Saturday, May 12, 2007

Manifestation

France has a new President. It was such a contested race that over 80% of the population voted. Unbelievable. Nicholas Sarkozy won by 53% of the vote over Segolene Royal. I talked to many people about who they were going to vote for and what they thought of the candidates. The majority answered that they really didn't like either of them and that they were voting for the lesser of two evils. Sound familiar?? Royal was too soft and wishy washy and Sarkozy was too conservative. Well, it looks like the conservatives won again, now maybe Bush will find a friend in France. People vote with their hearts, not with their heads. It seems like if a candidate is strong and clear, then people will follow, even if he is firmly guiding them in the wrong direction.

The next night I went to Bastille (the monument that used to be a prison and is the symbol of French Independance) to see what was going on. There were a lot of people protesting (manifestations in French). I couldn't believe how many cops were in riot gear as well. They kept forming lines and breaking the crowd up. Those who didn't move got put in the paddy wagon. I actually felt like I was back in the states for a bit. Below are some pictures I took of it. They were with my cell phone though, so they're not very clear...



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting...that does sound like the States...in the 1960s or something. But I guess demonstraters are still getting arrested on college campuses all over America for doing pretty much nothing but disagreeing with the government.

In ironically what is called the-'Land of the Free'

"Has the whole world gone crazy!?! Doesn't anybody care about the rules? Mark it zero!"