Reaction to Urban Violence

The surge of violence in neighborhoods has always existed, yet people still give minimum attention to the issue. At the rare occasions of hearing or reading such issues, we tend to ignore, if not forget, by storing them at the very back of our minds, hoping we would never find ourselves near any such situation. Only when we are concerned, will we be forced to face and thus have some kind of reaction towards the issue. Individualism, a common phenomenon in metropolitan cities.

It was still in the early evening when I headed down to one of Paris' subway station in the busy 16th arrondissement. As I walked, I was distracted by a wailing sound from an old, homeless man--beaten up, on the floor with blood trickling down his right temple. Beside him, faced-up, was a cardboard cut-out, which had supposedly serve to draw pity from the passing people, with the starting words of "j'ai faim."

Despite his frail state, he continued to curse and mumble words of fury to three distancing well-built males, who, when not laughing, would toss about coins in deliberately mocking manners. And people passed on by.
The old man's coin tin rolled down meters away from him. Empty.

The heart-aching thing about the scene was the few passing pair of legs who hurried from one building to the next, as if hurrying to the finishing line of one competition, paying no more than looks of disgusts on their faces. If life is regarded as a competition, then would death be the finishing line? Would it only be at the near end of our lives that we stop competing against each other and prove ourselves superior?

The problem about this issue, like any alike, is that when people hear about it once or twice, they'll remember to be more prudent--for their sake. When people hear about it often, they would thus become numb. In essence, we should all become more aware of things happening around us, and use that advantage for as many people possible. One simple urgent call could save the life of the victim(s). Remember to think that the old man would do it for you if the situation had been given the chance to reverse itself. If not, at least you'd know that he wouldn't have the energy to hurry from one building to the next.


*No, this isn't real. Its for the sake of literary imagery ;)

Emails: Check them before you leave!

Yesterday, a strike took place (yes, bienvenue en France). And as far as it concerned me, this interfered with my way to and back from school. They wanted a raise (who doesn't), because their money's real value is decreasing despite the slow rate of inflation in the country (and they complain? ckck..). Well, at least that's one of the reasons they decided to sulk and make everyone's life less easy for a day- even for those who have cars since they all decided to crowd the city more than ever yesterday ;p

I had the idea of walking to school, since the other options (bus and taxi were either risky because I could end up at school only after Autumn, or because I always get intimidated by streets I don't recognise) were out of the question. But I was feeling lucky and decided to try my chances with the metro. I arrived at 8, and remember thinking, "not bad at all"- despite having been squashed in the over-loaded trains ^ ^;

At 8.35, the professor hadn't come! And I was tired of waiting so I had the brightest idea of calling a friend I knew who was suppose to take the course with me. And, yes you guessed it, French had been cancelled!
I came down to the secretary and asked politely if it was true. She then said yes- and promised that she has sent an email to all that are concerned and a notice was also up on the student board. Now this politeness of me came out with, "I checked my email before I left and I never got yours."

Maybe it's for the fact that she's Spanish, but she didn't look all that friendly after my reply.
I wonder why? :D huehuehe kidding.

Turned out that she sent it to my gmail.
Okaaay, my fault for not having checked that one, but I could've sworn I wrote my hotmail address for pedagogic notices, and gmail for administrative because they are always more boring ;p
Right, I guess they decided that this is more of an "administrative" issue -_-

Just for the record, I wasn't the only student that got befuddled ;p
Oh- wouldn't that have looked horrible great ^ ^;