Libération had a special dossier on Expatriates today, along with the usual editorials about how the CPE condemns young people to slavery. Of course, it's not an accident that "Ireland and the United Kingdom welcome many [French] graduates in marketing and communication. 'Unemployment is weaker there and they have the impression that a chance is given to young people.'" And yet those horrible countries do not have lifetime employment!
I do pin my hopes on young French expatriates. It's been quite a theme lately. Most people from any country who live abroad when they are young learn a lot about their own culture. It's got to be good for France, just as it's bad for the U.S. (although understandable for geographical reasons) that only 3% of the population has a passport.
Years ago Valérie Lemercier did a hilarious one-woman show in which she twisted ordinary words to make them sound horribly obscene. One of them was s'expatrier (to leave one's own country), which turned into Sex Pas Trié [indiscriminate sex]. Ever since then, I can't hear the word without inwardly snickering. I suppose it's my true, nine-year-old nature coming out.
I'm sorry if I don't write about the literally burning issue any more. I feel as if I have seen it all so many times already. Germany and France are the dinosaurs of Europe and will be the last to adapt, just as GM will go on dying for a long, long time because it's so big. In the last week, when I was in Germany, several ordinary Germans who heard that I lived in France told me that they were proud of the French for fighting to keep their "acquis sociaux" [literally, "social acquisitions," a phrase that has come to mean the rights that normal employees have in France, such as six weeks of vacation a year, a 35-hour work week enforced by inspectors, and a job for life. The price it exacts from those who are not in the system is also an acquis social, just as it was impossible to find an apartment in New York City when there was rent control]. "We Germans don't fight for our rights the way the French do. It's a shame."
It didn't seem to cross their minds that any nice person might have a different opinion. It reminded me exactly of visiting southern Louisiana right after George W invaded Iraq. You were not allowed to be against our "awesome Christian President" (a quote from one of my favorite cousins) fighting terrorists who hate freedom.
Instead I will tell you that the local towns in the Pyrenees where five bears have recently been introduced are planning to name them all. You can propose your choice of name here and the municipal councils will decide.
And yesterday on the way to the airport I noticed that the large gypsy/ Rom encampment at the Courbevoie exit was gone, razed to the ground. I mentioned it to the taxi driver, and he said he had seen bulldozers there about two weeks ago. I wonder where the people went.
If you're French, have talent and a little bit of initiative, how can you not consider expatriation?! I've seen godzillion of them when I was in London and New York, and I see godzillion of them no in California. I wouldn't call them economic refugees, but we're not far from there...This is what the French system breeds. It hurts me to say this about my own country, but it's the reality.
Posted by: Frog in L.A. | 28 March 2006 at 18:23