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November 10, 2005
Stadium Erupts in France
Wow, what a mess. France, the land of great wine, cheese, romance and love sure has a lot of hate and anger these days. I haven't been to France in quite a few years, so whatever I say has to be taken with a degree of scepticism, but I think it is important to raise a few issues, some born of generalizations and hopefully, some not. So here is my list of known assumptions:
1) There are a lot of poor, angry, African and Middle Eastern immigrants in France who can't get good paying jobs, feel discriminated against and see little hope of improving their lives.
2) Many of these folks are Muslims, some second generation.
3) France says that it is open to immigration with equality for all
4) The French are considered arrogant and not terribly accepting of outsiders
5) Many people immigrate to a country and do not make a great effort to accept their new homeland's culture. Newcomers don't learn the language or celebrate national holidays. Many continue to dress and act as they did in their native lands.
"What we have here is a failure to communicate." This is obviously a very complicated problem, one whose prescriptions can't be adequately explained in a couple of sentences, however I will paint some very wide brush strokes. The only way to fix it is for everyone to accept some of the blame and make substantial changes in the way they interact with each other. The dissaffected need to not only feel a sense of hope, but see tangible improvement in their lives. They need to know that there is real opportunity for them in France. The French people also need to make them feel welcome. On the other side of the court, the Arabs and Blacks have to make a greater effort to integrate into French society. They need to learn the language, accept the customs and open up their Muslim thinking to accept more Western thought, if it is too exclusive. "When in Rome, do as the Roman's do."
Posted by Chip Spear at November 10, 2005 4:49 PM