Posted on 12/18/2004 3:09:42 PM PST by nypokerface
SETE, France (AFP) - Armed with a high-pressure hose and a bucket of octopi, hundreds of protestors in this Mediterranean town pelted a McDonalds restaurant due to open this week with the slimy seafood.
Between 300 and 500 people gathered on the banks of the Sete canal, across from the fast-food outlet, playing music and yelling anti-junk-food slogans across the water, as police barred them from reaching the restaurant itself.
Aiming the hose across the water, they catapulted fresh octopi -- a local delicacy, known here as the "pouffre" -- towards the town's first McDonalds, which had been set to open on Saturday.
The crowd held up slogans slamming junk food, dubbed "malbouffe" in French, as well as work conditions in the fast-food industry.
Driving home their point, the protestors were serving up traditional Setois dishes -- one of which is the tielle, a fragrant octopus, tomato and onion pie prized by locals and tourists alike.
The demonstration caused the opening of the restaurant, the first fast-food outlet in the port town following years of resistance by the former communist mayor, to be put off until next week.
A group led by French militant farmer Jose Bove pulled down a McDonalds outlet that was under construction in the southern town of Millau in 1999, earning Bove a jail sentence, although the restaurant was later rebuilt.
Our protesters should be as original.
Why can't they understand the concept: You don't like the food, DON'T EAT THERE!
McOctopussies, James Bond would call them....
They are the penultimate of liberals - it doesn't matter what they do, it matters what you do, and you will do what they say.
Oddly enough... this McDonalds (as every other McDonalds in the whole world) is owned, run and manned by locals.
A creative prosecuter could probably muster up bio-weapons charges and make them stick.
Well, now PETA should surely protest Jose Bove and his crew.
We are the American borg. You shall be assimilated. You shall be eating McDonald's, shopping at Wal-Mart, and relaxing at Starbuck's.
Sounds hellvualot better than the other alternative, Sharia by default when the Muslims become a majority in the next few decades.
Exactly. The very liberal but honest Pauline Kael once described this mindset perfectly when she wrote "Having the highest moral standards for yourself and having sympathy for others who can't meet them is the highest moral standard, but these folks have it all backwards."
Hey, you fancy frogs, if you're so superior, why do they call 'em French fries?
Yep, no doubt who will win this war in a free market!
And that is their problem. They are NOT really protesting McDonals's, they are protesting that people, when given a choice, prefer McDonald's to "a fragrant octopus, tomato and onion pie".
In the end, they are fighting against free choice and can only win if government expands to include forcing people to eat food they don't like.
That should keep them closed for weeks.
Hot damn! We gotta get one of those for Red Wings hockey games.
I think you have captured the essence of contemporary liberalism in one sentence.
I'll take the Big Mac please.
Wuddayaknow, sometime I can agree on with the frogs. McDonalds food sucks and its garrish arches are an eyesore where ever they pop up.
I was going to say I hoped the Wings fans didn't hear about this.
Too late.
May cause a confusing moment for Michael Moore. He likes the French, he likes McD's food. Who should he hate? Dare he risk being banned from McDonalds worldwide?
Or that, even if the local people LIKE that vile-sounding thing, McDonalds can offer a Big Mac for a lot cheaper, thus forcing the local food vendors to lower prices (plus profit margins and wages)
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