Vive Le France

Disclaimer- I must disclose my biases right at the outset. Firstly, in any argument between the colonized and the colonizers, I am likely to sympathize with the colonized. Secondly, I have an inherent bias against the French; their self-aggrandizement and their ingratiousness. And finally, I have no first hand knowledge of the topic I am writing about here. So expect that what I am about to write does not represent an impartial, objective viewpoint.

While thousands of French people have been celebrating their team's winning run at the world cup this week, the Les Bleus' success has not gone down well with one Frenchman. Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the National Front Party, believed to be one of the contenders for the Presidential elections when Jacques Chirac steps down, has been grumbling that the French team is not truly representative of the country, and that French people cannot see themselves reflected in this team. Obviously, somebody forgot to tell the thousands of people, white, black and all colours between, celebrating on the streets of Paris this week following France's contentious semi-final win over Portugal.

Le Pen has a long and distinguished career of anti-Semitism, anti-Arabic and anti-Black racism. His portfolio is further bolstered by his calls for stricter persecution of homosexuals, reduction in social welfare benefits for the disabled and stringent opposition to immigration from non-European countries. People in Australia and USA often complain about the intolerant right-wing tactics of respective heads-of-state Howard and Bush Junior, but I believe the French public has much more to complain about if Le Pen were to replace Chirac as President. Even Chirac himself has been actively trying to prevent this eventuality by strongly backing unpopular Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.

Le Pen's outburst was met with indifference by the French soccer team, particularly veteran Lilian Thuram who dismissed the remarks as insignificant. But the undercurrents of discontent in French soceity have once more been stirred. The country is still recovering from the crippling riots of November 2005 when hordes of discontented youth took to the streets of Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Lille, Strasbourg and many other French cities and torched cars, buses and buildings. In April 2006, there were further protests by the growing masses of French unmeployed and by unions protesting the weakening of labour laws allowing employers more control over "hiring and firing".

So what is wrong with France?? Unfortunately, I dont know much about France, certainly I have no first hand information whatsoever. But I felt that this was a topic worth writing anyway, using second hand sources, internet articles and TV documentaries. If there are any mistakes, I'd like to hear about it and would be happy to make changes....

France does not recognize minorities- "everyone is equal in the Republic" is the official line. The French census does not include questions regarding ethnic origin. So there is no accurate data to determine exactly how many people of non-French origin live in France. It is estimated that 1.5 million of the total population of 59 million is of black African origin, with a further 3 million of Arabic/North African origin, but there is no way to be sure. Almost all of these people originate from former French colonies such as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Ivory Coast etc. There are European minorities including Basque, Portuguese, German, Italian, Polish and of course, Jews, who are not strictly European.

The big social problem in France seem to be that despite State rhetoric about equality and "colour-blindness", discrimination is rife. This is borne out by the statistics- the unemployment rates for Arabic and Black people is twice that of the national average. This is particularly true for the 20-35 age group, which is worrying because these young people are French born and educated, they have never been to Africa and dont speak their parents' mother tongues fluently. They are French, technically, unlike their parents when they first migrated. But they are discriminated against in the same way the previous generation was. In fact, their parents generation found work quite easily because France was in severe shortage of manual labour to power the bustling economy. The illiterate African (from now on, I'm going to use "African" to refer to both black West Africans and Arabic North Africans) was highly sought after, because he was cheap, tolerated all sorts of abuse and still worked hard. Educated Africans, or Africans who could read and write French, found it much harder because employers were suspicious of them and refused to give them work. They were much more likely to revolt, to join the strong trade union movement and to vociferously demand basic human rights. It is interesting that now, the French-educated second generation Africans face the same hurdles that the minority of their educated predecessors faced.

French-Africans (sorry!! I'm not making a conscious effort to sound American...) are underrepresented, or unrepresented to be accurate, in French government. There is the odd token African government official, but no high profile African holds any post of significance. This is the same for corporate France, and for French universities. African schoolkids often complain that they are discouraged from pursuing higher studies and are told to undertake vocational training in the trades or go into unskilled labour. As a result, they are given poor recommendations from their school teachers and principals on their tertiary studies applications. Those that do manage to get an education find it hard to get interviews- Arabic students half-jokingly remark that their chances of getting an interview would be greatly enhanced if their name was Jean or Jacques as opposed to Mohammed or Abdul. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy had these sort of comments in mind when he wanted to pass a bill which would force jobseekers to disclose their ethnic origin on their resumes. (it was duly rejected- there is little overt racism in France, it is all subtle and hidden beneath the surface, at least its supposed to be)

Such discrimination has meant that there is now a whole of French youth feel displaced and unwanted in their own country. Chronic unemployment and lack of means to move forward in soceity has created a strong feeling of resentment, anger and even hatred amongst these young men. The Paris riots were merely a burst of steam from an overflow valve, an indicator that something is going to explode if changes arent made.

This is not the first time that France has been hit by such unrest. In 1961, thousands of Algerians were massacred on the streets of Paris by the Parisian police, for peacefully protesting against the mass-murder of tens of thousands of Algerians in Algeria by the French military. The French response then was to brutally silence the protests and then pretend that nothing happened. In the 21st century, the chances of success with such a strategy are slim, though Sarkozy and Le Pen would surely disagree. Maurice Papon, the chief of Police who was responsible for the 1961 massacre, was finally convicted for his crimes in 1999. But other French criminals still wander free. Le Pen, himself a war criminal from his days in Algeria, is the prime example. Him and other French commanders were responsible for killing large numbers of Algerians and displacing millions from their homes in one of the largest oppression campaigns since World War II. But all Frenchmen involved in the Algerian Independance war were given unquestioned pardons, so Le Pen and others were prosecuted. The French atrocities in Algeria were not dissimilar to Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on Muslims, Kosovars and other minorities in Serbia, except that the scale was much larger in Algeria. In fact, France has history of ignoring war crimes as well. Very few French criminals stood trial after World War II despite being responsible for the horrendous slaughter of surrendered enemies. After the Americans liberated France, many of the fragmented Axis squadrons in France surrendered. Those that surrendered to British and American troops were taken to POW camps for war tribunals. Those unfortunates that surrendered to the French were stripped naked and paraded through the streets of French towns before being hung or shot for public entertainment.

France is a country in which racism appears to have deep roots along with an attitude of non-recognition of events and realities that run contrary to the French Revolution motto of liberty, equality and brotherhood. While the abuse suffered by previous generations was overt, but nonetheless tolerated, the discrimination against people of African origin in the 21st century is more subtle, and (poorly) hidden behind rhetoric. The situation has been further inflamed by popular leaders like Sarkozy and Le Pen who push their agenda of intolerance and hatred without any inhibition. The telling remark came from Nicolas Sarkozy, himself the son of Hungarian immigrants, when he stated that he would "scrub" the "filth" off French soceity, referring to the young men, mostly French-born Arabic and black men, who participated in the riots last year.