Paul from Paris

“The problem with experience is that you become too content with playing it safe.”

-Roger Federer, quoted in Calvin Tomkins, “Anxiety on the Grass”, The New Yorker, 28 June 2010.

Did you see Farhad Manjoo’s article in Slate, reporting on the decline of the desktop computer compared to the laptop?

Sales of desktops and portables are roughly even today, but laptops are ascendant; by 2015, desktops may decline to only a small minority of total computer sales.

Of course, how a computer looks is secondary to what it can do and how it is used. The desktop-to-laptop ratio recalls the rotary-to-pushbutton phone ratio.

But there’s more to the story. What I took from Manjoo’s piece was confirmation that a laptop is becoming standard issue: something that almost everyone has, as a matter of course.

L’Etat, c’est moi. Rail lines that converge on Paris. Anyone who studies France encounters, early on, evidence that points to a strong central state. This is often presented as one of the features that make France, France.

A corollary of this proposition would be mistrust of civil society in general, and of citizen initiatives not involving the state, in particular.

Why is this so?

As the days grow longer and the evenings warmer, people in France like to gather for Spring festivals, whether formal or informal.

The informal gatherings have, in the eyes of the press, given Facebook a bad reputation. Informal weekend gatherings have occurred all over France, mostly in cities with universities and big student populations: Lyon, Nantes, Montpellier. The gatherings are promoted via a Facebook group and held in public. They are open to all but orchestrated by no one in particular.

Facebook groups had announced a similar gathering this weekend, in the Champs de Mars (by the Eiffel Tower). The reaction by the public authorities grew steadily over the week: ban the event; ban all such gatherings; arrest and interrogate the organizers (they turned out to be teenage girls; no charges were brought); alcohol having already been forbidden in the park, new ordinances were enacted to prohibit –for the weekend– glass containers and the transport of alcohol around the Champs de Mars; busloads of riot police were called in; and passersby were frisked.

Plenty of people did enjoy the park on a warm summer evening. Malfeasance rivaling Sodom and Gomorrah did not occur. The authorities declared victory.

For this observer, what really troubled the authorities was the lack of state supervision.

I’ve seen other events in Paris, such as the Technoparade or Gay Pride marches, that do have official organizers and state sanction. I wouldn’t dream of banning them, even though I’ve witnessed, in my quiet neighborhood:

• mountains of detritus, including broken glass, after municipal sanitation workers have cleaned up, presenting a risk, especially to dogs and small children;
• participants who are inebriated or drugged to the point where they cannot walk or speak;
• misbehavior best described as riotous: damaging bus shelters, removing review mirrors from cars, vandalism (leading the Vélib rental bike service to encase cycles and equipment near my apartment in a plastic protection).

State-sponsored initiatives are common this time of the year in the south of France. Examples include the Gruissan Festéjades or the Nîmes Féria. These events take place over a long weekend, and call upon significant state resources. There’s even bullfighting, which many consider to be animal torture.

Controversy is brewing in France over admissions to selective schools: should 30% of admissions be set aside for students eligible for need-based scholarships?

In France, controversy tends towards the theoretical. This post offers a differing, empirical viewpoint.

How many students are in higher education in France? About 2.2 million. Of these, about 55% are in universities –public institutions that, in theory, accept all applicants– and 31% are in technical or technological schools. The remaining 14% are in grandes écoles, mostly engineering or business schools with selective admissions, or in two-year preparatory schools that are a necessary prerequisite for a grande école. Only this minority is concerned by the French set-aside plan.

How many scholarship students are there is France? About 527,000, of which 390,000 attend universities and 137,000 attend either technical schools or grandes écoles. Only this minority is concerned by the French set-aside plan.

What sorts of scholarships exist in France? In France, scholarships (bourses) are need-based. Families with household income under € 32,440 can be eligible for waiver of tuition and student health fees at public schools. There is some variation among universities, but the average fees at universities are about €500. Students from resource-challenged families can be eligible for additional assistance, from €1445 to €4140 per year. The highest amount of assistance is available to heavily burdened families with household income under €21,350. Students living independently may be eligible for housing assistance.

Are there merit-based scholarships in France? As a rule, no. As an exception, there are national merit-based scholarships, only for those already eligible for need-based assistance, and limited to only those high-school graduates who receive the highest possible marks on the baccalauréat exam. Merit scholarships are renewable, subject to “good behavior” and exemplary grades. The scholarship is in an amount of € 1,800 per year. There are also merit-based scholarships for students who have successfully completed the licence degree (after the first three years of higher education).

A destitute but brilliant French student can therefore solicit € 5,940 in assistance, which works out to € 495 per month. This is only € 40 per month more than the € 545 per month to which a jobless homeless person (aged 25 or over) is entitled, but € 561 per month less than the € 1,056 per month that a full-time minimum wage earner takes home. This is the reality of the French system: the very best student from a very poor household is treated substantially like a homeless person, and is materially better off taking the most menial minimum-wage job.

This reality has been lost in the French debate over allocating some spots at schools with selective admissions to needy students. As is often the case in French politics, the debate centers on institutions and abstractions. (It also suffers from category errors, as some commentators misunderstand “poor” students to be unschooled or immigrants.) The debate, so far, has not examined the material circumstances of France’s most challenged students, or the near-absence of assistance targeting France’s most promising students.

I found a gift in the mail: the 2010 edition of Europe and you: A snapshot of EU achievements, courtesy of the European Union publications office.

Sixty years ago, Europeans –millions of Europeans– were hungry and cold. Europe was beset by the challenges of economic reconstruction and the threats of the cold war. The smartest heads and steadiest hands concurred: the situation was bleak, war was likely (if it hadn’t already begun, in a subterranean way), and future prospects were dim. Grandiosity or triumphalism were absent from public discourse.

The European Union has achieved more than its founders would have dared imagine. The point today seems obvious, but it’s not: customs duties and other barriers have been removed within the EU, and imports face common treatment regardless of point of entry. Economic activities can be organized on a grand scale, and market behavior is policed to curtail collusion or abuse. Many of the EU’s 500 million inhabitants can cross national borders without showing any document, much less having to seek a visa. The Euro figures among the world’s leaing currencies.

Surprisingly, none of this is mentioned by so much as a single word in Europe and you. This “snapshot of EU achievements” instead teeters between grandiosity and lack of self-confidence:

• Is the EU really fighting dementia, or hunger in the world’s poorest countries? Of course not. Scientists and relief organizations do that work. The EU may fund their efforts, but writing a check is not the same as doing the work, especially when the check-writer is a custodian of public funds.
• Has the EU contributed to lower mobile phone rates, or to better terms for credit card holders? Arguably so, through legislative action and effective economic policing. But do these accomplishments deserve a place among the top ten EU accomplishments? They’re several orders of magnitude smaller than what the EU actually has done but does not discuss.