The Policy Blender

New York Post: "The violence was set off when two young Tunisians were electrocuted in a power facility while hiding during a police chase of car thieves. Initial efforts to control the mobs by a show of force simply failed — and the rioters demanded that French police remove themselves from what they called the "occupied territories." Indeed, what's happening in France is very much like the intifadas in the West Bank and Gaza that sympathetic journalists and politicians — French ones, in particular — liked to hail as a "popular uprising" of the oppressed."

Weekly Standard: "For at least 15 years, the immigrant and first-generation suburbs around France's large and medium-sized cities have been out of control. Crime rates have gone through the roof: According to the Renseignements Généraux, a division of the police, 70,000 violent crimes have been recorded in urban settings since the beginning of the year. They include the torching of more than 28,000 cars and 17,500 trash bins. According to the Interior Ministry, some 9,000 police cars have been stoned by youths this year."

Time: : Officially, the French state doesn't recognize minorities, only citizens of France, all of them equal under the law. But that republican ideal has seemed especially hollow over the past week as the children of impoverished, largely Muslim immigrants from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa fought running battles with police throughout the banlieues, or suburbs, to the east and north of the French capital."

Telegraph:"The first generation of immigrants came to France to meet a demand for foreign labour. The second and third generations find themselves trapped without work in the estates or cités built for their parents and grandparents. To compound matters, the unemployed have become dependent on welfare. These two factors produce a feeling of helplessness, which in turn engenders a hatred of the state."

The Tehran Times: "French nationals of African origin, who trace their roots to various parts of France’s former colonial empire, have suffered discrimination for years. They have never been provided with adequate medical, educational, and social services and the employment rate is high in their communities due to the discriminatory policies of employers. A brief comparison of the standard of living of French Blacks and whites shows that many French whites are racist and still regard their Black fellow citizens as slaves... since these poor French Blacks are mainly Muslims, the Islamic Republic of Iran and other Muslim countries should observe their religious and humanitarian duties and form a committee to investigate the condition of these Muslims. This committee should promptly investigate both the death of the two Black youngsters in France and the living conditions of Muslims in France and prepare a report... If the French government rejects the Islamic countries’ proposal, it should be boycotted by all Muslim states to force it to moderate its behavior toward French Muslims. France is in such a critical situation that the expansion of the demonstrations could even lead to the collapse of France and its division into Muslim and Christian sections."

The Daily Mail : "For more than twenty years France’s Muslim areas have been out of control. Indeed, they only turned into Muslim ghettoes in the first place because Muslim violence and harassment forced everyone else out. And they became no-go areas for the police, seen by the Muslims as occupation forces entering their territory. In schools in such areas, teachers trying to teach French or European history have been threatened with their lives by both pupils and their parents. In some cases young French people have converted to Islam just to escape the harassment. Blaming an official policy of segregation is wide of the mark. The fact is that French Muslims want to be segregated. The ghettoes are a way of ensuring a separate Islamic existence without having to assimilate into French society."

Le Monde:
"A country that regards itself as the birthplace of human rights and a model of social welfare has shown itself, in everyone's eyes, to be incapable of giving its young people the opportunities they deserve... If France wants to avoid another electoral catastrophe like the one in 2002, when Jean-Marie Le Pen reached the second round of the presidential elections, it is time for those who aspire to govern to stop grandstanding and apply themselves to the task of rebuilding part of society."

Le Figaro:
"France is paying for its arrogance. In the eyes of the world, our famous model of social integration is going down the drain... Vengeance is a dish best served cold. America will never forget the criticisms of its society during the Iraq war and after the hurricane in Louisiana.

"But their criticism is not entirely unjustified. It underlines 40 years of political failure... Too often, ideology has trumped pragmatism in dealing with the problems of the suburbs. Plans to rebuild and renovate have not been followed up with money. In particular, it is misguided to think that tweaking around the edges would give pride and hope to the descendants of French immigrants, who have too often been soothed by speeches presenting them as victims rather than responsible citizens...

"Is Islam at the heart of the current violence? Not as far as one can tell. The solution seems to lie in reaffirming everyone's rights and responsibilities."

Le L'Humanite:

"Nicolas Sarkozy's arrogance evidently has no limits. Questioned on television about his attitude to the crisis, the interior minister declared calmly: 'I don't have the right to overreact. Nothing can be achieved by agitation and tension. The most difficult thing for me is to stay lucid, to get out of the cauldron and to find the time to reflect on what should be done.' Get out of the cauldron? If only he could! After having deliberately lit the fuse, he happily surveys the damage, and wants time to think about it. The residents of Seine-Saint-Denis and the politicians and educators who live there will appreciate that.

"Whatever the government says, the events of recent days do not reflect an isolated problem of suburban crime, but a terrible failure of the policy of urban and social segregation that has been imposed for years on the people of these districts. The suburbs are not a special case. The suburbs are France, the France that suffers at work, is unemployed ... the France of discrimination, bad housing, poor public services. Unless we give the suburbs hope, the whole country will be unable to develop and the equality that republican principles are founded upon will be nothing more than a piece of paper. The future of the French model of social justice - of all our futures - lies in the suburbs. That is why Nicolas Sarkozy wants to break them... Rather than endless images of burnt cars, we must give a voice to the suburbs. And we must listen to them!"

Some disagreement about the number of years that young french muslims have been angry, but I maintain it was 1300 cars.

The odd thing is, the Muslims and other minority groups are attacking the French authorities and the French are saying 'What did we do wrong?' rather than 'Let's go and kill some muslims'. Maybe they could learn something from the recent successes of American foriegn policy?

I'm just trying to say something provocative rather than anything well-thought-through, by the way. It won't stand up to analysis and I know it.

I consider myself provoked.

good job you wrote that second entry. It's been another of 'those' days...

Well, obviously I meant some of it - I've been looking for a demonstration of 'What did we do wrong?' being preferable to 'Let's go and find the guy that did it, ever since we were talking, drunk, about 9/11 (which, for our US readers, is tomorrow in Britain, but we celeebrate it on a different day as a way of maintaining our cultural identity), to the effect that the latter was a more sensible reaction to (eg:) being punched in the face than the former. After more than four years (3 years and 364 days in Britain), I've decided I think America should have done both. They seemed to have done the latter very effectively, but I guess doing the former, or doing anything about it afterwards, is probably precluded by having invaded large parts of the Middle East. Full credit to them for giving them back when they'd finished though.