Lounsbury: Returning to low value commentary

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May 31, 2005

Returning to low value commentary

Am a bit preoccupied at the moment, both work crises and a chica that has chosen to visit me at an awkward moment. Luckily the other one is busy with apartments. Messy, very messy.

Nevertheless, I was amused today in that she dropped by the office and observed that once I insisted on carrying a heavy bag for her, which was "quite out of your character" - I must agree it is - and "probably only because my mum was around." That may be true as well. Marketing. Marketing, and of course occasional product placement.

Otherwise, I was happy to learn that I can still be described as "fit" despite having a diet heavily weighted towards Cuban products. Of course, this might have been mere flattery.

Leaving this aside, the typical editorials appeared in the press today bemoaning the loss of France (ahem, I mean the EU) as a counterweight to the Big Cookie Monster. Very tiresome. More amusing was the absolutely bizarre reflexions on what EU failure meant for regional integration in the Med Basin. By some truly outre logic, one particular editorial writer seems to have come to the conclusion that if the EU is not providing a good example of integration, then southern Med integration will stall. Apparently the cravenly decision makers, in this editorialists' eyes, merely act by copying what the French are doing.

Sadly, having sat in on a meeting which consisted of a few of the same comparing their own org chart to that of a French counterpart and bickering over why they had slightly different reporting relationships (not by content mind you, I mean the bickering, merely over the boxes), one has the awful sensation that in the Maghreb this may very well be true.

Rather more risky, however, is a resurgence of French protectionism and more of the duplicitious, fundamentally dishonest anti-Globo Leftist moron posturing and pandering about "delocalisations" (outsourcing) of sclerotic French services hither and thither or the equally dishonest (although rhetorically brilliant) pissing about "fiscal" and "social" "dumping." A briliant set of phrases - really like "fair trade" and other quasi-Orwellian oxymoronisms to disguise the French fear of competition.

Sadly, among the items on the local agenda is an interminable debate about the stunningly stupid new labor law and the exact terms on which the work week (a la France) is being reduced, and if under the new law, it is not in fact required for salaried employees to actually get salary increases to compensate them for some supposed loss (as embodied through a ridiculously complex formula about minimum salaries and an equally nasty little provision about it being illegal for any employee to suffer any diminuation in salary tied to the diminuation of the legal work week).

This, of course, is all supposed to "create jobs." Obviously working so brilliantly in France, and of course the unions deny that there is any relationship between massive evasion of the labor codes frankly surreal terms and the lack of employment growth. Nope, zero, none, nada.

Regardless, in closing, I was deeply amused by Hemlocke's little missive on the EU (http://www.geocities.com/hkhemlock/rooster/diary-28may05.html), as well as his ranting about the structure of services. Insofar as I have to write a "lettre de motivation" to "justify" a simple fucking request for price quotes on acquiring some cheap fucking IT equipment (no, simply ringing up the under employed lazy fuck of a sales agent is simply not done), I concur.

May 31, 2005

Returning to low value commentary

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