Commonwealth 1 France 0

**InsaneApache** · 02-16-2007, 10:36

The British Empire was so wicked and evil that a former colony of a 'rival' empire asks to be admitted to the Commonwealth.

Paul Kagame, the Rwandan President, says that his country will cement its bitter divorce from France and the French-speaking world, which he holds responsible for the 1994 slaughter of up to one million of his countrymen, by joining the Commonwealth later year.

“There are many benefits for us in joining the Commonwealth — cultural, economic, political,” he told The Times.

Mr Kagame has been invited to attend the next Commonwealth summit as an observer. “I hope they will then approve our membership. I am looking forward to it.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1392750.ece

On a serious note. If what Mr. Kagame says is true about our neighbours to the south, the EU should look closely into what the French have been up to.

“The French were obsessed by language,” he said. “I remember when I was invited to Paris in 1992 as part of a peace initiative they were angry I could not talk French.

“That night security agents burst into my hotel room and ‘detained me’, even though I was a guest invited by them.”

Give it up fellas. French stopped being the Lingua Franca hundreds of years ago.

**Fragony** · 02-16-2007, 10:47

Maybe it helps if they say $orry, but of course it isn't about all that

**Incongruous** · 02-16-2007, 11:38

Surley you are not implying anything are you?

**Fragony** · 02-16-2007, 11:47

Originally Posted by Bopa the Magyar

Surley you are not implying anything are you?

Me nah.

But it isn't french fault that the tutsi's were the elite, and yes spoke french, and were frenchminded. Ok, maybe a tiny little bit. Hutu's kill tutsi's, and somehow France is to blame, of course.

**Louis VI the Fat** · 02-16-2007, 12:26

Rwanda was a German colony first, then a Belgium one ruled by a League of Nations mandate. Never a French one.

France did mess up in the early nineties in Rwanda. What a peculiar mixture of stupidity, malice and neo-colonialism that was.

Of course, unlike the Francophony, the Commonwealth is not at all about bringing and keeping third world countries into any sphere of influence.
Nor would any English speaking country ever even consider supporting any side or dictator in the thirld world to increase their own influence.

**InsaneApache** · 02-16-2007, 12:43

Originally Posted by luigi VI di Fatlington

Nor would any English speaking country ever even consider supporting any side or dictator in the thirld world to increase their own influence.

God forbid.

Although I seriously doubt that they would support a genocide just to keep alive the English language.

**Adrian II** · 02-16-2007, 12:47

Originally Posted by luigi VI di Fatlington

Rwanda was a German colony first, then a Belgium one ruled by a League of Nations mandate. Never a French one.

This shows once again why British education is going down the drain.

The Rwandan Tutsi elite spoke French because they were educated by French-speaking priests from Belgium (Wallonia). In the 1960 and 1994 massacres of Tutsi, Rwandan and Belgian Catholic clerics were haevily implicated on the Hutu side and some of them are prosecuted on genocide charges. The Tutsi fled to neighbouring English-speaking countries who used them to infiltrate and carry out guerilla operations in Rwanda. That is how they came to speak English.

When the French last tried to intervene in the Great Lakes region (Operation Turquoise) to end the worst excesses in and around Zaire, they made some huge mistakes and were consequenty blamed by the English-speaking former colonies in central Africa for everything that went wrong. Kinda like the Americans getting the blame for everything that goes wrong in the Arab world.

**InsaneApache** · 02-16-2007, 13:02

This shows once again why British education is going down the drain.

As I left school in 1976 I doubt that applies to moi.

**Adrian II** · 02-16-2007, 14:32

Originally Posted by InsaneApache

As I left school in 1976 I doubt that applies to moi.

That must have been the year when the rot set in.

J/j of course. I thought a little quid pro quo couldn't hurt. And yes, the French completely blew Turquoise because it was centred on the notion of their French-speaking African inheritance.

**Papewaio** · 02-16-2007, 13:38

Can they play cricket?

**InsaneApache** · 02-16-2007, 14:19

Originally Posted by Papewaio

Can they play cricket?

Blimey aint you lot had enough of torturing the rest of the cricketing world?

**Mithradates** · 02-16-2007, 14:30

What exactly is the function of the commonwealth other than a loose association of English speeking countries that often come together to beat us Brits at every sport we can think of?

**Pannonian** · 02-16-2007, 14:42

Originally Posted by Mithradates

What exactly is the function of the commonwealth other than a loose association of English speeking countries that often come together to beat us Brits at every sport we can think of?

The Olympics only takes place once every 4 years. The Commonwealth games allows them to humiliate us while they're waiting for the real games. Some of them go one step further and take up cricket so they can trash us every 2 years instead of 4. The French and Italians have surpassed even that by taking up rugby so they can thrash us yearly.

The Commonwealth of Nations: A forum where you can bash the Brits as much as you like and the Brits have to grin and bear it. I'm surprised the French haven't joined.