|
marc : i will definitely keep in mind that technique (not sure it will be quite as effective when the person in the bath turban is a girl, but the bomb might still work).
(pshrynk : i really think that we have moved beyond the boundaries of what is covered by the Geneva Convention, and that in this particular case almost anything is defendable on grounds of "self-defense / they started it / temporary insanity caused by aural persecution".)
thanks nick for the recommendation ; i think i will definitely give those ones a closer look. the high volume isn't what will sell me though ; i don't want to go deaf (or get tinnitis...) because of those damned children, or because i'm trying to drown out those damned children... my ears are suffering enough as it is.
update on the shums situation here : this morning a baby was screeching away as usual. since this is a regular occurence i was wearing my headphones trying to block it out and swearing to myself in a pretty foul temper. but one of the neighbors in the building on the other side of the courtyard could see into the appartment and called the firemen, because that baby was all alone.
the firemen came and went in through the window with a ladder. they waited for an adult to come back. finally a 16-year old girl came back from grocery shopping or something (with a second baby...). she did not speak french so i'm not sure what the situation was exactly but neither one of those babies was hers, apparently ; i heard a rumor from another neighbor that they usually have around 4 babies in there.
the girl lives with an older woman, which i know because one day i went and tried to talk to them about the noise. i decided to ask them if they needed a doctor for the baby (there were 2 that day as well, that i know of), as a polite way of saying "do something to shut that baby up for christs sake". it was very frustrating trying to communicate : for a while she thought *i* needed help and wanted them to call a doctor for me. i don't know where that other woman is today.
it's pretty bad when crying babies is such a normal occurence that you can't even tell the difference between crying baby + indifferent / ineffectual adult(s) and crying baby + zero adult.
the firemen took both babies and the 16 year-old girl away with them when they left ; i think they wanted to get a translator and try to contact the real mothers of these babies. i sincerely hope no-one ever gives another kid to them ever, they clearly aren't fit to take care of any baby much less 4 of them. now i wish i had called the police myself, a long time ago ; i was tempted before but i was afraid they were illegal immigrants and i would put them in a bad situation if i did. if i had realized that they were "babysitting" other people's kids and leaving them alone for hours at a time i think i would have felt differently.
i'm pretty sure all the other noisy children really do live here though (alas).
|