Monday, October 30, 2006

Ed Driscoll: “The New Metric for French Stability”

What’s cooking in FranceEd Driscoll calls it the “new metric… for daily French stability”...

Apparently, as long as the nightly burning of Citroens and Peugeots by local “youths” remains at 200 cars or less, and only one woman receives burns covering 60 percent of her body when the bus she’s traveling is torched by a Molotov cocktail, France can be said to be “relatively calm” — at least by her Interior minister.

It’s hard to even look at French news anymore. Reading about events there, it’s no longer possible to whistle past the graveyard — to make the metaphor hew more closely to the events — in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, — it’s as though you are watching a large pot boil and all the frogs in the soup are claiming everything is très bien, merci…
- - - - - - - - - -
What would it take to make the French elites wake up and tell the truth? A truth that everyone already knows but no one is permitted to say? France is on fire and the firemen politicians are not responding to the flames.

In Marseille,

A group of young people burst onto the bus and tossed in a bottle of flammable liquid before fleeing, police said, citing witnesses’ accounts. The resulting fire injured a 26-year-old woman, who suffered second- and third-degree burns on her arms, legs and face and was in a medically induced coma on Sunday.

Notice the Associated Press’ use of “young people” as the now-accepted and risible euphemism for “criminals of a certain age.” It brings to mind their insistence on the word “insurgents” for “terrorists.” Nor for nothing did someone (I’ve lost the link) call them “The Associated (with Terrorists) Press”. That’s an appellation well-deserved.

Meanwhile, as a way of forcefully handling the situation, President Chirac phoned the parents of this poor woman — the one so severely burned she’s in a medically induced coma — and assured them that France would “do everything to find the assailants and punish them with the greatest severity,” Wow. Quel homme! No doubt the devastated parents felt much better.

The sensible group in all this is the Marseille bus drivers:

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin called a meeting for Monday on public transport safety, while Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said he was sending two extra companies of riot police to Marseille. Bus drivers in Marseille refused to return to work.

And what is the official evaluation of all this? You can probably repeat his mantra as the words drop form his mouth:

Aside from the bus attack in Marseille, the Interior Ministry said that both Friday and Saturday night were “relatively calm.” Youths set fire to about 200 vehicles Saturday, police said. But even on ordinary nights, the number of cars burned often reaches 100.

It’s 2006, France. The pot has passed the simmer stage and the bubbles are rising.


Fausta said...

It's hard to even look at French news anymore
That's certainly the case with me. I've watched the France2 evening newscasts regularly for years but it's getting to the point where it's absurd to look at their whitewashed reports while being able to read about what's going on.

Evan said...

You know what else is striking? I generally don't use the Net on weekends. I don't get a Sunday paper either, and my only news source is really the radio - the BBC, NPR, ABC and Fox. (I might get all of them more than once over the course of a weekend.)

I didn't even hear of this incident until I got here this AM. That such an attack - planned, organized, homicidally intentioned, and occurring in a major city in a major country -- doesn't make the five-minute world news summaries is amazing.

But the BBC this morning led with a British government report on the looming catastrophe of global warming, so we know what's important.

Gordon Pasha said...

France is a highly centralized state, sure, but having the PM and Interior Minister holding an emergency meeting, Monday morning, supposedly over safety on municipal transport? Talk about a state of denial! Whoever is organizing the insurrection in France is fully aware that the country is in the run-up to a presidential election. The Interior Minister, Sarkozy, and the PM, both have presidential aspirations and they will desperately try to pin the blame for the insurrection on each other. At the same time, the left are sticking the govt with accusations, simultaneously, of being too hard on the "youths", and of not protecting the citizens who ride public transport from being immolated by the "youths". Every attack launched by the insurrectionists pushes the French ruling class further into chaos, decreasing the likelihood that the govt will be able to combat them. Pretty clever.

David S. said...

As Pamela on Atlas Shrugs says frequently, Sarkozy is their only hope. De Villepin is a sissyboy.

Also Baron, the Associated (with terrorists) Press is from Michelle Malkin:

I thought it was clever too.

james higham said...

Even the French claim there's is a political process of enormous 'do nothing' conservatism, masquerading as socialism, resulting in revolutions and mini-revolutions, resulting in executions. They speak of Third and Fourth Republics, rather than in terms of continuity.

Vol-in-Law said...

How soon to the Sixth Republic? And what will it look like? Hopefully not the Islamic Republic of France.

Archonix said...

The thing about frogs staying in water while you warm it up is a myth. They jump out when it gets uncomfortable for them. Often they jump out just to annoy you·

Depending on how things go, this may well prove that frogs are smarter than the french...

LA.Bueche said...

What I find amazing, (and I'll say this about the French, although I think it extends to most of Europe as a generalization), is that, not only is there massive denial, but an agressive contempt for anyone mentioning these issues. If I, as an American, tried to discuss these significant failings in immigration/assimilation/multiculturalism, I'd get a lecture about Hurricane Katrina or Guantanimo Bay. It's one thing to be quietly boiling to death, it's another to be mocking those who point out the fact that you're floating in cooking pot on a four burner stove.

hank_F_M said...

And to think thirty years ago I would walk the streets of Paris even at night to see the sights and not worry where I was or about being attacked. There were even unescorted “non-professional” women who were out after dark going home from last minute shopping.

Sarkozy is the only seniror politian who seems to have an understanding of the problem, but it does not seem he has the political base to establish an effective program.

I do think the days of lawless ness are numbered. Sarkozy wants to crack down with some sense of due process. If he cannot do so either the current extablihment will be thrown out by people who will see this as a war not apolice problem or the current extablishment will make it a war.

Let us remember the hero of de Villepin is Napolean who’s idea of riot control is grape shot. The best hope for the ordianry moslems in France who just want to live thier lives is for the Frech governemtn to crack down now as a police operation or they will be on the wrong end of genocidal war they did not want to to begin with.

2164th said...

After a couple of recent trips to France and England, I am encouraged. The media, intelligentsia, academics and the imbedded politicians are losing contact with a wave of unease and unrest by the citizenry. There is an increased boldness in their expressing points of view that I did not hear a year ago. The Muslims will help the cause of undoing their influence and presence in Europe, by the arrogance and audacity of their misbehavior.

Gordon Pasha said...

My reading of the French, and I am rather familiar with them, is that they would be secretly happy if Sarko cracked down hard on the insurrection, and, then, he would be off to the metaphorical échaffaud, as far as his political career is concerned. The French love it when someone else does the dirty work and then they can blame them afterward for being so brutal. Sarko knows it, so he has to decide; act now,and save his country more difficulties in the future, and ruin his own career, or wait to act after being elected president, and then bring out the big broom. Or the grapeshot.

Stephen Renico said...

My only hope is that if France manages to successfully steer through this mess, it emerges as a different country: wiser in having learned from some of its mistakes.

Despite all of the hooplah about France being an ally, it hasn't been much of one since DeGaulle took over.

reliapundit said...

during last year's intifada, marseille was heralded as the epitome/model of muslim integration and enfranchisemnt.

the french said the needed to a betterjob of integrating young muslims into french society.

er um i guess they should throw out that explantory meme.

this event proves that jihad is not a reaction/response to the west's actions toward muslims but an independent proactive plan - A BATTLE PLAN.

france's young muslim men don't want to become more french; they want france to become more muslim.

FluffResponse said...

Why (oh Lord, why) do the French disdain Mouvement Pour La France (MPF), which the BBC describes as a "right wing" political party but is the equivalent of the American Christian right -- in other words, France's best hope to reverse the horror this Islamic influence.

Such a stupid people. Having thrown out the Catholic Church, they are well on the way to throwing out the Enlightenment.

Janos Hunyadi said...

I can agree with the last four posts, and hope that the people of France find a way to avoid civil war while avoiding dhimmifacation to the point of no longer being either Western or civilized

What is "Occupation" said...


Give MORE aid to the misunderstood moslem youths..

They deserve a portion of France to be GIVEN to the moslems as islamic trust, Stop the Occupation NOW, French people OUT of the Islamic Towns of France...

Aint Karma a kick in the ass? As the buses, cars and metro lines start to burn (again) in france I got to tell you..


Dear Mr & Mrs France,

Do you remember turning your Jews over to the death camps to SAVE your beautiful building?

Do you remember helping Iraq BUILD a NUKE power station?

Do you remember the Dreyfus Affair?

Do you remember the lies of France with the Mohammed al-Dura killing?

Do you remember ayatollah khomeini?

Do you remember the Vichy?

Do you remember Algeria?

Do you remember the mess you left in Lebanon, Syria & Iraq?

Please mr & mrs france embrace the facts...

you suck.

dirty dingus said...

I'm not sure I'm in complete agreement

Rick Darby said...

France will rise up against Muslim atrocities and demands before Britain does, I am confident.

The French ruling class may be in a hurry to sell out, but the majority of indigenous French people are proud of their culture, even to the point of chauvinism. The French believe themselves nonpareil as the world's most cultured, civilized nation; while that may be irritating to the rest of us, it means they won't go quietly.

Yes, they rolled over in '40, but the Germans weren't perceived as a cultural threat.

With the British, it's a different story. Their values have dried up. They've lost their national pride, sense of history, religious mooring — the astonishing levels of binge drinking, street violence, gambling, and other ills are signs of the breakdown of social order in the U.K. Most Brits see nothing worth defending and won't. The French do, and will.