The left wing (1/2)

MODIFICATION OF THE FRENCH CONSTITUTION
Once more, the Socialist Party has objected out of principle. Even if the text that was proposed was not ideal in the eyes of the left wing, it was nevertheless half-way through to its goal (reinforcing the power of Parliament, initiating part of the agenda).
Shooting itself in the foot in order to trip Sarkozy up is not going to help the Socialist Party recover its credibility.

SOCIALIST PROPOSALS
OK, so you reject the conclusions found in the Attali Report. The French would like to know what exactly you are proposing instead. You are all referring to Mitterand, but you seem to have forgotten that he won the first leftist presidential elections of the 5th Republic thanks to the much-touted 110 proposals which, admittedly, have not all been followed, but at least had the virtue of charting a course. As for you, the leaders of the 2000s, where are YOUR PROPOSALS? We’re sick of waiting …

THE EXTREME LEFT
The Socialist Party must not let itself get trapped in the backward adolescent discourse of Olivier Besancenot. He sells dreams, Utopia (which, by definition exists nowhere). He’s always going to refuse to confront the reality of the business world; it’s so much more comfortable to dream and to be loved … A managed economy simply does not work and has led to well-known catastrophes in history. Barter is an unmanageable, real heahache. The gift/counter gift system does not work on the scale of a country. The advantage of capitalism is that it takes people where they’re at, and not where one would like them to be: we are more greedy and selfish than generous and altruistic. What’s needed, though, is for the State to regulate the ruthless power of the market. In particular, Rhenish capitalism works more equitably than Anglo-Saxon liberalism.
I propose the following leftist economic program: “Producing more to redistribute more” through corporate taxes, the income tax, and the tax on consumption (VAT). As for growth, let us say clearly: “Let us create conditions which are conducive to the growth of the commercial sector so that as many citizens as possible may earn a living”.
We need an industrial policy that is adapted to the structural scarcity of petrol and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emission: this is the economy of intelligence (research in renewable energy sources, green chemistry, biotechnologies, medicine, high value added services, universities, information technology, etc.).

ELECTIONS IN THE SOCIALIST PARTY
And the winner is … François Bayrou. Wagonloads of center-left supporters will leave a party where elections are rigged. Martine Aubry should not accept to be elected so wrongly, even if it is one or several of her lieutenants who organized the rigging. The French are unhappy, and this will weigh heavily in the next elections. The only way out is to vote again to decide fairly between the two camps. No-one really knows crowd psychology; consequently, one cannot pre-judge which camp will win, but they won’t be level: those choosing Martine Aubry might feel encouraged to confirm the vote, and those favoring Ségolène Royal to take revenge, or else they will be already sick with the expression of democracy. It might be worthwhile to set up a debate between the two finalists before the elections, like those which are organized during the presidential elections, aiming at distinguishing clearly the future options of each candidate, orally, interactively, in a time format similar to that of debates in the presidential run-off elections.

FRENCH CUP MATCH
Away from the cameras, a somewhat ludicrous game is being played in France at the moment: Jacobian tyranny versus the tyranny of pals.
Jacobian tyranny is based on the authority vested in hierarchy: Presidents over ministers, ministers over administrations, departmental heads over section heads, section heads over employees and workers, the State over regions and “départements”, the capital over the provinces. This authority is sometimes justified through divine right, at other times through blue blood, qualifications, or experience, etc. The list will change …
In order to bypass this absolute, official authority, a plethora of more or less secret societies promoting solidarity among the recognized initiated has arisen: Free Masons, Opus Dei, the network of corporate managers, back-scratching capitalism, unions, political networks, Mafioso, alumni of a “grande école”, etc. The list is endless …
Consequently, if we do not want France to become a multi-layered pie of secret societies despoiling the masses and antagonistic to the Republican concept, the highest authorities of the State ought to think about the notion of legitimate authority. Note: In France, we have had members of the Resistance against Nazi occupation, but also far more numerous collaborators. Why is that so? 60 years later, the question is still taboo …

GRANDES ECOLES [elite higher education establishments outside the main framework of French universities]
The teaching staff in charge of selection into the French higher education system ought to admit that they are imbued, perhaps unwittingly, with the spirit of a Malthusian, social neo-Darwinian doctrine. And its consequences on the young minds they are twisting, those of the elites of the future: the competitive exam spirit in the “grandes écoles” and the highly selective tracks in universities generate the selfishness and feeling of superiority for life and in everything which, in fact, correspond merely to the temporary meeting of a young, malleable mind, at a given time in its life and concerning a few subjects taught by general consent, and of clever, manipulative mentors (of the kind who think “if they pass this exam despite its difficulty and my disheartening grading, I’ll dream up a question that’s even more difficult next time; only 3 students must pass!”). Do we really need today elites whose mind has been twisted by this early torture?

NICOLAS SAID … AND SEGOLENE APOLOGIZED …
Pure childishness, absolutely not worthy of their respective responsibilities!

SUMMER FESTIVALS
On the channel Arte culture, I have just heard the Rennes theatre director. Basically, he was saying that one ought to condemn the current reform of local and regional authorities, even threaten the summer festivals, because the UMP had calculated this reform to sink the critical left-wing elites.
How can one hold such a Socialist Party propagandist argument? The reform of the financing of regions, through abandoning that part of professional taxes which weighs heavily on corporate investments, is destined to create jobs in private enterprises.
Although one could regret that the possible drop in revenues will affect cultural endeavors, one should not develop specious arguments which would end up crippling cultural and intellectual occupations. In the current case, it is best to keep to category-bound demands for job protection.

SCRAMBLING FOR THE SPOILS
Today, the government is falling in the polls. As a result, those who were praising Nicolas Sarkozy to the skies when he was at the height of his popularity now all bemoan a government catastrophe – whether through plain cowardice, vile opportunism, or in terms of an economic model (newspapers need to be sold, articles need to be accepted by chief editors, TV news programmes must confirm what viewers want to hear so as to increase the ratings and sell more ads).
In short, in a democratic society, the political and media economy is a system regulated through the cyclical loops of positive feedback, which means that the more popular an idea is, the more it is hammered in the media coverage and in turn, the more popular it continues to be, as the consumers’ brains are characterized by malleability rather than critical sense!
I can’t help but feel embarrassed by such a gap between the theory of democracy (whereby people judge in good conscience after careful consideration) and what the media have turned it into - fuelled by a collection of co-opted, official, self-righteous and politically correct announcers whose editorial columns strive to deny the evidence of the lived reality experienced by the working and middle classes.

THE MUMBO-JUMBO OF THE GREEN PARTY
From a sociological perspective, the Greens are intellectuals rebelling against the established order. As such, they love any new dissenting idea. Ay, here’s the rub: all the fashionable new ideas are not necessarily good! Hence, the impression of mumbo-jumbo, newspeak, or mixed salad when one is listening to the Greens’ discourse.

THERE’S NO MAGIC IN MONEY
Pay attention, civil servants who are out of touch with the reality of (public…) funds, and whose salary is secure, guaranteed identical every month, for life: 850,000 of you work only 20 hours a week and enjoy 4 months of paid holidays.
Money is something you have to earn before you can spend it. This goes for both individuals and the State. If you don’t want to save, then at least you must keep within your budget. Otherwise, you’re putting your head in the sand, and running away with revolving credit.
Believe it or not, money is not dirty! Teachers live in a utopian world where knowledge alone is the exchange currency, in a gift/counter-gift dynamic; it’s a world that simply does not exist in the real world when they’ve left their classrooms, a world many pupils reject, disgusted with a selection based on nonfunctional knowledge.
What is at stake in the State’s reform policy is making civil servants understand that we live in a world with 200 countries, and we cannot impose on others our French conception of money, i.e. that it is dirty, because money is used to buy comfort through goods and services and because money is currently the only symbol accepted by all humankind. People’s relationship to money (how to spend it, how to save it, how to earn it) comes as the result of lengthy training, but that’s precisely what is not taught in French schools because teachers simply know nothing of it …

SOLIDARITY OPTIMUM LEVEL
For a lucid Socialist, the optimum level of solidarity is the maximum level of solidarity that one can afford! And this without endangering future generations while maintaining the capacity of our nation to absorb the next foreseeable major international crises (or not; the thing is to keep some leeway).
The key terms linked to public policy ought to be the following: ethics, empowerment, readability, freedom, solidarity.
Concerning the current debate on pensions, the Socialist Party and the Unions are touting the wrong answer to a real problem. How could we see Nicolas Sarkozy as a sadistic leader trying to force us to work more for fun? Or as a masochist wishing to cut himself off from part of the French electorate? He is merely grappling with a serious difficulty that the Left Wing will have to deal with again if they get back to power. The hypotheses made by the Pensions Advisory Council (Conseil d'orientation des retraites – CORE), based on a figure of 5% unemployment, are too optimistic. Logically, we ought to get back to the rule of pension-at-65 for most people, with a number of exceptions for medical reasons for the 60 year olds. That would follow the principle of readability of the taxation system, so that the latter is widely accepted. Since people’s life expectancy is increasing, which is destabilizing the equilibrium of the unfunded (“pay-as-you-go”) pension scheme, the pension issue becomes a demographic issue which requires a demographic solution, namely increasing the duration of the contributions.
As for free medical care, a good principle of readability would be to impose a moderate healthcare fee (e.g. cheap non-prescription drugs, a €5 excess for each medical consultation, and real supply competition through the elimination of the limitations brought in by the numerus clausus imposed by the medical corporations and a poor Social Security policy). By contrast, the free management of serious illnesses (in terms of healthcare personnel, drugs) must absolutely be maintained, otherwise people suffering from those illnesses would find themselves in hopeless medical and financial situations, which goes against current principled standards of humanity in developed countries.

THE LIFE PLAN OF THE FRENCH PEOPLE
France is declining because French citizens, individually and collectively, no longer have any ambition. What is most French people’s life plan, their wildest dream? – to pay less tax, retire earlier, go on holiday abroad, be taken care of like children by the welfare state, in particular by not contributing financially to their own healthcare. Under these circumstances, one should not accuse Germany, the United States, or China, of one’s own failures.
In Germany, employees and employers talk to each other; all are aware of their rights and obligations.
In the United States, individuals desire to become richer, and they make every effort to succeed.
In China, life is hard for the workforce, but the hope of achieving upward social mobility enables workers to cope with difficult conditions.

I call on the French politicians to take responsibility for setting ambitious targets. Depending on one’s political standpoint, this could mean a variety of things: above reproach ecology policies (which would set an example, have a ripple effect in other countries, and be morally ethical), debt repayment (sustainable balanced budget + striving for zero aggregate debt), reducing absolute poverty by 50% in each five-year term, an SME-based dynamic economy, efficient public services (reorganizing services, revised and streamlined procedures, speed, the cult of simplicity, lower costs, information which is available on the Internet for users and long-lasting for administrations in interconnected databases, private sector type of management, merit-based salary increases and promotions), and a lesser and shared cost of social benefits.

THE CHICKEN OR EGG DEBATE
On France2 yesterday, we witnessed a live debate in the great French tradition, of the type “Which came first? The chicken or the egg?” The whole point was to work out whether one should open a debate on Islam, particularly regarding the financing of mosques. The 1905 law on the principle of secularity (separation of church and State) prohibits any public funding of religions, and this law seems to work well. Hence, one should not tamper with it. This is well and good, but it is necessary to finance the building of mosques and the training of the republican imams. So now, what do we do? No idea whatsoever for our debating intelligentsia, the country’s recognized intellectual elite! I believe that one could modify the 1905 law to include the financing of religions stemming from the presence of new, often poor, populations …
François Bayrou provided the scoop of the evening when, facing the cameras, he admitted in front of millions of French people that, as a matter of fact, the French mayors are circumventing this famous 1905 law every day. The French people are delighted to see what their elected officials do with the law. Well now, since this law is so blatantly circumvented, why not amend it? This is precisely the point where the chicken and the egg crash together like an omelette into my saucepan.

THE SOCIALIST PARTY PRIMARY ELECTIONS: HOLLANDE VS FABIUS
After the disquieting self-elimination of Dominique Strauss Kahn and in order to prevent any leadership battle within the Socialist Party (PS), which would be fatal at the presidential election level, I propose a simple yet representative choice between the party’s right wing (François Hollande) and left wing (Laurent Fabius). These two pillars of the PS are talented, experienced, and both possess presidential stature. The other big guns of the party would join one or the other depending on the programmes they each presented. This way, the primary’s electorate would have a clear, open choice that would be truly representative of their opinions.
And then, may the best man win!

SARKO-BASHING FILM
A film on Nicolas Sarkozy’s conquest of presidential power has just come out. Apparently, it’s courageous in France to criticize the top leaders. Make films, sure, but at least make good ones! In this instance, it’s a criticism that belittles Nicolas Sarkozy, Dominique de Villepin, and Jacques Chirac. This is unjust because unbalanced, since the criticism falls on powerful individuals in the public eye, uninformative, and a caricature. In this country, pseudo-intellectuals and artists brought in at little (risk) expense feel compelled to criticize the opposite camp systematically and see themselves as courageous opponents of obscurantism and abuses. Meanwhile, they can’t even begin to imagine a fraction of the stakes facing statesmen. A little modesty is required …
As for the Socialist Party, once more, relying on Sarko-bashing supporters, filling interviews with calls for civil disobedience, and creating a mass movement through caricature will not lead to success in the Presidential election. Even if the Socialists should win that election in such poor conditions, the presidential programme (which is not ready yet, one year before the election) would be swept away by the frenzied mass movement … Exciting the baser instincts of mobs is like using a boomerang weapon!

MANAGING COMPLEXITY
I write this article after reading the umpteenth report on the chronobiology of school children. I’ve been following this issue for 15 years, and all the education-specialist pediatricians are in agreement. Nothing comes out of it, however. New reports are written, ad infinitum. All this to keep everyone happy: parents, school children, teachers, hoteliers, etc. But, even at minimum level, it is impossible to keep everyone happy …
This is not what democracy is all about! Obviously, information should travel upwards and situations are complex, so one needs smart counselor-rapporteurs who are able to synthesize issues objectively. In a democratic state, however, a leader is elected periodically whose role, among others, is to choose, to decide. Otherwise, what’s the point of electing a leader?

TIGHTENING UP THE CABINET
It’s well-known that meetings can’t function properly with over 8 or 10 people seated around the table. Hence, it’s essential that the number of ministers be kept to those numbers.
Since issues are complex and numerous, one can envisage that each minister should supervise 5 or 6 State secretaries who do not attend Cabinet meetings. This tightening up of the governance mechanisms is better able to pinpoint everyone’s responsibilities, from State secretaries to line ministers.

PREPARING PUBLIC OPINION FOR FINANCIAL EFFORTS
A presidential campaign is an excellent opportunity to mobilize public opinion toward a particular project and vision for the future. The major concern in France in 2012 is the reduction of the accumulated debt. And yet, all the presidential candidates are touting public sector-stimulated economic growth when the coffers are empty, which both they and the voters know full well! Politics, in the French democratic State of 2012, is thus synonymous with cynical demagoguery and incompetence on the part of leaders, and stupidity, fairy tale delusions, and mindless belief in the incantations of line management on the part of voters …
What will come out those economic lies is repeated strikes carried out by cheated, unhappy French people – those strikes will paralyze the French economy and bring down the governments that will follow one another to try and get the economy back on track, as happened during the Fourth Republic. Finally, after the next presidential election, the worst form of extreme right-wing populist politics will come to power and crush down the country for the next 30 years. You carry such heavy responsibility through your demagogy, candidates Sarkozy, Hollande, Bayrou, & Co!

FRANCE WILL BE UNGOVERNABLE AFTER THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
I’m really sick and tired of playing teacher, particularly a teacher whom no-one listens to but who is right and whom people will bitterly regret not having listened to when it is too late …
Undoubtedly, after the election campaign François Hollande has just conducted, during which he carefully refrained from asking voters for any financial sacrifice, what is going to happen when, in September, 3 months after his election, he will be confronted with an inescapable major massive financial crisis, that will plague him to the end of his five-year term?
He will have to change his tune suddenly, dampening the enthusiasm of the population, getting the representative/community associations (unions, journalists, opposition parties, and a segment of his own government) up in arms against him; he will have to establish financial rigor (social expenditure reduced - pensions & healthcare, local communities – tax increases for the middle and upper classes). It’s bound to happen.
Problem is, since he won’t have prepared the population for this at the time of his election, he will get massive strikes that will paralyze the country, damage our credit abroad and with financiers, which will undermine the recovery of our finances and wreck his one and only term of office.
This is what happens when one is elected upon false premises…
Come, there are still a few days for explaining our country’s real financial situation.

WHY I AM CENTRE-LEFT
I have chosen the Socialist camp because I believe that it is necessary to protect and even promote the working classes and that it is the middle and upper classes that ought to provide the necessary financial solidarity efforts.
In return, and it is also a limitation to this solidarity, the collected monies need to be managed prudently. This is why I am centre-left.

FALLEN DOWN A BLACK HOLE!
I can’t believe that none of my readers is interested in arguments, the exchange of ideas, and knowledge construction.

But in the four years I’ve written this blog of AMATEUR JOURNALISM, of OPINION, I have received neither e-mail nor snail-mail from any of you … Just in case, here are my contact details, for those who might wish to remedy this.
Benoît Fabre
25 bis chemin des pinsons
31120 Portet sur Garonne (near Toulouse)
Tel (Mob): 06 76 67 56 56
Tel (H): 05 61 76 41 63
e-mail addresses: benoit.fabre@laposte.net ; benoit_fabre.1969@yahoo.fr ; benoit.fabre.toulouse@gmail.com ; benoit.fabre.toulouse@hotmail.com ; benoit.fabre.1969@orange.fr

Access map: http://goo.gl/maps/NP4f8
Photo : http://goo.gl/maps/TN9ZO ; http://goo.gl/maps/wCWEg

Portet sur Garonne taxis who know the place well: find at http://www.pagesjaunes.fr
In order of proximity : 1. Desroches Philippe, 2. Ovalie Taxi, 3. Taxi Dat, 4. Taxi Bacqué

If you know or believe that communication networks are defective or sabotaged, why not come in person? In case you live far from the Toulouse area, why don’t you get local representation by a business lawyer, or a bailiff, or a local private detective, or simply a Portet sur Garonne taxi ?

CLOSING THE BLOGS
As I explained earlier, there have been scant responses demonstrating interest in my blogs: in all, 30-odd messages sent to Blogger, fewer than 5 e-mails sent to the benoit.fabre@laposte.net address, 2 responses in Facebook.fr, no snail-mail, and neither telephone nor any actual contact at my home in Portet sur Garonne. Hence, it is time to recognize that I made a mistake in spending such a lot of time and energy writing these blogs (learning through reading hundreds of academic books, regular information retrieval through the mainstream TV news programmes and continuous news channels, reading of the Web-based newsletters from Figaro.fr, Monde.fr, and FranceTelevisions.fr).
Consequently, I wish to inform my too-few readers that my blogs are now suspended for an indefinite period. May you strive for and obtain good political judgment. I wish you well.

GOVERNING IS NOT THE SAME THING AS PLEASING
To be elected in a democratic state, one needs to collect the maximum numbers of votes on one’s name. The problem is, governing is not the same thing as pleasing! On the contrary, governing is being courageous enough to implement the reforms that are necessary for the future of the nation one is temporarily in charge of.
By the way, what are the current government’s positions regarding the European economic crisis, the Euro, tax increases, who’s going to pay, budget cuts, budget- and staff-affected administrations, local authorities, the financing of the latter, the civil war in Syria? Let us end the hypocrisy and get rid of those feeble consensus agreements that are meant to please everyone and eventually penalize all …