Miquelon.org – The Fighting French

After six years of monitoring Anti-French activity in the media and the political arena, Miquelon.org has decided to create and organize the Annual [insert name here] Award. The [insert name here] Award will single out the accomplishments of a notorious French Basher or person engaged in Anti-French bias, rhetoric, actions or policy.

The [insert name here] Award Nomination Process – Anyone can nominate a meritorious recipient of the [insert name here] Award based on documented actions, statements written or spoken, legislation or policy. Once nominated, we at Miquelon.org will organize a fair voting process for the top five candidates. Public apologies by anyone nominated for [insert name here] Award will be disqualified from the process. Read the rest of this entry »

“In the years since our decision to go to war in Iraq, resisted by our old allies, there’s been a chauvinistic stupidity about the value of other countries.You know, the French fries, the freedom fries, the attacks on old Europe.”

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Donald Morrison’s premature report on the death of French Culture (Time Magazine) was dealt a wicked blow tonight at the Oscars. Marion Cotillard won for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role as chanteuse Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, and Philippe Pollet-Villard win for Best Live Action Short Film, Mozart des Pickpockets.

Let us paraphrase the oft-quoted and notorious French Basher Mark Twain: The report of our cultural death is an exaggeration.

No other national or ethnic group appears to get the same continually negative treatment in print media reserved for France and the French, with the possible exception of Arabs or Palestinians, and even there, the treatment is not so much cultural as political, linked to a specific context or event.If one were to substitute, for example, “Mexican” or “Japanese” or “Indian” for “French”, what would reader reaction be?”. – Edward C.Knox, The New York Times Looks at France, The French Review, N°6, Vol.75, May 2002