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it's hard to be so new here and have something intelligent to say about the riots all over france. the BBC had been running excellent articles about the background of the situation as well as daily updates. they also include moderated comments after each article giving different viewpoints from people around the world. we've been talking to our french teacher about it as well. and missy's new purchase Sixty Million Frenchman Can't Be Wrong, which i'm only a third of the way through so far, gives a lot of well-researched background on the french attitude, character, and history.

what started it all was three teens in a poor ethnic suburb of paris thought they were being chased by cops and jumped the fence into an electric power station to hide. two got electrocuted and died. to the residents, this is just another example of the police hassling them, but this time it ended in death. it seems well documented that there is systemic racism towards the north african muslim population in france. the police hassle, the local officials try to marginalize, and national officials ignore the problem.

the setup is that there is a large north african population in france as a result of colonial fever back in the 1800's that all ended very badly in the Algerian War in the 1950's. marseille, on the coast to avignon's south, was the gateway from north africa, and so has a large immigrant population, in the way new york or san francisco do. it was the second area to start rioting. avignon itself has a sizable population, and things have heated up here as well.

as with any large distinct set of newcomers, integration problems occured. the french are very interested in preserving what they consider the french way of life, and this conflicts with elements of the traditional muslim way of life.

the people i've talked to about the problem don't come across as racist. the ban on head scarves exposes this. something like 90% of the population favors the ban. to give a more complete picture, crucifixes and any other overt religious symbol are banned as well. no one group is singled out. the goal is to keep the state and religion separate. in US high schools we regularly ban clothing that could represent gang affiliation under the reasoning that it distracts from the dual goals of learning and learning to live with one another. no different.

so i don't think it's an ideological problem. the french love and hoard political power, and as a result, revolution is a frequent method of changing up government. revolution is tough, so change does not come fast or easily. women only got the right to vote in 1944. the number of female politicians is half of what it is in the US. no gloating though, it's only 20% in the US, compared to 50% in some scandinavian countries. so if you want to be heard, the reasoning goes, you've got to take it to the streets.

the french love protests, as we've seen. in fact, i've read that as halloween begins to be introduced here, it takes the form of a street protest, with kids all marching together down the main street, entering shops and demanding treats. you place things in frameworks that are familiar to you.

a lot of this bothers me though. i'm all for burning cars, mind you, but for one thing, the people whose cars get destroyed are the neighbors. so now they're even poorer and also now they can't get to work. even torching a starbucks is idiotic since the owner is only renting the name and equipment. guaranteed he's not a bourgeois elite. not an effective way to assert political pressure. chopping heads off of politicians is far more intelligently directed. but of course logic is not the point. i destroyed my own bicycle once in a childish fit of frustration. it was mine and i loved it and i deeply miss it. stupid. humans are only ruled by logic when emotion allows it.

by all accounts this is a problem that has been brewing for thirty years at least. there is a national election coming in 2007, and already politicians are spinning this to aid their candidacy. hopefully some good can come from it. it is refusing to die off. every day politicians say it is getting under control, hoping it will go away, and it doesn't. the police have been unable to quell it. i think people have recognized that it is time to start the ball rolling. it's strange to watch and try to understand. when making whipped cream you stir and stir but there's one moment when it starts to stiffen and turn from liquid to whatever form whipped cream is. it's sort of a simultaneous group decision to change form that can't exactly be predicted. this feels a little like that.