The "Frenchbashers" are right

First proposing speech

Dear debaters and readers, in these times of global crisis, almost all countries in the world are having trouble maintaining their welfare system. It seems, however, that France and its new lefty regime are sending the message that "everything is alright" to its population. We, the French people, are the first ones to be brainwashed by Hollande's government since the voices of the opposition are being silenced. Therefore, French bashing is a good alternative to balance this inequality of opinions which has been inflicted on us by mass media. (continues below.)

By LM

First opposing speech

Ladies and Gentlemen, what is Frenchbashing? If I were to defend the motion, I would say it is nothing but pure analysis. It is helpfully holding up the mirror and, above all, it is true, fact-based journalism. The popularity of this art indicates that its practitioners must take great pleasure in the self-righteous act of dismantling France in every possible aspect, which makes us, members of the opposition, want to participate in the “bashing trend”. (Continues below.)

By GT

First proposing speech

Dear debaters and readers, in these times of global crisis, almost all countries in the world are having trouble maintaining their welfare system. It seems, however, that France and its new lefty regime are sending the message that "everything is alright" to its population. We, the French people, are the first ones to be brainwashed by Hollande's government since the voices of the opposition are being silenced. Therefore, French bashing is a good alternative to balance this inequality of opinions which has been inflicted on us by mass media.

Contrarily to public belief, French bashing does have a solid foundation to sustain itself. If not, why is it that many intellectual leaders are leaving our beautiful country?

First of all, the widely known 75% tax on high salaries imposed by Hollande are causing the wealthy to go live abroad. Knowing that these people are the ones that make our country and its economy grow, it's necessary that we try to prevent them from leaving as much as possible. This is not what this new law is promoting. It is actually the very contrary. But, where does the collected money really go? Actually, it is spent on useless things such as free diapers, tax reductible nannies, free nurseries, paid maternities etc. (1) Having so much money spent on all of these futile matters is part of what is drowning the French economy.

As a matter of fact, the government is also not giving incentives to make people work and participate as they are financing huge unemployment pays for those in the private sector and paying for lazy public workers who cannot be fired. All these elements are provoking a whole generation of non-productive workers who prefer to spend their payoffs on holidays instead of engaging in the system.

Furthermore, France's situation also stems from a root problem: its educational system. As we all know, France's education is structured as a monolithical block in which there's only one way to ascend and in which people only have one way of thinking. This system creates people with no entrepreneurship who are bound to mediocrity as it is based on certain preconceived values that favour certain subjects over others, such as, for instance, maths and a self-praising history of France. This shapes professional profiles that are only able to work for the state and high functionaries. (2) As it has been demonstrated, this is detrimental to a free, open enterprise system that is recognised worldwide. All politicians come from this inward looking system which perpetrates this frame of mind. To illustrate this mindset, we only have to look at the English level in France to notice that it is one of the lowest ones in Europe. (3) Therefore, it is no surprise that François Hollande's first trip to China was in 2012, only after he was elected.

To sum up, we have shown the ways in which French bashing is the right alternative to solve these inequalities created by a narrow-minded and dogmatic vision deeply rooted in the French's minds. It is a shame that such a great nation is constricted by an archaic system that is preventing us from peaking to our maximum potential.

Thank you and vote for us.

LM

Notes

(1) The Fall of France by Janine di Giovanni - http://www.newsweek.com/fall-france-225368

(2) French article on French Youth wanting to become functionaries - http://social.blog.lemonde.fr/2011/05/18/pres-dun-jeune-sur-trois-souhaite-etre-fonctionnaire/

(3) The French depression about speaking English - http://www.thelocal.fr/20130926/french-depression-over-english-ability

First opposing speech

Ladies and Gentlemen, what is Frenchbashing? If I were to defend the motion, I would say it is nothing but pure analysis. It is helpfully holding up the mirror and, above all, it is true, fact-based journalism. The popularity of this art indicates that its practitioners must take great pleasure in the self-righteous act of dismantling France in every possible aspect, which makes us, members of the opposition, want to participate in the “bashing trend”.

So let us bash this motion, let us take it into pieces, analyze who the Frenchbashers are, what Frenchbashing is about. Let us hold up our mirror to the facts evoked in the media and last but not least let us discuss the notion of being right.

Frenchbashing is basically the phenomenon of a rising number of articles and media activities, mostly in the English-speaking media, criticizing the current situation and attitude of France in regards of social, political, economical, etc. aspects and announcing, in general, the doom of France. Frenchbashers are journalists and economists primarily, authors of the articles, but editors, media companies and politicians are Frenchbashers too, selecting the articles published, defining the kind of news to look for, and sharing their public opinions, respectively.

The first problem lies in the role of the media (primary Frenchbasher in general, as said), which is supposed to inform people of everything that they cannot see for themselves and therefore which is wished to be unbiased, to communicate only but not to interpret. Obviously it is humanly impossible; this is why in a democracy, theoretically, freedom of press ensures that everyone has the opportunity to reconstitute reality from the biased sources.

Practically, however, not every source and interpretation is equally available which gives to the agents of media a certain power and with that, social responsibility. For example, French have been accused not to speak but French, unfortunately though, English-speaking people usually share the same problem and expect everybody to speak in English, and so the Frenchbashing English-speaking media is the only one in power to inform them.

It still would not be that bad if these media made an effort to be at least factually correct, cited dairy product prices and tax-rates correctly, not omitting certain details that change the read. If they didn’t refer to the Grandes Ecoles as the source of the claimed closeness and detachment from reality, for myself, student in one of them, have seen the openness and international-centered view of its educational concept as well as the fact that each and every graduated student has to have scored at least 570 points on the Toefl exam proving his or her level of English.

This leads us to our bigger concerns about the motion, which is to define being right. A first attempt could be to say that being right is to claim something factually correct, to claim something that is true. By this definition, the motion should be denied, since clearly, the recently published principle articles in this matter present quite a few factual flaws and show a certain degree of the authors’ detachment from the French reality, thus, informing the public falsely about the French situation and thereby misusing their power or discrediting themselves and making the public reject even facts that might be true.

We should go a bit further though, lest we give the impression of insisting too much on the details. Let us forgive the media, the Frenchbashers their minor inaccuracies and focus on the greater picture and on moral. Morally speaking, we should redefine our concept of being right. We should take into consideration the power of media and how it is used.

Selecting the pieces of true facts to create a reality or a report of it can change everything, especially when it is done by someone with influence. Morally then, for someone with influence to be right is not simply just saying the truth but saying the things that will influence his audience the way that is beneficial according to the standards of the moral.

Is Frenchbashing morally beneficial? For the French, most certainly not. Their international reputation deteriorates, French stereotypes get reinforced. Moreover, I reckon that they know very well the challenges and difficulties they are facing coming out of the crisis, they do not need international media to point them out for them, and by the way, they still come out quite well, head to head with GB, one of the greatest Frenchbashers.

For the global world, Frenchbashing is just another source of distrust, of bringing people and economies apart. France is reported not to accept the concept of the global village, but Frenchbashing is, like gossiping in the village, not about bringing the village together either.

There is no moral benefit for anybody in Frenchbashing, only harm.

So, we saw, that by any definitions, Frenchbashers are just simply not right. And we will continue to see this, as my colleagues develop (for this debate is, as the French say, pour être continué).

Till then I thank you Ladies and Gentlemen and beg you to vote against the motion.

GT

General references

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-sinclair/france-newsweek-article_b_4550066.html

http://www.newsweek.com/fall-france-225368

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janine_di_Giovanni

http://www.newsweek.com/fall-france-ii-how-cockerel-nation-became-ostrich-225475

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_bashing

http://www.theguardian.com/business/blog/2012/may/15/francois-hollande-angela-merkel-coverage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Recession

http://leplus.nouvelobs.com/contribution/1133010-french-bashing-pourquoi-la-france-est-la-victime-preferee-des-medias-anglo-saxons.html