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Ride-sharing service Uber has exited the French market following taxi driver protests, a ban by the French interior minister, and the arrest of two managers:
Following a week of increasingly violent clashes with traditional taxi drivers, the San Francisco-based company announced that its popular Uberpop service would be suspended from 8pm tonight and would no longer appear on users' app lists.
'In recent weeks intimidation and violent aggression by an out-of-control minority, where drivers and users of Uberpop were ambushed, has increased in France. Uber does not want to put drivers or passengers at risk, so for the sake of peace has decided to suspend Uberpop,' said the company in a statement. However, the service is in fact illegal in France. Last week, Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, general manager for Western Europe, and Thibaud Simphal, general manager of Uber France, were arrested. They will have their day in court in September.
Uber said it hoped to be back up and running as soon as possible. It thanked the "thousands of men and women from Lille to Marseille, via Paris, Bordeaux or Lyon who participated with enthusiasm in the urban transport revolution".
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday July 04 2015, @12:36AM
There is a damn goodvreason that france restricts English-language movies and television.
I studied Russian at Caltech, my instructor was expelled from the Soviet Union rather than imprisoned when she started raising Hell, as her (now) ex-husband was the front-page editor of pravda. My cousin Glenn Thobe soeaks it fluently and traveled extensibely in Russia.
Soviet Coomunism outwardly claimed to be for the benefit of all. In reality, most soviet republics other than russia, georgia, kazakhstan and a few others were brutally repressed.
I meet many Ukrainians in the pacific northwest as it was once a possession of Russia. They are happy at first when I speak to them In Russian but I am now studying Ukranian as it remains painful to this day that the Soviets did not permit Ukrainian to be spoken in their schools, nor I expect their workplaces.
For Uber to just show up in a place like France with the expectation of wild enthusiasm demonstrates a profound ignorance of human nature.
Suppose I were to score with my unicorn's IPO so I would have the cash tp buy up all of san francisco so I could tear down all the buildings to make room for my fruit tree orchard. That kind of agriculture runs deep in my own heritage I dont see why the people of San Francisco should object to me any more than uber has reason to believe that the people of france should object to it.
One Last Word:
France gave us Napoleon. Dont piss off the French.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2015, @02:30AM
>as it remains painful to this day that the Soviets did not permit Ukrainian to be spoken in their schools
Not true. Source: was taught in both under Kiev in 70s. You are full of bull.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday July 04 2015, @03:46AM
I have met them all over washinton, oregon and british columbia. Every single one told me they were not permitted to speak Ukrainian in school. They all tell me that while they speak, read and write Russian it is painful for them to do so.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by tftp on Saturday July 04 2015, @07:01AM
Every single one told me they were not permitted to speak Ukrainian in school
Ukrainian was widely used in Soviet times. Many books were printed in Ukrainian. I had some, through my relatives. I did not speak Ukrainian, so I couldn't read them - and that was unfortunate, because the same books in Russian were harder to obtain. I do not know why your acquaintances claim that Ukrainian was outlawed in USSR because it wasn't. Some languages, like of Baltic republics, were used almost exclusively there, and you wouldn't get very far with mere Russian in Riga.
They all tell me that while they speak, read and write Russian it is painful for them to do so.
Your acquaintances don't even see an internal contradiction in this statement. Why would it be "painful" for them to speak Russian if that was the only language they were ever taught and permitted to speak? Did they all learn Ukrainian from Samizdat, overnight? Of course that's not the case - because the national language of each republic was a mandatory course in every republic. The communists made many mistakes, but there is no need to wrongly villify them. USSR's national policy was extremely liberal - more liberal, perhaps, that it was wise. The policy of supporting "national differences" resulted in quite a few wars after 1991, as local dictators quickly used those as a vehicle for separatism and worse things.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Saturday July 04 2015, @08:02AM
I should have thought of something else - songs. Perhaps offtopic, but SN can't be possibly hurt by a small bit of foreign culture :-) Here are a few examples from Soviet times: in Moldavian (1978) [youtube.com], Moldavian (1982) [youtube.com], Moldavian (1984) [youtube.com], Ukrainian (1985) [youtube.com], Ukrainian (1985) [youtube.com], Ukrainian (1971) [youtube.com], Russian (1975) [youtube.com], Russian (1986) [youtube.com] ... I intentionally selected old records, well within the Soviet reign, and only one singer.
Of course, none of that would be possible if the poor natives, denied their language by evil Communists, didn't know their language.
(Score: 5, Informative) by frojack on Saturday July 04 2015, @04:48AM
For Uber to just show up in a place like France with the expectation of wild enthusiasm demonstrates a profound ignorance of human nature.
Nice story.
BUT You forget that the only french people Uber was un-popular with were Taxi drivers. Other than that the citizens lapped it up in great numbers.
Sort of like Seattle, New York, Chicago, etc.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday July 04 2015, @04:44PM
Modded Troll? Don't think so. Wish i had mod points...
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday July 04 2015, @09:04PM
You're not making any sense at all with your diatribe and analogy.
Uber isn't taking away a whole city and kicking people out, they're providing a useful service which French people actually want. If French people didn't want it, they wouldn't use the service, and the taxi drivers would have nothing to complain about. The only people being hurt by Uber are the taxi drivers, which isn't any different than the buggy whip makers and sellers being forced out of business by the automobile 100+ years ago. Cry me a river.