Stop Demanding, Start Seizing
When will they – finally – hold themselves responsible?
The attack was rough but not unique. In the last three weeks alone, three similar assaults on the police have occurred in these suburbs, which a year ago were aflame with the rage of unemployed, undereducated youth, mostly the offspring of Arab and African immigrants.
In fact, with the anniversary of those riots approaching, spiking violent crime statistics across the area suggest not only that things have not improved, but that they also may well have worsened. Residents and experts say that fault lines run even deeper than before and that widespread violence may flare up again at any moment.
[...]
The anger of those young men is apparent in music popular in the suburbs. In her latest album, the rap singer Diam’s accuses Mr. Sarkozy of being a demagogue and the police of hypocrisy. The rapper Booba proclaims in one song, “Maybe it would be better to burn Sarko’s car,� while Alibi Montana, another rapper, warns Mr. Sarkozy, “Keep going like that, and you’re going to get done.�
What some people seem to be incapable of understanding is that the government should not take care of them. One has seize the opportunities one receives. Instead of constantly blaming everything on ‘racism’ and the government, these ‘youths’ should start looking at their own roles, at their own lives.
I am not argueing that racism does not exist in Europe. It does. But these ‘youths’ are exaggerating it greatly. Almost as an exuse: so they will not have to take responsibility for their own lives.
They have to stop demanding and start seizing.
12 Responses to “Stop Demanding, Start Seizing”
Maybe we should speak to these young people with words they can understand.
Like “F You” (or in this case vas te faire encule
Frankly, rewarding rioting and violent youth to me is similar to appeasing terrorists or giving in to hostage takers. It teaches that violence indeed is the best way to get what you want.
Racism also happens in the US, naturally, but in High School I saw racism used as a “one excuse fits all” solution. Racism was the reason the black kids had such terrible math scores and therefore math class had to be dumbed to the lowest common denominator so they could feel good about themselves. Racism was what kept them in the ghettos and “white people” were “keeping them down”. Just like “white people” forced them to have unprotected sex and get pregnant at 15, “white people” put guns in their hands and forced them into gangs and took away their textbooks so they couldn’t study and forced them to beat up other black kids that were “acting white” (eg. studying and behaving in class, speaking proper English). The “blame whitey” strategy was hurting them more than whitey himself. My (mostly white) teachers were complicit, because telling a kid he has “A for effort” and is “improving” (slightly less pathetically illiterate than 3 months ago) is easier than telling them they have to shape up, taking a hard line.
In Europe much the same is happening. The immigrants and their children (who are natives to nowhere, as they don’t integrate into their birth-countries but don’t belong to their parents countries) learn to blame racism and xenophobia for all their ills and “demand” that the government “fix it”. If they are illegal, they should be made legal, if they commit crimes, they should be given financial aids so they don’t “have” to mug women to buy their state of the art cell phones. Those immigrants that come legally and obey the law have to bear the ruining of the neighborhood by these cavemen, and the souring of the native population towards ALL immigrants. Instead of teachers, it’s opposition government parties (whichever they happen to be) and NGOs (that get a government cut for every immigrant they help) that teach them the victim status.
Ka-Ching! Great comment lynx I agree completely.
That being said, I will have to edit your post to take out one specific phrase.
Oops sorry Michael!! {blushes}
I hope there’s no one french around to be offended
Since when did punishment make anyone more moderate, ever? Don’t you want to help them become integrated, productive members of society? A true society/community helps out its members in need. If you ignore the plight of people like this you are only forcing them to form their own society seperate from your own, exacerbating the problem you wish to solve. I agree with the statement “The “blame whitey” strategy was hurting them more than whitey himself” but ever crackdown, every punative measure simple gives them more ammo for this type of thinking. And blaming whitey is not more or less logical than placing the blame soely on immegrants. Its a societal problem and all of society needs to work together to fix it.
I’m not saying throwing money at them would be an any sort of answer, but something must be done to break the cycle and include them in the greater french community. Here’s one idea. How about we offer a schollarship program (or something like it if France has fully subsadized education, I forget) for younths. maybe 14-18? You would be required to leave the ghettos and go live with a French family somewhere pretty far away; French country side or something. While there you would have to be involved in some sort of community programs, maybe being a clerk for the local governement (do they have town meetings in france?) maybe helping organize the local french version of the YMCF. This gets these children to see the world outside of their gheto and understand that “whitey” isn’t out to get them, that they are actually quite nice and reasonable people on the whole. Call this appeasement, giving in, rewarding violence whatever you want. Its an actual solution instead of the blame game.
The biggest I would ses is that parrents wouldn’t let their daughters go. This of course isn’t ideal, but they aren’t the one’s rioting and you have to start somewhere.
that’s “The biggset problem”
French Intifada.
If you think a scholarship program is going to solve the problems they are having in France, any more than it is likely to make a huge dent in gang violence in Compton, Calfornia, I think you are seriously underestimating the problem. I also think you don’t understand that the fact that these kids don’t take a heavy interest in education is, in large part, a product of their culture.
This is the result of the disasterous multicultural policies of the left. The reality is, muslims don’t belong in the west.
Laura, I don’t know about the US, but in Europe, the “right” and the left are pretty much equally to blame. In Spain the “left” is represented by the PSOE (now the rulling party) and the “right” is represented by the PP. I use the quotations because both represent themselves first, their bussiness after and the political ideology a very distant third. They disagree on just about everything, but both jockey to be the ones most subserviant to immigrants. Oh sure our “conservative” party is complaining now about the disasterous immigration policies of the government, except they do the same thing when they’re in power. In a way it’s worse here than in the US. At least there SOME politicians say that illegal immigration is BAD and that demanding integration and enforcing deportations is NECCESARY. Here saying that gets you branded a Nazi, a Fascist, and relentless attacks from the media.
Lynx,
Forget about it. The European right may be inept in handling stuff like this (except for the far right), but the left absolutely pimps multiculturalism.
Indeed by providing them with opportunities to improve themselves / their own lives. Not by giving in to the demands of violent people who refuse to take responsibility for a situation they largely created themselves.
The most sucsessful anti-gang programs (outside of a supermax) involve getting the member out of the gang and involved within another community. Just like a gang a culture can provide a sense of belonging to a person, and they will follow the tennets of that group. The point is to show them that there are other ways to be accepted. There are certainly some in the arab European community that do want to be better educated, perhaps I’m overestimating, but it doesn’t really matter what the reward is. Also, you will never be able to find out what they want, and therefore how to influence them, if you ostracize and belittle them. The reward can be cold hard cash for all I care. the point is to remove them from the environment willingly.