Would you really want to live in France?
Obviously every large country has vulnerabilities. The US has shown many very recently - inability to provide timely aid after Hurricane Katrina, CIA leak, Iraq war - to name some of the recent ones. But we’ve also had our share of civil strife…the LA Riots after the Rodney King verdict. These are definitely not our finest hours to say the least. And many people will quickly point out our problems. But what about problems elsewhere…and I don’t mean the typical issues found in less developed countries. I mean things like the French Riots.
Riots in France? I thought Paris was the city of romance. Beautiful architecture. The world’s best art. Riots like these shouldn’t happen in France. So why is this happening.I have naively just believed that European countries are far more liberal than the US. They are more accepting of all types of people, no matter what religion, race, ethnic background, or sexual orientation. While I think this is true of some areas…like Spain and the UK, it apparently isn’t par for the course everywhere.
I saw the following two items in separate Wall Street Journal articles that make me think otherwise, at least with regards to France.In reality, minority groups suffer much greater rates of joblessness than the white majority, and France has no national political leaders of Arab or African origin. A few businesses and schools have only just begun experimenting, cautiously, with small affirmative-action programs.
(article)
However, the new law took some steps to address crime in France’s ghettos. It forbade gatherings of more than three people in the hallways of buildings in low-income neighborhoods and stipulated that youths who disobeyed could be sanctioned with big fines or jail time. Some say the approach backfired.
(article)
Unbelievable. They are just experimenting with affirmative action! No national political leaders of Arab or African origin? A law that prohibits gatherings in low income neighborhoods? This is not what one would expect from a progressive country…maybe from a depressive one. Even among the complaints about the US, at least we’ve worked hard to work out these basic equality issues. No country should have to deal with rioting citizens…it proves nothing and only hurts those that have been hurt. But, France needs to come to grips with a clear difference in how they treat the minority vs the majority.