Of strikes and terrorism threats

In the last days, we've had several emails from folks inquiring about the on-going strikes and the terrorism threats, so maybe it's a good idea to write about this here. Apparently the US press, which thrives on sensationalism rather than reality, is doing its best, because the alarm seems to come from there.

Terrorist threats For several months now, Kaye has been getting "be careful" email warnings from the US embassy. But we're not going to seem much terrorism out in the boonies and there's not really a target nearby. A target would more likely would be something in Paris (metro, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, etc.) or another big city. There has surely been some intelligence somewhere indicating some plotting going on aimed at European countries, but we don't think it's anything to get too excited about. Someone on one of the Live-in-France lists Kaye is on pointed out that your chances of being killed in a traffic accident are much higher than being killed in a terrorist action. Someone else pointed out that Europeans have been living with terrorist threats for a long time (IRA in the UK, Basques in Spain and France) and really don't get all that fussed about it. There was a brief mention in the local paper here, but further not much.

Strikes These continue. And seem set to continue. Yesterday morning's paper reported activists as saying that the Toussaint (1-Nov, all saint's day, big deal here) holiday will not stop the actions, so it looks like they will go on for a while yet.

What we've seen firsthand has been pretty good-humored. In Cognac we ran into one of the first marches, the largest in the Charente on that day. It seemed quite jolly and well-organized. The police were there, but everyone was smiling. No feeling of threat or animosity. The marches are apparently all very well planned, with stop and start points, routes, transport to and from start and end, etc., all laid out ahead of time.

Road blockages are annoying if you're trying to get somewhere. Last Friday when we went into Angoulême for a concert, we ran into a looong traffic jam resulting from a blockage at a roundabout on a major street into the center. There were groups, mostly young and middle-aged folks, working all roads coming into the circle. They'd step into the street to stop traffic. After about 5 minutes, they'd let a few cars go by. Stop again. We were a bit worried about getting to our concert, but made it with no problem. Tuesday we passed over a highway as we returned from grocery shopping and noted that it was stopped. We've read that they force busy highways down to one lane to cause the slow-ups, although sometimes they are completely blocked.

Locally there have been some gas/diesel shortages reported because of strikes at major depots, but Ed didn't have a problem filling up last week. Sarkozy has sent in troops to open three fuel depots. Nevertheless lots of people are stockpiling gas, carrying a full can in their trunk, etc. We have a delivery of fioul (fuel oil) for the heater scheduled for next week and we're wondering if that will come off. And how the price will be. It's been up the last few times we've ordered anyhow.

We have seen rumors that the groceries will be out of food on the weekend, and we're hoping this is just a rumor. We'll try to get to a market to stock up on fresh food in the next days. We can eat out of the freezer for quite a while, it's only milk and fruit and lettuce things that we'll miss.

In general there's not been much violence that we've heard of. A rock thrown here and there by an "enthusiastic" youth. Nothing around much around here anyhow.

We're both kind of ambivalent about it all. Sarkozy's plan is for retirement age to go from 60 to 62; full pension age to go from 65 to 67; both phased in so they don't affect people close to the target ages. Given the economic situation everywhere, it seems a reasonable plan (if a bit sad). But Sarkozy has really fumbled handling the situation. He didn't work with the unions on his plan to get their buy-in, and his public relations have been c***. He comes across as an arrogant b******. What should have been presented as belt-tightening exercise, we all have to join in, rah-rah, has come across like a diktaat from above. So we have a bit of sympathy with the protesters.

We are curious to see how it all works out, and hope we aren't too badly affected by any shortages.