Digital Chosunilbo on France and a few memories of Paris last summer

Digital Chosunilbo decries the recent French protests as symptomatic of a culture unable to face the present or the future. By demanding life-long job security, the French, according to this Korean daily are trying to turn the clock back to a period of post-war prosperity, Cold War politics and middle class growth. From the Asian point of view, it is hard to understand why the French would be trying to turn back the clock. The prosperity of South Korea and Taiwan are based in large part on a stoical Confucian work ethic: but there simply does seem to be a lot more room for educated young people to get jobs that have no security, but offer a promise of some kind of better future (with gadgets).

I just have to say that last July, I had conversations with friends in Paris that went like this -- "Things can't go on like this much longer. How are people surviving while staples and luxuries displayed so defiantly in shopwindows are entirely out of their reach? Added to this is a sense that there is simply no hope for the average person because the price of a daily cup of espresso is the kind of indulgence she can no longer afford."