[personal profile] dream_labyrinth
The holidays turn out to be very interesting from a cultural viewpoint.
We went to see Richard Wagner's "Meistersinger" - 5 hours of quite good music and horrible, horrible libretto -he really should have left the writing of the text to somebody else.
But it was the first Wagner I saw and I must say he's much better than his reputation.

On New Year's Day we will see the "Amadeus" ballet, based on the musical based on the movie. I know the movie, so this is going to be interesting, and the ballet company is really good, so that's going to be a treat.

And today, between some political cabaret shows, I got to watch the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, which was hilarious. They represent a kind of humour that seems to be found only in the country of bad food and bad teeth*.

Speaking of humour, I got a good laugh out of Sarkozy lately. Okay so our last chancellor got himself an oil pipeline to have something to do once the chancelloring was over, but letting yourself get invited on holidays by people with a well-known interest in French politics and not even having the decency to at least try and cover it up takes a special kind of person.
It is said that every country gets the government they deserve. We have Angela, who might not look as good as Sarko on TV, but whom I still prefer any day.

Oh, and btw, Wikipedia says his full name is Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarköczy de Nagy-Bocsa. Nagy is a Hungarian name. And I never knew the French president was also co-prince of Andorra. That is weird.
*wikiwandering*
Did you know that Andorra was at war with Germany until 1957 because they were not included in the Versailles treaty? How weird is that?

Okay, I'm off to bed before I write more nonsense.

HUGE HUGS to [livejournal.com profile] martianmooncrab and [livejournal.com profile] quietselkie!! You rock!



* Okay, the bad food is prejudice, but you can spot Brits by their teeth. I don't know why.

Date: 2007-12-29 10:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jonthedull.livejournal.com
I had no idea Andorra was at war with Germany till '57. That's a nice bit of trivia. I wonder why it took so long for that technicality to be resolved? I guess all the diplomats had more important things to do.

Date: 2007-12-30 02:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foudebassan.livejournal.com
I'm more amazed at their being at war to begin with. I wasn't aware Andorra even had an army!

Date: 2007-12-30 04:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com
I doubt they do, but then again armies or any military isn't necessary to be at war.
I believe it was Tuvalu or some equally important country that joined Bush's coalition against Iraq by offering the Americans the use of their one airport. It had not significance whatsoever for the war, but it made them look good and get brownie points from the US government.

Date: 2007-12-30 08:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jonthedull.livejournal.com
That's a good point, I never thought of that.

Date: 2007-12-29 11:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foudebassan.livejournal.com
Well, technically we're still at war too - we're having a "cessez-le-feu" but no armistice was ever signed after 1945. I love that - who else can say they build a supranational entity while at war?

Sarkozy also got invited by the same guy right after he won the election, to stay on his yacht in the Mediterranean. And he's close friends with all the big media moghuls, which helped him get elected in the first place. *sigh*. I did petition you guys to send us Schröder when you were finished with him but you kept him instead so we're saddled with incompetents. So it's your fault, entirely your fault :p

Date: 2007-12-30 11:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com
Sure, the French always blame the Germans. No wonder we never got around to sign a peace treaty!

Trust me though, you don't really want Schröder. Who needs a person ridiculous enough to sue the media to make them keep quiet about the fact that he colours his hair? When it is blatantly obvious he does.
You got to see things positive: it must be very hard to bribe Sarko, he's used to such huge bribes that there must be only a handful of people able to pay them, which I suppose results in a stable course of action by the government.

Date: 2007-12-30 02:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foudebassan.livejournal.com
Well Sarko didn't sue the media when they did a story on how his then-wife ran away with another man, he just phoned his buddy who owns the newspaper and the journalist and editor both got fired. It's not only ridiculous, it's also pathetic and quite creepy too.

You got to see things positive: it must be very hard to bribe Sarko, he's used to such huge bribes that there must be only a handful of people able to pay them, which I suppose results in a stable course of action by the government.

That's what he'd like us to believe. It's widely know that Chirac was corrupt to the bone (he has secret bank accounts everywhere) so Sarko just openly gave himself a 170% salary increase first thing after getting elected. Niiiice, when the average worker's disposable income is decreasing.

Date: 2007-12-30 04:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com
The German parliament just gave itself a huge pay rise, but at least even though people feel things are getting worse, statistics actually show increasing incomes in general, so they are somewhat justified.

It's kind of pathetic to fire the journalist and the editor. His wife did run away and who can blame her, getting anybody fired won't change that fact. And how did he intend to explain her absence from public functions after they separated, he kept dragging his family around everywhere, people would have noticed she was gone sooner or later.

Date: 2007-12-30 04:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foudebassan.livejournal.com
I think he hoped she'd stay - after all being first lady does carry a bit of prestige on its own. But he's really, really talented at manipulating the press, their divorce wasn't perceived quite as badly as it ought to have been.

Date: 2007-12-30 05:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com
I know too little about her to guess whether she would have stayed on just for the sake of being first lady. But considering the fact that he had no trouble soothing his pain over the divorce with another woman, I don't think he was heartbroken. It's very hard to cover up that fact.

Then again, aren't the French famous for their affairs? ;-)

Date: 2007-12-30 05:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foudebassan.livejournal.com
Oh I'm sure that affair is 1% genuine feelings, 4% opportunism and 95% mediatic plan to cover up his failures on the diplomatic stage. And what's worse everyone is falling for it and talking about his sex-life more than about his work as President.

*gagging noise*

Date: 2007-12-30 05:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com
I wonder why that is. Schröder had four wives, and that was generally seen as a sign of his great people skills, even though the CDU had a campaign saying three women couldn't possibly be wrong - he was the wrong man.
If Merkel had used up four husbands, I wonder what the media would have to say about that.

Date: 2007-12-30 06:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foudebassan.livejournal.com
Up to now most of our presidents had lots of affairs - it got known about Giscard because he had a mild car accident when driving home alone at 4 am with his mistress' car. Mitterrand had a long-time mistress and a hidden daughter, the first time they had their official picture taken was at his funeral when his wife invited them to mourn with her. Chirac is widely known as "three minutes, shower included" because he apparently has a premature ejaculation problem and so many women he couldn't keep it a secret. But until now it was all gossip that everyone knew but no one talked about openly - no articles, no pictures, nothing, at most a couple of paragraphs in some biography or other. Sarkozy is all about doing things that have always been going on in the shadows in the open - his divorce, his affair, his pay increase, etc. I find it sordid - there are things that really don't belong out there, that are only worth knowing about when they're semi-private. This makes him look like some Britney Spears celebrity with his every move on camera: where is France's dignity in all this?

Date: 2007-12-30 07:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com
Undoubtedly, he markets it as a sign of his honesty, but I do agree that it looks like Britney Spears fighting for the headlines in the yellow press.

Personally, I think that what a politician does in his private life should remain private (as long as it isn't connected to corruption or any other behaviour that could damage the country he's supposed to be serving). I much rather have a politician who, when it is discovered that he has a mistress, tells the press it's none of their concern than one who tells everyone and their grandmother before they even asked about it.
It does look like trying to turn the attention away from his actual work record.

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