Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 3:23 pm Post subject: Re: What's up with France?
A new French law aimed at helping young people find work sparked riots across the country. Many French citizens see it as a sign that the centre-right government is trying to impose a British or American-style capitalist system on a thoroughly disgruntled nation. Caroline Wyatt has the feeling that the gulf between Britain and France has never been greater.
When I first arrived in Paris after three years in Moscow, a Russian friend joked that France was the only truly successful communist country in the world.
At the time, I put that down to Russian humour.
How could a nation that gave the world joys such as champagne, or more than 200 different types of cheese, possibly be communist?
These days, though, I'm not so sure my Russian friend was joking.
Perhaps he had had a sneak preview of a recent survey, in which various countries were asked how they rated capitalism.
Three quarters of the Chinese said it was the best economic system for the future. But in France only a third of people agreed.
Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 2498 Location: Ye Olde Englande
Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 2:02 pm Post subject: Re: What's up with France?
Oh those mysterious French!!
I remember reading a story at the turn of the millenium that said that French people believed Zinedine Zidane to be the greatest sportsman of the 20th century and the Citroen 2CV to be the greatest car. Patriotic pride or arrogance? I don't understand the French way of thinking all I know is that they just do a hell of a lot of protesting. _________________ "The age of excess is over. The age of entropy has begun"
Joined: Jun 21, 2006 Posts: 1205 Location: Burgundy, France
Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 9:35 am Post subject: Re: What's up with France?
The main point of the attempted new law was to enable the young to get into the job market.
There is very high unemployment in France for that age group, whereas from about the age of thirty most people are happily employed and skilled.
It was a decent measure (IMO) to allow employers to take on younger people and get them the skills they need for the job market. Of course some employers may abuse it, but I think it would have been preferable to people festering without jobs.
All the French bashing on here is a bit strange. I lived there for six years and loved it. OK, there are some chauvanistic people, but overall the culture is great, with a far better work-life balance than the "anglo-saxon" world.
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