I see that even Joan Collins has taken on board the latest craze - downsizing her food bill by shopping at her local Target lo-cost shop in West Hollywood, CA. before loading up her RR outside! Le 'spending power' is the new buzz word in France too. There's a TV show over here called Combien ca coute? (How much does that cost?) on TF1 on Saturdays. So, it looks as if everyone's at it. But me? No. Not with food. As a pensioner I've learned a bit over the years. Life is precious, and our bodies are our lives. I can't understand why people think nothing of spending thousands on material goods but then stuffing their faces with cheap fast (rubbish) food. The quality of the 'fuel' which drives our bodies means that our bodies (i.e. our lives) will last that bit longer. The French have traditionally always understood this, so I hope the new trend doesn't catch on. You see them eating out at quality restaurants before returning to their meagre little apartments in their clapped-out old cars. Correct. Does Joan Collins run her expensive car on cooking oil? I don't think so. Yet, she is apparently now content to run her own body/life on cheap 'fuel'. Where's the sense in that? You can always buy a new car/house, but not a new life. Once your body's gone, everything's gone. So, buy fresh veg, avoid frozen, and cook nutritious meals at home. Re-arrange your time and money, give less emphasis to material goods, and give greater emphasis to the things that really matter: making you live longer and healthier.
Vive le bien manger!
P.S. New serial tomorrow.
Showing posts with label credit crunch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label credit crunch. Show all posts
2nd October 2008
Living as we do in rural France, we've come to realise that there is a strange conflict. On the one hand France seems a dynamic raring-to-go nation, ready to seize the global initiative. Only yesterday the President, as the EU Chairman, recommended that Europe provide a 300 bn Euro rescue fund to rescue crippled banks across Europe. As the world held its breath on the fate of America’s own $700 billion bank bailout plan, President Sarkozy set up his own emergency meeting for next Saturday. However, nothing runs smoothly and there was the usual scepticism from everyone. To a man, the other EU nations said that their particular country could not and would not issue a blank cheque for all banks, regardless of whether they behave in a responsible manner or not.
So, as usual, modernity versus the usual confusion and bickering everywhere. France denied at first that it had put forward a proposal for a fund at all and then, after admitting that it had done so, denied that it would cost 300 billion. Paris said that the figure had come from the Dutch Government. But officials in The Hague said that they had no idea what the French were talking about.
The usual strife, contention and argument then! What was it Confuscius said long ago? Bring in new people and everyone will think that things are going to turn out better. But in practice? It's like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic!
So, as usual, modernity versus the usual confusion and bickering everywhere. France denied at first that it had put forward a proposal for a fund at all and then, after admitting that it had done so, denied that it would cost 300 billion. Paris said that the figure had come from the Dutch Government. But officials in The Hague said that they had no idea what the French were talking about.
The usual strife, contention and argument then! What was it Confuscius said long ago? Bring in new people and everyone will think that things are going to turn out better. But in practice? It's like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic!
26th September 2008
For weeks those crazy physicists had been trying to bring the world to an end, until him upstairs stepped in and closed down their machinery. But now the financiers on America's Wall Street look as though they're to do the same thing. This will be much more difficult to close down because it involves the way millions of people have been living. The signs were always there: things just couldn't continue. Everyone in the West has been living way beyond their means, based on ever-increasing credit, and governments have been encouraging it for years. Every UK student will tell you: some even have debts amounting to mortgage level by the time they leave university. It's Wall Street 1929 all over again. How the Taliban must be rubbing their hands in glee: the West is doing their job for them in eradicating capitalism at a stroke. Because the US is a super-power, anything they do has an inevitable trickle-down effect to the rest of the West, so what's happening in Europe? Well, the ECB's super-lax policy has already caused credit expansion of 30pc a year in Ireland, and pushed household debt levels to 190pc of GDP. The hangover has now begun in earnest. Apparently next on the EU list for the deepening recession are Germany and Italy. And for France? No-one says much here. I'm personally so glad that I downsized from the UK to France when I did, capitalizing on our assets before it was too late. It's still the good life here where we don't rely much on capital assets. And if all else fails? The sunshine is free, la qualite de la lumiere is free, and what's more, for the first time in our lives we have no mortgage, no debt whatsoever and no credit cards. Hallelujah!
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