PSX5Central
Non Gaming Discussions => Off-Topic => Topic started by: GigaShadow on January 31, 2003, 10:15:29 AM
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Anyone see any irony in this?
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Heavily armed French forces in armored vehicles and helicopters took control of Ivory Coast\'s international airport Friday, after thousands of rock-throwing demonstrators attacked fleeing French citizens.
Members of the mob — angry over concessions in a a French-brokered peace deal for the West African nation — had invaded the airport, storming the tarmac and taunting French passengers trying to escape the troubled former French colony.
At least two French soldiers were injured by rocks, one seriously, French military spokesman Lt. Col. Philippe Perret said. Rioters terrorized passengers, stealing suitcases and handbags, Perret said.
"Go home and don\'t come back!" the protesters screamed at families as they grabbed their bags and rushed into the airport.
The airport clash follows days of often-violent protests by government loyalists. Government supporters are angry over a peace deal closed Jan. 24 in Paris that they say yields too much power to Ivory Coast\'s rebels, who have seized more than half the country in a 4-month-old civil war.
France urged its citizens to get out, recommending in a new message posted on the French Foreign Ministry\'s web site that "French people whose presence isn\'t indispensable leave the country." The United States, Britain and others recommended the same for their citizens months ago.
About 5,000 protesters massed at the airport by midmorning, and numbers of them held the tarmac for about 45 minutes.
The chaos prevented some passengers from boarding flights, while others were trapped inside planes and in the departure hall of the airport.
At the peak, Ivorian paramilitary troops and police sought to convince the whistle-blowing protesters — mostly young men dressed in the orange, green and white colors of the West African nation\'s flag — to leave.
Minutes later, four French military helicopters touched down on the tarmac and soldiers spilled out, rushing to secure the area as several demonstrators set a French flag on fire.
French forces in a dozen armored vehicles mounted with cannon took up posts on the airport perimeter and the main airport road.
Ivorian troops and the French together appeared to restore some order at the airport, although all but one airline suspended flights, and demonstrators remained out in force.
Militant youths continued to harass vehicles traveling to and from the airport.
Ivorian Defense Minister Bertin Kadet arrived at the airport at late morning, and sought to calm the crowd.
"I have asked the French military to evacuate the area in order to pacify the crowd," Kadet told the protesters.
He charged that the sight of such French military force only heightened the mob\'s anger.
The French forces, however, showed no sign of leaving.
"One thing is sure, we\'ll be at the airport as long as French nationals are there," French Commander Frederic Thomazo said.
"The Ivorian military is unable to provide liberty of movement," French army spokesman Perret said. "This is unacceptable."
The demonstration broke out early Friday morning to protest the scheduled arrival of Ivorian Seydou Diarra, slated to be the new prime minister under the now-threatened peace deal.
Demonstrators declared that they\'d gathered to "keep Diarra from touching Ivory Coast soil."
Diarra at midday remained in Dakar, Senegal, where West African leaders gathered to search for resolution to the crisis in Ivory Coast.
Representatives of Ivory Coast\'s northern-based rebels also joined the talks.
Ivory Coast, the world\'s largest cocoa exporter, was once a stable African powerhouse. A 1999 military coup, its first-ever, ended decades of stability. Ethnic and political violence culminated in another coup attempt in September and subsequent civil war.
Rebels in the north and west accuse President Laurent Gbagbo of fanning ethnic hatred, and demand his resignation. The French-brokered peace deal was meant to create a power-sharing government until 2005 elections.
France has 2,500 troops based in the country to protect more than 16,000 French civilians. Paris sent another 130 paramilitary police on Thursday as violence welled against its citizens.
Meanwhile Friday, neighboring Liberia threatened trouble on another front for Ivory Coast — accusing Ivory Coast forces of hunting down and killing innocent Liberian refugees in Ivory Coast. Some Liberian gunmen are fighting on the side of rebels in Ivory Coast\'s west, which has sparked anger here against Liberians in general.
"Liberia will not sit back to see Liberians being humiliated and killed," Justice Minister Lavela Koboi Johnson said in a statement, without specifying what action his government might take.
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(https://psx5central.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adata.com%2F%7Eaod%2Ffrenchvictory.jpg&hash=ca807adbf0df0c270eb0b96b36b62adfc551e432)
Need I say more? Silly Frenchie people. Such cowards. :p
"cheese-eating surrender monkeys"— Groundskeeper Willie line from an episode of The Simpsons
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
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that google pic shows just how intelligent search engines are....amazing
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Or that France couldn\'t win a war without some aid :laughing:
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(https://psx5central.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwwwi.reuters.com%2Fimages%2F2003-01-29T215533Z_01_GALAXY-DC-MDF196542_RTRIDSP_2_INTERNATIONAL-IVORYCOAST-DC.jpg&hash=d9d3555cfdc33dd779dc5dd8ea63ce3f59ba4c3a)
:laughing: Pussies! How about Canada? Hell no! If the US wasn\'t here, they\'d be conquered by Mexico! :D
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When was the last time France was actually good?
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Originally posted by The Hurricane
When was the last time France was actually good?
I\'m still thinking. :p Hmmm.....other than Napoleon....heck, how often did the British defeat France? Like....900 times just in the past 700 years? :D
Oh yeah! Joan of Arc kicked some butt for France! But she was only 16! And Napoleon was like 5\'4" tall.
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Napolean doesn\'t count, he was exiled by his own people and doomed a failure because of his little waterloo incident.
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Damn, the French are like a 5th wheel when it comes to wars. Except they bitch about everything and we have protected them.
Honestly... I dunno why everyone makes fun of Canada. In WWII they were a very strong nation and it was the Canadians who led the attacks and were all very brave. Without the Canadians, WWII could have been different.
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Originally posted by square_marker
Without the Canadians, WWII could have been different.
Heh....Nazi Canada. I don\'t like the sound of that. ;) Yeah...like Canada would have taken on Zee Germans by themselves. ;)
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Honestly... I dunno why everyone makes fun of Canada. In WWII they were a very strong nation and it was the Canadians who led the attacks and were all very brave. Without the Canadians, WWII could have been different.
Did you not know that most of the canadian population is french? And seeing as how google even makes fun of that french military than I dont think they did that much to germany.....
But if they sent those mounties than Germany woulda been in for a beating. Them mounties and their stick. Could really hurt ya know.
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The Google pic is a fake though. ;)
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most of canada is NOT FRENCH ! most of it is english and we ( french-canadiens _ are losing our culture and being assimilated !
second the reason we don\'t have such a great army is because we aren\'t 250 millions people living in canada , we are about 40 millions , and we have a FREE health care systemes that takes hell alot of money , and lets not forget our immagration systeme wich is TOO friendly ! We let criminels in our country , in conclusion , we put alot less money in the army then US and they are reason for that !
Edit : by the way in WW2 we paved the way for disembarquement ! the US told us to go there to try things out and not one single soldiers survived ! after that Britain , US and Canada dicided to do it togetter at different places ! Wich is Normadi for US , Diep for Canada and ... well britain i don\'t know !
Also , The French almost conquered all europe during napolions rein and the french helped the Us in the war for independance !
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Most of us are just joking about Canada.
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Hey, dont make fun of our baguette eating friends!
Btw didnt the French help the Americans in the Continental-British war (or whatever it was called)?
Show some gratitude, they bailed yer asses out! ;)
j/k
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Originally posted by fastson
Hey, dont make fun of our baguette eating friends!
Btw didnt the French help the Americans in the Continental-British war (or whatever it was called)?
Show some gratitude, they bailed yer asses out! ;)
j/k
That is when France was cool and had a monarch... ever since the revolution its been a steady down hill ride.
Even Americans watching the revolution in France commented on how barbaric it was.
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France=scumbag cowards.
Canada=Terrorist breeding camp. Ever been to Toronto? you can\'t swing a cat without hitting someone of middle-eastern descent. You gotta wonder how many terrorists they let in on a daily basis....
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Chizzy = bling bling pimp
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samwise= fat, sexy hobbit.
Come here, you plump, succulent meatball!
:D
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Did you not know that most of the canadian population is french?
Do you know that you\'re an idiot?
Canada=Terrorist breeding camp. Ever been to Toronto? you can\'t swing a cat without hitting someone of middle-eastern descent. You gotta wonder how many terrorists they let in on a daily basis....
America has more foreign people in total than Canada. And did you already forget where the "supposed" terrorist camps in the US were(Florida...)? Our immigrant ratio percentage whatever is probably greater though.
Besides, terrorists don\'t care about Canada. What are they gonna blow up? The CN tower? Air Canada Center? :laughing:
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they use canada as a stepping stone to get into the US.
I think they want to blow up the hockey hall of fame, BTW....
;)
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Canada doesn\'t have an army because they know we have no other choice than to protect their behinds.
Ace
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we have no army because we don\'t have anough population or money , thats why ... and i don\'t agree with everything the US does like the Us does not always agree with what canada does ( whenever we are not on our knees in front of the Us )
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ok French bashing might seam like fun at first but it can all lead to tears.
remember they did give you the Statue of Liberty after all :rolleyes:
I leave the thread open and I could be accused of being Racist.
If I close it and people shout ooseven your Anti American.
Oh what to do L
Ah Fook it !
Thread Closed.