Freedom Fries not on the Menu

Here in the US, activists like Alice Waters try to improve the school lunch program in which cheap food is augmented by the leftovers of industrial agriculture. Over in France, things are a little different.

That article reminds me of that moment in Sicko, the Michael Moore movie (which many understandably gripe about) where MM is talking to American expat mothers in France, hearing about how the government sends a nurse to help them at home after the birth, and Michael says (sarcastically) 'Next you'll be saying the send someone to do your laundry,' which, of course, they do. Oh, social democracy.

Calling out the BS of a 'Pro-Western' leader...

That's nice that Serbia wants to be seen as a normal European country. It's great that their foreign minister went to fancy schools in Cambridge and, well, Cambridge. But last year I worked with a large Serbian non profit that dealt with issues of human trafficking, and I can tell you that they are pretty far from functioning like any other European country. The police who rounded up political dissidents under Milosevic in 2003 are still walking the same beats, and are peeved when Serbians with memories of 8 years ago are wary of using their services. The government has completely absolved itself of being responsible for the social welfare and human rights of it's inhabitants.

Being European means more than being viewed as a safe and stable investment, a destination for tourism, a possible member of the Euro-zone - it means having a generous and complete system of social insurance, and a government which at least attempts to address the welfare of its citizens.