As I choose to sit down to eat a plate of macaroni cheese as a satirical tribute to the new President of France,Emmanuel Macron, I am of the view it is worth sharing the experience and the motivation !If not the meal, don't worry , I won't make a meal of it !
Given that Marine Le Pen did not win, and had she done I would have not eaten a plate of penne to celebrate , but probably , given up the dish altogether, I like macaroni cheese , so am going to enjoy my meal, and the new French presidency !
It is a sign of respect , laced with humour, to a man who would probably get the joke , I being of part Italian extraction, and , as an Englishman with no obvious food similar in name , to that of Macron, he being aware of the diversity of culture !
There has been much misunderstanding and a lot of deliberately misleading writing on the subject of Macron and his comments on French culture. The meaning of what he said, was and is that there is no such thing as French culture in and of itself, there is French culture, it is diverse,not isolated.There is no one French culture.
Coming from a man from a country that likes quotas on the radio of French singers, to avoid the air waves being bombarded by English language songs, the Macron line is a welcome one !He is confident that French culture can be open to influence , as it too is influential.He would understand that Yves Montand was born in Italy, that Charles Aznavour is of Armenian origin and that Johnny Halliday is Frances biggest pop legend who made it big , choosing an Anglo- American sounding name !
A lot of silliness is talked about Macron. The left think him too adroit for them ! The right consider him a bit too gauche to be to their taste. Mais oui, he is a Liberal really , and what we are thus left with is someone able to be right, at the centre of things !
I do not believe him to be a neo - liberal either, not at all. Heis a mainstream , moderate traditional modern social Liberal. I do not know if he is radical. But faced with the extremism he has mightily beaten, who knows is also who cares! C'est la vie !
I am , according to the press , meant to be fuming with anger because he has called Brexit a crime ! As Macron is an Anglophile, and that's a first, and as I did not vote for Brexit, I believe his comments to mean a blow, an injury, the wrong thing to do, as many think of Brexit ! From a man , who, with his wife , has a cultural excursion to my country at the least , once a year, I can read the best in his motives. He chooses London for a holliday! And I don't mean Johnny !
Author : Lorenzo CHERIN