---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 8 Nov 2005 08:23:51 -0600 From: Dean Ferguson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: French History discussion group <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Paris Unrest
From: Nelcya Delano ?? [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 3:01 AM Subject: Paris Unrest Very good question! No, it's not just the US press, it's French press + political personnel etc... and "les gens", who seem incapable of accepting these second or third genreration adults and children for what they are: French citizens... It really is part of the problem, though unemployment is major of course. Add macho culture, gang culture, and total alienation with/from anything institutional,(for a long series of historical, sociolgical and material reasons). Add terrible housing and living conditions... Add 30 years of government withdrawal from all these neighbourhoods, (post offices, health centers, cr??ches, even commissariat de police). Last summer, most subsidies for summer camps, schools, workshops, trips, parties, week-ends in the country or by the sea were cut. A friend of mine, who works in an Avignon banlieue and had a workshop where he taught mime, acting and clowning explained that all these activities had been scrapped by the Mairie was "a time bomb"': it was summer time, it was hot and those kids, adolescents were left to themselves while the Theatre festival was booming next door, with 30??? tickets . Political parties and unions have deserted and or lost contact and or no longer have enough funds themselves. This morning on the radios, most commentators were regretting the Communisst party ex role as a social activist and controller!... The riots began during les vacances de la Toussaint... Best Nelcya Delano?? US History Professor Paris-X, Nanterre
