The evil French are at it again with their American-hating ways. Take a look at
this latest atrocity:
As part of a program to help Louisiana recover from Hurricane Katrina, the French government soon will allocate $431,000 to the state's schools, the local French consulate said this week.
About $500,000 more will be held in reserve by a foundation acting on behalf of the government.
This isn't the first time, either. More below the fold.
In the days immediately following Katrina, all eyes were on Qatar, who offered the U.S. an unprecedented billion dollars for aid. But if you look through the list of aid offers, one stands out as particularly well thought-out and practical.
Guess who?
France has offered mobile help from rescue teams in the French Antilles in the Caribbean, including a civil defense detachment of 35 people, tents, camp beds, generators, motor pumps, water treatment units and emergency kits, two CASA cargo aircraft, a ship (Batral Francis Garnier) and the frigate Ventose with its Panther helicopter, and a hurricane disaster unit. France also has offered assistance from the French mainland, including several aircraft. In addition, the NGO Telecoms Sans Frontieres, which specializes in restoring phone lines and Internet service in disasters, is ready to send a team of experts and equipment. Veolia Environment, which has facilities in Louisiana, has offered to make its local water management resources available.
Now that Katrina's largely out of the news (thank you kossacks for keeping it alive, at least here), France is still allocating aid to the rebuilding process. How's that for America hating?
In fact, it's not even a purely governmental initiative. Check this out:
After Katrina, the French government asked the French American Cultural Exchange foundation in New York to create a special fund to help Louisiana schools.
A committee of French and American educators was appointed to review applications submitted to the fund. It met Tuesday at the local consulate.
Its decisions will be presented to the foundation, which will send money directly to each school.
The foundation's fund has received more than $1 million from the French government, individual French cities and towns, plus American foundations and individuals.
The French publishing group Lagardère also will contribute more than $150,000 for educational materials and music-related projects in Louisiana.
The remainder of the fund will be reserved for future requests from Louisiana schools, including those intending to reopen in September.
I can't stress that underlined point enough. Ordinary people are once again banding together to help the people of America in the wake of Katrina.
You could argue that France is doing it because of historical ties to the state of Louisiana, and you'd be... partially right, but more wrong than you think. After all, the good state of Louisiana has become increasingly and vocally anti-French, thanks to the invasive nature of punditry. Some of you may remember this gem from last year:
But now it seems things Louisianan may get a bad reputation in France, as a result of (1) a bill to disinvite French President Jacques Chirac from the Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial later this year, (2) gubernatorial candidate Bobby Jindal's supporting sentiments and (3) his patron Gov. Mike Foster's concurrence. In addition, there's anecdotal evidence that Louisianans, like American everywhere, have reduced their consumption of French goods in protest of France's lack of support, if not outright opposition to, America's conflict with Iraq.
That's right: many good Louisianans banded together to seek an official recanting of our invitation to Chirac to attend our tricentennial, as a way of "punishing" the French for their opposition to the Iraqi war. Makes loads of sense, doesn't it?
Fortunately, many were not so impressed by the political posturing, but for every story you don't hear about unimpressed Louisianans shrugging it off, you hear two or three examples like this:
David White, 29, a New Orleans resident, writer and information-technology manager, presented a petition to the City Council on March 20 asking for an ordinance to rename the city's oldest neighborhood the "Freedom Quarter."
Mr. White said in this time of war when France opposes America, "I don't think we should be calling things by French names. I think American things should be called by American names."
If that's not enough, try this:
"In one restaurant, two teachers were talking in French privately and a waiter went up to them and voiced disapproval of their country -- they were actually from Belgium," Perrin said.
That's bad enough from the average Joe on the streets. But what should we make of this insult:
Congressman Billy Tauzin from Louisiana, the only Cajun in the House of Representatives, removed the French language section of his official website because of anti-French sentiment.
You could argue that the state of Louisiana doesn't deserve this kind of generosity from a country we've treated so cruddily. And, I wouldn't object.
And yet, France is coming through for us. This fact gets little more than a grumble out of my France-hating relatives (a supreme source of irony, since we're all ethnically French!), but it's there, and it's real, and I plan on pulling this out every time I hear someone tossing out the usual, unconsidered attacks on France. They're not perfect, we're not perfect, but dammit if we don't get along every now and then.
Thank you, France.
(You hear that, Bill O'Reilly?)