Here is my contribution to the A to Z Challenge of April 2019.
This is the first time I am participating in this challenge, so we'll see if I have the stamina to complete the whole month ! Nearly there !
I was also, very ambitiously, writing for the April NaNoWriMo ! So the challenge was twofold !! But I'm behind in the NaNoWrite, 1500 words out of 10 000 because I'm concentrating on research and building bridges with my contacts.
Hang on to your horse and enjoy the ride. And good luck to all my fellow participants.
If you would like to know more about the A to Z Challenge or maybe participate Next Year (sign up in March 2020); if you would like to read Jayden R. Vincente's Ultimate Uplifting Thoughts to help you reach and get over the finish line go here
My Ultimate Uplifting thought for today is
Written Words stay, Speeches Fly Away. "Les paroles s'envolent, les écrits restes", I don't know who said this, it's a popular "dicton" in the French language. Look it up and tell me ! Ceasar ?
U is for Uber
This coming weekend in London, we will be using Uber alot . Starting tomorrow evening, late, when we arrive at Waterloo Station from Gatwick. We'll have cases, so we'll have to call for an XL Uber to take us to our hotel in Moorgate.
I know the regular taxis are not happy about Uber. It has, understandably, caused much unrest over the past few years in France. However, I'm all for them. So practical and relatively cheap.
Both my daughters have used them frequently went out on the town and wanting to get back home once the métro and busses had stopped running.
As we live outside of Toulouse, there are no Night Buses which cover our area, although we only live 2 km from the city limits, but another 8 km from the center.
My son is more adventurous. He spent many a night roaming in the streets and sleeping in parks ! Sometimes, especially since he has been going to the Lycée in town, he sleeps at a friend's house and takes the first bus back home at 6 o'clock !
Of course, I worry. I imagine him, passed out under a bridge. But i have to trust them and let them live their lives.
However, there was an incident 8 years ago which still scares me.
One night, in the Winter, a student in Pharmacology never made it home.
he was walking from the Métro station to his student's room, no more than a few hundred yards, at about 2 a.m., when he was attacked by two fellows who asked for his money and phone. The student resisted and they stabbed him. Guns are NOT legal in European Countries, except by special permit to hunt certain over-populated animal species in specific forests, and are hard to come by illegally.
Nonetheless, the two guys robbed him of his phone and wallet, leaving him there on the pavement. He stayed there all night, bled to death and was only found in the morning.
The news devastated everyone in Toulouse, which is all things considered, a relatively safe town.
The two perpetrators were painstakingly tracked down by the police, arrested, tried and found guilty of "Homicide", manslaughter. Their sentence is LIFE, "perpertuité" for one and a minimum of 20 years imprisonnement, "Prison Ferme" for the other.
Near the end of the 20 years, they might be favoured with a reduced sentence for good behaviour. Maybe follow a training course in prison. Be reinserted into society, offered a job, be on parole for a couple of years. They might commit another crime. They might not, in which case they'll have a second chance in life. A chance they never gave their victim when they thrust a blade into his heart.
They were two young men from LIMOGES, 300 km North of Toulouse. Out of work and bored, they took the train down to Toulouse, a more cosmopolitain and richer town than Limoges, looking for mischief. They prowled the streets all day, looking for an opportunity to secure easy money. They found their mark late at night and it ended tragically.
I can only feel for the young man's parents who no doubt wish the death penalty were still an option. Nonetheless, its abrogation in European Countries is, for me, a step forward in the direction of a more Humane Society. We must trust in the Law and our Justice system even though they still hold many flaws. Prevention is the key. But Youth Unemployment and general social unrest do not work in its favour.
In France, we are still far from the " Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité " proned by the Revolution and the First Republique back in 1789.
©susanbauryrouchard
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, Mon Cul. song by Philippe Katrine, 2007. go here
and and here for an AtoZ special song by the same Katrine.
The latest on the murder case . La Dépêche du Midi, Haute-Garonne, Toulouse go here
and here
Article on UBER go here
Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment below (this post on Wordpress: lifeinpoetry.home.blog.com and Blogger: writingsusanb-rouch.blogspot.fr) and I will be sure to reply.
Have a pleasant last haul !
Rained in the night here in Toulouse, clear skies now, all washed clean. Slight breeze ruffling new leaves.
Wild Flowers, Elie du Bois, Dordogne, April 2019