Sarkozy and Obama have in common an absent father. Sarkozy maternal grandfather is a greek christian-converted jew, likely knowing what was the fate of greek jews during WW2 he cant but have some missing relatives. His father is/was a hungarian impoverished aristocrat. The time to bet 3 sons, and he left his wife to deal with the kids. Sarkozy did not travel as much as Obama, but if O. had it hard being of mixed ethnicity, being not rich and looked down as half jewish by the true-born french aristocrats must not have been fun at all. In the US we have no idea of what it means , but for any european whose country still hosts aristocraty and gentry not being full blown aristocrat, being the son of divorced parents, being well not plump in the pocket…you get the picture. Those people make you feel IT that you are not one of them…mind you they are decent enough for those of us who are simply bourgeois that is until we discuss casts but again this is something you would not know
sarkozy has had an unpleasant chilhood thanks to people holding up their nose like villepin and chirac wife, humiliations he knows and he is a survivor. he has ambitions and he has been in politics climbing up since he was a teenager, yes as early as that. No easy marriage life, not easy climb, and a tendency to say what he really thi ks or a way to express his real opinion showing, he has gt a few enemies, but standing nonsense and fiddling he will not stand; obama is bound to discover little Nicolas is not a man to play with soon enough

Some of the most interesting points are made while in France, where the citizens enjoy free higher education, free health care, 35-hour work weeks, and government issued nannies (2 four-hour sessions per week of home help for mothers of newborns). One of the Americans living now in France points out, “the people in France get all this because here the government is afraid of the people, while in the States the people are afraid of the government.”

Your readers may be interested in the following video at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_YHALnLV9XU Professor Piron was a translator with the United Nations in Geneva.

A glimpse of Esperanto can be seen at http://www.lernu.net

In a perfect world, there really should be a uniform language for international negotiations, but the true art of diplomacy – both language and etiquette – belongs to a time before we were introduced to such terms as superpower, WMD’s and suicide bombers.

Having grown up overseas, I could not agree with you more about your understanding of geography. I’ve never been to Iraq, but, in 1991, I was literally at the receiving end of an Iraqi scud missile, which landed less than 30 meters from my home. I’ve tried to explain this to my American friends in terms they can understand, but as you point out, it doesn’t really work.

Par le vous français monsieur bambi?

I still cannot get over Obama holding critical information in his vest pocket…Wow.

Frenchnail, very informative – thank you! And funny, too – well done!

Seriously, very interesting abt the use of French in diplomatic situations. I really do know only a little – Spanish, Greek, and Latin were the languages I studied years ago. But I do love the language – so beautiful. I can easily see why it would have been the language of choice for diplomacy with all of its nuances…

C’est dans les vieilles marmites… I like them young said Polanski.

C’est le ton qui fait la chanson….Tea Parties goers are right-wing racists.

Ce que femme…. Happy wife, happy life

Comme on fait son lit… Elections do have consequences

The built-in nuances and intricacies of the French Language do help a lot at it. Up until the 20th centuries all international negotiations were conducted in French. You could not be a diplomat from anywhere without being absolutely fluent in French. Nowadays, even if it not the rule anymore, the native practice of the French language forms one’s mind in ways inaccessible to other nationals.

And if there is another thing the French are really good at is travelling and geography. So they understand perfectly well that unlike the Americans they are not protected by the natural barrier of an ocean from an Iranian nation on the war path. And they know quite well too, that Russia is waiting on the fist occasion possible to reoccupy its previous satellite nations. And that Russia is merely a day drive from Paris and even closer by missiles.

Imagine leaving in New York and looking at Illinois with fear (Ok not such a great exemple ).

C’est le ton qui fait la chanson.

Ce que femme veut, Dieu le veut.

Comme on fait son lit on se couche.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/French_proverbs

Signed,

The French