Ban On The Run

So, Wot Are We Actually Allowed To Do Here?

Photograph copyright: MIKE BRUCE

This unusual shot was taken by my colleague, Mike Bruce. This is the story behind the picture, in his own words. Žižkov, the Prague suburb where we lived for one year, can be neatly divided into two parts - a Paris end, and what I liked to call, a Bucharest end. Bucharest because it was far less salubrious than the other Paris end, and because it had a large gypsy population. Someone told us early on to be careful there: ``Lots of gypsies. Lot of them carry guns, too''. We didn't believe them of course. But signs around the suburb, from the supermarket to the post office to the local stationery shop confirmed there might just be some truth to their cautionary tone. I just loved the juxtapositional irony of these signs: ``No dogs, no cycles, no active mobile phones, no ice creams, no smoking .... no guns.'' In one year, we never saw a single gun. We did however see a lot of dogs ... and a lot of smokers.