|
|
|
Click here to keep up with Galen's Speaking Schedule
Looking for a back issue of Mullings? They're in the
Archives
Click here
to join the Mullings Movement!
A Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On
Monday June 2, 2003
The first installment of the new Paris Travelogue is available by clicking here to get to the Secret Decoder Ring page today.
When President Bush met with the other leaders of the eight major economic powers in Evian, France yesterday, all eyes were on The Handshake. Terrance Hunt of the Associated Press reported it thus: "They greeted each other with polite smiles, a brief handshake and small talk before walking into a luncheon..."
David Sanger, writing in the New York Times, described the moment as a "pro forma handshake and chitchat with President Jacques Chirac."
Eric Pfanner's International Herald Tribune (which will be THE source on the G-8 meeting for Americans throughout Europe) piece had it: "Chirac greeted [Bush] with a handshake. Bush briefly put his arm on the French president's back, then withdrew it."
The BBC was ebullient about the whole thing saying Mr. Chirac "greeted Mr. Bush with a handshake and a smile on his arrival."
The London Times sent three reporters to Evian who jointly wrote that, "M Chirac greeted Mr. Bush with a short handshake and a forced smile, a markedly cooler welcome than he gave other leaders."
Compare and contrast that report with one from the London Independent in which reporter Rupert Cornwell led: "With smiles and a firm handshake, George Bush and Jacques Chirac set about repairing Franco-US relations yesterday." It must be noted that Mr. Cornwell was writing from Washington and so might not have caught every last bit of nuance.
All right, enough about The Handshake. The fact is Jacques Chirac is trying to tough it out of the hole he has put his country in by his pre-war Anti-American shenanigans and the world-wide economic downturn.
Over the weekend, there was no shock in the Galen hotel room when I read that France now sports a budget deficit which is well above the limit allowed by European Union rules and are likely to grow over the next two or three years.
However, when I read that the French unemployment rate has skyrocketed to 9.3% I may have uttered a major oath - something in the "Oh, my" neighborhood.
An absolutely unscientific study of high-end shops in Paris drew a nearly unanimous sigh from the sales staffs who reported that few Americans are coming in to their stores, and those that do come in are not buying much, if anything at all.
This is being blamed on Americans not wanting to spend any more in France than absolutely necessary plus the huge jump in the exchange rate between Euros and Dollars. A Euro now costs $1.18 - which is the equivalent of paying about a 20 percent premium for the privilege of buying something we don't need from a country we don't like.
The flights to Paris and back were filled to capacity, but that was likely a function of a major reduction in the number of flights available, and the fact that the airport in Paris is a key transfer point for onward travel. As proof, when we got off the flight in Paris only a handful of us lined up in front of Immigration Control. The vast majority of passengers went to catch another flight.
All that to say, that M Chirac's troubles at home are growing. Yet another series of major strikes are scheduled to begin tomorrow which will weaken the French economy even further.
It is time for Chirac to admit that his vision (what he calls his "multipolar vision of the world") of a French/German-led economic, military, social, and political bloc to offset current US power is not working and, for the near-term and mid-term is not going to work.
He would do his country - and the entire European Union - a favor if he swallowed his Gallic pride and tried to cooperate with President Bush rather than continuing this fiction that parity exists between the two nations.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link
to the Paris Travelogue, a list the eight countries which make up the "G-8," a pretty good Mullfoto, and the origins of the title.
--END --
Copyright © 2003 Richard A. Galen
Current Issue |
Secret Decoder
Ring | Past
Issues | Email
Rich | Rich
Who?
Copyright �2002 Richard
A. Galen | Site design by Campaign
Solutions. | |
|
� 
