Hidden Nook
"Because in Cyberspace, no one can hear you scream."
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Everybody Hates The French?
[Media Source*] (Hat Tip: Andrew Sullivan, Israpundit)
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Britons described them as "chauvinists, stubborn, nannied and humourless". However, the French may be more shocked by the views of other nations.
For the Germans, the French are "pretentious, offhand and frivolous". The Dutch describe them as "agitated, talkative and shallow." The Spanish see them as "cold, distant, vain and impolite" and the Portuguese as "preaching". In Italy they comes across as "snobs, arrogant, flesh-loving, righteous and self-obsessed" and the Greeks find them "not very with it, egocentric bons vivants".
Ouch.
More Pain.
"Interviewees were simply asked an open question - what five adjectives sum up the French," said Olivier Clodong, one of the study's two authors and a professor of social and political communication at the Ecole Superieur de Commerce, in Paris. "The answers were overwhelmingly negative."
Perhaps the French need to conduct a "PR" campaign in their neighbor states. If this survey represents the basic attitudes of Europe towards the "high and mighty ones," then there is not going to be much love when John Bolton makes his first suggestion for UN reform.
"Bolton is going to lob a Molotov cocktail into this bidding contest," writes Wheeler. "He is going to argue that France should be replaced by the European Union. The EU is now Europe's governing body, to which its 25 member countries have given much of their national sovereignty. Twelve of them, including France, have abandoned their national currencies, replacing them with the euro. Ten more have applied to join the Euro Zone."
Although England would also be affected by this (they would probably have to leave as well) this "suggestion" coupled with France's growing unpopularity is enough to send Chirac in a political tail spin. Selah?
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By Darnell Clayton ⢠11:27 PM ⢠Email Post ⢠â¢
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