Recently in France Category
The situation in France is improving - that is, if you call nearly 500 vehicles burned an improvement.
It appears that bribes and increased socialism has worked - for the rioters. Same as addressing a child's angry tantrum with toys or candy, the "disaffected youths" have learned how successful these tactics are with the French government. If it worked once, it will work again - so expect more riots, burning, and thuggery in the future.
Update (9:50 EST): Looks like thugs in Belgium have paid attention.
Via AP/Yahoo, apparently the extra police and curfews are having little effect on the rioters:
Rioters ignored the extraordinary security measures, which began Wednesday, as they looted and burned two superstores, set fire to a newspaper office and paralyzed France's second largest city's subway system with a gasoline bomb.
Meanwhile, the French government continues to spin in circles:
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, tacitly acknowledging that France has failed to live up to its egalitarian ideals, reached out to the heavily immigrant suburbs where the rioting began. He said France must make a priority of working against the discrimination that feeds the frustration of youths made to feel that they do not belong in France.
"We must be lucid: The Republic is at a moment of truth," Villepin told parliament. "The effectiveness of our integration model is in question." He called the riots "a warning" and "an appeal."
There are some signs that the violence may have peaked and is declining:
"The intensity of this violence is on the way down," National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said, citing fewer attacks on public buildings and fewer direct clashes between youths and police. He said rioting was reported in 226 towns across France, compared to nearly 300 the night before.
If this is indeed the turning point, as I expected, expect the violence to die down quickly. Absolutely none of the underlying problems will be addressed, and these thugs will organize to commit organized Al-Qaeda - style attacks. This isn't going away anytime soon.
According to some in the fantasy world of the Daily Kos, Bush is responsible for the French riots.
Why not? These hate-filled zealots blame Bush for everything else...
The politics of appeasement - alive and well in France:
President Jacques Chirac, in private comments more conciliatory than his warnings Sunday that rioters would be caught and punished, acknowledged in a meeting Monday with Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga that France has not integrated immigrant youths, she said.
Chirac deplored the "ghettoization of youths of African or North African origin" and recognized "the incapacity of French society to fully accept them," said Vike-Freiberga.
France "has not done everything possible for these youths, supported them so they feel understood, heard and respected," Chirac added, noting that unemployment runs as high as 40 percent in some suburbs, four times the national rate, according to Vike-Freiberga.
And from Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin :
Villepin said he wanted to speed up a $35.5 billion urban redevelopment plan, triple the number of merit scholarships for talented students and offer jobs, training or internships to disadvantaged young people.
"We must offer them hope and a future," he said.
Maybe they should offer each of the rioters a new car as well. Uh, never mind - there's a car shortage right now.
In the meantime, tourism is expected to suffer as France is given the leper colony treatment:
The list of foreign governments urging tourists to exercise caution in France is growing, with Australia, Austria, Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Denmark, Slovakia and the Czech Republic on Monday joining the United States, Russia and Hungary in issuing warnings to avoid riot-hit areas, especially at night. None are advising travelers to avoid France altogether — at least, not yet.
Further evidence of the superiority of socialism in France
Via AP/Yahoo:
French to Impose Curfews, Deploy Forces
You'd think they would have thought of this a few days ago...
Over 1400 vehicles burned in 274 towns Monday as French rioting continued for the 12th day. More disturbing is this:
Apparent copycat attacks spread to other European cities for the first time, with five cars torched outside Brussels' main train station, police in the Belgian capital said.
I doubt that the spread outside of France will have much traction. The rest of Europe has watched the situation closely and will be better prepared than the Chirac government to deal with any violence before it escalates.
Question for the readers - could this happen here in the USA? What could be done to prevent it?
I look forward to your comments.
The situation in France continued to be out of control today - shots fired at police, over 300 cars set ablaze not just near Paris but across several towns. This is day 11 of the unrest.
President Jacques Chirac has vowed to restore order:
"The Republic is quite determined, by definition, to be stronger than those who want to sow violence or fear," Chirac said after a domestic security council met to respond to the violence in which thousands of cars have gone up in flames.
Would that he had such resolve against terror. The Muslim community has spoken out as well:
One of France's largest Islamic groups, the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF), issued a fatwa against rioting on Sunday after officials suggested Muslim militants could be partly to blame for the violence.
"It is formally forbidden to any Muslim seeking divine grace and satisfaction to participate in any action that blindly hits private or public property or could constitute an attack on someone's life," the fatwa said.
No, I'm not going to say it (but I'm thinking it, and so are you). Personally, I feel that this is close to a peak, if today wasn't it already. Expect it to die down quickly when it turns. But this will not go away. It will fester below a veneer of relative quiet, and resurface as something more resembling terrorism.
As far as I'm concerned, this is just more proof that multiculturalism breeds misunderstanding, undermines nationalism, and fosters downright hatred. The failure of the French government to quell the violence has allowed the situation to evolve into class warfare. Had France worked harder to integrate these people into French society and culture as a condition of naturalization, much of the frustration the ethnic minorities now feel would have been avoided.
Other nations would be foolish not to take note.
