Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite :: 07:40 PM :: easyjetsetter

So, remember the day of solidarity?

You know how everyone was supposed to rise up in support of the old and the disabled and work an extra day? Remember how the plan failed miserably, with half of all salaried workers showing up? How 1 in 3 students stayed away from school, prompting an extra school day (about which teachers' unions intend to strike for an, um, day)? How the SNCF workers are working 1 minute and 52 seconds extra every day to make up for taking the holiday? And how it was supposed to raise 2 billion euros in increased tax revenue even though INSEE said the financial effect of the extra day would be "very close to zero"?

Well, the good news is, they have cancelled the "day of solidarity" for next year.

The bad news is, they're going to replace it with a day of brotherhood:

"Moreover, the committee proposed the creation of a "day of brotherhood," designed to make the French aware of dependency* and to underline the importance of acting locally"

I don't know about you, but I find this very amusing. It's like when my parents couldn't get me to eat aubergines, so they suggested I try eggplant instead. "But it's good for you" they purred...

Even the chap who heads up the committee mentioned above, responsible for examing the effects of the day of solidarity, was on the telly just now agreeing that "forced free labour for an extra day** will not solve the problems of the vulnerable," however, he then goes on to say "instead of an extra day of school, these children need to spend a day with their grandparents and really feel what it is to be dependent." Errrrmmm....

I was pointed in the direction of this article this morning, and it's very true and very right, but rather glosses over the fact that many French cadres, when they're not on holiday, work 70-hour weeks or more.



*This is one of those French abstract nouns that make one forget that social problems are, in fact, people suffering: they don't have elderly and disabled people, they have The Dependency. They don't have poor or disadvantaged people, they have The Exclusion. Another case of American being just like France, they don't have terrorists and criminals, but The Terror.

**Please note, a French work day is considered seven hours long. At least, by the unions.