Tuesday, June 18, 2002
Summer vacations...
I can't believe the last time I took more than 48 hours of break was exactly twelve months ago ! Far away from Paris, without telephone, without computer, without any internet cafe. The house we rent is beautiful, with a superb garden where the kids are going to play, we are at bike-riding distance from the beach and most of my childhood friends will be around for summer vacations too.
5 hours of high speed train on thursday morning and I'll be in a different world, a place where you don't need an approval to decide that yes you really want to do nothing at all today :-)
You know what ? I like Europe. We are perhaps moving a little bit slower than the USA, but we get something from the time we spend at work.
What do we get ? 5 weeks of payed vacation per year.
Want a map ? Here it is.
I can't believe the last time I took more than 48 hours of break was exactly twelve months ago ! Far away from Paris, without telephone, without computer, without any internet cafe. The house we rent is beautiful, with a superb garden where the kids are going to play, we are at bike-riding distance from the beach and most of my childhood friends will be around for summer vacations too.
5 hours of high speed train on thursday morning and I'll be in a different world, a place where you don't need an approval to decide that yes you really want to do nothing at all today :-)
You know what ? I like Europe. We are perhaps moving a little bit slower than the USA, but we get something from the time we spend at work.
What do we get ? 5 weeks of payed vacation per year.
Want a map ? Here it is.
Monday, June 17, 2002
Banana Republic ?
We had an Election Day yesterday in France. We were electing the first Chamber of the Parliament, the one directly elected by normal people though a democratic process, not the high Chamber, a reminiscence from the 3rd Republic.
So this country wakes up today with a totally different political scene : Chirac was re-elected with 82% of voters (against Le Pen, that's an excuse for the 82%), the low Chamber of the Parliament has 2/3 of representatives of his party, the high Chamber has same majority, the Constitutional Court has same majority, the presidential mandate was reduced from 7 to 5 years (the low Chamber is also elected for 5 years) so the President can almost never face again an apposition at the Parliament...
Hey, only the city of Paris resists ! Look like Bush in empty US states and Gore in New York. At the difference it was not too close to call.
Chirac is quite impressive I must say. Totally incompetent as a President but a real "political beast". Able to transform 5 years of absolute inaction into the largest success of the Right in almost 40 years.
But he is also able to transform a success in a potential catastrophe since the former Prime, Alain Juppé, who stepped down from the political scene in 1997 after putting millions of people in the streets demonstrating, is back.
Well, after all, Chirac is perhaps a political beast ; but French also have for sure a very bad memory. To paraphrase de Gaulle, and please Anthony Davis, what can you expect from a country having more than 400 cheeses ?
BTW, it is now 5:15am, and Arte tv channel is broadcasting a documentary (could be NGM) specially adapted to #mozilla public : there's goat sex right now on the screen :-)
We had an Election Day yesterday in France. We were electing the first Chamber of the Parliament, the one directly elected by normal people though a democratic process, not the high Chamber, a reminiscence from the 3rd Republic.
So this country wakes up today with a totally different political scene : Chirac was re-elected with 82% of voters (against Le Pen, that's an excuse for the 82%), the low Chamber of the Parliament has 2/3 of representatives of his party, the high Chamber has same majority, the Constitutional Court has same majority, the presidential mandate was reduced from 7 to 5 years (the low Chamber is also elected for 5 years) so the President can almost never face again an apposition at the Parliament...
Hey, only the city of Paris resists ! Look like Bush in empty US states and Gore in New York. At the difference it was not too close to call.
Chirac is quite impressive I must say. Totally incompetent as a President but a real "political beast". Able to transform 5 years of absolute inaction into the largest success of the Right in almost 40 years.
But he is also able to transform a success in a potential catastrophe since the former Prime, Alain Juppé, who stepped down from the political scene in 1997 after putting millions of people in the streets demonstrating, is back.
Well, after all, Chirac is perhaps a political beast ; but French also have for sure a very bad memory. To paraphrase de Gaulle, and please Anthony Davis, what can you expect from a country having more than 400 cheeses ?
BTW, it is now 5:15am, and Arte tv channel is broadcasting a documentary (could be NGM) specially adapted to #mozilla public : there's goat sex right now on the screen :-)
