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Deep roots of Paris riots
The Christian Science Monitor ^ | November 4, 2005 | Peter Ford

Posted on 11/03/2005 9:19:33 PM PST by ncountylee

AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, FRANCE The fire engine and police sirens blaring through the darkness Wednesday night, as officers raced to put out yet another fire set by angry youths in this poor Paris suburb, signaled more than an immediate warning of danger.

After a week of nightly disturbances that have left hundreds of cars and buses torched, and several buildings burned down, the horns echoing off the concrete walls of grim housing projects sounded a broader alarm. The spreading violence has lifted the lid on an ugly stew of poverty, discrimination, and desperation amongst immigrant-descended families that most French citizens have long preferred to ignore.

"Frankly I am not surprised by what is happening," says Dounia Bouzar, an expert on French-born Muslims who has worked in the mostly black and North African districts on the outskirts of Paris. "Given the way these kids live, I wonder why it doesn't happen more often."

The outburst of violence, pitting youths throwing stones and Molotov cocktails against riot police, erupted after two teenagers in the nearby suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois - apparently hiding from the police - died by electrocution.

That incident, says social worker Michèle Lereste, "crystallized the hatred" that some of the most disaffected and hopeless young men living in what the government calls "sensitive urban zones" feel toward authority.

In these 751 zones that the government has designated for special programs, unemployment stands at 19.6 percent - double the national average - and at more than 30 percent among 21- to 29- year-olds, according to official figures. Incomes are 75 percent below the average.

Stung by charges that the government has mishandled the wave of unrest in a dozen suburbs, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy have both cancelled planned trips abroad. President Jacques Chirac called Wednesday for "dialogue" to cool tempers.

Mr. De Villepin and Mr. Sarkozy met Thursday to discuss ways of dampening the violence beyond deploying more riot police, which has been the government's approach so far. But after two decades of policies that have tried, and often failed, to strengthen schools, provide jobs, and improve housing, critics say it is time authorities took the problems more seriously.

The ugly, often poorly maintained blocks of public housing that have become a nightly battlefield are testament to 40 years of government policy that has concentrated immigrants and their families in well-defined districts away from city centers, as housing there became more expensive.

"Working class suburbs have become ethnic ghettos," says Marc Cheb Sun, who edits "Respect," a magazine aimed mostly at young black and North African readers. "That is the origin of the problem."

And it is not easy for even ambitious young people to break out if they come from a district with a bad reputation, as Jean-Francois Amadieu, a university professor who founded the "Discrimination Observatory" discovered in experiments over the past year.

He sent out fictitious applications for sales jobs, allegedly coming from six different sorts of applicant, ranging from a white male to a woman of North African origins, all with the same résumé.

Applicants writing from addresses known to be in "difficult" areas received half as many invitations to an interview as those from less notorious districts. The "North African" male candidate received five times fewer invitations than his white counterpart, says Prof. Amadieu.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: france; parisriots
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1 posted on 11/03/2005 9:19:33 PM PST by ncountylee
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To: ncountylee

Insurgents.


2 posted on 11/03/2005 9:25:14 PM PST by SteveMcKing ("I was born a Democrat. I expect I'll be a Democrat the day I leave this earth." -Zell Miller '04)
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To: ncountylee

Yep, the roots run all the way to an epileptic pedophile in the year 600 AD.


3 posted on 11/03/2005 9:26:27 PM PST by 308MBR (The cornbread will be no better than the lard.)
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To: SteveMcKing

There is more to article - click source.


4 posted on 11/03/2005 9:27:31 PM PST by ncountylee (Dead terrorists smell like victory)
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To: 308MBR

Well said Ser!


5 posted on 11/03/2005 9:35:51 PM PST by Danae (Most Liberals don't drink the Kool-aide, they are licking the powder right out of the packet.)
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To: ncountylee
Taïb Ben Thabet, who has been a social worker in the projects north of Paris for 35 years, fears that the kind of discrimination his young wards face undermines his patient efforts to help them find their place in society. "I teach them that the state is for everybody, that it treats everybody the same," he says. "But what credibility do I have when everything I say is contradicted by experience? The kids say it's all lies."

Kinda says it all don't it?
6 posted on 11/03/2005 9:38:25 PM PST by Danae (Most Liberals don't drink the Kool-aide, they are licking the powder right out of the packet.)
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To: ncountylee

I suspect these riots will make it even harder for them to find jobs.


7 posted on 11/03/2005 9:42:03 PM PST by Daralundy
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To: Daralundy

More apologists have surfaced than arrests have been made.


8 posted on 11/03/2005 9:44:20 PM PST by ncountylee (Dead terrorists smell like victory)
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To: 308MBR
"Yep, the roots run all the way to an epileptic pedophile in the year 600 AD."

Well said. Throughout history the pages are filled with millions of deaths caused by the acts of one man. Hitler, Pol Pot, and Mao just to name a few. But Mohammad is different, he's still killing people from the grave.
9 posted on 11/03/2005 9:47:15 PM PST by PositiveCogins
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To: ncountylee

This is an insurrection, why hasn't the military stepped into the picture to crush it? Playing softball with the hoodlums will only give them a sense of strength and encourage many fence-sitters to partake in the violence after seeing little in the way of physical danger.


10 posted on 11/03/2005 9:49:30 PM PST by Hexenhammer
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To: ncountylee
The root of the problem:
But after two decades of policies that have tried, and often failed, to strengthen schools, provide jobs, and improve housing, critics say it is time authorities took the problems more seriously.

The solution:
Unbridled capitalism, respect for individualism and meritocracy, sparse government dependency and courage.

11 posted on 11/03/2005 10:02:09 PM PST by Rudder
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To: ncountylee

How come when immigrant gangs riot in n LA , it doesn’t even make the local news?


12 posted on 11/03/2005 10:08:35 PM PST by seastay
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To: ncountylee
Well, it's certainly in character for the pathetic rag that the Monitor has become. A newspaper sympathetic to people who car-bomb marketplaces full of women and children in Iraq will find it easy to blame this rioting on French society. The only thing that surprises me is that the author couldn't find a way to blame Bush and the United States for it as well.
13 posted on 11/03/2005 10:10:18 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: ncountylee
Yes, what France needs to bring about peace and 'equality' for all is to have the caucasian, Christian Frenchmen who are rooted to France with a millenium of blood ancestry relinquish their jobs and give them to the Muslim immigrants. After that it would only be fair to recognize Muslim sharia law and let it be practiced in Islamic communities.

Next they should institute an Affirmative Action program to enforce this 'equality', then they need to raise taxes on these Frenchmen so they can start up state-sponsored education programs that allow the Muslim immigrants to obtain educations on the backs of French tax payers. Then they should raise taxes again to renew the Islamic ghettos so they can soon become ghettos again, as are most Islamic communities on this planet.

After doing all this, the last thing they need to do is exhume Charles Martel and tie his remains to his coffin so he won't spin around while Islam conquers France from within.

14 posted on 11/03/2005 10:17:38 PM PST by TheCrusader ("The frenzy of the Mohammedans has devastated the churches of God" -Pope Urban II, 1097AD)
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To: ncountylee
The problem with fighting terrorist groups:

America - Because of their decentralized structure they are harder to identify and attack. They must be drawn out utilizing various methods and then attacked. They don't have normal supply lines to attack and much more investigation is required to identify their funding and supply. And lastly, they can blend and get the support of the local population. More effort must be put into separating and encouraging their rejection by the local population.

France - Because of their decentralized structure it is hard to figure out who to surrender to.
15 posted on 11/03/2005 11:17:06 PM PST by Garry Boldwater
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To: ncountylee

16 posted on 11/03/2005 11:22:46 PM PST by zarf
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To: PositiveCogins; 308MBR

Mad Mo is the prophet of theDevil as mentioned in Revelations. AllahIS NOT the same as theGod of theBible.


17 posted on 11/03/2005 11:47:49 PM PST by Cronos (Never forget 9/11. Restore Hagia Sophia!)
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To: TheCrusader
caucasian, Christian Frenchmen who are rooted to France with a millenium of blood ancestry

Err.. Arabs are Caucasians as well -- and North African Berbers will have Vandal (Germanic) blood in them as well as Roman and Arab. There are also white Frenchies who've becomeMozzies as well as white Poles or descendents of them etc. who live in France (like Sarkozy for example) -- are you saying these Polish descendents (among others) don't have the right to live and work in France?

Be more specific -- the problem is NOT race, NOT ethnicity, the problem is the cult of the moon rock
18 posted on 11/03/2005 11:50:45 PM PST by Cronos (Never forget 9/11. Restore Hagia Sophia!)
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To: zarf

Actually Pasqua is against additional immigration and against the EU.


19 posted on 11/03/2005 11:55:11 PM PST by rmlew (Sedition and Treason are both crimes, not free speech.)
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To: All
Is Paris Burning? ( Religion of Peace Alert )
Click the picture:


20 posted on 11/03/2005 11:58:52 PM PST by backhoe
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