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Paris deaths


mint
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The Telegraph is talking of 60 dead and many more injured. With grenades being thrown near the stadium during the France v Germany match.

The Guardian is being more cautious and saying 40 dead.

Is this retribution for the alleged culling of Jihadi John ?

How utterly barbarous.

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The death toll is far worse than originally reported with many critically injured.

A state of Emergency has been declared and border controls have been introduced after intially it was stated that the 'frontiers were closed'

http://www.liberation.fr/france/2015/11/13/fusillade-dans-le-10e-arrondissement-de-paris_1413313

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11995227/Paris-shooting-Many-feared-dead-live.html

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I am always saying how dead it is around here but I have just finished work and there is a silence like I have never known, there has not been a single car drive past since my Parisien clients returned at 18.00, they told me that everything public is closed and locked down but the private sites like the trench museum in town and the WW1 monuments were open.

It was so quiet that I went for a walk and whilst I am always complaining of no signs of life there really is none at the moment, then I realised that all the lights are out at the Airbus factory opposite, they have been on 24/7 7/7 for the 3 shifts every day for the last 10 years.

Finally I saw a vehicle, but got a shiver when it braked to a halt beside me, it was the gendarmes and they were mob handed and armed to the hilt, they wanted to know what I was doing out and told me to go home and lock all the doors, they seemed very agitated.

I also got a texto from a number unknown to me, a sort of chain letter asking me to put a candle in a window as remembrance and to pass the message on to all my contacts, anyone else get one?

Tomorrow I am going to go to the horses mouth as it were (or lions den according to some) to try and judge the atmosphere, the Sunday market in the HLM banlieue of Amiens Nord if the CRS patrol will let me in, its there that all the riots kick off and the atmosphere has been very febrile before the Sunday after a Saturday night fever.

Anyone else feel anything in the air? Norman perhaps? He lives in a similar area to me.

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I should have posted this before the last message which would then have made more sense.

 

I am seeing the repercussions of this very quickly, I trained last night then went to bed early and slept like a baby till 10.00 so got up unaware.

I then get a phone call from a woman booked in this evening with her husband, she said that they were at Peronne, the museam was closed as was everyting else and that they were returning to Paris, I thought thats one I havnt heard before and later phoned her to apologise when I had seen the news, they have decided since to stay as they are concerned about returning to Paris.

then this morning I had 2 walk-ins from people working opposite who have rented accomodation in the town, certainly a lot cheaper but probably grotty but that is what most choose, now one of the guys was clearly an Arab musulman but no beard etc, a really intelligent, educated and well mannered young guy, the other looked half cast and may or may not have been a musulman, they both were very keen to get away from where they are living/lodging which is in a dodgy part of town, frankly its all dodngy really but if you wanted to find a musulman to abuse that is where you would go.

Is it a coincidence I ask myself or have the ignorant already started the reprisals?

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I was in the north of France these last few days, and of course everyone there is stunned by the events of last night.

Strangely, I managed to visit two museums today that were open - though neither was state-run, nor connected with war.

I headed early for the Shuttle as advised by text, arriving two hours before my booking. However the check-in queue at Calais is VERY slow, only letting one car in each queue forward every 10-20 mins because of the massive queues for security after that.

We all shuffled patiently forward and, after all the questioning, swabbing and showing the chaotic contents of my car boot to both French and UK officials, I thought myself lucky to get on the 20h06 train instead of my 18h50 booking.

As a result of the slow movement, I think there were very few cars on the train - i was No 1 car on the lower level, so am not sure how many were behind me, but there were only eight "upstairs" (I had to wait for them all to exit before driving off).

Angela
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In fact I am not in Béziers at the moment, so I can't report Chancer.

After the Charlie Hebdo events I noticed a very odd atmosphere among the young Magrebins of the quartier almost s if their team had scored a goal.

Since then of course the Maire of Béziers has been continually drawing attention to himself with his ultra-right wing views.

I hope  rather selfishly it doesn't make the town a target for any futher attacks since I have to return next Thursday....

Out here in a village in the foothills of the Pyrénées life seems relatively unaffected though I did notice that there were very few people out in the sun yesterday lunchtime.

The test will be Monday morning when the weekly market is on.

That is normally vast.

A sinister comment from Daesh/Isis that I noticed was along the lines that as long as France continues its air attacks in Syria French civilians will be afraid 'even to go to market'  but that is not an exact quotation. [:-))]

"“As long as you keep bombing you will not live in peace. You will even

fear travelling to the market,” one of the militants, identified as “Abu

Maryam the Frenchman”, told the camera."
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Daesh, I heard that for the first time yesterday, I had heard ISIL mentioned by Hollande (I think) and the papers were saying that ISIL had claimed responsability for the attacks, I thought here we go again, are the French deliberately changing a name or is it the English speakers.

 

I asked people what the initials ISIL stood for and all I got was bemused looks, they all spoke of Daesh but didnt know what that meant either.

 

Then I thought, I'm not really sure what ISIS stands for, Islamic State of something, perhaps Islamic State of Islam? That might make the ISIL more understandable but they usually reverse things.

 

So my question is what do the letters ISIS, ISIL, and DEASH stand for please?

 

 

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ISIS stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.

ISIL is similar Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

"Daesh”  is an Arabic acronym for ISIS. It stands for “Ad Dawlah al Islamiyah fil ash Sham”

French media and Goverment speakers seem to prefer the second.

Source: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2014/11/turkey-isis-becomes-deash-erdogan.html#

See also: (a fuller account)

http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2014/sep/21/islamic-state-isis-isil-daesh

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[quote user="Chancer"]

Daesh, I heard that for the first time yesterday, I had heard ISIL mentioned by Hollande (I think) and the papers were saying that ISIL had claimed responsability for the attacks, I thought here we go again, are the French deliberately changing a name or is it the English speakers

 

[/quote]

Chance, I don't have a complete answer but I have heard Daesh mentioned on both sides of the channel (mentioned on TV and radio, that is, not in "real life" as I don't go to the UK these days)

This morning, I heard the French ambassador on the Andrew Marr programme explain that they don't want to use ISIL as it's got the word "Islam" in it and they don't want to tar all musulman with the same brush; I'm only paraphrasing, of course[:)] but that was the essentials of what she said.

Life seems to go on as normal, as far as I could judge from the safety of my house![:-))]  I didn't go to my usual marche nordique yesterday morning because, TBH, I was shattered after staying up half the night following the news and then sleeping very badly.

However, I see from photos and accounts of the walk from an email that everybody who normally go had turned up and they had an enjoyable time.

Only thing is, the FCO website said that for British nationals in France (not Paris, which I would have understood) were advised to stay indoors and to follow the advice [sic] of the local authorities when it might be safe to venture out again!

Sure have a firm grasp of the situation, haven't they?[6]

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Daesh is the only name I've heard used where we are in the Gard; I wish they would use that in Britain too as they speak of an Islamic state each time they say the name - as though an Islamic state exists, a frightening thought.

We had a quiz on Friday evening, so it wasn't until we arrived back at about midnight that I heard the news of the massacres, then sat up most of the night like many others hearing more bad news as time went on. I felt bad that we had been laughing and joking and drinking while those poor souls were being slaughtered. So many who went out for a pleasant evening who wouldn't go home again, so many families left bereft.

Our big market is on a Saturday morning. I was late getting there, having tried to get some sleep. Most of the stallholders were present, as far as I could tell, as it spreads a long way, certainly all those I shop with or greet were there.

The crowds weren't as huge as normal, but the weather was lovely and people stayed quite late, many stallholders were there until after lunch, like in the summer months. But the atmosphere was really different, there was a different feeling about the pkace. I thought that evening that it wasp 'this like a Saturday at all, though just what a Saturday normally feels like I just don't know.

We have quite a big Muslim population in our small, fairly affluent town, no difference noted amongst any Muslims I've seen so far; we live opposite one and close to several HLMs with mostly Muslim families living in them.
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I slept through the breaking news, and only found out on Saturday morning.  I didn't go outside the house and garden yesterday, and only went out to English speaking church this morning.  Passed the rugby club and gymnasium where there are events today and plenty of cars parked at 10am.  Maybe there was a little less traffic on the road, but since it is lovely sunny weekend I rather suspect most people are attending the various events or sitting enjoying the weather.  Our local market is not until Tuesday and Monday is always quiet in our little town (or possibly better described as a large village??). Centre of the Minervois, but not huge.

I too wondered if the effect might be seen more in Beziers or in the larger cities around here, but I'd be quite surprised if the countryside around is much affected, it goes it own sweet way most of the time.

Still no doubt Marine Le Pen will make the most of it she can in the coming days.

We were discussing at church how we used to react to the bomb warnings etc when we were all in the UK, and though we all thought it a terrible tragedy, were perhaps more blasé than some, most of us having lived through the IRA-bombing campaigns and learnt to carry on in spite of it all.

For as one of the Parisians said, when interviewed, if you change your behaviour, the terrorists have already won even before they've killed anyone.

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I have a big motorcycle show in Paris next weekend, I hope !!.

I will go if permitted by the authorities, but I wonder how many people will get out to attend, particularly on the Friday evening.

I think one of the differences between the IRA and the current bunch of mad bastards, is that the IRA predominately went for economic or military targets, not totally I know, where as this mob of cretins is totally indiscriminate and therefore of a greater risk to us ordinary folks.

All because "my god is better than your god".

The root of so much evil in the world when it should be a source of good for those who wish to believe.

So sad, [:(] and ultimately probably utterly irrelevant.

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Making many of the same points as the Telegraph article that you posted earlier, Norman, for example, the French geographical frontiers, that the killers have unlimited means in terms of fighters and money and resources, that France is enemy No 1 on account of its intervention in Syria and Mali, etc.

The worst conclusion, in both articles, is that this is a war that France couldn't win.....so many factors against France[:'(]

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I drove back from the UK yesterday evening.  At Dover, every car was being stopped and searched (not many cars traveling though)  At Calais, I have never seen so many police and CRS near the Jungle.  There were many holes that had been cut in the fence too.  The Jungle is now HUGE!

At the French/Belgium border there were many police too.  They were stopping some vehicles but I don't know what their criteria were.

I am told that there were similar controls on the Belgium/Luxembourg autoroute  border but I cut across country and take a smaller road where there was nothing, nada.

Colleagues are telling me that it's now taking 2.5 hours to do the 40km or so from France to Luxenbourg centre.

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