French go on strike (again), ruin junior's breakfast
Andrew Bolduc
Issue date: 2/18/09 Section: Opinions
A homeless man lives near my house in Paris. In one hand he holds a cup. In the other, a sign: "I'm hungry. Please give me a little money." And at his feet, in a box lined with straw, sits a rabbit. I've been here for nearly a month and I'm still not sure if his sign is a plea or a threat. When I walk by every morning, I usually drop what little change I have into his cup. Like I said, I'm not sure, but I think I may be the reason that rabbit is still alive.
Times are tough in France. Even more than in the US, la crise (economic crisis) is raging. Unemployment stands above 10 percent; economists predict that it may rise to 12 percent or higher within the year. Everyone is affected, the homeless included.
It doesn't help that a nationwide strike has been underway for weeks. The result? France loses hundreds of millions of dollars, public transportation runs slowly and massive demonstrations fill the streets daily. Most countries would find this intolerable, but the French go through this kind of thing more often than most college students do laundry.
This strike, though, is a big one. Not only do workers want universally higher wages; university professors and students have joined in, hoping to block legislation that would mandate unpopular education reforms. While it's great to watch the unions march through the streets with ridiculous costumes and giant balloons, like a socialist version of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, we American students are left in a bit of a fix.
I'm attending the University of Paris. On my very first day, in my very first class, the professor came in 15 minutes late. Without ceremony, he announced that he was on strike. He then proceeded to explain, gesticulating aggressively, that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is anti-intellectual, which in France is a crime roughly equal to treason. He railed for nearly an hour against reforms that he said would place too great a burden on teachers, and finally urged us students to join the strike. I thought maybe this was a fluke, but similar scenes played out in all my classes. This was the case for everyone in my study-abroad program: nearly every professor is on strike and refuses to teach.
Times are tough in France. Even more than in the US, la crise (economic crisis) is raging. Unemployment stands above 10 percent; economists predict that it may rise to 12 percent or higher within the year. Everyone is affected, the homeless included.
It doesn't help that a nationwide strike has been underway for weeks. The result? France loses hundreds of millions of dollars, public transportation runs slowly and massive demonstrations fill the streets daily. Most countries would find this intolerable, but the French go through this kind of thing more often than most college students do laundry.
This strike, though, is a big one. Not only do workers want universally higher wages; university professors and students have joined in, hoping to block legislation that would mandate unpopular education reforms. While it's great to watch the unions march through the streets with ridiculous costumes and giant balloons, like a socialist version of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, we American students are left in a bit of a fix.
I'm attending the University of Paris. On my very first day, in my very first class, the professor came in 15 minutes late. Without ceremony, he announced that he was on strike. He then proceeded to explain, gesticulating aggressively, that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is anti-intellectual, which in France is a crime roughly equal to treason. He railed for nearly an hour against reforms that he said would place too great a burden on teachers, and finally urged us students to join the strike. I thought maybe this was a fluke, but similar scenes played out in all my classes. This was the case for everyone in my study-abroad program: nearly every professor is on strike and refuses to teach.
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