Sarah Two, a woman living in Ariege, SW France,
has been prosecuted for swapping tofu for tiling.
Ms Two is a member of a SEL - systeme d'echange
local. The services she offers to the SEL are:
English lessons, babysitting, tofu-making,
organic vegetable growing, housework,
storing furniture and finding a home for a
mechanical lawnmower. In return for repairing
her leaking roof by Robert Evans and John
MacCullough at a cost estimated by the
prosecution at 3,200 pounds sterling, Ms
Two provided to tofu for Robert's daughter.
The lawyer for the Federation of Ariege
builders said 'This kind of behaviour
upsets traditional structures and institutionalises
a parallel economy. It is destructive to our
entire political and social system'.
The state prosecutor called for Ms Two,
MacCullough and Evans to be sentenced
to between 40 and 248 hours of community
service.
The prosecutor argued that under the French
civil code exchange of services must be of
equal value and that tofu and tiling were
not. The panel of three judges will deliver their
ruling on 6 January.
(Reported in The Observer, Sunday 23rd Nov 97)
Ray Thomas, Open University, England.
