FRANCE: Culture and newspapers

France insists that it has primacy in culture, and for this reason UNESCO was located in Paris. The claim that Paris leads the word culturally led to the growth of -isms which fooled the gullible world and did little credit to France, whose greatness lies elsewhere. The new year and millennium were greeted around the world with firework displays, which appealed to the child in humans. In Paris another childish feature was added, A thousand drummers from around Europe were assembled on the ugly Pompidou Museum, where they banged away on their drums to their childish hearts'´content.

Literacy is a measure of culture. and the reading of newspapers is a sign of the intellectual vitality of a country. What of France? "According to a recent study by Insee. In 1973, half of France's adult population read a daily newspaper almost every day, but by 1997, only a third could make that claim. Today three-fourths of the population say they never read a national daily paper. As a result, national newspaper circulation has decreased over the past 15 years, from 869 million in 1985 to 738 million today."

Bang away, drummers!

Ronald Hilton - 1/03/01