← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Petr
Thread ID: 20948 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2005-11-08
2005-11-08 13:16 | User Profile
[url]http://isteve.blogspot.com/2005/11/death-of-meritocracy.html[/url]
[FONT="Trebuchet MS"][B] Tuesday, November 08, 2005[/B] [SIZE="5"] The death of meritocracy[/SIZE] [SIZE="3"][B]
For a couple of decades, the standard neocon response to immigration, clearly seen for example in a derivative thinker like Tamar Jacoby, is that mass immigration would be all hunky-dory if it weren't for those evil leftist intellectuals who seduce innocent immigrants into identity politics.[/B]
[B]Now, the amusing paradox is that nobody believes in the neocon prescription for treating immigrants more than the the French. They hate identity politics, affirmative action, multiculturalism, and all the rest almost as much as the neocons hate the French.[/B]
Well, it turns out that you can follow all the neocon rules and still have immigrant groups rioting in the streets. The truth is that the quantity and quality of the immigrants matter more than the details of how you treat them.
Of course, the French won't be allowed to think about effective solutions for their problem. What all the bright boys are telling them, including some of the neocons, is that they need to impose affirmative action quotas on themselves. And Sarkozy is all for it.
So, what happened? Well, the ethnic groups that are supplying the rioters have much lower average IQs than the French average. When you get growing groups with different average IQs in the same country, you will eventually have overwhelming demands for affirmative action. That is a lot of politics.
[B]If you don't want to have affirmative action, then don't have ethnic diversity of average IQ. That's the only solution.[/B][/SIZE] [/FONT]
[url]http://isteve.blogspot.com/2005/11/somethings-fishy-in-france.html[/url] [FONT="Trebuchet MS"]
[B]Tuesday, November 08, 2005[/B] [SIZE="5"] Something's fishy in France?[/SIZE] [SIZE="3"] Street theatre and political theatre, working together?
Nur al-Cubicle translates a[I] Le Monde[/I] story[/SIZE]:[/FONT] [FONT="Arial"] [B]On the streets with the [I]rioters [/I]and their [I]rage[/I][/B]
Sunday 6 November: 8:00 pm. Abdel, Bilal, Youssef, Osman, Nadir and Laurent meet up outside the 10-story structure of Building 112 in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis). When Rashid, dressed in an oversized down jacket, comes along, he lights a cigarette and sets fire to the buildingââ¬â¢s garbage collection station. [I]Thatââ¬â¢s too bad but we have no choice[/I], blurts Nadir. For the last 10 days this scene has been repeating itself daily. This small gang from the ââ¬Åprojectsââ¬Â of Hélène-Cochennec Street, which house more than a thousand tenants, wants to ââ¬Åf s up.ââ¬Â ... [I] If we ever get organized someday, weââ¬â¢ll have grenades, explosives, Kalashnikovsââ¬Â¦Weââ¬â¢ll meet outside the Bastille and itââ¬â¢ll be war[/I], they threaten. Neither kadi nor Islamist seems to dictate their behavior or manipulate them. But for now, the gang from Building 112 acts only in the neighborhood: the ââ¬Åorganizationââ¬Â seems to be more of an improvised happy hour than a warrior undertaking. [I]Everyone brings some stuff along[/I], explains Abdel.
[I]We have more revolution inside us than hate[/I], announced Yussef, the eldest member of the gang. At age 25, he says heââ¬â¢s calmed down since getting engaged. Nonetheless, he feels ââ¬Årageââ¬Â. His hatred is mostly directed at Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and his bellicose language.[I] Since he thinks were scum, weââ¬â¢re going to clean his racist clock down at the pressure car wash. Words hurt more than punches. Sarko must resign. Until he apologizes, the violence will continue.[/I]
Adding to the ââ¬Årageââ¬Â is the tear gas canister launched at the Clichy-sous-Bois Mosque a week ago.[I] That was blasphemy[/I], says Yussuf. A judicial investigation will determine if the tear gas grenade was fired from inside the mosque or next to the entrance. All these young men have too much pent-up rancor to listen to appeals for calm[I]. When a dog is backed against a wall, it becomes aggressive. We are not dogs but weââ¬â¢re responding as if we were animals[/I], affirms Osman.
17 year-old Laurent, the youngest of the lot, claims he torched a Peugeot 607 just a stoneââ¬â¢s throw from here two hours ago. Nothing could be easier. All you need is to fill a bottle with gasoline, stuff in a rag as a fuse, break a window then toss in the Molotov cocktail...
But why are they burning neighborhood cars? [I]We have no choice. We are ready to lose everything because we have nothing[/I], Bilal justifies.... [I]You know, when you brandish a Motolov cocktail, you hear people shouting for help. There are hardly words to express how you feel. You ââ¬Åspeakââ¬Â by torching something.[/I]
Thereââ¬â¢s no unknown recipe in their incendiary quest. Their most worthy handiwork is [I]acid bombs you can buy at Franprix[/I] and stuff with aluminum foil, usually done by 13 year old kids.[I] If youââ¬â¢re 13 and all you feel is revolt, then thatââ¬â¢s a big problem[/I], explains Abdel, who hopes that heââ¬â¢ll [I]never have rage-filled kids[/I].
At 8:15 pm, you hear the firetruck sirens. [I]Here come the copsââ¬Â¦Letââ¬â¢s get out of here[/I], orders Yussuf and the gang disappears into the vestibule. The buildingââ¬â¢s elevator only stops at two floors: the 4th and the 9th.
Up on the 4th floor, they think they are safe from police patrols. Bilal, 21, knows something about that: [I]Today I was searched twice. Les flics threw me down on the sidewalk and shoved a Flash Ball[/I] [a double-barreled plastic pistol that uses rubber bullets]. They donââ¬â¢t understand why the government [I]spends millions of euros to equip the police and won't give us a dime to open a youth establishment[/I].
Yussef and the gang arenââ¬â¢t chumps. They know very well that the violence which they unleash will be met with a backlash. [I]Weââ¬â¢re not punks, weââ¬â¢re rioters[/I], they say defensively. [I]Weââ¬â¢re calling everyone together, to spread our revolt[/I], they say. And they complain about their wretched lives. Every member of the gang is jobless and unemployment subsidies are running out, deplores Nadir, 24. Just like the others, he stopped going to school at age 16, after failing his electromechanical exam. Since they, he has worked only small-time janitorial jobs and stacking pallets. [I]What other job could we do?[/I] he shrugs.[I] Out of the 100 resumés I mailed out, I only got three interviews. Even if I show them Iââ¬â¢m earnest, they reject me[/I], he says bitterly. For this bunch, school was never much use. [I]Thatââ¬â¢s why we are burning them down[/I], interjects Bilal.
Did Nicolas Sarkozyââ¬â¢s provocative comments represent the occasion they were waiting for? Did they feel they were entitled to release their bottled-up rage? [I]We are drowning and instead of throwing us a life preserver, theyââ¬â¢re pushing our heads under water. We need help![/I], they insist. These youths say they are without resources, misunderstood, victims of racial discrimination, condemned to live in the dirty projects and rejected. They are not shy about hiding their satisfaction and pride as the rioting spread throughout the country. [I]There is no competition among the cities. Itââ¬â¢s all pure solidarity.[/I]
9:00 pm. The gang goes back outside, at the end of the fence. The firemen have put out the fire in the garbage collection station. Yussef and his homies ask the question : [I]What are we waiting for to burn something else[/I]?
Yves Bordenave and Mustapha Kessous LE MONDE | 07.11.05 | 16h27[/FONT] [FONT="Trebuchet MS"]
[SIZE="3"]Does this whole picture strike you as phony, as more street theatre than anything else? They're burning cars, not buildings, which makes for spectacular TV, but doesn't wreck their neighborhoods the way black rioters in America stupidly destroyed the commercial streets in their own neighborhoods in their riots. [B] These punks -- half illiterate Franz Fanons, half scrawny Fiddy Cents -- would run and hide under their mamas' beds at the first whiff of grapeshot. Even if the main French Army is rotten (which I doubt), these men would put the fear of Allah, Jehovah, Thor, and Zeus into these punks.[/B]
[B]That the French government has let this rioting go on for almost two weeks -- on this, the 12th night, Prime Minister Villepin announced his big decision: he's going to let local mayors declare curfews, but only if they want to! -- suggests that powerful elements within the French government want this anarchy to happen for reasons of their own[/SIZE].[/B][/FONT]
2005-11-08 14:36 | User Profile
[QUOTE]That the French government has let this rioting go on for almost two weeks -- on this, the 12th night, Prime Minister Villepin announced his big decision: he's going to let local mayors declare curfews, but only if they want to! -- suggests that powerful elements within the French government want this anarchy to happen for reasons of their own.[/QUOTE]
Petr,
I was thinking the same thing. I was wondering if the Frenchmen had lost their balls. As if these rioters are going to pay attention to curfews Any policeman who tries to enforce it would be putting his life into his own hands and would be overwhelmed. Do they want an excuse to impose a more totalitalian state? I doubt that if it were white French youth rioting they would have ignored it.