14th of July in Paris

It's the middle of the summer... The quicksilver in the thermometer only climbs and climbs, and of course when a three day weekend shows up to celebrate some French national day or something like that ( ;-) ) people leave Paris like if the plague had broken loose in the city.

Surprisingly though, when we headed to the Champs de Mars, to enjoy the firework display that was about to be launched from the Eiffel Tower, we found out that everybody had come back to the city and was standing there, all 20 millions of them (and a few tourists as well, filling the spaces). In any case, the fireworks were really astonishing (as you can see in the picture), and the crowd not too annoying (Big thanks to Alexey for the excellent picture of he fireworks).

The other traditional event that marks the festivity is the usual military parade in the Champs Elisees on the morning of that same day. Of course I missed it, I had much more exciting and intellectually satisfying things to do, like helping a friend to move out from her flat, than waste my time watching a few infantry companies, tanks and jet fighters pass by, but I could not avoid hearing about it on the radio. And it made me start wondering...

I do sort of understand that in the middle ages, as may be a century ago, the influence and power of a nation was defined almost exclusively by its diplomatic influence, backed of course by military power, and therefore those parades were the perfect occasion to show (off) to everyone who would care to watch, how disciplined, powerful, and frightening, the armed forces of that country were. In fact, most of the times, the aim of the exercise would not only be to fill with pride the citizens of that proud and powerful nation, but also to fill with awe and respect (call it fear), the representatives, ambassadors and other visitors of foreign countries.

But nowadays, after two world wars and the cold war period, someone with a naive mind like mine would think that for most cases, in this globalised world of today, the influence that our nations are able to exert would not be a reflection of such imperialist and primitive ways, but based instead on economic prowess and human, technological and scientific development.

After reflecting on that, and on the obsolescence of those military parades for a few days, I can only think that the only reason to keep those parades is to justify the expenditure on defense but specially because they have become a tradition the logic of which no one has yet seriously dared to contest.

On the other hand, I do have to admit that a bunch of soldiers parading in their 'Sunday' uniforms, some rumbling tanks that are too heavy for the pavement of the city, and a few noisy jet fighters and helicopters, are surely more colorful to watch than the equivalent amount of scientists, businessmen and engineers.