Acting naturally

 


My wife was tired and had gone to bed early and so it was a question of what to do during the remainder of the evening. We had had our evening meal and the odd glass of wine and so I wasn't feeling much like continuing to read the no-doubt excellent article in the New Scientist on the nature of self-consciousness.  So what was on the television?  Well there wasn't a lot on English TV, but we were in Normandy and so I turned to the French channels.

I had the choice between a documentary on the Habsburg dynasty, the French equivalent of Children in Need or Miss France. And so I acted as the grasshopper I am and switched between all three, depending on boredom, commercial breaks and general squirm factor.

The documentary consisted mainly of largely self-serving interviews with the present Archduke, Otto von Habsburg, who is 95 years old, but still very articulate, and with various members of his huge family.  He said that each member of his family spoke at least four languages, including French. His was excellent and better than it was in a 1950's interview of which they showed extracts..

But the Archduke was very upset that the Austrian Republic, created in 1918, had confiscated all their assets in Austria and refused them entry into the country until 1966, a few years after he had finally renounced the throne.  This was unjust as he and his forebears had only ever acted in the best interests of the people in their former empire.  Such altruistic behaviour was, it seems, the natural order of things amongst aristocrats.  He and his family had had to slum it in palaces in surrounding countries, such as Switzerland, Germany, France and Hungary.

The Telethon featured various pop singers and was linked to towns across the nation where events were going on, mainly to raise money for research into genetic medical disorders including stem cell research.  Pont d'Ouilly was one such town. We were sold lottery tickets by some very polite kids who were knocking on doors, although it seemed that the consolation prize was a key fob and the grand prize a collection of soft toys for your cat to play with.  Still it's the taking part which counts.

In France, the Pompiers are very respected as they take the role both of firemen and emergency ambulance staff.  At 5 o'clock, when the obligatory balloons were being released at the front of the Salle des Fêtes, all the town's Pompiers and the young Pompiers were there to see them off.  The Salle des Fêtes was being used for a series of events and, despite the rain and freezing cold weather, there were lots of outdoor events as well, from a bouncy castle to a pétanque contest, to ‘rock' climbing on a wall brought in on a low-loader specially for the event.

By the time I went to bed, the telethon had almost reached its amazing target of 105 million euros, of which 1.9 million had been raised by the Pompiers nationwide. This was people doing what they will naturally do when faced with obvious need - despite the controversial and much publicised opposition of the catholic church because of the intended use of part of the proceeds for stem cell research.

But what, you ask, about Miss France? Well, it came from a theme park at Poitiers and was fronted by a fawning, oleaginous presenter whom I wouldn't want to let within 100 yards of a pretty 20 year old girl. We were given the height of each contestant, but no other dimensions. Well it was television, so it wasn't strictly necessary. There was the usual collection of former celebrities who made up the jury, but just as with big brother, it is the telephone votes which count - in all senses.

And so we were finally left with a group of five contestants, one of whom was profoundly deaf.  I was by that time relieved that the cull, sorry, choice had been made, as I didn't think that I could take much more of the pedestrian choreography and regional costumes.  It was that time when the jury members ask difficult questions of the finalists, such as -

‘How would you cope if you lost?' ‘I'd be upset, but I'm sure I'd cope";

"As a deaf person, why did you decide to enter the contest?' ‘[through a sign language translator] "Because I wanted to show that it could be done and ..." [ironically, the sound was lost at this point];

"What is the main quality that a contestant should bring to the modern Miss World?" - [Miss Paris] "to be natural".

To be natural. This, in a contest where all the contestants smile all of the time, even when being told they have lost. And in fact the only person who ever cries is the winner.

Paul Buckingham

December 2006

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Habsburg

Home    Caro Diario   Philosophy   Who am I?      Links