And punishable by death! (not really).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080306/od_afp/francedeathoffbeat
Basically, the gist of the story is that the mayor of a French village has declared it illegal to die without owning a plot at the local (and overcrowded) cemetery. And there is "severe punishment" waiting for any offenders.
On the surface, this seems pretty stupid. But, if you read farther, you'll see it's merely a protest (copying another successful protest by another mayor of another French village) to get permission from the government to expand the overcrowded cemetery. He's basically threatening to send any dead person without a plot to the state's representative to deal with.
Still, the first part of the story brings funny images to mind.
:rofl: ...ROFLCOPTER!
"The first dead person to come along, I'll send him to the state's representative,"
XD The mental image that generates is too funny.
Okay, this seems somewhat silly. What can they do to you after you die?
I am so going to walk into that French village and drop dead. Just so I can be mailed to some government official.
Ha, I'm in learning about French government right now, and I find it interesting that this may be an effective way to push legislation to unresponsive representatives. Then again, France has always had trouble getting democracy in their country to function right...they've gone through several different government systems since the French revolution, none of them all that effective.
Maverick_Zero wrote:Ha, I'm in learning about French government right now, and I find it interesting that this may be an effective way to push legislation to unresponsive representatives. Then again, France has always had trouble getting democracy in their country to function right...they've gone through several different government systems since the French revolution, none of them all that effective.
Russia, on the other hand, has had tremendous success with every form of government they've attempted.