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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (30924)	5/28/2005 3:20:47 AM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

OT - The true face of "France" - come to your own conclusions Asterix and Obelix do not want Polish plumbers in their village. They do not want Anglo-Saxons flying in on their cheap Ryanair tickets when Air France is floundering. They have had enough of those Brussels directives that tell them they cannot shoot little birds because the English have an obsession with animals. It is bad enough that Europe is now made up of 25 members, but adding Turkey, a Muslim country of 100 million, would be too much for many Frenchmen. In the Tuileries in Paris, mothers are watching their children bounce on trampolines. Annabel Roberts, a British journalist married to a Frenchman, says: "This referendum is about expansion. People here always thought they controlled Europe, but now they can't any more and they're frightened. The French only like being on the European train if they think they are in the driving seat." Romain Seitlinger, an investment banker sitting in a café, is more blunt. "Everyone used to go to state schools - it was what I liked about this country, the egalité. But how can I send my sons there when they are filled with children who don't speak French?" The waiter overhears our conversation. "I say yes, yes, yes - but no to Turkey," he says. "They do not respect our way of life." For many, the referendum is not about the constitution, it is about the way Europe has drifted. "We should never have allowed more than eight countries into Europe," says Robert Bobet, who runs a chain of bakeries in Paris. "It is not selfish to say we can't pay for Lithuania and Latvia." ................................................. Carole Myard, a beautician, explains: "Life is not worth living if you only get two weeks' holiday a year." Serge Saugues, a mechanic, agrees. "The Americans and British work like dogs. We need our evenings and our holidays to drink wine, see our women, watch the world." .................................................. But Arnaud Leparmentier, the European editor of Le Monde, says that this ploy has not worked. "This constitution is seen as a British plot: pro-America, pro-free markets and against the French way of life." ................................................. The No campaign in France never complains about bendy cucumbers, the banning of vitamin pills or the amount of bureaucrats wasting money in Brussels. They like bureaucrats, as long as they speak French and are not Polish. telegraph.co.uk