Riots in France

These days we have witnessed the riots in the suburbs of the main cities of France. Much has been said and written about it, about its motivations, about its consecuences, about its spreading to other countries. I'm going to add my modest point of view, as France is my northern neighbour and I think I know them quite well.

I think the origin of the problem was social and it was to be found in the misery ruling in the suburbs; but soon the riots turned into some kind of media show. Everybody in the suburbs wanted the name of their city to be on TV and a strange competition was created, where the number of cars burnt was the goal. It was a party, from a certain point of view. I cannot find any justication to attacks to kindergarten, schools or social equipment. No rage can justify this. I agree with French governors about the merciless to be shown by Justice.

But that is not only a problem of security. Motivations of these young French should be analyzed. Failure of the French model of integration lais there. Suburbs in France are quite similar to ghettos, they are lost from the attention of the government, while caucasian French simply ignore them. It seems that if nobody looks at them, they do not exist.

Let me give an example. France always tries to show their "grandeur", often with expensive buildings (for instance, the French National Library) that could be built with a more restricted budget but without being so evident. Thus, funds were moved from social programs in suburbs to huge public works. Nobody took care of the suburbs because nobody in the government came from the suburbs. Currently, only one member of the French parliament is not caucasian, and he comes from the Caribbean Sea!!!!!

As immigrants in the suburbs were working in the cities, there was no problem at all. But, when their children could not get a job, when they left schools, when crime spread into suburbs and attracted them because they did not have another choice, the problem arose. The second generation of immigrants also must face a second challenge: racism. They are born French, but they are seen as immigrants as French. This was the perfect scenario for the riots recently witnessed on TV. Only an excuse was missed. A first signal of this lost of identity happened in a football match in Saint Denis. Many of the spectators of the France-Algerie whistled during the French anthem...

I know this is going to stop, and it seems that the government has noticed what must be done in the suburbs. I would like it to be solved, because I love France (with the faults the French have, but they are that way and we must love them anyway), and it is quite sad for me when I watch these terrible images on TV. My only hope is that the remaining European countries, especially Spain, learn the lesson.