It’s a bad day for Jacques Chirac. Not only is he the butt of jokes for every late-night comedian in American, but he has to beg those arrogant Anglo-Saxons for a phone call to Bush.
Before the call could be arranged, Jean-David Levitte, the French ambassador to Washington, had to lobby Karl Rove, Mr Bush’s chief political strategist, and Stephen Hadley, the deputy national security adviser, at the White House.
Final American agreement to the call was secured only after discussions on Monday between Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, and Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister.
I can’t imagine a very warm reception for Chirac.
The anger towards France is deeper and more pervasive. French firms have suffered a loss of income from cancelled American orders and officials argue that the successful French attempt to scupper a second United Nations resolution extended far beyond M Chirac.
What the French have consistent failed to realize is that the US represents the world’s largest market and we’re not ones to easily forget shoddy treatment. While American tourists might put up with snotty French waiters in Paris, we’re not going to forget the shameful grandstanding of Dominique de Villepin on the floor of the UN Security Council. Even if there are no formal repercussions, the ire of the American street is more than enough to sink the French economy even more. Many people are switching from French wines to (equally good) Australian and Italian wines. People are voluntarily boycotting French products in protest of French actions.
This is more than just the symbolism of renaming "french fries" to "freedom fries." Come tourist season, it may be a real slap in the face to the Chirac government when the "arrogant Americans" decide to take their money elsewhere.
As Ellen Goodman pointed out in her column a few days ago, the geniuses waging their “boycott” of all things French are actually more likely to bankrupt California vineyards and Colombian coffee growers than they are the French. Also keep in mind that it was the US’s insistence on provoking a Middle Eastern war, that would benefit nobody except the US (and the jury’s definitely still out on that), that prompted the rotten foreign relations we’re seeing today. It just shows how narrow-minded Americans are when we fail to accept any responsibility for the bitter global relations that we created with this war. Whatever short-term gain you feel you are making by dividing the civilized world will be offset by the consequences if the massive European market responds in kind to the infantile boycotts the US is waging against them.
Hello again,
Way to go Jay!!Boycott french products if you want. Just drink processed carbonated wine instead of french champagne, and tasteless cheeses if you want.
just in case you didn’t knew it, the world is a larger market than the US only, and today, I think that if boycotting became global many countries would boycott american products, not french ones.
you guys should think twice before talking about boycott. American companies are sized for global distribution, which is mostly not the case of french companies: exports are just a bonus for us!!
Just a reminder: Mr de Villepin speach in the U.N was applauded (very rare)!
About “freedom fries”, as an american friend reminded me of: in the book “1984”, all governemental products are labelled :”freedom cheese”,”freedom shoes” and so on…what does that tell you huh?
Last but not least: a friend from GAC is spending a year in France this year: she loves it, and people are nice to her. Another good friend of mine is spending 3 months in Texas, and people are also very nice with him, talking, chatting, laughing…I think that franco-american hate is only in your dreams(and on Fox news which is probably the same show anyway). I still have contatcs with friends in the States myself, and let me tell you they’re don’t agree with the US government.(well maybe they just don’t have stocks as you do!)
I hoped you could sometimes have an open-minded view on world politic, but infortunately, you are sticking with far-right views!
Vik