Manifestations

"manifestations" is the French word for "protests", of which there have been plenty these past couple of weeks in Paris. Simplified situation:

Dominique Villepin, prime minister, created the Contrat Premier Embauche (CPE), which basically allows employers to fire young employees under the age of 26 within a two year "test period" without any explanation. This, as you might imagine, has caused a very controversial and fiery reaction among the youth of France, who are very much maligned in the workplace (Monalisa told me that French employers prefer to hire older more experienced employees...).

So, what do the jeunesse of France do? Why they rise up against the bullying government by holding numerous "manifestations" and "grèves" (strikes) at universities, and cancel classes by barring professors from accessing their classrooms. I've had two classes canceled this week due to student protests at the Sorbonne. At the Université de Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle, classes have been canceled for 2 weeks. According to CUPA, strikes such as this in the past have lasted as long as 1 month.

As Regina remarked, there is probably no other developed country in the world where people rise up and protest and march against grievances so often.

On one hand, I admire the French students for taking action against the CPE, for “standing up for what they believe”, to be trite.

On the other hand, I ask myself, what will become of this? One, from an extremely coldly capitalist point of view, my parents paid a large amount of money to study here—I am not receiving what my parents have invested capital into. But that’s not the point. For the French students, I wonder how much impact their protests will have. I am sure, and the French in general will agree with me, that neither Villepin or the French government will change or revoke the CPE due to these manifestations. The French government doesn’t bend easily for anyone, much less a bunch of jeunes. Like many institutions in France, things don’t change…they rest deeply rooted.

But does this mean that they shouldn’t protest at all? What’s the point of putting on this brouhaha if nothing is going to happen? Don’t the students realize that the government isn’t going to change colors?

I think the students know, at least unconsciously, that the government won’t change. But in the liberal spirit, this doesn’t mean we can’t protest. We meaning humans in general. Even when we know that the government, the man (as Jen puts it), or whatever the superior institution is, won’t change, or there is very little probability of it bending, it doesn’t mean we cannot protest or express our opinions. Change doesn’t come easily, but it won’t even begin to germinate if you do nothing, if you give up before you even say anything. It’s the principle of freedom of expression, of being able to stand up for what you believe in, that counts. Yes, it’s trite. But it’s what (warning, rampant American patriotism coming up) our forefathers (yes, I say our forefathers, even though my blood forefathers were actually Mongolian horsemen galloping around conquering China) fought for and died for, and what generations of American statesmen and patriots fought for, and what the French have equally fought for (in their way).

The thing is, that disgusts and makes me so angry, is this: I read in the New York Times about how the Republicans put forth some random female candidate to challenge Hillary Clinton in the NY senate race. I admit, I admire Hillary, but this doesn’t blind my judgment—that it is utterly against my democratic principles and purity of what this country was founded on, to propose a candidate just because the Republicans want to make Hillary stumble before the 2008 elections. This is catty, this is pure poison politics, an act of political calculation that puts forth party interests before the interests of the country (although I’m sure Republicans think they’re doing a good for the country by making Hillary stumble). How can the Republicans be so desperately catty to put forth any random woman to have the pleasure of tripping Hillary? The candidate they offered is really sadly unqualified…it’s sad, very very sad. See, this is what makes me so bitter and disillusioned about politics—politics have become a selfish, narcissistic, power-hungry struggle between Democrats and Republicans for control of this country…in which many of our politicians have lost the vision of what this country is supposed to be. Whatever happened to the principles upon which this country was founded? It seems that our modern politicians have for the most part lost the purity of conviction that our Founding Fathers held. The pessimistic Kate in me feels that the farther spatially that a group, an organization, a country, moves from its founding origins, the more difficult it is to keep the original convictions on which the organization/group/country is founded. Perhaps I’m being too pessimistic.

Wow, this has really turned out to be a long, random post.

So in other words today, I had my first rather unpleasant French academic experience. A couple of weeks ago, I showed up at the first TD of my art history class (19^th century painting from Jacques-Louis David to Gustave Courbet) with Professor Laugée. I explained to him that I would have to switch to another TD on Thursday because I had to make an atelier de phonetique for CUPA Fridays. He said, ok, that’s fine, better, because there are other foreign students there, and here you go, do this oral expose with this other American student who is switching into that section. Ok, fine. First, I don’t even get to choose my expose topic. Second, thanks a lot for lumping me with other “foreign students” and assuming that I’m just a member of a general entity and not really an individual. Great so far.

So at CM on Tuesday, I run into that other American girl, who informs me that actually, she’s not switching TDs, and so that means I’ll have to do the oral expose by myself. Ok, so the expose is in three weeks. I’ve never taken an art history class, I’m not an art history major, French is my third language and I can’t speak very fast. But that’s all manageable, I won’t complain. However, I thought, maybe at least I can change my expose topic (A synthetic study of a series of paintings by Theodore Gericault of horse races), which doesn’t really interest me (I mean, I didn’t even choose it!), to a later date, so I can prepare for it better. Before I can even finish my sentence, the professor cuts me short and says impatiently, “All the expose topics are filled, you can’t change.” So then I ask, is it possible to do a written expose? He looks at me, exasperated and says, “I only grade oral exposes.” Fine.

Do you know what he did during the two oral exposes today? He interrupted each girl about 10 times during their expose to criticize them or to point out areas he said they didn’t mention. In fact, the girls were just on the point of discussing the areas, before the overeager *insert three word expletive* interrupted them. Way to interrupt the composure and flow of the presentation. AND on top of it, thanks to his numerous interruptions, one girl’s expose went over the 25 minutes allotted, and he said, “I’m going to have to take points off for that mademoiselle.” Please, *insert expletive of your choice here* if you hadn’t interrupted the poor girl so many times, she would have been within the time limit.

I already know he won’t have any leniency for me during my oral expose. He won’t care that I’m not fluent in French—he’ll tear me to pieces, he’ll be happy making pointed barbs at my ignorance of art history. Go do that, Monsieur Laugée, because you won’t make me feel like a piece of *insert not so nice word for poo*. I’ll show you that I won’t be intimidated by you. And you know what, I probably weigh more than you anyway, so if we ever had a fight, you would be down *like that* (this is so true, he could wear Sarah Jessica Parker’s clothes on her skinniest days AND have room to spare).

I hate it when people refuse to acknowledge that I am an individual and not some random irritating thing, which apparently I am to my TD professor.

Ok ok, done venting! Off to early bed, 8am class tomorrow!