|
Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality (UK) wrote in the Observer this weekend,
"The hundreds of cars that have now been burnt in French streets are pyres that mark the passing of a French delusion - that the incantation of 'liberté, égalité, fraternité' would somehow mask the réalité of life for non-white French men and women: repression, discrimination, segregation."
Personally I was horrified at the idea that personal property, which other poorly paid citizens have worked for and probably need in order to work is simply being viewed as justified fuel for a protest. My parents' mantra of "work hard & keep your nose clean" does give me a tiny right-wing kernel under my soft liberal layers.
Still - I acknowledge that France is facing a difficult situation. I have lost touch with the French friends I had in London, but they were gloomily predicting trouble 4 years ago. Their opinion (and I am submitting it simply as that) was that France has such an emphasis on being a secular society, it leaves immigrants rootless. How do you bring people into line when the essential problem is that they don't care about the society they live in any more?
Its too easy to insist that people have decided to live in another country & should immediately accept the language, laws, religion (or lack of it), morals etc. But increasingly it doesn't look as if this works. But do you try to improve conditions thus making it appear you are rewarding lawlessness?
We haven't worked this out in Britain yet - July's bombings have raised uncomfortable questions. I don't think you have worked it out in the US either. And I'm not sure what the answer is, but Schadenfreude isn't really on my list.
|