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XD;;;; political stuff?? from me?? ... oh god.
And just after I tell people this is a fandom Lj, too. But several people have asked and I don't want to worry people, so!
What The Hell Is Going On In France At The Moment, from the very limited point of view of Asuka Kureru.
I say very limited because most of the time I can't stomach seeing the news entirely and I'm a real hermit anyway, so it's not like i'm talking to other people about it.
Besides I don't like Sarcozy.
Sarcozy is one of our ministers -- I don't even know which right off the bat, because I'm that "rargh, don't want to know" about it. Interior? He is very strict and outspoken about wanting to reestablish "order" and "security" in France. I didn't know we were THAT bad off in the first place, seriously.
They nickname him "the first cop of France". I think he suffers from a Napoleon complex. Man, he's TINY. Anyway.
So he rants on and on about how the "banlieues" (technically = suburb, but has come to mean something closer to ghetto) are filled with "racailles" and they need to be firm and not tolerate having the law and the cops disrespected! Which is all well and good and i'm all for cops being able to go anywhere they need to go without being assaulted by random passersby. So Sarcozy rants on and on about how racaille is a danger to society and he will be very firm and won't tolerate it.
Problem is, racaille is supposed to mean gangster, thugh, hooligan -- but it has also come to be very close to "young person born from immigrated parents living in a suburb". See the problem yet?
Racaille is not a nice word, but the kids themselves are using it like the blacks use "negro" -- it's not an insult if they're the ones saying it, but hearing it from a minister -- ouch.
So they get angry and offended, because they're already having problems with racism and the fact that there's no job for someone living where they live and having the name they have.
Sarcozy tries saying that he knows the difference between "young person living in the banlieue" and "racaille", except it doesn't really show, and besides they all tend to stand together about that stuff because even those who don't steal and break stuff know someone who does, or have felt like doing it before.
So they get flaming pissed. And they break more stuff. And he sends more cops.
Also, he keeps going on about how he's going to "protect the honest french citizens" by which he means the middle-to-upper class ones. He keeps harping on the fact that he's protecting everyone from the racailles, because they'd love nothing better than to kill poor old people in their sleep or something. So they get even more pissed and even more angry and BAM! self-fulfilling prophecy.
So now there's a fucking curfey for kids (which we have NEVER needed before) and the buses won't run after seven pm, and if you're living in France with a work permit, but not naturalized, and are caught doing bad stuff, you're not even judged and punished -- you're just kicked out of France and forbidden to come back. What The Fuck. Let's wait to see how long it will be to have even the ones who have adopted the french nationality get kicked out if they make a fuss.
~_~ Sure, lots of them ARE mildly violent, and they talk in slang all the time and they have a baaaad attitude, BUT. I keep thinking that if Sarcozy helped develop all these project to help them get a job and get integrated and everything, instead of cracking down on them all like they're wrong for existing and having an Arab name, there wouldn't have been such an explosion. But he's all "no, not backing off, i'm strong and won't break and it's my way or the highway", which is a bad attitude to take when faced with people who have problems with authority in the first place.
So basically, my opinion is that there would have been less of a problem if Sarcozy hadn't MADE it a problem, and now he gets to look good for protecting us all from the horrible, horrible people from the ghettos, who are all thieves and murderers and should be sent back to their countries.
People were worried about that racist son of a bitch Le Pen. In my humble opinion, Sarcozy is a lot more efficient.
/two cents.
I never go out, especially not at night, and I don't live in one of the problematic suburbs, so I'm pretty safe, personally. It's a lot less generalized than some TV stations pretend it is. So there's really no need to worry. ^__^
edit: to clarify -- no, I don't excuse the little bastards who burn cars and break stuff. There are other ways to deal with exclusion, and using the current political climate as an excuse to burn stuff -- well, THEY deserve to be punished. But fuck, what's with the new "us VS them" mentality? Everyone's french here, you bastard, stop trying to turn us against each other.
What The Hell Is Going On In France At The Moment, from the very limited point of view of Asuka Kureru.
I say very limited because most of the time I can't stomach seeing the news entirely and I'm a real hermit anyway, so it's not like i'm talking to other people about it.
Besides I don't like Sarcozy.
Sarcozy is one of our ministers -- I don't even know which right off the bat, because I'm that "rargh, don't want to know" about it. Interior? He is very strict and outspoken about wanting to reestablish "order" and "security" in France. I didn't know we were THAT bad off in the first place, seriously.
They nickname him "the first cop of France". I think he suffers from a Napoleon complex. Man, he's TINY. Anyway.
So he rants on and on about how the "banlieues" (technically = suburb, but has come to mean something closer to ghetto) are filled with "racailles" and they need to be firm and not tolerate having the law and the cops disrespected! Which is all well and good and i'm all for cops being able to go anywhere they need to go without being assaulted by random passersby. So Sarcozy rants on and on about how racaille is a danger to society and he will be very firm and won't tolerate it.
Problem is, racaille is supposed to mean gangster, thugh, hooligan -- but it has also come to be very close to "young person born from immigrated parents living in a suburb". See the problem yet?
Racaille is not a nice word, but the kids themselves are using it like the blacks use "negro" -- it's not an insult if they're the ones saying it, but hearing it from a minister -- ouch.
So they get angry and offended, because they're already having problems with racism and the fact that there's no job for someone living where they live and having the name they have.
Sarcozy tries saying that he knows the difference between "young person living in the banlieue" and "racaille", except it doesn't really show, and besides they all tend to stand together about that stuff because even those who don't steal and break stuff know someone who does, or have felt like doing it before.
So they get flaming pissed. And they break more stuff. And he sends more cops.
Also, he keeps going on about how he's going to "protect the honest french citizens" by which he means the middle-to-upper class ones. He keeps harping on the fact that he's protecting everyone from the racailles, because they'd love nothing better than to kill poor old people in their sleep or something. So they get even more pissed and even more angry and BAM! self-fulfilling prophecy.
So now there's a fucking curfey for kids (which we have NEVER needed before) and the buses won't run after seven pm, and if you're living in France with a work permit, but not naturalized, and are caught doing bad stuff, you're not even judged and punished -- you're just kicked out of France and forbidden to come back. What The Fuck. Let's wait to see how long it will be to have even the ones who have adopted the french nationality get kicked out if they make a fuss.
~_~ Sure, lots of them ARE mildly violent, and they talk in slang all the time and they have a baaaad attitude, BUT. I keep thinking that if Sarcozy helped develop all these project to help them get a job and get integrated and everything, instead of cracking down on them all like they're wrong for existing and having an Arab name, there wouldn't have been such an explosion. But he's all "no, not backing off, i'm strong and won't break and it's my way or the highway", which is a bad attitude to take when faced with people who have problems with authority in the first place.
So basically, my opinion is that there would have been less of a problem if Sarcozy hadn't MADE it a problem, and now he gets to look good for protecting us all from the horrible, horrible people from the ghettos, who are all thieves and murderers and should be sent back to their countries.
People were worried about that racist son of a bitch Le Pen. In my humble opinion, Sarcozy is a lot more efficient.
/two cents.
I never go out, especially not at night, and I don't live in one of the problematic suburbs, so I'm pretty safe, personally. It's a lot less generalized than some TV stations pretend it is. So there's really no need to worry. ^__^
edit: to clarify -- no, I don't excuse the little bastards who burn cars and break stuff. There are other ways to deal with exclusion, and using the current political climate as an excuse to burn stuff -- well, THEY deserve to be punished. But fuck, what's with the new "us VS them" mentality? Everyone's french here, you bastard, stop trying to turn us against each other.
no subject
We don't get too much in the way of French news over here, just the general car-burning, smashy-smashy stuff. There isn't really all that much in the way of a political explanation as to _why_ all of this is going on, just confirmation that it _is_ going on. Anyway, I'm taking a 19c Art Course right now, and we're studying quite a bit of French history, from the Revolution of 1789 onwards... it's kind of scary how history just keeps repeating itself over and over again, and for pretty much the exact same reason. I don't know how much you know about the Revolutions, but what you wrote reminded me of what was happening in France when Napoleon III "took the throne." Mostly, the general feel of the public or "lower class" towards authority and how the government is doing a bang-up job of defusing the situation. =_=;;;
Wow. That was a serious introduction. I swear, I'm silly and stupid and not really all that clever...