D I V O R C E

This is a slightly rambling post...I rarely complain about myself and in general, I think I am a pretty hearty 58 year old experiencing a prolonged difficult adolescence.

That said, I have experienced problems with asthma since I was a child and have gone years without any incidents. This year, though, I began to have attacks and tried to manage them myself. I have some dental problems that I have been trying to take care of and postponed appointments because of the changing dates and time span of this years grape harvest. I have my next appointment tomorrow afternoon.

Yesterday, I had a serious asthma attack that seemed to not want to go away. It was a Saturday afternoon, I live many miles from any hospital and my doctor was not available. When we called the doctors office though, we were immediately put through to a service which efficiently, in effect, brought personalized emergency room service to my house in less than 20 minutes. A very pretty young doctor gavce me a very thorough examination, a shot which relieved me immediately and wrote a prescription which we were able to have filled in a pharmacy in a neighboring village. The pharmacies all rotate being open on an emergency basis on Sundays and late hours. My prescription was for immediate treatment dealing with the lung infection and asthma attacks and then a few products for long term management. I estimated that the prescriptions alone would have cost over 200 US Dollars. My cost?
The bill was 67 Euros, but under the French plan, I only payed 2 Euros.
The cost of the emergency home doctors visit? 44 Euros, but I only payed 20 because the cost of a normal doctors consultation is only 24 which is covered. The home service was an extra 20. So I payed 22 Euros out of pocket.
I am not a French citizen, I am a resident, but I get almost the same treatment as any French citizen.

I am telling this story because I still get flack everytime I post about the French Medical System regarding the lack of quality under socialized medicine. No matter what self binded, self righteous, propaganda infused conservatives and libertarians say, I am convinced along with the rest of the world, that the French Medical System is the best in the world! Who you gonna believe? George Bush or my lyin' eyes? (apology to Richard Pryor)

That said, hey what happened here this week? If you were here, the reportage was festive it was almost a national holiday! On Thursday, the nation pretty much shut down. Hundreds of thousands of people in the streets demonstrating because the Sarkozy government wants to cut retirement rights for an entire sector of the working force. Medical Students were out because of a Sarkozyist bright idea to force interns to move where ever the government wanted them to work upon graduation.
Judges and lawyers were out demonstrating because the Justice Minister is blindly goiing forward with an ill concieved cost cutting plan which is going to eliminate local regional courts all across France.

People with consciences across the entire political spectrum were demonstrating over the DNA testing law to keep immigrant families from staying together in France.
And then, the drama, the heartbreak, the hillarious debacle of the Sarkozy's marriage disintegrating on the same day. I wrote during the elections of the reports of Nicolas' violence and Cecilias infidelity. He tried to present a People Magazine portrait of his family to foster a Nouveau Camelot image. People in France aren't upset that the couple is divorcing and care less about their pecadillos. The anger is more that he used a false image of his marriage for political reasons and the inordinate amount of time spent by the mainstream press reporting rumors and then the actual done deed as the information was doled out in controlled doses by the Elysee.

Today I saw a video of the protests on Canal+. There were many people with signs that read : France to Sarkozy: We want a Divorce!

Enjoy the video about the power and glory of the SNCF! Our national railroad who struck for 2 days. Their union also runs the subways and buses.
Oh, yea, Le Quinze (The Rugby team) lost the World Cup big time. Sarkozy was counting on them to change the mood of the nation into sports euphoria inspired nationalism. He even named the coach as the new Minister of Sports, only to have him become imbroiled in a major tax evasion scandal.

The price of everything is going up? Can it get worse for the little Hyper President?
Sure,stay tuned because the honey moon is over! France Wants A Divorce!