National Strike

Tomorrow, October 18th, there will be a national strike here in France.
Strikes happen a lot here, but they tend to be separated. Like you might have a strike from the post office one day, and maybe 2 weeks later, there will be a subway worker's strike, and then in December you'll have the airline workers strike.
This is a big thing since it's a national strike, so all transportation in the country will more or less be shut down.
Stores and museums are already planning ahead for this, putting up signs on the front doors earlier this week stating that they would be closed on Thursday.

Everyone is really mad about Sarkozy's pension reform plan, so they have decided in typical French fashion to show their discontent with the strike. (Full article here)

I am not surprised at all. While I think it's nice that Sarkozy has all these plans to change France (and believe me, the French are way behind the times), I think it was so obvious back during the elections that they weren't going to take kindly to his confounded modern ideas (despite the fact that they all voted for him).

The most important thing to know about the French is that they really do not like change. I mean, you'd think Sarkozy would know that. The French just love to grumble about things and they like to say that things should change, but when it comes time to actually change, they resist full-force.

I don't know, it's like the French are still traumatized from the Revolution, when they cut off the heads of the royal family. Like they're really proud of themselves for having done it, but at the same time, it was so crazy and scary that they can't deal with any other kind of change whatsoever, and they prefer to live in a false reality where they still think:
1) France Is A Major World Power, A Total Mover-and-Shaker On the World Stage;
2) France Is The Richest Country In The World And Manipulates All Other Countries As Though She Were The Master Puppeteer;
3) France Totally Won World War II By Herself But Got Screwed Over By Those Nasty English Speaking Barbarians;
4) Who Imposed The Marshall Plan On Them, This Horrible Policy Where France Was Forced At Gunpoint To Import Coca-Cola And Build Lots of McDonalds That No One Likes.

I think France needs to take it all like a man - and that means going back to work! Some of us have things to do tomorrow, you know.

Update/Edit: Argh! I just read in Le Figaro that the strikers say that if their demands aren't met, the strike might last into the weekend! Hello! Some of us have to take the train to visit their in-laws, and while we might not be thrilled about seeing them, we were looking forward to eating a raclette!!!!

I mean, seriously, strikes really don't accomplish anything except make everyone hate you. And it's not like the strike is going to affect anyone in the government - it's not like they take public transportation, and I highly doubt that their personal chauffeurs are going to go on strike too. And come on, do people really think that the high government people get their mail via the post office? They probably use inter-governmental/diplomatic pouches, so they get their mail, like, every 15 minutes.