France’s ‘annus horribilis’

Sounds like a personal problem, doesn’t it?

Seriously, AFP has a recap of one of the worst years France has had in recent history.

No doubt France would like to see a more peaceful year, but with some asserting that the Muslim rage in their country is “only asleep” and some in the French leadership and even in the media who seem to be in denial about what in October (see Toldjah So posts below), that remains to be seen.

Gateway Pundit has more, as does Gina Cobb.

Hat tip: Betsy Newmark

21 Responses to "France’s ‘annus horribilis’"

andrew says:

January 2, 2006 at 5:14 pm

” Muslim rage in their country”

What makes people think this is a muslim thing? more than the arab descended are rioting, and the ones that are rioting aren’t your churchgoing types, but rather plain old unemployed youths. Much like our inner city riots aren’t ‘southern baptist’ riots, these aren’t muslim ones.
Gina Cobb says:

January 2, 2006 at 6:06 pm

Thanks for the link. Love your website. Happy new year or make that Bonne Annee.
A Blog For All says:

January 2, 2006 at 6:51 pm

France’s Annus Horribilis Redux

The French government is trying to do its best to claim that things are really back to normal and that they’ve gotten the rioting under control. Too bad that isn’t the truth.
CavalierX says:

January 2, 2006 at 8:10 pm

As long as rampant multiculturalism prevents any pressure on immigrants to assimilate, any country will end up with ghettos full of angry people who feel like outsiders in their own homes.
andrew says:

January 2, 2006 at 8:53 pm

“As long as rampant multiculturalism prevents any pressure on immigrants to assimilate”

You think france is multicultural and doesn’t have pressure to assimilate? What gives you that idea? the ban on headscarves?
Kevin says:

January 2, 2006 at 10:37 pm

It’s going to happen here too CavalierX if we don’t figure out a way to assimilate the immigrants we have, and stop the inflow of new ones.
CavalierX says:

January 2, 2006 at 10:55 pm

>You think france is multicultural and
>doesn’t have pressure to assimilate?

What do you call it when nearly 7% of the population lives in tightly-knit homogenous communities where many of them don’t even speak French? In Marseilles alone, the population is 17% Muslim. They don’t speak French, they don’t feel French, and this disconnect from their own country is encouraged by the sort of multicultural nonsense which decrees that people should maintain their own culture as a separate entity.

>What gives you that idea? the ban on
>headscarves?

No, that was religious discrimination masquerading as multiculturalism. It wasn’t smart of the French government to ban what many Muslims saw as an important symbol of their religion. But I understand that Leftist secularists don’t understand the importance religious people attach to their beliefs and its symbols.
CavalierX says:

January 2, 2006 at 10:58 pm

>It’s going to happen here too CavalierX
>if we don’t figure out a way to
>assimilate the immigrants we have, and
>stop the inflow of new ones.

Well, first of all, I like immigrants — legal ones. They choose to be here, and love this country, both of which elevate them far above Liberals who can trace their ancestors back to the Mayflower. Second the only answer is education in the truth about American history, to give all Americans a shared sense of pride in this nation. My ancestors only came here about 150 years ago, yet I feel a great deal of pride in the deeds of George washington, because I’m an American first and all that hyphenated garbage second, if at al.
Aidan Maconachy says:

January 2, 2006 at 11:47 pm

Happy new year to all!

The French situation is rather complex.
The majority of Muslim immigrants in France are of Algerian origin. Others hail from a diverse range of countries – Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, sub-Saharan Africa and also Asia. So it’s quite a mixed demographic.

The irony of the this predicament is that the French have long trumpeted their egalitarian society and have been among the loudest to denounce racism. Yet in practice there is a form of segregation that has been taking place, with many of the immigrants in and around Paris crammed into these notorious sink estates. Unemployment is high and resentment an in-built attitude.

The youths who took part in the riots, were motivated by grievances that had little to do with Osama bin Laden’s Islamist agenda. So to conflate the rioting in France with radical Islamism is a misreading of what took place.

Despite their egalitarian posturing, the French are actually rather xenophobic. While the segregation of immigrants isn’t a government policy, it’s how it tends to work out in practice and it could prove to be enormously problematic in the future unless radical steps are taken to resolve these tensions.

Despite many challenges, the States and Canada have been much more successful at assimilating their immigrant populations.
Kevin says:

January 3, 2006 at 1:57 am

Well, first of all, I like immigrants — legal ones. They choose to be here, and love this country, both of which elevate them far above Liberals who can trace their ancestors back to the Mayflower.

I think I’ve fallen out of that camp. I don’t dislike immigrants, legal or otherwise. I just think 300 million people is probably enough for our landmass. People tend to have more than 2 kids per couple, so sooner or later we are going to be in an over-population situation like China. I hope to be dead by then. My kids likely will not be.

Immigrants were very good for the country in the past, as our size was increasing. Now immigration primarily keeps the minimum wage artificially low, and people poor. Those jobs that “Americans won’t do”? There is no such thing. They just won’t do them for $5 an hour. If no immigrants are available to do them, the pay will rise until someone agrees to perform the work.

Prices for some goods and services would increase, but the number of poor Americans would drop, as well as the number of people using government assistance. I consider that a good thing.
CavalierX says:

January 3, 2006 at 6:37 am

>I just think 300 million people is
>probably enough for our landmass.

Perhaps we can convince Liberals to emigrate to Canada, Europe or Cuba, to make room. So many of them swore to do so when Bush was elected… and re-elected…
andrew says:

January 3, 2006 at 7:23 am

“What do you call it when nearly 7% of the population lives in tightly-knit homogenous communities where many of them don’t even speak French?”

A ghetto. I don’t see why you think this is because of multiculturalism.

“They don’t speak French, they don’t feel French, and this disconnect from their own country is encouraged by the sort of multicultural nonsense which decrees that people should maintain their own culture as a separate entity.”

They do speak french. They’re born in france. Their musicians sing in french. They don’t ‘feel french’ because of the french pig-headedness about what is ‘french.’ That’s not multi-culturalism but the opposite.

“No, that was religious discrimination masquerading as multiculturalism”

That was rather unicultural, rather than multicultural. The opposite of allowing difference: its the stamp of sameness. That’s not multicultural.

You just know that the french are bad and multiculturalism is bad and you want them both to be the same. But you’re wrong. France deals with people the way conservatives want to: by refusing to bend to immigrants, and having a pig-headed and stubborn view of what is ‘french’ that others must conform to or not be made to feel french.
CZ says:

January 3, 2006 at 8:12 am

“We can stand here like the French, or we can do something about it.” —Marge Simpson
Kevin says:

January 3, 2006 at 12:18 pm

The end-game of multiculturalism is not that everyone knows and celebrates other people’s cultures Andrew. It is small communities living next to one another, but not associating with each other much. This lack of mixing causes distrust of the native population that only increases with time. France’s situation is the most recent example.

You want to see multiculturalism in action? Look at Yugoslavia, at Lebanon, at Sri Lanka, at Northern Ireland, at Azerbaijan, or wherever else group ‘identity’ has been hyped. – Thomas Sowell

Wars occurred in every one of them, btw. Multiculturalism is hyped as a good thing. It looks like it’s a good thing like communism is a good thing. A good idea that just won’t work.
andrew says:

January 3, 2006 at 5:14 pm

“The end-game of multiculturalism is not that everyone knows and celebrates other people’s cultures Andrew. It is small communities living next to one another, but not associating with each other much.”

That’s the end game of the hard-core assimilationists: Assimilate and be a part or not.

“You want to see multiculturalism in action? Look at Yugoslavia, at Lebanon, at Sri Lanka, at Northern Ireland, at Azerbaijan, or wherever else group â€˜identity’ has been hyped. – Thomas Sowell”

Those places don’t look very multi-cultural. Here’s a hint: its not multicultural for one group to try to eliminate the other. Its rather unicultural.
Kevin says:

January 3, 2006 at 7:00 pm

Those places don’t look very multi-cultural. Here’s a hint: its not multicultural for one group to try to eliminate the other. Its rather unicultural.

Exactly. The end result of multiculturalism is that one culture decides there is a need to eliminate the rest.

Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, Azerbaijan, Kashmir, and many parts of Europe are all places where many separate cultures exist under a single government. And in every case except Europe, civil wars have occurred. Until the wars started, everyone called them models of multiculturalism.
andrew says:

January 3, 2006 at 7:53 pm

” Exactly. The end result of multiculturalism is that one culture decides there is a need to eliminate the rest.”

We have a pretty multicultural society here. Specially compared to france. No eliminationism yet. But we ought to watch out for eliminationists though. They seem to sell a lot of books.
CavalierX says:

January 3, 2006 at 9:18 pm

>A ghetto. I don’t see why you think this
>is because of multiculturalism.

That’s what you get when you encourge immigrants to cling to their own culture and not assimilate. Ghettos.

>They do speak french. They’re born in
>france. Their musicians sing in french.

You really don’t know a lot about Muslim immigrants in France, do you?

>They don’t â€˜feel french’ because of the
>french pig-headedness about what
>is â€˜french.’ That’s not multi-
>culturalism but the opposite.

Multiculturalism is racism. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. “You people… you should feel proud of your wierd foreign customs. Uhh, just keep them to yourselves, okay?”

>You just know that the french are bad
>and multiculturalism is bad

Translation: they are both very, very good, though I can’t specify why.

>France deals with people the way
>conservatives want to: by refusing to
>bend to immigrants

Making laws aimed at specific religious groups is hardly Conservative, though it is very Liberal. Guess you really don’t know a lot about Conservatives, either. Quel dommage.
CavalierX says:

January 3, 2006 at 9:32 pm

>We have a pretty multicultural society
>here.

Does the phrase “great melting pot” ring a bell? No? Didn’t think so. Andrew, my Irish great-great-grandparents were treated like crap until they assimilated into American culture, learning to speak American-accented English and sending their kids to school for an American education. My Italian great-grandparents were treated like crap until they did the same. If they had been encouraged by Liberals to stay in their ghettos and put the folkways of the place they left to come here before those of their adopted homeland, they would have been the losers. And so would I.
Kevin says:

January 4, 2006 at 3:37 am

I agree with CavalierX. Except the “great melting pot” is becoming a stew, with chunks of people not melting into the soup anymore. We really have to wait until we are homogenous again before we let more ‘chunks’ in (this is turning out to be a hideous analogy ), or we will end up like Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, Azerbaijan, Kashmir etc.

France certainly learned this lesson a month ago. I hope we don’t have to learn the hard way as well.
andrew says:

January 6, 2006 at 8:05 am

“You really don’t know a lot about Muslim immigrants in France, do you?”

I know that even second generation ones that Listen to MC solaar arenÂ´t considered french enough, and never will be. And that is not multi-cultural but unicultural.

“”You peopleâ€¦ you should feel proud of your wierd foreign customs. Uhh, just keep them to yourselves, okay?””

I donÂ´t think multiculturalists say Â´keep it to yourselfÂ´

” If they had been encouraged by Liberals to stay in their ghettos and put the folkways of the place they left to come here before those of their adopted homeland, they would have been the losers.”

But the french donÂ´t encourage people to stay in their ghettoes.

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