Current Events in France

Today, the French people are up in arms. Nope, it's not about the dismal state of their universities, as outlined in a brilliant New York Times article yesterday (and it's shocking to learn of their poor facilities, and to imagine libraries closing at 5, after pulling all-nighters during exam time in my college libraries):

"Universities are factories," said Christine le Forestier, 24, a 2005 graduate of Nanterre with a master's degree who has not found a stable job. "They are machines to turn out thousands and thousands of students who have learned all about theory but nothing practical. A diploma is worth nothing in the real world."

Today, the French people are taking to the streets in the Pyrenees region and-- I'm not kidding-- taking their flocks of sheep with them. Why expend all this energy, you ask? Why bother to shepherd their herds past beeping horns and deafening loudspeakers? Because environmentalists have released a bear into the surrounding mountains, in an effort to reintroduce the species after folks killed them off (or carted them off to the Big Apple for circuses) in the beginning of the century. And the farmers are freaked that the bear will attack their animals. Apparently the farmers don't imagine that a single bear could decimate entire flocks, but that fear could drive the animals crazy. And because the bear no longer has a natural fear of man (having been raised by scientists in Slovenia), it could get dangerously close to the villages. Back in the day, the bears didn't stand a chance in sharing territory with man. Looks like the farmers in the Pyrenees still don't want to share, and will take to the streets in serious protest.