property tax has come into effect and the time has come for people to pay up, the whole episode has been characterised by a remarkable silence on the part of the people of Ireland.
Normally, people here are quick to protest about perceived injustices; if this property tax had been put in place under the old
British regime, pre-1922, we’d have seen no end of protests and complaints. The silence and complicity this time is extraordinary. Already, there’s 80 per cent
compliance with the new tax and all the protest movements that were promised have turned out to be little more than piss and wind - there’s simply no substance to them. No doubt, the powers-that-be are delighted and are now busy thinking up new taxes and charges for the forthcoming budget in three months' time.
The property tax is inequitable, because it’s based on the value of people’s homes, not on their disposable income, so that a pensioner could live in a house with a comparatively high valuation, yet have little disposable income with which to pay the tax. Even people with disability benefits are going to find a certain proportion of their income from the state taken at source to pay their obligations. Yet people in Ireland have just let this new tax roll over them with scarcely a murmur, which is enough to let those in government think that they can repeat this exercise ad infinitum and that no-one is going to bother complaining.
There have been all kinds of suggestions about this remarkable docility, even a suggestion that since Ireland is the only country in Europe to still put fluoride into its drinking water that this has
somehow softened people’s brains. Maybe they are right! It all proves that in present day Ireland, people will take any old crap, obligingly, without a murmur of protest! The situation is not helped by most of the media, which seems determined to follow the government line, without any questioning.
But then one has to ask how relevant is much of the media to people’s everyday lives? It’s not just a lot of print media but broadcast media too that finds it easier to serve up pap rather than ask any
hard questions. And it’s not just media in Ireland that’s to blame; the other day, I was scrolling through the BBC Radio 4 programme listings for this week and they are just desert territory. Literally one or two interesting and relevant programmes and that’s about it, even allowing for the fact that swathes of Radio 4 listening on long wave are given over to that ultimate absurdity, cricket.
There’s another interesting current example of media docility in the UK. The other day, it was reported that the Tory party was about to be engulfed in another love scandal, but that for legal reasons, no names could be published or even any details of the case. Has the British press gone
totally soft post-Leveson? Papers just haven’t bothered to follow up the scandal, which is a great pity!
The media in France can be just as bad. Fortunately, over the past few days, the weather in France has been improving, while in central Europe, floods are ravaging several countries, including Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany. After a slow start, the great floods of the ‘summer’ of 2013 are being well reported on media outlets like the BBC news website. But if you look for details in many French newspapers, you’ll look in vain, because they have scarcely bothered reporting them. So the question must be asked: how useful is the media? Can the social networks provide a better understanding of what’s going on? Here in Dublin, in our own neck of the woods, you get a much better idea of what’s really going on from plain old gossiping.
One of the interesting facts about the central European floods has hardly been reported
outside the Czech Republic. Last time there was a big flood in Prague, in 2002, immense damage was caused to the zoo, the lower parts of which are close to river level. A lot of lessons were learned and this time round, all the animals at risk were safely evacuated to higher ground and the only casualty was a flamingo that broke its leg. Outside the Prague media, no-one seemed to bother reporting the plight of the poor flamingo.
Despite all this negativity of feeling about what the media reports, and how, there are signs of
positivity. One interesting development has been the signing of an accord between the authorities in Ireland and France responsible for electricity transmission to explore the possibilities of a 600 km long submarine cable with a 700 MW capacity to link the electricity systems in Ireland and France.
There’s also the Tour de France starting on June 29th. This is the centenary of the great cycling race, which has survived despite all the doping scandals. This year, it’s going to start in the tourist resort of
Ponto-Vecchio in Corsica, the first time that the race has come to Corsica. The only time that the Tour de France has been stalled was during the two world wars. It provides great TV coverage as well as continuous coverage you can follow on your tablet or PC, resulting in the finish of the race on the Champs-Élysées on July 21st. The race has always provided great excitement, if not entirely good clean fun.
This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about eastern France, not least because of all the dramatic photos of the high water levels on the Rhine, which at this point separates France and Germany, passing by Strasbourg en route. Further up the Rhine, at Basle, close to where France, Germany and Switzerland intersect, the photos of the rising Rhine waters have been truly dramatic.
One place that has come to mind in eastern France, Seine et Marne to be precise, is Provins, which is 89 km from Paris and easily reached by train. We found it a most delightful medieval town, with extensive old ramparts and the 15th century Tour César, from the top of which are splendid views over the town. Provins has masses of old houses, old churches, extensive ramparts and lots of ancient caves, even the 12th century Saint-Esprit hospital; in other words, it’s the perfect place to see what life in medieval France was really like. These days, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and if you take a peek at the French Ministry of Culture website listing for the town, the list of old buildings seems to go on for ever. In medieval times, the great Champagne fairs staged here were important priming points for the European economy as a whole, long before the wretched euro was invented. Provins is a gorgeous place for anyone interested in medieval French history and easy to get to from Paris.
In the Haut-Rhin department of Alsace, the village of Eguisheim is vying for the title of the
most beautiful village in France. It’s a picture postcard wine village, with half-timbered houses bedecked with flowers, an entrancing sight. Eguisheim is a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France. The Haut-Rhin department is well placed, with a total of five villages in this organisation. Alongside Egusheim are other delights, such as Riquewhir, which is the place everyone thinks of when they consider wine making in Alsace. The only snag with Riquewhir as we found
for ourselves was that the day we were there, a few thousand other tourists had the same idea and the centre of the village bore a distinct resemblance to Piccadilly Circus!
If you want to see some of the entrancing wine villages of Alsace, you’re much better of going for the lesser-known ones. Alsace is also home to two of the best museums I’ve been in, both in Mulhouse, often described as the French equivalent of Manchester (take that as you wish!). I’m no great supporter of car culture, considering the vast detrimental environmental effects it has, quite apart from its human toll. Yet when I visited the Schlumpf car museum in Mulhouse, the largest old car
museum in the world, I couldn’t help but be fascinated. The museum has over 500 priceless old cars, many of great worth, that had been collected by the Schumpf brothers, Hans and Fritz, who once ran a great textile empire in Mulhouse. The cars are all immaculately preserved and it’s amazing to see row upon row of them. Can you imagine the effect of seeing all this on a genuine enthusiast for
vintage and veteran cars?
The other museum in Mulhouse that’s a real eye opener is the railway museum, again the biggest of its kind in the world. The city council in Mulhouse made land available in 1961 so that the
historic rolling stock and engines belonging the SNCF could be preserved. In recent years, the museum has been much expanded and its fascinating to be able to see what Wagon-Lits were like at the height of their popularity, real comfort and elegant dining aboard long distance trains. I still have our two entrance tickets to the museum, souvenirs of a wonderful trip back into the past, in this
case, the golden age of European railways, between 1860 and 1940.
Finally, this week, I must recommend a book about French village life, even though it describes an era long since vanished. Over 60 years ago, an American professor, Laurence Wylie and his family lived for a year in a village in the Vaucluse in south-eastern France, between Avignon and the famed
Mont Ventoux. He called the village Peyrane - its real name is Roussillon. It’s also the village where Samuel Beckett hid out between 1942 and1945 when he was member of the Resistance and the village gets honourable mention in Waiting for Godot.
The Wylie book came out in 1957 and the third edition, of which I bought a copy, was published in 1974. Despite the passing of time, this Harvard University Press book is still readily available. For anyone who wants a blow-by-blow account of what French village life was really like before the
advent of widespread industrialisation and the immense social changes of the past three or four decades,this is the book to read.It’s sociology with a human
face and it’s absolutely riveting stuff.