Paris is not burning, Paris is resisting.

I am starting to be exhausted by having to write constantly to defend France or rather la jeunesse Française (the French youth). I have read more articles than I care to remember about France and its so-called fantasy world. The authors of those articles argue that France is burning. Their main point is that the youth are resisting modernity. I would have no problem with those articles if those people were arguing for the law, le CPE, which has provoked the current demonstrations. Instead, all of their arguments are based on false presumptions, prejudices and on the past, on the unrest that happened in the suburbs at the end of last year and of the reputation that France has for being unwilling to reform. Claire Berlinski had an article in the Post that was just absurd. She concluded by arguing that the real question is “Who rules? This is the second time in 11 years that a popularly elected government here faces dismissal not from the voters, but from the streets. If this does not represent a direct challenge to the government's power, it is hard to know what would. Should the government fall, the question will have been answered.” I disagree. The question posed by the current demonstrations is how to reform and to revitalize the French society and French economy, should it be done on the back of the youth so the current system is preserved no matter the costs or should it be done by putting more choices and more power in the hands of the youth? At the end of last weed, an article in the post argued that the French joie de vivre is fading into fear; I do agree that a malaise is gripping France. However, my argument is that the revolt of the French youth is a positive sign for its shows that the people who are the future of France are not brain dead and care. Newsweek has two negative articles on France and its labor law. In the first one, Robert J. Samuelson argues that the French youth is trying to push the future away by marching in the streets; on the contrary, they are trying to take their future back from the hands of a French political class, which lacks both creativity and inspiration. In the second article, Denis MacShane gives us a truer vision of the situation by saying that French and Europeans leaders only know how to say no to reforms. However, he concludes his article by stating that, “Today's French and Italian leaders preside over their own immobile anciens régimes. Both countries need a revolution. But it will not come from students who protest against change, labor leaders who deny modernity—and politicians who only know how to say Non.” I agree, but again, it is important to insist that the French students are not resisting change; they are saying Non to a future where their only purpose would be to support a system so that baby boomers can still enjoy the fruits of the welfare state. The problem with the labor law, le CPE is that it slaps the French youth is the face, by sending them the message that the state is not ready to give them the tools to face harsh realities, and the opportunities to make France a modern nation. My argument is simple; the Villepin government could have change the debate by making it more hopeful by saying to its youth that although it was going to take something back, it was going to give them something back by making it possible for example for them to become entrepreneurs and to have something to study and to work for. The problem is that Villepin’s message was and still is, it is the CPE or darkness. There was no better incentive for the youth to take to the streets than to send them a message that was the equivalent of giving them the finger.

Comments

[Pumpkin Queen]

I am a 27 years old French girl. Although I'm graduated from a high Business School, and although CPE doesn't exist yet, I know what being fired for no reason is, I know what finding no job is, I know what being on the dole is.

CPE is nothing but a work-contract type as the others we already have in France. It won't change anything.

I also know that, unfortunalty, every few years, students are very happy to find an excuse not to go to school, and labor unions to find a way to be seen on TV. It is to notice that only students and civil servants, that means the people who don't know what work precariciousness is, are on strike.

I'm ashamed of the mentality of French people, who always think everything is due to them. They must have forgotten that having rights also means having duties...

[Panthgorass]

Thanks for your love to France.

The french students was against the CPE, to not go at School... Hummm

Me, what I saw, it was, along the streets, students with ideas boxes, and a lot of different kind of French whose gived ideas.

And this in many towns. Maybe this ideas are, now, beetwen Sego's hands.

And, they was say, clearly, "it's not a revolution".

To finish, Pumpkin, please, if you could not forget the students whose go at university without his parent's money. It's not a drama, but, it's a reality which exist and i think it is important.

Thanks.

Brazil, it is :
"Ordre et Progrés"