alifeunknown.com

It’s been an interesting couple of days.  First, some background.

We’ve been waiting since September 1 for our pallet of 4 rubbermaid boxes (shrink-wrapped into about 1 cubic meter of stuff) to arrive in Marseille. We shipped the pallet from Vancouver on August 3rd, and the shipping place we used said it would take about 3 to 4 weeks for the pallet to arrive in Marseille.. which would have been perfect,  (did you notice the subtle use of past tense there?), because we were in Russia until the end of August.

After we arrived in Corsica, we called the shipping company on September 1 to find out the status of our pallet.  It was then we were told that the recent union strike in Vancouver (of the transport drivers) had an adverse effect on our stuff.  It was delayed from leaving Vancouver for about 1.5 weeks.  OK, no problem. We can handle that!  A bit inconvenient, since we’re now in Corsica and would like our stuff.. but hey, we’re tough.  Our stuff will be here 2nd week of September. Cool.

So then a week goes by and I call the shipping place again for a status update.  Oh.. now it seems that our stuff was successfully trucked to New York, but there was another strike and so our stuff didn’t make the boat it was supposed to be on. But I’m not to worry, because it is on another boat.  This boat is also going to Beijing (China!), but is making a stop in Marseille. (Oh, how convenient. Thanks!) So now our stuff is supposed to have arrived in Marseille toward the end of September. (Again, the use of past tense. A bit odd since it’s not yet the end of September.. but read on and you’ll understand.)

So two days ago the entire Island of Corsica seems to have gone on strike. Yes, another strike. (This makes three strikes that have directly effected us, but hey, who’s counting?) But.. this strike is the MOTHER of all strikes. The union people in Canada would wet their pants of they could see what’s going on here. I’ll describe it for you. First with words, and then with pictures. I’ve tried to take a few pics, because you wouldn’t believe it otherwise.

Cara is not amused.

This pic was taken just outside the main entrance to the shipping port. We were actually in "town" for something else, and we saw the black smoke billowing from the other side. We walked over and found the scene. Picture about 250 masked Corsicans standing around doing nothing but lighting tire-fires. There were three other small tire fires like this one. One blocking each road of the roundabout.

Corsican union people who are on strike wear masks!

Seriously, click the picture and take a look at the guys to the left. They’re wearing masks! I wanted to get a little closer to take a better picture, but I was politely advised to stay my distance and NOT take any pictures by the other people standing around. This pic was taken a about 50 meters up the road from the pic above.

Burning tires produce a lot of heat.

Well, this one I can understand. I mean, really.. if you were a crazy Corsican union/nationalist person and wanted to get your point across and had a whole row of tires in front of you on a major street across from the central post office and only about 10 meters below the overhanging trees.. wouldn’t you set them into a burning inferno? The pic on the left is a shot from the front. Pic on the right is from behind. 

One interesting point to note here is that the ARMY of police people (I’ll try and post a shot or two of them later) were about 75 meters up this road. They were dressed in full riot gear, complete with plastic shields, big batons, zip-straps, and assorted black hockey and baseball protection gear. They kind of look like very big and mean hockey/baseball players.  I would NOT want to mess around with them. When they started their sirens, it was pretty funny (well, sortof) to see everyone suddenly scatter away.  Then, once they realized the police weren’t actually approaching, they would slowly regroup and the whole cycle would continue again.

Sand.  It makes an effective deterent.

We walked back down to the port and went a little further in.. and found the road further blocked by a large pile of sand. Yes, sand. Because hey…. why use people to hold the picket signs when you can stick your flag in a pile of sand in the middle of the road?

They even hijacked (stole) a ferry. The French paramilitary had to storm the ship and regain control. No, seriously. I’m not making this up!  THEY STOLE A FERRY AND THE ARMY HAD TO GET IT BACK! The link above is to a video clip of the "retaking". The national French news was pretty good, with lots of nice pictures of the unmasked Corsican union/nationalist on the boat on their knees with their hands behind their heads. Crazy.

So tonight, we just heard that they fired a rocket into a building. (The union people shot a rocket at a building last night. A ROCKET. Like a missile! I mean, why do union people have missiles?)

We went down to the Préfecture today in another effort to try and find the appropriate papers for Cara so she can actually work legally here…. and this is what we found.

The picture doesn’t really show it, but there were a lot of these guys standing around. Enough for at least two baseball teams.  If we go back to town over the next day or so, I’ll try to get a closeup of their uniform. It’s all black, and their uzi sidearms would make them a sure winner in any league.

OK.. so back to our pallet of stuff.  So now, as you can imagine, all ports in Corsica are blocked and the port of Marseille is also blocked. What’s this?  Why the mention of Marseille now? Well… our stuff is in Marseille!  That’s right — it arrived early. (Apparently, according to the French person I asked, which is pretty shakey, considering my French is really really horrible and I may have misunderstood. She might have simply told me that our pallet is on its way to China.) So now we’re stuck with having our stuff sitting in some place in Marseille, with absolutely no way for anyone to get to it since the entire Port of Marseille is closed for business until this strike is over.  (Seems there are a lot of Corsicans who work in the Port in Marseille, and that, incidently, is also where one of the missiles was fired.)

Now, you might be thinking that this is all fun and games, and how wonderful it must be to see crazed Corsican Nationalists walking around town with loaded shotguns in defiance of the local "establishement". But keep in mind this is an island. That’s right.  Think about that for a second or two.  OK.. so…. these Corsican’s aren’t the smartest bunch.  I mean, how smart is it to block all the ports of your own island, that depends pretty much 100% on imported goods, so that nobody can send you anything? Tonight on the news they had a highlight special about how the grocery store shelves are being emptied out. The supply of petrol (gas) is expected to be gone within another day.

BUT.. we’ll be ok. We’ve got bread. We’ve got wine. And we’ve got cheese. 

What we don’t have is our pallet of stuff.  Dammit.