Fortunate to have fonctionnaires

There are often complaints, from the French and ex-pats, about the number of fonctionnaires in France, and doubtless there might be some cuts. Many commercial organisations sometimes make ruthless cuts to make short-terms profits, then find it doesn't work, or leads to disaster, e.g.:

"BP baord [sic] directors were made aware of the link between spending cuts and poor maintenance at its Texas City refinery two-and-a-half years before the fatal explosion at the site in March 2005, according to documents seen by The Observer
An internal presentation made to John Manzoni, chief executive for refining and marketing, in November 2003 links the 'history of reduced investment' at the Texas City refinery with 'poor maintenance practices'. It also makes clear that the refinery's performance on safety, integrity and maintenance, was weak..."

Oliver Morgan, industrial editor, Sunday March 18, 2007, The Observer

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2036358,00.html

It's also true that some fonctionnaires have a bad attitude (as within any group of people). However, a couple of recent experiences here in Nice made me appreciate the positive side of fonctionnaires of various kinds.

Recently I discovered a nearby park

Park Castel des deux Rois, with nice views:





a little area with farm animals for children



a pleasant cafe



Park police and public enjoyment

On the second visit, to show it to M, I remarked that there were again a couple of police (a male and a female). But she said that they were police municipale, paid locally, not the national police, and that they were employed for such tasks as looking after parks.

When I was a kid in south London years ago there were what we called "park-keepers" (I seem to remember they wore brown tweed suits), but they don't seem to exist in the UK anymore. More recently there were some nice parks near me in Wembley, but I never saw any park-keepers. So it's no surprise that these parks were often almost deserted, even in good weather, and that the main users seem to be young guys, sometimes playing music loudly.

By contrast the Parc Castel des Deux Rois was full of people, from the old to young children



just as Parc Montsouris had been in Paris, which also had its park-keepers.



So these valubale local amenities were being fully used by the local citizens, largely because there were two people in authority there to ensure order - it seemed well worth whatever they were paid.

Belle Bibliotheque

We joined the local library the other day, Bibliotheque Louis-Nucera, a magnificent place, with lots of space, sections for books, music, video/dvds, computers, etc. Joining was a very simple process and within a few minutes we had our cards and were able to start borrowing things - all free (to my surprise, M thought we'd have to pay; sometimes even the French aren't aware of just how much they get for their taxes). Also the place seemed well-staffed, a young woman in the music department directed us to the DVD section, and the place is open most of the week. I seem to remember stories back in the UK about cuts in library staff and hours of opening:

"... public librarians at this time developing Internet services seemed an impossible challenge. The early nineties had not been a good time for public libraries. There had been cuts, more cuts and yet more cuts."

http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue27/pub-libs/

"Britain's once-proud public libraries, founded 154 years ago as "the university of the street", are starting to die on their feet, according to a report yesterday.
They stock too few new books, are not open at times that suit the public and are burdened with too many expensive administrators."

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1204960,00.html

A fonctionnaire and fun in Guatemala

When we left our borrowings included a DVD on Cuba, the librarian checking things out, far from being a miserable bureaucrat, was a vivacious brunette, who told us about how wonderful her recent trip to Guatemala had been, all with dramatic expressions and gestures - what a great introduction to this public service!

Cf. a Washington Post report on tourism in Guatemala:

"Quietly, the country that for years was synonymous with civil war and strife [no mention of US responsibility of course] has gone from the exclusive province of wandering hippies and savvy textile traders to one of the most popular general destinations in the region. Bus tours and Elderhostel groups now break tortillas alongside backpackers and hard-core antiquity buffs. CBS filmed its latest "Survivor" installment on the Pacific coast, and Francis Ford Coppola has opened an eco-lodge near Tikal. Guatemala lured 1.2 million visitors last year, hard on the heels of Costa Rica, long the reigning king of Central American tourism with 1.4 million tourists in 2004."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/28/AR2005102800542.html

You get what you pay for and if you want decent public services you have to pay for them and for their efficient operation - but of course most advertising glorifies private consumption. But the selfish society is not a generally agreeable place to live. The French have some sensible priorities - qualite de la vie is important.

Anglo-saxon economic myths

It's often claimed that while social services might not be so good in the UK these days, the economy is more "efficient". In fact the French created more jobs and work longer than the Brits.

France created more jobs than did the UK between 1990 and 2005:

Plus d'emplois créés en France qu'en Angleterre en 15 ans

En quinze ans, de 1990 à 2005, la France a créé plus d'emplois que l'Angleterre (ou plutôt la Grande Bretagne). Le modèle libéral britannique n'est donc pas supérieur au modèle social français.
Les deux pays ont une population totale équivalente (60 millions d'habitants) et une population en âge de travailler voisine (37 millions).
...
De 1990 à 2005, la France a créé 2 520 000 emplois (+11,25%) contre 1 520 000 au Royaume Uni (+5,82%). Dans le même temps, la population en âge de travailler (de 15 à 59 ou à 64 ans) a augmenté d'une valeur équivalente dans les deux pays."

http://travail-chomage.site.voila.fr/britan/emploi_15ans.htm

Plus all the jeering about the French only working 35 hours a week is a bit misplaced coming from Brits::

"La durée moyenne du travail, pour l'ensemble des emplois à temps complet et à temps partiel, est de 32 heures par semaine en Grande Bretagne et de 36,28 heures en France (en 2005).
Ainsi, les français travaillent quatre heures de plus que les anglais chaque semaine."

http://travail-chomage.site.voila.fr/britan/32h.htm

Think about that in your (on average) 4 free hours extra per week Francophobes :-)