I haven't blogged since forever ago because I have been submerged by university life. Thanks to those who inquired about my well-being during my exile from blogdom and please excuse my horrendous breach of blog etiquette. (Michele was just not going to let me off the hook!) The main preoccupation was all that was going on at the college where I teach. A secondary preoccupation was watching from afar the situation in France. You see, I strongly encourage French majors to take a semester or a year at a French university. They are in fact required to spend time in a French-speaking country in order to complete a French major. Two of my students were spending the spring semester at a French university. Around the 22nd of March, I got an email from our study abroad coordinator, uncharacteristically on edge, who had gotten an email from one of our students in France who had slightly injured herself while climbing over a barricade during the CPE backlash. She asked if I knew what was going on in France. Of course I did, and I was not a bit worried about it. I calmly asked her to reassure the students and to tell them (and their parents, and the Administration, and whoever else might be worried about it) that this is perfectly normal in France. I was in touch with them by email to check on morale--they seemed a bit bored with this lack of structure, but OK. I pitched it as a learning experience. They would have to make the most of it as they waited it out. This is very French, after all. There was talk of general strikes. Further "actions" took place the following week. During the third week, an administrator friend at the French university where my students were studying emailed me and said he had been able to get to his office, but that classes would not resume before spring break. This started to seem a long time for the students to continue to block entrance to the university, but I was not worried. The government would probably concede and classes would begin again after spring break. There was a lot of negative buzz about the decline of France in the environment where I live and work. (I am in one of the "reddest" parts of a pretty red state, so I am often on the defensive when it comes to France and the French.) Some positive things came of the confrontation regarding this labor law aimed at making it easier to terminate workers in their first two years of employment. France was suddenly getting a lot of visibility, not necessarily good, but for something less disturbing than the rash of car-burnings that occcurred in fall, '05. During the CPE controversy, we discussed current developments in my classes, arguing the pros and the cons. Many sided with the students, many with the government. Some, regardless of their position on this particular issue, expressed admiration for the French protesters, saying they didn't understand why citizens in the US do not take to the streets when far more objectionable actions are taken by our government. We used French newspaper accounts and sometimes emails from our students in France to frame the debate. My students in the US got a good chance to see how ill-informed US coverage of French politics really is. (We don't expect much accuracy from the likes of Fox News, but even the so-called "elite" media outlets like the New York Times did a pretty sorry job.) The unrest did not help recruitment efforts for the summer program I was planning, but it did not cause the program to fail, so ten of us will go to France in July. At the end of March, I attended a gathering of French educators in the US and heard their old war stories from the barricades in France. Some of them recalled university closings of several months at a stretch in the 1960's and 70's. This CPE issue seemed to be developing some real momentum and for the first time, I, too, started to think seriously about lost semesters, contingency plans, alternative college credits, and damage control. In the end, classes did start up after break, and I think my students who were there may one day agree that during the weeks of no classes, they may have learned more than they would have if they had been in class. They directly experienced a way of exercising power within a democracy that was new to them. I received their photos of mountain hikes and communal dinners "a la francaise." It seems that a spirit of solidarity flourished in the absence of the daily routine of lectures, labs, and homework. Students and professors in France once again labor in the vineyard of truth and understanding, at least until the next clash comes along between reformers seeking a more flexible workforce and those who value the French tradition of protecting workers.
YAY!
{claps hands with glee}
Francofile is active again!
Merci Madame, c'est un plaisir de te revoir!
Posted by: Michele | May 15, 2006 at 10:55 PM
Voix,
Thanks for the needed impetus. Je re-blogue!
Posted by: francofile | May 15, 2006 at 11:08 PM
Hi Jean !
Amerloque is very, very glad to see that you're OK and blogging again !
Best,
L'Amerloque
Posted by: L'Amerloque | May 16, 2006 at 06:28 AM
Hi, Amerloque
Thanks for the nice welcome!
Posted by: francofile | May 17, 2006 at 09:52 PM
Bonsoir,
Cela fait plaisir de lire un commentaire américain qui ne soit pas totalement négatif sur le mode de vie de ces diables de français.
J'ai ainsi trouvé très intéressante votre approche au sujet des manifestations anti-CPE, et le fait de s'en servir comme base de réflexion pour des étudiants peu habitués à nos moeurs françaises.
Bien entendu, il n'est pas question de les inciter à tout contester systématiquement, mais il me semble utile de leur faire toucher du doigt la nécessité qu'il peut y avoir, au minimum, à se poser des questions et voir ce qui doit être denfendu ou non.
Récemment, le groupe automobile français PSA a fermé une usine située en Angleterre et licencié la totalité des salariés très facilement puisque ce pays se targue d'avoir une force économique basée sur la facilité de créer des entreprises ou les fermer en fonction des besoins. A cette occasion, nous avons pu voir des syndicalistes anglais mettre en avant la protection sociale... française !!! Tout d'un coup, ceux qui ne manquent pas une occasion de nous dire que nous sommes sclérosés, que nous datons d'un autre temps et que nous n'avons pas su évoluer, se rendent compte que, peut-être, nous ne racontons pas que des âneries.
Ce pourrait être une simple anecdote, mais elle est à mon avis représentative d'un monde où l'on prone la flexibilité, la baisse des coûts, etc... jusqu'à ce qu'on s'aperçoive que cela a justement un coût humain et qu'on le subisse de plein fouet.
Merci donc, sinon de convertir vos étudiants aux moeurs françaises, du moins de leur faire prendre conscience qu'il peut exister une autre approche de notre monde. Ils pourront ensuite choisir la voie qui leur paraît la plus adaptée à leur vécu.
Amitiés,
Didier
Posted by: transall | May 18, 2006 at 04:03 PM
Hi Didier
As an American of Anglo-Saxon origin, I deplore the tendency of many Ango-Saxon commentators to worship at the altar of free market forces and to excoriate France's resistance to unchecked predatory capitalism. As you say, it is important to give students an opportunity to question these premises, which too often go unexamined. Thanks for sharing your ironic and revealing anecdote.
Posted by: francofile | May 18, 2006 at 09:50 PM
Your understanding that demos and street protests are quite normal in France shows how well you know the country and its people. It may be rather difficult for some to admit that democracy isn't just about casting one's ballot once every five year and shut up in between. As Didier says, being critical and questionning is simply essential to democratic life. Thanks for making your students appreciate the French way, critical as it may be...
Flocon
Posted by: Flocon | May 19, 2006 at 02:37 AM
As an American of Anglo-Saxon origin, I deplore the tendency of many Ango-Saxon commentators to worship at the altar of free market forces and to excoriate France's resistance to unchecked predatory capitalism.
That sentence just made my toes tingle. It's like a machine gun battery -- bam bam bam bam!
You rock. This is why the blog world cannot be deprived of your prose.
Posted by: Michele | May 19, 2006 at 07:30 AM
Bonjour à tous,
Pour compléter l'anecdote que je citais précédemment, je crois utile de préciser qu'à cette occasion nous avons entendu le premier ministre anglais, Tony Blair pour ne pas le citer, se déclarer tout à fait heureux du modèle social anglais.
A l'appui de ses déclarations, ledit M. Blair citait l'exemple d'une fermeture d'usine précédente ayant entraîné le licenciement de 5.000 personnes. A la date du discours, il se félicitait de ce que les 2/3 de ces personnes avaient entre temps retrouvé un emploi dans d'autres secteurs d'activité.
Du point de vue anglais, cela relève d'un haut fait d'armes. Du point de vue français, si pinailleurs que nous sommes, nous sortons la calculatrice (pour les plus mauvais d'entre nous en calcul) et nous posons tout simplement l'opération suivante :
(5.000 * 2) / 3 = 1666,66
Cela signifie qu'au bas mot environ 1.600 personnes n'ont rien retrouvé du tout et sont extrêmement contentes d'apprendre qu'elles vivent dans un pays dont le modèle social est seul et unique viable.
Mais, bien entendu, un anglais vous dira que nous sommes mesquins nous autres français de France qui osons nous abaisser à de si bas calculs. Happy world...
Amitiés,
Didier
Posted by: transall | May 20, 2006 at 02:10 AM
Thanks Flocon, Michele & Didier
Michele, I blush at your praise :-)
Flocon, thanks for weighing in. It's always good to read you, here and elsewhere. French people show the world a commitment to democracy to which we should pay attention, as ours in the US seems to be eroding away.
Didier--I wish I knew why people accept the kind of rhetoric that Blair uses in your example. They are simply not paying attention to the meaning of his words, or maybe they just do not care about the 1,600 people who were displaced from their jobs and remain unemployed. It's sad that so many of us in the Anglo-Saxon world have become numb to the commodification of humans. To your credit, your compatriots have not forgotten that people are more than a commodity.
Posted by: francofile | May 20, 2006 at 09:34 PM
Bonjour,
Je suis tout à fait d'accord avec votre point de vue.
Si on me demandait de définir en deux mots ce qui caractérise le plus les différences entre les anglo-saxons et les pays latins, dont la France, je crois que le point essentiel serait la notion d'individu.
Les pays latins ont une Histoire de près de 2.000 ans durant laquelle s'est forgée une identité, une vision du monde que les U.S.A. avec à peine 200 ans d'histoire (sauf erreur de ma part) ne peuvent avoir.
Les vrais "américains" à mon sens sont les indiens, le reste de la population étant des ex-XXXX ou les X peuvent être remplacés par l'Irlande, l'Italie, la Chine, etc...
C'est un pays qui a dû se construire, je pense notamment à la création des voies ferrées et la priorité était alors d'avancer sans trop se poser de questions quant au coût humain que cela représentait. Cette vision demeure encore aujourd'hui et la notion de vie privée, de propriété privée n'est pas, et ne peut pas être, la même que celle que nous connaissons en Europe où nos valeurs sont différentes.
Il s'ensuit donc une incompréhension mutuelle qui me semble devoir perdurer encore très longtemps.
J'ajoute que les pays émergents n'ont pas, eux non plus, de vision de l'individu proche de celle des européens. L'Inde avec ses castes, la Chine avec sa structure politique, etc... ne sont pas près de nous rejoindre pour considérer qu'il faut prendre en compte la vie des individus avant le business à tout prix.
Le seul motif de changement que je peux voir dans tout ceci c'est l'accélération de la prise de conscience par lesdits individus grâce justement aux media comme le Web.
Il n'est pas sûr en effet que les travailleurs chinois, indiens ou autres acceptent durant des siècles encore d'être exploités... mais cela ne se fera pas, bien entendu, en une journée et le chemin est encore long pour parvenir à cette prédominance de l'individu.
Nous connaissons même en Europe des disparités de traitements entre les pays de l'ouest et ceux de l'est qui nous rejoignent en ce moment. Certains pays à coût de main d'oeuvre très bas comme la Pologne entendent pénétrer notre marché national sans pour autant améliorer le salaire de leurs ouvriers.
Or, il se trouve que nous sommes dans une zone euro où la comparaison des prix et salaires est très facile. Il n'est pas sûr que l'ouvrier polonais accepte lui non plus durant très longtemps d'avoir un salaire inférieur à celui d'un ouvrier français ou allemand, et une couverture sociale moindre, pour un travail de même nature.
Nous avons ainsi vu récemment la chancelière allemande, dont le modèle libéral anglais était le cheval de bataille, devoir réduire ses prétentions à la baisse devant la rebellion des "landers" allemands qui, eux aussi, ont des individus à gérer.
Bien entendu, ceci n'est qu'un point de vue personnel.
Amitiés,
Didier
Posted by: transall | May 21, 2006 at 07:39 AM
It is good to see you're blogging a bit again. Even though I was working in a section of the French university system at the time, I did not see a marked change in business as usual at the school. My students did not feel as though they would be affected by the CPE laws and thus did not protest. When I broached the topic with several of my classes, many voiced a critical opinion of the university blockades and the continual protests. ('The students are just looking for some reason to block the facs' was a common idea) Several of my French colleagues voiced concern over their students' near apathy, however. As an American on a séjour in France, I have almost no concept of students blocking a university in protest, so much like your students it was an interesting learning experience for me. It was also interesting to compare the viewpoint from the older generation who protested for change and the new generation, at least a part of whom seems to lack the perspective that workers' and students' rights were fought for and need to be continually.
Posted by: Cait | May 21, 2006 at 09:33 AM
Cait, you have highlighted a generational divide that seems like a mere fissure in France, compared with a chasm in the US. It's interesting that you found this contrast so noticeable at your school, even in France. Hey, have you started a blog yet? It would make for some good cross-cultural reading. :-)
Didier, your formulation of the concept of the individual makes sense to me. The idea of national life as a relentless competition, may be a visceral over-reaction to the fall of Communism and to the fear of global competition and global terrorism that has been sown by Bush, Blair, and their cronies. But the US has always had a deep taproot in European thought, so it is still probable that the pendulum will sway back toward a more reasonable and humane model, once the current extremism has run its course. Esperons-le!
Thanks for your posts.
Posted by: francofile | May 22, 2006 at 09:24 PM
"Le cul entre deux chaises" consistently in my case, your characterisation of the situation as a 'swinging pendulum' is apt. It also implies that the va-et-vient motion will then take us back towards extremism... and so on, and so forth.
France is desperately clinging on to certain values, and I applaud it for that. The reality of the situation however is that the global free market dictates the direction we follow. No nation is an island, and protectionist measures will not, for example, continue to hold the French viticulteurs' heads above the rapidly rising level of the country's unwanted wine lake for much longer...
the FrogBlogger
Posted by: FrogBlogger | July 19, 2006 at 03:22 AM
You don't need to be an educated person to create your blog all you need is your points of view in life.
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