High life
We've had it
Taki
ArGstaad riving in Gstaad after three months in the Bagel means instant culture shock. Let's face it, I may love Americans but manners is not their strong point. My men- tor, Professor Ernest Van Den Haag, once told me the difference between nouveaux riches Europeans and their American coun- terparts was that the former picked up social graces after a generation of having moolah, whereas the latter did not. Not even after three or four generations.
Far worse is the total breakdown of civil- ity in the Bagel, demonstrated daily by the spitting that goes on. New York's sidewalks are like those of Cairo and Peking: full of disgusting and unsanitary spittle. This is yet another quaint custom inherited from our ethnic cousins. No politician dares mention it, no less legislate against it, in case they're tarred with the racist label.
What I love about Gstaad is the fact that smoking is permitted indoors everywhere, whereas spitting outdoors is a finable `Not another food scare?!' offence. And speaking of smoking, did you know that Hillary Clinton's lawyer brother is on the payroll of a tobacco company? How do you like that for hypocrisy?
But this is the first issue of a new year, and I always try to be just a little bit seri- ous, however unbecoming this may sound. 1997 was a lousy year. A growing propensi- ty for American-style sensitivity took place in Britain, which can only mean we've had it. The compassion freaks, based on an ethic of entitlement instead of challenge, are here to stay.
Parliament is no longer what it used to be, what with all those hysterical and humourless women posing as victims of boorish public schoolboys. What we need is more of Clark (Alan) and less of Clare (Short). Soon the place will be as boring and dreary as Congress, a very large dwelling for very small minds.
It is too bad that Tony Blair takes after the Draft Dodger. That old cliché about people getting the kind of government they deserve comes to mind. In the past 30 years, American culture has dumbed down to a less than zero degree. What is known as the arts and entertainment industries are in reality sleaze factories. The divorce rate is approaching 50 per cent, with the great majority of blacks being born illegitimate. Homosexuality is boosted as the chic new lifestyle by the glossies and Hollywood.
No wonder the Draft Dodger's populari- ty is as high as it is. Americans now hold his values. The Brits are in danger of fol- lowing their Yankee cousins. And, while I'm at it, let's start the new year right and get one thing straight. The Paris-Match interview suggesting that Diana, Princess of Wales, planned to marry Dodi Fayed is as phoney as her supposedly last words. Roger Therond, editor of the Parisian weekly, should be ashamed of himself. He knows damn well the story emanates either from the Fayed camp or from some Arab world publication, yet he runs it for its pub- licity value.
In fact, I'll go a step further. If there was a 'last interview' I'll perform non-stop cun- nilingus in Trafalgar Square on New Year's Eve on Yoko Ono! However inconvenient it may sound to Dodi's family, I did speak to her two weeks before her death. She told me she had absolutely no plans to marry, and I'm going by the book on this one. Paris-Match should apologise to the Spencer family or come up with the evi- dence. Nothing else will do. But I will not be holding my breath.
Needless to say, I was sad to see the film Titanic breaking box-office records during its first week. When Hollywood loses, Taki becomes euphoric. Titanic is yet another con-job. The rich are portrayed as grotesque and cowardly, the steerage pas- sengers as brave and chivalrous. Yet every- one except the Hollywood philistines know that the rich — with very few exceptions went down courageously and like gentle- men. Amistad has not been the success which Spielberg was hoping for, which is a good thing, of course. Blacks are already up in arms at the nerve of a white film-maker presuming to make a film about the 'black experience'. In reality, slavery was about the only means blacks had to escape the misery of Africa. Of what possible use could a people who had yet to reach the Stone Age of human development be to the civilisation of Newton, Shakespeare and Galileo, other than to provide cheap labour? Higher civilisations have always subjugated lower civilisations. Would it be better if it were the other way round, the way it is today? (And people forget that America fought a civil war on behalf of slaves.) I want to wish all readers a happy 1998, and it is bound to be as Thierry Roussel, the world's most successful gigolo, must face trial for perjury and defamation in the Big Olive. Happy New Year!
Previous page
