Happy new year to all!
My first time away from home during the New Year. The traditions here are different from the one I had in Manila, but nevertheless, I had fun. We didn’t have the midnight dinner like we usually do in Manila. Last year, I was in Somerset with my family watching the fireworks in the rooftop of the hotel brought to you by Ayala. And then ate the buffet that was laid out in the long table of our room. This year, we were lighting our own fireworks and we were drinking champagne. BF’s cousin had 2 glasses of champagne – and he was only 11! I had 2 full glasses and I was immediately red and tipsy.
Anyway, what really got me was the car burning in the big cities of France. I didn’t really give this much thought last year when BF told me about it, but after watching the news yesterday morning, it bothered me a lot – especially when I read somewhere that Strasbourg is the home of the car burning fanatics.
New Year’s Eve 2009 – The interior ministry of France said that 1,147 cars were burned down, but journalists stuck to only 450. If the numbers were actually 1,147 – then the percentage of the car burning went up to 300% from last year. This year, the area that was most affected was in a Northern suburb of Paris – the Seine-Saint-Denis region. Strasbourg had around 50 cars burning during the eve of New Year.
Why do people do this? I have read so much stuff on this car burning incident or “tradition” (whatever) – I found some forums that say that it was immigrants who mostly burn down cars – because they feel left out of mainstream French society. According to Michel Wievorka, a French sociologist who studied the phenomenon, the whole thing is easy to understand – Set a fire, the whole world watches you. It calls the attention of the media, and when the media comes, the government follows. Hmm – quite true. I imagine that if someone does this in the Philippines, the owner of a burned car may hunt down the burnee and kick his ass.
It’s really sad – especially for those people who had invested a lot in their cars and treated these cars like their babies and then just found them burning at the start of 2009.
I found a really good article, explaining the difference of immigration and cultural integration between France and America. The title of the article is “You Shouldn’t Have to Burn Cars to Get a Better Life”.
Of course, the burned hands during the New Year’s eve in Manila bothers me as well – and the stray bullets that usually kill innocent people – and even children sleeping peacefully are sometimes victims. I grew up scared of playing with firecrackers – my dad never failed to remind us about the dangers and consequences of firecrackers by switching the TV and watching the news – showing us all those people who were hurt due to careless handling of fireworks. Some were simply victims walking along the street and stepping on an unlit firecracker that suddenly exploded.
I just hope the year 2009 will be better – peace, love, and hope to everyone!
