoria restaurant, Ritrovo. The honourable cadres and ministers of our nascent elite couldn’t care less about La Regime et son Politique. And these are not ordinary lunches. While Diepsloot burns, they enjoy multi-course banquets reminiscent of ancient Greek and Roman symposiums. Under the expert care of Chef/Patron Fortunato and his father Commendatore Giovanni Mazzone, they feast on the finest Italian fare and enjoy the best wines and brandies South Africa has to offer.
Some leaders like “Emperor” Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic took matters a step further. He found a unique way to deal with his political opponents. He ate them. So if you’ll pardon the pun, when you become fed up with your politicians and want to put them to good use, you simply recycle them.
Good food and good eating is the mark of a civilized nation and here the emphasis should be on fresh local produce. Conversely when nations adopt the banal and mindless mass culture of fast food and franchised eating, they quickly slide into mediocrity and decline. How many more themed or franchised food stores does the world need? A recent American study has shown that although more and more people go to Starbucks they don’t necessarily create or enjoy a sense of community. They don’t socialize, talk to each other, debate or exchange ideas. Although they drink coffee, they are not true pavementistas having meaningful and spontaneous conversations with each other free of agendas or ulterior motives.
This brings us to France, the country which gave us Brigit Bardot, professional boulevardiers and crème brulee. When Ernest Hemingway lived in Paris in the 1920’s he cleverly solved the café problem by having three regular cafes which he frequented. One nobody knew about, where he went to read and write in private, a second to entertain his mistress and a third café where he went to meet and socialize with his friends. So why not rather support the brave and solitary chef patron or proprietor of the stand alone, high street, neighbourhood or village café and reject the ersatz or manufactured pseudo culture of imitation and replication forced down our throats by the dubious forces of globalization. Consider that even in café friendly France the war of attrition against independently run establishments continues. In 1960 there were 200 000 traditional style cafes in France. Today their number is down to a mere 40 000. France is a country with a proud and distinguished culinary tradition which goes back hundreds of years. France and Italy have long stood at the pinnacle of what good eating is all about. In the days before Italy’s unification, the two countries even took time out from their endemic fighting and fornicating, to collaborate on the culinary front. When Catherine de Medici married the King of France, she brought along her chefs, a host of elaborate new recipes and even introduced the French court to the fork, a rather useful Florentine invention.
The neighbouring Belgians of course will splutter over one of their famous beers and dispute the pre-eminent position of the French and the Italians in the culinary stakes but nobody in their right mind takes them too seriously or even listens to them and the other bureaucrats loitering in Brussels. To be fair though, the city did have a sprout named after it. Except for a minor blemish in their colonial history, their cruel and bloody legacy in the Congo, the Belgians are the Canadians of Europe.
Now it turns out that the hyperactive President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy has chosen to forego the pleasures of the palate. While his insatiable neighbor Silvio Berlusconi behaves like an irrepressible rogue, grabs the bottoms of meter maids, cavorts with twenty year olds and eats spaghetti, Sarko has taken up jogging and eats like a supermodel. This is in part to please and impress his wife Carla Bruni, a former supermodel turned chanteuse and now the first lady of France. In short, Sarko is behaving like a New Age Wimp. I don’t think the French public is very impressed. If reports coming out of the now redundant kitchens of the Elysee Palace are to be believed, the diminutive Sarko survives on a diet of cottage cheese, fruit compote and mineral water. Now there’s a simple test to determine whether something constitutes real or desirable food. Would a prisoner condemned to the gallows request a tub of cottage cheese as his last meal?
Being labeled a lightweight is not a good thing for an ambitious politician yet the slightly built Sarko has already lost 7 kilograms. Then Sarko met the world’s sexiest male politician. He bumped into the tall and athletic looking Barack Obama and he noticed the way Carla looked appreciatively at the fine figure of the photogenic pin up. Sarko immediately felt jealous and he became even more determined to get fit and stay in shape. A tan is not on the cards. He now also follows the example of recent US presidents and jogs every day. Carla’s personal trainer also introduced him to the joys of pelvic floor exercises and leg squats.
As the president of the world’s greatest cheese eating nation, Sarko’s every move is closely watched by his political opponents, by the ministers in his cabinet and by the French public. The president’s opponents criticize his diet and his leadership style as infantile and dismiss it as la Politique de la Silhouette. Also his choices, preferences and behavior send clear messages to the nation at large. When he first took office he behaved like a pop star and became known as the “bling-bling” president. He wore branded clothes and took great pleasure in showing off his Rolex. Then Carla Bruni came along and changed all that. She whispered into his ear and told him that the best way to show off was by not showing off at all.
The problem now is that Sarko wants to surround himself with thin people and imposes his will on others close to him. Reliable sources in Paris reveal that he “persuades” his cabinet colleagues to lose weight, stay in shape, get better haircuts and dress more stylishly. One can just imagine the type of late night pillow talk that takes place between him and Carla at the apartment they share in one of the city’s more fashionable Arrondisements.
“Mon dieu! He looks and dresses like a butcher from Marseilles. He and his frumpy provincial wife need a complete makeover. Either that or I demote him when I next reshuffle the cabinet. I’ll make him our ambassador to Vanuatu or Kiribati. Either he shapes up or he ships out. ”
Sarko’s ministers have got the message. Eager to please him, get noticed, get promoted, or simply to keep their jobs, they are behaving like most unimaginative and spineless corporate weasels and slavishly copying the boss. One minister has even taken to eating soup, fat free cottage cheese and berries to impress Sarko. No need for that Florentine fork after all. A spoon will do just fine for the nouvelle cuisine pour bebe. Aides at the Elysee Palace confirm that at formal functions, on Sarko’s orders, court or banquet cuisine is now officially out. Meat, pomme frites, cheeses and rich desserts are no longer served to guests. Instead, fish, salads and sorbets are served. Wine is served to those who want it but Sarko sticks to mineral water. This also signals a clear departure from his predecessor Jacques Chirac, who famously favoured beer. Chirac championed the cause of farmers and his aides would warn the staff at cafes, bistros and even four star Michelin restaurants to always put a beer on the table in front of him. This was designed to show that he was the president who was in touch with the common man. Wine was considered too snobbish and elitist.
Now you may reasonably argue that Sarko is setting a good example by encouraging healthy eating habits and maybe also be doing his bit to save the planet by not eating meat. After all is simplicity, self-restraint and moderation not the way to go in a world destroyed by greed and excess? But is a diet of cottage cheese and fruit compote the right way to go? Madame Hortense de Marigny Chabrol, a leading Parisian dietician who operates from a tres chic bureau in the 7th Arrondisement, clearly believes it isn’t. She maintains that the president’s diet is an unbalanced and unhealthy crash diet.
“Maintaining a good silhouette is one thing but the president’s diet is unfortunately an unsustainable and dangerous fad diet over the long term. Mr. Sarkozy is obviously a busy man with a hectic and punishing schedule. His body needs proper fuel to give him the energy he needs to satisfy Carla. That can only come from the correct combination of healthy fats, good carbohydrates and lean protein. It’s no wonder he collapsed recently.”
So what message is Sarko sending to his compatriots and to the world with his exercise regime and his frugal and uninspiring diet? What can we make of his new dining philosophy? Sarko it seems is determined to show the French public and the wider world that he is a fit, healthy, virile and vigorous leader. OK so we know that he tries his best to keep Carla happy, not an easy job. We know he is not a glutton and probably does not suffer from constipation. But in avoiding or shunning the wide variety of gourmet delicacies and sublime regional dishes France has to offer, he is also thumbing his nose at the traditions and culture of his country. Food and gastronomy is a matter of national pride in France. It is an integral and undeniable part of the country’s heritage. Can we imagine France without its world famous chefs, its Michelin rated restaurants, its bistros, patisseries, chocolatiers, boulangeries, charcuteries and epiceries? They form part of the wealth of the country, its patrimonie, its legacy and its very essence. You don’t mess with that if you want to get re-elected.
Sarko is a determined and driven man and clearly he wants to be taken seriously on the global stage and be seen to punch above his weight. Watching him address international events, one can clearly see that he is enjoying himself immensely. He is animated, expressive and gesticulates a lot. He can’t believe his luck, a case of the school nerd who is now accepted by the big boys.
He also has a passion for service delivery, a concept completely alien in some parts of the world, especially in South Africa. Sarko wants to instill German productivity levels and a Thatcherite work ethic in the French. He’s mad. The diet has obviously made him unstable. The French have no business copying the nasty habits of the Germans or the English. It used to be that if you were fired or retrenched in France you became an overnight hero. It was like winning the lotto. You received two years compulsory severance pay and you celebrated with your friends and family over pastis at your local café. The French know what the rest of the world has yet to figure out; the rampant growth model has ruined the world and work is seriously overrated.
If he wants to copy the English he should consider the fine example set by one of Britain’s best loved leaders, Winston Churchill who in marked contrast had a hearty appetite and ate and drank his way to the brink of bankruptcy. He presided over long lunches and dinners at his Chartwell estate featuring several courses. He loved alcohol and had he met the old soak Boris Yeltsin, he would have drunk him under the table. He also smoked 3000 Cuban cigars a year, more than quarter of a million in his life time. He saved his country from wearing lederhosen, socks with sandals and drinking schnapps. He also authored several impressive volumes and lived to a ripe old age.
Although he holds one of the most powerful executive posts in the Western world, unfettered by the kind of checks and balances which restrain the US president, at least Sarko is sensible enough not to tell the French public what to eat. He wouldn’t dare. Marie Antoinette tried that and we all know what happened to her. Was it not another Frenchman, no less than Napoleon Bonaparte who believed that an army marches on its stomach? Well the same can be said of a nation. A well fed population glued to their TV sets is unlikely to start a revolution.
I believe that the diet will eventually lead to Sarko’s demise. The regime will make him irritable, miserable, irrational and impossible to live with which could be a short term inconvenience for France but a long term blessing. But then politicians are unhinged and unreliable at the best of times and one should not get too attached to them. Their political lifespan should ideally be brief like a Hollywood marriage. Like overpaid investment bankers, the function they perform is socially useless. I still find the idea rather quaint that we are required to vote for people who we know are lying to us but then so much of what we are duped into doing by society, by large corporations, by institutions, by what the French call La Systeme, is based on a monumental lie.
Nicolas Sarkozy is at best a temporary aberration and an amusing distraction. He is a passing fad like his diet. Thankfully his habits are not a reliable indicator of where France is ultimately headed. While the rest of the civilized and thinking world wants to live in a village and emulate the hedonistic French diet and lifestyle, he wants to act like a neurotic Upper East Side Manhattanite. All that his diet tells us is that he is a vain man and a president increasingly isolating himself and out of touch with his people. And the damning evidence against him is mounting. Only last week, in an act of hubris and blatant nepotism, he broke his 2007 promise to the electorate and appointed his son as the head of EPAD, the organization which runs the controversial La Defense business district.
Sarko’s diet is bad for the image and prestige of France. The French public, have quite sensibly chosen not to follow his example. They shrug their shoulders with supreme Gallic indifference, pour themselves a fine glass of Bordeaux and tuck into a hearty cassoulet. We all marvel at the French paradox. We love the French because they are refreshingly different in a world obsessed with uniformity and compliance. Their cars are different, their aircraft are different, their women and their films are different. We love the French because they smoke, they drink and eat whatever they want and yet they still manage to outlive the stressed out of their minds Americans crippled by fear.
Charles de Gaulle once remarked, “France cannot be France without glory.”
I say bollocks! The price of glory is too high and always paid with the blood, guts and sacrifices of ordinary people, by citizens like you and me. There is nothing glorious about being dead. Two million people died because of Napoleon’s quest for glory. Another fifty million died when another megalomaniac, Adolf Hitler pursued his twisted idea of glory for a greater Nazi Germany.
I say forget glory, forget silly diets and forget politicians. France cannot be France without gastronomy. France cannot be France without its villages, its café’s and its legendary culinary traditions. France cannot be France without its celebrated cheeses, its rich pates, its excellent wines and crusty baguettes. But France can and will be France without Nicolas Sarkozy.
Anyone for crème brulee?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)