June 27, 2007
Pave: Paint It Black
Virginia,There is nothing wrong with me. I just see things clearly and the world is dark. It is black. I have no real friends. My parents are disappointed in me. No one likes me. People say this is just teenage angst, but it is not. I just see things as they are.
a 16-year old clinically depressed French girl
RENNES June 10, 2007 (Guardian)
France is a middling happy place but the French are not.
THE WORLD IS DARK
Happiness Is Forever Distant. Why Bother?
TEENAGERS FEEL STRAIN OF BEING FRENCH
RENNES June 10, 2007 (Guardian) - Research to be published later this year will reveal that depression has exploded among French youth with increases of up to a third in the past decade. The statistics are striking. Three successive studies of around 15,000 children reveal that, among young people aged from 12 to 18, 9 per cent of boys and 22 per cent of girls show signs of depression and anxiety - three times the total in 1993. For the older adolescents the levels are even higher, with an increase to 14 per cent among boys and 35 per cent among girls aged 17 to 18.... Few, however, see easy solutions to a phenomenon that has its roots deep in French society. Francois Dubet, professor of sociology at Bordeaux University:
We are talking about the values of the country, about our attitude to the state and the individual, about profound elements of our identity. It will change over time, because there are ideas that are clearly not working any longer.
And earlier there was this:
ONE PERSON A DAY COMMITS SUICIDE AT WORK
[No dateline, posted to Expatica on March 14, 2007] (AFP) - A recent study carried out by the Conseil economique et social (economic and social council) shows that an average of one person per day commits suicide due to work related stress in France.Christian Larose, vice-president of the council and labour union representative in the textile industry, released the staggering figure of 300 to 400 work-related suicides a year.
Furthermore, and as Christian Larose points out, "these figures are increasing and may be too low".
To obtain all the state goodies of le modèle social français, young French worry themselves sick about not fitting into the model. Once in, the French then worry themselves sick about not slipping out.
[We must never surrender] our French model. This model is right for us. And, above all, it is extremely well tailored to today's world, provided of course we find the way to keep on modernizing it.Then-Jack, Now Ex-Jack,
a victim of précarité, defendng perfection
PALAIS DE L'ÉLYSÉE, le dimanche 11 mars 2007 (Élysée)
When Then-Jack, Now Ex-Jack, says "today's world" he is, of course, speaking of the 19th century.
PFFT (What is this?): Unhappy in fairly happy France 3½ | Rayonnement français 0
Posted by Damian at June 27, 2007 08:30 AMTwo quotes in the Guardian article caught my attention:
First, The link between depression and success at school is backed by statistics gathered by Tual in Brittany which show that local increases in anxiety and suicide closely track rising local success in the critical baccalaureat exams and expanding local access to further education.
Secondly: 'In France a great deal depends on getting the right qualifications,' - which I assume the speaker means getting a education.
If there is so much pressure to get a good education, why have universities in France dropped out of the top 100 world wide? This doesn't make sense to me.
How one launches one's life in France determines a lifetime template of limited possibilities. The civil service offers one of the most well-provisioned templates, explaining why it is so highly prized by middle-class apsirants.
I know few professionals in America who have not kicked around in a variety of jobs and careers. American social mobility encourages upping sticks for the next better opportunity, it encourages risk, and lavishly rewards those who dare, who run full out -- and succeed.
France has ceased to dare. She is comically risk adverse. She has come to believe -- or if not believe, pretend to believe -- all that puff about socialism as the great equalizer.
In France the foot races are handicapped so all cross the finish line together. Everyone's a winner! And the prizes handed round? Stifling mediocrity and an unremitting anxiety that what has been awarded (in distinction to that which is earned) can be taken away on a whim.
In French foot races there are no world records. Only winners.
DGB
Posted by: Damian at June 28, 2007 06:02 AMGericault had no idea how prophetic he was being when he painted this. The country is a wreack, her people left to fend for themselves by their long departed government. What a perfect metaphor for France today.
Posted by: Valerie, Texas at June 28, 2007 01:47 PM
