The horns are sounding for a second night

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It is not often that Marseille France makes it into the international news aside from the constant chatter about the local soccer team, Olympique de Marseille [google: marseille]. Yesterday was an exception as striking sailors hijacked a ferry, bound for Corsica, blasting the horns all the way out to sea at 2 AM.

By the next morning French military commandos regained control of the ship, just outside of Corsica, by dropping in by helicopter.

Read a story here in the LA Times: French Commandos Regain Control of Hijacked Ferry

So again tonight in Marseille, this time at 9:30 PM, you can hear the horns blasting every thirty seconds or so. I do not know what is happening down at the ferry port right now. Maybe another ferry has been hijacked?

Workers are striking because of the governments bid to privatize the ferry industry and in the process cut jobs. The ferries go from Marseille to Corsica, Tunisia, Algeria and other North African destinations. To politize the strike even more, the sailors' union have aligned themselves with the Corsican nationalistic movement. A movement that has waged a long and often violent seperatists struggle against France.

I've often walked down to the point of land on the Mediterranean in downtown Marseille where the ships pass through a narrow channel. It is fun to go there in the evening as the overnight voyages begin, you see people staying land-bound emotionally wave to their sea going friends and families going sea bound (also waving).