I remembered a piece of news I read on new year’s eve. It was the Selangor CPO saying that he’ll increase the police presence at places where the celebrations are held. The last time I was at Bukit Bintang for New Year’s eve, I couldn’t see any policemen at all!
Okay..maybe a few.
Thousands of people were at Jalan Bukit Bintang that night and I could merely walk or see the ground. Its hard to even turn my body around when people were pushing left and right.
This time, I’m not too sure. I guess it’s almost the same. Probably you can see policemen around. Afterall, the last time I was out on new year’s eve was 7-8 years ago. New year’s eve is the day you stay at home and avoid cramming with those drunk bastards everywhere along the street and getting caught in the traffic jam which takes 3-4 hours to reach home instead of the normal 30 minutes. Not forgetting also the road blocks you’ll need to go through and who knows if your first night of the new year would be spent in the lockup, like my friend.
So, stay at home.
I’ve stayed at home for the past 7 years (minus 1 year when I was in Colombo staring at the Indian ocean all by myself). So, I thought I should get away to somewhere this time around. And it was Paris.
I was really surprised with the very, very and very heavy police presence along the 2km Champs-Elysées on New Years eve. Less than every 100 metres I walk, I could see groups of 10 riot policemen clad in armor, helmets, knee and elbow protectors, and face shields.
I don’t know how many they are just along Champs-Elysées. It could be easily around 700 of them, or maybe more. In short, I could really feel the police presence there. Turn my head either left or right, and I can see them almost everywhere.
Do you know what the French do beside popping the champagne and kiss all night long along Champs-Elysée even when there are lots of policemen around?
No, they don’t spray foams on your cars, nor write Happy New Year on your car bonnet, or draw Santa’s face on your rooftop.
Instead, they torch your car. Vandalism to the max. It was reported that the numbers increased by 30% this year with more than 1000 cars burned.
Another interesting one was when I was on my way to Champs-Elysées with the metro. There were groups of 10-15 youths metro-hopping. They would hop between trains, squeeze into the already packed train and start singing, pushing each other and punching the roof. Then they get down at the next station and board the next train.
Besides all these, it was really good to welcome the new year in Paris even though there were no fireworks display (I only got to know about this 2 hours before leaving for Paris).
For the past 7 years (minus 2006 when I was in Colombo), I’ve been welcoming the new year at home. I wouldn’t get out from home at all if I’m in Malaysia for these kinds of days. We all know how long it takes to reach home after the celebrations.