As a journalist I have always been intrigued by the perceptions Americans have of our Southern neighbor the nation of Mexico. It always amazed me that so much of what Americans believed was influenced by the movies and news and so little by reality and the truth.
Though I was born and raised in Iowa I was fortunate to have relatives living by the Rio Grande River in Mission, Texas, just across the border from Mexico. My parents loved to take the family on trips and we spent many vacations down in the bottom of Texas where Mexicans always outnumbered the Americans.
Later when I went to college at the University of Arizona Tucson was less than an hour from Mexico and for those of us without a large allowance a trip across the border to Nogales or camping in Mexico on the Gulf of California was far less expensive. We even had the annual spring break ritual when tens of thousands of college students from Arizona to California schools would set out down the coast of Mexico and party until we ran out of money.
Even in those days we were warned of the dangers of banditos, the corrupt federales, and to beware of the water and food though the cheap tequila was always a much bigger threat. When you think about tens of thousands of rebellious teenagers invading the quiet villages of the Mexican coast I suspect they were warned about us as much as we were warned about them.
I even drove through Mexico from the border to Monterrey, the industrial city, Mexico City, Guadalajara and Acapulco and made it back safely. As students we drove with thousands of kids from Arizona down the Gulf of California to beach villages of Puerto Libertad, Guaymas and Mazatlan and seldom had a problem unless we caused the problems.
There were always dangers, about the same you might encounter in any metropolitan area in America if you got off the beaten path. But I was not a party animal and spent much of my time trying to learn about the Mexican people. I was fascinated by the rich and ancient history of the people and the hundreds of different Mexican Indian tribes I met along the way.
Back in Iowa most people were aware of Mexico only from the Walt Disney movie The Alamo, or the struggles for Independence by settlers from the Republic of Texas. Little was taught about the struggle of the people of Mexico against foreign invasions.
The Spanish invaded Mexico in 1519 and conquered an area from Mexico to South Carolina to San Francisco on the West Coast before they were through. Great Britain took part of Mexico in 1763 and part of Mexico was under French and part under Spanish rule in the time of Napoleon.
Through this period many European monarchs survived only because of the tons of gold they stole from the Mexican native Indians and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Mexican natives. It was the stolen wealth of Mexico that transformed Spain from a bankrupt nation to the most powerful kingdom on Earth at the time of the Spanish Armada. By 1821 the Mexicans declared independence from the Europeans but war broke out in the Texas territory which led to the fall of the Alamo in 1836 and Texas Independence the same year.
Four more military campaigns were fought between the Mexicans and Americans from 1846-48 before Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the fighting. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861 Great Britain, Spain and France all invaded Mexico in hopes of being in position to invade the USA if Lincoln lost the war for the Union. By 1863 France gained control of Mexico, Great Britain settled for Canada, and Spain was sent packing.
During the same time the first Mexican civil war took place and ended when American troops drove the French out of Mexico in 1867 and settled claims with Mexico. This was the first time our two nations helped each other and began a series of positive steps to be good neighbors. A second Mexican Revolution took place from 1910 to 1920 and there was American intervention until the outbreak of World War I. When World War II broke out Mexico joined the Americans in fighting the Germans and Japanese.
By 1995 America again came to the aid of the Mexicans when we saved them from a banking crisis that threatened to bankrupt the nation. Throughout the development of the United States Mexican migrant workers crossing the border were always a vital and welcome contribution to the development of our vegetable and fruit crops and agricultural production. As our industrial and manufacturing industries expanded illegal immigrants crossed the border to work.
And here we are today, again faced with a dire problem in which the Mexicans are fighting a brutal war against drug cartels to stop the illegal flow of drugs into America. This is really our war, not theirs as the cartels would not be in northern Mexico if not for the American drug trade.
Make no mistake, the brutal consequence of the war is that over 28,000 Mexicans have been killed in drug battles the past couple of years along the Mexican border leaving the peaceful towns and villages in a state of war and terror. Compare that to the 5,771 American military deaths throughout the entire Iraq and Afghanistan wars. That means FIVE times as many Mexicans have been killed defending our borders from drug cartels than our military deaths fighting terrorism halfway around the world.
Our political response has been to build a wall along the border to keep the bad guys away from us, to shield us from the carnage, and to ignore the horrors and massacre being inflicted on the Mexican people for our problems. What is taking place right under our noses is a massacre that should shame the most powerful nation on earth, a bloodbath being inflicted upon an innocent people who are just trying to help us out again.
Part two of this story will provide a detailed overview on how we can correct this tragedy and rebuild the relationship with the people of Mexico that reflects our common bond throughout our history as defenders against the Europeans and others who have threatened our freedom, and how we can be partners in seeking economic and energy independence in the world.
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Every time the Obama's almost convince us they are just like us common people they go and do something to prove they are not. Call it political naivety or stupidity, once an elitist always an elitist. You will never find Willie Nelson performing in the White House when pop stars like the Jonas brothers (for the Obama daughters) or Beyonce are available. Michelle's idea of catching a show is flying to NYC for a Broadway Production.
On his current campaign swing Barack again demonstrated his propensity for rock star elitism when he decided to show his concern for Main Street America and the small business community that powers our national economy by having a private meeting with the rock star of the mega-corporate world Steven Jobs, founder and CEO of Apple Corporation, the 2nd largest corporation in America.
It seems a key qualification for a business person to get a personal meeting with the people's president is to be a member of the billionaires club like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and Steven Jobs. Hardly Main Street's idea of the common folk but when you are an Ivy League elitist you tend to have a different view of yourself and who should be in your presence I guess.
Make no mistake, Steven Jobs is legendary in the business world and is most certainly the top rock star of the billionaires club but in the midst of the final days of campaigning couldn't our president just once have a meeting with a corporate leader who represents the Made In America by American Workers goal we all want to promote, including our wayward president? I mean Apple has more Chinese employees in China than any other American company?
If I were an elitist and I had their money Jobs would be on my short list as well but why doesn't our president meet with a real American company CEO that epitomizes the Made In America by Americans we all want to see? Obama need look no further than his own state of Illinois for the perfect example, Caterpillar Corporation.
We love you Obama because you are our president but be honest about yourself when your media people try to paint you as a commoner. John Kennedy never had to distort his Ivy League image to win our love because he knew even Ivy Leaguers can show concern and compassion for everyone and be real.
Barack and Michelle spent the last two years saying one thing and doing another. That does not sit well with the public and only makes you hypocrites. You say Michelle won't campaign then send her out to do million dollar political events. She spends a day on the Gulf Coast and a week at a Southern Spanish resort on vacation.
It's okay for our president to be a little elitist, we expect our president to be a little special. But do it with the style and class of a Kennedy, acknowledge you are different, but be the friend and advocate of Main Street America, along with rubbing shoulders with the billionaires club. .
The liberal media showed it's true colors when NPR fired their Senior Political Analyst Juan Williams, a decorated Black Journalist with a long and distinguished career with the Washington Post and NPR after Williams made comments about the Muslim controversy on the Fox News Bill O'Reilly.
Of course Fox has long been feared and hated by the Obama administration and is hated by the far left community because the Fox News ratings have buried the combined ratings of all the liberal shows and that has left the liberals bristling since Obama got elected.
Still there are a lot of good liberals and good liberal causes but when the liberals punish a fellow liberal for exercising free speech, now that is a true censoring of free speech. I wonder if we can get the liberal American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to defend the liberal reporter in a suit against the liberal National Public Broadcasting Networks over the right to free speech.
Sounds like a boondoggle for the liberal Trial Lawyers Association.
Here's what he said.
On Monday, O'Reilly asked Williams if there is a "Muslim dilemma" in the United States. The NPR analyst and longtime Fox News contributor agreed with O'Reilly that such a thing exists, and added that "political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don't address reality."
"I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot," Williams continued. "You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."
Some commentators and a leading Muslim civil rights organization took issue with Williams' comments. .
If the hundreds of polls being taken across the nation are scientific based, why are they so wrong on election day? The answer to this rather complex question is oftentimes simple as we watch the election day results and wonder how the different polls could be so far off the target. To understand the two principle deviations in polling results, one being over or underestimating the margin of victory, the second being the failure to anticipate the party impact, we must examine a number of factors.
First is the source of the polls. No matter what anyone says, any poll can distort results with some minor and seemingly insignificant actions. For example, those favoring one party over the other may inject bias with the language of the question. Questions can be deliberately designed to influence the answer by the language used.
For example, if you ask if someone likes President Obama most all Americans want to like our president and give them the benefit of the doubt. The media never portrays it that way but Americans not want their president to fail. But if you ask them if they are happy with the success of President Obama in making your life better, you will get a far different and better picture of public perception.
Any poll that is publicly published will either provide a biased view or sanitize the information to give more generic answers. It is the unpublished, insider polls that are closer to the truth and they will never be made public during an election. Most election strategy and all election media spending (advertising) is based on these secret polls. They have no interest in sharing their secrets with the media or opposition.
If you hear the president, the Democratic or Republican spokespeople or candidates talk about the public polls, which they do most of the time, you can discount the statement on partisan grounds. It is the insider daily tracking polls that tell the true story.
In order for any poll to really be accurate it must sort the sample by Democrats, Republicans and Independents which most don't. Then registered voters. Those who actually vote in off year elections which few polls ever track. And then it must be adjusted for turnout based on the motivation of the voters. Right now the Republican turnout should be about a third higher than Democrat as half of the Democrats are not satisfied with the president.
Add to that the fact traditional Democrat groups are not motivated. Then consider that the Independents who actually elected Obama have deserted him in huge numbers meaning about half of them have no party loyalty, which is not bad thing after the job both parties have done lately, so they will likely vote GOP in protest.
With 12 days to go not much will change as most people have already made up their minds. The economy is stuck until the GOP wins when you will see a significant improvement in the economy followed by improvement in the jobs picture because small businesses will know Obama cannot bury them in new taxes and regulations.
My advice, hang on to your hats as the politicians will get off one long blast of hot air in debates, commercials and appearances. When the smoke clears the people will speak and a new agenda will finally start to materialize to set us on the road to recovery, hopefully with a lot of new faces. Just 12 more days and people can start telling the truth again. .
Reality is as reality seems and the rage and discontent in America has been fueled by the most partisan, polarizing and paralyzing new president in our modern history. Somewhere along the way after being sworn in as president Barack Obama and his Chicago gang made a series of assumptions that defy logic and reflect either a total misunderstanding of democracy or an arrogant exercise in power politics not see since, maybe Napoleon in France.
Socialism is a political system based on a perceived sense of entitlement. In modern times the very socialist leaning system so rigorously pursued by our president and his confidants is crumbling around the world in nation after nation, especially in Europe, that embraced the socialist notion of creating a society based on entitlement rather than hard work and productivity.
One by one the socialist experiments of the world have fallen into disarray just as our young, idealistic and inexperienced new president decided he knew what was best for America without consulting the American people he was elected to represent. In America an election victory, especially one by just 7 % as Obama achieved, is far from a mandate but an opportunity to lead.
In the sweet elixir of his victory he forgot the most important principles of politics in America, our president is not king and once elected our president serves all the people all the time, not just those he likes who blindly support him. Two years later, nothing has changed. Obama remains the President of the Democrats who still support him and everyone else be damned, including the Democrats who once supported him and he betrayed for political expediency.
Make no mistake, Obama's agenda has no regard for the little people who are the backbone and foundation of America. His elitist worldview is based on bringing to America what we have rejected for over 234 years. We have no intention of making all the mistakes of our older European friends who long ago jumped to socialism because they were seduced by leaders whose vision extended no further than their noses.
Europe is a really old place and they have seen thousands of years of monarchs, despots, dictators, crazy kings, revolutions, capitalism, socialism, nazism and communism all come and go in the name of God and the worker. Of course once they become popular the God part fades away.
Recent generations have seen the collapse of the empty promises of socialism and nation by nation is not paying for the socialist sins of their parents. The health care and education systems love by Obama are self-destructing in a sea of long term debt. The cradle to grave promise of social welfare and pensions is drowning in bankrupt nations, ever growing demands for entitlement, and the rejection of socialist and leftist government and their replacement with fiscally conservative governments.
From the UK to France, Spain to Greece, Ireland to Italy, they are all following the lead of the one nation that has most incorporated and imitated the American way, the nation of Germany. Led by Angela Merkel and her conservative government, Germany is the most powerful nation in Europe after being totally destroyed and gutted twice in the past century and after absorbing the ruins of East Germany into the German nation after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Of course that should not be surprising to those of us in America since over sixty million Americans are fully or partly of German ancestry, the largest ethnic block by far in America. These are the descendants of the German immigrants to America who built our unparalleled agricultural system in the 1800's and powered our industrial revolution in the 1900's.
Our young president seems to have forgotten the lessons of the past or never learned them as he continues to be president to only those who don't criticize or oppose him. Well two thirds of the people don't agree with him or the direction he is leading the country and his fall from grace and the fall from grace of his Democrat party is the only possible outcome when arrogance and elitism are imposed on the people of America.
To the people of America the socialist leaning agenda of Obama is a dinosaur that has failed and is self-destructing in Europe and around the world. Americans have no desire to be better at socialism than the rest of the world. Fact is we have no interest in being anything like the rest of the world. We have the most integrated, multi-cultural, and dynamic nation in the world. We have the most powerful economy, natural resources, agricultural production and military on earth.
Our economy ranks second to none with the second greatest economy on earth, China, five times smaller than ours. We are the most generous, charitable, forgiving free people on earth and we are the only nation where people are desperate to move here and are willing to risk arrest to get here. We have a lot to be proud about and a lot more ambition, innovation, creativity and motivation than any people on earth.
Please Mr. President, respect our heritage not your naive vision. You work for us, all of us. .
As we finally head into the last 14 days of the election campaign Sarah Palin helped launch the final Tea Party Express cross country tour to help candidates as the election comes to a close. The New York Times says there are 129 Tea Party candidates running for the House and 9 running for the Senate. Of these, 33 House seats and 9 Senate seats have competitive Tea Party candidates, although less liberal groups believe far more seats may be in play. Beyond that there are a number of Tea Party candidates in the governor races, state legislatures, and even local offices.
Be that as it may, Palin and the Tea Party have written a new chapter in American political history with the first formidable launch of a movement that has a chance to evolve into a bona fide political third party. There has simply been nothing like it the past century in America.
It is true Ross Perot, who should be considered the Godfather of the Tea Party movement, did capture 19% of the vote in 1992 as a third party candidate but his efforts to form a defined political party did not succeed. Perot did, however, cost George Bush, Sr. his re-election as president. He also planted the seeds of discontent and provided a roadmap for future attempts to challenge the two party stranglehold on the American political process.
So far the Tea Party has organized as a series of independent groups, sort of a loose confederation, and has mastered much of the art of politics as seen by some stunning primary upsets. Within just a year they have demonstrated they are fearless, have weathered withering attacks by the left leaning media, the president and vice president, the congressional leadership, and the party spokespeople, while developing an ability to raise substantial money for campaigns.
In short, Sarah Palin and others give a face and a voice to the millions of disgruntled, disappointed, disgusted and determined citizens who have had enough government, deficit spending, increasing national debt and political double talk. Come November 3 we may find out just how much of an impact the silent voices of frustrated Americans might have earned.
It is clear in this election cycle the Republicans will be the primary beneficiary of the Tea Party movement because the GOP is the opposition to Obama and his left leaning agenda. But it is not clear that the Republicans can count on the long term support of the Tea Party, like into the 2012 elections. First and foremost, remember, they are Independents.
To the true Tea Party members neither political party offers much hope as they are equally responsible for being part of the old political establishment in our capitol. If the Tea Party stays with the Republicans it will only be because the GOP has changed for the better and is going to start practicing what they preach.
If they don't, look for the rise of a real third party challenge to our two party system.
There is one potential danger to the Tea Party solidarity should they decide to organize a challenge to the two party system. The only way the Tea Party could function as a national party is if they keep their platform and agenda focused on the priorities of limiting the size of government, eliminating pork barrel and deficit spending, and reducing the national debt.
Once you stray beyond the issues of economics or governmental powers, where the Tea Party members are united, and you get to the far more explosive social issues like abortion, prolife, gay rights, and many others, you begin to see the problem.
Many in the Tea Party want to adopt an expanded list of principles including social hot buttons, and then be uncompromising when pursuing them in congress and the White House. There are Tea Party members who are on both sides of most social issues. The passion for some of the causes is such they could never agree on a position. That is the long term dilemma facing Palin and the Tea Party.
They must find a way to unite as "outsiders" to fight the system while maintaining their own individual loyalty to certain causes not all will accept. If the GOP cannot find a way to accommodate these new advocates of the people, they will find another vehicle to mobilize around in the next election cycle, when Obama, the real threat to the Tea Party movement, is up for re-election. .
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A few years ago I spent the better part of an afternoon meeting with an honorable Japanese businessman whose families were owners of one of the Japanese Trading Companies that seem to control the Asian and sometimes world economy.
It was a fascinating history lesson on the evolution of the Japanese economy since World War II and how an extremely small nation with a small population could survive in a competitive Asian world. You must remember that the Japanese must compete with South Korea, Taiwan, China and India in the fields of innovation, technology, product engineering, manufacturing and distribution and this is where all the world's jobs have gone.
To my surprise he said they had no intention of competing in the traditional areas of product engineering, manufacturing or distribution as they did not have the labor force, land or ability to compete with the Chinese. However, their sole focus would be on future technologies, the things people will need that have not been invented. I am reminded of our conversation as I tell you about the Japanese Actroids and you better believe the future is now.
First, the dancing and singing Acrtroid in the following video. Our Asian friends have made a giant leap forward in creating real Androids like from Terminator or Star Trek films. Imagine having a rock or entertainment star like Taylor Swift who is an Android. Better yet, think of Lindsay Lohan and all the trouble she has been in not to mention all the entertainers caught up drugs and alcohol.
A star that didn't drink, do drugs, party, get busted, spend money foolishly, demand private jets and penthouses, and not even take a huge salary. Now that sounds too good to be true and probably is banned here in the land of need and greed, the USA.
Enjoy the latest technology successes of the Japanese.
One of the most powerful, respected and popular females to ever head a European nation, Angela Merkel of Germany, stunned the liberal world and socialist advocates worldwide by declaring Multiculturalism has failed in Germany.
Yet another example of the breakdown of European socialism that is being under reported in main stream American media, Merkel shattered the world of political correctness that seems to prevail here in America.
The Guardian newspaper in the UK reports that the Chancellor's assertion that onus is on new arrivals to do more to integrate into German society stirs anti-immigration debate.
Chancellor Angela Merkel says multiculturalism in Germany has 'failed utterly'. She tells a conference of the youth wing of her Christian Democratic Union party that Germans and foreign workers could not 'live happily side by side'. The speech has been interpreted as a dramatic shift to the right.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has courted growing anti-immigrant opinion in Germany by claiming the country's attempts to create a multicultural society have "utterly failed".
Speaking to a meeting of young members of her Christian Democratic Union party, Merkel said the idea of people from different cultural backgrounds living happily "side by side" did not work.
She said the onus was on immigrants to do more to integrate into German society.
"This [multicultural] approach has failed, utterly failed," Merkel told the meeting in Potsdam, south of Berlin, yesterday.
Her remarks will stir a debate about immigration in a country which is home to around 4 million Muslims.
Last week, Horst Seehofer, the premier of Bavaria and a member of the Christian Social Union – part of Merkel's ruling coalition – called for a halt to Turkish and Arabic immigration.
In the past, Merkel has tried to straddle both sides of the argument by talking tough on integration but also calling for an acceptance of mosques.
But she faces pressure from within the CDU to take a harder line on immigrants who show resistance to being integrated into German society.
Yesterday's speech is widely seen as a lurch to the right designed to placate that element in her party.
Merkel said too little had been required of immigrants in the past and repeated her argument that they should learn German in order to cope in school and take advantage of opportunities in the labour market.
The row over foreigners in Germany has shifted since former central banker Thilo Sarrazin published a highly-controversial book in which he accused Muslim immigrants of lowering the intelligence of German society.
Sarrazin was censured for his views and dismissed from the Bundesbank, but his book proved popular and polls showed Germans were sympathetic with the thrust of his arguments.
One recent poll showed one-third of Germans believed the country was "overrun by foreigners".
It also found 55% of Germans believed that Arabs are "unpleasant people", compared with the 44% who held the opinion seven years ago.
In her speech, Merkel said the education of unemployed Germans should take priority over recruiting workers from abroad, while noting that Germany could not get by without skilled foreign workers.
The chancellor's remarks appear to confirm a suspicion that she has sympathy with Sarrazin's anti-immigrant rhetoric. On Friday, he declared: "Multiculturalism is dead".
Other members of Merkel's government disagree. In a weekend newspaper interview, her labour minister, Ursula von der Leyen (CDU), raised the possibility of lowering barriers to entry for some foreign workers in order to fight the lack of skilled workers in Europe's largest economy.
"For a few years, more people have been leaving our country than entering it," she told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
"Wherever it is possible, we must lower the entry hurdles for those who bring the country forward."
The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) has said Germany lacks about 400,000 skilled workers.
In what should come as a warning to the socialist leaning Obama administration, the great socialistic experiment in Europe the Obama policies seem so inclined to pursue has suffered two more nails in the coffin in terms of being a viable economic experiment.
Much of the liberal leaning main stream media in America does not want you to know about the events that are rocking Europe but we need to take notice for it could be but a harbinger of the future we face under adoption of the Obama agenda.
Early this year Greece, Spain, Ireland and England faced huge budget deficits and took extremely unpopular moves to bring the debt and economies under control. Now the focus moves to France where they are finally forced to deal with the long ignored runaway spending driven by socialism.
In France the issue is the retirement age. In order to avoid economic bankruptcy the retirement age has to be raised from 60 to 62 and full retirement benefits from 65 to 67. That does not seem like a big deal to save the national pension system. All workers in France already are guaranteed 4 weeks of vacation a year compared to 2 weeks in America.
The response has been a national wide union strike that has crippled the economy, shut down the transit system, and threatens to polarize the people and police. Rioting has always been the union tactic in European nations to force the agenda.
The problem is there are a lot of disgruntled people in France because of the long standing social promises for more benefits, more vacations, less work and earlier retirement. The riots over retirement have now given the social activist youth, even high school students, to join the riots even though they will have to pay for any excess benefits throughout their lives.
There are a lot of radical elements in the socialist countries just looking for the opportunity to use the cause of someone else, like the retirees, as a cover to discredit the government and police authority. In France the latest poll of workers supporting the police is around 70% approval while teens are around the 15% approval range.
Youth groups and other radical groups have seized on the unrest to escalate the protests to full blown riots as you will see from the following reports.
Some three million people took to the streets throughout France on Saturday to protest President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension reform, unions said, as a strike by transport and oil refinery workers went into its fifth day.
As usual, the Interior Ministry saw substantially fewer demonstrators in the streets, saying in a statement that about 825,000 people protested against the reform.
The demonstrations in some 260 cities took place as strikes at all 12 of France’s refineries raised fears that airports would soon run out of fuel.
On Friday, fuel stopped running through a pipeline feeding Paris’s two major airports, Orly and Charles de Gaulle.
While Orly has reserves for 17 days, the stockpiled fuel at Charles de Gaulle could run dry by Monday or Tuesday, the junior minister for transport, Dominique Bussereau, said.
However, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde told RTL radio Saturday that the government has options to provide them with fuel.
“We are confident,” she added.
Railway traffic remained disrupted throughout the country, with about half of all scheduled trains not operating Saturday, the state— run rail network SNCF said.
The pension reform would gradually raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 by the year 2018. It has already passed the National Assembly and is scheduled to be voted on in the Senate on Wednesday.
Unions have called for another nationwide day of strikes and demonstrations on Tuesday, just ahead of the Senate vote.
French truck drivers staged go-slow operations on highways, trains were cancelled and gas stations ran out of fuel yesterday as strikers dug in ahead of a key government vote this week on an unpopular pension overhaul.
Riot police used tear gas and rubber pellet guns in the Paris suburb of Nanterre to break up a crowd of youths who set fire to cars near an anti-reform protest by secondary school students. They intervened for similar reasons in the city of Lyon.
The interior ministry said police arrested 290 rioters in various towns.
Wider strikes will hit everything from air travel to mail today when unions opposed to President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to raise the retirement age to 62 from 60 have called for another street protest.
With a final Senate vote on the legislation expected tomorrow, this could be a make-or-break week for Sarkozy.
The centre-right government, which has stood firm through months of anti-pension reform protests, assured that public infrastructure would not freeze up despite a week-long strike at refineries that has dried up supplies at hundreds of France's 12,500 gas stations.
"The situation is critical," a spokeswoman at Exxon Mobil said. "Anyone looking for diesel in the Paris and Nantes [western France] regions will have problems."
Sarkozy, in the northern seaside town of Deauville for talks with the leaders of Germany and Russia, said he would not back down. "The reform is essential and France is committed to it and will go ahead with it just as our German partners did," he told reporters after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Workers at France's 12 refineries were in their seventh day of a strike and protesters blocked access at many fuel distribution depots around the country.
The French aviation authority urged airlines to reduce flights to Paris's Orly airport by 50 per cent and to all other airports by 30 per cent today.
Today will be the sixth major work stoppage and street demonstration since June, but the unrest has intensified.
As many as 1,800 service stations have run short of fuel in recent days. At an empty station on Paris's Champs Elysees avenue, the manager said she spent much of her morning trying to stop drivers unhooking fuel pumps.
Los Angeles Times
By Devorah Lauter, Los Angeles Times October 19, 2010
Reporting from Paris —
Camille Maupas, a 14-year-old high school student, stood in the middle of a major intersection in the center of Paris, took a deep breath, smiled and sat down.
So did about 150 fellow students, who spontaneously decided to block the intersection at Rue de Rivoli and Rue du Renard, causing a traffic jam near City Hall on Monday, to protest against a government plan to raise the retirement age.
With no pension at stake, the students are a worrisome wild card in the eyes of the government, and a recent addition to an intensifying protest movement against President Nicolas Sarkozy's promise to help reduce the state deficit by forcing workers to legally retire at 62, instead of 60.
Students have blocked entrances to their schools with large objects, and on Monday some youths clashed with riot police and burned cars. The violence was blamed on youths who are not part of the student protest.
As authorities prepared for another national strike Tuesday, a larger swath of the population was already feeling the effect of nearly a week of continuous strikes by workers, especially in the energy sector, who were joined early Monday by truck drivers who blocked major roads around France, driving at a snail's pace in "escargot operations."
Despite government assurances, fears of gasoline shortages pushed drivers to fill up their tanks, causing more than 1,000 of France's 12,500 gas stations to temporarily run dry.
"The most serious concern is fuel," said Richard Laisne, 58, a Paris taxi driver. "Because if there's a fuel problem, there's no work for me." He said he filled up his tank Sunday.
Government leaders continue to assure the public that there was no reason to fear a shortage, and Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Sunday, "I won't let our country be blocked."
A spokesman for the Energy Ministry said trucks were on their way to restock gas stations that ran out of fuel.
Flight cancellations and delays are expected Tuesday as airport and public transport workers plan to strike. The government again advised airlines to reduce the number of flights they have planned to Paris and to arrive with their fuel tanks as full as possible, despite insisting there was no risk of fuel shortages at France's major airports.
With striking workers blocking roads, trains, gasoline depots and refineries, there could be a long delay before hard-hit gas stations are able to function normally.
A crisis unit was created Monday by the Interior Ministry, and key gasoline depots and pipelines have been unblocked by authorities, who said they did not use force. Days after certain depots were opened, others were blocked by new protesters Monday. Workers at all of France's 12 oil refineries are on strike too.
The Senate is expected to pass the retirement overhaul bill by Thursday or Friday, but protesters say they will continue striking.
"It's a political success. Everyone is involved," said Josiane Jousset, 62, of the strikes. "The government got a good slap in the face."
Media coverage of the student protests showed images of burned cars, shattered storefront windows and glass walls at bus stations in various towns across France, and were reminiscent of 2005 riots in the country's low-income suburbs.
In the center of Paris, participants said their intentions were peaceful.
"We are pacifists. We just want to be heard," said Hugo Behar, 16.
Though the Sarkozy government contends that the French need to work longer in order to finance future pensions, Hugo said the reform would mean fewer jobs for younger people, because aging employees wouldn't be able to leave their posts open for the next generation. "I don't want to be out of work at 30," he said.
"We aren't doing this to get out of class. … We hope to prevent the vote" in favor of pension overhaul, said Camille, the 14-year-old student.
