(Chirac on american food) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/449715.stm French President Jacques Chirac has given verbal support to farmers who wrecked a new McDonald's hamburger restaurant being built in south-west France. "It would be in nobody's interests to allow one single power, albeit a respectable and friendly one, to rule undivided over the planet's food markets." **************** (Chirac on british food) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4651109.stm Jacques Chirac joked with German and Russian leaders: "One cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad." Mr Chirac's comments were reported in French newspaper Liberation after several journalists overheard his jokes with Gerhard Schroeder and Vladimir Putin. The remark was reportedly made to the Russian and German leaders "The only thing they have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease," Mr Chirac said, according to the newspaper's report. "After Finland, it is the country with the worst food." ************ (Chirac on the english language)) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3734512.stm Outburst in Vietnam But at no point was the press more surprised with Mr Chirac than on 8 October, in Hanoi, when he attended a question-and-answer session with Vietnamese students. "Hoping to convince his audience of the need to defend their cultural uniqueness, Jacques Chirac gave in to his little weakness: lambasting US omnipotence," commented Le Figaro. Chirac in Shanghai: "France is a natural partner for China" Mr Chirac "delivered a diatribe against the United States, which he accused outright of wanting to impose 'an overall sub-culture throughout the world'", wrote Liberation. The papers seemed bemused and unimpressed by Mr Chirac's pronouncements on American cultural hegemony. The centre-right daily Le Monde described the event as "one generality after another, in a stiff atmosphere". "Was Jacques Chirac really awake?" the paper asked, noting his fumbling with cue-cards and that at one point he "comes close to overheating and casts his cue-cards to the wind - not necessarily a great idea". Franco-US tensions Mr Chirac had two main points. The first was to defend cultural diversity against domination by any one language, and thus promote French. "French is a useful language in economic terms," Liberation quoted him as saying. "Nothing would be worse for humanity than if there were only one language. That would narrow down thought," he said. The second point was that all cultural media - cinema, books, the arts - were threatened. "There is a tendency towards a prevailing Anglo-Saxon culture which eclipses the others. If we accepted our American friends' ideas, there would quite quickly be only one form of cultural expression, and all the others would be stifled to the sole benefit of American culture," he said, quoted by Liberation. Le Figaro was sceptical of Mr Chirac defence of subsidies for cultural exports - a source of friction with the United States in the World Trade Organisation. He warned his Vietnamese audience that without special subsidies and help "you would only have American films on your screens". ************* Why is france so jealous of our food, and language. Scared of mcdonalds? Is the french identity in this world so weak, in this world, that they need constantly to attack the UK & America all the time, just to draw attention to there pathetic country. Have you ever been in a french restaurant, you get 99% vegetables, and a meat portion the size of a pea, and then all its drowned in a bottle of salad dressing, to disguise the taste, and then you get the bill between 100 to 200 dollars for this feast.
I seriously doubt France if jealous of McDonald's. Perhaps they just don't like thier burgers floating in grease. Though the French language is not as impressive as other languages. German is a far more beautiful language but I don't see why anyone would be jealous of the English language. The old English maybe but not the American slang version.
Thats for date rape, i take it thats your field of expertise brian. Someone has already raped your brain brian.
Have you ever been in an english restaurant? No, of course... there's none! (at least in foreign countries)
hell there must be over a thousand in thailand alone, i should know i live here, there is about 3 french ones. Thailand is mad about uk football and food. frogs legs say no more, i rest my case.
They must have strange habits in Thailand! Anyway, I'll check if there are some in Spain... even if I could bet there's none! Great for you : you will be free to blame France and the French for all your weakness/problems during one week! :m:
Personally, I think Chirac is upset because the French like foods like MacDonald's! As far as I know, MacD's is doing very well in France ...that's gotta' piss ol' Chirac off a little bit, don't you know? Baron Max
Yes there is hundreds of brit restaurants in spain too. Why is chirac such a wanker he lost france the olympics by 2 votes, those being the fins votes, after calling finlands food the worst on the planet. the garbage coming out of chiracs mouth is unreal, he speaks fluent english yet on camera, he speaks only french, off camera he reverts back to english. During the france olympic bid he pitched it in french, even the russian president pitched his bid in english. This country is terrified of losing there language, or national identity to such a degree they wont drop there guard for a 5 minute interview. When chirac talks to tony blair in private, blair has to speak french he is fluent in it, and chirac speaks in english, to balance it out, how pathetic. the french language is dead, the only people who dont know it are the french.
umm doesnt your country have a "use its own products" scheme like buy australian. Why the hell would ANY country want to send its money straight over to another country???? thats just not an economically sound practice
Good, I hope we get rid of all McDonalds. That stuff is just nasty heart attack food. If they're gonna serve some burger and fries, at least let em be real BBQ ones then I'll be all for it. We need some Texan BBQ cooks over in France, not stinkin McDonalds. Or better yet, skip the BBQ and open up a Baja Fresh over there. Mmm, Mexican.. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! - N
Oddly enough, the reason there's hundreds of british restaurants in Spain is because of the tens of thousands of Britons who like the UK so much they want to live in Spain instead. Then they complain about the food, and the end result is lots of "british" restaurants opening up to serve them food.
Yes thats the great thing about being english, you can travel the world teaching english, japan, s.korea. taiwan, thailand, etc because the english language is always in demand, unlike the dead french or nazi language.
