The Null Device

So near, and yet so far

Spare a thought for Mark Boyle, the 28-year-old English hippie who planned to walk from Bristol to India without any money for world peace or something similar, subsisting only on the charity of strangers. Alas, it was not to be, and Mr. Boyle gave up his quest at Calais after his lack of money and inability to speak French caused the locals to think of him as a free-loader or an asylum seeker.

Not one to be easily dissuaded by the cold hard impact of reality, Mr. Boyle has strategically downsized his plans to a walk around the coast of Britain, learning French as he goes, for another attempt in future.

There are 2 comments on "So near, and yet so far":

Posted by: Passant Sun Mar 2 09:06:23 2008

One should never forget that since special laws from Perben & Sarkozy 2003-2006, any French citizen helping illegal immigrants may face real jail, and may be jailed before her trial. If this doesn't sound serious, know that three French citizens have faced jail for simple offenses to the French President, and that one even got jailed for insults in private mail.

Furthermore, since you'd better now speak some French to be allowed to stay as an immigrant in France, anyone caught not speaking French in France might be considered as an illegal immigrant.

Posted by: unixdj Mon Mar 3 09:58:08 2008

Technically, he *was* a freeloader.

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