France Strikes Again...

I like that title, if I may say so myself. It has so many different meanings. And one of those should be evident to all though who spend atleast 15 minutes watching the news, and no, CNN does not count.

The entire country of France was on strike yesterday. Everybody. Here's how it goes in France when it comes to strikes: Usually they warn you a day or two in advance so that people can get their stuff in order to not get stuck on that day, and usually when there is a strike that concerns everyone, it's usually public transportation. Or a company here and there, but usually it's not very bothersome, just a little brouhaha here and there. Not yesterday, Thursday, January 29th, 2009.

Yesterday, France decided that they had had enough. The warning that there was going to be a strike went out since a week ago, meaning that there were many cautions to be taken lest you were willing to be stuck in the capital (and many other cities) with nowhere to run for cover. And this was not only some disgruntled employees deciding that they were not getting paid enough. This was damn near the whole country in the streets. With the exception of yours truly.

One number shows the sheer massiveness of this strike which had not been seen since 20 years ago: 2,500,000. That's the unofficial amount of people who manifested in the streets through France yesterday. Public transportation, dead. Businesses, dead. Schools, dead. Life, dead.

I woke up with one intention in mind. Put on the tv on the news channel and wait til someone gets hit in the head with a police nightstick. Didn't have to wait very long. But that's besides the point. There were alot of interesting topics discussed on the news channels as to why the people of this beautiful country in which I live in were striking. Many say the economic crisis, others demand better working conditions, but most were after the President. Many find that he is incompetent when it comes to running the country and yesterday it showed. There was little response from the H."N".I.C. and mostly he let his goonies do the dirty work. Typical.

He hid behind his ministers and decided to let them deal with the media and the crazy french people waving around picket signs outside in the street. They tried to put most of the blame on the economic crisis but we all know that if a country is run properly, that these situations can be avoided or atleast better handled, and since his inauguration in early 2007, he has made many questionable decisions. Most notably, marrying that lady. Ha!

But here we are today. A government that has enough money so that it's President and ministers live the good life, but is managing it terribly à la Bush Administration, and the rest of the country is suffering. And what you end up with is the biggest national strike of the 21st century in France.

Job well done fellas. I salute you. And yeah, keep blaming the recession. It's the in thing.

God forbid he is re-elected.

I'm out.