olympic torch

I thought I'd address this, since a lot of people have asked.

I was in class during most of the protesting of the Olympic torch, so I did not actually get to see what when on when it passed. Coming out of my second class, though, I did see a fair amount of people who were clearly coming from the demonstration: one woman, for example, was dressed entirely in Tibetan flags (in the U.S. she would be guilty of disrespecting the flag like 6 times over) and carried one on a pole. Police were more present in the streets than usual, particularly around my AUP class, which is just across the river from where the torch passed.

The thing is, it's the beginning of protest season in France. This sort of thing is really not unusual in Paris, so most people haven't been discussing it. This demonstration was a given; everyone knew there would be a big thing surrounding it. The police, reporters, and spectators were prepared, and most of the protesters did it for attention rather than the traditional rioting for action. Though I must admit it was cool that people went up the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, and the Tour Eiffel to put up flags. It was a larger scale, and more active, version of the types of protests one might see in NYC or California or something.

A slightly more annoying and confusing manif[estation, or protest/demonstration thing] that has been going on is one by high schoolers the past week or so. Apparently a law recently passed that cut some funding for public high schools, and the students have taken to the streets. Their travel-between-demonstration-sites time is, unfortunately, right when I'm coming home from my Sorbonne class. And of course any good Parisian student protester knows they must demonstrate in the Place St Michel, where the violent student protests of the '60's were held.

So just as I am getting on the RER to go home, a crowd of 100+ screaming high school kids floods the train, pushing everyone into/out of it and generally acting like a bunch of idiots. They yell not slogans or catch phrases or anything like that...but they just yell. Without words, just noise. For no reason. Their adrenaline gets going and they bust the lights on the train. They occasionally will shriek something like "down with Sarkozy!" But they're not really doing anything. They don't hold their signs high, they don't tell anyone what they're fighting against. I thought all French had an innate sense of revolution, but apparently they need to be taught to do it right; this is not doing it right.

All of these times I have been going home with my friend, who is a formidable 6'3" and extremely irritable as he's trying to quit smoking. While I am a small girl who easily is pushed into the flood of what he calls "the infants", he often threatens to throw them in front of the trains if they touch him. He has a clear accent and his makes them jeer at him..which only makes him more angry. He almost got into a fight with several, but then a bunch of the girls realized he's a fairly good-looking kid and started making eyes at him instead. And of course since he tries to help me stay put - often by grabbing my hand or arm or something so I don't get swept away - they thought I was his girlfriend, and gave me dirty looks.

Their quick preoccupation with some random angry 20 year old shows how weak their protesting really is. Come on, older generation of Frenchies, can't you teach your kids how to do it right?