Posted on 11/12/2004 8:00:34 AM PST by Ginifer
Some 1600 French people arrived at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris with tales of fear and horror after days of anti-French attacks in the Ivory Coast.
Most of the evacuees had left behind their homes and their livelihoods, often after many years in Africa.
Helene, who lived for 32 years in Abidjan running a printing business, told French radio: "We spent five hours on the roof, listening to them taking our apartment to pieces and then breaking everything they couldn't remove. Our life is there; we have nothing in France. The radio was screaming at everyone to rid themselves of the 'imperialist pigs', the 'Satans'."
"There is so much hatred in their faces. Why? We have many, many Ivorian friends. Why so much anti-French hatred?"
At least four people were taken to hospital on arrival, and psychologists waited to offer help if needed.
Christophe Larouille, from Angers, said: "We've been through 'hunt the white man'.
"I was lucky; the helicopter landed almost on my lawn, in the middle of the night. AdvertisementAdvertisement
"There was a knock on my door, and a voice said, 'You've got three seconds to make your mind up.' I took off sitting on a pile of ammunition, like in a film. I saw someone who had lost an eye. The soldiers said there were deaths, people had been decapitated, women had been raped."
Jose, a 67-year-old administrator, emerged into the arrivals hall bringing with him just the clothes he was wearing: "A pair of espadrilles, a pair of shorts, two T-shirts and a briefcase that my neighbours managed to rescue by some miracle," he said.
He told Le Monde: "I was attacked twice over the weekend. The first time I managed to talk them out of it, helped with money and a bottle of whisky. When they came back I took refuge in the home of some African friends. My house was looted and completely sacked. They turned up with trucks. There's not a needle left."
A French official said between 4000 and 8000 of its 14,000 citizens wanted to leave, a number that would make it one of the largest evacuations of Africa's post-independence era.
Bears repeating, and repeating, and repeating...until modern liberal idiots get it through their heads. The modern wonders of liberty and civilization were all brought about at the barrel of a gun. This is also what will maintain them against barbarians.
I don't know. I guess there is something about the French that p****s people off! (me included)
Thank you for the kind words.
Take a country with a democratically elected government. Then have a cynical foreign power come in and tell those people they have to share their government with a bunch of islamic rebels. People get pissed and do violent things.
You sound here almost like the mainstream media: hatred is caused by actions.
How would Americans react if a foreign power came in and told us how to run our government? Would we have a lot of love for citizens of that foreign country?
The French and the British in Africa are a convenient minority on which to vent frustrations
The French use military force to strongarm African governments and advance their own economic interests in those countries. Whatever problems those countries might have independent of the French, France's championing of an Islamic rebel group over the freely elected government of The Ivory Coast does not help matters.
And please forget that Leftist garbage about colonies: two generations have grown up since then, and these whites and blacks played with each other as children.
To a large extent, the French still run a lot of these countries as colonies.
The people rioting in The Ivory Coast are from the Christian segment of the population. Ivory Coast was a stable place until the French tried to force the government to accept Islamic rebels into the government. Though I feel bad for the innocent French citizens involved in this, I'm behind the people of The Ivory Coast.
On a side note, this is why its important to get democracy functioning in IRAQ ASAP. Part of the reason why France is in this mess is because they wore the occupation hat a little to long without making positive changes for Democracy. They stayed too long and didn't stop the uprisings, causing resentment on all sides. They tried keeping Laurent Gbagbo in power despite several coup attempts - the whole place has fallen to peices ever since.
It has to do with the fact that the French have forced the democratically elected government of Ivory Coast to accept a so-called unity government with a Muslim rebel group that has ties to international terrorism.
But, hey, go ahead and try to paint this as some sort of racial thing.
I guess you really miss the point. In the above described case, we would fight and kill their leaders; we would (I hope) launch an uprising; we would use every gun that is, thank G-d, in our possession.
But we would not rape their women or burn people alive. That has been, at least so far, the difference between Americans and the rest of the world. It's called civility. De Tocqueville noted that "America is great because of the basic goodness of its people." That is because goodness was present at an uncommonly high level.
He also added, "And it [America] will cease to be great if its people cease to be good." Which is why I was making the point. Only Marxists and Arab terrorists assume that rape, beheading, etc. is a natural and understandable response to someone' actions. In other words, ends justify the means. We have always abhorred that position. And, as a conservative, you should too: not all means are a justified response to someone's actions, however grievous.
Very French.
I'm not positive here, but isn't the majority of the Ivory Coast PO'ed at the French for helping "The Religon of Peace" minority there which has conducted itself in its normal matter toward Christians?
Bastille Day, in the Ivory Coast.
Is there anything worse than a French lute player?
Gee, I can't figure it out.... Up until September 2002, the Ivory Coast government had been peaceful. Then some violent fascists started kidnapping children at schools and the French sent troops and decided to award the Ministries of Defense and Interior to the violent fascists without the consent of the government or the people. Then thousands of people flooded the streets begging the US to save them. But no one listened.
I just can't figure out why the French are unpopular there
This is a quality example of the "nuanced" and "sophisticated" "conflict resolution" diplomacy of the worldly wise Froggies.
See how well it works? Don't you just wish GW had tried this with Saddam?
I am just so impressed that the only voters that Kedwards got in any major way were the high school dropouts (isn't that a good portion of Hollywood) and people with graduate degrees (also people who don't have to fix the garbage they mess up).
Woodrow Wilson was a PhD in political science and the pinhead put in a proportional representation system in a country that had no democratic tradition and is held accountable only by historian AJP Taylor has having fostered the National Social Democratic Workers Party in Germany. (PS he also couldn't do anything about the French confiscating German funds and he didn't know what territories were ethnically German). So much for pinheads who get paid to make stuff up (alt Kerry voter with a graduate degree).
"only voters that Kedwards got in any major way were the high school dropouts (isn't that a good portion of Hollywood) and people with graduate degrees ..."
"People with graduate degrees" is a shorthand term for university professors. Multitudes of us out in the real world "with graduate degrees" and dealing with it first hand have nothing but contempt for the tenured hothouse mutant orchids still blooming with the tawdry foliage of the 60's.
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