Paris Riots
A few things about the riots.
Unbeknownst to some critics, Nicolas Sarkozy is not entirely unpopular in the affected regions -- he’s actually quite popular with many who aren't rioting. He’s also been the only senior politician for quite some time trying to do something about it. Most leave it alone because it’s too difficult, but Sarkozy’s actually prepared to take the risk. By calling the rioters ‘scum’, he’s only showing that he’s prepared to give people in the banlieus the same deal everyone else in France gets. He’d call anyone else ‘scum’ too, if they did what the rioters are doing. He’s offering them equality.
Many of these neighbourhoods had no police there at all. The police simply didn’t go there. Sarkozy’s trying to change that, and a lot of the criminals don’t like it. This is the great irony -- in socialist France, the banlieu residents are proving the capitalists right, showing that everyone, left to their own devices and free of state interference, will become enterprising and seek to make a profit.
These young people did just that -- they got into crime, and set up all kinds of rackets with stolen goods, cars, drugs, you name it. With unemployment so high, and policing almost non-existent, crime was the number one industry in some of these neighbourhoods. What you’re seeing in the riots now is really just the same thing that happens when the government tries to privatise some public company, and the unions go on strike.
This is the French banlieu criminal union going on strike. The French government is trying to take away their gainful employment, and they’re not happy about it. Who said these kids weren’t real Frenchmen?
Unbeknownst to some critics, Nicolas Sarkozy is not entirely unpopular in the affected regions -- he’s actually quite popular with many who aren't rioting. He’s also been the only senior politician for quite some time trying to do something about it. Most leave it alone because it’s too difficult, but Sarkozy’s actually prepared to take the risk. By calling the rioters ‘scum’, he’s only showing that he’s prepared to give people in the banlieus the same deal everyone else in France gets. He’d call anyone else ‘scum’ too, if they did what the rioters are doing. He’s offering them equality.
Many of these neighbourhoods had no police there at all. The police simply didn’t go there. Sarkozy’s trying to change that, and a lot of the criminals don’t like it. This is the great irony -- in socialist France, the banlieu residents are proving the capitalists right, showing that everyone, left to their own devices and free of state interference, will become enterprising and seek to make a profit.
These young people did just that -- they got into crime, and set up all kinds of rackets with stolen goods, cars, drugs, you name it. With unemployment so high, and policing almost non-existent, crime was the number one industry in some of these neighbourhoods. What you’re seeing in the riots now is really just the same thing that happens when the government tries to privatise some public company, and the unions go on strike.
This is the French banlieu criminal union going on strike. The French government is trying to take away their gainful employment, and they’re not happy about it. Who said these kids weren’t real Frenchmen?
8 Comments:
One of the few observers to note that the French State has largely abandoned these communities.
This makes the riots different in character from the usual racial/ethnic riots.
For a description of this aspect of the riots see :
http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/fabius_rioting_in_france.htm
This website runs mostly articles from military and intellegence professionals. It's a different perspective on the riots from the conventional ones.
Although I'm not sure about the notion that crime is a result of capitalism , I do sorta like this Sarkozy character.
Yes, the media do divide everything along race or religion, but I remember when Pim Fortuyn was killed, a Dutch friend asked her Muslim friends, what did you think of him. They answered, of course we would vote for him--we know what the radicals can do!
Crime is a human endeavor, not the result of any particular economic system. Corruption is most rampant in societies with extensive state invovlement in the economy.
Grim, I believe you are misreading this passage:
"...in socialist France, the banlieu residents are proving the capitalists right, showing that everyone, left to their own devices and free of state interference, will become enterprising and seek to make a profit..."
Which expresses the notion that people will, absent government fetters, try to make a decent living. The activity being 'criminal' is almost, (not quite), beside the point.
Sarkozy is a bloody hero! One of the few men MAN enough to tell it how it is!
Civil War in Paris :
http://stalker.hautetfort.com/archive/2005/11/05/bellum-civile-ou-civil-war-in-paris-par-francis-moury.html
Civil War in France :
http://stalker.hautetfort.com/archive/2005/11/09/bellum-civile-2-ou-cicil-war-in-france-par-francis-moury.html
Time of the "kaïra" :
http://stalker.hautetfort.com/archive/2005/11/10/le-temps-des-kaira-par-raphael-dargent.html
My wife is from Marseille and has voted socialist and even trotskyite all her life. But she supports Sarkozy now and has for some time.
Post a Comment
<< Home