Casa Robino

France is burning again. This time is a bit funnier than the others though.
Let's first recall the two previous occurences of France catching fire:
 
In 2005 three teenagers suspected of thief were chased by the police. They found refuge in a high-power electric transformer. Two fried to their death, one managed to crawl out, badly injured. All that in a context of police consistently picking on Arab kids, so the neighborhood was pretty pissed off. It snowballed quite a bit thanks to the government trying to protect the policemen responsible.
The riotters were outcast kids burning the cars of their outcast neighbors, occasionally one of the busses they used to ride on and, in a flash of inspiration, a police station.
It was excellent for the car-manufacturing business, as the statistics did show a few month later.
 
In 2006, the goverment decided to set up a new type of employment contract for young people that extended the "trial period" from 6 month to 2 years. Riots again, this time by kids with a future. Students.
In both cases, the people rioting were the first-hand victims of what they were rioting against. Wether they were the son-of-an-immigrant-with-visible-racial-features or the son-of-a-white-middle-class-familly-with-a-bright-future.
 
This time around, it is the high-schoolers and students again. But this time they're rioting against a reform of the retirement plan by the government.
Of course, most of the demonstrators and strikers are middle-aged people that can justify their concern with the reform. But most of the rioters are kids that will never be affected by it. They will be affected by the reform that the government will pass in the coming decades. It is inimaginable that the retirement system, if it gets reformed, will stay in the same state for more than 40 years. And 40 years is what the kids will have to wait to get there.
So this time, it is really hard not to shake your head in disbelief. Is it that the french people just like rioting at the first occasion?
Well... Yes! I believe that's exactly that.
 
France is known for something else than riots, it is one of the world-leaders of non-sensical bureaucracy. The French citizen must live his whole life dealing constantly with mind-wrecking senseless paperwork in order to get anything done. It must build up frustration somehow. And another thing that the French are famous for, is being a bit on edge. Always ready to complain that the whole world is conspiring to make their life miserable. You can't not see the link.
In addition to that, the French are plagued with a berlusconesque reactionary president that treats people without big bank account like sub-humans, that includes mostly everyone under 23 years old (as well as itinerant minorities). The same kids that are right now taking the retirement struggle as a channel to puke out the frustration of being a pawn in that sickening game.
Burn motherfucker!