Les Jeunes Verts and Becoming Ashamed of My Family's (Pathetic?) Genealogy

Not a whole lot happening this week, mostly because I'm sick.

I did go to a meeting of "Les Jeunes Verts" or "The Young Greens". Many of you know I'm active in the environmental cause in the US, and I wanted to see what the hot issues and political dialogue was like here in France. Politics in general are different in France since they have a multiparty, two-stage (or runoff) election system. The political parties are fairly diverse, and the Ecologie/Verts have done fairly well in elections at different levels in the French government (local, regional, etc.), and having the most success at the EU Parliamentary level.

The meeting of jeunes verts was held at a cafe in town, and there was free organic wine and appetizers (I think they should have just advertised that on their signs, they would have brought in more people...), and the students were really really interested in talking to me about the environmental movement in America. They were shocked at how much so-called special interest groups and lobbyists control our politics (for example, oil and gas companies spent $154 MILLION lobbying Congress in 2009).

In France, corporations cannot give to political candidates. People don't lobby as a career. This just seems like such a no-brainer to me. It's quite an insult in American politics today for a politician to "bought by special interest groups." Both Obama and McCain/Palin tried to portray themselves as being above such petty things, but the truth is that a major politician can't win an election without immense large-donor support--corporations that are investing in votes. This system has replaced the "one person, one vote" American ideal. The French system isn't perfect, but I think it's a much purer democracy than the American system. The parties don't have to water down their messages in order to get votes. I was really impressed by many of the platforms--clean energy, reducing consumption, public health, human rights, and democracy.

Oh, right, back to the meeting: We talked about nuclear power, the organic food movement, recycling, how it's hard for green party candidates in the US to gain momentum because of the bi-party system, and how the debate on climate change has been really skewed in the US. Les jeunes verts were preparing for the elections this Sunday, and one of the candidates came to talk. Overall, a really enlightening discussion (and hey, the organic wine was delicious too). It just made me realize how much we have to go in America, and how sad it is that most of this stuff never even gets mentioned in American elections.

Today, Chantal (my host mom) showed us a picture of her family's genealogy. She can trace her ancestors back to the early 1500s (!!!). I was stunned. I mean, I thought my family had done pretty well tracing our roots back to the early 1800s (I think?), and then things kind of get murky once you get to "the old country." We had a discussion about where my ancestors came from (Ireland, Germany, Luxembourg, Croatia/Czech Republic), and I was again surprised that both Alain and Chantal are only French. Chantal pointed out that almost all of her family had a "de" or a "de la" in their last name; it's a sign of French nobility.

I thought it didn't mean anything anymore, but when I talked to one of the neighbor boys and asked him if he knew my family, he shrugged and said, "they're bourge", which is short for "bourgeoisie." There is still a distinction in French society. I've been thinking about it a lot, about how there's nothing really like that in America. I'm not saying there aren't ways of showing you have wealth (cars! clothes! houses!), but no one looks at your last name and makes assumptions about you like that. You could be a big-shot millionaire (ok, excluding our dear friend Warren Buffett) in Omaha, but when you go to Texas, no one knows who you are. Even if you have the last name Rockefeller, it doesn't mean anything. Kind of cool if you ask me.

Oh, and I finally found cheap peanut butter here, which was actually quite a task. Peanut butter hasn't really caught on here--Nutella is HUGE but good ol PB not so much. In most of the grocery stores, the TINIEST container of peanut butter costs 4 or 5 euro. I went to an Asian supermarket and found a huge can(!) of peanut butter for 1.90 euro. Success has never tasted so sweet. and nutty.

I'm going to Lyon this weekend--it's in eastern France, at the foothills of the Alps. We're planning on going to a restaurant with a couple Michelin stars, too!

Ciao,
Claire

quote of the day: We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. -Native American proverb

More pictures of Paris, just for funsies: