Three days before Christmas, I’m sitting at my desk in my house because I don’t have much choice. I can’t go to Paris. There are almost no trains, except those running before 7 in the morning—but not every day. And once I got there, how would I return?
Two weeks ago, I tried a ride-share. It was inexpensive and the driver was courteous and kind, but getting to our rendezvous point in the suburbs of Paris was like running in a “suitcase race” (I was dragging one behind me). Who can run the fastest, climb or descend stairways in two or three giant steps? I may have not won first place, but I did make it in time for my ride.
Nor can I travel to the South of France, where I was supposed to be spending the holidays. The train I was supposed to take was cancelled and replaced by a bus. A trip that was supposed to take five hours was extended to nearly twenty. Not worth it, I’ve decided. I’m staying put.
All these inconveniences are a result of the current strikes in protest of the French government’s proposed reform of the national retirement system—or systems. At this time, the rules governing retirement pensions are very different between the private and the public sectors, and within each, there are many different plans, each with its own criteria determining how benefits are accrued and when one can retire. It is complicated! Reform is in order. Then why are the French so up in arms?
It may just be that the government is behaving like a grinch and that’s what making people so mad.
A few decades ago, the French entered the workplace young, some before the age of eighteen. Those who will reach the current official French retirement age of 62 in 2025 and who will have worked a full 43 years are now being told they must stay on. Otherwise, they’ll have a penalty for life if they leave before age 64. They have paid their dues and are distressed by this proposed change so late in the game.
As for the younger generations, a new system based on points is being putforward. Even if you work only a few hours a month, you would earn your points, which is not the case with the current system based on the number of trimesters worked. This new system would become universal, applying to both private and public sectors.
I feel like I got out just on time. The proposed system will be especially hard on teachers, already underpaid in France compared to other countries in the European Union. It will also be hard on transport workers, who will lose many benefits.
Yet there is a need for reform. Nearly everyone agrees on that, but to many it seems the government of Emmanuel Macron has gone about it the wrong way. There have been “consultations” with union leaders, but no negotiations and the government has shown little openness to compromise, the prime minister Edouard Philippe and members of the president’s majority claiming they know best.
This is hard for the French to take, so hard that many are willing to put up with the hardships imposed by the strikes even if it means altering holiday plans.
But what about a Christmas truce? Couldn’t the striking workers of SNCF, the French national railway company, have returned to work for the holidays? They’ve left people stranded all over the country, scrambling for others means of transport. Aren’t they being grinches too?
The decision to maintain the transport strike has caused division among labor unions. Within certain unions, the rank and file are not in agreement with their leaders, in favor of the truce. Union foot soldiers are ready to man the barricades, even on Christmas, believing the cause more important than sharing a Christmas feast with family and friends.
Speaking of feasts, there are some grinches lurking on your side of the Atlantic too. At this time, an estimated 14 million Americans are suffering from food insecurity. In their wildest dreams, few of them could imagine a Christmas feast à la française, with oysters, smoked salmon, foie gras, buttery snails, a turkey or a goose, chestnut stuffing, glazed turnips, salad and cheese, accompanied by champagne and fine wines, with to wrap it all up, a creamy pastry Christmas log. A vast majority of the French can afford this menu for Christmas Eve, which is when they do their celebrating.
Despite the specter of 14 million Americans going hungry, the current administration plans to make major cuts to SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, by changing the eligibility rules in 2020 for up to 3 million people, including children. For the USDA, this will permit 5 billion dollars in savings over five years. In 2019, President Trump authorized 14.5 billion dollars in MFP (Market Facilitation Program) payments to farmers, much of it going to big agrobusiness.
Now who’s the grinch here? The current Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue is a climate change skeptic and a hard-liner on immigration. While governor of Georgia, he signed into law some of the nation’s strictest measures against illegal immigrants. As head of the USDA, he maintains a “helping hand” must not become a “handout” and that’s why he also wants to get tough on SNAP applicants.
Meanwhile, in Bethlehem, a tiny helpless baby, a refugee whose parents are on the run, nestles on a bed of straw in an unheated stable, counting on a mother’s love and lowing cattle for warmth. When Joseph and pregnant Mary inquired about a room at the inn, some grinch turned them away. He wouldn’t even let a pregnant woman inside to get warm at his fire.
There have always been grinches with hearts “two sizes too small,” as Dr. Seuss wrote in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” back in 1957, creating the American equivalent of Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge. Both the Grinch and Scrooge had a change of heart before it was too late. They were conquered by the Spirit of Christmas and their too-small hearts expanded and opened to love.
Who’s the Grinch this year? You, me, everyone, anyone who refuses to recognize in the helpless, the hungry, the homeless, or that next-door neighbor or coworker who drives us crazy, a brother, a sister, someone worthy of our love.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy 2020 to all, even to the grinches among us!
