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The hypocrisy of France

by tyronen
Fri Nov 24th, 2006 at 02:27:30 PM EST

No serious observer can deny that French foreign policy played a role in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.  

For years, France had backed the régime of President Juvenal Habyarimana's Hutu-dominated MRND party, even after evidence mounted that French-trained Rwandan soldiers had carried out pogroms and massacres against the country's Tutsi minority.

Why would they do this?  Rwanda carries no particular economic importance for France or anyone else; it is tiny, landlocked, and poor.

The answer lies in one word: language.

Read more... (7 comments, 772 words in story)

Europe's naked hypocrisy

by tyronen
Fri Aug 25th, 2006 at 12:48:23 PM EST

So now we hear that up to 15,000 UN troops will be heading into Lebanon.  Two thousand from France, three thousand from Italy, yay us.  Israel will be kept safe from a few kidnappings and rockets.  Lebanon will be kept safe from Israel.  And Hezbollah watch out!  the wrath of the EU will be upon you.

Is this an example of the new, robust, EU foreign policy?  A Europe no longer afraid of force, able to step in while its American rival is tied down in an endless war?

No, it is not.  It brings home to me all that is ugly about Europe - its legacy of colonialism, racism, and exploitation.  This is a continent that once enslaved the world.  It today may have progressive welfare states and humane labour markets, but the old, darker instincts are still there.

Read more... (30 comments, 544 words in story)

Crisis of French society - and the left

by tyronen
Thu Nov 3rd, 2005 at 03:04:10 PM EST

There have now been seven days of riots in the Paris banlieues.  Seven.

The Los Angeles riots of 1992 lasted less than four days.  The 1965 Watts riots were six days.  The UK's Brixton riots of 1981 were three days.

Things like this are not supposed to happen in Europe.  The USA is the harsh, laissez-faire society with a permanent underclass; Europe's more generous social programs are supposed to prevent inequality and hatreds from taking root.  But obviously this equation has failed.  France has an underclass, despite decades of étatisme.

It is easy for leftists to point the blame at France's centre-right government, to posturing between Sarkozy and de Villepin.  That doesn't explain why the riots broke out.  Nor does it explain how to either stop them in the short term or ease the long-term fissures that led to them.

Read more... (68 comments, 453 words in story)

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