Why do so many people hate France?

Politics International Politics
41

Yet another reason to dislike the French:

From: realbeer.com/news/articles/news-001824.html

JAN 22, 2003 - The Belgian government has rallied behind its brewers, who are threatened with lower sales because of a tax on higher alcohol beers being proposed by French officials.

“The French are playing tricks on us,” said Father Omar, a monk who brews the popular Chimay Trappist ale. “But, of course, we still love them.”

The French government is planning to impose a steep tax on beers with over 8.5% of alcohol content. The higher tax could reduces sales in their prime export market and jeopardize the future of several microbreweries.

“I see nothing good coming from this kind of trade war,” said Belgian Foreign Trade Minister Annemie Neyts, arguing France was trying to curb the growth of Belgian specialty beers on its market at the expense of local beverages. “Too bad they have gone down this road.” The Belgian government has approached the European Union to check if the tax complies with EU fair trading rules.

France said the tax plan of adding two euros ($2.10) in taxes per liter of strong beer is an attempt to counter alcoholism, but Neyts sees it as protectionist since France itself does not produce beer as potent. “Why does the measure only apply to strong beer and not on wine which has a much higher alcohol content and consumption?” she asked. “It is a piece of French logic which will need some explaining.”

The Belgian say some microbrewers surviving on narrow profit margins could be pushed into bankruptcy. More than two dozen brewers across Belgium are directly affected by the tax plan. “For the small brewers, it is a catastrophe,” said Father Omer.

The tax could cost Chimay, the biggest exporter of the strong beer, about 125,000 euros ($130,000) a month

42

[quote]“The French are playing tricks on us,” said Father Omar, a monk who brews the popular Chimay Trappist ale. “But, of course, we still love them.”
[/quote]

Come on! You added that last sentence yourself, didn’t you?

Says further down that the proposed tax is designed as an “attempt to counter alcoholism.” WTF? :unamused:

I’m no fan of those high-alcohol brews, but this seems really unfair.

43

You must be joking. Anytime a guy in his 50s with a big belly successfully seduces an attractive woman, I have hope for my own future. Go Gerard![/quote]
It could have something to do with his oversized proboscis, too. Especially if it’s true that there is a corelation between schnozz size and… :wink:

44

Thank ImaniOU for the title, She made me rethink the original.

  1. Slow reformers, actually I would say anti-reformers. France has the top spot for the EU country to pull off the least amount of reforms. French utilities are on an EU shopping spree, while everyone else has to stand on the sidelines in France, because they can’t buy “national assests” yet.

  2. CAP-This wonderful program takes about 60% of the EU budget. Wonderfully trade distorting and a major sticking point for all developing nations. This is the thing that reminds me of the similiarity of Japan and France. 2 once great nations going about a very long melodramatic swan song. Without reformation of CAP, currently delayed till 2007, we won’t be seeing any true movement on liberalising world trade.

  3. Inability to take care of their own/any problems and having to call in the Americans for everything. I see painfully little done by them on N. Korea, willful blindness on the part of Iraq(probably has something to do with those large oil contracts and I would suspect a few well placed bribes), and don’t get me started on the former Yugoslavia.

  4. Knee jerk reaction to counter any US proposals without giving a viable alternative. This is what infuriates me the most about hard core liberals/conservatives, Anti-globalisation movement and any PC type. It is easy to tear something down, but very hard to give a clear well resoned alternative.

I think this obituary says it btter than I ever will:

economist.com/people/displayStor … id=1548599

France has good pr and that’s about it.
Arab terrorists, They’ve had those for years, thanks to Algeria.
Budget deficits, has those to, thanks to an overly generous welfare system.
Problems with their military, a former general admitting to torture in Algeria. An insufficiently small military, for what purpose?

The wonderful thing is the charm and PR is wearing thin. Once unheard complaints and abuses of French power are finally coming to light. I think France by sheer media force will be taken down a few steps. Most large/major media/newspaper companies are not French owned. think as the US displays and uses more of its power. US/English media assets will start taking a more critical awareness of French policies. The last thing the French can use/need is negative publicity. With a negative public opinion your ideas, notions, thinking are ridiculed and scorned. Just like the US in some countries.

CYA
Okami

45

Excerpts from:
nationalreview.com/goldberg/ … 012403.asp

Don’t Call the French Principled

[quote]On Wednesday, French president Jacques Chirac declared: “As far as we are concerned, war always means failure and therefore everything must be done to avoid war.”

Not only does this encapsulate French military philosophy to a T (or is that a “Ç”?), it summarizes the full extent of the mainstream antiwar movement’s “argument.” This shouldn’t be news to anybody by now, but just to clarify: If you go into every situation saying there’s absolutely nothing worth fighting over, you will inevitably end up on a cot sleeping next to a guy named Tiny, bringing him breakfast in his cell every morning, and spending your afternoons ironing his boxers. Or, in the case of the French, you might spend your afternoon rounding up Jews to send to Germany, but you get the point…

… Consider for a moment the current French position

46

Tigerman: everyone knows Joshua Goldberg hates the French, but even more people dislike Joshua Goldberg.

Maybe what it comes down to is this, re the anti-Frog thing: people who are right wingers and conservatives hate the French, and left wingers and progressives appreciate the French. It’s us versus them.

Which side are you on, Tigerman? You seem like a leftie progressive, no? Goldberg is a total turnoff. But he does crack us up!

47

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no! Sandman is that a Photoshop job?

49

LOL !

50

Come on, Hex! The country that gave us de Maupassant, Baudelaire, Hugo, Johnny Holliday, Jean Paul Belmondo, Sartre, Camus, de Beauvoir, Yves Montand, Marcel Marceau, Mallarme, Jean Luc Godard, Brigitte Bardot, Francois Truffaut, de Lautremont, Picasso (okay Spain), Le Monde, Le Figaro, Tin Tin (okay Belge), French bread, French kissing and pardon my French, fucking nice romantic love, why piss on the French so much?

51

Okay, just for the record, I think that most people that know me (especially my husband) know that I am religiously against any type of sterotype or generalization at all whatsoever…

…until I travelled in France for a month.

I really, truly was naive about this french-hatred thing when I began my trip, but I have to say that by the end of my trip, I was just as bitter and jaded about French “manners” as the next guy/gal. There was more than one situation where I simply had to walk away in tears because the asshole behind the counter refused to sufficiently answer a simple question. There were two times that I had to stand in long lines twice because I didn’t get the full information about a trip/postal situation and had to go back and pay more money or get a different ticket or something - situations that could have been allayed by a more helpful person behind the counter. My French is pretty decent, by the way. By the end of the month, I simply hated french people, and I had no qualms about making this generalization. The people that were supposedly there to ‘help’ others only served to blemish an otherwise lovely trip in a breathtakingly beautiful land.

Exceptions included most people I met in Normandie and Burgandy, and there were some very pleasant interactions in Paris.

This is mainly why I feel that the Taiwanese are exceptionally nice, b/c I have France to compare Taiwan to.

52

[quote=“Attagirl”]and there were some very pleasant interactions in Paris.
[/quote]

Snigger, snigger…

53

Oh, yes. Most frenchies insist on you speaking perfect French to them.

I once tried to order a coca-cola in a restaurant in Normandy. They didn’t understand me, as i didn’t pronounce cola in French. (Same word, BTW)

54

[quote=“Mr He”]Oh, yes. Most frenchies insist on you speaking perfect French to them.

I once tried to order a coca-cola in a restaurant in Normandy. They didn’t understand me, as i didn’t pronounce cola in French. (Same word, BTW)[/quote]

Ask for “champagne Americain.”

55

You know, this thread is very interesting, and I’m still trying to figure it out.

It seems that if one is already predisposed to dislike the French, the entire French nation it seems, due to cultural biases, then you will. It is evident here, and it makes me sad, although I can understand what everyone is saying. And since there are no French posters here defending their country or culture and trying to educate us or enligthen us (now THERE’S a good French word!) … then the posts go on and on, anti-French all.

So if perception determines motivation, then when non-French people come into contact with French people or culture, they are already predisposed to hate the Frogs. It all adds up, but shouldn’t we be fighting against prejudice or trying to understand it, rather than just adding to it?

For me, since I came to French culture and people in a sympathetic way, without having heard all this Anti-French stuff, i see the French in a very different way, and am perplexed by all this anti-F stuff here … and almost everywhere. Hmmmmm, maybe I missed something and you are all correct!

In my case, my first girlfriend was a pretty French lass when I was a 16 year old homestay exchange student in Brittany (no, not Brittany Spears) … and dear sweet Gisele Bridoux helped initiate me into the rather wonderful joys of teen sex. So my entire worldview has been shaped (no pun intended) by Miss Bridoux’s lovely face and lips and breasts and body, and no matter how many rude French people I meet (and in my case, I have met some, too, but such people exist in every country!!!), Gisele remains my guide to France. I will die still loving France for giving me this wonderful teen angst present when I was still young and unbiased!

Does ANYBODY like France? Just dumb little ol’ me?

In that case, France has a major international PR problem and they should try to address this situation. Have they ever tried?

56

Yes, me. I plan to live there one day.

57

Thank God, sandman! I KNEW you were a good man!

58

greenpeace.org.au/rainbow_wa … about.html

:wink:

59

And who would be zese French media? Why of course! French people. So they were as outraged as everybody else.

I hate the antics of most governments and many media organizations, too, from time to time, but does that mean I hate the people and countries they represent? Mais non! If that were the case, I’d be having to hate an awful lot of people, and I expend quite enough energy just limiting myself to hating haters and racists, thanks very much.

60

Formosa: Looks like there aren’t too many of us France-lovers around here. And it’s always easy to bash on somebody who isn’t there to defend himself. :imp: However, as somebody pointed out, there is this difference between liking France as a country and supporting French politics, and obviously, the original poster was rather talking about French politics while most of the other posters kept bashing French people. There certainly are disagreable notions in French politics as there are in German politics, EU politics, American politics or Taiwan politics (and probably anybody else’s country’s politics - looks like my PC day :? ). Ooops, change the topic unless this might evolve into another xxx policy sucks thread.

Sandman’s been posting while I wrote all this, and I can only second his quote that the fact that I disagree with a country’s politics doesn’t mean I have to hate all the people there.

I have met rather unfriendly French people (the siblings of a friend who had invited me to his wedding completely ignored my brother and me). But most of the French people I met were very nice, the nicest of all being said friend’s grandparents who had suffered under the Germans in WW2. Wherever we travelled, we never had problems like people not wanting to talk to us or pretending not to understand us. Maybe some people feel put off by the fact that French people, especially in certain areas, seem uncommunicative because they don’t receive you with open arms and broad smiles. This doesn’t mean they are unfriendly, it’s just not their way (and to be honest, it’s not the way I grew up, either).

I guess people here on Segue with friends from all over the world know it but one of my university professors kept reminding us that the culture shock in meeting our immediate European neighbours might actually be worse than when going to Asia, reason being that going to Asia, everybody expects a completely different culture whereas just hopping over the border to France, Germans might expect nothing more than just a different language. Thank God, the French are different from the Germans :wink: Just imagine not having French movies, French cars (well, at least Formosa and I would miss them), French food and spirits, French authors, French music (any Patricia Kaas lovers out there?), French perfumes, French fashion - feel free to complete the list.

As to living in France: When I was younger, I always imagined that I would find a French husband and have two or three bilingual and incredibly cute French daughters who would grow up to embody that inimitable French Chic :?

Iris