Monday, November 07, 2005

I see no Magrebian people in the ads

Now the riots are all over France. The Prime Minister is on TV talking. Liberty Fraternity Equality Reality, reads the headlines of one of the National newspapers. The Prime Minister is talking about everyone has their place, their job, their responsibility. He talks about the criminals,........to beat someone to death (sadly it has happened) to burn your neighbours property, this is criminal. The first thing is to bring order. To restore the security of the Territory of France. The priorty is the re-establishment of public order in the face of those who threaten it. They are invoking the law of 1955 that allows the Prefect, the head of each State/County/Department or whatever you want to call it, i.e. the local Mayor to install a curfew. (In other words the State will not take responsibility. If it goes all wrong we can blame the local mayor and if it goes right well he will get the nod of thanks.)
The journalist is asking if parents are responsible, I don't understand completely but he fudges, he talks about each person having a the ability to make a choice. The journalist asks him does it apply to those who cannot find a job or a place to live. We need to give people who live in a quarter of 40% unemployment a hope the PM says, a training, the possibilty of a course to train them to have a job. We must make the Government housing more tasteful better to live in, undertake to make these dwellings more human. Apparently the Turkish leader (of Turkey) said it may have all come about by the French forbidding the veil in the schools.
OKay I have heard enough. He is talking about individual responsibility and choice, he talks about the collective, and the comportement of each individual. Sorry Mate but you are talking crap.
I have lived here below the poverty line for too long. I have survived on the hand outs of friends when I couldn't afford to buy food and on charity organisations. I was 9st 2lbs, 126lbs, or 59kgs, if I have my maths right. I am nearly 6ft tall. I met a few people worse off than I (arabs even though they say they are french) and we shared what we had. Algerians, born in France but to the white French, Algerians, to themselves not Algerians but French, how can they survive here? Why are they not on the street burning cars? The PM of France leaves the the Studio his interview finished and the next story is about a ship of very wealthy english speakers who were on a cruise off the coast of Africa when the pirates attacked and the Captain of the ship managed to save his rich white cargo. How can any person living in a second or third generation unemployed area, with no future, no real education, no idea of the value of hard work and the reality of the system, how can they not riot? When all you are fed is how easy and glamourous it is through the media, and how everyone lives happily ever after, through Hollywood and how Democracy is great, (sorry but I wouldn't know as I haven't witnessed it yet) i.e. the survival of the fittest is the reality of life. When after the news the next thing is Madonna smiling at the camera and announcing in not bad French she will sing on a Talent show this Friday, I have to stop and think how stupid are the media. I see no Magrebian people in the ads.
Why are they not constantly rioting. Why are people here so afraid to stand up and be counted? Why are people so afraid to care for each other? I have met good people here, most of them with nothing, but not one of them who was very well off ever even saw me. I don't agree with burning my neighbours car, I don't agree with beating people up. I do understand why though and to see the Prime Minister with his nice suit, good hairdo, and white skin talk crap on National TV would only make me more angry. Where the hell are the Magrebian people who need to be interveiwed to see their point of view? I see no Magrebian people being interviewed, I see no Magrebian people on Television save the Token one or two. What sort of world am I living in?

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