The French Illusion

She has been waking up early these past few days, before the sunrise. Her mind was occupied with so many things, mostly stressful things. She is a woman at her 40 and she wears many hats. Despite probably has lived half of her lifetime could possibly ever be, she is still finding her place in this world and what mission she should accomplish before she finally close her eyes forever and leave this place. 

She looked outside the window of her bedroom situated on the first floor, it was still dark. From her bedroom window she could see until the sea, and sometimes when the weather allows she could see until the Baie des Anges (Bay of the Angels) and Cap d’Antibes. Some people consider her very lucky. She is not living a rich life, but comfortable enough. She thought the same way too, that she is lucky and she is very grateful to what life has given her. 

She lives in an area that is considered one of the most beautiful parts of France. Stunning sea views with its surrounding hills, mountains and its mediterranean vegetation that gives the region a unique characteristic. There have been many films made in the area especially Hollywood movies, with the movie shot taken mostly along the coast of Cote d’Azur to Monaco. 

It’s beautiful, but it is also hell. Life is not as it seems, like most people living in this area, it is all just skin deep. It attracts the people whose life pursuit is wealth, fame and other worldly pleasure. The area includes Cannes with its famous yearly Cannes Film Festival. Life in this area is portrayed like those in Hollywood movies and Cannes Film Festival, full of glamour, the blitz and glitz of the upper class of the French and very wealthy international society living in Cote d’azur.

She lives a reclusive life by choice, as a mean of protecting herself as she never knows when she will receive her next bad treatment. Every time she come out from her house’s gate, she is prepared for the worst. She could face unkind harsh treatment, racism, discrimination and prejudice from seller, shop, waiter/waitress, aggressive French driver, etc. Outside her house, life has become unbearable. She could not enjoy life anymore.  There is a few decent people. But overall, people are cold, rude, mean-spirited. She is tired of pretending that things are fine. There is no order, no justice, no service, etc. The whole system in France is rotten to its core. From government either local government the “mairie” (townhall) or national government to how laws and rules are made and should be implemented, all is chaotic. Laws and rules are to be violated and impunity given for those in power.

Whoever says that what matters in a country is only its people, he/she is right. You could live in the most beautiful part of the world with good weather, but it leaves you dead inside. You don’t feel the warmth, you don’t feel welcome. The slogan that France is “terre d’accueil” (welcoming land) is another one of the French’s lies and propaganda. There is no kindness. Life is about being selfish and winning the rat race at all cost.  

To give an example of some life difficulty that should not be there if people just do their job, it’s almost impossible to get a driving license in France especially for foreigners without being scammed and abused to the max. The driving schools are given the power to abuse by the government because it is the driving school who decide whether you can get a test or not. It is in the best interest of the driving school “auto ecole” to keep you forever in the school for your money. The new rules stipulate that anyone can demand a test by himself, but when someone demands a practical driving test to the DDTM (department in charge of driving test and driving license), they never respond. In addition to that, anyone asking for a practical test has to come with a car that has dual control (voiture double commande) which is impossible because there is no place renting that kind of car in the area. So rules and laws are just made in France to give the impression that they are doing something to improve things, but in actual it is impossible to implement. Basically, the government is legalising customer abuse and scam and giving a monopoly to driving schools as people needing a driving license, in the end, have to go back to driving school, have to try so many driving schools, spending tons amount of money, time and energy just to be given a chance to have a test to pass the driving test. 

The problematic driving license is just one of the many more issues France is having. But that simple but very essential paper to have is a reflection of how bigger things are run in France. People rarely want to talk about it too. French people are indoctrinated to think that this is all normal, that this is how things should run and be run. “C’est normal, c’est comme ca.”

They are also taught to be silent, to never be outspoken. Yellow Vest protests used to be seen as bad by the majority, that they were troublemaker, who protested for ridiculous things. 

As a result, things will never change for the better in France. Everything is broken, from  the political system, education system, justice system, financial system, etc. Life is hell in France, more if you are coloured people, women, and children. Corruption, racism, inequality between man and woman, violence against women and children, sexual aggression, pedophilia, fraud, state violence are rampant in France. It’s pervasive and ubiquitous, that’s why maybe they think this is all normal. It is a sick society, where the inhumane is considered right and sane and the humane is considered wrong and insane. No humanity and empathy towards others. If you talk to most French, they are very proud  of being French, even when presented with their dark history (that includes colonialism and Nazi collaborator) and their current war crimes. How could someone admits his country’s crimes against humanity but at the same time being proud and defend it? To do that, that person must have been stripped of any empathy towards other human beings, be indoctrinated/brainwashed to the max resulting in cognitive dissonance that they can’t relate facts, think logically, and having this extreme patriotism. 

The French are so brainwashed to be proud of “La Grande France” (The Great France), their history, culture, and heritage. Their heritage so-called patrimoine is a result of centuries of pillaging, raping, killing, and the exploitation of other nations. But still they are so proud of their “Civilisation”. Proud to be murderer, rapist, robber, war criminal? She couldn’t fathom why it is countries such as Indonesia that is called the third world, uncivilised, developing world. When it is The West who is the barbarian doing the killing and plundering? When it is the West with its less developed “humane” civilisation?

Most French think their system is the best in the world and the whole world should adopt it. Everything French is the best. Nothing could be further from the truth. Their culinary, their fashion, beauty and luxury industry, and other industries are mostly just marketing campaign to boost sales and profit. As I have written in other articles, the French are good at marketing, they know how to create the illusion, image and how to sell anything French. Vogue promotes many articles and videos on “How to be beautiful like the French women”, “How to dress like French women”, etc. This kind of article gives the impression as if it is only the French women who are beautiful, elegantly dressed, and not other women from different races and nationalities. While the countries that won most of the Miss Universe Pageant (and even reputed to have many beautiful women), such as the US, Venezuela, Porto Rico, and the Philippine do not dare to make such claims. The fashion, beauty, luxury, film, and media industry would like to dictate their definition of beauty so they can sell more of their products and to uphold White Supremacy that it is only the White people who are beautiful. If you are coloured woman, you are not beautiful. In films and novels, coloured people are underrepresented, and if they are represented it is full of stereotypes such as they can’t be intelligent or strong. 

The French system and anything French are not the best in the world, if they are not the worst in the world. Coming from a country considered the third world by the West, she used to think that everything in the West must be better than Indonesia. That the education quality would be better, there would be justice and democracy, that there is no corruption, etc. It took her some time after she landed in this country called “le pays des droits de l’homme” (country of human rights) to pursue MBA in their top university to know that there are no rights here, rights are only for the elites, the oligarchs and those in power. 

In the morning, she read Chris Hedges’s newest essay “The Empire Does Not Forgive”. She considers Chris Hedges as one of the best political writers besides John Pilger and several other writers, she loves both Pilger and Hedges’ style of writing that can evoke feelings. She aspires to writers who can write beautifully, who can evoke emotions. She understands that a good writer writes from the heart. It’s the heart that counts, even though the mind gives broad perspectives but the heart extends it to a new horizon. That heart she has inside had been silenced for quite a long time, out of life circumstances and career choice wherein the MBA, one of the curriculum is to strip any business school student from empathy so they can be ruthless in the workplace to maximise profit for greedy unethical corporations. The professor teaching that subject is a graduate from Harvard, and she remembers when he asked her because he was confused why she was so upset with the school and the dean’s asking the students to lie in the Financial Times’ ranking survey so the school could be in the top ranking. She guessed the school and its employees do not know the word “integrity”. The class subject taught agenda and “soft” skills. It taught students to have agenda and manipulating skills to achieve goals and climb the career ladder among other things. She was evaluated as being “too kind” and “too much empathy”. She was assessed as someone not fit to be the corporate top dog. Someone with a heart, feelings, moral, and sense of justice will fail this class. Someone corrupt, greedy, devoid of moral, cutthroat, Machiavellian, psychopathic will get a good grade in this class. She should have known better what business school is all about. Experience is the best lesson. She wonders whether her former classmates ever look back and do some introspection of what actually they learned in MBA. She guesses most never introspect because they are busy making tons of money, having quite a high corporate position by now especially those with White Male Privilege, or they simply do not care. The current system benefits more the White and Male, it is not a system based on merit. The world system fails the intelligent and the good, it rewards the incompetent and the immoral.