Alexa

That's very sad. I hope they'll stop soon.

Sorry. I saw gettos only into the movies. We have in Montreal "hot places" but we cannot qualify them as ghettos. In Laval where I live (banlieue de Montreal), if you are not a local, you'll never identify such places.

Is it only my impression or our generation of politicians lie to get elected and then make a virtue working nothing ? This is my general impression in all the countries all over the world.

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"Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true" (R.W. Emerson)

Leto

Here's some "ghettos" :

- Les Arènes de Picasso, aka les camemberts in my home town.

- the infamous cité des 4000 in La courneuve

Saint-Blaise distrcit just down the street from here (think you can see my building in the background)

As such in daylight, they're don't look so bad but they're so empty of anything that do a real social life : lshops, gardens - common or private -, administrative building - except the police station.

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Princess Ivy

here we have council blocks, although not quite so picturesque, simmilar problems arise.

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Princess Leia: I don't know who you are or where you've come from, but from now on you'll do as I say, okay?

Leto

It's a generic problem to most Western Europe countries. Riot have spread to some Germany towns too. But fortunatly last night was quieter than before in the Parisian area.

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Manuel

I can't really do anything but guess at the root problems which caused these riots to happen in France. It has been suggested that the majority of rioters are mainly from an underclass of North African extraction, some being second or even third generation born in France. The media again has painted this group as being predominately Muslim.

Therefore, is it not a logical conclusion to assume that the problem here is the assimilation of these people into a cosmopolitan France? This is one thing that I feel particularly proud of in the United Kingdom, and especially where I live - the town where I live has a large number of Muslims who integrate and are involved in society and not just a small part of it.

However, this balance depends on opportunities being able to all, and people feeling that there are ways that they can improve their lives. From some of the statistics thrown about regarding the minorities in the areas in France where there has been rioting, it appears that these opportunities are not available to all in France. And yet, some of France's national heroes are of North African extraction, no? I only have to think of their football team to see that!

If that is the root cause of the problem, there are no quick and easy ways to fix it ..... it will take passing of generations before people are accepted regardless of the colour of their skin, or which God they chose to believe.

Leto

Certainly, part of the problem is in bad assimilation, not only of North-African, but also of sub-saharian African people too. It's less a question of faith than the fact these people comes from former colonies and France didn't have a really smooth decolonization process.
As an example, Turkish immigration although of muslim faith too doesn't seem to be a part of the problem here.
Think about the Algeria war in the 60s. Problem too, according to history teaching, France is not a very multicultural countries. An example ? Regiments from our colonies fought bravely in WWI and WWII, but none of them until very recently have been honored for this. For many of upper class older people, these citizen are sub-citizen.
Another big part of the problem is poverty and unemployement and the fact that industrial sector is dwilling compared to office works. Industrial work was an important part of the assimilation process of the former waves of migrants (Italian - which I belong to, Portuguese, Polish and so on).

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Manuel

The decline of manufacturing industries is not something that is only happening in France.* The UK starting actively disbanding ours under Thatcher.* The problems you talk of disbanding the former French Empire is again similar to the end of the British empire ; for every Vietnam, there is an India / Pakistan.* *

Integration of peoples into a country is always going to be a problem.* *Countries as evolved as France and the UK will always allow the individual to express his or her individuality ; it's a corner stone of freedom.* *It is not a solution to demand that a person changes themselves to fit into nationality, is it?* *We should embrace all the different cultures in one country ; for example here in the United Kingdom the most popular food is curry, from India.* *Music is dripping with different sounds from all parts of our multicultural population.* *Film, television too ...... but still these problems remain, and it only takes one person to really start exploiting the situation to set us all back sixty years.

The only salvation are things like the internet, which allow people to talk to people as people.* *This generation must show the way to future generations.

edit : leto, where in Italy were you originally from?

Leto

And one of favorite food here is couscous.
India/Pakistan were never considered as integrated part of UK, Algeria was : when the country gained its independancy, we lost 3 districts. AFAIK, UK has an economical empire, we had an ideological one. And never fully understood until recently why they throw such great benefectors as us out (sorry for the spelling).

Lecco, Lago di Como, Lombardia.

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Manuel

off-topic :

Lovely. My mother is from Lerici, the bay of poets.

Leto

Nice place too.

Back on topic, for those interested, here's an interesting point of view of a foreign correspondant currently in Parishttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...110800330.html

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