Tuesday, November 08, 2005

French plan curfews to stop riots

Local authorities in France have been allowed to impose curfews in an attempt to end 11 days of riots, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin says.

Speaking in a television interview, he called the violence "unacceptable" and outlined measures to curb the unrest that has hit 300 towns and cities.


The spectacle of the French riots reminds me of the scenario in "28 Days Later," only the source of the violence isn't nearly as esoteric as an experimental virus. In many ways, the riots echo the "Lord of the Flies" nightmare exactingly recounted in J.G. Ballard's "High-Rise."

I really enjoyed Chris Wren's take:

I was into the whole "See how the People really live" mode of sightseeing. It wasn't the vast tracts of council project housing that I was expecting - the kind you might have seen in London or Toronto in the 70's. I'm not even sure I'd call it "housing". It was just concrete bunkers from horizon to horizon. No parks, no shops, nothing. No sense of community life, and no physical spaces for communing to happen. Just concrete boxes and vast deserted plazas done in that utterly impractical Soviet style, loftily disdainful of human scale and "sentimental" esthetic sensibilities. No joy and no possibility of hope or escape. There was no reason to aspire to joining in with French society because there was no evidence of French society to aspire to.

5 comments:

W.M. Bear said...

That one paragraph description is the best explanation of the riots that I've seen. Evidently, the French had it coming. Let's hope we're not next.

weevee: rcahs -- How we pronounce "personal transpotation modules" in the Boston area.

JEFM said...

I don't agree Bear. Causes for this are not quite simple.

Jon

W.M. Bear said...

I think physical circumstances like this have an enormous effect on the collective psyche. Of course, as with most things, I'm no expert in this area. I did find that this description made more sense to me as a causative factor than most of what I've been reading in the so-called "mainstream media" (which really seem pretty cluesless -- as with most events of this type -- as to what's actually happening).

infotheorem said...

'french fries' ... so lame, yet so funny .. btw Bear, way off topic but I have a distinct North Shore flavor of Boston accent

magnidude said...

U call it "bunkers", u call it "disdainful of human scale", u call it "no sense of community life". I call it "socialism".

And take a good look at these riots - that's where the road to "better world" leads to.