h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A rathermore serious journal entry from me for once...

It's a strange feeling - I think I now know how the inhabitants of England felt in October of 1939... Supposedly there's a war going on but it doesn't seem to have changed anything...

In the last few days I've been living in a city where over 400 vehicles have been burnt out... several attempts have been made to set alight to junior schools, buses have been attacked and set alight and last night someone threw a molotov cocktail in an underground station... all this within a couple of miles of where I live and work.

So, how is this effecting me practically? The odd answer is that it isn't, not in the slightest... The only reason I know there's a problem is that I'm reading about it in the local paper (oh, and I'm walking to work instead of taking the bus).

The people I work with are in the same boat as me... All this could be happening on the other side of the planet as far as our lives are concerned. I hope this doesn't sound as if we don't care what's happening around us, but the simple fact is, we're not experiencing any serious problems.

There seems to be a double layer of civilisation in France at the moment... The depressed areas are a battleground whilst the rest of the city gets on with life as normal. Last night I left work at 9:30 pm and walked home, I had no qualms about it, no fear of what might happen, the only sign something wasn't quite right was the number of people walking down the road at that time of the night... most of them complaining about the lack of buses rather than the breakdown of civilisation as we know it.

Where will this all end up? I really don't know.
Will France as I know it cease to exist? If the lack of effect this is having on the France I inhabit is anything to go by, I really doubt it.
How will this all end? In the ten years I've lived here I've always said that politically and socially France is 20 years behind the UK... Toxteth & Brixton in 1985 - Paris, Toulouse and Lyon - 2005... We'll see, but I suspect that looking at the state of the UK today gives you a fairly good idea of where we'll be heading.

I have some random thoughts on the situation, but nio time to post them, I'm afraid. Maybe later or even tomorrow.

In the meantime, keep safe mate, though I know you don't need my exhortation to do that.

Hi Whisky, glad to hear you're physically unaffected at the least. We're hearing rather horrible stuff over hear and I did wonder if it had got to you over there.

My guess is that the fact that you've not been directly affected is pretty much inextricably linked with the problem really. Disenfranchisment seems to be what has caused the problem to reach that extent, The levels of unemployment amongst migrant populations and their descendants was frightening when I heard it, 40% they claimed!

It sounds far worse to me than the Brixton and Toxteth riots of yesteryear and far more widespread too I may have been too young at the time to fully appreciate what went on then though.

I hope the French government pulls it's head out of the sand and approaches the problem properly in the future. I dread to think what use Le Pen and his cronies are going to make of this.

Yes, take of yourself, mon brave .

I was listening to a local (ie Northern Ireland) comedy show at the weekend, where they were finding humour in the lack of rioting skills displayed by the French, and offering to give masterclasses....

It's a disconcerting situation, undoubtedly .

I'm glad it's not affecting you too much. Take care!

Glad to hear you're not unduly affected, Whisky.

Watching the news, it just seems so frightening.

So few people causing so much disruption.

may be is time for France to renew the French police, because they have worst reputation in Europe. so I have heard.

to speak with of Oblix": strange people those France.

Last night's escapade...

8:30 at night - I'm sat at home watching the TV and all the lights go out...
Do the usual... dig a cigarette lighter out of my pocket and go searching for a torch (sometimes being a smoker does have its advantages )
Check the fusebox...
Look outside the window... no streetlights... Ah! Power cut.
Sit there in the dark for five minutes...
Give up and head for a bar on the corner - spend the next two hours drinking beer by candlelight!

EDF (the french national electricity board) aren't saying what happened yet, but for a period of two hours last night, an area of about 5 miles by 3 miles, in the middle of the second largest city in France, was completely blacked out.... Must have been one hell of a size fuse that blew!

------------------------
------------------------

"I was listening to a local (ie Northern Ireland) comedy show at the weekend, where they were finding humour in the lack of rioting skills displayed by the French, and offering to give masterclasses...."



Oddly enough, you're not far off the mark...
One of the reasons I guess none of this seems to bother me too much is that during the 5/6 years I spent in the Navy at various moments I've had the Iranian Navy try and kill me with machine guns, the IRA try and blow me up, and have sat on the bridge of a ship staring down the guns of a very p**sed off russian frigate...

After those, highly effective, cures for constipation a few kids running around with matchboxes sort of looses its terror

---