L'obésité en passe de devenir une invalidité?

13 Juin 2014 , Rédigé par Laurence B Publié dans #Société

Obesity is not a disability*

Overeating* is an addiction – if the EU court labels it otherwise, it will be a monumental act of denial*

Disability = invalidité, infirmité, incapacité
Overeating = la suralimentation
To label = coller une étiquette, étiqueter
Otherwise = autrement
Denial = dénégation, rejet

Is obesity a disability or a choice gone awry*? Danish child-minder Karsten Kaltoft was fired from his job because he was too overweight* – at 25 stone (environ 160 kg)– to tie a child's shoe laces*. He is suing* for discrimination. His case will he heard by the European court of justice in Luxembourg today. If Kaltoft is successful, the ruling* will be binding* throughout the EU. Employers will be required to treat overweight employees as disabled* and therefore* requiring special treatment – priority parking, for instance, and sturdy* furniture* – and they will be unable to fire* them for being overweight. (I will not say "fat". Eating disorder professionals* do not say fat* because they know that compulsive eating and anorexia are twins*, and dependent on self-hatred* to thrive*.) The right will scream* that this is special treatment for "fat" people – they probably will say "fat", not being eating disorder professionals, or even particularly kindly* – who choose to be "fat" even if now they regret it, and have to be cut from their homes by emergency workers*. On your bike, and so forth*. Eat some kale*.
To go awry = mal tourner
Overweight = être en surpoids
To tie a shoe lace = faire un lacet
To sue = intenter un procès
The ruling = la décision, le jugement
To be binding = être obligatoire
Disabled = handicapé, invalide
Therefore = par conséquent
Sturdy = robuste, solide
Furniture = mobilier
To fire someone = renvoyer quelqu’un, licencier
Eating disorder professionals = les professionnels des désordres liés à l’alimentation
Fat = gros (péjoratif)
Twins = des jumeaux
Self-hate = la haine de soi
To thrive = prospérer, réussir, bien pousser
To scream = crier, hurler, pousser des cris
Kindly = avec bienveillance, aimablement
Emergency workers = urgentistes
And so forth = et ainsi de suite, etc...
A kale = un chou frisé

This is a story about addiction. Sugar is more dangerous than the drugs we are taught to fear*. Of course it is harder to wrestle* with sugar – who can live without* food? We eat three times more sugar than we did 50 years ago. It is obviously addictive, and marketed at children by cartoon characters* and other grotesques. These overweight children, of which a too-large proportion are poor, because bad food is cheap* and swift* and delicious, will grow to be* overweight adults, and these overweight adults will die* too young.
The drugs we are taught to fear = les drogues dont on nous apprend à avoir peur
To wrestle with =se débattre avec, lutter contre
Without = sans
Cartoon characters = personnages de dessins animés
Cheap = bon marché, peu cher
Swift = rapide
Will grow to be = vont devenir ... en grandissant
To die = mourir

Why is there no government ban* on sugar advertising*, you may ask? Don't be stupid. Dave Lewis, an executive* at Unilever – which sells, among other things, Solero, Cornetto, Pot Noodle, Magnum and Viennetta, as well as Carte D'Or, Ben & Jerry's, Wall's, Peperami and Marmite – chaired* the Conservatives' public health* commission. McDonald's and Coca-Cola sponsored the London Olympics, an act so cynical and destructive it seemed* deliberately designed to kill satire, among other things. McDonald's, particularly, is gifted* in marketing duplicity. Its "restaurant" in the Olympic park was decorated with words like "succulent" blown up* to obesity to mislead*. Now it is giving fruit away with Happy Meals: children, embrace* the pious maker of the McFlurry! Embrace your saviour!
A government ban = une interdiction gouvernementale
Advertising = publicité
An executive = un cadre
Among other things = parmi d’autres choses
To chair = présider
Public health = santé publique
To seem = sembler
To be gifted = avoir du talent
To blow up = exploser, sauter
To mislead = induire en erreur, tromper
To embrace = (ici) profiter de
Pious = hypocrite

What to do? The problem, as always when discussing addiction, is denial: the government's denial, which is ideological; the people's denial, which is comprehensive; and the addict's denial, which is lethal*. (The food industry's denial is mere* professional profiteering, and to be expected.) Since I do not expect the government to emerge from denial any time soon, or the food industry ever, let us move to the addict's denial. Denial, at least* partially – and here I address the hateful* puddle* of "libertarian" pundits* and lobbyists directly, even as they sharpen* their pencils to denounce Kaltoft as his own destroyer – is the reason overweight people sometimes need* the walls of their homes broken down*, and the reason why they continue to overeat when they can no longer bend down* to tie a shoelace, or rise* to face a mirror. Denial fuels* some elements of the fat acceptance movement, which is right when it says that overweight people suffer discrimination, and wrong when it says there is no physical threat* from overeating. Denial is both the essential element of addiction and the reason that non-addicts often misunderstand* and despise* the condition. If the addict says it is a choice to overeat, who are you, or I, to disagree?
Lethal = fatal, mortel
Mere = simple
At least = au moins
Hateful = odieux
Puddle = une flaque
Pundits = experts, pontifes
To sharpen = tailler (un crayon)
To need = avoir besoin
To break down = casser, abattre
To bend down = se pencher
To rise = se lever, se mettre debout
To fuel = alimenter, nourrir
A threat = une menace
To misunderstand = mal comprendre
To despise = mépriser

The solution is dull*, slow and not in the law*. Mental health provision is scandalously small; misunderstanding of addiction is endemic; responsible advertising is a fantasy*; food is over-processed; society is unequal; cruelty is rife*. I have much sympathy for Kaltoft, but I do not think that calling him disabled will lengthen* his life or help him to not eat himself to death*. I think it is more likely* that a friendly ruling will compound* his denial and enrage the rest. (The disability advocacy charity Scope asked its Facebook and Twitter followers if obesity is a disability. The response was negative). It would be state-sponsored, continent-wide denial; it would be madness*.
Dull = ennuyeux, terne
The law = la loi
A fantasy = un fantasme, un rêve
To be rife = sévir
To lengthen = allonger
To eat oneself to death = mourir d’avoir trop mangé
It is likely = il est probable
To compound = aggraver
Madness = la folie

Tanya Gold
The Guardian, Thursday 12 June 2014