It's time to say something

Isn’t it ironic ... the French word for curfew is couvre-feu
couvre-feu: covrir to cover + feu fire

The whole world has been watching the fires in France. We have been watching them too – on the French news in French, on the BBC in English, and on CNN. All of the French talk shows have been discussing the fires. But it wasn’t until the 11th night of the riots that the violence hit Lyon. It started with some cars that were set on fire. And like the fires in Paris, it was out in the suburbs. But yesterday evening (the 12th day)… this happened:

The city of Lyon suspended public transport (Lyon's entire public transport network was shut down) late Tuesday following scattered incidents, including the tossing of a Molotov cocktail into a metro station.

Since I’ve been getting calls and emails from my kids, my friends, and other members of our family, I decided to post about it with the frequently asked questions.

How did this start?
(good answer from another French transplant blogger living in Paris - http://frogblog-lavache.blogspot.com/)
“What isn't being reported is that the two kids who were electrocuted were on railway tracks "tagging." Graffiti is out of control here. In my post on my blog about the Gare de Lyon, I had to change the position of the shot I took of the three TGVs because they had been so horribly tagged. The trains here are all electric, so if you are going to be tagging trains or train stations, a favorite pastime of the unemployed black, Muslim, and black Muslim kids here, you are going to be walking and crawling around the power sources for the trains. Despite the denials that the police were chasing them, it seems likely that the police caught them and gave chase. They tried to hide in a transformer box and got fried.”

Are you close to the violence?
Well before yesterday, I didn’t think I was real close to it. We live in the city, not “outside the loop” in the suburbs where these things are occurring but the incident on the subway yesterday is too close for comfort. There are a lot of “non-native French” people all around us, in our neighborhood, and all over the city. It appears to me that most Arab, Moroccan, African, etc. people that I see are pretty normal and have jobs. And sadly, this will make me see things differently and I will be a bit more cautious. And I won’t take the subway anymore.

Where do you keep your car?
Paul drives it to work every day and at night we keep it in a parking garage on the –5 floor.

How will this end?
I have no idea. It’s not an easy solution. One talking-head here (shockingly!) said that the rioters should be given the tainted ground meat that recently killed 19 people in the southwest of France. I have heard the rioting called the “juvenile jihad”. And the fear is that it will spread all throughout Europe.


If you have a deeper interest….
This gives one European perspective… click here.


And this gives an American one… click here.


I’m currently reading a very enlightening book entitled “Eurabia”.
For the definition of Eurabia Click here.
Click here for book reviews.


I often find references to these articles by Bernard Lewis but have not actually read them. If you access to online periodicals, you may want to check it out.
"The Roots of Muslim Rage," The Atlantic Monthly, vol. 266, September 199O, p. 60;
or in Time Magazine, June 15, 1992, pp. 24-28.