The Trouble with France is......

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After picking on the USA for a while, I thought that we should give France a go. Why not?

Here is President Sarkozy:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axDyUNWyuw8&feature=related[/youtube]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axDyUNWy ... re=related

About 30 seconds into the clip, while Mr. Presidient is going into a crowd to shake hands, an old man says "Oh, no, don't you touch me!" To which the President replies "Casse-toi alors" (which means "Get Lost!"), and follows up with "Casse-toi pauvre con"

Oy....There is an interesting article i've read about Sarkozy (maybe it's still there as well... <.< lemme check... (ofc it's in french ~))

Bleh, can't find it... Oh well, it was written by someone i find very insightful regarding world politics and who does research in political science department of UdeM (where i currently am~), he was mentionning that although Sarko is a right-wing, that he is rather progressive, which is why the left can't seem to attack him.

Admittedly he does passes off as a buffoon from time to time (like that one time he said he'd go rescue Ingrid Betancour in the Colombian jungle, and we all had this image of him ala Rambo ^^; it was finally the Colombian army (with US support...) that saved her during Operation Jaque o.O Poor guy wasn't even AWARE of the whole operation until later after she was freed! He does quite a few other political faux-pas as well :p), but sometimes he does say remarkably brilliant things (as being one of the first in the western world to be indignated about the failings and the huge bonuses of the financial sector)

For the record, "pauvre con" is pretty close to "dumbass" in context and comparison.

Oh yesh, i should also mention that apparently, his ex-wife was rumored to be cheating on him while he was in office. :^P He thus remarried with an ex-model and singer Carla Bruni. <.<

Other than that, the "media" part of his wiki is bound to entertain you. ^^

I could just see this guy casually going around saying bonjour to everyone while telling the other guys to f**k off as he shakes hands.

Well, what would you have done in his stead? o.O

France has everything to teach, and nothing to learn.
American has nothing to teach and everything to learn.
As soon as les Ameriques (nope, je ne pas parlez francais... comprehend this, they will find the French the warmests of compantions...

Some of us also didn't like how he was being all friendly towards mister Bush during the time he was in office. =.= (oh and for future reference pakled, it's "je ne parle pas français" (the ç is pronounced like a "ss"))

Speaking as an Englishman who has lived in France for the last five years. I can say that one of the biggest problems with France is bureaucracy. The French are a nation of pen-pushers. They love paperwork. Everyone is drowning in piles of documents and paying huge amounts in taxes to employ people to generate more paperwork to pass on to other equally useless pen-pushers. It is a national preoccupation. Instead of having unemployment, France creates totally useless organisations to generate more and more documents.

This mass of bureaucracy is strangling the country from doing anything new. Take for example business start-ups. If you want to set up a typical business in England you just get on with it. The English government has a handful of organisations geared to helping you succeed and giving you the right information. There are also various tax breaks etc.

If you want to start a business in France the bureaucrats are on you like a rash. You have to wade through a massive amount of restrictions and paperwork. They hit you with taxes/charges as though you are an established business - In France you can often end up paying more in taxes/charges than your business is earning! New businesses fail five times more often than in England due to the crippling taxes / social charges and bureaucracy.

On the plus side though. France does have nice baguettes, wine and cheese.

France has far more topless and nudist areas and is therefore better.

IIRC, that's only in the southern areas of France, côte d'Azur and the like.

Still, more than in Oxfordshire...

except, perhaps, how to not be a jerk to some guy who wants to shake hands.

let's face it: every nation still has a lot to learn. If a nation had nothing left to learn, it would not need a goverment, money, etc, etc. because those things only exist out of nescesity. If a people had nothing left to learn, they would not need to be governed because they would not do wrong. if a people had nothing left to learn, they would not need to be forced by an economic system to do whatever needed doing. And since I do not at this time believe humans are capable of such a utopia, I'm going to say that every nation will always have a lot left to learn.

Why not? Indeed. Because the French haven't done anything interesting since Waterloo other than complain about mispronunciation.

BTW, I am half French, so any jokes about the French by me are only half-racist.

I think it's more of national thing than a race thing.

A few years ago, many of us in the USA considered the French to be unpatriotic for not being a part of the "Coalition of the Willing" to participate in the invasion of Iraq. Some of us stopped eating French fries in protest, until someone came up with the idea of changing the name to "Freedom Fries." I think that some of us also started boycotting French wine, cheese, and perfumes. Especially those of us who never drank French wine, ate French cheese, or used French perfumes in the first place.

The French probably eat better than any other population in the world. But, they also smoke too much.