Please, stop the clichés !

By Mathieu D.

Last month, the Washington Post published an article entitled "For French, U.S. Health Debate Hard To Imagine". Indeed, it’s true that from a purely French perspective, this American debate can seem "altogether surreal," as the newspaper Le Monde commented. The most surreal, in my mind, is not the debate itself, but its extremism. I went to the Tea Party on September 12, and I was horrified by the comparisons made between Obama and dictators such as Staline or Mussolini - something impossible in my country, even if we also love freedom of speech - that could be a topic for another post.

But what struck me in this article was how France was depicted and I have to say, I was really disappointed to read so much clichés in an article from the Washington Post. Of course, articles about the US in French newspapers are not always good either, so that's why I think it’s interesting to think about our ethnocentrism.

The article started by a reference to the "olive trees in the hills above Marseille," which was followed by a critic of the French health-care bureaucracy, "so extensive and intricate that it has inspired urban legends." Really? I would love to hear some of these legends. I mean, of course, French bureaucracy is well-known, and criticized, but I don’t think that the health-care system is the most representative for this case.

I think the journalist also made a mistake, by saying that "chief among (the steps made by the government) was a steep reduction in reimbursements for routine care, such as visits to a doctor, from the long-standing 80 percent to about 65 percent." Not exaclty. Reimbursement rates changed, but if I remember correctly, visits to a doctor are still reimbursed at 70%, even if deductibles went up.

The funniest thing was this sentence : "Despite their reputation for guzzling red wine and eating fatty cheese, French people have for years enjoyed a longer life expectancy than their counterparts in the United States, currently at 80.98 years compared with 78.11." Guzzling red wine and eating fatty chesse? Are you kidding me? Why such a bad cliché in what could be a very interesting article?

And then, two weeks ago, the Washington Post published another article about France, focusing on a riot, led by some anarchists, which occured in the city of Poitiers. First, I have to say that I love the map included in the article, where the name of the town is misspelled -- Poiters instead of Poitiers.

"The wanton destruction, which lasted for about 90 minutes early Saturday evening," said the journalist, "was a dramatic reminder that France and other European nations, below their surface of stability and wealth, harbor tiny bands of ultra-leftist activists who still want to combat the market economies and parliamentary democracies on which the continent's well-being is founded." Scary, and somewhat excessive. Yes, some people in Europe are criticizing capitalism, but most are part of the democratic debate: discussing the interest of market economies does not mean that you are crazy.

I still don’t understand why the Washington Post chose to run this national story, and focused on this ultra-left threat which is, in my mind, a really marginal phenomenon.

To end this with something funnier, if you want to see a lot of clichés about France, you should definitely watch ABC every Sunday night at 10pm. Since last week, a French actor - Gilles Marini - is playing in the TV show Brothers and Sisters. Look at these two videos : I’m living in the French countryside, and I have NEVER seen an artist like that, living in an old farm. And Carla Bruni in background music (first video)? American screenwriters should learn that she is not the only French singer !