The French go about their business as usual

cartoon: Al-Jarida, Kuwait, January 15, 2008
From Tiberge at the Brussel's Journal: Sarko and the Saudis

[...] This is the sixth Muslim-Arab country Sarkozy has visited (if my count is accurate) to whom he has either promised or given nuclear energy for peaceful use. Libya, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and now Arabia. He is scheduled to visit the Emirates where he will make the same offer.

This is the first time I recall him saying that nuclear energy is a right. It’s quite a sweeping statement. He means, of course, for peaceful purposes, but the underlying potential for something far more sinister cannot be disregarded.

Business was also part of his agenda. Besides a criticism of the price of oil, which he considers to be too high, Nicolas Sarkozy promised, on leaving Ryad, “large contracts” for French businesses, and spoke of “potentially 40 billion euros,” especially in armaments.

It might be worthwhile to point out that the news reports mention nothing about Sarkozy having criticized the treatment of Christians in Saudi Arabia. He was critical of the price of oil, and discreetly critical of the condition of women, but not a word on the fate of Christians. [...]

France has an agenda very different from the Anglosphere. This isn't surprising. It just must not be forgotten.

We hear so much about how "conservative" France's President Sarko is. Yet what they mean by conservative is very different from what we believe the term to mean. Here is another article by Tiberge. And the title isn't referring to Sarkozy's sex partners:

Who Is Sarkozy in Bed With?

[...] Nicolas Sarkozy has no interest or affinity for ANYTHING that isn't left-wing. Yes, he’s accused of being a “capitalist” because he sails on the yachts of his rich friends. And he’s accused of being friendly to religion because of ONE speech he gave in Rome (that will turn out to benefit Muslims, most likely). And he is accused of being an ARCH CONSERVATIVE because he wants to deport 25,000 illegals a year, allowing the remaining 575,000 on French soil to collect welfare. [...]

The article reports on an event in France where Tony Blair made a very socialist speech (and btw, say's in America he would be a Democrat), and was joined by Sarkozy on the stage, who praised the speech of his fellow socialist.

And then there is Sarkozy's ideas of freedom of religion... read the whole thing. It's not long, and full of insights. I don't find this surprising; one expects socialists to be socialists. It's just important to remember that what's called conservative in Europe is... not what we would call it. And France is definitly marching to the sound of a different drummer, as they are about to take the lead of the European Union. I see the potential for France to make a lot of big messes.
     

Did Tony Blair advance a "Culture of Lies"?

Those are harsh words. How true are they? Fjordman at the Brussel's Journal looks at what some people would call a legacy of lies in Britain:

A Culture of Lies

The always excellent writer Theodore Dalrymple, one of the most astute observers of Britain and indeed of the Western world today, has assessed the ten years under the leadership of former PM Tony Blair. According to Dalrymple, “Many in Britain believe that he has been the worst prime minister in recent British history, morally and possibly financially corrupt, shallow and egotistical.”

[...]

He [Dalrymple] believes the inadequacies of the state are hidden beneath a web of lies of half-truths, and by confusing the public through corrupting official statistics. Unemployment rates are artificially kept down by classifying people as sick rather than unemployed, “and thus, by a single lie, is the population, the medical profession and the government corrupted.” Likewise, crime rates are kept down by encouraging the police not to record crimes. Through such measures, “the whole of society finds itself corrupted and infantilized by its inability to talk straight.”

Dalrymple states that “We have come to expect dishonesty – of which this little lie was an example – at every level of society. The dishonesty is intellectual, moral and financial, and its root is self-interest conceived in the narrowest possible way. In modern Britain, probity is foolishness or, worse still, naivety.” He believes this corrupts the entire fabric of society: “When dignity requires illegality, there is something rotten in the state.”

The media and the authorities have been deceiving the public for decades about Multiculturalism, EU integration and the true cost of Muslim immigration. Thus a culture of lies and moral and financial corruption is cultivated. It starts at the top and spreads downwards. If the state lies, cheats and collects money for services it fails to provide, why can't average citizens do the same thing?

According to Dalrymple, “Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.” [...]

(bold emphasis mine) Dalrymple spent his career working in the Mental Health sector of the NHS, giving him a good first hand look at the effects of government policies on the populace. He knows of what he speaks, and has the facts to back it up.

Fjordman goes on to describe how Europe, via the EU, is being affected the same way. It's worth reading the whole thing.


Related Link:

An interview with Theodore Dalrymple