The Riots - 60 Million People, 60 Million Opinions

Emily and I drove back to Nantes today to pick up (or try to pick up) our renewed carte de sejours. Alas, the lady who said she'd be in the office all afternoon was not there, and we couldn't wait forever as we wanted to catch a VO (That is, "Original English version" to non-France-inhabitants) showing of "Wallace and Gromit". After walking at high speed halfway across the city, we reached the theater to find that the film had closed out yesterday. C'est la via! We did have a nice chance to stop into FNAC (a sort of French CompUSA or BestBuy) to look at the digital camcorders. It would be great if we could record some chunks of my parents' trip here to a DVD for posterity, though I'm not sure how they will feel about this when they come staggering off the airplane after 8 hours of sleepless flight to be greeted by "LIVE On Cam!"

Today's pic is another shot of the interior of the Passage de Pommeraye, a beautiful art gallery-turned-shopping mall in downtown Nantes. The decor certainly puts Hanes Mall to shame...

Yesterday I posted that I would try to gather some opinions on the French riots from our French friends, who surely have a better insight on the situation than we do. I'm going to post their opnions here now, and possibly for the next couple of days, in somewhat edited and translated form (At least, as best I can translate the texts - I'll post original versions also). So, without further babble:

"It is not easy to be informed in this moment in France on this problem. The media choose to mask the truth in order to calm the game."
(Il n'est pas facile d'être informé en ce moment en France sur ce problème. Les médias ont choisi de masquer la vérité afin de calmer le jeu.)

"There are in the Parisian suburbs (as in all the large cities of the world: N.Y., L.A., etc.) young people who are difficult to control. They are unemployed, live in gangs, and they live of what? Drug sales, crimes, etc. The various governments tried to maintain a "pretence of order" to avoid the embarassments. They have in 3 years, Sarkozy, Minister of Interior Department (Minister for the police force), to make economies, removed 1 police station out of 3 in these difficult suburbs and cut the budget of what we call the latter "the police force of proximity" (essentially, local police stations). These last did a splendid work for all those young people who are not malicious but who are bent by stronger heads or "gang leaders".
Many people (like me) said "one day or the other, this will explode! "I was even astonished that this has not occurred faster. And then one night (11 pm) Sarko went into one of these difficult districts and he" insulted "the inhabitants. In fact, he tried to make a media operation, to recover the support of the right-wing side for the next elections because, for some time, the surveys said that he had lost votes. Sarko never would have dared to go to Corsica (or Brittany) and say: "you are a band of rabble, I will clean the city with the power hose!" If he had said that to me to me, I would be insane of rage! Because in these suburbs, there are 80 % of people "decent" who work and live normally. I saw interviews of people of my age questioned on the spot and who said that they approved the reaction of these young people. Too much it is too much. This was foreseeable, that this ignited the gunpowder, and, very sincerely, I understand them (I do not approve, but I understand). The only solution to calm the situation would be that Sarko resigns, but he will not do it..."
(Il y a dans la banlieue parisienne (comme dans toutes les grandes villes du monde : N.Y., L.A., etc.) des jeunes qui sont difficiles à contrôler. Ils sont au chômage, vivent en bandes, et ils vivent de quoi ? Du trafic de drogue, de vols, etc. tout le monde le sait.
Les divers gouvernements ont essayé de maintenir un "semblant d’ordre" pour éviter les débordements.
Il y a 3 ans, Sarkozy, ministre de l’intérieur (ministre de la police), pour faire des économies, a supprimé 1 poste de police sur 3 dans ces banlieues difficiles et il a coupé le budget de ce que nous appelions « la police de proximité » cette dernière faisait pourtant un travail magnifique pour tous ces jeunes qui ne sont pas méchants mais qui se laissent entraîner par des fortes têtes « chefs de bandes ».
Beaucoup de gens (comme moi) disaient « un jour ou l’autre, ça va péter ! » J’étais même étonnée que ça ne se passe pas plus vite.
Et puis une nuit (11 pm) Sarko est allé dans un de ces quartiers difficiles et il a « insulté » les habitants. En fait, il essayait de faire une opération médiatique, pour récupérer des voix de droite aux prochaines élections car, depuis quelques temps, les sondages disaient qu’il avait perdu des voix.
Jamais Sarko n’aurait osé aller en Corse (ou en Bretagne) pour dire : « vous êtes une bande de racaille, je vais nettoyer la cité au karsher » ! S'il m'avait dit cela à moi, je serais folle de rage ! Parce que dans ces banlieues, il y a 80 % de gens "bien" qui travaillent et vivent normalement. J'ai vu des interviews de personnes de mon âge interrogées sur place et qui disaient qu'elles approuvaient la réaction de ces jeunes. Trop c'est trop.
C’était prévisible, cela a mis le feu aux poudres, et, très sincèrement, je les comprends (je n’approuve pas, mais je comprends).
La seule solution pour calmer le jeu serait que Sarko démissionne, mais il ne le fera pas … )