http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9891709/ Old news, in a way, as the riots have been going on for the past two weeks, but the last three days have shown a record in the amount of cars burned. Yesterday was a sort of calm, if one can call 500 cars burned when compared to 1000 cars the day before. All in all, France is pretty fucked up at the moment.
It's not just at the moment. The French have a penchant for rebellion. Strikes are a way of life, tolerated and supported even by those affected, and the anti-state violence of 1968 is still remembered almost fondly, and certainly with pride. The current political set-up is deeply unpopular, and the campaigning for the 2007 presidential elections is beginning here. Nicolas Sarkozy the interior minister has political capital to make by taking a tough and inflammatory stance, and he is doing so, appealing to the most basic and resentful attitudes of conservative France. The fall in President Chirac's popularity will encourage him (Sarkozy) to maintain this hard line stance.
I think this is a case of people being discriminated against and the can't take it any more... "apartheid" is not only a South African thing..
[quote:6f0488329e="Cynth"]I think this is a case of people being discriminated against and the can't take it any more... "apartheid" is not only a South African thing..[/quote:6f0488329e] Yes it is. The discrimination comes largely from the aggressive tactics employed by both the civil police and the CRS (riot police) against non-white people. This was recognised and condemned by Amnesty International in a report last April. The French government problems stem from the fact that they pretend that this is not going on, and therefore allow the situation to deteriorate as it has done.
[quote:1a2b708aa5="sleepy_sarge"][quote:1a2b708aa5="Cynth"]I think this is a case of people being discriminated against and the can't take it any more... "apartheid" is not only a South African thing..[/quote:1a2b708aa5] Yes it is. The discrimination comes largely from the aggressive tactics employed by both the civil police and the CRS (riot police) against non-white people. This was recognised and condemned by Amnesty International in a report last April. The French government problems stem from the fact that they pretend that this is not going on, and therefore allow the situation to deteriorate as it has done.[/quote:1a2b708aa5] Which is traditional for the French goverment, as much as rebellion is traditional in France. The local sentiments are interesting. Judging from about 160 replies to the same news on an Israeli website, France in flames is making the Israeli public a very unified body indeed. No religion, no political affiliation, will stop the people of Israel from hating France.
[quote:d219ce8edd="Roman_K"] No religion, no political affiliation, will stop the people of Israel from hating France.[/quote:d219ce8edd] Why? I ask just out of curiosity really .. I don't off-hand recollect any link between Israel and France from my school history.
[quote:670ae3036f="sampanna"][quote:670ae3036f="Roman_K"] No religion, no political affiliation, will stop the people of Israel from hating France.[/quote:670ae3036f] Why? I ask just out of curiosity really .. I don't off-hand recollect any link between Israel and France from my school history.[/quote:670ae3036f] It started from resentment of the surviving Jewish French population, which remembered quite well how the French cooperated with the Nazis when it came to ship folks to the camps. It continued with De Galle restructuring the French goverment at one point, can't remember the exact date, in his own image and out of his own reasons. The result was 'neutral hostility', as De Galle himself called it. Another part of it is that nearly everyone hates France for one reason or aother. It rubs off.
I believe civil unrest such as this should not happen, both because I do not endorse violence and I want the root problems dealt with, in any country.
Heres an interesting article on the French approach to immigration versus other countries approaches and why maybe its been such a debacle there.
The French approach to immigration is that it doesn't, officially, exist. There are no ethnic groups, because French culture is the only one that has a right to exist in France. There is no racism. There is no anti-semetism. As there are no groups in any shape or form except for the big French one, all crimes which have racial or anti-semetic natures are ignores, unless there's really no way to ignore the racial overtures. So France is the most racially active non-racist country in Europe, mainly because it pretends the problems don't exist. Now, if France wanted to keep it's culture to such an extent, it should have limited immigration. If it wants immigration, it should recognize that it has more than one ethnic group. It should recognize it has *problems* with the way it treats ethnic groups. Ignoring a problem won't make it go away.
Roman that exactly what the article I linked said... I think your psychic or you were paraphrasing...
[quote:bacb80ac8c="spiky"] Roman that exactly what the article I linked said... I think your psychic or you were paraphrasing...[/quote:bacb80ac8c] Heh, I've actually only read the first paragraph of the article, as I didn't have much in the way of time to read it. Now, if I can only use this pschicimajig thing on my proffessors...
