New President ... Same France

French President, Nicolas Sarkozy was elected with the mandate to bring change to the French labor laws. He told his countrymen what he was going to do to make France more competitive with other countries in the World. Among these things was a longer work week, the ability to fire newly hired employees if they were not "up to snuff" and the dissolution of "special pensions". The French signaled they were ready to change when they swept him into office by a wide margin. Now it seems that some French Unions are saying, "Ralentir (Not so fast)".

At issue are the "special pensions" enjoyed by some, but not all public sector workers. Currently, those working in jobs with these "special pensions" are able to retire at full benefits at the age of 50. President Sarkozy is pushing for a new retirement age for these workers of 52.5 years. This will bring their retirement age closer to that of the rest of the State workers. To put this in perspective, the retirement age for the US military can be as low as 37 with a 50% pension or 47 with a 75% pension. 20 and 30 year retirements are also offered in any federal law enforcement job. These are people with high-stress jobs where they put their lives on the line ... not rail workers and opera singers and actors like in France.

The good news is that most of the French populace is backing Sarkozy on this and 80% think that Sarkozy will stick to his guns and force the Union to capitulate. I hope he does, it will be good for the French people, and that is what they voted for during the last election.

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The Dutch Get Pissed Off

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is having a meeting in the Netherlands this week. As host, Dutch Defense Minister Eimert Van Middelkoop welcomed the 26 countries to the meeting and immediately launched a jab at about 22 of the countries. It seems the Dutch are getting pissed off a bit perturbed about the fact that they, along with Canada, Great Britain and the United States that are fighting in the dangerous South and Eastern portions of Afghanistan, while the other countries hang out in the relatively safe North. Well Mr Defense Minister ... welcome to our world. For years the US and Great Britain have been doing the dirty work heavy lifting for the world. I guess it's not as fair when your countrymen now must help shoulder the burden.

But let's be fair to the Dutch ... they have earned the right to complain, because they are actually there, bleeding with the Canadians, Brits and Americans. Our attention should be turned to those that are shirking their responsibilities. First on the list is of course the French. They have volunteered now to send 50 troops to the south to help with training the Afghani forces there ... of course the other 1,000 troops will remain hiding in the north. The German contingent of 3,100 troops have never ventured out of the north.

On a positive note, Slovakia said it would double its' contingent to 111 troops (do they now have 55 1/2 troops in country?), some of which will be sent south to help the Dutch. The Czech republic will increase its' forces from 225 to 415, but have not said where they would be sent. The country of Georgia, which is not in NATO, is reportedly considering sending 200 troops to help the Dutch in an attempt to suck up prove themselves worthy of NATO membership.

A proposal has been put forth to rotate the troops of all participating NATO units, so that no one Nation unfairly shoulders the burden of all of the combat. In a perfect world, this would be both fair and just ... let's see if NATO can accomplish this.

My thanks to Lime for teaching me how to do the cross-outs on this post.

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The French Arrive In Iraq

No my friends, France hasn't sent its' storried foreign legion into Iraq, but France's Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner is making a symbolic visit to Baghdad today. This visit is the first by a French official since the war started, and is seen by US officials as a gesture by the Sarkozy government to heal relations with the US that have been at an all time low. Kouchner timed his arrival in Baghdad to coincide with the 4th anniversary of the bombing of the UN Headquarters in Iraq that killed UN special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello (a close friend) and 21 others. When asked by reporters if France is now willing to help American forces, the top French diplomat stated that he was simply on a fact-finding mission.

Hey France, remember when you were mired down in a similar situation? I think the US came in to help. The place was called Viet Nam. So lets get the foreign legion in here and start kicking butt.

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