2007 French Presidential Election

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#1 Post by **PyTom** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:07 pm

Did anyone see:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ ... 421a9.html

in which one of the two finalists to replace the French President came out as anti-manga? (It appears that neither has commented on VNs.)

F.I.A · #2 Post by **F.I.A** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 12:17 am

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/anime

That is pretty much the stereotype found against manga and animation. But I am more curious in what mangas Aso favors. I will assume that something like Volvo13, but since he mentioned "girls", it can be vast.

"Obese guys with slicked-down topknots"? Do they even know that sumos are highly respected in Japan and even got more love than otakus?

The reason why VNs are not mentioned is probably the same... they never dwell deeper and just give an ignorant comment.

Still, interesting read though.

monele · #3 Post by **monele** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:42 am

Okay, I suppose I have to give an insider comment here

First, my very personal opinion : this election is a sad one. I expected some changes (well "hoped for") and it could have actually worked since the centrist, François Bayrou, ended up with 1/5th of the voices. Not enough to reach the "final" though.
My view of the three top candidates :
- Nicolas Sarkozy (rightist). Supposedly the spiritual child of Jacques Chirac. I don't see how, really. He was interesting at first because of his "no-bullshit" view on internal security (against thugs violences and such). He just said things how they were and it looked like life could get a lot more secure with him. Sadly, he slowly added a racist and totalitarian undertone to his speeches. He has also been very verbally violent with other politicians and pretty much started acting like a spoiled child "You're not going to stop me in my tracks, you fucker!".
I wanted to go for him at first... but what he became definitely scared me away. Right now, I'm very scared that he *will* get the presidence.

- Ségolène Royal (socialist/leftist) : she might be the very first female president here ô_o... which would be cool... except if she makes a poor job of it :/. Her main problem is her lack of punch. She's very very soft and utopist. Everything she says, you can only agree with... except she almost never says *how* she plans to deal with the problems... just that they have to be solved. That much is obvious ^^;...
So yeah, she's a real mystery. If she *can* back up all her words, she will be really great... otherwise, it'll be a big disaster.

- François Bayrou (centrist) : he wants to add a new alternative to the usual leftist-rightist fight. He seemed rather courteous (not insulting other candidates and going "Haa-haa!") and filled with common sense. Hence my choice.

Anyway, Sarkozy was first, Royal second and Bayrou third. At least, our extreme rightist (against immigration and stuff) was fourth this time, instead of second.

And now... I am to choose between either a sumo-hater and a manga-hater? Whyyy?

... They're just so.... so french ;o;...

Oh, and the reason they don't mention VNs? o_O... That's because no one knows about them guys ^^;... I'm already impressed that we are 2 or 3 french, english-talking, VN making, people around here o_O;...

mokenju1 · #4 Post by **mokenju1** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:12 am

Well, I think I have some bad news and some god news for you about Ségolène, Monele.

The bad one is that our "beloved" president Zapatero had a similar discourse and now that he is in charge he still thinks that his weird smile and some good intentions are all that is needed to be a good ruler. What he is doing with the Basque problem is stupid and disgusting and the next french goverment shoud be interested in what Zapatero is going to promise the terrorists, because they have stated that they also want a part of the south of France where Basque people lives.

The good one is that everytime Zapatero has officially supported a politic before the elections, that politic has never won. I wonder if he has ever taken in consideration that when the other candidate wins isn't like he/she is going to have a very friendly disposition towards someone who has supported her/his rival

.

monele · #5 Post by **monele** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 2:07 pm

Ugyuh

... It's really terrible. I always thought of elections as "lesser of the devils" choices... but here, oh god ô_o... I never thought I'd have to do such a choice...
Of course, there's the third choice : not voting or voting blank. Not that it will change anything, really, since voting blank isn't even taken into account as saying "none of these, dude!" :/... So it's probably better to at least pick one... the less worse... the worthless?... haha... pun.... guh... *hangs self*

#6 Post by **PyTom** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 2:37 pm

I say when in doubt, vote for the guy (or girl) who will lower your taxes. You can then use the proceeds to keep yourself entertained until the next election.

At least, if they don't ban manga.

On a more serious note, does France have an equivalent to the bill of rights and the supreme court? That is, a set of immutable laws that protect the people from the government, and a branch of the government that can enforce them on the executive?

#7 Post by **Blue Lemma** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:14 pm

I wish people would learn that manga and anime are media, not genres >_< It's like saying films are pornographic just because _some_ of them are.

But I guess that's preaching to the choir

monele · #8 Post by **monele** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:18 pm

I have no idea ô_o... The Constitution seems like the biggest thing in the law... but it *can* be changed by a government ^^;...

Jake · #9 Post by **Jake** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:19 pm

PyTom wrote:I say when in doubt, vote for the guy (or girl) who will lower your taxes. You can then use the proceeds to keep yourself entertained until the next election.

I don't know... certainly in UK politics, if you can't decide one of the main three parties (traditionally broadly 'socialist', 'conservative' and 'left-of-centre-liberal') to deserve your vote you haven't got a chance of working out which one's most likely to actually lower your taxes. And these days all three of them will happily tell you they will.

monele · #10 Post by **monele** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:29 pm

Oh, and honestly, I don't need them to lower my taxes... I want them to solve problems

... if they need taxes for that, so be it...

miriam · #11 Post by **miriam** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:05 pm

Maybe the socialist woman, Ségolène Royal, doesn't want to mention that how she would achieve her ends is partly to raise taxes. Sweden, which has had pretty-much the highest standard of living in the world for many decades, no poverty, universal healthcare, and an incredibly balanced society, also has about the highest tax-rate in the world... with good reason. That's what pays for such a brilliantly peaceful and well-off society.

Unfortunately, these days, all around the world there has been increasing focus on lowering taxes. It is kind of understandable considering the absolute morons we tend to get in Australian politics -- handing them more money and power is like a recipe for major disaster.

Our current prime minister is a racist homophobe who lives in a fantasy of the 1950s being the greatest time of all, and that we should return to that period where children were seen and not heard and violently disciplined, that a woman's place is in the kitchen, that double standards are a great way to run a society, that money is the best thing in life, and if you have the military power to destroy your opponent then that's all the "truth" you need.

fun...

Raikiri · #12 Post by **Raikiri** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 7:04 am

miriam wrote:Maybe the socialist woman, Ségolène Royal, doesn't want to mention that how she would achieve her ends is partly to raise taxes. Sweden, which has had pretty-much the highest standard of living in the world for many decades, no poverty, universal healthcare, and an incredibly balanced society, also has about the highest tax-rate in the world... with good reason. That's what pays for such a brilliantly peaceful and well-off society.

Unfortunately, these days, all around the world there has been increasing focus on lowering taxes. <snip>

Unfortunately, indeed. Now that the alliance of right-wing parties won the elections 2006, the taxes for the rich have been lowered on the cost of welfare - especially for unemployed young adults under the age of 26, a pretty large group in modern-day Sweden. There was even some talk about letting employers fire said young adults for any - or no - reason at all in order to create "more jobs" for said people. I think they scrapped that, though.

Though as much as I dislike the way this country is heading right now, I'm fairly sure that it won't head that way for long. Now that they've pretty much broken their promises about lower taxes for everybody - a large part of the Moderate's Party's (the largest party of the bunch, and the most right-wing) election propaganda relied on that they called themselves the "new worker's party" - the masses won't have much reason to support them anymore.

There is still the matter of nazis and racists gaining more and more support, but if I were to wander into THAT territory, I could go on forever.

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2007 French Presidential Election

2007 French Presidential Election

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