11 November, 2010

Consumption or commemoration : the time of the choice

The General Leclerc square, in Angers, like many other places in France, hosted on november 11th an official tribute to french soldiers died during the first world war. In spite of a rainy weather, about 300 civilians and just as much servicemen were gathered on the morning of that legal holiday for a part of the population.

Only a part, because, at the same time, supermarkets of Angers were opened to consumers eager to go shopping. So if these people consider they are entitled to impose a working day to salaried employees, why don't they go to work themselves, because they could be useful to other consumers? So, it would be fair, and consistent with the general behaviour, to suppress the legal holiday of november 11th. Moreover, a supplementary working day would be useful to fuel growth and jobs desperatly needed in France.

The last french soldier, contemporary to the first world war, died two years ago. He was 110 years old. With his death, the armistice of november 11th now belongs to history that the later generation has to remember and to teach. But this cannot interfere with the duty of the contemporary generation to look forward and work for the next as the previous did for it.

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