The French government has banned my iPod from store shelves because it’s too loud, according to French Law. I’m only allowed to hear up to 100 decibels of music in France, as opposed to the 104 my iPod can muster, and the caring French nanny state has decided my ears may not take that kind of abuse. Never mind that European law says it’s perfectly fine (they have a law about this at all? Do they also cap the noise level at hard rock concerts? Silly me, they soon will). Never mind that the noise level depends on the impedance of the headset rather than the iPod. So Apple will have a software fix in place next week that will bring the iPod back in line with fragile French sensitivities. But who took the time to go test an iPod in the first place?

Yes, the French government has been on a roll lately when it comes to annoying people. As for the Common Agriculture Policy championed by the French, it is simultaneously the EU’s biggest single expenditure at 45% of its total budget and its most anti-free market, anti-capitalist, anti-third world, market-distorting, anti-competitive embarrassment. But at least the French and their cronies have begun to feel the need to justify this obvious swindle. In a letter to European newspapers 2 weeks ago (noticed and skewered by this week’s Economist) the French agriculture minister defended CAP not just on the grounds that he wants to preserve the inefficient ways of small farmers, whose sole contribution to society is to make the French feel warm and fuzzy about themselves in their belief that they are all quaint rural types deep down. They also defend it on the grounds that the third world should be dissuaded from growing the kinds of crops that EU farmers grow because, well, you figure it out:

Some also claim that the CAP is responsible for hunger in the third world. Nothing could be further from the truth. Agriculture in a number of these countries, particularly in Africa, is primarily concerned with promoting self-sufficiency in food. This is seriously undermined by the destruction of traditional agriculture, which encourages an increase in imports and in the indebtedness of these States.

In other words, We the EU are slapping all these tariffs and quotas on your imports because we believe you are making a terrible mistake in trying to develop. Wow. The audacity of these poor people, trying to weasel their way into our markets.

[Sun, Oct 06 2002 – 12:41] Felix (www) (email) Nick Stern’s speech last Friday said it all, really; he even directly addressed the Europeans’ point about imports and exports. Here’s an excerpt from the Reuters report; the actual World Bank report is here.

“Let me give just one illustration that points up just how big these subsidies are … The average European cow receives around $2.50 a day in subsidy. The average Japanese cow receives around $7 a day in agricultural subsidy. Seventy-five percent of the people in sub-Saharan Africa live on less than $2 a day,” Stern said.

Stern said that because tariffs are higher on processed goods, countries like Burkina Faso export raw cotton rather than clothing while Ghana exports cocoa beans rather than chocolate and Kenya exports unprocessed coffee beans.

[Mon, Oct 07 2002 – 11:27] eurof (email) Wait stefan, you’re belgian. Doesn’t that make you sort of french as well? Anyway, I spent the largest part of my honeymoon driving through the french countryside. I have 2 thoughts. a) it was pretty, and sort of worth preserving, not least because it produces better food than the hooge agribusinesses that replaced smaller farms in the UK and US, and b) we should be more admiring of the abilities of the french to sucker everyone else into paying to preserve their countryside. scrap the cap by all means, make them pay for it out of domestic tax receipts, but give them a pat on the back as you do it and say “good one, mate, nice try”.

what’s sort of sad is that stefan’s anti french diatribe is inspired not by a sense of the economic injustice the CAP inflicts on poor people in africa, but by a perceived slight by the french state on the supposed excellence of Apple products. that is some really weirdly misplaced loyalty.

[Mon, Oct 07 2002 – 16:13] Felix (www) (email) You don’t really think that the French should continue to subsidise their farmers at current levels even if the CAP were abolished, do you? Out of domestic tax receipts, no less? Not only would that entail throwing the stability and growth pact out of the window, but it would also immediately be challenged in the WTO and found to be illegal. I’m glad you’ve found the silver lining in the CAP: that it makes the french countryside very pretty and gives you nice smelly cheeses. But if you abolish the CAP, you can’t pretend that the French might be able to do the same thing on their own.

[Tue, Oct 08 2002 – 01:41] eurof (email) well in that case i am for the cap. keep the cap!

[Tue, Oct 08 2002 – 07:46] eurof (email) by the way, i can pretend anything i want, OK? reality might be different but that’s not the point. so i WILL pretend that the french could subsidise their own countryside by themselves. naaa ah.

[Tue, Oct 08 2002 – 10:49] Stefan Geens (www) (email) John (Eurof) has gone quite insane. Either that or he is in love.

[Tue, Oct 08 2002 – 12:27] Mathew (www) (email) i vote for the insanity situation

[Thu, Oct 10 2002 – 02:31] eurof (email) The WORLD has gone mad. I am the only sane one left.