About That Intifada

Me: Paris is Burning? WTF?

Parisian Friend: Yes, in Seine Saint Denis department, in where one of my brother has bought an appartment...It's not an islamic riot !!! Just a bandit's riot !! These riots are headed by drug dealers (mainly Arabics and blacks) who don't want the French police to control the district...By the way what is WTF ??

This Parisian friend of mine is a banker and someone who often chides me for being too liberal.

Get a grip, people.

Comments

[upyernoz]

ceci n'est pas une intifada

[Jimmy Ho]

Well, it burns inna Paris, too (3d and 17th arrondissement yesterday evening, and I saw determined-looking guys on motorcycles just an hour ago on the stragely deserted streets), and it has extended to suburbs all around the country (it was limited around Paris, not only Seine-Saint-Denis the first week).

There is no evidence whatsoever that "these riots are headed by drug dealers"; that's what the right and far-right (Ye Olde Le Pen: "our country's beign invaded by savage hordes!") say.

I'm sorry, but the precision about "Arabics and Blacks" says more about your friend's vision than the events themselves; most of the kids are French citizens.
The basic fact is:

Two teenagers (15 and 17) died under very strange conditions and the truth has not been told yet, with the police suddenly changing their version of the event after a whole week of riots.

Anyway.

[Jimmy Ho]

if you allow me to live-blog a bit more (cool, we're like America now), the song playing in my head right now (Sunday not-so-Random One) is Linton Kwesi Johnson's "Time Come":

now yu see fire burning in mi eye,
smell badness pan mi bret
feel vialence, vialence,
burstin outta mi;
look out!
it too late now:
I did warn yu.

Frankly? I'm sad as mess.

[upyernoz]

the song in my head whenever i read about the riots is parisien du nord

[Jimmy Ho]

Looks good, Upyernoz; I don't hate Mami, but I can't remember that particular song right now, though I must've heard it on the radio (or maybe it was released during my time abroad).
I see it features K-Mel of Alliance Ethnik and Imhotep of IAM (live and direct from planet Mars-eille) and yes, the lyrics (I can only speak for the ones in French) are quite relevant indeed:

Des exploitants que
Je me ferais un plaisir
De caner
J'suis pas violent
Mais tant d'années à
5000 francs, c'est fané
Et pour les jeunes,
C'est la tannée
Non fallait pas faire
L'erreur, l'assimilé
D'façon, ces professions ce ne sont pas que
Des bassesses de vocation
La leçon à en tirer, c'est quoi que tu dises
Quoi que tu fasses
T'es embauché tant qu'on a pas vu ta face
(ha ha)

Thanks for the link.

[R. Mildred]

So these would be the "bandit" illegal immigrants and underpaid shat apon french sweaty-workshop worker drug dealers and criminals?

France is 8 kinds of fucked up, Chirac is EVIL, Bush with brains EVIL, and they've elected him like 7 times now.

The man only presidents to avoid getting thrown in jail for the various acts of fraud, embezzlement and what ever white collar criminal act he did last week.

Fuck You france, this shit wasn't funny ever.

[Roxanne]

Well, whatever it is it's probably not the Islamofascist boogeyman revolt the wingers are creaming their jeans over.

[Cardinal Fang]

Don't worry if it continues, they'll round
up all the Jews and blame them.
Then ask the German's to come back and restore order.

Soap-Dodging, Cheese Eating, Surrender Monkeys

[Jimmy Ho]

That's funny: I for one would never say something like "Fuck you, USA", or "Fuck you, UK". All it takes to unite the R and the D behind the Star-Spangled Banner is that good ol' Gallophobia, I guess.

Roxanne, while there probably are fundamentalist islamist movements that try to use what's happening, but the "Islamofascist Intifada" is a myth.
Actually, long-forgotten neo-fascist hate groups ("Bloc identitaire" and the likes) are resurfacing to "defend our territory against those barbarians who hate France", but for some reason, the media are pretty shy about it.

[Jimmy Ho]

Scratch that "but".

[Zoubida]

It's not the first time this kind of riots happen in those horrible ghettos french put us in. By us I mean immigrants, mostly form North Africa. It's happening regularly since at least 15 years.

And I agree those people who riot must not be qualified as "muslim", I stick on them the "delinquant" tag rather.

That's what happens in a society which does everything possible to segregate their immigrants, down to the 3rd generation of them.

[Jimmy Ho]

Please believe that the following is not totally off topic.

Less than a year ago: me at the doctor (young, blond, condescending) with an older relative (dark-skinned, speaks good French, but with a distinctive accent):

Doctor: "So... what is your nationality?"

Relative: "Wha... I'm French."

- "No, I mean... you have some accent... where do you come from?"

- "I don't understand. Could you explain to me what this has to do with my fractures?"

- "Why are you so upset? It may... like, if your country is a sunny one..."

- "I've been in Paris for the last fourty years and never left to live anywhere else. I. am. a French. citizen."

- "Ah well, you don't want to tell me; it's your choice after all. But I was just asking casually, you know?"

[Cardinal Fang]

If you are planning a romantic getaway to
Paris this weekend, a few useful phrases

* Ou sont les pompiers? - Where are the firemen?
* Avez-vous un extincteur? - Do you have a fire extinguisher?
* A quelle heure est le couvre-feu? - What time is the curfew?
* Pourquoi brulez vous ma voiture? - Why are you burning my car
* Avez-vous du feu pour allumer mon cocktail molotov? - Do you have a light for my petrol bomb?