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The hatred continues...
Mar. 28th, 2003 02:14 pm...and I grow confused.
I walk across the street today to get some lunch at a different sandwich place and thus debate the relative merits of a $6.75 roast beef and a $4.95 baked haddock. (I work in Back Bay.) On the sidewalk are four or five people gearing up for a protest; all are dark-brown skinned and snappily dressed. I peer at the banner on which a man is putting the finishing touches, and see that it says, "Chirac Supports Terrorism."
I sigh, shake my head, and feel at least relieved that this apparent pro-war anti-France rally is small. Soon outside the sandwich shop a few more people join with crudely handwritten signs and leaflets, shouting, "France is the weakest country in the world! The weakest!" and "No more French wine! No more French cheese!" (You're talking to the wrong girl, folks.)
Then I see that the signs are about French imperialism in Cote d'Ivoire.
It is here that I become paralyzed. I am all for a protest against imperialism, and for the Europeans to get out of Africa. I don't know much about the Ivory Coast in particular, (though I've been doing a little Internet research as I write this) but I can guess that horrible things go on there just as they have been and continue to in other parts of the war-torn, post-colonial continent. [Edit: Essentially France is doing in the Ivory Coast what we're doing in Iraq--trying to impose peace using military force in order to protect their economic interests. Operation Unicorn?? By the way, has anyone heard anything about this in American media??]
I am very, very sad, however, that these no-doubt well-intentioned protesters have chosen to pitch their case in the ill-fitting parlance of Bushie France-haters.
Amid the horrors that have been coming one upon the other day by day, both abroad in this unjust war and domestically as our civil rights are stripped, nothing has given me quite so much pause (or made me want to move to Canada more) than the absurd reaction to France's intention to veto the second UN resolution. That the men and women who are supposed to represent me in this goddess-forsaken government would be able to pass a resolution changing the name of America's favorite heartattack snack makes me physically ill, and besides ridicules the entire idea of a boycott, seeing as French fries aren't even fucking French. I knew I was being ruled by idiots and warmongers; I was reasonably sure until that moment that they weren't all entirely insane.
So when a small group of African protestors in Boston propose a boycott on French products, and call Chirac's actions support of "terrorism," while calling attention to something terrible that Chirac really is doing...well, I feel disgusted.
What is the message here, anyway? "Hey Mr. Bush, you should be bombing France?" The same sentiment that hicks all across America had a few weeks ago in response to Chirac's brave stance against an unjust war? Why choose now to have this protest, when it will be lost in the shuffle of the peace movement? It can only be because they want to ride the coattails of anti-French sentiment.
But those who currently hate the French for their recent stance in the UN likely couldn't care less about what's going on in the Ivory Coast. And obviously, neither could Mr. Bush, terrorists or no terrorists. It is perhaps a clever tactic on these protestors' parts to try to raise awareness during this particular time. But the methodology is highly suspect, and the audience, likely, deaf.
Off do research this more. [Thanks, crap American media.]
I walk across the street today to get some lunch at a different sandwich place and thus debate the relative merits of a $6.75 roast beef and a $4.95 baked haddock. (I work in Back Bay.) On the sidewalk are four or five people gearing up for a protest; all are dark-brown skinned and snappily dressed. I peer at the banner on which a man is putting the finishing touches, and see that it says, "Chirac Supports Terrorism."
I sigh, shake my head, and feel at least relieved that this apparent pro-war anti-France rally is small. Soon outside the sandwich shop a few more people join with crudely handwritten signs and leaflets, shouting, "France is the weakest country in the world! The weakest!" and "No more French wine! No more French cheese!" (You're talking to the wrong girl, folks.)
Then I see that the signs are about French imperialism in Cote d'Ivoire.
It is here that I become paralyzed. I am all for a protest against imperialism, and for the Europeans to get out of Africa. I don't know much about the Ivory Coast in particular, (though I've been doing a little Internet research as I write this) but I can guess that horrible things go on there just as they have been and continue to in other parts of the war-torn, post-colonial continent. [Edit: Essentially France is doing in the Ivory Coast what we're doing in Iraq--trying to impose peace using military force in order to protect their economic interests. Operation Unicorn?? By the way, has anyone heard anything about this in American media??]
I am very, very sad, however, that these no-doubt well-intentioned protesters have chosen to pitch their case in the ill-fitting parlance of Bushie France-haters.
Amid the horrors that have been coming one upon the other day by day, both abroad in this unjust war and domestically as our civil rights are stripped, nothing has given me quite so much pause (or made me want to move to Canada more) than the absurd reaction to France's intention to veto the second UN resolution. That the men and women who are supposed to represent me in this goddess-forsaken government would be able to pass a resolution changing the name of America's favorite heartattack snack makes me physically ill, and besides ridicules the entire idea of a boycott, seeing as French fries aren't even fucking French. I knew I was being ruled by idiots and warmongers; I was reasonably sure until that moment that they weren't all entirely insane.
So when a small group of African protestors in Boston propose a boycott on French products, and call Chirac's actions support of "terrorism," while calling attention to something terrible that Chirac really is doing...well, I feel disgusted.
What is the message here, anyway? "Hey Mr. Bush, you should be bombing France?" The same sentiment that hicks all across America had a few weeks ago in response to Chirac's brave stance against an unjust war? Why choose now to have this protest, when it will be lost in the shuffle of the peace movement? It can only be because they want to ride the coattails of anti-French sentiment.
But those who currently hate the French for their recent stance in the UN likely couldn't care less about what's going on in the Ivory Coast. And obviously, neither could Mr. Bush, terrorists or no terrorists. It is perhaps a clever tactic on these protestors' parts to try to raise awareness during this particular time. But the methodology is highly suspect, and the audience, likely, deaf.
Off do research this more. [Thanks, crap American media.]
