Being a rebel V
I feel like my country is blowing up somehow. I don't have memories of a such politically chaotic period, yet I guess I was just too young to realize.
Life.
It sounds like life is getting more expensive and more difficult. Society always ask more and more. Prices are rising like mad. Gas price had increased again, oil level decrease, prices inflate, it's become so hard to just buy lunch every day... How normal is that ? I'm supposed to be in the rather upper part of the middle class, and I'm running like mad after money. Not that I love money, but I just *need* it to live, as everyone, I guess.
The worse part IMO is that it's quite easy to make yourself guilty, by thinking of those who don't even have a home to start with. I have a 40 Mbits internet line, unlimited phone, cable tv, a quite decent appartment in the city of Paris, which belongs to my parents, I can afford to pursue my studies (well, everyone can as it's free but some people have to give up in order to work to survive :( ;.. ) - so why should I be complaining ?
Isn't it ironic that you end up feeling guilty for "not being in a very bad situation" ?
What kind of lower-levelling is that ?!
It's like the usual UMP political scheme. They want to, say, reduce unemployment pensions by 10%. So they announce they're going to lower them by 20%, then after long negociations and talks they decide to "only" reduce them by 10%. Everyone feels they've sort of won why they exactly lost.
So much for "a better life".
Politics.
Maybe you heard about this. The Clearstream Case.
It's a rather nasty story, in fact. a rumour started spreading, according to which Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin had set the French secret services to "find stuff" about (against ?) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who would be the main rival of the Chirac-wing candidate in the 2007 election, more specifically something about him having "curious" bank accounts in Luxembourg.
De Villepin and Sarkozy obviously both denied it was true. But an old secret services general testified that he was ordered to "make" the listing.
Just for the sake of it : they found on a made-up listing various suspect funds transfer to a bunch of accounts. One account was owned by Mr "Paul de Nagy" one other was owned by Mr "Stéphane Bocsa".
Now, when you know that the complete name of our Interior Minister is "Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa", you start pondering the fact that there may be something.
The listing being obviously made-up, perhaps by Villepin or Chirac themselves according to the general,
Thus, the judges now want to get further into this. The logical move for Dominique de Villepin would be to resign. Well, the Villepin method is that he'll deny all and stay there no matter what.
First, various unapproved reforms, then the super-bad handling of the riot crisis, then the CPE thing, now the CNE that's started being invalidated by prud'hommes courts, the controversed CESEDA project and now this ?
How can Villepin seriously stay ? Hell, he even reported his project to ban smoking for all public places !
It sounds like the government position is totally rubbish now ! Not to mention the President's, but that's been true for years and didn't prevent Chirac from being re-elected.
Liberty and Equality.
Going the same way, the evolution of the law sounds quite wrong. Liberties are being reduced (last in list : the mayor of Montfermeil, in Seine-Saint-Denis (the département where the November 2005 riots started), passed a bill according to which under 26's no longer can walk downtown if they're in a group of more than 3 people). Long-battle-won fundamental rights are being suspended or removed (like the right to know why you're fired, removed with the CNE).
Racism, antisemitism, xenophobia... are increasing madly, especially since Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy keeps insisting about the "scums" and stating that immigrants are a burden and a pain (to make it short) that are the source of all our problems.
Bargain for the far-right supporters.
I used to be somewhat permissive with liberalism. Not that I ever really supported it, but I was like, trusting people, you know ? But not anymore, I'm afraid to say. I don't trust people. Thus I'm not permissive anymore. I despise most forms of liberalism because when a human can benefit of a situation, he'll do no matter what to get that benefit.
Sad reality.
I'm so annoyed that communist systems had huge flaws in them. I really like the primary idea : getting benefit for the community, rather that for oneself. Well we saw how it was twisted and how it all ended.
Badly.
Capitalism isn't really a problem, I think. I don't like that word nor what it etymologically means. But Marx had it that way, that the capital you got through that system could be useful for everyone.
Liberalism is the problem.
Because if you turn rules down, you allow people to not respect others. And sadly, people tend to abuse everything/everyone if they see a benefit for them.
I tend to think that hopefully, not everyone is like this.
And every day or so, I'm a little bit more deceived.
And the poor get poorer, the middle-class gets poorer, and the rich get wealthier.
What's positive, though, is that as time goes by and all this happens and all, people seem to be more reactive. Or more people seem to be reactive.
3 million people in the streets in France against the LEC in March. That was a record for the Fifth Republic. And then it suddenly happened thrice in a row !
After something like that, doubled by the huge amount of anti-precarity committees that have been set-up these last years - how can one think that nobody cares ?
People care, it's just that they're not in charge, and that's because most people are still unaware, uneducated or maybe just a little bit egoistic. And there are, too, people that are aware but have a lot of problems of their own to deal with - and one can't really blame them for that either.
OK, this wasn't a depressed entry (I swear !), just a few reflexions.
I'm still going to Athens for the European Social Forum, so I'll probably write something from there I think. Most definitely something about there.
I'm really looking forwards to going too :) And we're not going to ride a bus to Venice and then a boat, we're just using a good old plane, so the trip will only take 3 hours rather than 3 days !
And now, my sister's back home and brought fourteen people with her ! ARGH ! it's 01:50 and it wasn't planned (parents away... silly sister !) and I just hope the neighbours won't call the cops because I don't reckon I would stand it, lol, as I hate them so much these days... Well it shouldn't happen (we have cool neighbours and so far she managed to keep the volume rather low, so it'll do !). Oh and in case I didn't specify it, it's her birthday today so I guess I'll just have to bear with it !
Stay connected !
Find your Celestial Choir
Life.
It sounds like life is getting more expensive and more difficult. Society always ask more and more. Prices are rising like mad. Gas price had increased again, oil level decrease, prices inflate, it's become so hard to just buy lunch every day... How normal is that ? I'm supposed to be in the rather upper part of the middle class, and I'm running like mad after money. Not that I love money, but I just *need* it to live, as everyone, I guess.
The worse part IMO is that it's quite easy to make yourself guilty, by thinking of those who don't even have a home to start with. I have a 40 Mbits internet line, unlimited phone, cable tv, a quite decent appartment in the city of Paris, which belongs to my parents, I can afford to pursue my studies (well, everyone can as it's free but some people have to give up in order to work to survive :( ;.. ) - so why should I be complaining ?
Isn't it ironic that you end up feeling guilty for "not being in a very bad situation" ?
What kind of lower-levelling is that ?!
It's like the usual UMP political scheme. They want to, say, reduce unemployment pensions by 10%. So they announce they're going to lower them by 20%, then after long negociations and talks they decide to "only" reduce them by 10%. Everyone feels they've sort of won why they exactly lost.
So much for "a better life".
Politics.
Maybe you heard about this. The Clearstream Case.
It's a rather nasty story, in fact. a rumour started spreading, according to which Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin had set the French secret services to "find stuff" about (against ?) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who would be the main rival of the Chirac-wing candidate in the 2007 election, more specifically something about him having "curious" bank accounts in Luxembourg.
De Villepin and Sarkozy obviously both denied it was true. But an old secret services general testified that he was ordered to "make" the listing.
Just for the sake of it : they found on a made-up listing various suspect funds transfer to a bunch of accounts. One account was owned by Mr "Paul de Nagy" one other was owned by Mr "Stéphane Bocsa".
Now, when you know that the complete name of our Interior Minister is "Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa", you start pondering the fact that there may be something.
The listing being obviously made-up, perhaps by Villepin or Chirac themselves according to the general,
Thus, the judges now want to get further into this. The logical move for Dominique de Villepin would be to resign. Well, the Villepin method is that he'll deny all and stay there no matter what.
First, various unapproved reforms, then the super-bad handling of the riot crisis, then the CPE thing, now the CNE that's started being invalidated by prud'hommes courts, the controversed CESEDA project and now this ?
How can Villepin seriously stay ? Hell, he even reported his project to ban smoking for all public places !
It sounds like the government position is totally rubbish now ! Not to mention the President's, but that's been true for years and didn't prevent Chirac from being re-elected.
Liberty and Equality.
Going the same way, the evolution of the law sounds quite wrong. Liberties are being reduced (last in list : the mayor of Montfermeil, in Seine-Saint-Denis (the département where the November 2005 riots started), passed a bill according to which under 26's no longer can walk downtown if they're in a group of more than 3 people). Long-battle-won fundamental rights are being suspended or removed (like the right to know why you're fired, removed with the CNE).
Racism, antisemitism, xenophobia... are increasing madly, especially since Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy keeps insisting about the "scums" and stating that immigrants are a burden and a pain (to make it short) that are the source of all our problems.
Bargain for the far-right supporters.
I used to be somewhat permissive with liberalism. Not that I ever really supported it, but I was like, trusting people, you know ? But not anymore, I'm afraid to say. I don't trust people. Thus I'm not permissive anymore. I despise most forms of liberalism because when a human can benefit of a situation, he'll do no matter what to get that benefit.
Sad reality.
I'm so annoyed that communist systems had huge flaws in them. I really like the primary idea : getting benefit for the community, rather that for oneself. Well we saw how it was twisted and how it all ended.
Badly.
Capitalism isn't really a problem, I think. I don't like that word nor what it etymologically means. But Marx had it that way, that the capital you got through that system could be useful for everyone.
Liberalism is the problem.
Because if you turn rules down, you allow people to not respect others. And sadly, people tend to abuse everything/everyone if they see a benefit for them.
I tend to think that hopefully, not everyone is like this.
And every day or so, I'm a little bit more deceived.
And the poor get poorer, the middle-class gets poorer, and the rich get wealthier.
What's positive, though, is that as time goes by and all this happens and all, people seem to be more reactive. Or more people seem to be reactive.
3 million people in the streets in France against the LEC in March. That was a record for the Fifth Republic. And then it suddenly happened thrice in a row !
After something like that, doubled by the huge amount of anti-precarity committees that have been set-up these last years - how can one think that nobody cares ?
People care, it's just that they're not in charge, and that's because most people are still unaware, uneducated or maybe just a little bit egoistic. And there are, too, people that are aware but have a lot of problems of their own to deal with - and one can't really blame them for that either.
OK, this wasn't a depressed entry (I swear !), just a few reflexions.
I'm still going to Athens for the European Social Forum, so I'll probably write something from there I think. Most definitely something about there.
I'm really looking forwards to going too :) And we're not going to ride a bus to Venice and then a boat, we're just using a good old plane, so the trip will only take 3 hours rather than 3 days !
And now, my sister's back home and brought fourteen people with her ! ARGH ! it's 01:50 and it wasn't planned (parents away... silly sister !) and I just hope the neighbours won't call the cops because I don't reckon I would stand it, lol, as I hate them so much these days... Well it shouldn't happen (we have cool neighbours and so far she managed to keep the volume rather low, so it'll do !). Oh and in case I didn't specify it, it's her birthday today so I guess I'll just have to bear with it !
Stay connected !
Find your Celestial Choir