Tuesday, November 01, 2005

To the Barricades!

Armed French racists invaded Clichy-sous-Bois and attacked local residents without provocation recently, setting off a fierce resistence among embattled freedom fighters.

Uh-oh. Actually, the police went to the rescue of the city when Muslim immigrants rampaged and rioted and went nuts in a crime-ridden suburb. Still, it's the fault of the French. Of course it is, just check out this excerpt from the English BBC News.
***
Anger grips Paris riot suburb
By Alasdair Sandford
BBC News, Clichy-sous-Bois, France

The evidence of the previous night's trouble is clear to see on the Bosquets estate.

A burnt-out van in Clichy-sous-Bois
Burnt-out vehicles and debris remain on Clichy's streets

Among the cars parked outside one block of flats are two burnt-out vehicles and small piles of debris. Rocks and stones are strewn across the street.

There is no sign of any security presence and people are shopping and chatting as on any normal day.

It does not take long to get a sense of the hostility some feel towards the police.

A driver pulls up in front of the market, his little boy strapped in the back of his car.

He admits belonging to a group that is sometimes a bit "chaud" - meaning troublesome - a hint at the unrest of the past few days.

He describes the nightly presence of the CRS, the French riot police, as provocation.

"If they didn't come here, into our area, nothing would happen," he says. "If they come here it's to provoke us, so we provoke back."

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4397056.stm
***

Whenever chaud turned into "troublesome" we must have missed that day at BBC Euphemism School. Maybe we were busy learning that the French Revolutionaries were the first to abolish slavery. Maybe we were busy reading The Rights of Man. Maybe we were busy thinking the French are the ones who created a pillar of Modernity that we cannot get enough of and can't afford to let crumble under the weight of philobarbarism.

We have an unlimited hatred of Lyotard, Derrida, Foucault and cetera because we have an equally unlimited love of Abelard, Montesquieu, and Zola, to mention three of hundreds who spring to mind. Where in Clichy-sous-Bois today do we find the Dumas? "Our Area" we read. The French are taken over by German Romantics. Now "Our Area." What next? Will our French friends have to barricade themselves in! In the depths of this debacle, maybe the germination.

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