Petition as French Riviera beach closed for Saudi king

[Surya Gayatri]

Source: BBC News

More than 100,000 people have signed a petition against the closure of a beach on the French Riviera to allow Saudi King Salman to holiday in private.

The petition insists the public beach in Vallauris should be "available for the benefit of all".


The construction of a temporary lift has been allowed on the beach


Authorities sealed off the beach early on Saturday to prevent any protesters from occupying it as King Salman was due to arrive in the area.

The Saudi monarch is expected to stay at his villa for three weeks.

He and his entourage of about 1,000 people arrived at Nice airport on Saturday on board two Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747s.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33667046

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"We recall that this natural zone, like all maritime public estates, is an intrinsic public property that should be available for the benefit of all, residents, tourists, French, foreigners or people passing through," the petition says.


Notices of the beach closure have been posted, amid tight security for the royal visitor

Another PR triumph for the hubristic, hypocritical House of Saud. Can they be any more vile and arrogant?

I and a lot of other French people would like to storm their security perimeter and run them all off with pitchforks.

[heaven05]

1. Oligarchy power

just growing and growing. Us little people just getting squeezeed and squeezed more and more, into a tiny little corner and you better not whine about it or their "bad boys", with guns and badges and uniforms and everything a growing occupation army needs, tanks, rpgs, helicopters, everything, gonna get you!!!

[Surya Gayatri]

2. Saudi petro-dollars have spoken. THIS BEACH IS NOW OFF-LIMITS...

[valerief]

33. There's the King. And there's the Not King. That's our world. nt

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. Special rules for special people... How egalitarian...

The 0.00001% strike again.

[GeoWilliam750]

4. Excellent and informed use of a decimal point

My compliments!

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. A Socialist prime minister, too. What's the world coming to?

[secondwind]

6. This is very disturbing to me.... because it is France....

[Surya Gayatri]

7. It disturbs me, too. I live here, and I do NOT like what this

says about the Saudi's being able to "buy" any goddamn thing they want.

[fasttense]

8. Coming to a beach near you.

The oligarchs are going to clean out all the little people and fill it with their family, friends and concubines before they have their fun. Then they move on and let you clean up behind them.

[Surya Gayatri]

11. Scrounge the crumbs from their copious table...

[fasttense]

13. So where did that quote come from?

I did a search with the google machine and got nothing besides some incomplete quotes from the bible and Robert Southy's Thalaba The Destroyer. The Google machine can be quite ignorant at times.

[Surya Gayatri]

14. I didn't know it WAS a quote! Is it? It was just the image that came to mind...

[fasttense]

17. Then I applaud you for your eloquent use of language.

I have a similar statement I often use that others sometimes attribute it to a famous quote.

"A civilization is not judged by how well they treated their kings, but how they treated the weakest among them."

I'm afraid when our civilization is judged, it will be severely lacking.

[Surya Gayatri]

19. Thank you! I'll take the compliment. I've been living abroad for

30+ years and often feel that I've lost some of my mother tongue (English) to the benefit of my second language (French).

On the other hand, I'm a retired English teacher and love language.

Saying:

"You can always take the teacher away from the teaching, but you can never take the teaching away from the teacher."

I made that up, too! LOL!

[fasttense]

28. You do have a way with words.

I look forward to your future posts.

[Surya Gayatri]

30. ...

And I yours!

[IronLionZion]

9. Dude can't find a private beach?

With an entourage of 1000 people, this is like a big FU to the 100,000 little people who have no power. I would think the local economy and businesses would benefit more from the little people. Many shops and cafes nearby would likely take a loss during those 3 weeks.

[Callmecrazy]

10. Let us all remember...

that, like it or not, he is a world leader and some security is in order. Looking at the picture, the beach is very small and there is nowhere to run if shit gets hinky. I think closing it is appropriate.
If his 1000 person entourage goes with him he'll take up the whole beach anyway.

[Surya Gayatri]

12. There are private islands nearby in the Mediterranean that he could have rented for him and his

huge retenue. He just didn't give a flying FU about who he might disturb or how the little people might be affected.

If you block off a whole section of beach, it means that people can't get from point A to point B along the seafront.

Thanks King Salman. Everybody else will be stuck in traffic and forced to make a detour around his rental property.

[fasttense]

15. I would think a private island would be more to his liking anyway.

He kind of lives in his own little world anyway. But probably his newest young bride wanted to be able to say she actually visited the beach or some such nonsense. So then everyone must be inconvenienced and turned away from the beach just so some pampered fool can go there.

[Surya Gayatri]

16. Only the best for Salman and his filthy-rich retenue.

[loudsue]

37. Excellent points. But the Saudi Royal Family makes $32 BILLION plus per DAY.

THAT is what is wrong with this whole picture.

[underahedgerow]

43. In February he GAVE a 32 BILLION dollar handout to all government workers, average citizens, regular

working stiffs who average 2500 a month. Many business owners followed suit for their own employees as well.

http://mic.com/articles/111056/the-new-saudi-king-is-kicking-off-his-reign-with-a-32-billion-gift-to-his-people

[greymattermom]

18. Boats?

Can't the locals drive by in their boats and wave to him from there? Wearing whatever they like?

[7962]

23. Oh, I doubt they'll let a boat NEAR that beach! nt

[CanonRay]

20. And here I thought the French threw out their King a long time ago.

guess not.

[Ford_Prefect]

21. They did off-shore the one Emperor, way back when...

[Surya Gayatri]

25. Louis XVIth's royal excesses notwithstanding, this one has a LOT more money...

[DBoon]

27. Something to do with Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity

The Equality part has been long forgotten

[7962]

24. And when they leave, that elevator assembly has to be removed!

What a waste of money. Although I guess some of the local workers made out pretty well for a short time

[Surya Gayatri]

26. Yeah, the local contractors were pleased. That elevator made me

think of this guy...

Mitt Romney Ordered $55,000 'Phantom Park' Car Elevator, Designer Says

[fasttense]

31. Yes we have our own royalty in America

And they would clear out a beach too if it suited them.

[B2G]

35. So true

Obama closed a major road in Martha's Vineyard in 2013.

Far greater inconvenience that a lousy strip of dirty sand.

[underahedgerow]

44. He's had a stroke, and he is a very skinny, frail man. Yes, the elevator will be removed in 2 more

weeks, and the workers and the company that installed it will be paid nice big fat sums of money.

[wain]

29. Really?! That's what they call a beach?

Some beach.

Saudi kings tend to the heavy side, thus the elevator. Recall one of the Saudi kings had to be loaded on a freight elevator into the wider back entrance of his plane.

Look at the closure on the bright side. Lots and lots of money will be spent; very good for the local economy and better yet if some finds its way to improved conditions all can enjoy the rest of the year.

[B2G]

34. No kidding. That's some sad stretch of sand.

[KansDem]

36. Apparently he doesn't like mixing with the common folk...

Paying to have airliners crash into their buildings so they die in the thousands is one thing, but mixing with them is quite another.

[avaistheone1]

38. Ouch.

[MosheFeingold]

39. Mel Brooks said it best.

http://diylol.com/meme-generator/mel-brooks/memes/its-good-to-be-the-kang

[Surya Gayatri]

40. Great find...Mel Brooks has always said everything best!

[MosheFeingold]

41. If I wasn't computer incompetent

I'd have posted the picture at the link.

[Surya Gayatri]

42. Here ya go!