Anarchy in Paris!

Isn't this the exact moment that figureheads are for, to say the right words at the right time to bring this situation to some kind of resolution? Isn't this why people get elected, to have poise and imagination in moments like this?

Now years of telling immigrants that there is only one kind of French is blowing up in their faces and the initial reaction of people like Sarkozy shows that the next generation of rulers is as out of touch as the current one.

PARIS (Reuters) - With every night of violent rioting that scars France's rundown suburbs, more and more French say their distinctive model of integration, based on the revolutionary ideal of equality for all, has failed.

But President Jacques Chirac and his conservative allies are unlikely to join the critics, as that would mean accepting the approach France considers superior is no better than integration policies abroad.

[..]

Crises abroad such as the London bombings by Islamist militants, or the sight of poor, black Americans stranded in flooded New Orleans, are often occasions for smug comment in France on the dangers of admitting that ethnic minorities exist.

I also don't think there is likely to be much public support for the police going in and "kicking ass" a l'americaine. The police are not very popular.

(many xposts)

I wasn't speaking about police actions (or trying to imply the French police weren't serious & very tough), I was commenting on the public attitude toward them.. I think here in the US a much larger percentage of the general public would be pretty gung-ho about a police crackdown. (This scares me.)

This is not going to clear up any time soon.

Ed is spot-on. The spirit of the recent riots seems quite close to that of 68, ie retaliating against the very nature of Gaullist society with all its hierarchies and coldness. While de Gaulle might be long dead, Gaullism remains and is painfully inappropriate to the modern world. Are the CRS (are they still called that?) still as violent as they were back then? If so, this is unbelievable and the force needs a complete culture change.

Integration into French society is not a policy the Government is keen on, with nearly five million people of migrant descent kept in housing projects where currently rioting is taking place.

The education system is modelled on the ideas of the French revolution . . . and some of its pedagogy is still the same. Everybody has to conform to one image of the French.

So conforming to the republican idea of what France, with one mould -that is, the law and education is for everybody, and everybody has got to conform to it - is in fact, not taking into account the reality of the multicultural society that France has got now.

Don't think the '68 rioters doused any wheelchair-bound ladies in petrol before setting them on fire, though.

-- salexander / sofia (silva11...), November 8th, 2005.

of course, this kind of insurrection is so typically french that the rioters have surely 'conformed' perfectly well to societal norms. fwiw, i think that this 'kind of thing' would/could easily happen in britain if we had high unemployment and a more violent police force (such as they have in france).

i think the french are right-on with the secularist path, and reintroducing religion into public schools would be a disaster -- as it will he here, in ten or fifteen years time.

this -- "the law and education is for everybody, and everybody has got to conform to it - is in fact, not taking into account the reality of the multicultural society that France has got now" -- makes no sense whatever. in what functioning country can the law not be 'for everybody'? an incredibly unequal one. (not that france lives up to its professed equality, but at least it's an objective.)

i don't see how 'the reality of a multicultural society' necessitates changing the law so that, on the basis of skin colour, you are different as citizens.

Also, I don't think "secularism" can justify the banishing of head scarves - these aren't just religious but integral to certain people's identities. (Plus I think it's incredibly sexist to force young girls to choose between their religious beliefs - whether they are imposed by their families or not - and education).

i'm not anti-headscarf as such, possibly the govt shd have let it slide because it's become this ridiculous 'issue' and means the govt gets accused of racism. the threat of schoolchildren being taught religious dogma in schools is far greater in britain, also.

It is true that the government has allowed it to become an "issue," but it should have never come to that. How is it interfering with anyone else's education to wear something which you personally believe in? It's not trying to convert other students or teachers or impose beliefs on them.

Head-scarves also aren't inherently sexist. I have issues with it as well, but respect those who choose to wear them. (Some Muslim women find them empowering to prevent being objectified).

That's what I said: there's no choice, the law says you can't bring religion into schools, end of. It's much simpler than what we're going to have in Britain where because people of all religions won't awake from the middle ages, they can't school together because they can't accept each other's pitiful rituals before class, the upshot being segregated schooling where children are taught anti-scientific (or homophobic, sexist, bigoted) bollocks. as you know, most of this religious 'requirement' stuff is as much a interpretative procedure as anything involving the constitution.

headscarves are minor, and to be honest i think the french whd have let it lie; but i admire their idealism there.

Oh that's right, forgot you have a fondness for the French! (That's a joke BTW, not dissing). Anyway um back to anarchy in Paris.

France was slow to react to the spreading violence set off by the accidental deaths of two youths on Oct. 27, in part because the initial nights of unrest did not seem particularly unusual in a country where an average of more than 80 cars a day were set on fire this year even before the violence. -NYTimes

!

They aren't even religious, Muslim women don't have to wear them

"He has stood for lower tax rates, the removal of price controls, strong punishment for crime and terrorism; and business privatization."

Tho, admittedly, being French, it's not quite that straightforward:

"He has also argued for more socially responsible economic policies, and was elected in 1995 after campaigning on a platform of healing the "social rift" (fracture sociale). His economic policies have at various times included both laissez-faire and dirigiste elements."