Amen.

Half of the people she walked past were street vendors probably looking to sell something to anyone, not just her.

Kids these days.

Would he say the same thing on a busy street to a man waking by with no interest in him?

If the answer is 'YES' then a) I can't believe he's not hoarse given the number of people one passes in a given day in NYC and b)it's not an example of gender-specific inappropriateness... but c) it's still anti-social because the body language (which men read all the time) clearly indicates a lack of interest in being stopped. These are the streets of a subdivision or Iowa City down town (don't get me wrong, I love Iowa City). Most people in New York to not greet random strangers in the street.

The exception to this is people whose jobs require approaching strangers - you know beggars, street vendors, promoters, and those guys who solicit for charity. Please notice that no one who might fall into those categories were included in the video, despite the fact that in NYC she definitely walked past all 3.

If the answer is 'NO' (IE he didn't 'greet' the disinterested camera man who walked by first but did 'greet' the disinterested woman) then the comment is both anti-social AND gender targeted. He's targeting a woman he doesn't know, when every ounce of her body language is saying that she doesn't want to be bothered. That's not friendly, that's more likely a attempt (conscious or subconscious) to exercise power over the woman walking by.

That assault on the subway -- that happened to me at 11 am on a Sunday in NYC. Beautiful sunny day. Outside. I stopped to watch a street vendor with a crowd, and someone was jostling me from behind, I thought to see better.

I realized he was jostling me rhythmically and panting.

I had just finished a self defense class, so I thought I was prepared to deal with it. I turned.... and looked down. This tiny guy was standing behind me, with a tent in his pants. I was 6 inches taller than him, and outweighed him by probably 50 pounds. He just looked up at me and... shrugged. Shrugged and smiled.

I had the physical skills to decimate him, but we were taught in class to use the skills to protect ourselves, not to attack.

I wasn't in danger. So I turned on my heel and walked away. Joined my friend, laughing. I'm a tourist in NYC for six hours, and I get sexually "assaulted." How funny!

It wasn't funny 15 minutes later. I started crying, just like this woman. I spent the day with my back against the wall where ever I went. I couldn't stand to have someone behind me. I kept feeling him on my ass. All day long.

I finally asked my friend to replace the "muscle memory." So she put her hand on my butt where he had assaulted me, and said soothing words.

That worked.

For six months. Until I was standing in line for a movie back home, and the man behind me had a cold. I could hear him breathing and I internally flipped out. I kept moving so he wouldn;t be behind me, but he wanted to stay in line, and kept getting behind me.

I went into the theater, took a seat, and sobbed.

Over something that didn't physically threaten me.

I had guilt over how I handled it. I had just taken that self defense course, and I had heard a story that amused the hell out of me.

A woman was on a bus, rush hour, pressed into the crowd, when a guy started groping her.

Know what she did?

She said LOUDLY so EVERYONE COULD HEAR -- I want you all to know that THIS MAN, THIS MAN RIGHT HERE, is touching me. I did not GIVE HIM PERMISSION TO TOUCH ME.

He slunk away. He left her alone.

I wish that this video offered solutions.

It was frustrating to know that the blonde woman was in a car full of people, and she didn't have a voice. She wasn't taught to speak up and make a scene.

And it is months later, and because she didn't speak, she still carries that.

And it is months later, and she didn't offer a solution based on her experience. She is still caught.

I'll tell you one thing -- that happens to me again?

I'M SPEAKING UP. Calmly. Loudly. Assertively. With conviction.

THIS MAN. THIS MAN RIGHT HERE.

If all women did that, this crap would stop.

They count on us staying silent.

Tell this to the women you love. Tell them to speak up if they feel safe -- and a crowded bus, a crowded subway car? You are surrounded by people. Nothing is going to happen to you.

They operate in the dark. They operate in silence. They count on your embarrassment.

Turn it on them, embarrass the bloody hell out of them and this crap will end.

In that suitcase was the remains of that guys wife and child. Little did the suited gentleman know that he was aiding a fugitive of the state on the run after a violent killing spree that lead him to murder those he loved only to sell their flesh as hot dogs to local street vendors.

(Someone write the next scenario)

Another ironic thing about the French?

They have a reputation for being rude and arrogant. They also are extremely polite, as I learned when I tried to buy some bottled water from a street vendor in Paris, which my creaky never-very-good high school French. I spoke "French", he answered in English. So I said -- oh, you could tell from my bad accent that I am American.

He replied -- no, you didn't say "please." He was then embarrassed by his truthfulness, and tried to apologize, but I just agreed with him. Americans don't say "please" or "thank you."

It's true -- for all their rudeness and arrogance, it is always "s'il vous plait." And "bonjour, madame" and "au revoir, monsieur" when entering and leaving the small shops.

There are none so blind as those who will not see, ya? Or rather, oui?


>> ^9547bis:

>> ^Diogenes:
trying to speak french as a foreign language in france is incredibly frustrating
no matter how much you've studied and practiced, your best efforts are met with, at best, disdain (no that's not a stereotype) - heh heh

Which is quite ironic, since few people are as careless regarding their accent and grammar when speaking English as the French. I'm having meetings or conference calls that include French participants every other week or so, and it can be quite painful, to the point of being fascinating (how can you sound so bad and yet not notice?).

Good Morning America says this video has gone viral. Not here on the Sift though.... ah well.

Apparently it was an altercation between a street vendor and a customer over a painting that cost $10. Gosling paid the vendor $20 and all was well.

Actually, the first three specific regulations they raised sound like ones that should be repealed.

The Miami street vendor thing sounded totally fine, as did the thing about making full disclosure of assets when you dissolve a corporation.

At the local level, there are plenty of situations where liberals should be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with libertarians.

For example, why should someone need a license to be a hairstylist? That's just corporatism on a small scale.

>> ^Psychologic:

Obviously we need a stronger federal government to reign in excessive local regulations. =D


lol yes. This and the "Chuck changes his mind a lot" post both expose the terrible logic behind the sentiments of the video.

I mean, a giant city like Miami probably has a pretty good reason for regulating street vendors. Obviously the other stuff is silly, but you'd have to pass state or federal laws to prevent local municipalities from making laws like the ones in this video. So, you've got to have bureaucracy somewhere to stop bureaucracy elsewhere.

Carried by Bruce Willis tbh.

The Happening was the worse movie I've seen for a long time, no exhaggeration. You know what the "twist" for that film was? Nothing. There was none, it never happened, nothing was ever explained.
Me- "Omg the tree are killing everybody for somehow for some reason."
Shamamylylanlaylymum- "Yup, pretty much."
THE END.

The only good thing about that movie is that I can look back on the whole experience and laugh about it now, not unlike the time I had food poisoning and was emptying my guts from every orafice simultaneously. Hahaha, silly me eating food from that scummy street vendor, oh and that time I accidently watched The Happening. hoho.

I ate something similar to that last week, It was called a "Trucker Burger" it consisted of, a 1/4pound (before cooking) burger patty, a fried egg, two slices of back bacon and a fist full of lettuce and whatever sauces you want, as well as pickles onions and the tomatoes. This thing was fucking massive. I bring it up because I understand how it would be to eat such a burger if you where buying it from a street vendor you would want to find yourself a corner or ally to hide your face while you smoosh it into your talking orifice.

HOW can one respectably eat one of those in public, hahahahha.

too much mayo, in my opinion, but the avocado and other ingredients are mouth watering.

When I first came to Thailand, I saw the occasional swastika emblazoned on things that made me double-take -- a kid's t-shirt being the one that I remember the most. When I asked Thai people about it (just politely asking, not like 'ohMyGawd, why is everyone racist WHARRGARBLE') I got the response that the symbol here isn't linked to nazism, it is a Buddhist symbol, etc., as mentioned above.

That was enough explanation for me until I started to see street vendor stands with nazi flags (red background, white circle, black swastika), eagle with swastika logos, and even motorcycle helmets in the SS soldier style with SS logos.

Now my impression is that an average Thai person doesn't associate a swastika with nazism, and might purchase some item displaying the symbol because either:
A) they don't know/care about the symbol's link to WW2/Hitler/Nazis OR any Buddhist symbology and just think it looks cool (which I tend to agree with -- it is a simple yet striking shape if you try to mentally disassociate it from any ethos etc.), or
B) they know it as a Buddhist symbol, and feel that link overrides any to nazism.

But those explanations go out the window for the vendors that sell the flags, symbols, SS posters etc. all in one location, with no "Eastern"/Buddhist swastikas in the mix.

I can't stand the Sea Shepherd Society/Paul Watson and I hate Whale Wars. Why? Because the Sea Shepherd Society is actually hurting their own cause and Whale Wars is glorifying it.

Let me explain. I lived in Japan for eight years and I saw that every time the Japanese whaling fleet was attacked by the Paul Watson's group sales of whale meat went up in Japan and the resolve to continue hunting strengthened. The sales of whale meat has been falling for years in Japan, to the point now where there is over 1000 tons of frozen whale meat, some of it going back 12 years, in government freezers. The government can't give it away, but they try. If this trend continues it just won't be financially viable for Japan to continue whaling.

I taught at a university in Japan and I would ask my students if they eat and/or like whale meat. The vast majority of my students (90%+) said they didn't eat whale meat (however almost all of them had eaten whale meat at some point, usually served to them in their elementary school lunches, of course provided by the government). Almost the same number said they didn't like whale meat. Then I would usually give them the above statistic and ask if Japan should continue whaling, again a big majority would say "No". However, when stories about the Sea Shepherd Society attacking Japanese whalers hit the news (and it hit BIG TIME), attitudes would change. Then most of my students would say Japan should continue whaling. This was not just found in a university setting either. Editorials and opinion letters to newspapers would echo the same feelings.

In direct response to the Sea Shepherd's attacks on Japanese whaling ships supermarkets, restaurants, street vendors, etc. would suddenly begin carrying whale meat. More schools would serve it in their lunches (kids don't get a choice of what they can eat at school, one meal for everyone), and a restaurant in Osaka made headline news when they began to sell 'whale burgers'. There was a line around the block for those burgers and many of the people in the line made it clear that they were there as a giant 'fuck you' to the Sea Shepherd Society for attacking the Japanese whaling fleet.

As I said above Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Society are hurting their own cause. What they need to do is put more effort into better information campaigns within Japan. Record and photograph what's going on then use Japanese bloggers and YouTube to get the info out there. This worked very well when the Sea Shepherd Society and others documented the Taiji Dolphin Hunt:
http://www.seashepherd.org.uk/taiji/taiji_sscs_in_taiji.html
http://www.savejapandolphins.org/

Many people in Japan were shocked to find out that Dolphins were being hunted by Japanese, and the hunt now gets regular news coverage in Japan which has led to Japanese themselves protesting.

Pacifism has been so ingrained in the Japanese people since the end of WWII that using even mild violence to get what you want will assuredly turn the average Japanese person against you and whatever cause you are promoting, even if the cause is a 'good' one.

This fight will be won only if the Japanese people can be turned against whaling and make it too expensive for the Japanese government to continue to fund the whaling fleets, it won't be won by using the tactics of the Sea Shepherd Society.

Sorry for the long rant, but you can probably tell that I feel strongly about it.

I really don't know much. One day I read he got a 40 year sentence, months later the sentence gets changed, and then later on, it changed again until I lost track. Last I heard, the sentence was 52 years. I do know that he is in a maximum security prison and has tried to take his life several times, cut off his arms, smash his head against the walls, etc.

He is completely isolated from the rest of the prisoners, and is also receiving a lot of psychological treatment. He also converted to some sort of Christian cult and every week he is allowed to receive a visit from the members of the cult. I don't know the extent of self harm he has done, but for some reason (I guess to try to calm him down) he is now able to talk on the phone 4 to 6 hours a day and he is allowed to paint and write things from some club he is in.

In reply to this comment by inflatablevagina:
holy shit! I havent ever heard about this guy. Did he get set free?

In reply to this comment by mauz15:
"Not much else to explain here..."

I beg to differ, before the subtitles start the reporters say that this man, has been given only 40+ years in jail but that he MAY get out in 3 years. Why? well because Colombia's justice system is fucked beyond belief. I know because I am Colombian. But then again, this case is quite old so perhaps they have re examined the case and given a proper sentence.

His name is Luis Alfredo Garavito, and he not only killed 140 children but he also raped and mutilated them. Most were homeless kids or kids that were street vendors. He would trick them by giving them money, or dressed as a monk, or even pretended to be a street vendor like them. Anything to gain their trust.

He is an alcoholic who was raped as child, and consequently entered a state of depression. I suppose this is when Hitler's life and words as well as Satanic ideas influenced him. So labeling this with the 'religion' tag is kind of misleading, since this person experienced other things of psychological nature BEFORE his obsession with Hitler and Satanism. The title of this makes it seem as if this guy picked a Hitler book and a satanic bible one afternoon and *poof* just like magic he became a murderer.

The authorities found a massive grave of about 40 corpses in a Colombian town, that is when a full investigation across the nation to find the murderer began and a couple more graves were found thereafter.

btw, he confessed to 140 murders but as far as I know he has been linked to about 190

holy shit! I havent ever heard about this guy. Did he get set free?

In reply to this comment by mauz15:
"Not much else to explain here..."

I beg to differ, before the subtitles start the reporters say that this man, has been given only 40+ years in jail but that he MAY get out in 3 years. Why? well because Colombia's justice system is fucked beyond belief. I know because I am Colombian. But then again, this case is quite old so perhaps they have re examined the case and given a proper sentence.

His name is Luis Alfredo Garavito, and he not only killed 140 children but he also raped and mutilated them. Most were homeless kids or kids that were street vendors. He would trick them by giving them money, or dressed as a monk, or even pretended to be a street vendor like them. Anything to gain their trust.

He is an alcoholic who was raped as child, and consequently entered a state of depression. I suppose this is when Hitler's life and words as well as Satanic ideas influenced him. So labeling this with the 'religion' tag is kind of misleading, since this person experienced other things of psychological nature BEFORE his obsession with Hitler and Satanism. The title of this makes it seem as if this guy picked a Hitler book and a satanic bible one afternoon and *poof* just like magic he became a murderer.

The authorities found a massive grave of about 40 corpses in a Colombian town, that is when a full investigation across the nation to find the murderer began and a couple more graves were found thereafter.

btw, he confessed to 140 murders but as far as I know he has been linked to about 190

Imstellar, you are so dead on. It's as if anyone who opposes something the government has done is instantly painted as evil in the eyes of NetRunner. I think the partisan koolaid has robbed our friend of insight and reason, I'm afraid.

That evil newspaper shaming the public into helping that poor man out. LOL! What a ridiculous claim.


>> ^NetRunner:
^ I doubt, if the streets were privately owned, that the private owner would allow a street vendor to operate on his property without paying a fee (or sleep there in a cardboard box, for that matter).

Why do you fear your common man so much? You have no faith in your neighbor even though 98% of people tend to be good and desire strongly to coexist. But you paint everyone with a broad brush of disdain; lumping them in with those in the minority that have no desire to coexist and help their neighbor. People are better than you think. Won't you give them a chance?

Also, your broad generalization against private owners is ridiculous, because private owners of businesses do in fact take care of the poor and homeless. Private citizens also donate generously to homeless shelters.


>> ^NetRunner:
^Somewhere in there it does talk about seeking the maximum individual freedom, which you seem to think you have the right to redefine as "freedom from taxes" and not "freedom from poverty".

Because that's the point of liberty, isn't it? Being individual, not collective. There's more to it than "freedom from taxes", it's freedom to own your own labor, your own life and to not to have others own you and your labor. That's what you mean to say, right? Because that's being a good Jeffersonian liberal.