Thread by @gro_tsen

I think non-French and non-French-speaking readers should be told about how utterly insane things are now in and around Paris because of the Olympics are. The opening ceremony is one week away and they've already barred any access to the Seine! 🧵⤵️ •1/19

The different levels of security perimeters are incomprehensible, but basically all areas within ~100m of the Seine are now completely off-limits. You can only go there, even by foot, if you live there or work there, and you need to get a special permit in advance. •2/19

Getting the permit is no sure thing: apparently some people have had their application denied (no explanations given), so they're not allowed to go where they work, or even where they live. Nobody knows what's supposed to happen to them. •3/19

Also, there's a hospital within that off-limit perimeter, with some people requiring vital care there. Patients may apply for a permit, but again that's not automatically granted. •4/19

Now keep in mind that this is a week before the opening ceremony (why do they need to close the entire area days before the ceremony? nobody knows!). During the ceremony itself, access to the hospital will be completely forbidden to anyone. This is insane! •5/19

Of course this is not the only restriction. Around this “anti-terrorist” no-go zone, there is a much larger “red” zone which is “only” closed to all road traffic. Not as catastrophic, but if you're a business or need to get something delivered, you're in big trouble. •6/19

An even larger area than the red one is the “blue” one which is closed to most, but not all, road traffic. But also, most of the highways connecting Paris to the surrounding suburbs, have special “Paris 2024” lanes, reserved for Olympics officials, … •7/19

… including the ring road around Paris (the “périphérique”). Now if you've seen how bad traffic is on the périphérique in ordinary times, even in the summer, try imagining that with one lane closed to the plebs: yeah, total carpocalypse! •8/19

Now maybe you don't drive a car (in Paris this is a bad idea anyway, if you can avoid it) and you prefer to take public transit? Well, surprise: lots of metro stations are closed as well. The list is incomprehensibly large and illogical. •9/19

Some have been closed well ahead of the olympics, and nobody knows why: “Concorde” has been closed since the 17th of JUNE, and there has been exactly zero explanation of why it needed to close so early. •10/19

And when they close a station, it doesn't just mean you can't get on or off there: you can't even change lines there — because reasons. So the Paris metro is now an incomprehensible maze of disconnected lines and randomly closed stations which changes every day. •11/19

On the day of the opening ceremony, things are even more insane: all planes are barred from taking off, landing, or flying near Paris, and even ALL TRAINS have been canceled. Basically the opening ceremony will have the effect of a city-scale nuclear bomb test. •12/19

Also, barriers have begun sprouting all over the place in Paris. Nobody seems to know exactly what they're for. And if you're in a wheelchair, well, I guess that's too bad for you. •13/19

And of course this is still not the end of the story: there are policemen everywhere in Paris, and the authorities have deployed security cameras on a massive scale and an experimental AI-based video-surveillance system that would make president Xí jealous. •14/19

And because basically all the French police reserves are being mobilized in Paris, any sort of large-scale event that is not the Olympics is impossible: so lots of music festivals, not just around Paris but all around France have been canceled. •15/19

I'm not even going to get into the cost of the games, because that's not really my point here: but I'd like to recall that France is already heavily in debt, and Paris's finances are alarming, and we really didn't need this extra burden. •16/19

When she campaigned for election in 2014, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said she didn't want the city to bid to host the games. For some reason she changed her mind shortly after being elected, and a number of Parisians who elected her are a bit unhappy about this. •17/19

For months now the authorities have been running ad campaigns telling Parisians to “plan in advance” for the games. Basically this meant: try to leave Paris for the summer, or if you need to be here, stay at home and work remotely. (And don't get anything delivered.) •18/19

So, now we get to pay billions to host a big business show to which we're very emphatically not invited, we're told to leave the city or stay at home (and also please don't be sick) during that time. As you can imagine, not everyone is very happy with this whole affair. •19/19

OK, this thread blew up, so I need to mute it now. But I wrote a fu2 of sorts answering some of the most common points like “why are you whining?”, “this was entirely predictable” and “antiterrorism measures are obviously necessary!”. 🧵🔽 •20/(19+1)

@laurentbercot Sérieusement, j'ai aussi lu qqpart un journaliste qui racontait qu'un flic lui a dit qu'ils avaient eu plein d'instructions la veille au soir à pas d'heure. (Et se prendre un regard réprobateur de son chef parce qu'apparemment fallait pas le dire aux journalistes, justement.)

@laurentbercot Sinon, pour le fond, il semble que quelques ponts restent traversants bien que la zone soit interdite, mais pas beaucoup (et le 26 ce sera encore pire): sortiraparis.com/actualites/jeu…

@laurentbercot … (Et bizarrement, le gouvernement n'est pas terriblement empressé d'augmenter les moyens des juges chargés d'empêcher le gouvernement de faire des conneries.)

@laurentbercot Et bizarrement, certains politiques, même dans la droite qualifiée de «modérée» ont déjà décidé que ces juges étaient des empêcheurs de piétiner les droits fondamentaux en rond: (dispo sur ‌). Et les électeurs semblent apprécier. 😢 lepoint.fr/politique/excl…
archive.is/SlRPY

@iTufani But on a more serious note, since you speak of a “Greek” tragedy, the cost of the 2004 Olympics in Athens were more than in little part responsible for the financial situation of the Greek state that led to the Euro crisis in the following years. And that was really a tragedy.

@Yannath29 @Dr79750 @Aubin Donc si (SI!) il est impossible de concilier les 3 choses suivantes:

Ⓐ la tenue des jeux,

Ⓑ la sécurité contre le terrorisme,

Ⓒ la vie normale des habitants,

— alors il faut sacrifier la moins importante des 3, ce qui est Ⓐ (c'est juste des jeux!) et certainement pas Ⓒ.

@iTufani @jolsasd … So maybe this can be a tiny step toward having more decentralized sports competitions (like, many cities hosting smaller events at the same time) or not having Olympics at all. And also, toward caring a bit more about residents' rights over big costly showy events. …

@iTufani … I will say this, however: comparing the annoyances in Paris and the tragedy in Ukraine seems very insensitive to me, and for my part I do not condone any such comparison.