I have been hearing on the news,here in America, that massive rioting is occuring in France. What is going on? It breaks my heart to hear and read of this. The BBC is also talking about this. I went on line just to learn more about what’s happening,but I read about old news. I love France,many people here were angry with France. Now, all I hear is concern. Only the very few nuts over don’t care. Everyone I talk to have ideas about how to get this situation under control. A man on the BBC news gavehis opinions tonight. When trouble strikes, we should forget our differences and do something. I don’t mean any other country should get physicaly involved,but maybe some kind of think tank..One news caster said that most of the rioters are Islamic . I hope not, I hope it’s a poverty problem. That may sound strange, but ethnic violence is real bad news. Poverty can be worked on. I hope that things will get under control very soon. My best wishes.
3What is happening in France
November 5, 2005
By francecom
3 Comments On What is happening in France
Hello,
This is indeed bad news. But it’s bad news that has been a long time in the making. There has been a lot of opinions and articles written in the last few days to try and explain the roots of the problem. There is clearly an economical side to it and a racial side to it.
Hi. Go to http://www.yahoo.com and do a search on France. They have news articles from the press in many different countries. It gives you a pretty well-balanced coverage of the current crisis.
Just two weeks ago we drove through those very areas of Paris where it started and I noticed homeless encampments underneath highway bridges. These weren’t just a few guys living under a bridge; they were actual little towns built of scrap materials under bridges. It was early morning and people were leaving them carrying book bags and lunch bags as though they were going to school or work. That kind of poverty can cause all kinds of trouble. We know because we’ve seen the riots in this country in similar situations, principally in New Orleans recently.
At any rate, check the Yahoo news site and you can read all kinds of interesting opinions and reports.
My post got cut, so here is what I wanted to say:
This is indeed bad news. But it’s bad news that have been a long time in the making. There has been a lot of opinions and articles written in the last few days to try and explain the roots of the problem and the sudden explosion of the rioting. There is clearly an economical side to it and a racial side to it.
France being a very political country, the political aspects are very important as everybody who is involved in politics is playing the riots to make a name for themselves and position themselves for the 2007 presidential elections. Sadly it seems that very few politicians in France are able to respond to the crisis in terms that will help solve it. They are playing for the media’s limelight and it is very, very unfortunate.
All of a sudden everyone realizes that the crisis has been brewing for many decades and that an urgent solution needs to put in place. The government took almost a week to respond to the early riots. For the first few days, Le Monde mentionned the riots in passing. President Chirac has been quite silent about it (until last night when he relaesed a pretty terse announcement), not unlike Bush’s reaction to Hurricane Katrina.
Now everyone is acutely aware of the problem. The blame game is being played to the hilt. Can the government solve the crisis? The next few days will tell if it can start acting instead of playing lip service to the news and media outlets.