Schadenfreude

We think we've got problems? The Independent points to France:

"Riots broke out in the centre of Paris last night as French police used teargas against students who were pelting them with stones and bottles after marches held to protest against a new job law brought more than a quarter of a million youths on to the streets nationwide.
Although the rioting cannot be compared to the scale of the events of 1968, the scenes around the Sorbonne in the Latin quarter, where the air was filled with teargas, were reminiscent of the student demonstrations almost 40 years ago...
The demonstrations have been largely peaceful so far, although police evicted about 300 students from the Sorbonne last weekend. But the next major step comes tomorrow when they will be joined by trade unions. More than one million people marched in the last such demonstration on 7 March."

At least French students believe in something and are prepared to demonstrate about it.

The Independent also comments on Germany:

"Dire warnings from demographic institutes ... this week revealed that Germany's birth rate had sunk to its lowest level since the Second World War and was now bottom of the European league table with only 8.5 births per 1,000 inhabitants in 2005. Equally alarming were the institutes' predictions that eastern regions could turn into wasteland because of an unstoppable haemorrhage of young people.
Official statistics show that since reunification in 1990, more than 1.5 million east Germans have left their homes and moved west in search of jobs. With unemployment in the region at around 20 per cent, the problem is worsening. "The negative demographic trend in Germany is accelerating and becoming even more dramatic," warned Hans Fleisch, the head of the Berlin-based Institute for Demographic Development.
"The number of people living in a particular place is not only dependent on the birth rate," said Rainer Klingholz, one of the authors of the demographic study. "The reason for the gaping emptiness in many regions is the fact that young people are emigrating en masse. Worst hit are the structurally weak areas in eastern Germany - we can expect whole towns and villages to become depopulated in the long term."

Meanwhile our commentariat (not excluding myself) is obsessed with political loans and donations, with whether or not to have identity cards and with marginal adjustments to schools policies...