November 9, 2005
ENOUGH SCUMINESS TO GO AROUND:
The Revolt of Ennui (ANTOINE AUDOUARD, 11/09/05, NY Times)
A FRIEND called me a night ago from Paris. [...]On Friday, as his mother was having a bite in a restaurant at the local mall, a gang of 20 or so angry youths from the neighborhood stormed into the restaurant, terrorizing customers, poaching food and drinks and ransacking the place. His mother, who is severely disabled and survives on a modest state pension, was frightened. And my friend was frightened for her, but angry as well. [...]
As the first depressing news and images began to pour into our living rooms, however, there was a sad recognition that we did not expect any political leader to give credible political expression to the complex emotions involved - not Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, not Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy (who angered many when he called the rioters "scum"), not any of their counterparts on the left.
As I was telling my friend how appalled and angered I was by everything I had seen, he started suggesting extreme measures - like sending in the army or financially penalizing those parents unable to control their teenagers. "They talk about the almost 3,000 cars that have been burnt in the past few days," he said. "But no one talks about the 28,000 cars that have been burnt since the beginning of the year."
In many respects his words echoed those I'd read earlier on a French music blog whose writers alternated between empathy for the rioters and dismay at their destruction: "They criticize Sarkozy for calling them 'scum.' But burning our cars, our buses, our schools, what would you call them? Scum, that's what they are."
[...]I asked my friend what he thought about the ebullient creativity the government was trying to show. He replied by recalling 2002, when the anti-immigrant politician Jean-Marie Le Pen made it into the runoff for the presidency, and last May when voters rejected the European Constitution. "All the politicians were on TV, claiming that they got the message and things would change," he said. "How long did that last?"
What did Mr. Sarkozy call the ethnically French who left their elderly parents to cook in their apartments last summer? Posted by Orrin Judd at November 9, 2005 7:32 PM
Darwinists?
Posted by: pj at November 9, 2005 8:37 PMOn NPR this morning, a French (EU, actually, but French) official was interviewed. The BBC announcer asked what would be done since assimilation had obviously failed; the Frenchman answered that, on the contrary, assimilation had been demonstrated; what could be more French than rioting for economic opportunity?
I nearly drove off the road.
I do have to concede that he had a point...
Posted by: Mike Earl at November 9, 2005 9:58 PMActually, the heat wave was in 2003.
But no matter, it was handled in typical French fashion.
Someone should ask the 'immigrants' if they are prepared to sacrifice for France (through high taxes), should their demand for jobs be granted.
Posted by: ratbert at November 9, 2005 11:08 PMI guess we won't mention the Chicago heatwave of the early 90's(?).
Posted by: JeffGuinn at November 10, 2005 11:32 AMJeff:
I think that was in 1995, and Bill Clinton successfully avoided all blame for the heat and for the 800+ deaths attributed to it.
Posted by: ratbert at November 10, 2005 12:59 PMOld people died in hospitals and nursing homes too. Would you call that survival of the fittest or natural selection?
Erp:
What I would call it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
I am no fan of France -- I have spent too much time there for that nonsense -- but we have had our own identical episode, so it is risking disingenuousness to harp on this too much.
NB -- France is generally much cooler than the American Midwest in the summer. Few French residences have air conditioning. If Chicago was like that, 800 wouldn't have been a drop in the bucket.
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at November 11, 2005 7:24 AM