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Post by questa on Nov 29, 2015 23:05:55 GMT
Same here, Patrick. Wherever someone has died in a crash, a shrine appears with flowers, photos and sometimes, a cross. As the crashes are mainly at intersections or dangerous road curves, these shrines tend to distract other drivers at the very time they should be concentrating on the road hazard.
Even the Councils in the Hills area have started planting black crosses to mark fatalities and white to show severe injuries along the winding roads, so loved by the boy racers. It is almost like a competition as to who can have the most dangerous corners, rather than a warning to slow down.
(And to say nothing of the fact that many of the victims were not of Christian faith and a cross may not be appropriate anyway.)
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Post by fumobici on Nov 30, 2015 15:52:20 GMT
The little roadside memorial shrines only began appearing here perhaps twenty years ago only in areas with a lot of recent Hispanic immigrants and the custom seems to have caught on with the locals.
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Post by tod2 on Nov 30, 2015 17:19:06 GMT
Whatever makes you feel you have done something.....anything. I feel very isolated in Africa - no one has indicated ONE shred of evidence to the horrific events. The whole world geives and our country is absolutely NOT INTERESTED ! FUCK THE GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH AFRICA + FUCK OUR PRESIDENT!
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Post by questa on Nov 30, 2015 22:05:25 GMT
Oh Tod, how left out you must feel! Could it be that your country went through such a violent and isolated time in history that people just don't want to "go there" about Paris in case it unleashes more demons back home?
You, Tod, belong to a global group, namely Anyport and see the world with wider eyes than your local media and general population. This can be a blessing and a curse. So much more to grieve and so much more to rejoice in, although the latter is a bit harder to find nowadays.
When cricketer Phil Hughes was killed by a freak accident in play last year, across the country people stood cricket bats outside their front doors. It was a spontaneous gesture of grief. Is there something that says "Paris" to you that you could put in a window with flowers, and join in the world wide feelings?
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Post by rikita on Nov 30, 2015 22:31:49 GMT
i am a bit torn on that. i can say nothing about south africa or the south african president, and i do think what happened in paris is horrible and it is right for people worldwide to react - but similar things happen a lot of times in other countries (that happen to be closer to south africa), and at least here, there is never much reaction to it, other than a short mention in the news ... in those cases, it always seems like no one here is interested.
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Post by fumobici on Dec 1, 2015 15:39:37 GMT
Whatever makes you feel you have done something.....anything. I feel very isolated in Africa - no one has indicated ONE shred of evidence to the horrific events. The whole world geives and our country is absolutely NOT INTERESTED ! FUCK THE GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH AFRICA + FUCK OUR PRESIDENT! I have read similar sentiments expressed here over the lack of media coverage of the horrible violence regularly inflicted by terrorists in Africa and the Middle East on innocent civilians compared to the media response to the Paris attacks. Also ignored of course is the toll on innocents inflicted by Western aerial bombing of alleged terrorist targets in Syria. I saw some horrific images of a market that had been recently struck in Raqqa where bombs had been dropped, and such images and reports--much like the terrible toll on civilians caused by American bombing in Iraq during Desert Storm--seem to have been deliberately suppressed so as not to make Westerners question the morality of aerial bombardment as a tactic of war. This understandable urge to do something--anything--in response to a tragedy such as the Paris massacres is, it seems to me, a very, very dangerous impulse to indulge.
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Post by tod2 on Dec 1, 2015 16:22:31 GMT
Fumobici - thanks for your response. It is known that we have an imbecile for a leader. I can only hope ( and suspect) that world leaders all know this and take the hint that he does not want their opinion, not your suggestions, he does not want anything from other countries except money. Here is dear Prince Harry doing exactly what the leader of South Africa should be doing. Engaging with the population not with lip service but with positive on the ground visible intention. Our crowd could care less about the suffering here or anything bad that has happened overseas.
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Post by questa on Dec 1, 2015 23:37:47 GMT
Fumobici, you are spot about the media involvement. What we get shown is what the powers-that-be want us to think. What we see or read is carefully edited to suit the aims of the various combatants. We don't get shown the devastation and terror created by "our" side, only the grief visited on us by "them".
Where governments fully control the media you can give up hope of ever getting any truth out to the people. Where there are correspondents in the field and publishers more free to show what is happening, then a trickle of the truth gets through.
I have the deepest respect for all the war correspondents, specially the photographers. It was their involvement that changed the direction of the Vietnam and Bosnian wars.
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Post by breeze on Dec 1, 2015 23:58:43 GMT
Once the US military began embedding war correspondents with US troops in the Gulf War, I knew there was no longer any hope of getting an independent report from what were, till then, my usual news sources.
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Post by questa on Dec 2, 2015 2:18:37 GMT
But then came the free-lancers, stringers and bloggers, with the www to broadcast to the world. Often hunted down and killed by those who didn't want the truth to be known.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2015 12:10:09 GMT
Brave lady:
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Post by tod2 on Dec 3, 2015 17:02:17 GMT
Good for her. Tell the effing pricks that rule just what they are portraying to the Western civilizations. Barbaric twits.
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Post by whatagain on Dec 3, 2015 22:11:04 GMT
I was yesterday on Bd Voltaire and slept rue Charron. Past the Bataclan - full of flowers and view blocked by a autocar - and close to my hotel was another place of slaughter. Made a strange impression. I was on bike, felt compelled to stop, took my helmet off.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2015 5:17:15 GMT
One of the cafés that was attacked (5 deaths) is reopening tonight. La Bonne Bière
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 4, 2015 17:36:26 GMT
Yes, I imagine that was an affecting scene, Pariswat.
Here's hoping that the cafe's insurance paid off promptly and that they have a successful reopening. I also hope that they decide to clear away the sidewalk tributes as a return to normalcy statement. Do you have any idea on what will be public policy on those various tribute displays around the city?
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Post by fumobici on Dec 4, 2015 19:09:26 GMT
I suspect La Bonne Bière will do fine. I walked by that café a couple of times last year on random weekday afternoons, because it was near where I stayed and because I'm a sucker for anything with "bière" in the name, so trying to find a spot to sit on the terasse to no avail. Seemed reasonably busy inside as well. Excellent location for afternoon people watching.
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Post by whatagain on Dec 4, 2015 19:31:51 GMT
A guy to my liking Fumobici...
You know the joke of the Belgian and 2 Frenchs at a café : The Belgian says : sorry guys, I'm not feeling good tonight, so no alcohol - I'll take an orange juice. The first French says 'ok, a 1664 for me' (french beer) - the second 'une seize aussi' (the same). then the Belgian : oh, ok, if you don't drink alcohol either, I'll have a 1664 too. ...
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Post by htmb on Dec 4, 2015 20:02:10 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2015 20:06:57 GMT
Sounds like French and Belgian beer have a similar rivalry to American and Canadian beer.
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Post by bjd on Dec 4, 2015 20:14:15 GMT
Oh no, Lizzie, there is no rivalry. Everyone knows Belgian beer is much better.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2015 20:25:24 GMT
Bien sûr, bjd! Perhaps I meant "reputations".
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Post by whatagain on Dec 4, 2015 20:36:21 GMT
French beer has no reputation. When I was in Quebec, I was drinking Chimay (ehe) and Golden Molson.
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Post by htmb on Dec 4, 2015 20:43:06 GMT
I've never been much of a beer drinker, but I had some pretty good beer with Chexbres and Kerouac in Paris. I'm pretty sure it was always Belgian beer that was ordered.
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Post by whatagain on Dec 4, 2015 22:32:16 GMT
At the green Linnet ? I hope you were less stupid than me - I took shots of whisky inbetween my beers.
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Post by htmb on Dec 4, 2015 22:40:40 GMT
At the green Linnet ? I hope you were less stupid than me - I took shots of whisky inbetween my beers. Bixa and I walked inside with Kerouac, but since your friend wasn't working, we went to another place with a view of the tower all lit up. I'll actually be staying very close to the GL next summer.
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Post by lagatta on Dec 4, 2015 23:32:44 GMT
Belgian beer is excellent - and I say that as someone who is really not a beer drinker. pariswat, there are many good Québec beers, but Molson Golden is NOT among them.
My Belgian friends certainly appreciate wine as well.
I have a hard time digesting beer. I can have one, no more. Very uncomfortable feeling, and I'm not talking about excess drinking.
Right now as I write, the Radio-Canada news is discussing the re-opening of "La Bonne bière".
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Post by whatagain on Dec 5, 2015 9:17:01 GMT
I was young and broke at the time I was in Quebec ... must go back there btw.
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Post by whatagain on Dec 5, 2015 9:18:04 GMT
Htmb, I spend full weeks in Paris in summer (about 4-5 when not on holiday or in Asia - seems I go about every summer one-2 weeks in Asia).
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Post by htmb on Dec 5, 2015 16:07:17 GMT
Htmb, I spend full weeks in Paris in summer (about 4-5 when not on holiday or in Asia - seems I go about every summer one-2 weeks in Asia). Pariswat, I had been invited to join you and your friends at the pub quiz last summer, not that I would have been much help, but you were out of Paris during the time I was visiting. I hesitated to post this at first because I know we seem to have gone off-topic, but I think it must be healthy to talk of seemingly trivial things and to try to move forward.
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Post by whatagain on Dec 6, 2015 12:27:41 GMT
I'll be there next time !!!! I have the feeling we're among friends here.
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