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In my interests below, I list French language, cinema, theatre, politics, art, and wine. And while French brought me to a lot of these things, I also like all of them in a more general way. I really love languages and their connections. I also have a thing about how theatre and cinema, art, politics and wine all hook up in some way. As I think of these ideas, I can hear the thwonk of the cork coming out of the neck of the bottle, and the gentle squeak as the cork is twisted off the tire-bouchon. Ah, that oakey, musty, acidic aroma wafting, wafting and people talking and talking and talking. And, oh they found out we have some sets of boules and they want to play pétanque. "Let's pick teams and play in the shade of those plane trees." The sounds of summer resonate: the crunch of the terrain under foot, the click of the iron bocce knocking in the players' hands, and the soft kiss of the wooden cochonnet as it hits the ground scuttling down to its resting point where it will await the arrival of each team's battle-worn aggies.

Friday, November 8, 2013

I found this article to be informative and also close to the heart since I know Saint Etienne really well.  My wife's family is from this area and I have spent many weeks in the city, visiting its mining museum and I took students there during my days at Cleveland State University.  I think the analogy from  Louis Paris, a 25-year old man from Saint Etienne to be quite a incisive and worth discussing: “You cannot take away guns from Americans, and in the same way you cannot take away social benefits from French people.” Here is the link to the full article: The Strain and the Safety Net.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I found this article to be very interesting, especially the quote you highlighted. It seems to my that the French people expect their benefits just as Americans whole heartedly believe that they have every right to bear arms based on laws that were made hundreds of years ago. I really think it's fantastic that French people have many benefits although I understand that there are some problems with the system, however I feel that that is to be expected in a grand scheme such as this. I read that one woman in the St.Etienne area quoted as saying that she would be happy to pay extra taxes for extra benefits. It's easy to quote one woman and to make an audience believe that this is the general consensus in the area but there are probably many people, especially those who are exempt from benefits who totally oppose paying high taxes. This is understandable if they a working and having their money given to others. Being Irish and looking at Ireland I acknowledge Irish people having many similar benefits such as government pension funding and child allowance for every child in a household, also there is that fact that I had never even considered having health insurance in Ireland because healthcare is so cheap. Similar to the French, it seems, Irish people curse politicians when they propose high taxes but still expect all of their benefits. Obviously a balance needs to be found.