What's Going on in the World on the Day After Thanksgiving...in Egypt, France and America

One thing nice about Thanksgiving, even for Americans living abroad, is that with TV we can watch some of the Macy’s Parade, see a few American football games and generally let the world roll by on its own for the long weekend. Maybe we eat chicken instead of turkey but that’s not a big deal.

However, the TV also brings some news, because zapping through the channels is sometimes better than the football.

And, today, Black Friday, business TV was head-counting at major department stores and interviewing store manager to try to get a feel for how the holiday season’s retail sales will play out. So, there were new toys to see, and lines of foolhardy folks shopping at midnight instead of sitting in front of their TVs zapping and munching a turkey sandwich.

But, some events today are worth mentioning.

Egypt, for example, where Cairo’s protesters are still on the streets and in the Square, trying to make the military understand that they want civilian rule and not more of the same from the Supreme Military Council…even the name sounds sinister, doesn’t it? And the military replied by announcing that elections will start his week. The protesters are still there, but they seem to be more peaceful, as do the military which is watching over them. Let’s hope Egypt holds together because it is the largest and most influential Arab country and its future has a great chance to be the future of the rest of the Arab world.

And there was also French President Sarkozy, out in the installations where nuclear energy is produced. More than 70% of France’s electricity is produced by nuclear plants, so Sarkozy is stumping for their continuation, in opposition to the left’s view that all French nuclear plants should be shut down as soon as possible. President Sarkozy’s answer to that is that the price of electricity, already high, would be out of reach for most French citizens, and that the investment in nuclear power is safe and provides for future power needs domestically, something that ought to be a positive in these times when petroleum is often captive to very unstable governments or dictators. That President Sarkozy is making this an item in his re-election campaign means that we will be hearing more about nuclear energy in the coming months - and rightly so, since, as Sarkozy pointed out today, the anti-nuclear energy coalition seems bent on eliminating nuclear power simply to prove it can do it.

As for President Obama, there he goes again,…to quote President Reagan. Obama gave his radio address for Thanksgiving and thanked soldiers, families, workers, just about everybody but God. Americans, being both religious by nature and sensitive to anything they see in their President that might be unorthodox when viewed from the prism of Christianity, were upset. Why would the President leave God out of Thanksgiving, they ask. Obama has not responded, but we can be sure that the discomfort has a lot to do with the uneasy feeling of many Americans that President Obama is neither American nor Christian. I have no opinion because only the President knows, but he ought to be more careful not to step on the cultural norms of the people he is attempting to govern.  

So, let’s get on with the football and let the world take care of itself for just a few more hours.