Nuit debout. Impressions of an ignorant outsider (me).

Last November we spent three weeks in France. We had the distinct impression then that people were more stressed than in previous visits. Smoking more, smoking harder, body language tense and closed. The complaints about their lives, more bitter.

And then Nov 13 the terrorists attacked. The city came together, as it does. The motto of the city of Paris is "a ship that is always buffeted, never sunk."

This spring we spent a month in France, three weeks in the Vendée, the most conservative region of the country - anti-immigrant, pro military and pro-church. Every village has a life-sized calvaire, a cross with a Christ. The entrance to every village has a hand-scrawled sign - Agriculture in Distress or Livestock Raising in Distress. 

And back in Paris, the mood seems different. Less stressed it seems but everyone is fed up. Something has to give. The system just isn't working. Young people have no opportunities. Immigrants and the grandchildren of immigrants are locked out of the mainstream. Business is stifled at every turn by a bureaucracy whose only function seems to be to stifle business.

And still, we see a thousand ways that Parisians help each other get through their days. The large back man who automatically lifts an elderly woman down from a bus. The Uber driver finds a handful of coins for Syrian beggars. The small kindnesses and courtesies that make life a bit more tolerable.

But the government is at an all-time low 20% approval. Socialist government that chooses neo-con decisions at every turn - Libya, Syria, the economy.

The state of emergency after the November attacks is not lifted. It is extended and extended. The police have the right to break down any door without warrants or habeas corpus. So far over 5,000 raids of homes, offices, and mosques have been conducted. People roughed up. 5,000 doors broken down, . Results - 2 arrests. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have each documented physical and psychological abuse of the Muslim minority.

A community is being terrorized in the name of anti-terrorism.

I talk to a friend in the ministry of finance, a very senior official. Something has to give he says. He uses the word revolution, either of the left or the extreme right.

And now nuit debout. If you've heard about it at all through the 24/7 cacophony on Donald Trump, you probably heard it is a protest against labour reforms. That is a bit like saying WWII was about Poland or global warming is about polar bears. Perhaps you heard nuit debout is 'like' Occupy.

Nuit debout - to rise up in the night, the rising that does not sleep. Unlike the normal French protests and demonstrations, nuit debout is not run by the organized labour movement, peace groups or other mainstream lefty organizations. It appears to be run by no one. Unlike regular French protests, nuit debout does not start or stop at scheduled times. It runs all night. 

Nuit debout has spread to sixty French cities and several other countries.

On Sunday afternoon we visit the Place de la Republique. A few thousand people are there with tents, stands, and makeshift structures. In a tented area, several hundred people sit on the ground. One by one they talk about their issue of choice - education, immigration, the state of democracy in the Congo. The listeners signal approval, disapproval or boredom with hand signs we cannot decipher. Someone passes us handmade snacks.

In another area a sign says to come back at 3:00 PM for a debate with several economic professors.

Tables are set up with a food line for all comers.

At five Monday morning, the police arrive to clear the square. They say they can not allow structures to stay. They say they can not guarantee security. Monday afternoon the protesters return.

In another section of Paris, at the headquarters of UNESCO, a different kind of revolution is being presented. Thousands of people view an exhibition on Buddhist scriptures - the Lotus Sutra, our Universal Spiritual Heritage. The Lotus Sutra's message of equality and humanism seems especially apropos today.

Adventures in French health care, part II Keith meets the surgeon

It has now been a week since the bite. I’ve been on two antibiotics for three days.

The village nurse has come each evening. She knows the house well. The owner of the house is a widow and the nurse cared for her late husband for about a year.

She knows Barney well. She can’t understand him biting me. Too gentle, too slow, too bizarre.

This morning I went in to another town, a different hospital to meet an orthopedic surgeon. He doesn’t like my hand. The swelling is down, my digits work fine, but the wound isn’t closing and the skin looks bad.

Thursday morning they will perform surgery to clean out the hand, look inside to see what is going on.

At 6:45 PM I met the anesthesiologist. He went over my history (Crohn’s, nine major surgeries, blah, blah), allergies. He says he wants to do a general. Less chance of spreading the infection systemically. He says he is ordering an EKG.

OK so now I am paying for a full operating suite, OR team, the whole nine yards. He says I will only be out ten or fifteen minutes and he guarantees a return trip.

And I have to pay him 28 euros cash for the consult.

See you Thursday.

Adventures in French health care, Part I

We are looking after a farm on the outskirts of the tiny village of Bazoges-en-Pareds (population 1,000). Amongst our charges are two elderly Newfoundlands, a male and female. They are large, arthritic, gentle and, to all appearances, slow.

Unfortunately last Tuesday evening Barney bit my right hand. Since then I’ve been washing the wound and applying various ointments and solutions.

Barney’s owner recommended I go to the village doctor, which I did. He refused to see me without an appointment and told me to go to emerge in the closest city, about a half hour drive. This seemed like overkill. Since I have Crohn’s and children I am familiar with emergency waiting rooms and triage and process and I did not want to waste an entire day and who was going to pay for this?

On Friday our friends from Paris came for a visit. I had lots of plans for trips to the sea and eating local delicacies and drinking wine and such.

Our friends refused to allow my plans get in the way of a good medical situation.

So Saturday morning of the Easter long weekend off we all went to the hospital at Fontenay-le-Comte.

In Calgary non-life threatening emergency patients can wait four hours to see a doctor.

At Fontenay-le-Comte it went like this: The triage/reception nurse saw me immediately. She examined the wound and took my temp. She took a basic history and asked no questions about insurance or who I was. She repacked my bandage, told me I would be there about an hour and sent me to an admin lady in the next office. The admin lady apologized because she was on the phone, then took my name and address. She sent me to a waiting room. Instead of one large waiting room as in Canada, this hospital had small, semi-private rooms.

Everything was dignified and utterly lacking all the humiliation and bureaucracy of our system.

The usual array of crying children and sick folk came and went.

After about 20 minutes a nurse asked for Madame Robinson. She took me to the examination room and unwillingly allowed one friend to accompany. The real Madame Robinson had to stay behind with our other friend. (yes, it takes a village.)

The doctor had a look and told me that if you are bit by a dog you should not wait to come in. She said I would have to see a surgeon. A surgeon.

I learned if you ever get bit by a dog on your hand or similarly damage your hand the first thing to do is take off your rings. If your hand becomes infected and swells up the ring can cut you very seriously.

Of course I  did not know or think of this.

So the doctor said the tiger eye ring Yoshiko made was coming off. Not an option. One way or another it was coming off. I am just a bit heavier then when the ring was made and my hand was swollen.

The ring was not coming off.

We'll get a infirmiere in and will try with a little soap.

The ring was not going to go over the knuckle.

The nurse squirted a lot of liquid soap on my finger. Do not be gentle I told her. This ring has a lot of meaning to me.

She twisted and pulled and occasionally looked at my face to see if she was hurting me.

The ring had nowhere to go and was not coming off. One of the male nurses left for reinforcements.

So I tried. I pulled. I twisted.  I pulled AND twisted.

Nada.

Male nurse came back with a really ugly pair of cable cutters. Ugly and big. In an instant we were transported from a 21st century ultra modern examination room to a 19th century torture chamber.

Hang on, I said. One more try I said. Let's get this thing off.

She poured more liquid soap, twisted and pulled and very slowly forced the tiger eye ring over the now bruised knuckle and off my finger.

Everyone cheered. The doctor cheered Bravo and said see, once the ring saw the cutters it decided to move.

The doctor wrote three prescriptions, two for anti-biotics and one for a nurse to come to the farm daily to attend to me. Every day. Including Easter Sunday. She said I was to phone on Tuesday morning after Easter Monday to make an appointment with the surgeon. But if I had a fever I was to come back to emerge immediately.

I wondered what they did for people who were actually sick?

The nurse cleaned the wounds, put some goop on it, put some more really sticky goop on in, bandaged it then wrapped my hand and arm in gauze.

Back to the admin office the lady gave me a small mountain of papers outlining everything they did (in Canada they would never give this directly to a patient, only to another doctor) told me again everything I was supposed to do and gave me a bill - 48 euros.

Everyone assured me that ‘insurance’ would take care of everything. I don’t know what kind of insurance they have but there is no way my insurance will pay for this.

We went to the pharmacy for amoxycillin and flagyl and dressings and goop, another 46 euros.

Tonight the nurse comes to the farm to dress the wound. Stay tuned.