So apparently there are over 30 cities in France that are having riots now. I barely hear anything about it... whats going on and how is the rest of Europe culturaly responding?

I haven't kept up with the news, it sounds awful. What are they rioting about?

Last I heard 5 days ago, it was because two teanagers accidently got electricuted while running away from cops who were trying to arrest them.

But that was in one town... now that its in 30... I have no clue.

Some reports say muslims are rioting, some say "black people and muslims", some say "teanagers living in the poor suburbs", some say "the disenfranchised teens."... So I have no clue.

I always thought a "poor suburb" was an oxi-moron.

i heard something about this on the radio, hrm perhaps i should google it... ... ...

so anyone know whats going on?

For a really long time, immigrants were treated like total garbage, and around two weeks ago, the police killed two teenage boys in a heavily immigrant-populated area. It started off small, and then exploded...

EDIT: Right, not killed. They were chased into some high voltage area by police.

EDIT 2: I think, also, it started off small and some organized group decided to seize their chance and go crazy, and from there, it escalated into 'mob mentality'

What's sadder yet is that the French government keeps say that the perpetrators will be caught, blahblahblah... it's been eleven days, someone DIED today, over 1000 cars burned.. where the fsck is the army?

i'm surprised such a xenophobic nation like france even -has- immigrants!

We talked about this in french class today. I'm not very good at french, so I didn't understand most of it...

Its something about the poor people in france (Rich people in france live in the city, as opposed to the suberbs like in the US).

Really, I have no idea though.

I hadn't heard anything about it, and suspected it to be a bunch of rubish - however, apparantly, french minorities (actually, just blacks of african heritage) are upset. A clip, from one article.

" PARIS — The riots that have have raged in France for 11 days have laid bare long-simmering problems related to the burgeoning immigrant population from many former French colonies in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.

Many of those immigrants and their French-born children have never been fully integrated into French society and have suffered from racial discrimination, high unemployment and poor housing."

So, from a typical white Floridian viewpoint, it sounds like it's a "I'm here I want everything handed to me".

I don't want to sound racist - discrimination is wrong. Just as wrong as people highering blacks/chinese/women who are less qualified than others simply because they want to be "diverse"

However, this is off topic. They're uneducated, thus unemployed. Unemployed, thus in crappy housing.

It sounds like they're tired of life. But this is only a quick look, and I'm not in the mood to read 10 - 15 articles from a bunch of different papers/presses just to get what I could best come to as an unbiased view.

Yolf, You must remember, France is highly socialist, so its proper for people to demand that they be handed things.

I saw an article titled, "France called in the reserves", so I imagine they're on their way.

But, obviously, violence brought this in - do you honestly think going in and resorting to more violence will solve this?

I, personally, would love to see the army go in and lay their damn foot down and say, "Riot, throw rocks and gas bombs at us, we're going to defend ourselves," then start mowing down whatever idiots throw crap at them. The rebellion would end very, very quickly.

However, America would step up as the world's police (I can only imagine Jessie Jackson is contemplating a way to jump into this as-is) and oust Chirac for 9/11.

So a question to people who are in the know...

Are the Sub-Saharan Africans the same group as the "Muslims" who are "taking over the country"? Or are these two seperate groups of immigrants?

Meh. For all my liberal viewpoints, it's why my friends call me a liberterian - I hate socialism, I hate affirmative action, etc. I'm a hardcore machiavellian at heart - but that's also how I was raised. So it's a big mess of what I want to be treated, and how I would treat the sheep-masses.

Socialism, in theory, would be nice. However, it isn't a good practice.

That isn't really what happened. Yes, there are minorities with a high unemployment rate, but they have no laws like in North America, that force them to hire because they're of a different ethnic background.

Thus, the DIAGRAM.

Immigrant arrives looking for new life -> Settling into cheap suburbs with children -> iffy neighbourhoods -> children growing up to be teenagers now, never having worked a job themselves, or had their parents work -> Parents giving up, teenagers getting involved in crime -> teenagers that weren't ACTUALLY involved in crime being basically hunted down -> more teenagers getting angry -> mob mentality -> complete chaos -> failure on the behalf of the French Government.


Ah, the army is there now. Why weren't they there sooner?

So I was flipping through the channels and saw this lady on BBC say "Since most of the rioters are teanagers, officials hope that after 11 days of burning cars they will get bored and stop. In addition the PM is asking for a curfew"....

All I was thinking was ... "Asking for a curfew? Now? Not 10 days ago?" and my dad said "Right, you can only burn things till midnight, after that you have to go home and get some sleep."


edit: But this is just a result of my complete American Ignorance, and the rise of anti-semitism in France that makes me just wish to mock them.

Very sad to see.

Unfortunately, I think these sorts of things are going to become increasingly frequent.

Why?

I thought we were past solving our problems with random violence.

Just seems like there is this global push to use violence to subdue people we disagree with, which leaves angry and violent minorities.

There's this simmering fear and tension in a lot of western countries (or at least it appears that way), and I just worry that we seem to be abandoning human empathy. I think a lot of different conflicts will escalate.

Course, I'm a pinko, so don't mind me.

Hrm... I agree that more than likely, stuff like this is prolly going to start happening more and more frequently as the newer generation finds out how totaly raw life really is when they grow up... As for France... I dunno if sending the army in will acctually help anything or not... It might just make things worse.


Oh, and if the US tries to get involved to save france, I'm personally going to go off... France has been anti-US for so long its pathetic, they can piss off and solve their own damn problems for once in my oppinion.

There will be no 'saving France'. The current gov't will not be overturned. It's really as simple as that. It's not going to happen, not in this day and age. I fully expect Chirac will resort to firm violence before he's ousted by a bunch of angry poor people from Africa.

Ironically, the U.S. will then be calling him inhuman and violent. I don't care. As Machiavelli said - Fear or Love. If you cannot be both, be feared - it is the greater of the two.

This is very intersting to me... SO nobody really knows whats going on?

Riots in 30 cities is no small thing. Organized or not.