Je ressors un article que j’avais mis de côté quand j’étais en Angleterre. Il remonte à Décembre 2008 ! Mais je vous assure, les info sont très intéressantes. On retiendra surtout que le footballeur perçoit 2 fois par an un montant de £118 689,57 de la part d’EA Games.

• £90 000 : Salaire hebdomadaire au Manchester United
• £760 000 : Droits à l’image versés par le club tous les 6 mois
• £ 1mil : Salaire annuel versé par Nike
• £ 118 689, 57 : 2 versements par an de la part d’EA Games
• £ 600 000 : Contrat de 4 ans avec Coca Cola
• £ 3, 55mil : Deal de 12 ans pour un (plusieurs) livres ? (“12-year book deal”)

Source : London lite, monday 8 December 2008, p.3

J’ai ajouté un lien qui nous mène vers le site de l’UNICEF et qui présente la charte des droits des enfants…  je le glisse ici dans l’article, mais restera présent dans mes liens internet.

http://www.unicef.org/french/crc/

Le “Forum des droits sur l’internet” nous propose un petit guide pour bien acheter (Pdf), et avec un minimum de risques, sur les sites de e-commerce.

J’en profite pour vous conseiller “Spywareblaster”, en version gratuite, un freeware bloquant sur votre PC Windows, l’entrée, par votre navigateur préféré, de plus de 13.000 spywares. Ne pas oublier de mettre à jour, à la première utilisation, et environ tous les quinze jours, la base de données. Pour activer chaque mise à jour, cliquer sur “Enable All Protection”, dans “Protection Status”.

Une Québecoise sourit sur Facebook, son assurance maladie suspend ses droits – actu24.be.

droit (n.f.) : right (to do something).

This past weekend I was in Lyon with my friend Robert, seeking to échapper à Paris and sample the renoun local cuisine.  It’s always interesting to spend a full weekend with someone who isn’t one of your meilleurs amis or de ta famille, because you never know what, other than the place you are visiting, will end up being the topic of conversation.  And so on samedi, when it started to rain, and we had just bought a delicious sandwich & pastry for a picnic lunch, I wasn’t expecting the dérangement to inspire a conversation that I’m still thinking about 2 jours plus tard.

The McDonald’s in Lyon (and we know how I feel about MacDo based on my commentary on its imminent entry into the Carrousel du Louvre) has a rather large covered patio outside, ideal for escaping la pluie.  So even though we weren’t eating McDonald’s food, Robert and I thought to take our picnic to the MacDo patio was totally justifié, and to assuage any lingering guilt we might (not) have had, I bought a few hot drinks, because I don’t really believe in buying anything else at McDonald’s.

In between bites of my delicious non-MacDo sandwich, I found myself taking an interest in our simultaneous and spontaneous impulse to exploiter MacDo without any real sense of culpabilité.  Robert and I don’t come from the same part of the United States, as I’m from the nord-est and he’s from the sud, and I often blague that I have more in common with the French than I do him.  So the fact that both of us felt like we essentially had the droit as Americans to sit at any MacDo we liked, use their facilities, etc. was a strangely fascinating similarity.

Maybe it’s because we’re in a cultural studies program and I spend my time reading dense philosophical textes on the subject of identité and the construction of culture de masse, but the fact that the exploitation of any and all McDonald’s seemed natural to us, almost like a droit d’aînesse raises an interesting question as to what make someone “American”.  I, personally, am the type of person who always feels guilty, as if I’m going to get caught for trespassing, but if someone at McDonald’s told me I couldn’t sit in the restaurant because I hadn’t bought their food, it would almost seem natural to respond, “Mais, je suis americaine” (But, I’m american).  I don’t feel this way about all American establishments, par exemple, I don’t expect everyone at Starbucks to let me take up space on their couches (because I actually refuse to buy over-priced coffee in France, which is the only reason why McDonald’s gets handed the most infrequent attention from my wallet.  For the record, they sell portable coffee at the French chaine “Paul”.)

What is it about McDonald’s?  And is there any other établissement I feel this way about?  …Soit Walmart.

If I had to deviner, I would say its that companies like MacDo or Walmart embody the worst of la pire that the United States mass produces- and that their presence at home or abroad contributes to negative stereotypes about Americans almost more than the “ugly american(s)” themselves.  When I go onto MacDo in France, I almost never see Americans; there’s only rebellious, french ados.  It makes sense if you think about it : Why would someone from the US buy something so dégueulasse (and so easy to find at home) when on vacation in France-  there is cheaper, better-looking food on every corner, and the whole point of traveling is to try on another culture for size.

So I guess it just ends up being an issue of my ressentiment against MacDo.  They screwed over expat francophiles by exporting the big-mac, obésité, and the idea that Americans don’t know how to cook (and eat nothing but hamburgers, peanut butter, creamy salad dressing, canned thanksgiving foodstuffs and mexican food–See this photo of the American aisle in Bon Marché, the chicest grocery store in Paris).  And so yea, I do feel like I have the droit to exploit the presence of McDonald’s abroad.  If foreigners are considering that to be chez moi, then I guess I’m going to make myself at home.

But that would mean I actually have to go inside MacDo.  And frankly, je n’en ai pas envie.

—vocabularie—

échapper à Paris > escape Paris

meilleurs amis > best friends

de ta famille > from your family

samedi > saturday

dérangement > inconvenience

2 jours plus tard > 2 days later

la pluie > the rain

justifié > justified

exploiter > exploit

culpabilité > guilt

nord-est > north east

sud > south

blague > joke

identité > identity

culture de masse > mass culture

droit d’aînesse > birthright

chaine > chain

par exemple > for example

établissement > establishment

Soit > maybe, perhaps

deviner > guess

la pire > the worst

ados > slang for adolescent

dégueulasse > disgusting (typically used for food)

ressentiment > resentment

obésité > obesity

chez moi > my house

je n’en ai pas envie > I have no desire (to do that)

Un malaise certain en voyant ce mannequin dans une vitrine

Série “Les temps modernes” (nikon fm2, portra 400 vc, 85mm) © Virginie de GALZAIN