Anti-Mondialisation

So I knew the French had a huge sense of pride….we have the best cuisine, we have the best wine, we’re so refined, our language is amazing, etc (I generalize and exaggerate slightly, of course…though sarkozy did say the other day that the French have the best cuisine in the world…another great move on his part :P I believe my food history professor’s response to that was, he might as well have said “and my wife is the biggest piece of ass in France.” That was one of his tamer moments in class today...man swears like a sailor...), but I never realized how far the government goes to protect the French sense of pride. Did you know that French radio stations are forbidden by law to play more than 20% American/English music? At one point all advertisements with slogans in English were banned, but now the law only requires that those slogans then be translated into French on the sign…which usually results in a hugggge English slogan and a tiny translation in the bottom corner…which also seems like a very American thing to do.

Last week in my food history class we talked about the concept of “terroir,” something that we don’t talk about much at all in the U.S. because it doesn’t impact our lives neeearly as much at all. It’s the place from which I think France gets much of its culinary reputation. It’s the idea that everything comes back to place of origin in relation to food. Where was the food planted, grown, harvested…how was the climate, the soil, what sorts of mushrooms attached themselves to the grapes…etc. That’s important for obvious reasons…I.e. you plant one type of grape in two different areas, you’re going to end up with two completely different tasting/smelling/looking wines. But also for naming things. When you buy a camembert cheese in france, you can tell whether its authentic, trustworthy camembert by finding the AOC (appellation d’origine contrôlé) symbole on the container. They’re very serious about regulating the naming of products.


There’s no wonder the wines, cheese, breads, etc here are so good. They’ve got the food quality police out all the time trying to protect the French reputation (and finally the french earned back their bread-making reputation this year. theyve lost the breadmaking world cup the past couple years....U.S. winning it at least once, but they finally earned it back last week!) Too bad this food quality doesnt extend to nutritional quality...white bread and cheese fat arent exactly high(or i guess, low) on the food pyramid. tant pis.

In other news, a day hasn't passed since I last posted where there hasn't been some sort of strike or manifestation, always going past my street on the bd Montparnasse. The past couple days it was people blocking the olympic flame passing through Paris, today the students were back at it again standing on top of bus waiting-booth things (how they get up there is beyond me) and blowing their whistles. cops lined the intersections w/those plexiglass-esque shields and sent traffic in other directions. they had some intense bullet-proof-vestage going on.
Hmm and a short recount of the past week...last Friday I went on a promenade around Montmartre in the North of Paris with EDUCO people and we stopped and grabbed coffee at the café where Amélie was filmed. They had funny American music blaring (think Shaggy and random 80s). Then that night Katie and I made an insanely yummy mexican feast. Mexican food is certainly not one of the reasons to come to Paris...you'll have to scavenge to find taco seasoning anywhere. And Saturday morning we took a trip to Versailles to see the Grandes Eaux Musicales, even though it was a dreary day. We got lost in Marie Antoinette's village, but enjoyed the rando farms animals (one pen = a peacock, ducks, roosters, a goat, and a dog...) and the fighting donkeys. After that I went to a prayer lecture at the ACP which..eh..was less than what I expected, mainly because I disagreed with a lot of the pastor's...theology, i suppose. Anyways, then we went on the pub crawl that my friend Marla is now running. Sunday and on has a been a lot of lazing in my room, writing my archaeology paper, and figuring out Emory details (honors thesis, random applications).

Bon week-end à tous et toutes!

Ah, Les Grèves

From "Le Robert Micro"

1) grève n. f. Cessation volontaire et collective du travail décidée par des salariés ou par des personnes ayant des intérêts communs pour des raisons économiques ou politiques. >gréviste n. Personne qui fait grève.

However I disagree with this definition of a "grève," if we're talking about une grève en France. If its une grève americaine, then yes. That would be a voluntary and collective cessation of work decided by the salaried or by people having common interests for economic or political reasons. That's one of the only times you'll really see a strike
in the states. However in Paris, I prefer the dictionary.com english version:

2)strike n. : a temporary stoppage of something.

yes, nice and vague. that's how the french like their strikes. you can strike about anything you like. Ugly uniforms, gross weather, a bad steak tartare (or if you're our program's president, a non-crispy baguette)- just grab all your closest friends and get angry. That's why I think this final definition might be even more fitting:

3) grève n.f. I'm pissed. I hate Sarkozy. Lets all skip class and march in the streets today to show how pissed we are. I'll get my reserve of whistles and noise makers and we'll all make the evening news!

So, of course there's really something behind the striking, there's just an ongoing joke (especially for international students, because when universities here strike, we end up having to change our plane tickets till later to finish our exams) about the excessiveness of parisian grèves.

Anywho, the real story. I actually saw these passing my street this afternoon on my way to class.The Lyceens (high school students) of Paris had a demonstration today on the streets of Paris to protest against higher education reform and reduction of teaching positions in high schools, new reforms instituted by Nicholas Sarkozy's administration last year. The reforms allow universities to accept donations from private companies, a movement towards privatisation of education, as the French see it. I don't really know enough about the reforms to know what I'd think about them, though I would be disgruntled at reduced numbers of professors as well. We have the same problem of bad student:teacher ratios enough in the states (though fortunately not at Emory). It is however interesting and bizarre to see students so passionate/concerned about their education. I can't imagine this occuring in the states, or not as largely as this.
For the record I've been here three months and I've seen 3 huge strikes like this.