Entente Cordiale- the Centenary approaches

[Dante]

Everything below here was taken from a newspaper article from 'The Independent,' Saturday 21st March's edition to be precise. Therefore everything expressed in the article is not my own words, though I do agree with a lot of it. I thought it... wise.

The hundred year bitch

Every morning, when you come to work in factory or office in France, you shake hands with everyone. The British believe this is peculiarly French. But it is the British who are responsible for the spread of handshaking, which they adopted from the Dutch, who used it to seal their business deals. The French aristocracy od the time did not want to touch social inferiors and used to bow instead. The British then began mocking the French formality and made handshaking a sign of equal respect. Flaubert's Madame Bovary "said goodbye in the english way" by holding out her hand. But when this "English" habit became widespread in France, the English promptly dropped it.

The French and the English have been exchanging stereotypes such as this across the Channel for centuries. Kissing is another example. Not so long ago it used to be a source of wonder in this country that the French kissed people so readily as a social greeting, although more recently the practice was adopted in some middle-class circles over here. But in Shakespeare's time what foreign visitors foudn extraordinary about England was that there was more social kissing here than in France and Italy put together, and it was often kissing on the mouth. The Victorian rejection of this habit is marked by a lawsuit in 1837, when a Mr Savernake sued a woman who had bitten off his nose when he tried to kiss her. The judge ruled that when a man kisses a woman against her will, she is entitled to take such drastic action. So social kissing moved to France. "French" kissing became the new secret British vice. And the French? They called it Italian kissing.

The moral of this is that it is time to stop attributing stereotypical and permanent characteristics to nations which constantly borrow ideas from one another, but never acknowledge it. How many of the French or British know what the Entente Cordiale is? This agreement, signed in April 1904 between the foreign ministers of Britain and france, put an end to the tension between the two countries which had been on the brink of war because of their colonial rivalries. Under the deal, France allowed Britain to dominate Egypt, while Britain agreed that France should be free to do whatever it wanted with Morocco. Since then the two countries, in conflict for so many centuries, have not taken up arms against each other. For that reason this limited agreement ought to be celebrated - as it will be, extensively, during the next month. But the Entente Cordiale has been far from cordiale over the years. The traditional animosities between the two nations have continued in varying forms and, since the Iraq war last year, we have sunk to almost the same state of mutual suspicion that existed 100 years ago.

Why? A poll in France, due to be published next week, asked: "Which country do you feel particularly close to?" Germany came top with 25 per cent and Britain bottom with seven per cent. There was also a recent poll in which British people were asked about their level of faith in various public institutions such as judges, the police, politicians - and nations. Just one third felt they could trust the French. After a century of Entente Cordiale we have not made much progress.

The fact that Britain and France have since fought on the same side in two world wars has not been enough to forge a deep friendship between the two nations. In contrast, France and Germany, who have fought against each other in three wars since 1870, have managed to forget their hatred. In the Second World War the French were, of course, divided in their attitude to the British. Some old sailors still cannot forgive the Royal Navy for destroying their fleet. But it goes deeper than that.

Over the past 50 years the French have put all their efforts into improving their relations with Germany rather than Britain. They have spent a lot of money to this end, and it has been fruitful in the sense that animosities have vanished, although it has not beena total success. The Germans have not become seriously interested in French (as opposed to American) culture, and have virtually stopped studying French at school.

We should learn from that, and aim for an entente between Britain and France that is even more ambitious. We need to go further; beyond the revoluation in thinking that occured in the 18th century, when the two countries inspired on another to open a new era in human relations, proclaiming equality for all, with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the writings of Tom Paine. The Enlightenment bequeathed to us the belief that superstition and prejudice were the main obstacles to clear thinking and that education and legislation were enough to liberate it. But now we see the world is still full of people too timid or polite to say what they think, or too conformist to think for themselves. We are schooled to be hypocrites and we all wear masks. The hidden thoughts in other people's heads are the great darkness that surrounds us.

Today we need a second Enlightenment to penetrate that darkness, to enable us to get to know what each individual thinks, rather than what each nation supposedly and collectively believes. The search for freedom of speech has barely begun. France and Britain each contain 60 million people, each of whom is a minority, and for each of whom the great challenge for the 21st century is how to achieve tranparency and honesty. We are no longer willing to allow governments of businesses to tell lies. Their credibility is collapsing. Our hunger today is for trust and mutual respect. We are already trying to establish trust in out private relationships,

[alchemi2]

Falklands-exocet missile-HMS sheffield  >:(

oh and Scotland really lost at rugby......... ;)

[Dante]

Point 1- Eh?

Point 2- Yes, I know. My sister was rather upset. Personally I don't give a damn.  ;D 

[Inoculator9]

I do, because Scotland should be winning at everything. Period.

[SpiceGuid]

let's be realistic.

you: still are in an island

we: still have Jacques Chirac

there is eventually one positive thing about Jacques Chirac:

he is popular in Algeria.

[otheymzefedaykin]

100 years !!!!!!!! Good ! Tommorow will be an english day in Canal+ channel ! The Queen is here ! And I speak (a very bad) english !

It makes good results !  ;)

[Dante]

Yes, the Queen is in France. I hope she gets on better with Chirac than Blair did...

On a side note, what does being an island have to do with anything? And why should Scotland win everything?

[EWS]

Unfortunatly Chirac broke the most important rule when dealing with the queen.  DO NOT TOUCH HER!!!

You might get rabies or something.......

[Dante]

You realise talk like that is still technically a hanging offence...

[EWS]

Yes i do....... may have to go into hiding.  Oh and dusty, if I could get MSN working I have a great quote for you!

[Dunenewt]

You were on msn today...

[otheymzefedaykin]

He just touch a few..... ;)

[Dante]

Eh?

While I'm here, the Centenary celebrations are quiet, but seem to be going quite well. Hopefully we can start getting along better now.

(Psst, France! If we sack Blair will you forgive us?)