This is a long one. Take a deep breath. Ready? Here we go.

In honor of one of life's greatest luxuries - screened doors and windows.

Fun activities were on the agenda @ Larzac. Saturday, PS (Socialist Party) reps, refusing to leave their stand, were verbally abused and their stand was dismantled 'manu militari' by some Boverians 'in a few seconds'. Uh, the PS' stand was between the PCF's (Communist Party) and an African cloth SELLER's. So selling African cloth in France is anti-global, is that it? I could have sworn that was like, you know, the 'C' word...capitalism. ;o

The French taxpayer is contributing to the cost of showers for these enlightened, loving Boverian masses.

From the official Larzac web site...

Cancun must be a second Seattle.

Not so sure all the TOURISTS that make Cancun's economy go round would enjoy the change. People living in Seattle might..or might not! Seattle must be a second Cancun! Let's send some French arsonists over there to get those unsightly trees out of the way.

Bove's also paranoid. Seems the Larzacian sacred ground is being desecrated by...a RAVE PARTY - the biggest in Europe, no less!

Les organisateurs de Larzac 2003, ...Bove en tête, puis les maires et habitants du Larzac, ont immédiatement crié leur fureur...

Le leader de la Confédération paysanne a commencé par dénoncer "un coup fourré de l'Etat qui veut nuire à l'image du rassemblement qui a été exemplaire malgré l'affluence record".

Larzac 2003 organizers, headed by Bove, along w/Larzac mayors and inhabitants, immediately expressed their fury... JB (the leader...) started by denouncing 'a dirty trick by the State that wishes to tarnish our meeting's image which was exemplary despite record attendance'.

The article goes on...

Les maires, qui ont toutefois obtenu l'assurance que 1.500 policiers ou gendarmes seraient présents, ont expliqué avoir "fortement attiré l'attention de l'Etat sur le risque extrême, notamment de feu, de pénurie d'eau, de santé publique et de salubrité".

The mayors, having been assured that 1500 police and gendarmes would be on hand, explained that they'd 'strongly pointed out to the State the extreme risk, especially of fire, of water shortages, and of public health risks and insalubrity'.

Just because they're not ex-convicts, don't suck pipes or pretend to be farmers, doesn't mean ravers can't plan just as well as you, JB. Here's the flyer ravers have distributed. They've covered all the crucial points. Some ravers actually showed up early and found themselves in Bove City. Just in time to buy a nice African cloth to wear during the rave.

On a darker note, this didn't surprise me, but it's still head-hanging shameful.

Fire experts suggest that as much as 80% of the fires start through negligence rather than deliberate arson, but the hunt is on for arsonists in France. A French judge last week launched legal action against Stéphane Jousse, 30, after he admitted to starting seven fires...and two others last summer... At one point, as many as 30 fires started within a single half-hour. Some authorities called it terrorism, but others said the fires had been set just for the hell of it. "What's really fueling these fires is the heritage of pastoralism," says Michel Thinon, a researcher at the Mediterranean Institute of Ecology and Paleoecology in Marseilles. He argues that millennia of human activity have favored the growth of pine forests...prone to fires, over the hardwoods that originally grew in the region. Now with more people than ever along the Med, municipal officials still...refuse to reverse course. "Instead of planting the oak and ash, mayors plant quick-growing pines so they can point to the new forest before their terms run out," Thinon says. "Then we get more fires."

It goes on to say...

Mayors say they don't have the money to clear the underbrush that accelerates the fires, nor do they widely enforce provisions aimed at preventing developers from cashing in on fire-cleared parcels. Once the fire has done its work, the development gallops on.

And this from news24.com.

"It's the apocalypse," Jousse, the mayor of Roquebrune-Sur-Argens, said on LCI television.

"I think we've understood that these fires are a new form of terrorism," Jousse said. "They are all deliberate."
...
Baudot, the Var fire chief, said arson was not confirmed. However, he noted that 28 fires were started on Monday, and "there is little probability that this is by chance".

Oh, get off it, Chief Baudot. It is widely believed here in France that developers don't just 'cash in', they participate actively in these traditional summer blazes. Where there's smoke...

Regarding the European heatwave and the increasing deaths of your elderly citizens in France , Britain and elsewhere...

This happened to us in Chicago, back in 1995!
The authorities need to implement preventative measures now, or the bodies will continue to pile up.

During the summer of 1995, Chicago experienced a week long devastating heat wave in which 739 Chicago residents died in their homes from the heat. Most of them were elderly.

I worked in an Emergency Room ("Casualty" to you Brits) and we had 22 dead in one day from the heat. Chicago ran out of places to put the bodies. The city had to rent refrigerated trucks.

Our Emergency Departments were filled to overflowing with elderly victims of heat stroke and dehydration.

It was horrible...

The French Government should be issuing warnings via the media.outlets...
People need to check on their neighbors , and family members, especially the elderly!

Your government is lying to you if they are saying that officials are unable to "determine if the deaths were weather-related"....

When it happened to us, the corpses presented with rectal temps greater than 102F! (Yes, we had to check)
The bodies were found in homes where the interior temperatures sometimes exceed 110F!
I'm sure the French (and British) emergency departments are currently being inundated with elderly victims of heat stroke, what are the figures on that!
It is not difficult to diagnose heat stroke...

The government acknowledged an increase in the number of elderly being treated at hospitals, but said it was unclear if the heat was to blame...

This is bullsh*t!!! They are lying!

You obviously cannot depend on the authorities.

You People need to check on your elderly neighbors...You may save their lives!

I fear it may already be too late...I fear "thousands" may have already have died.

We continued to discover dead elderly victims of the heat wave for weeks after the event!

Please post this Information on your Blog! Pas the word..Check on you neighbors!

("fiery celt")

Links regarding aforementioned info...

http://www.emergency.com/heatwave.htm

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/443213in.html

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/whdie95.htm

Please I'm begging you...Check on your neighbors and family members.

Thanks for your post Fiery Celt.

The number of death is important, during the two last weeks the mortality around Paris has been 50% higher than average.

Elders, lonely people, A little girl who locked herself by accident in a car...

As usual when such case occures, some people go yelling "What's the government doing ?"

You gave the right answer

You obviously cannot depend on the authorities. You People need to check on your elderly neighbors...You may save their lives!

thanks again