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New xenophobia!
Back on the American River in California's scenic and flammable Sierra Nevada. Yesterday I went to my accustomed stretch of river, where two or three other small parties were already quietly enjoying themselves, deployed the canvas folding chair in about thirty inches of water, and prepared to relax until…

Invasion!

They came by twos and threes over the course of an hour, an extended family group (perhaps multiple families) of Middle Eastern* origin. By the end of the hour there were almost thirty of them, half of these between the ages of four and fifteen, and they took over the entire stretch of riverfront. Children would emerge from the river and run directly across my small pile of possessions (vest, camera, towel, book) near the riverbank. Other children would engage in splash duels from either side of me. Still others would launch themselves down a shallow channel between slick rocks, striking my folding chair, and look at me in snotty incomprehension when barked at. The level of noise and shrieking was extremely high. R to adult in group: "Can your kids not run over my stuff?" Adult to R, in heavily-accented English: "You should move it." The newcomers were absolutely impervious to the dirty looks from the regulars, and, one after another, we gave up and left the barbarians in sole possession of the river, which I assume to have been at least their passive objective.

I might mention that even on other holiday weekends, when attendance here is typically oversubscribed, a certain tacit etiquette has been hitherto observed: new arrivals establish a spot on the ample expanse of flat riverside granite. Space is respected. People arrange themselves in such a way as to leave avenues of access to the water, and others employ these routes. Not this lot: complete disregard for the prevailing norms of personal spaces.

So just temporarily, I'm with the xenophobes on immigration.* It'll pass. Today, I regret to report, it is cool and overcast as of late morning. I'm going to feel ill-used if I can't get some quality sun-and-water time in before I have to report back to BDS in a couple of days.

with vast cultural prejudice,

(Edit): *Not Middle eastern. From Afghanistan. See downthread.

**I'm aware that the horde with its verminous children could have just as easily been homegrown, in which case I'd have been just as pissed off, but as it happens, this lot was imported rather than domestic, so that's the way the spleen vents.
Expand Edited by rcareaga Sept. 1, 2013, 09:06:16 PM EDT
New My tribe is bigger than your tribe!
At least locally.
Alex
New Lookin fer loopholes.. (dons shyster bow-tie, boutonniere)
(I recall a spot near the N. fork of the American R. to which several of us escaped a couple times in '70s--its exact locale guarded by One who gave-it-up only.. ... hesitantly.. deja vu?)
'Twas sufficiently hidden that clothes were optional, even. Probably a chimera now, given rising infestation of feral children everywhere.

I'd suppose that, back-home there were similar mores, as respected as once-upon-a-time, here..
Arriving in Murica (..expecting America-of-the-Dream-fluff) and soon noticing how Corps. everywhere kick sand in the faces of the skinny-kid who can't afford a Charles Atlas primer:
perhaps they experienced enough Me-Me-Me mindsets as.. (well, can't we imagine?)

Still.. you'd think that such sullen and pointed defense of indefensible behavior--by their 'adults'--just might.. shock some momentary recollections of Home.
Though, for all we know: maybe enforced polite behavior there: was exactly what they fled from?

Cuthless tribes shall be the main vehicle for the homo-sap Car Crash just beyond the next jihad-curve, I wot.
Misanthropy lurks just a [incorrigible-] 'tad' beyond the xeno- stage, no? Because: some adults are Worse.
New Afghans, I'm now told
A dozen years of war (on our shift); hundreds of wedding parties blown to bits by Predator drones, and somehow they contrived to miss this lot? I feel that my tax dollars have not been well spent.
New Read the "Kite Runner".
It might change your mind. Or not. :)

They are from the 12 century after all.
Alex
New To be fair...
I think this might just be that one family. Whilst I haven't been in that exact situation, I've seen many large family gatherings on public land comprised of people of middle eastern descent and most behave far better than that.

Wade.
Just Add Story http://justaddstory.wordpress.com/
New mousetraps over your stuff, the noise? oh well
what is the meme? Cali was just fine when I moved here, it the newcomers ruining the place. (or born there)
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 58 years. meep
New postscript
The Afghans returned, though in substantially lesser numbers, throughout the holiday weekend, but on Labor Day they crossed the line: on the other side of the river two men attempted to transport a burning brazier—a rectangular barbecue tray measuring approximately thirty by fourteen inches—at shoulder height through (not under) a stand of young ponderosa pines preparatory to conducting a feast on Forest Service land, where any sort of open fire is prohibited (at least in this particular tract) outside any designated camping or picnic area. The fucking flames from this thing were visible from the other side of the river. Northern California happens to be tinder-dry after a prolonged drought, and the sky was already smoky from the massive "Rim Fire" threatening Yosemite National Park 150 miles away. We homegrown male habitués of this stretch of river then rose up as one man and advanced on the intruders, shouting and gesticulating (think of the protohuman threat displays in Kubrick's 2001, only with hairless and considerably paunchier primates screeching and brandishing improvised weapons). They seemed quite puzzled—someone suggested afterward that perhaps Afghanistan is now sufficiently deforested that this sort of conduct is not deemed a hazard back home—and also initially disposed to contest the issue, but perhaps the spectacle of half a dozen elderly fat white guys in bathing attire descending upon them was too weird for them to process, and they retreated to conduct their picnic under the bridge, still illegally but no longer as certain to burn down the entire Alder Creek tract.

I repeat: These clowns were attempting to transport an open fire at shoulder height through pine trees, between their lower and upper branches. Fuck. Me.

cordially,
New Ya done good. Thanks.
New I tried to warn you about Afghanis.
I haven't trusted them since 3 of them mugged my father in a hotel in Soviet Russia and I, at the tender age of 9, had to recruit my KGB agent and several Russian men to rescue my dad who had already been beaten for his watch.
New See, a personal KGB man IS good for something after all!
New Never have I suggested otherwise, Comrade. ;0)
New In the Fifties, anybody who was anybody in Finnish society..
...had a "House Russian".
--
Christian R. Conrad
Same old username (as above), but now on iki.fi

(Yeah, yeah, it redirects to the same old GMail... But just in case I ever want to change.)
     xenophobia! - (rcareaga) - (12)
         My tribe is bigger than your tribe! - (a6l6e6x)
         Lookin fer loopholes.. (dons shyster bow-tie, boutonniere) - (Ashton) - (2)
             Afghans, I'm now told - (rcareaga) - (1)
                 Read the "Kite Runner". - (a6l6e6x)
         To be fair... - (static)
         mousetraps over your stuff, the noise? oh well - (boxley)
         postscript - (rcareaga) - (5)
             Ya done good. Thanks. -NT - (Another Scott)
             I tried to warn you about Afghanis. - (mmoffitt) - (3)
                 See, a personal KGB man IS good for something after all! -NT - (CRConrad) - (2)
                     Never have I suggested otherwise, Comrade. ;0) -NT - (mmoffitt) - (1)
                         In the Fifties, anybody who was anybody in Finnish society.. - (CRConrad)

Choose life. Choose LRPDism-spotting.
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