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A fire to be kindled

Shelves: a modern warfare

6-8

12-13

Be a pirate.

Discover the world.

Teaching in a French ghetto

INTERVIEW

Loss Prevention experts explains retail theft

Volume VIII

3.5 £

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From the Editor

Send us a bottle At the redaction, we are almost never in the mood –or have sufficient time- to bother about your opinion. However, if you are a true pirate you should give it a go.

Read you later (maybe)!

redaction@newrascal.com +111 02158799, London.

Pirates from all over the UK, welcome for the 8th edition

of your monthly operations manual.

The world in which we live is more and more complex, policed and

regulated by a crowd of rules, laws and power pyramids. The

spirit of this New Rascal is to show how some people successfully

avoid these rules, with an article about shoplifters, but also to

take a look at the often forgotten victims of a system which

hypocritically condemns violence.

Some people decide to make their life an

inspirational story, loving the future. Some just

try to live for the present, and the contrast

between what they want to be and what

they are makes them commit frauds.

All of them are pirates. And you,

reader, are just about to enter on board.

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***

Car

togr

aphy

of

the

sea

*** A fire to be

kindled

6-8

Clean shoes and dirty hands

10-11

5

Shelves: a modern warfare

Tips about taps

12-13

13-15

6

A fire to be kindled

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” said Plutarch.

Limoges, in the West of France, 2015, by a rainy February day.

Aigueperse is a primary school, located in a Priority Education Zone (ZEP), one of this suburban periphery built in the 1990s and based on low-price rental flats in huge towers, which are twice the size of an average Paris condominium.

When I arrived in front of the building, the two soldiers stationing here because of the Vigipirate Plan, an anti-terrorist measure taken after Charlie Hebdo attacks, were closing the gates. The last kids to enter were already inside the main hall, and already the absence of parents who eventually could have come here to

accompany their children was making me feel a bit uncomfortable.

“Sorry guys, I know I am late and you don’t know me. I am Louki, I work for the local news and I am here to interview a teacher. It’s Miss Nicole D.

Oh, and here is the prefectural authorization”.

I don’t know if it is because of the strange accent of Parisian boy that I got on the tongue since I am a baby, or because of the fact that I looked like a wet weirdo in Hawaiian shirt, but they stared at me with

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all the suspicion they were capable of. And then, they laughed.

“No worries, have a good day Sir! Don’t let your belongings without surveillance.

- Ha ha, I see, like in the train stations right? Because of the attacks?

- No, because of them.” he said, discreetly pointing at the kids queuing to enter their classes in the open corridor.

Well, he was probably kidding, it should not be so bad, how could 5 to 11 years old kids possibly be a menace for the 19 years old almost-proper-adult I was?

The next 3 hours were going to show me new concepts about self-control and social policies of the 1990s.

When I entered the classroom, Miss Nicole was trying to inculcate the basis of rational mathematics, grammar and morality to young boys and girls preoccupied by their dreams, their medieval-style power conflicts and their new toys. Limoges is a town with a majority of white-Caucasian citizens, aged between 30 and 45. However, only one girl was white here: Sarah. The classmates of Sarah were 60% black –“African-American”, would I say if only I was not in France, 7665km away from New York-, 25% Arabic, and 10% Asiatic.

Was it a product of the so-called multiculturalist integration theory that the French government is trying to implement since 1970? Not really, as each ethnic minority (Guinean Wolof speakers, Algerians, South-African) was constituting a little private circle speaking in its own language, as it was the case for a majority of them at home, with parents knowing a very incorrect and incomplete French.

It hurts badly to see the second generation (sons of migrants) or even the third reproducing the programmed societal non-adaptation of their parents from childhood. The classroom was a total zoo, and Nicole was struggling with authority.

Ibourahima was importuned by some girls laughing about his new haircut –or its absence, as he was almost bold-, and from the last seat of the room I saw him passing a message to Adil, his best friend. When the bell rang, before heading to the desk to interview Nicole, I read the paper let on the table.

“To Adil: Let’s show them who is stronger at the pause. To Ibourahima: No, the brother of Janaïna is boss of the neighbourhood.” I could easily tell that “boss of the neighbourhood” did not mean cop in this environment economically fuelled by burglaries, large scale scams and -above everything else- drug-dealing.

“So, how long have you been working here? (traduced from French)

Nicole D.: Let me think. About 17 years. But never ask this kind of question to a woman, I know you are trying to guess my age.

Louki-Géronimo Richou, for The New Rascal: I was not, I promise. How many classes do you have under your responsibility?

N.D.: Five. Not all are the same difficulty. The one you have seen today is pretty calm. In one class, the police had to come because a kid was insulting and striking his AVS (Scholar Life Assistant, ed) with a sharpened metallic rule.

TNR: Do you know why?

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N.D.: I think she gave him, not on purpose, a candy with elements of pork in the jelly without him knowing. He was Muslim and… Well, when he found out, he feared the reaction of his family I guess, and started reacting the only way they are taught here; violence.

TNR: Does this affect your job?

N.D.: Yes, obviously. It is not linked with their ethnicities or culture, but with the low-level of their families in education and wealth. At the same time they are confronted with our world most tempting products, luxury and comfort in the ads, in everywhere. Some have a great potential, like Adil, but they don’t have interest or motivation for studies. And it is such a majoritarian attitude that they don’t even bother filling the quizzes with false answers like other kids do.

TNR: And what do they do?

N.D.: They just don’t write on it.

TNR: So why do you keep doing what you do for a living?

N.D.: Because I like them, because I believe in them, and when I see one of them, even only one, a single one going to the University, I know I have done my part of the contract. But I feel a bit powerless when a kid denies being beaten by his family and comes everyday with his arms full of scars obviously made by a belt…

TNR: What could be a solution for you?

N.D.: The State has built so many of this places, the unique solution would be to rethink the whole demographical repartition and the border policy in France. Letting somebody enter in our country to put him in a ghetto just doesn’t make sense. A lot of older people in these towers have started to vote for the Front National (extreme right wing party, ed) because their life has been dramatically changed by this situation.

TNR: Thanks a lot, Nicole.”

When I got out, Ibourahima was playing soccer, innocently, with his comrades, only 500 meters from the entrance to his tower, where an older boy was manifestly taking part in the black market economy of the site, in sight of the two militaries guarding the school.

***

This fire was beautiful, it was the energy of the youth and the passion of the desperate, but it was definitely difficult to kindle.

“I know I have done my part of the contract.”

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10

Clean shoes and dirty hands

e all know where your fancy new shoes or the computer your uncle offered you this Christmas come from. But the trial launched last week by the Supreme Court of Tianjin, is somehow in rupture with the routine of Chinese world-dominating entrepreneurship. The New Rascal offers you a walkthrough.

Stephany Christenssen, the new CEO of Saijing Int. accused of three murder attempts upon the person of Jiana Zhang, a monster leader in shoe market, has been found dead on the 11th of March, in the Xuanshi Prison few days after a meeting with Ms Zhang and her Finish defense lawyer, M. Dima Talorin.

The death of Imani Zhuang, the previous CEO., during her accouchement, already made the national newspapers covers 12 weeks ago. Her daughter, Jiana Zhuang, was allegedly threaten of death by Stephany Christenssen, who was supposedly upset with Jiana’s incredible media coverage and public popularity –as well as by her 49% stock exchange credit for Saijing Int.

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The New Rascal A monthly guide for the modern pirate

A heavy-implications trial in industrial China

Timoti Olan is a convicted mobster, who will be 33 in June. “[He] did not have the courage of killing Ms Zhuang, and abandoned her in an industrial plant of South Tianjin, leading the defendant to give it a go by herself.” Court said about the man, who had been employed by Ms Christenssen.

Heavily shocked due to the prior attempts on her life, and maybe victim of the post-traumatic stress syndrome, Jiana was then helped by a famous Tianjin lawyer, who is now believed to maintain a secret relationship with his beautiful client. In front of the Court, Jiana and her lawyer appeared very close, and some glances could be interpretated as a proof of complicity in order to get some revenge over Christenssen and acquire the totality of Saijing’s stock portfolio.

A quite trivial murder

Stephany Christenssen was found dead wearing too small Alpha model Saijing shoes, apparently tied by laces brought from outside the jail and, following the forensic report, leading to death by blood retention in the feet.

In parallel, the role of the seven industrial workers who helped hiding and feeding Jiana is yet to clearly determine. Regarding the fairy tale of Jiana and her lawyer, the story does not tell if they will have a lot of children, but since it is China, one appears as a fair maximum.

The officers in charge of the investigation found in the night after Ms Christenssen death that two close personal friends of her figure on the Panama Papers diffusion list, for a reported transactions amount of 17 billion dollars through an offshore company named Fraw-D. Death apparently does not clean all sins, and the firsts in Paradise are not always the best ones.

Disclaimer: The exactitude of the information in this article is not guaranteed by the redaction’s insurance. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental (or almost). This article may not be suitable for austere and non-funny people and creeps.

Stephany Christenssen

Louki-G. Richou

12

Shelves: a modern warfare

ore than 9000 unexplained external retail thefts happen in the UK every day, in spite of front door alarms and top-of-the-art modern security. Most of these go unnoticed until the inventory is made. How can it be? Read the following to find out!

It would be deeply hypocritical to not reveal the tricks that all the concerned people already use under the pretext that some profane –who will never use them- do not know it. So, The New Rascal decided to put it all in clear!

Not all the shoplifters are heavily equipped, nor members of international organisations linked with the Armenian mob. The casual British John-Doe, a bit short on his wage, could decide to get himself a 2000£ bonus from the sale of stolen clothes. In the same way, a casual British Jane-Doe could decide to offer her children some free ameliorated nutrition… What would they need to do so? Interviewed, a former security manager at Whitefriars (Canterbury), who asked to remain anonymous, says;

“Just a bag filled with several layers of aluminium, that’s all it takes. Indeed, it used to be the most common method.”

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A monthly guide for the modern pirate

The New Rascal

A “booster bag” can then pass between the emitting an receiving doors without launching any alarm.

But recently, on top of this old tactic, amateurs shoplifters started to use equipment usually reserved to professionals, but findable freely on Amazon or eBay, to suit their questionable goals.

The neodymium magnet, a very strong rare-earth magnet, allow its possessor to set open hardware tags with a simple pressing time of 2 seconds. It is worth 40£.

When it comes to mechanical tools, a Sensormatic hook is the device that most thieves chose to open some specific tags designed to avoid magnetic opening. However, quite ironically, this item is the most affordable on the list: 15£ and it is yours.

Finally, more sophisticated, a CCTV jammer, acquirable for 300£, make the shoplifter invisible by disturbing the recording. Small but efficient, the item can be carried by virtually anybody.

Interviewee: “We try to have no specific profile when looking to bust them. One day I spotted a grandma with an unpaid PS3 in her purse.”

As shown by the statistics from the National Police Theft Barometer, the shops in the United Kingdom are still using hardware protection for a large majority. These kind of EAS and radio-detected metal tags are not out-of-date yet. However, they appear to be pretty inoffensive to the thieves when everything relies on them, and when they are not coupled to a performant team of detectives.

“Human security is always a necessary condition. Why do Zara, Next, Primark or even Mark&Spencer have a ratio of only 1 or 2 guards for 10

cameras? They want it to happen!” adds our trustable interviewee.

Nevertheless, the technological war happening between shops and their thieves does not seem to take the path towards armistice, given that 2015 was the worst year for retail market, with an increase of 20% in shoplifting and 15% in… internal employee theft.

Tips about taps hese Brits never do it the casual European way. This evening, while I was calmly cleaning dishes, I was victim of a civilization inequality –maybe a worldwide conspiracy- without even noticing it.

Louki-G. Richou

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I had to go once again through this classic two-steps protocol: burn my delicate laptop-worker hands with the left tap, and right after freeze it like if I was hand-fishing in Alaska.

And this horrific crime by negligence is not contained within the kitchen’s frontiers; it somehow made its way inside the peak of our intimacy, in the form of a hand-wash-preventing, shave-struggling tiny bathroom sink.

Have you ever wondered why England is the only modern country where there are no generic temperature mixers in the sinks?

Was it so complicated, after building the Canterbury Cathedral and the London Eye,

after making a rainy island a major world leader, to provide your sinks with this?

(It can look pretty innocent, but it is a whole world of complexity and years of research. Ahem…)

Or at very least, if you were not in a fully productive architectural mood, with the two-handles version.

You could have thought of us, full of enthusiasm foreigners willing to learn your beautiful language and traditions, who came peacefully. We already had to pull the filth-covered rope to switch the light, just because of some electrophobes designers.

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A monthly guide for the modern pirate

The New Rascal

In France as a matter of fact, we use the expression “he/she did not invent the warm water” to qualify somebody particularly and allegedly stupid. But as a whole country is rarely stupid, the cause of this apparent lateness of Great Britain regarding the rest of the world, including poorer countries, must be elsewhere.

“It is all about the

commercial cost of a

big general replacement.” Still, wondering, I called Javier, a local Canterbury plumber.

“Some old manufacturers such as Twyford and Barber Wilson started to make huge amounts of these ‘binary taps’, because of the Production Plan promulgated in 1891 in Great Britain, in order to make potable water fully and easily accessible to every British citizen. There is some heavy surplus, that is for sure. And now, it is all about the commercial cost of a big replacement.” Well said, Javier.

Taps are not only mere pieces of metal.

They reflect the history and

mentality of a country, and furthermore a country with strong anti-European tendencies. Brexit? So, if you want to compare all kinds of different tips about taps, you can visit https://www.tapsuk.com/brands, a private non-profit association providing the public with state-of-the-art comparisons between all the gear that is findable in the UK.

And, always remember; you still can use the 10 seconds interval of warm water before it becomes boiling like hell, or invest into an add-on water mixer in order to improve your life standing. No matter if you own the sink, share it or lend it. This also allows you to make your own sparkling water, or to moderate the pressure if you have a little empathy for Mother Nature.

Some key-data about taps:

In 2014, an estimated 65% of the UK sinks were still equipped with double taps.

On the contrary, since the Manufacture Reform of 1994, most of the showers have a single mixer tap.

(source: BMG Research, 2015)

89% of London tenants are favourable to the introduction of mixer taps. But only 34% of rural areas inhabitants care about the topic.

(source: Ipsos MORI, 2011)

Louki-G. Richou

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Meet you again under brighter skies!

(c) The New Rascal, Inc. London, UK, 2016. This magazine was produced for the module LL530 at the Kent University in Canterbury. The opinions expressed inside are the exclusive product of its editor: Louki-Géronimo RICHOU. Advertisement on courtesy concession.

Meet you again

under brighter skies!