Is France Due for Riots?

However, France will not be spared the sword. I predict that the world will watch French cities light up in youth unrest in 2009, 2010 at the latest ... 2011 for sure.

My response:

There is an implicit yet serious misreading in this whole post, starting with the word "riot." We call them "manifs" (for "manifestations", demonstrations). Some are more violent than others. That's considered, in a way, a natural part of democracy. When our government isn't paying attention, or doing something we don't like, we take it to the streets.
And it works.
That's why when the "banlieues" took to the streets, I saw them half-jokingly as merely perpetuating a centuries old tradition.
As for the immigrants not being represented in politics, here's the thing: most politicians are kinda old. Younger people are not represented in politics. But as I'm typing this just before leaving the office, I can't help but notice that more than one in five employees in this IT-oriented business are minorities. And they're not janitors either. My boss's father immigrated to this country and worked as an unskilled factory worker. His son is an IT manager. In time, more of them will gain influence in politics.
As for having minorities in position of power, let me just remind you that we had a jewish prime minister in 1936 who might not even have been allowed to join many a country club in your country; and a black man was president of our Senate at a time when he wouldn't have been able to sit at the front of a bus in many US states (Gaston Monnerville).
But thank you very much for your concern.