Posted on 11/05/2005 2:54:50 PM PST by Daralundy
If Nicolas Sarkozy had been allowed to have his way, he could have saved France. Last Summer the outspoken minister of the Interior was Frances most popular politician with his promise to restore the law of the Republic in the various virtually self-ruling immigrant areas surrounding the major French cities.
These areas, which some compare to the millet system of the former Ottoman Empire, where each religious community (millet) conducted its own social and cultural life in its own neighbourhoods, exist not only in France, but also in Muslim neighbourhoods in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and other countries.
The French establishment led by the corrupt President Jacques Chirac and his Prime Minister, the aristocrat Dominique de Villepin, an appointee who has never held an elected office, begrudged Sarkozy his popularity. The minister was distrusted. He was an outsider, a self-made man who had made it to the top without the support of relations and cronies, by hard work and his no-nonsense approach.
Sarkozy (whose real surname is Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa) is a second generation immigrant, the son of a Hungarian refugee and a Greek mother. I like the frame of mind of those who need to build everything because nothing was given to them, he said a few months ago about his upbringing.
The experience of his youth has made Sarkozy not only the most pro-American French politician, but also virtually the only one who understands what second generation immigrants really need if they want to build a future.
More important than the so-called social benefits the government alms provided by welfare politicians like Chirac, Villepin and their predecessors is the provision of law and order. This guarantees that those who create wealth do not lose it to thugs who extort and rob and burn down their properties.
Sarkozys decision to send the police back to the suburbs which had been abandoned by previous governments was resented by the youths who now rule there. That this would lead to riots was inevitable. Sarkozy knew it, and so did Chirac, Villepin and the others. Sarkozy intended to crack down hard on the rioters. If the French government had sent in the army last week, it would have been responding to the thugs in a language they understand: force. And the riots would long have ceased.
What happened instead was that Sarkozys colleagues in government used the riots as an excuse to turn on the immigrant in their own midst. Paris is well worth a mass, King Henri IV of France once said. Bringing down Nicolas Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa is well worth a riot, King Chirac must have thought. Contrary to the normal French policy in dealing with trouble makers, the authorities decided to use a soft approach. Chirac and his designated crown prince Villepin blamed Sarkozys disrespectful rhetoric such as calling thugs thugs for having detonated the explosive situation in the suburbs. Dominique de Villepin stepped in and took over the task of restoring calm from Sarkozy. While the latter was told to shut up and keep a low profile, Villepin began a dialogue with the rioters. As a result the riots have spilled over from Paris to other French cities. Do not be surprised if this French epidemic soon crosses Frances borders into the North African areas surrounding cities in Belgium and the Netherlands.
As for Sarkozy, the best thing this immigrant son can do is to resign and make a bid for the 2007 presidential elections as an outsider. His popularity with the ordinary Frenchmen has not been tarnished yet. But this could soon change if he remains a member of a Villepin government which is clearly unwilling to abolish the current millet system. French patriots do not like to see their country disintegrate into a cluster of self-governing city-states, some of which are Sharia republics.
"When we were in Paris, we were shocked to find out that you could only eat at certain times in a public eatery. They truly are lazy people who despise Americans."
I lived in France for 12 years. The problem is the Socialist government. I always found the people to be gracious, hospitable, honest and hard working.The only anti-Americans I encountered were in Socialist elitist and academic circles.
The restaurants in Paris follow lunch and dinner hours because they are real restaurants, not fast food joints.
They serve lunch and dinner at hours when people eat lunch and dinner.
The same is true in NY and other large cities.
I'm not certain I grasp your meaning.
At the time our two sons were too young to understand. But now they fully appreciate.
You had me there. Up until the last word I believed you! I thought, that would be right, France would sue rather than admit it had a problem...
LOL....PRICELESS!
Thanks for the ping, Former Dodger. ;o)
BTW, oldie, but good: The U.S. Government has issued: The France Advisory (adjusted for clarity).
Obviously, you have never been to the Renault plant, or a civil service office.
They do work hard at Airbus though.
That's because they were too busy blaming the US for the attacks of 9/11 to be terrified!
Several Americans freaked and would not go back.
A very logical reaction at that time.
Frankly, I run across way more Americans that are terrified than Brits, Aussies, Italians, or Russians.
See my first point above - they honestly believe they are "safe" because they aren't directly fighting terrorism.
And the French were not terrified at all.
See above.
They have transit strikes that screw up their routine worse than this will.
LOL - So true!!
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