Word: monnet
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Late in life, Jean Monnet, a Cognac salesman who went on to become the architect of the Common Market, mused about his dream for a United States of Europe. He thought back to his birthplace in this brandy-making town of Southwest France, where the grapes ripen slowly in the September sun, then mellow for decades in oaken barrels beneath the limestone distilleries. "The great thing about making cognac," he said, "is that it teaches you above all to wait. Man proposes, but time and God and the seasons have to be on your side...
Four decades have passed since Monnet's bold proposal of a more perfect union began to take form. But last week the citizens of Cognac, and of towns and cities across the European Community, signaled that they want to wait even longer -- perhaps forever -- before joining a federalist monetary and political structure...
...Jacqueline Autef, whose tobacco shop is around the corner from Monnet's old house, such promises ring hollow. Once the most powerful nation in Europe, France may worry about its eclipse by Japan, the U.S. or Germany. Autef, 53, feels insecure on a more basic level. "I voted for Mitterrand in 1981 because he promised to reduce unemployment," said the tobacconist, who supports an ; invalid husband. "But today 3 million French are out of work. My neighbor committed suicide when he lost his job. Families are shattering." Whether stung by France's 10% jobless rate, by recession in Britain...
...grape grower whose calloused hands and weathered face attest to a life outdoors. "Now we don't know where we are going." Until recently, he sold the spirits he distilled from 40 acres to Cognac's family firms. Now multinationals such as Seagram and Guinness have moved in: even Monnet's old company was once sold to Germans and then to Britons. "Decision makers in Toronto or Paris do not care whether we live or die," said Forgeron's wife Francine. "We are pawns on the chessboard...
...last-minute panic before the referendum, the French government sent copies of Maastricht to all 38 million voters -- a maneuver that may have hurt as much as helped. "The text was incomprehensible," said Guy Bechon, 56, principal of Cognac's Jean Monnet High School. A stocky fellow with a doctorate in physics, he nonetheless voted for the treaty "because I did not want my children to face a future of isolationism. Perhaps we must lose a little of our originality in order to progress." But Bechon would not go so far as Monnet, who hoped that transcending nationalism would "liberate...