Boycott France

[rhodescholar]

I write this to notify board participants of a boycott planned for the month of April against France, to include all products and services emanating from its domain. The following will be sent initially in a letter to the French embasy in the United States, with a blast email issued to previosuly sympathetic world-wide supporters. Another copy will be distributed to the chief executive officers of the top 75 French companies operating with a presence in the United States. A follow-up detailing French products, services and companies to avoid will be also sent via email at a later date. This boycott is in its final stages of negotiation with various organizational parties introduced in the near future.

March, 2003

French consular official:

A comprehensive boycott of France has now been confirmed and designated to occur for the month of April 2003, and will cover all products and services emanating from France or its territories.

This action, with the official support of such major organizations such as [...], is being undertaken due to the French government's mishandling of the upcoming Iraq liberation, and its persistent and unnacceptable undermining of the United States efforts towards such goal.

The French government under Chirac has obstructed US efforts for transparently selfish, financial reasons. By this we refer to the oil and military hardware/supply deals with the tyrannical Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, which your government would prefer not discovered through a liberation.

Further, France has damaged its own record of Humanitarian efforts and ideals of the past, and alienated itself from its traditional friends and allies by undertaking an extremist diplomatic effort preventing the liberation of the Iraqi people. Its threat of Eastern European nations that their support of the US in these matters with respect to their EU applications is obscene, and deserving of the most strenuous rebuke. Clearly, French hypocracy in demanding its right to "act with respect to its own conscience" against an Iraq liberation should be respected, even if due to its nefarious business arrangments, but France itself is not as accepting of others' rights to do the same.

In a personal quest to protect his own shady business dealings, Chirac has embarked on a personal quest to undermine US efforts to bring freedom and peace to the people of Iraq. It is apparent that the French civilian community has not been made aware of the US public's anger and frustration over their government's hypocracy and willingess to damage what was a long-standing and meaningful friendship, but efforts to do so must now be made.

As citizens unaffiliated with any official government agency, we are compelled to respond with the only tool at our disposal, a boycott. Should France persist in its efforts to obstruct the US, the participating bodies will consider extending the boycott's duration into the summer.

Respectfully yours,

.....

[minusthejihad]

Why wait? Start today!

[djnvcm]

Originally posted by rhodescholar
I write this to notify board participants of a boycott planned for the month of April against France, to include all products and services emanating from its domain. The following will be sent initially in a letter to the French embasy in the United States, with a blast email issued to previosuly sympathetic world-wide supporters. Another copy will be distributed to the chief executive officers of the top 75 French companies operating with a presence in the United States. A follow-up detailing French products, services and companies to avoid will be also sent via email at a later date. This boycott is in its final stages of negotiation with various organizational parties introduced in the near future.

March, 2003

French consular official:

A comprehensive boycott of France has now been confirmed and designated to occur for the month of April 2003, and will cover all products and services emanating from France or its territories.

This action, with the official support of such major organizations such as [...], is being undertaken due to the French government's mishandling of the upcoming Iraq liberation, and its persistent and unnacceptable undermining of the United States efforts towards such goal.

The French government under Chirac has obstructed US efforts for transparently selfish, financial reasons. By this we refer to the oil and military hardware/supply deals with the tyrannical Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, which your government would prefer not discovered through a liberation.

Further, France has damaged its own record of Humanitarian efforts and ideals of the past, and alienated itself from its traditional friends and allies by undertaking an extremist diplomatic effort preventing the liberation of the Iraqi people. Its threat of Eastern European nations that their support of the US in these matters with respect to their EU applications is obscene, and deserving of the most strenuous rebuke. Clearly, French hypocracy in demanding its right to "act with respect to its own conscience" against an Iraq liberation should be respected, even if due to its nefarious business arrangments, but France itself is not as accepting of others' rights to do the same.

In a personal quest to protect his own shady business dealings, Chirac has embarked on a personal quest to undermine US efforts to bring freedom and peace to the people of Iraq. It is apparent that the French civilian community has not been made aware of the US public's anger and frustration over their government's hypocracy and willingess to damage what was a long-standing and meaningful friendship, but efforts to do so must now be made.

As citizens unaffiliated with any official government agency, we are compelled to respond with the only tool at our disposal, a boycott. Should France persist in its efforts to obstruct the US, the participating bodies will consider extending the boycott's duration into the summer.

Respectfully yours,

.....
Why ? Do you want to boycott France because of their involvment in the gulf war ? or recently in afghanistan against taliban ?
The French are simply helping the US administration not to run into a big mistake. for the good sake of the american people.
Why starting the war now ? why not going to Bagdad 12 years ago ? or 5 years ago ? or next year ?
Why now ? People who wants to boycott France should think a little bit
Supporting USA to fight Talibans regime was not at all a problem for France. Iraq is a totally different situation
Before the war, we know where we are
After the war is started nobody knows what will come up. Kurdistan ? Iran ?
Iraqis are not binladen boys (Al Qaida is a kind of sect) if american troops enter Iraq with no good reason Iraqi people will start to defend their country with good reason. Iraqi people are not Saudis

[Alfred]

I am already in boycott of everything French. I sent a letter a week or so ago to the French Embassy stating so.

Many folks I know are also boycotting anything French. I hear it from young and old alike. The WW2 vets are especially pissed at the effete French.

Djnvcm:

I case you haven't figured it out yet. The reason the US is upset with the French is NOT because the French are against a war with Iraq. It is because the French are "fighting" the US on this war. They are trying to "contain" the US both in public and in secret. They are giving information to our enemy and doing everything to thwart us. That is active opposition to the US.

They are searching for allies to oppose the US, both on this war and in NATO. They are against the US in NATO, even to the degree that they will not allow aid to Turkey for defensive purposes.

France is in active opposition to the US, both in NATO and with regard to Iraq. I consider France to be an enemy....or at least, not a friend any longer. In the same league as China. We are not at war with China, but China is certainly not a friend of the US, and China actively works to hurt the US.

That is what France is doing. Trying to hurt the US.

Well, to hell with them. A bunch of prima donnas who's best fighters are not even French.

France is just now seeing the start of a nationwide boycott and change in our relations. You will be cut out of any post war benefit in the rebuilding of Iraq. You have essentially destroyed NATO (which is what France always wanted to do). And I would be willing to bet that many of Iraq's secret weapons will have "made in france" written all over them.

But the Eastern Europeans and the British has discovered what the EU will bring them. I predict that the EU and NATO will not be the slaves that France wants them to be.

Germany does not merit the wrath of the American people because they are not trying to hurt the US, they have just said they do not want to take part. But you know? They are helping via the military already, and have chemical troops in Kuwait to help.

We are a bit upset with the Turks not so much that they voted no to basing US troops, but because they took 12 weeks to say no. They have delayed us by their "carpet salesman" routine. We still have airpower in Turkey, but Turkey will suffer a bit for their jerking us around. I do respect their vote however, I just wish they would have done it weeks ago. Besides, I do not like having to "buy" friends. So maybe I don't respect them that much.

The Brits I respect. The Germans I shake my head at and wait for Schroeder to be kicked out. The Turks I am dissapointed with. The Arabs I understand are all "carpet salesmen." The French I am finished with....as is most of America. They are irrelevant in my book for the future of America.

I hope this helps further the understanding between our two countries......

[Mediocrates]

Olim from France, that is, Jews making aliyah from France to emmigrate to Israel has doubled in the past year. While the raw numbers, a few thousand are small in comparison to the total community of about a half million, the fact remains that olim from France represent the second largest group (with Argentina being the first) of olim last year.

I think we are witnessing the beginning of the end of Azkenazic Jewry - in two generations perhaps three certainly in this century the Europeans, that self touting most advanced literate educated and cosmopolitan of cultures will push out its last Jews. What will be left will be the revenant we see today in people who had Jewish ancestors little different than the anousim of Spain or families with names like Mendelssohn and Disraeli who once had some Jews in the line way back when.

[Salim]

"The Germans I shake my head at and wait for Schroeder to be kicked out."

And you do really think anything will change after the governement has changed?
Sorry to disenchant you, but in Germany the governement represents the public opinion, I don't know how it is like in your country.
Anyway you dont have to believe me, just have a look at recent polls.
Btw, congratulations for catching Mohammed Taha, too bad that you killed a 33year old woman who was pregnant in the ninth month, ahh sorry that was a collateral damage i guess?

[minusthejihad]

Originally posted by Salim
"The Germans I shake my head at and wait for Schroeder to be kicked out."

And you do really think anything will change after the governement has changed?
Sorry to disenchant you, but in Germany the governement represents the public opinion, I don't know how it is like in your country.
Anyway you dont have to believe me, just have a look at recent polls.
Btw, congratulations for catching Mohammed Taha, too bad that you killed a 33year old woman who was pregnant in the ninth month, ahh sorry that was a collateral damage i guess?

FYI, the US, Israel, and Pakistan are actually 3 countries, not one or two like you would like to believe.

", too bad that you killed a 33year old woman "

Is that a Fruedian slip? Now the IDF and the US military are all Jews, huh? ROFL

[tandem]

french products deserve to be boycotted. france did the same thing to israel when, after a suicide bomber killed 30 israelis at a passover dinner, the israelis went inside the west bank to clean it up

[Alfred]

Salim:

Germany as a whole is a lot smarter than the Greens and former Commies from the East. If the people of Germany knew what we knew, and knew what Schroeder knows (from US intelligence sources) then I think the more sensible would agree with the US position. Schroeder is a worm like his French cousin....therefore I don't condem all of Germany.

The protests in Germany remind me of the Lefties in German society protesting during the Cold War against the Pershing missiles. They were wrong then and they are wrong today.

If I am wrong, and I may be....as Germany may have become an effete socialist sleeper; then I fear for its future.

Perhaps Herr Rumsfeld is correct. It is time we turn away from Old Europe and pay more attention to New Europe.

=============

By the way.

The French UN Ambassador came on TV and told us that France was against America because they wanted to "save American boys."

I almost threw up.

[medkorp]

Hi,

I'm from france, and i don't want a war.

But if you read any newspapers (out of USA, of course), you will see that only the americans want to make war.

The others states don't have the choice.

If they say : i'm not for a war, you can be sure that some guys as you will say, eh let's boycoot that state !!!

But you have forgotten to open your eyes, france is not alone ! See Russia, China and much more states.

So you can say: let's boycoot france, our former ally...during few months !!!

But at last, the boycott will end, usa has much more to loose wiht the boycoot that france !!!

thanks

Medkorp

[Salim]

Originally posted by Alfred
Salim:

If the people of Germany knew what we knew, and knew what Schroeder knows (from US intelligence sources) then I think the more sensible would agree with the US position.



I salute to your obvious conclusive argumentation.
You just revealed that the common narrow minded German (see also: eternal NAZI!) can't compete with the clever mind of an american, also known as the greatest country in the world that just wants the best for all of us in its altruistic being.
Thank you for enlightening me.

[tandem]

>>>'But you have forgotten to open your eyes, france is not alone ! See Russia, China and much more states.'<<<

the russians are owed about $8 billion by iraq. saddam hussein also sells russia oil for rock bottom dollars and the russians re-sell that oil at a higher price, thus making a nifty profit. russian oil companies also have long-term oil interests in iraq. so, i'm not surprised why the russians oppose war against iraq. if the americans were to offer the russians like $10 billion for their problems should war take place, the russians will change their mind. china does not necessarily oppose a war. they would prefer to give the inspectors more time, but i believe when it comes down to a vote on a second resolution, the chinese will abstain. this way they won't need to commit to either side. the american economic interests in the long run are much more important to china than saddam hussein

[djnvcm]

Originally posted by Alfred
I am already in boycott of everything French. I sent a letter a week or so ago to the French Embassy stating so.

Many folks I know are also boycotting anything French. I hear it from young and old alike. The WW2 vets are especially pissed at the effete French.

Djnvcm:

I case you haven't figured it out yet. The reason the US is upset with the French is NOT because the French are against a war with Iraq. It is because the French are "fighting" the US on this war. They are trying to "contain" the US both in public and in secret. They are giving information to our enemy and doing everything to thwart us. That is active opposition to the US.

They are searching for allies to oppose the US, both on this war and in NATO. They are against the US in NATO, even to the degree that they will not allow aid to Turkey for defensive purposes.

France is in active opposition to the US, both in NATO and with regard to Iraq. I consider France to be an enemy....or at least, not a friend any longer. In the same league as China. We are not at war with China, but China is certainly not a friend of the US, and China actively works to hurt the US.

That is what France is doing. Trying to hurt the US.

Well, to hell with them. A bunch of prima donnas who's best fighters are not even French.

France is just now seeing the start of a nationwide boycott and change in our relations. You will be cut out of any post war benefit in the rebuilding of Iraq. You have essentially destroyed NATO (which is what France always wanted to do). And I would be willing to bet that many of Iraq's secret weapons will have "made in france" written all over them.

But the Eastern Europeans and the British has discovered what the EU will bring them. I predict that the EU and NATO will not be the slaves that France wants them to be.

Germany does not merit the wrath of the American people because they are not trying to hurt the US, they have just said they do not want to take part. But you know? They are helping via the military already, and have chemical troops in Kuwait to help.

We are a bit upset with the Turks not so much that they voted no to basing US troops, but because they took 12 weeks to say no. They have delayed us by their "carpet salesman" routine. We still have airpower in Turkey, but Turkey will suffer a bit for their jerking us around. I do respect their vote however, I just wish they would have done it weeks ago. Besides, I do not like having to "buy" friends. So maybe I don't respect them that much.

The Brits I respect. The Germans I shake my head at and wait for Schroeder to be kicked out. The Turks I am dissapointed with. The Arabs I understand are all "carpet salesmen." The French I am finished with....as is most of America. They are irrelevant in my book for the future of America.

I hope this helps further the understanding between our two countries......

I suppose you will start very soon to boycott China if you keep some logic in your mind. But be careful because most of your shoes and toys are coming from that country.
Which country next to the list ? be careful not to stay alone in autarcy
The entire world is shooting to this US administration not to start the war and nobody is paying attention.

[minusthejihad]

Originally posted by djnvcm
I suppose you will start very soon to boycott China if you keep some logic in your mind. But be careful because most of your shoes and toys are coming from that country.
Which country next to the list ? be careful not to stay alone in autarcy
The entire world is shooting to this US administration not to start the war and nobody is paying attention.

Persoanlly I try to avoid products from China (not Taiwan) as well as France, Germany, and obviously any country in the axis of evil. For whom? For my children. I know what America is. I like it, and want it to be bigger, stronger, safer. I don't see a thing wrong with this.

By the way, saying the "entire world" makes you look immature. How many people across the free world have spoken out against this war? Cummon, add them all up, What? let's give you the benefit of the doubt and even include all the people who couldn't make it to the rallies because they have to work: um, what? 250,000,000 people? OK, so what percentage of those people are actually informed and not just anarchists, anti-americans, anti-democracy, anti-semites? um, ok 150,000,000 people. OK, so, out of those, who has any REAL power? 1,000 maybe. So, its definately not the whole world.

Also, remember just a couple of weeks ago, that 15 European countries wrote a letter of support of the war and its pledged its support to America. hmm, so that leaves France, Germany, Russia, and maybe China. Definately NOT the entire world. Get a hold of yourself before you spout more lies.

[tandem]

it's no wonder why nobody pays any attention to the french. while many nations in the world (though not all, sadly) realize the iraqi threat, and, after the gulf war, voted to contain saddam hussein and disarm him of his arsenal of WMD, the french led an aggressive campaign against sanctions on iraq

when saddam hussein said he wanted to build a nuclear bomb to use against israel and "free palestine" as he said it, the french welcomed the iraqi scientists with open arms when they were in france to buy a nuclear reactor. and now, france is once again refusing to see force as the only possible way to disarm saddam hussein. hmmm... do you see any interesting pattern here? the french are in bed with the iraqi regime all across the spectrum

you say, medkorp, that you do not want a war, yet you were more than willing to supply the key components for saddam hussein to build a nuclear bomb, fully knowing what the iraqis were going to use it for. is this really your way of advocating peace in the region?

[rambi]

I think that there is no only French interests in Iraq. There is also the issue of European leadership - French accuse Bush for acting "as cowboy" so that nobody can see Jacques is really doing it in Europe. His words to Eastern European countries that supported the USA policy towards Iraq say enough. Jacques will do anything to take the leading role in the EU... by the way, what is that France is doing in Ivory Coast?

[Alfred]

Well, I must admit I may be wrong about the Germans.

Perhaps the same idiots who protested against Reagan and his Pershing missiles are in charge of Germany today. Those idiots believed that if you were "nice" to the Soviets and did not "make them mad" then the Soviets would just go home.

Well they were wrong. Just as they are wrong today. But then, it was not Germany who had September 11. I believe the protesters also thought that Reagan was a "cowboy."

I do find in interesting to see how many red flags are flying at these German and French war protests.

But that is fine. Germany and France can vote against us. It is a free world (unless you live in Iraq, China and other countries that are friends of France).

We do not look at China and Russia as friends...but as potential partners on select issues. It is time that we look at France and Germany the same way. That is also fine with me.

I would take our troops out of Germany. It has been 50 years. It is time to go. I would no longer trust the French or Germans with NATO military secrets....as they have shown they support our enemies, and the French are famous for leaking secrets that we share with them.

We only ask you to rid yourself of Al Qaeda. That we can hopefully agree upon. It is sad that these two countries cannot understand...or refuse to understand....that the war on terrorism includes war against those who fund or supply the terrorists. Maybe however, we will find out that France and Germany ARE helping Sadaam with WMD. Hmmmmm.

Otherwise, we don't need you in our war on terrorism....and you can go back to eating cheese and wurst. We only ask you to stop saying that you are our "friends" as you try to stab us in the back. It is insulting and beneath you....well, at least beneath the Germans.

That is fair isn't it?

(Oh, and by the way...as of today, China is being a better "friend" on this issue than are France and Germany)

>>Schroeder ist ein Wurm gleich wie Chiraq<<

>> Und ja, Bush ist ein Cowboy....Cowboys werden gebraucht, Terrorismus zu besiegen>>

[Salim]

Ok, I'll have a big Schnitzel with Sauerkraut tomorrow and think about you and you wonderful conclusions Alfred.

[Alfred]

No, no. I said wurst, not schnitzel. Everyone knows that Austrians eat schnitzel:)

[Mediocrates]

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20030301fareviewessay10345/walter-russell-mead/why-do-they-hate-us-two-books-take-aim-at-french-anti-americanism.html

Why Do They Hate Us?: Two Books Take Aim at French Anti-Americanism
by Walter Russell Mead
From Foreign Affairs, March/April 2003

L'obsession anti-americaine: Son fonctionnement, ses causes, ses inconsequences. Jean-Francois Revel. Paris: Plon, 2002, 299 pp. 120.00.

L'ennemi americain: Genealogie de l'antiamericanisme francais. Philippe Roger. Paris: Seuil, 2002, 601 pp. 126.00.

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change," begins a popular prayer in American self-help circles. It often springs to mind when Americans think of France. ly, pouting, convinced of its own superiority, France remains the country in which anti-Americanism finds its most sophisticated intellectual expression in the West. This phenomenon persists despite the fact that few countries benefited more from the American security umbrella in the twentieth century.

Indeed, the American hegemon has manifestly not limited France's international freedom of action, even granting it a permanent, veto-wielding seat on the UN Security Council.

At a time when anti-Americanism is rising around the world and in France, and when, thanks to the prospect of war in Iraq, Americans are unusually interested in what France has to say, two distinguished French intellectuals have written what amount to anti-anti-American tracts.

L'obsession anti-americaine, by Jean-Francois Revel (best known in the United States as the author of Without Marx or Jesus), finds anti-Americanism to be a product of French political and moral failures. L'ennemi americain, by the well respected scholar Philippe Roger, traces the historical development of an anti-American discourse in France on both the right and the left over the past 200 years.

Both books are worth reading; one hopes an enlightened publisher will make them available in English. It will take a gifted translator to capture the sly charm of Roger's distinctive style -- lucid, learned, and unfailingly felicitous, but bristling with untranslatable literary references and echoed quotations. For example, when the aged and revered Victor Hugo, one of a handful of consistently pro-American figures in French history, came to view the head of the Statue of Liberty being prepared for New York City, he gazed on the statue and uttered a suitable phrase. In Roger's account, "Il va; il voit; il vaticine." Stunning -- but how to do this in English? He came, he saw, he pontificated? He prophesied? He uttered? In any case, Americans ignored Hugo's suggested phrase for the statue's base and inscribed Emma Lazarus' poem instead -- a poem in which the name of the donor country does not appear.

These books are Franco-French products, intended to contribute to ongoing debates in France about France. They are not interested in what truths anti-Americanism reflects about America, or what Americans should do to minimize the power of visceral anti-American feeling around the world. Nevertheless, the non-French world should take note. What the authors have accomplished is to define what Roger calls a discourse of anti-Americanism: a free-floating but well defined set of ideas and perceptions that, over time, have crystallized into a coherent world view. Anti-Americanism in this sense is very different from opposition to some specific American policy; it is a systematic view of the United States as a danger to all one holds dear.

On the one hand, anti-Americanism is, as both Revel and Roger convincingly argue, a self-referential Franco-French phenomenon largely untroubled by larger questions of fact. On the other hand, the rise and persistence of this discourse reflects actual historical trends. Anti-Americanism developed and persisted in France because the United States thwarted, threatened, and diminished that country. Anti-Gallicism in the United States has had a fitful and shadowy life because France has only rarely risen to more than a nuisance in American eyes. In the realms of power politics, economics, and culture, French anti-Americanism is the psychological footprint of a conflict -- a conflict all the more irksome to the loser simply because the winner never seems to have paid it much attention.

As Roger shows, the development of French anti-Americanism faithfully follows the twists and turns of world power since the eighteenth century. The short-lived "Lafayette" period of Franco-American amity during the American Revolution came at a time when France was seeking revenge on Britain for the humiliations of the Seven Years' War. If the French could not have a North American empire, perhaps the British could also be denied. France saw the United States as a transatlantic ally that could help contain the true enemy at the time: perfidious Albion. After its own independence was won, the United States refused to make common cause against Britain during France's revolutionary wars. Worse, when the proclamation of the Monroe Doctrine aligned the United States with the United Kingdom to ban European powers from the Americas, France realized to its horror that, far from balancing the British, independent America would support them. "I have not found a single Englishman who did not feel at home among Americans and not a single Frenchman who did not feel a stranger," sighed Talleyrand.

THE PHANTOM MENACE

The real shock came in 1898 -- a date, Roger argues, almost as important to the French as it was to the Spanish-speaking world. The French interpreted the American attack on Spain as the beginning of an American war with Europe -- a war that the Old World might lose. The new Anglo-Saxons were more powerful, more ruthless, and more determined than the old. The loathsome Monroe Doctrine would be extended to ban European colonies in Asia and Africa. An Anglo-Saxon condominium, with power ultimately passing to the more frightening and less civilized Americans, would dominate the world. Even the hated Germans might serve as an ally against this horrifying power.

That was not all. American power was not only a hostile geopolitical force. Its economic dynamism challenged and threatened French society on many fronts. The unbridled liberalism of the Anglo-Americans offered France unpalatable choices: adapt or fall behind. Identifying the United States as the land of a harsh and brutal "absolute capitalism" was (and is) widely popular on both the right and the left in France. Roger gives great credit to Charles Maurras, founder of the controversial royalist and integralist review L'Action Francaise, whose influential work painted a picture of a society shaped by the impersonal requirements of an uncaring market to the exclusion of all humane concerns.

The world is indebted to Maurras for another durable element of anti-Americanism: the link between Americans and Jews and the "menace" they posed to European civilization. The United States, land of rootless immigrants and amoral capital, was to antisemites the perfect territory for what Joseph Stalin would call Europe's "rootless cosmopolitans." Maurras believed early in his career that the Germanophile American Jews in finance influenced Woodrow Wilson's tardiness at entering World War I and his refusal to back France's claims at the Versailles peace conference. By the end of Maurras' career, however, it was the Germanophobic Jews around Roosevelt who worried Maurras and his Vichy friends. Partly because of the hard-nosed U.S. attitude toward French debts from World War I, and partly because of the belief that Jews ran the American financial system, a generation of Frenchmen grew up thinking of Uncle Sam as "Oncle Shylock." Attacks by parties across the French political spectrum on the transatlantic "plutocracy" -- and the perceived corrupt domination of its institutions by a handful of (often Jewish) billionaires -- echo down the bloody corridors of the twentieth century to our own day.

[Mediocrates]

If there is anything missing in these books, it would be a discussion of the relationship between French Anglophobia and French anti-Americanism. Both in France and beyond, new anti-Americanism is simply old Anglophobia writ large. Anti-Anglo-Saxonism has been a key intellectual and cultural force in European history since the English replaced the Dutch as the leading Protestant, capitalist, liberal, and maritime power in the late seventeenth century. The image of Anglophone "New Carthage" -- cruel, treacherous, barbarous, plutocratic -- that Jacobin and Napoleonic propaganda assiduously disseminated contains the essential features of anti-Anglo-Saxon portraits so familiar today. The humiliations and setbacks that France suffered at American hands in the twentieth century chafe so badly in part because they rub the old wounds that the British inflicted in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The British destroyed the empires of the Bourbons and Bonaparte; the rise of the United States established a new superpower league in world politics in which France can never compete. The dog-eat-dog competition of Anglo-Saxon capitalism forces French firms to adjust, and it steadily undermines France's efforts to maintain its social status quo. The English language has replaced French in science, diplomacy, and letters; the list goes on.

Many Americans take comfort in the fact that French writers such as Ravel and Roger are now subjecting anti-American discourse to such a critical drubbing. Surely, they hope, the great dismal fog of Gallic anti-Americanism is lifting. Maybe France will start using the Serenity Prayer and accept a few things that it cannot change. On the evidence of these books, however, anti-Anglo-Saxonism is deeply rooted and widely spread. It is likely to flourish as long as its causes exist.

These causes are not, as perennially optimistic Americans want to think, American shortcomings and failures. America's failures and crimes are the patrimony of anti-Americanism, its treasures and its darlings. They inflame and disseminate anti-Americanism, but they are not its root cause. For that we must look to American success, American power, and America's consequent ability to thwart the ambitions of other states and impose its agenda on the rest of the world.

France is not the only country in Europe or the world whose ambitions were frustrated by the British and American hegemonies. France is not the only country which, left to its own devices, would embrace a kinder and gentler, if slower, form of capitalist transformation than the one that the Anglo-Saxon model imposes. France is not the only country in which intellectual and social elites dread the restructuring and decentralization that the Anglo-Saxon model brings in its train. Nor is it the only country where the state fears the loss of authority and power to Anglo-Saxon-driven globalization, with its attendant requirements of low taxes, transparency, and equal treatment for foreign investors and firms.

The challenge for Americans and non-Americans alike is not to end anti-Americanism; only the collapse of American power could accomplish that task. Today, the task is to manage pragmatically the resentments, irritations, and real grievances that inevitably accompany the rise to power of one nation, one culture, and one social model in a complex, divided, and passionate world.

[Mediocrates]

Protests at the French Embassy in Washington

http://www.pavefrance.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=PaveFrance

[Microship]

Alfred,

As I am French, engaged to an American woman, I consider that I know (a little) our both countries : France and USA. As a matter of fact I obviously try to learn more details about institutions, history and culture of USA. This is a long process, and I consider myself as an ignorant in progress toward more understanding... We all agree the fact that being a citizen includes more and more knowledge and awarness.

So I am very surprised to discover details about USA's Foreign Policy since the 19th C. until recently... South America, Central America, Africa,... As was probably surprised Marc Twain for the same topics during his time... America is a great democracy, a country that I love very much (my wife's country), a country with fair and dark sides too, as many other countries in the world... I could describe in the same way my own country : a (very) long history of blood, people dominated (inside and outside the frontiers), ideological opression, and sometimes in/against all of this a little light of hope and good ideas. As others in Europe, the French experimented many systems : Catholicism, Monarchy, Communism, Republic, Liberalism, Fascism, Capitalism, Socialism, many forms of Democracy ... And let us hope the list of paradigms is not over today because none of them (or their mixing) have really brought the happiness, justice or general prosperity for whom they have been applied. Many people paid the high price for this social experience, many French/English/German (...) died/killed in many wars.

I don't know any country in the world able to give moral lessons to others.

What's up now about alliance, faithfulness ?

Many French are still grateful towards the USA for the Freedom against Nazism for a part, the false communism from Russia for another part. I guess that without America, we all in Europe should have to speak German or Russian now... Let's guess that the USA wouldn't be the country that we know now, without those interventions against the Axis nations in the 1940s...
Now, everywhere in the world, people learn to speak english for trade and science. This is not a bad thing, this a very useful tool, a strong symbol of Freedom and democracy in all minds.
You would be surprised to observe the influence of your country in Europe, even in the day to day situations: TV shows, music, vocabulary, ... Even in France, which is a country with a very strong identity acquired through its whole history.

The fact is here in front of your eyes . Many people in Europe, and not only French, are against the war in Iraq. You have to understand that this is not a war against the USA.

We, you and I, as simple citizens, are aware of many crowd manipulations to cover secret trades : the sharing of oil with or without Sadam is at the stake... Those non-democratic agreements/manipulations are unacceptable in our democracies.

The fact is that France secretly traded with Saddam (French people didn't know it); Talibans have been trained by USA, France exploits the Cote d'Ivoire; USA is not an angel in Africa... Shall we continue ? It is very easy. And the more powerful a country is, the more there are things awaiting disclosure.

France assumed terrorist attacks from Muslims there are 15 years ago (who cares now that Muslims responsables were openly refugees in Great Britain)... one week after 9/11, a huge chemical factory in the Southwest of France exploded. The third of the city of Toulouse has been touched, dozens of victims... The survey is beginning to prove it was a terrorist attack...
By the way, as France's power is so much less important than the whole USA, but largely more influential than any single state of America, this little european country has the right to express opinions... Should the French be less proud than Texan citizens (famous for their "regional proudness", although the facts), for example ?

It is a fact that France, among many other nations, is The "Old Europe". The young Europe is building up since two generations, the future of nations like France and Germany (for example) is in the European Union. This is a complex process, but those people are step by step creating the biggest economical power in the world and bringing more chance for peace. As long as Europe will stay politicaly divided, it will stay a group of dwarfs, that huge nations such as Russia, China and America will disregard.


I finish here, but there could be many other things to say about what you wrote.

Please, just notice that NOT ALL American people are for this war, so-called "for Freedom"... Are they bad Americans ? Are they traitors ? Are you a true democrate ? are you a true American ?

As Mark Twain was probably as good an American as Monrow was later, I guess that the Americans who are against the war are not necessarily communists, traitors, against Israel... or even French spies.

Sincerely.

Gilles

ps : you wrote :" I am already in boycott of everything French", do you boycott the Human Rights too?

[Alfred]

Microship:

Thank you for your note. Let me better explain why I have become anti-French in the last two months.

I have not become anti-French because French citizens are against the war. Every country can decide how they will vote. It is the motivation of the French government that has turned me against France and that brings me to say that Chiraq est un ver.

Many of the European protestors are the same people who protested America (Reagan) during the 1980's. Many are communists with their own agenda and many are anarchists. Many are Arabs and the rest look at Iraq through naive, non-Sept 11 eyes. It is their right to do so.

But this is all beside the point. The war in the United Nations between France and the US has nothing to do with Iraq.

I listened very carefully to the French UN Ambassador today. After his UN speech he came out and gave a press conference of sorts. He actually came out and said what I had suspected from the first.

The objective of France (under Chiraq) is to form an alliance of nations to counter US power in the 21st century. He essentially said this to all Americans. He essentially said there must be a check on American power and influence and that France would find allies to counter America in the future. He said that America must be bound by the United Nations. We must surrender our sovereignty to the UN; just as european nations are surrendering their sovereignty to the EU. In this way can France (as a Security Council member) have some say in Americas actions in the world.

The objective of the EU is for countries to surrender their sovereignty to the common EU good. France has always thought that she would be the spirit and leader of the EU. She now sees an opportunity to develop an alliance of Germany, Russia and China (the muscle) to counter or oppose America in the 21st century.

These are NOT the actions of a friend, but of a jealous former mistress.

And these actions are not new. DeGaulle tried the same tactic to a degree years ago. Only now, in the post Cold War, does France feel "safe" enough to challenge the US.

What REALLY irritates me is for the French Ambassador to come out and say he is doing all these things against America to "save your boys from a war." I am glad I was not there for that one.

Fine. Let it be France against the US. Let the nations choose.

Bush is going to demand a vote on the new resolution. France thinks that she has Russia and China as vetoes. What may be suprising is that China and Russia may abstain and France may be forced to veto. I hope this is the case. This will be very instructional for Americans.

So, in a nutshell. France has two purposes in fighting against America. The first is that she wants Iraq to develop WMD to counter Israel...to give France oil and nice oil contracts...and to show the Arab world that France is their friend. (It is actually humorous to see that it is France who is in this for oil.....not America).

And the second reason is that France wants to develop a semi-permanent alliance to counter America in the world. She would prefer the EU, but she will take China and Russia.

At the end of the line, America is at war and America will do what is necessary to defend herself. America is lucky, in that she does not need the UN. And that fact bothers the French most of all.

I predict that the UK/US/Spain resolution will be voted on Tuesday. I predict that it will be defeated with too few votes or with a veto. I hope France vetoes the resolution. Bush will then go to the American people and say that he tried diplomacy. We will then attack either Thursday or Friday next week...or on March 17th.

I also predict that France has damaged our relationship for the next 10 years or so. I predict that France will get zero contracts in Iraq for a period of time.

I would love to see millions of Iraqi's thanking us for their liberation (like many other countries have), and I would love to see the list of French military goods we find in the WMD tunnels and caves.

[rhodescholar]

"I would love to see millions of Iraqi's thanking us for their liberation (like many other
countries have), and I would love to see the list of French military goods we find in the WMD
tunnels and caves."

This is the point i have raised again and again. Germany and France are scared sh-tless that the US will find in Iraq what israel discovered in the Orient House; namely massive quantites of illegal weapons sold to iraq from 1991 forward,

Are there so many idiots that dont realize how happy france was in 1998 to see the inspectors expelled, that it wasnt ONLY iraqi-built weapons that saddam was trying to hide? F-----G HELLO, MORONS. It was french and german-built hardware.

Chirac should die like an animal for what he has done, and is continuing to try to do, all for money and oil.

[michael]

While Rhodescholar is at writing letters, I guess he'll also send a letter to the French explaining how ungrateful he is for French assistance against the British in the war of independance. Because we all know that we only appreciate our friends when they do exactly what we want, rather than being honest with us.

Oh, and maybe a letter to Dick Cheney for all the help with oil infrastrucure and investment in Iraq post-1991.

Oh, and a letter of apology to the Kurds who were crushed in March-April 1991 while coaltion forces sat back and watched, because the US was getting nervous about an independant Kurdistan and possible Iranian Shia Muslim involvement in the rebellion.

[rhodescholar]

Originally posted by michael
While Rhodescholar is at writing letters, I guess he'll also send a letter to the French explaining how ungrateful he is for French assistance against the British in the war of independance. Because we all know that we only appreciate our friends when they do exactly what we want, rather than being honest with us.

Oh, and maybe a letter to Dick Cheney for all the help with oil infrastrucure and investment in Iraq post-1991.

Oh, and a letter of apology to the Kurds who were crushed in March-April 1991 while coaltion forces sat back and watched, because the US was getting nervous about an independant Kurdistan and possible Iranian Shia Muslim involvement in the rebellion.

I guess you dont like to read carefully. I never said I hate the French people themselves, I just said that the govt needs to be made aware of how it is to be held accoutnable for its actions. And it will be done by civilians like myself through consumer discretionary spending, since I do not have other means at my disposal.

And since you mention the revolutionary war of 1776, the only reason france aided the colonies was not out of altruism, its was to prevent the British from maintaining an economic foothold/control in the colonies. The 2 nations were at war, so it wasnt out of some hysterically transparent "human rights" nonsese idiots like villepin are crying about now.

If you want to talk about military interventions, which i think are absurd and pointless, but since you brought it up, go to hoc du mer and other points in normandy, and see the 9,700 US soldiers buried there defending france.

As for the kurds, it was clearly a mistake NOT supporting them, but then again, peaceniks and pacifists like yourselves should be happy about it, right?

Because that would have been a MILITARY INTERVENTION right? And I thought you were against this war. Are you flip-flopping and saying you supported wars then, but not now?

Make up your mind.

[Alfred]

If one condemns America for NOT saving the Kurds, and if one condemns America for NOT going all the way to Baghdad during Gulf War One, then one gives America an excellent reason to NOT form a coalition in the War with Iraq.

For it was the restrictions placed upon us by the coalition that kept us from going all the way and finishing the job.

A mistake we will not repeat.

As far as the French and their support in 1776. Yes, that was important. But we have paid them back twice in the last 100 years. So, I would say that we are one ahead.

Richard Pearle seems to think that France will end up supporting us just as they did in Afghanistan and Gulf War One. Albeit at the last moment and after all the blather we are seeing.

I hope the US says no thanks.

[michael]

You're right, I'm not so keen on military intervention in this case. If my criticism of a lack of action regarding the Kurds was based purely on my own beliefs you'd be right. But they are based on proclaimed US intentions.

On Feb 15, 1991 Geroge Bush twice made statements to the press for "…. the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands…".

Iraqis, unwisely as it turned out, took this to mean they could expect support. Over the next 3 weeks Saddm lost control of 14 out of 16 provinces. At this stage leaders of the rebellion went out looking for coalition forces for direct assistance to finish the job Bush had called for. They first made contact with the French who told them to go look for the Americans who then had them sit around for a few days before finally saying "sorry but..". Saddam knew this soon enough and the reprisals commenced.
Apparently the devil you know is better.

This instructive little episode provides some insight to the nervousness of Iraqi opposition groups when told of US plans for "regime change".
As you so rightly pointed out, "altruism" is not a motivating factor in the works of empire.

[djnvcm]

Originally posted by Alfred
I am already in boycott of everything French. I sent a letter a week or so ago to the French Embassy stating so.

Many folks I know are also boycotting anything French. I hear it from young and old alike. The WW2 vets are especially pissed at the effete French.

Djnvcm:

I case you haven't figured it out yet. The reason the US is upset with the French is NOT because the French are against a war with Iraq. It is because the French are "fighting" the US on this war. They are trying to "contain" the US both in public and in secret. They are giving information to our enemy and doing everything to thwart us. That is active opposition to the US.

They are searching for allies to oppose the US, both on this war and in NATO. They are against the US in NATO, even to the degree that they will not allow aid to Turkey for defensive purposes.

France is in active opposition to the US, both in NATO and with regard to Iraq. I consider France to be an enemy....or at least, not a friend any longer. In the same league as China. We are not at war with China, but China is certainly not a friend of the US, and China actively works to hurt the US.

That is what France is doing. Trying to hurt the US.

Well, to hell with them. A bunch of prima donnas who's best fighters are not even French.

France is just now seeing the start of a nationwide boycott and change in our relations. You will be cut out of any post war benefit in the rebuilding of Iraq. You have essentially destroyed NATO (which is what France always wanted to do). And I would be willing to bet that many of Iraq's secret weapons will have "made in france" written all over them.

But the Eastern Europeans and the British has discovered what the EU will bring them. I predict that the EU and NATO will not be the slaves that France wants them to be.

Germany does not merit the wrath of the American people because they are not trying to hurt the US, they have just said they do not want to take part. But you know? They are helping via the military already, and have chemical troops in Kuwait to help.

We are a bit upset with the Turks not so much that they voted no to basing US troops, but because they took 12 weeks to say no. They have delayed us by their "carpet salesman" routine. We still have airpower in Turkey, but Turkey will suffer a bit for their jerking us around. I do respect their vote however, I just wish they would have done it weeks ago. Besides, I do not like having to "buy" friends. So maybe I don't respect them that much.

The Brits I respect. The Germans I shake my head at and wait for Schroeder to be kicked out. The Turks I am dissapointed with. The Arabs I understand are all "carpet salesmen." The French I am finished with....as is most of America. They are irrelevant in my book for the future of America.

I hope this helps further the understanding between our two countries......

France was in active opposition to the US administration in this war because to help our american friends not to run into a big mistake which is ultimately splashing on the entire free world. It was as evident as the nose in the middle of the face (as we say in French) that this war was leading into chaos. Because the target of war is not to win it but to win the peace

Irak is now a big bazar gathering all frustrations a meeting point for all terrorists.....
The point of boycotting France is ridiculous. Bush should have listened to our and russians, germans warnings
Bravo

[Mediocrates]

Originally posted by djnvcm
France was in active opposition to the US administration in this war because to help our american friends not to run into a big mistake which is ultimately splashing on the entire free world. It was as evident as the nose in the middle of the face (as we say in French) that this war was leading into chaos. Because the target of war is not to win it but to win the peace

Irak is now a big bazar gathering all frustrations a meeting point for all terrorists.....
The point of boycotting France is ridiculous. Bush should have listened to our and russians, germans warnings
Bravo


Your issues and ours differ more and more each day. A boycott is frequently called for far less important disputes. So it is entirely in the scope of international relations for us to mount sanctions of some kind.

If you don't like that diplomatic-economic response to actions among peaceful countries then I suggest you have 3 options:

1 - Too bad, tough darts.
2 - Call for counter sanctions from either France and/or the UN.
3 - Military action.


But don't cry "It's Not Faaaaaiiiirrrrr". Time to grow up now, I know it's hard but if you live by the sanction you have to be willing to die by it.

[TDidier]

"France was in active opposition to the US administration in this war because to help our american friends not to run into a big mistake which is ultimately splashing on the entire free world. It was as evident as the nose in the middle of the face (as we say in French) that this war was leading into chaos. Because the target of war is not to win it but to win the peace"



It seemed comical to you but it is the simple reality!!! :(

It's the real french intentions, and many french people are injuried by your disproportionned reaction. It seemed comical to you but it is the simple reality...

You done (US administration and his supporter) many mistakes and it will be very difficult to you to repaire it.

Boycott will have no efficient on french because we have not the same views on money. This word is terrible for an anglo-saxon, but quite empty of sens for a french: "If you don't want it, we will eat it!".

SeeU, Didier.

[minusthejihad]

My Greek friends used to say Albainians are the scurge of Europe. I'd vote for the French as the scurge of Planet Jank!

Lastly, I don't hate France, after all you can't hate what you pity.

Now Playing:

The boy who cried wolf

The Wolf - played by Capitalism
The Boy - played by France

[TDidier]

"My Greek friends used to say Albainians are the scurge of Europe. I'd vote for the French as the scurge of Planet Jank!"

Basic racism...

a man is as tall as its ideas are large. :D

SeeU, minus my friend. ;)

Didier.

[abu afak]

RESSENTIMENT -Taheri

"..The reason? "The Americans didn't come this year," explains Stephane. "That means a 30 percent fall in our revenue..."

[...]

"...We were on their side when they were attacked," notes an editorialist on the state-owned radio France Inter. "They must understand that we cannot be on their side when they are attacking others."

The logical conclusion of such a premise is that we love the Americans only when they die, especially in large numbers, but dislike them when they fight back against those who, incidentally, happen to be our enemies as well..."

"...The issue of whether or not military action should be taken against Saddam Hussein was never properly debated in France. In fact, France is the only major democracy where the parliament did not devote a single debate to Iraq. All decisions were taken by the president and a couple of advisors at the Elysee Palace, with Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin acting as the point man.

The strategy was to make life as difficult for the Americans as possible.

What was lacking was an alternative vision of how to deal with an Iraqi regime that had defied the United Nations for 12 years and, in the words of President Chirac himself, remained "an abiding threat to world peace."

Chirac wanted to play a version of le poker mentuer (the liar's poker). He never said he would veto a Security Council resolution to authorise military action against Saddam. But he indicated, through diplomatic gesticulations, that he would do precisely that. The rest, as we know, is history.

The result of that exercise in futile ambiguity is that France never developed a sober analysis of the events that led to the war and, worse still, is unable to understand the post-Saddam situation in Iraq.

France had no Iraq policy then and has none now. The gap was and still is filled with anti-American gestures in the United Nations and elsewhere. The formula is simple: "Say merde to the Americans, and you have a policy!"

Anti-Americanism as a substitute for policy is sustained thanks to a number of myths and outright lies.

One myth is that current anti-Americanism is not directed at the American people but at the Bush administration's "neocon" strategists. One routine claim of French pundits is that Bush and "his gang" have "hijacked the American ship of state" and are using it in the interests of the Likud party in Israel.

Such an excuse is worse than the insult. For it shows disdain for American democracy.

Another myth is that the United States has lost in Iraq, and is looking for a way out. The daily Liberation jubilates that "Bush is rushing headlong for the exit!"

That may provide a dose of Schadenfreude, but is no basis for a serious understanding of the situation in Iraq. In fact, things in Iraq are going better than those who know that country expected. Provided there is no loss of nerves in Washington, Iraq could become as much of a success as were West Germany and Japan after the Second World War..."

".....Anti-Americanism may look attractive in the short run as a means of covering the Chirac government's failure to develop a coherent and principled foreign policy. In the medium and long runs, however, anti-Americanism is a disease that harms France as well...""

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/3000.htm

[abu afak]

(From a friend on another board:

"..You may be wondering what companies should you boycott. You will probably be surprised to learn the French own everything from Wild Turkey to Car and Driver to Motel 6 to cheesy Spencer Gifts to disgusting Democrat schlock-show host Jerry Springer.

Air France
Air Liquide
Airbus
Alcatel
Allegra (allergy medication)
Aqualung (including: Spirotechnique, Technisub, U.S. Divers, and SeaQuest) AXA Advisors.

Bank of the West (owned by BNP Paribas).
Beneteau (boats)
BF Goodrich (owned by Michelin)
BIC (razors, pens and lighters)
Biotherm (cosmetics)
Bollinger (champagne).

Car and Driver magazine
Chanel
Chivas Regal (scotch)
Christian Dior
Club Med (vacations)
Crown Royal Canadian Whiskey (Seagram).

Dannon (yogurt and dairy foods)
Dom Perignon
Durand Crystal.

Elle magazine
Essilor Optical Products
Evian.

Givenchy
Glenlivet (scotch).

Hennessy.

Jacobs Creek (owned by Pernod Ricard since 1989).
Jerry Springer (talk show).

Krups (coffee and cappuccino makers).

Lancome
Le Creuset (cookware)
L'Oreal (health and beauty products). Louis Vuitton.

Martel Cognac
Maybelline
Michelin (tires and auto parts)
Mikasa (crystal and glass).
Moet (champagne)
Motel 6
Motown Records
MP3.com.

Peugeot (automobiles)
Pinault
Printemps
Redoute (Guicci, Yves Saint Laurent).

ProScan (owned by Thomson Electronics, France)
Publicis Group (including Saatchi &
Saatchi Advertising and Leo Burnett Worldwide).

RCA (televisions and electronics; owned by Thomson Electronics).
Red Roof Inns (owned by Accor group in France).
Renault (automobiles).
Road & Track magazine.
Roquefort cheese (all Roquefort cheese is made in France).
Rowenta (toasters, irons, coffee makers, etc.).

Sierra Software and Computer Games. Smart & Final. Sofitel (hotels, owned by Accor).
Sparkletts (water, owned by Danone). Spencer Gifts.

Tefal (kitchenware)
Technicolor.

UbiSoft (computer games).
Uniroyal.
Universal Studios (music, movies and amusement parks; owned by Vivendi-Universal).
USFilter.

Veritas Group.
Veuve Clicquot Champagne.
Vittel.
Vivendi.

Wild Turkey (bourbon).
Woman's Day magazine.

Yoplait (The French company Sodiaal owns a 50 percent stake).

Zodiac inflatable boats. ""

[Salim]

So you are proposing to boycott all American companies?
Well, I'D never thought you'd be so...well... :)

hint, the Coca Cola Company is somewhere out there on your list...

[abu afak]

Originally posted by Salim
So you are proposing to boycott all American companies?
Well, I'D never thought you'd be so...well... :)

hint, the Coca Cola Company is somewhere our there on your list...


? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Salim you write in English.. do you read it?

[Salim]

next hint, Evian is not what it seems to be.
You just can't rely on this copy/paste information nowadays.

[abu afak]

Originally posted by Salim
next hint, Evian is not what it seems to be.
You just can't rely on this copy/paste information nowadays.

Yeah.. Coke Distributes Evian in the USA.

But Evian is Owned, (Groupe Danone) produced, and bottled, in France and employs French workers almost exclusively.

Not buying/boycotting Evian might cost Coke ½ of 1% of it's earnings,
but will lay off several Hundred French.

The List Stands.

[Salim]

Check your facts, The Coca-Cola Company holds 51% of Evian.
I guess I don't have to explain to you what that means.

[abu afak]

Originally posted by Salim
Check your facts, The Coca-Cola Company holds 51% of Evian.
I guess I don't have to explain to you what that means.

"...At the conclusion of 2002, their company introduced a variety of new brands and products including Vanilla Coke and Diet Vanilla Coke. Existing brands such as Diet Coke with lemon, Fanta, and PowerAde were introduced into the market. Also in 2002, their company acquired many new international water brands. Coca-Cola established a joint venture with Danone Waters of North America, Inc. and now owns 51 percent with the rights of Dannon, Sparklettes and Alhambra brands in the United States. Also in 2002, they acquired long-term global license rights for Seagram’s nonalcoholic carbonated soft drinks and certain assets to Seagram’s mixer business. They also entered into a master license agreement with Evian water brand in the United States and Canada. They also continued collaboration with The Walt Disney Company to market children’s soft drinks.

http://homepages.wmich.edu/~k1volk/Project5.htm



Coca-Cola has struck a deal with Danone to become the exclusive DISTRUBUTOR for Evian in the US.

Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.

Coca-Cola already distributes more than half of all Evian bottled water in North America, and this deal extends the existing agreement.

Danone chairman Franck Riboud says: "The agreement provides Evian with access to the marketing expertise of Coca-Cola in North America...."""

http://pda.ananova.net/news/story/sm_574870.html?menu=news.story


29 APRIL 2002 – COCA-COLA STRIKES DEAL WITH GROUPE DANONE IN USA

Coca-Cola is reported to be close to a deal with Groupe Danone, France, to adopt its license to import and distribute Evian mineral water in North America. ...""

http://www.packaging-technology.com/informer/breakthrough/break188/


Did you ever think of using a search engine Before you respond?

Salaam, Salim

[Donna]

Originally posted by abu afak

Did you ever think of using a search engine Before you respond?



I'm guessing he did think about it.....

and then said, "Oh what the heck."

:p

[abu afak]

Originally posted by Donna
I'm guessing he did think about it.....

and then said, "Oh what the heck."

:p

I only hope the Arabs are boycotting Evian because they they think it's 'Coke'. .. Oh the Irony!

[djnvcm]

Originally posted by abu afak
(From a friend on another board:

"..You may be wondering what companies should you boycott. You will probably be surprised to learn the French own everything from Wild Turkey to Car and Driver to Motel 6 to cheesy Spencer Gifts to disgusting Democrat schlock-show host Jerry Springer.

Air France
Air Liquide
...............................
Zodiac inflatable boats. ""

Do not forget KLM

[Mediocrates]

Royal DUTCH Airlines is French?

[TDidier]

Originally posted by Mediocrates
Royal DUTCH Airlines is French?

Not yet but certainly during this week...

[djnvcm]

Originally posted by Mediocrates
Royal DUTCH Airlines is French?

Yes
81% of New AIR FRANCE - KLM group will be owned by french interest.

[Mediocrates]

Is that good or bad? I've had fairly atrocious experiences on Air France but have never flown KLM.

[TDidier]

Boycott France?

From the Guardian:
"Consumers send 'warning sign' to US brands"

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1214114,00.html


:cool: