Will France remain the 'worker's paradise'?

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you'll hear the answer to the question about the French pension reform. There's information on International Mother Language Day, the Sound Kitchen mailbag, great music – and of course, the new quiz question. Just click on the “Audio” arrow above and enjoy!

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. You'll hear the winner's names announced and the week's quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you've grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

Send me your music requests! I'll make programs of your favorite music when I can't be in the kitchen to cook something up new for you … write to me at  [email protected]

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RFI Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni ([email protected]) and Chrystelle Nammour ([email protected]) from our Listener Relations department on all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me ([email protected]) when you write them so that I know what is going on, too. N.B. You do not need to send them your quiz answers! Email overload!

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RFI's Planet Radio department is sponsoring an e-POP (e-Participatory Observers Project) competition. It's a video contest, with some really great prizes! This is the first year that English speakers have been invited to participate, so let's show RFI how many of you are out there, and are an active part of the RFI English service!

It's a really cool project: Planet Radio is looking for two-minute videos about climate change, told by the humans who are experiencing it first hand – the people we rarely get to hear from. Your grandfather. Your aunt. People in your community. Your video should be inter-generational: interview an older member of your family or in your community who has lived the changes climate change has brought. This project is about humans; that's the whole point of ePOP, how climate change has affected the “ordinary” citizen . Your video can be in any language – you just have to provide the translation into English to Planet Radio. And it can't be more than two minutes. It's open to everyone, although there is one prize for women under the age of 25 (Young sisters! Get to work!).  Most of the prizes involve a trip to Paris, and I would get to meet you! Plus there's video equipment to be given away – as noted, the prizes are great!

Here's the link for the guidelines.

The deadline for entries is 15 March. I fully expect Planet Radio to be bombarded with entries from you, the RFI English service listeners!

This week's quiz:  On 18 January, I asked you a question about the French government's pension reform plan - the plan which led to massive strikes which you heard a lot about from us!

On 12January French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced that the government was willing to compromise on the biggest proposal to the pension reform that all the French unions – even the moderate CFDT union - would not accept. I asked you what that hotly contested proposal is.

The answer is: the so-called “pivot” age. French workers would be required to work until they are 64 years old, instead of the current 62. It is to go into effect in 2027.

The government has given the trade unions three months to figure out how to fund France's pensions without raising the retirement age. The unions have until the end of April to come up with an alternative plan.

The winners are: Mrs. Anjana Parvin, the secretary of the Shetu RFI Listeners Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh; RFI Club members Zenon Teles for the Christian- Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Association of Listening DX-ers in Goa, India and Helmut Matt from Herbolzheim in Germany. From Tamilnadu, India, there's Selvaraj and from Muzaffargarh, Pakistan, Malik Nadir Abbas Khokhar - a member of the Sungat Radio Listeners Club.

Congratulations winners!
Here's the music you heard on this week's program: “Bangla Dhun” by Ravi Shankar, performed by Ravi Shankar & his ensemble; “Aquarium” from The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns; “Come Rain or Come Shine” by Harold Arlen  and Johnny Mercer, performed by the Bill Evans Trio; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “Gypsy Rag” by Romane, performed by Gypsy Swing ensemble, and  “Ami banglai gaan gai” by Pratul Mukhopadhyay, sung by Mahmuduzzaman Babu.

Do you have a musical request? Send it to [email protected]

This week's question ... You'll have to listen to the show to participate. You have until 23 March to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 28 March podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address in with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:
[email protected]
or
Susan Owensby
RFI – The Sound Kitchen
80, rue Camille Desmoulins
92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux
France
or
By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country's international access code, or “ + ”, then 33 6 31 12 96 82. Don't forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or to form your own official RFI Club, click here