Australian media hypocrisy over French inferno

And now we are living through the French Government being bashed for the wrong reasons. It should be criticised, long and loud, along with many generations of previous governments, for the social, economic and cultural neglect that has disenfranchised its Muslim and particularly North African and Sub-Saharan African minorities. But it should be criticised, not for perpetuating social welfare and secularism, but for not looking after them well enough.

For example, it should be criticised for “downsizing” the social welfare workforce (laying off social workers and community workers and defunding NGOs providing community welfare), to the tune of between 40,000 and 50,000 workers. It should be criticised, not for over-regulating the economy, but for rushing to deregulate it. It should be criticised, not for keeping industries nationalised and failing to let the market determine wages, but for denationalising and responding to the downturn by laying off thousands of blue-collar workers, rather than retraining them and devoting funds and energy to job creation. It should be criticised for half-baked measures such as those providing tax breaks for companies setting up in “difficult” areas, but without any obligation to employ local people or unemployed youth. So the companies set up, get the tax breaks, then when the tax honeymoon ends, pack up and move, without having brought any benefit to the local community or provided jobs to its unemployed.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, downplaying Minister for the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy’s hardline tactics and offensive remarks, has responded to the riots with pledges of the equivalent of $50 million to fund community welfare projects in the “troubled suburbs”, the creation of 20,000 public jobs as well as new apprenticeships and the setting up of an anti-discrimination agency. For some, this is too little, too late. The curfew enacted on November 8 has shocked many, especially because it was originally adopted during the Algerian War in 1955 and has only ever been used in Algeria. The arrests of young boys have also shocked many, as has Sarkozy’s decision on November 9 to deport foreigners who have been found guilty of crimes connected with the riots, even if they are legal residents.

But things have quietened down a little in the last couple of days: it is hard to say whether this is directly because of the curfew, because of the arrests, because of the death of Le Chenadec (as well as the setting on fire of a disabled woman in a bus), or because the largely opportunistic perpetrators of the violence have run out of steam on their own. Reports from friends in France indicate that things had started to quieten down before the curfew and that this, along with the deportation ruling, were thus unnecessary muscle tactics on the part of the government. Whatever the case, however, the army was not called in, and there has been no suggestion (as there has been recently in Australia) of revoking citizenship. And no police officer has been given the order to shoot to kill, as the US National Guard were told to do in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, or as legislation may enable Australian police forces to do in the not-so-distant future.

One thing, however, that the French and Australian media alike deserve criticism for is, as usual, their lack of gendered analysis. As in most cases of such violence, we are not talking about “youth” or “Muslims” or “migrants” per se. We are talking mainly about men and boys (notwithstanding the presence of a minority of girls). Where are the women? What are they doing during all of this? What are they thinking? Who is talking to them? One could ask the same questions of the French Government: where are the programs to deal with male violence against women in these “sensitive zones” (or indeed, elsewhere)? Where are the special language and vocational training programs for immigrant women and educational and vocational initiatives for their daughters?

Paris is burning. Or at least, part of it is. As are Toulouse, Lille, Rennes, Le Havre, Nantes, Amiens, Bordeaux, Dijon and Strasbourg, to mention but a few of the better-known cities and towns. And worse, France is bleeding, from the old and new wounds of many generations of colonisation, post-colonisation, socio-economic neglect and racial hatred. It distresses me beyond words. In fact, it is hard to say which distresses me more: what is happening in France right now, or what is happening in Australia.

Perhaps the editors of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian would do well to consider what a fragile glass house Australia has become. And right now, there are plenty of us clutching sharp stones in our hands.