It's Sunday November the 6 around 7:00PM and

What in the hell are they doing in Paris?

Well, not entirely inconcievable. If we lose a hockey championship games or when Guns and Roses fail to show up for a concert Vancouverites can let emotions carry the day, just like anyone else. But there isn't much evidence that we could keep up the anger for a week or more. In fact, the unrest seems to be getting stronger and more dangerous as 200 were arrested today for throwing molotov cocktails at schools, churches, and 1300 cars and worse, a gasoline bomb factory was discovered just south of the city.

No offense to the BCTF, but unrest doesn't really jive with the laidback lifestyle of the west coast. You can't have a Starbucks on every other corner and expect people to rise up. Just as you really couldn't get away with suggesting that Parisians are predisposed to get a little crazy (see also 1789, 1968, etc) but when you are there, experiencing Paris you get it. It's not that Parisians are born rioters, it is probably just a combination of the smoking, the expresso, and the attitude. If you look around the streets of Paris, you can imagine workers ready to bolt at a momments notice ready to protest, riot, or bring down the government. Quite frankly, that is the whole point of Paris - it's why writers and poets go there to write. In this case, that sort of perpetual tolerance has created a dangerous situation where there are pockets of Paris, and greater France, that are actually part of a slow growing problem in Europe. So if the "youth riotors" are not the mainstream of Paris, who are they?

"You mean Pierre and Jacques and Marcel and Alphonse? Granted that most of the "youths" are technically citizens of the French Republic, it doesn't take much time in les banlieus of Paris to discover that the rioters do not think of their primary identity as 'French''', writes the provocative and amusing Mark Steyn. "They're young men from North Africa growing ever more estranged from the broader community with each passing year and wedded ever more intensely to an assertive Muslim identity more implacable than anything you're likely to find in the Middle East. After four somnolent years, it turns out finally that there really is an explosive 'Arab street,'' but it's in Clichy-sous-Bois."

Well, that is pretty harsh, but you can read a bunch more depressing analysis pieces like that everywhere - like Ezra Levant's latest post at The Western Standard Shotgun - but that won't make you sleep any better tonight. The fact of the matter is that the City of Lights is having a really bad fall.

For Further Reading:
*This could be the only time we'll be able to do this, but linking to Austin Bay on a blog about Vancouver is quite excellent.
*Roger Simon is providing some excellent coverage via emails from the ground a sound knowledge of the city.
*UK blogger Clive Davis does some good reading of tea leaves and some excellent linking.
*The above three links were all via Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit and he has plenty more as usual.

Photo via Associated Press

Posted by Jackson Murphy | Link | Comments (1)