What I most hate about France
I am lucky that I am not one of millions of ordinary French people trying to get to and from work today. For me the commute is easy. Out of bed and down the stairs to my office. But all over the country people are stranded, delayed, inconvenienced and for what? So that SNCF workers can retire aged 50.
Sarko was voted in by the French. His mandate was reform, and heaven knows the country needs it. Who do these civil servants think they are helping by bringing France to a standstill? Themselves of course. This is not what the majority wants, otherwise we’d have Sego not Sarko. These are selfish people fighting for their own turf to the detriment of the majority.
The message is clear. France cannot afford to go on like it has been. France is going broke. People need to work longer hours for more years if she is to stand a chance of being economically viable. Although we don’t pay a huge amount of tax our social charges are totally horrendous. We have had to take out loans to pay them off.
“But if you’re ill you can claim money,” our accountant told us. I would rather take that risk and not have the charges. But this is where the French mentality differs from mine.
The school is on strike today. The teachers are taking part in what they call a “national movement”. National movement for what? National movement to work as little as possible. Luckily my in-laws are not on strike and the children have gone there for the day. I’m lucky they are English, striking just isn’t in their vocabulary. A bit like claiming.
Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007
20 Nov 2007 helena
Liberté, égalité, fraternité - pish tosh.
Stupidité, avidité & désesperé is more like it.
Marianne wept.
Strikes have become a national sport here in France. No matter the rights and wrongs of the case - let’s all join in.
What makes one really sick about this one is the element of privilege and greed. This so called special status was granted to certain workers by Louis XlV in 1688! Are the strikers claiming that working conditions have not changed?
Dear Hélèna.
Poor little English petals, “striking” isn’t in their vocabulary.
Striking was in mine. In the 50’s, four months of winter, cycling 8 miles to school and back because of a bus strike. Train and mail strikes too numerous to mention. Newspapers even went out of print in the 60’s and 80’s. Miners almost destroyed the government and the country in ’84, ambulances left people to die in ’90, firemen too in 2002. Teachers took even longer holidays in 2002 but nobody missed them. British Airways in 2002 left a million stranded.
“Striking” is definitely part of most English people’s vocabulary and has been an important factor in our society which should not be overlooked as an economic catalyst. France too has had its fair share and looks like it’s in for more.
“Claiming”? Well, I’ve claimed and I’m not ashamed.
Janou, a Sarko fan, is upset about all this turmoil. Her son was due to arrive today in Geneva for rehearsals before a gig on Friday….. but he’s delayed. It’s not Earth shattering is it? But it disturbs, and that’s what us comfy people don’t like.
G.
Dear Helena,
Not all SNCF employees can retire at 50. Only train DRIVERS can do so. And personally I’d rather be a passenger in a train with a fairly young driver than in one driven by some drooling senile.
Dear Norrie H,
Quite true, things have really changed since Louis XIV. The trains were much slower then.
National Movement to work as little as possible sounds like a good idea to me. At least the French don’t just accept government’s dictates without a fight. Like a flock of Devon sheep and still feel that they can take their own destiny into their own hands. As for being broke, there is plenty of money around, it’s a case of redistribution of wealth. Call me an old-fashioned leftie but I still think society is there for the benefit of the people not the other way around!
Graham is right to point out that there is nothing new in striking, although one assumes that even he wasn’t around to witness one of the most lethal strikes in history, the one described in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata when the women in Athens staged a ‘no sex’ strike to end the constant fighting…but while one can sympathise with striking when there is no other option - as a writer I find it easy to sympathise with the striking writers in Hollywood, and at least they are not disrupting people’s lives beyond depriving them of their daily fix of the Daily Show - what is happening in France seems to be a case of any public worker with a grievance, ie that they occasionally have to turn up to work, taking to the streets. I don’t see why fifty is too old to drive a train. My father is over eighty and charges around the countryside in his Jaguar..
Anyway, enough of this. I’m going on strike.
PS Smusmormor: You are an old-fashioned leftie! I hope the Red Brigade don’t come and get you…