DOCTEUR DOUSTE ET MISTER BLUFF
"Il n'y a pas eu de juifs tués en Angleterre ?"
From the sublime to the ridiculous.
FRANCE'S TOP DIPLOMAT CAUGHT IN A HARSH LIGHT
PARIS May 1, 2006 (IHT) - He has confused Taiwan with Thailand and Croatia with Kosovo and speaks no foreign language - not even English. Indeed, so gaffe-prone is the French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, that President Jacques Chirac routinely orders a civil servant to follow him around with a recording device to keep track of all potential mishaps, according to a scathing account in the newspaper Le Monde.The report, published as Douste-Blazy was meeting with his NATO counterparts in Sofia, lists anecdote after embarrassing anecdote about faux pas that Le Monde says have sapped his credibility both abroad and among his own diplomats. In one instance, it said, he was so vague after an important ministerial meeting at the United Nations that French diplomats had to ask Britain's foreign secretary for a debriefing.
At the ministry M. Douste-Blazy inspires dread and loathing, and when abroad, outright panic. In diplomatic circles he is known as "Douste-Blabla", "Docteur Douste et Mister Bluff", "Condorsay" (con = idiot; Orsay = Quai d'Orsay, a metonym for the Foreign Ministry), and "Mickey d'Orsay". That the foreign minister is less than bright is no surprise to Pave skimmers.
In another, at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem last September, Le Monde said, Douste-Blazy stopped at a map recording the Jewish communities in European countries before and after World War II.
"Were there no Jews killed in Britain?" he asked. "But Mr. Minister, Britain was never occupied by the Nazis," the curator replied. To which Douste-Blazy shot back: "But were no Jews expelled from Britain?" Asked Friday about the Le Monde report, a Foreign Ministry spokesman who was in Sofia with Douste-Blazy declined to comment.
Pave does not believe M. le Ministre's greatest failings are his feeble grasp of geography -- though one expects a foreign ninister to know a little geography -- or his defective grasp of history -- though history too helps on the job. No, these are risible but not catastrophic. We are more alarmed by M. Douste-Blazy's clueless sentimentalism for terrorists and his jelly spine that Mr. Ahmadinejad is invited again and again to bend any which way.
[All emphases added.]
The Le Monde article can be found here.
PFFT (What is this?): How does France survive her ministers? 3 | Rayonnement français 0
Bonjour,
Vous regrettez Villepin aux affaires étrangères ?
Rassurez-vous moi aussi !
Franchement vous ne comprendrez jamais rien aux pays étrangers en vous regardant le nombril...
Ayez un peu de culture historique et vous comprendrez ,enfin , les jeux de mots subtils des Français.Si j'en juge par votre analyse du "Condorsay" (sic) , vous êtes bien loin du compte...
Enfin un Américain c'est lourdingue ,le Monde entier le sait.
M. AB/AY,
You flatter us, but we must disabuse you. Judging from Pave's Weblogs, a good deal less than the whole world takes note of our errors. When errors are made.
The wordplay of "Condorsay" is not as subtle as you claim. It is as obvious as we have rendered it. Were else do you think it goes? It is a pun, M. AB/AY, the lowest form of wit. If it strays from the obvious, it is less likely to be a subtlety and more likely to be a bad pun.
Alas, in your delight at thinking us clumsy, you have forgotten to correct us. So, please, give us the benefit of your subtlety and wit. We are eager to learn.
Of course, we are already familiar with your demonstrated French wit: "Good luck for [sic] your country in Irak !" Very subtle. Especially after its hundredth-or-so iteration.
DGB
Bonjour,
1)Vous n'avez donc rien compris à ce jeu de mot.Votre contribution le montre assez.Je vous laisse chercher:cela vous donnera un peu de culture française (relisez "le laboureur et ses enfants" ).
2)Pour ma pratique de l 'américain ,je pense que votre langue est un sabir par excellence:"le sabir américanoîde" selon un de nos académiciens:(puisque vous avez de la considération pour l'Académie).Aussi j'avoue volontiers la pratiquer le moins possible et soutenir toutes les actions pour le faire reculer en France (tiens au fait GEMS a-t-il payé son amende de 500 000 euros à la CGT pour nous avoir déshonoré en nous imposant ce sabir ?). Je pense que l' on peut très bien vivre (contrairement à la vulgate) sans parler un mot de sabir américanoide.
Good luck to (?) your country in Irak
Plame Plame Plame Plame …
(Je vous rappelle que cet encouragement est calqué sur celui que nous fit l' ami du grand démocrate Pinochet ,Milton Friedman ,aussi je pensais courtois de vous le retourner).
M. AB/AY,
You are a fraud.
You claim a deeper meaning and then cannot produce it. You want us to believe that a whispered-up pun by corridor diplomats is deserving of George Perec.
Believe what you will, but don't expect us to believe you.
As for your defective English, please, don't feel the need to make excuses. French gibberish gibbers best in its native tongue.
DGB
Bonjour,
Vous êtes bien paresseux Damian.Cherchez un peu ,je vous dis cela ne vous fera pas de mal.Et puis quand vous aurez trouvé quelle joie de communier à la Culture française...
"Condorsay" vous trouvez ça drôle ?
Pour un Yanks oui !
Mais un Français veut un peu plus de subtilité dans ses jeux de mots...
Allez cherchez un peu...
Good luck for your country in Irak !
Plame ! Plame ! Plame ! Plame !
