Occasionally a faint heart or franchouille wanders into Pave and finds the whole business harsh and hateful. Yet our criticisms of France are hardly original. By her own reports France acknowledges them -- for instance here and here and here -- while many of our complaints are shared by the French themselves.
And though we can be blunt and what we say hurtful, it takes a Frenchman to really drive the knive into the pittering French heart.
PARIS August 1, 2005 (Telegraph) - Maurice Lévy, the head of the media giant Publicis, whose company owns Saatchi and Saatchi and has offices in 100 countries across six continents, said France had failed to get the 2012 Olympics because the world now saw [France] as a nation of perdants - "losers".In the article, Mr Lévy said the French had only themselves to blame for losing the Olympics, and that the country needed a wake-up call.
"We have narrowed and stunted ourselves and we paint ourselves as losers, and no one wants to be among the losers. It's time we opened our eyes wide, took an icy shower and looked reality in the face: we are in decline, going down a slippery slope.
"The Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry has reminded us of our [public] debt and the fact that we are living beyond our means. We knew the figures, yet no government for the last 20 years has wanted to draw a conclusion from them. The figures that attest to our decline are known to all."
He said that unemployment, at more than 10 per cent, was a "cancer that gnawed at our society", complaining that companies had lost their competitiveness and that job creation had broken down.
"The general gloom is based on the idea that nothing can be done and nobody seems to have a solution. In fact our politicians have long played fathers of the nation, protecting their flock and hoping to save we the children from crises. It's praiseworthy and generous. Thank you. But it doesn't prepare us for the harsh realities of life.
"Remember the day after the first petrol shock, when the Dutch took to their bicycles to save petrol while our good president explained to us that we could (and deserved to) set off in our cars for our weekends away.
"Later, when it was necessary, alas, to make redundancies, the compensation was set at 90 per cent, therefore allowing those made redundant to earn yet more without working. Why in that case, make any effort to find a job? In doing this, trying to avoid any difficulties for them, we have turned the French into children.
"The final straw has to be the absurd decision to introduce the 35-hour working week when we were told repeatedly that we could work less and earn more. How on earth in this context can we expect the same French people to accept necessary reforms?"
[All emphases added.]
From the horse's mouth.
M. Lévy reports his article has recieved "acclaim from across the political spectrum." Bonne chance.
Pave runs series reports on France in Decline, here is one and here another.
PFFT (What is this?): Hard truths 5 | Rayonnement français 0
I like Maurice Levy, however Paris only lost by three votes... By the way, how could the greatest city in the world possibly rank behind a city of "losers"?
M. Zmx,
If it is not much of a loss, 3 votes, then had it gone the other way would you be here arguing that it was not much of a win for Paris? Certainly you would be the only Frenchman to think so. France was keen to win and keener to brag, but, alas, it was not to be.
As to why Paris beat out the "greatest city in the world", the IOC was judging the suitability of a city for staging the Olympics, not a city's relative greatness. Glad to clear that up for you.
M. Lévy's larger message is not the failure of the Paris bid. The larger message is the French nanny state making France uncompetitive and the French helpless complainers.
DGB
It's always heartening to see that someone in France - someone with a prayer of changing anything - "gets it".
