There have been lots of protests against same-sex marriage
in Paris in recent weeks. Some of the demonstrations are peaceful, others have
resulted in some rowdiness with the police or between opposing groups. The
government has legalized same-sex marriage now, so it’s mostly water under the
bridge, but groups opposed to it are still demonstrating.
This illustrates an important feature of French culture: The
French don’t vote for their government officials on the basis of what they
promise to do. Instead, they vote for them based on the status of each
candidate’s membership in the Old Boys’ Club. Then, once the musical chairs
have ended and all the members of the club have been elected to new positions,
the French take to the streets and demonstrate in order to have things done
their way. Needless to say, it would be vastly more efficient to simply elect
people who already intend to do things the way the electorate wants them done …
but that would require excluding some of the old boys out of the club, and the
French don’t want to do that, as they like to maintain an aristocracy of sorts.
Besides, I think they enjoy demonstrating, even though it usually doesn’t accomplish
anything.
There are three demonstrations just today, although I have
no idea what they are about, nor am I interested in going to see them.
Demonstrations are just a feature of daily life in Paris.
There was also some looting a few days ago after a soccer
game involving the Paris Saint Germain team. It turns out that the looters
weren’t even interested in soccer, they just took advantage of the game to
break into businesses in a few areas and make off with loot. There was
substantial looting on the Champs-Élysées, and around the Trocadéro. Thanks to
these hoodlums, the government is thinking of simply outlawing PSG celebrations
after a game, to prevent these scum from showing up and ruining the day.
Speaking of crowds, there was another big crowd at the
Virgin Megastore on the Champs on Monday. The Megastore is being closed because
Virgin is going out of business, thanks to inept management. Word of an
unannounced 50%-off sale for one day at the store apparently got around, and
huge crowds mobbed the store when it open, buying just about everything in
sight. Most of the people buying weren’t interested in what they were buying.
They were only buying because they wanted to resell their booty for a profit on
eBay or elsewhere. I read that it was a madhouse. However, even though I work
just down the street from the store, I didn’t notice any unusual activity. I
guess the madhouse was inside the store. By the end of the day, just about
everything but the kitchen sink had been sold, which I suppose was the
objective.
Right now it’s about 16° C outside (60° F), and slightly
overcast, which happens to be a type of weather that I rather like. The only
problem is that the building heat was turned off a few days ago, so it’s cold
in the apartment. The French turn on heating and (rarely) cooling based on the
calendar, not the actual weather; and the calendar says that it should be warm
outside at this time of year, so the heat is off. I’ll have to buy a little
space heater to stay warm.
It’s rather odd: in winter, the building is overheated, so I
pay both for fuel oil for the overheating, and for electricity for the A/C that
I have to use to keep the apartment cool. But now, in spring, it’s cold, so I
have to buy a space heater to keep the apartment warm because the building heat
has been turned off. Doesn’t anyone ever look at a thermometer outside before
making these decisions?
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