On my mind...

Lessons in diversity?; French divisions; Speaking of ‘core facts’ - International Herald Tribune French divisions

[Letters to the editor, Nov. 21]

There’s a building down the street from my place in Paris that has been under renovation for more than a year. All this time I’ve been wondering what the space is going to be used for, so the other day I asked one of the construction crew. His answer was, “Don’t ask me - I’m just a worker!”

His tone implied that, as a worker, he couldn’t possibly know anything beyond the strict confines of his job and that I was insulting him by assuming otherwise.

He also provided a good illustration of a phenomenon in French society: People here tend to classify themselves firmly and permanently as either an ouvrier ("worker") or a patron ("boss"). If you are an ouvrier it’s understood that it is simply impossible for you ever to do anything so entrepreneurial as start a company or go freelance. Furthermore, you see the patron as a hostile species, a different breed that controls all the money and has unlimited amounts of it. I love France and can’t imagine living anywhere else, but as a product of the United States, where “anyone can grow up to be president,” I find this dismaying.

Now President Nicolas Sarkozy is taking on the ouvriers in the transport sector, trying to cut back on benefits that they have enjoyed for so long that they no longer think of them as benefits. His task is complicated by the fact that it’s hard to get ouvriers to consider larger issues - like the aging population and the French economy - because that kind of thing is for the patrons to worry about. “Don’t ask us - we’re just workers.”

Sarkozy is finding that their attachment to their benefits is, understandably, fierce, but perhaps the root of his problem is a perceived social divide that’s even more firmly entrenched than any worker’s sense of entitlement.

David Jaggard, Paris

Le problème est que Sarko représente lui aussi une classe retranchée dans ses certitudes et son mépris des ouvriers, qui sont supposés trop bêtes pour qu’on leur explique quoi que ce soit.