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Paris attacks 13-11-15


Ser Scot A Ellison

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My girlfriend and I were out in Paris on friday night, in a restaurant a few hundred meters away from one of the targeted places. We only understood that something was under way when we crossed many police cars on our way home. My brother was at a friend's place very near one of the targeted bar, where he used to go to on a very regular basis, and he couldn't go home due to restrictions. A few of my friends like to listen to Eagles of Death Metal, so I wasn't sure for some time if they'd been at the show (they weren't).

The fear for close ones, the harshness of linking familiar places to places where terrorist attacks are a reality and where people will gun down other people, it has stayed with me since then, along with dark thoughts about the future political state of France and a deep lack of hope about the future.

 

I guess that all these feelings have a lot of common with those people living near places where mass shootings have taken place, and I can't help but think that this must be a daily feeling for people living in some countries.

Just a quick look at wikipedia's list of terrorist "incidents" in 2015 is scary enough, and I don't think any of them, but the Charlie attack in January (already in Paris), has attracted even the tiniest fraction of attention that the parisian ones have.

This is not a critic of anyone, far from it as I myself didn't have a second thought about them before this happened, but maybe the families of the victims in Nigeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, or Cameroon (non exhaustive list) would be glad if a couple of prayers and/or secular thoughts were sent their way?

 

(by the way, I have no doubt about Joann Sfar's - the man behind the drawing that's been reposted a couple of times in this thread - talent, and am myself an atheist and deeply anti-religious, but I believe his stance about not wanting any prayer sent our way is bullshit. We'll take any kind thought sent our way, and who is he to decide the form they should or should not take? If any culture express their condolences by dancing naked in the moonlight, I'll take it as well, thank you)

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I will echo Kuroishi's thoughts on this by adding that as we mourn Parisans let us also remember all the innocents from each of the recent attacks. Russians, Syrian, Egyptians, Lebanese, these attacks have been on humanity and not confined geographically, but spread  with pain to regions everywhere. Its a world of sorrow in desperate need of better days.

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Has anyone heard from The Stranger?  I think she lives in Paris, but I don't think she's been around here for a while.  But then I haven't been around here for a while either...

I think you mean me, because The Stranger was a dude and and American IIRC.

I'm fine, thanks for worrying :)

I have been thinking of you, my dear. Dub and I never post here anymore but we are sending you our love. 

Thank you, you're sweet!! Likewise!

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Some more news about the investigation/situation in Belgium: 

  • 2 people were charged/indicted for involvement with the attacks in Belgium
  • The person who is still on the run after the attacks, is apparently Salah Abdeslam (an Belgian). He was picked-up by two friends out of Brussels in Paris. They went controlled two times by the police (it looks like those controls are not that difficult) and his friends left him in Brussels (the football stadion in Brussels or the town of Molenbeek). 
  • Because they are scared he is now running freely apparently in Brussels, the Belgian authorities cancelled the game Belgium-Spain and our current threat level in whole Belgium is raised from 2 to 3 (before that the threat level was 3 for IIRC Jewish building and quaters, ... and after the attacks also for French buildings and major events). And it looks that the police is sitting with machine guns at some roofs in Molenbeek (Brussels). I must say the border controls are actually not that good. Yesterday, I even did not had to show my train ticket to the conductor and there was completely no border control, when I went from Belgium to the Netherlands.
  • I did saw two police men patrolling with guns in the station of Liège.
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After the attacks they have beefed up those plans (article from Le Monde in french), but as said before, borders are not closed, only controls are re-established, which means people having to cross the French borders need to have a valid ID and expect it will take longer to get across.

Thanks. In case anyone is curious, the border situation is not nearly as bad as it sounded (at least not at the Swiss border). There are guardsmen standing there and cars slow down when they pass them, but I didn't see them stop anyone and I didn't have to show any ID (although that might be because my car has special plates with a minor diplomatic status). The delay was no more than a minute or so.

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BREAKING NEWS:  The Hanover Stadium, which is hosting another 'friendly' football match, between the Netherlands and Germany, is being evacuated at this moment.

From the CBC.  No further details yet.

ETA:  Angel Merkel and other government officials made a point of announcing they would attend the game.

And now it's reported that German police are telling the people being evacuated to move away from the stadium.

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BREAKING NEWS:  The Hanover Stadium, which is hosting another 'friendly' football match, between the Netherlands and Germany, is being evacuated at this moment.

From the CBC.  No further details yet.

ETA:  Angel Merkel and other government officials made a point of announcing they would attend the game.

And now it's reported that German police are telling the people being evacuated to move away from the stadium.

Here is the BBC article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34849263

Germany's friendly with the Netherlands on Tuesday has been called off because of a "concrete security threat" against the city of Hannover.

Evacuation of the Hannover Stadium, which was hosting the match, began less than two hours before kick-off.

The city's president of police Volker Kluwe told the BBC "there were plans for some kind of explosion".

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The Belgium-Spain match was also cancelled, but not because of a specific threat, but because of the general security concerns at this time in Belgium. BBC article here.

Is the England-France game going to happen? It should have started by now, but checking my regular site where I look for match scores, it doesn't look like it did.

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I've read elsewhere that a suspicious object was found at the Hanover stadium. I find the bbc to be more credible than most media sources so I'll assume we're still in the stage of misinformation which is so prevalent with breaking news.

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BREAKING NEWS:  The Hanover Stadium, which is hosting another 'friendly' football match, between the Netherlands and Germany, is being evacuated at this moment.

From the CBC.  No further details yet.

ETA:  Angel Merkel and other government officials made a point of announcing they would attend the game.

And now it's reported that German police are telling the people being evacuated to move away from the stadium.

Madness. EURO is not so far away. Not to mention current leagues in all sports around the Europe or other events.

 

Is the England-France game going to happen? It should have started by now, but checking my regular site where I look for match scores, it doesn't look like it did.

I think game just started. I saw on twitter couple of pictures from minute of silence.

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Madness. EURO is not so far away. Not to mention current leagues in all sports around the Europe or other events.

 

I think game just started. I saw on twitter couple of pictures from minute of silence.

Yeah, I just checked again, and it's on. Apparently they had a display of the lyrics of La Marseillaise to help anyone who wanted to sing to join in.

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