Visiting A Riot

[Bod]

I've been planning a visit to Paris for some months now. And the date of arrival is this week. Only Paris has been rioting for about 10 days now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4401670.stm

Last night the car-buring reached the area I intend to stay at.
I'm still going though.

[mburbank]

Well done! History needs witnesses.

This must be huge, as it's starting to actually make front page news here, and for anything Not in the USA or the The Middle East that doesn't involve a missing blonde, it's got to be very big news indeed.

[DamnthatDavid]

Someone just needs to go dressed up as a German Military Officer. The rioters will surrender.

[Spectre X]

Oh, yeah, right.

OR, they'll secretly plot against you and kill you in your sleep.

[kellychaos]

Damn that David! :lol

[Perndog]

Max, I heard somewhere that the overwhelming majority of the rioters are Muslims. If this is true, it looks like there really isn't anything on the front page that's not about the USA and/or the Middle East.

[Ninjavenom]

"God, i'm so fucking mad at person/place/thing and what they did/said/went through that i'm going to destroy the property of and maim and possibly kill thousands of innocent people because of it!"

[AChimp]

It will be great fun when they finally start using lethal force against the rioters. :)

[mburbank]

See, this is where having a huge, semi permanent underclass clashes with enlightened self interest.

Huge masses of teens + unemploymet + poverty + no sign of things getting better anytime soon if ever = bad times.

Plus, the French lack the American certinty that one day we'll all win the lottery, move into a bette trailer park and buy teeth.

[Carnivore]

Is it merely coincidental that this underclass is primarily Muslim?

[ScruU2wice]

there aren't as many 7Elevens and Subways to own in france.

[Bod]

Even in Englan I didn't know about the riots in Paris until a work collegue came up to me to take the piss. He was like, "So you've decided to visit a riot for your holiday". I had no idea what he was on about. But it's still going on, I'm so hoping they don't burn the car of the bloke who's picking me up from the airport. There's also the worry that there may be a curfew in place by the time I arrive.

But I am taking my camera and camcorder so I may get some top notch footage that I can sell to the BBC? I'm not one to let a small thing like a riot stop me enjoying my only holiday of the year. I'm meeting some americans there too, they don't speak french, but earlier on the phone have asked me to look up how to say "I'm homesick, where are the tanks?"

'Tis the season for it though, note riots in Birmingham, UK last week plus mucho destruction in Argentina.

[ziggytrix]

Is it merely coincidental that this underclass is primarily Muslim?

Pretty much. They're basically poor immigrants. A large community of poor folks will develop their own criminal activites. The kids involved in these riots, as far as I've heard, are hardly different than young mafia thugs in 19th century America.

Just like a guy named Richard had a better chance than a guy named Luigi of getting a nice job in New York back then - a guy named Pierre has a better chance of getting a nice job in Paris than someone named Abdul... or at least that's the popular perception, which is just about as important.

So this isn't really a religous issue. In fact, Islamic leaders in those communities are speaking out against the riots. But do you think mafia punks gave two shits what the priest said last Sunday when real money was on the line?



Anyway, Bod keep us posted if ya can, and definitely drop a note when you get back. Certainly before you wander away from the board for a few months leaving us all to think you've been lost in the riots! :P

[Bod]

Well I'm leaving on Thursday and should be back by Monday - it was only planned to be a short visit. I'm staying with a French couple and shall be joined by an american couple.

I do believe (or desperately hope) that I'm better off with french hosts, in the hope that they know the best way to avoid too much trouble. Must be worrying for tem though, now that the riots have spread to their area, especially as they have children. This is a really long riot is it not? In the UK we barely keep them going for 24 hours.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4369814.stm

[The Retro Kat]

There was a pretty big riot at my school after the world series. There is suprisingly a lot of Sox fans for being at a college more toward southern Illinois. It even made it to collegehumor...although it's not very humorous.

Good luck in France, you been there before?

[Bod]

I went there years a go on a college trip, visiting art galleries. I was so broke though, I didn't see much. This time I hope to see a bit more (apart from the riots of course) like the Catacombs
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paris/cata/walls.html
the sewers
http://www.sewerhistory.org/grfx/wh_region/paris_tour1.htm
Notre Dame and probably the Eiffel Tower although I've climbed up it before (cheaper than the lift!). Maybe a trip down the Seine at night, if there's not a curfew - see Paris lit up, including the mini Statue of Liberty.

[Cosmo Electrolux]

It will be great fun when they finally start using lethal force against the rioters. :)

Maybe when the Military finally gets called out to quell the disturbances....

[Dr. Boogie]

I wasn't aware that french sewers were such a big draw for tourists.

[Pub Lover]

The sewers of Paris are amazingly fine napoleonic architecture.

[Dr. Boogie]

Well there you go. Napoleonic dynamite.

[ziggytrix]

Those sewers and full of fine architecture and shit!

[Dole]

Well there you go. Napoleonic dynamite.


outstanding, Boogie. I mean it!

[Bod]

Those sewers and full of fine architecture and shit!

oh - I didn't realise there was looking at architecture involved. dammit

[Bod]

Right, I'm leaving just as I say goodbye to the cats. If I don't make it back, 'twas nice being back for a few days.

toodle pip

[The Retro Kat]

DON'T DIE

[Bod]

DON'T DIE

Thanks, I didn't.

I didn't even get to see a riot. :explode
I saw a few soldiers at the airport, a few riot vans en route to elsewhere and heard sirens in the distance.

On the upside, I did get to drink absinthe in a Parisian bar whilst they played two cds of my favourite band.

[dolarene]

From next Monday In France they start to use the "Karcher" style and kick some Muslim asses to the Sahara :troutslap

Those 'poors' (miserable is more correct) are in 90% young lads from wee families passing the boredom destroying cars... a week ago those b****ds killed a public worker in front of his wike and kids, the poor man died in the hospital last wednesday :(

"Mom's kids killing people and burning cars and buildings"

They will be happier in his dictatorial countries...

P.S. : A Karcher is a high pressure washing machine used in the city cleaning (unsticking buble gum and dog s**t)

[Bod]

The only other forum I post on is for my favourite band, Ministry, where i'm BudTheChud. And it was Ministry fans I met whilst in Paris. That being as well as very drunk Brazilian guy. The guy who put us up is known as Maxmal and does look uncannily like the frontman of Ministry, albeit a far healthier version. But he has huge memorabilia collection and some were concerned that myself and other posters from the board who visited would become a part of his collection, stuffed. He did have an aL jourgensen scarecrow in the garden. So here's a little movie made:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/claiy/Movies/Lost.mov

Those who watch it may notice that the loo I went to was the same as the bloke who videod his toilet expedition - it was weird the unisex toilets. I came out of the loo quite pissed to be confronted by a v. drunk frenchman zipping up his pants directly infront of me. He started talking frantically at me. I've not spoken French since school and thought I'd forgotten it all. But suddenly I heard my sheepish voice say: "Je suis anglais, je ne comprende pas." The guy looked at me and laughed - "How sweet".

[ziggytrix]

So did the curfews interfere with your holiday at all?

[Bod]

Not at all. If I'd not seen on the news that there'd been riots or discussed it with the people who put me up, I could have stayed there without realising there was any trouble.