Thoughts for Paris

During this week, I've been thinking about my trip to Paris two years ago. I will always have found memories of walking around the cobbles streets, eating Macarons and absorbing the aged sophistication. But why this Parisian feeling? Strangely, the arrest and inditement of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. This ugly situation of the attempted sexual assault has revealed some unsavory elements of French culture. Much of the French press has accused the US justice system of harsh treatment of one their elite and suggested that the frigid Protestantism of Americans is what is really to blame for DSK's treatment. The fact that DSK and his friends in the French elite are Socialists is shocking and yet not surprising. It is surprising in the sense that the French press has shown so little compassion towards the victim, an African single mother by publishing her name and making comments on her appearance. These socialists say that they are for the little guy while deriding the center and the right as anti-compassionate. These wealthy socialists are compassionate towards the 'little people' until the worker throws a wrench into their plans, (look at accusations of sexual harassment from members of the left, Al Gore and Bill Clinton and the reaction from Feminist group NOW). Also, the French press plays into the meta-narrative of the Puritan Americans vs. Libertine French. There are many elements of French culture that I like; the desserts, visual arts and casual chicness. The Libertine attitude towards male-female relationships is something I can't romanticize.