My Predicions about the Future of France

By Jamie Douglas

First about my lack of presence: Last week, I not only cracked my skull but in the following nosedive also appears to have broken my sternum, as is suitable for a man my age. After an unknown period of time I tried to sneak back into bed without disturbing Julie, which of course was impossible in my state. “Dog” knows what the dog thought, but had I been the dog, I would have laughed my ass off.

So some weeks ago I wrote a piece forecasting Sarkozy’s defeat as well as the EADS team having to re-engineer the entire wing assembly for the A-380 Super Jumbo Jet. It turns out that every single wing will have to be completely redesigned for all future models coming off the line. But also, every aircraft flying will have to be refitted with the redesigned wing. (I am not gloating at all here.) Whenever you introduce a new model, whether it be toothpaste or rockets (ask the North Koreans), you might encounter problems. So here is the exchange with the very nice lady who lives 9 km from France:

 

Thursday, March 22, 2012

French Turmoil and the Elections in Gaulle: A Reply to a Reader

By Jamie Douglas

At this very moment I am writing this, one of my favorite nations is under siege from a lone lunatic gunman while the elections are turning out to be quite a spectacle. So I opened my fan mail today, and found this very polite letter from a woman who lives a mere nine km from France.

Hello Jamie,

I have recently been given the access details to The Expatriate News and there have been fairly numerous articles from your good self about France, their upcoming elections, Airbus, the random shootings in Toulouse, adjusting to living in France, etc. Living in the Mendoza area in Argentina I am not exactly sure what your background and experience is relative to France because you are somewhat off base in some of your pronouncements which are covered quite nicely in the general press in France and Europe.

Are you French, have you ever lived in France, do you speak French? As one who grew up in French Canada speaking both French and English and has lived within 9 kilometres of France for the last 25 years, it seems odd that you focus many of your articles (at least the ones I have seen so far) on France when you live in South America.

Why not tell us more about the delights of Argentina in particular and South America in general rather than trying to "teach grandma how to suck eggs" when it comes to France? Incidentally, and despite your advice to the contrary, Sarkosy will retain his Presidency and the problems of Airbus are not like you represent at all!

Bonne journée!

Dear Reader,

Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment, and for being a reader of the Expat Daily News. I will try to address your concerns

First, let me give you my qualifications to write about the subjects that I write about. I am an aerospace engineer and world traveler, having investigated more than 40 major commercial aircraft accidents word wide and accumulated over 6000 hours in multiengine jet aircraft from Learjets to the giant C5A/B. I lived in France for many years, having been born just a stone’s throw from the border in La Suisse Romande, and spent years going to school in France. I therefore feel somewhat qualified to write about the current goings on there. We may disagree on the political side, as you may feel closer to the current president, Nicolas Sarkozy, than I do. I personally feel that he has let all of the people of France down by taking the passenger seat in Angela Merkel’s grand plans.

It has also become quite painfully obvious that he did accept 50 million €uros from Mr. Ghadaffi to pay for his election. But enough of that! I doubt that short of an inquisition Sarkozy’s supporters will ignore any evidence to the contrary.

Now about the shootings in Toulouse, which also happens to be the French home of EADS, the parent company of Airbus, and why I, sitting here in South America would be writing about that. You have to agree that that is kind of a silly question. In the age of instant electronic communications via computer, I could write the same stories from Tonga or Antarctica. I write about things that affect all of us. And the brutal murders of the victims at a Jewish school affect me as much as the horrific accident in that tunnel in Switzerland last week. So I write about them.

I do write quite a bit about Argentina over on our sister site, Expat Daily News Latin America. (In fact, just today, my editor asked me to lay off Argentina.) I wish I could write more about the “delights” of this amazing country, but if you go back into the archives on that site, you will find that this is not always possible, these days. I am most aware of what is going on here and read the official Gazette every day. I sense that I am a witness to the next downfall of this charming country, which has never learned from its unfortunate history. As far as countries in Latin America, I once again invite you to look around the Expat Daily News Latin America website, where you will find a great deal of information.

I politely agree to disagree with you on the subject of President Sarkozy, not just based on polls, but because I read articles in the French press, as well as the rest of the world. Before I write my daily articles, I spend hours reading publications from around the globe, as well as being in contact with journalists.

But perhaps you could enlighten me and the Airbus engineers in France, Germany, and England what the problems with the wings on the A-380 really are. I am sure they would love to have grandma teach them how to create new alloys that will not crack under normal flight conditions.

Again, I want to thank you for taking the time to write to me in such an educated and civilized fashion. Vive La France!

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

The following is the prequel to the above conversation.

My predictions have of course come true. The French people have made themselves a “comfortable” socialist bed, though it may be made of straw and all those poor and underprivileged immigrants will end up sucking up the wealth and peace of the state. This however is the karmic adjustments of the “boot in the ass, nigger” (my apologies to all my friends of color) colonialism. Yes, it is a bitter fact that the industrial revolution would have turned out differently without slavery and the stealing of continents and their natural resources, which of course include the millions of slaves.

Jamie Douglas,
Argentina

[image: French President Elect François Hollande, via Wikipedia]