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August 26, 2003
French Shame
I have been particularly shocked to read about the heat-related deaths in France. First, I suspect many of the deaths could have been prevented.....all of us who live in the South know endless ways to beat the heat. I never lived in a house with air conditioning until my kids were half-grown, and we survived just fine.
But even more disturbing to me has been the French cavalier attitude towards their elderly relatives.
Meanwhile, the media continue to stress the faults of the authorities, pointing out that half of the heat victims were people older than age 85. Many had been alone in stifling apartments while their families left for vacation.
Pardon my American ignorance, but that is not the fault of the authorities. Leaving elderly relatives "alone in stifling apartments" while one goes on vacation is so culturally foreign to me that I can't even begin to understand how someone could do that. In my world, we take care of our own....from cradle to grave. And the elderly are still valued members of our society....repositories of vast knowledge, to be respected and cared for.
And yes, I understand that this is one of the inevitable consequences of a welfare state....no personal responsibility for one's actions. But IMHO, in a "civilized" society, there is no excuse for this:
Newspaper reports yesterday said that between 300 and 400 bodies had not been claimed outside Paris.
More than 100 bodies lay in refrigerated trucks outside a city-run warehouse in the southern suburb of Ivry-sur-Seine, reports said. City officials vowed to bury them, whether or not families claim them.
What kind of people come home from a month of frolicking in sand and surf, find Grandma's died from heatstroke and don't even bother to claim her body? I just don't get it.
Barbarians.
Posted by Rita at August 26, 2003 05:47 AM
Comments
Americans may know how to beat the heat, even without a/c (I grew up in South Florida with no a/c -- and all of my schools were un-airconditioned too until I got to high school) but if my experience is anything to go by Europeans are not about to take our advice. I read a report on someone's blog about how the British were planning to respond to the heat wave by flocking to the pubs -- beer consumption was expected to double -- and posted a comment to the effect that a better solution to the heat problem would be to avoid alcohol, and got lambasted by some British person to the effect of "so what should we do, drink awful American beer?" No, dork, there's this amazing substance called "water"...
Posted by: Andrea Harris at August 27, 2003 06:00 AM
Yeah, they're not much on drinking water over there...a remnant from the days when it wasn't safe to drink the water I suspect. And then there's that whole "no ice" thing.
I agree, it's not like they're going to listen to us though.
Posted by: Rita at August 27, 2003 08:28 AM