11/30/2006

En greve

Dear People of France,

I'm trying to be a better, more emotionally mature person. I heard that one thing emotionally mature people do is talk to people they have a problem with instead of bottling up their emotions. So I would like to use this forum to open my dialogue with you.

There's something that's been bothering me. You see, yesterday, I decided to take the train to the bigger city 30 minutes away. I got up early on a day I didn't have to work and made my way to the train station. When I got there and looked at the departures board, I noticed that every single train was delayed. As I turned to my friends, one of them sighed and said, "Oh, I guess there is a strike today." Luckily, we were able to get on a train soon thereafter, but the journey was unnecessarily uncomfortable since we had to stand in a crowded car the whole way there.

Now, People of France, I'm sure what you're thinking at this point is that I'm being unnecessarily whiney. Sure, the train was crowded, but I got there, didn't I? True, I do see your point, but I counter by asking if torturing someone is more humane than killing them? Have you ever ridden in a space meant for 4 people that was filled with 20 French people? Of course you have, you're French. So you know exactly what I'm talking about. Furthermore, since when does randomly delaying a train constitute a strike? That's just being annoying. If you really wanted change you would stop the whole system until you got what you wanted.

This is not, however, my main beef with the situation. The strike only affected local trains, and not the fancy ones that run between major cities. So effectively, the workers at the SNCF were hurting the people who are the most like them--working class, just trying to get to school or work on time, while the tourists and businessmen remained untouched by the inconvenience. And so I ask you, people of France, why do you do this to each other? Why take out your hate on your fellow countrymen? How will you ever get along with people from other countries if you do not first learn to love each other?

Stop the hate. Stop the strikes. Learn to love.

Bisous,

MatchaMonkey

1 Comments:

Blogger Michaelpanda said...

dear matchamonkah,

we are sorry. please forgive us.

love,

the people of france.

12/17/2006 11:20:00 PM  

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