Friday, November 11, 2005

veuillez arrêter frapper français

 or "Please, stop bashing French" (translation provided by babblefish)

Normally, I am all for bashing the French. You know the familiar lines.

Cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys (that one is my favorite).
They smell bad (though I have never been to France to confirm this).
We (USA) will defend our freedom and yours (ok...ok...I just made that one up).

You have heard the old jokes.

Q.How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris?
A.Nobody knows, they never tried.

But while I thought that the riots were really funny, I quickly found it in bad taste when after the first few days the jokes, pokes, and jabs did not stop. Seeing someone fall down and laughing at is only ok if the person did not get hurt. It is fairly obvious that France's problems are not temporary and are not going to go away.

Just as it is obvious that their problems are permanent, it is also obvious that their problems are partly caused by their selves. Unfortunately, I think that we have probably permanently damaged the link between us and France to the point that they will not listen to advice from us. Secondly, even if that is not the case, they are too proud to listen to use anyways. Even though, we probably have more experience integrating different people than any other country in the world. Then again, you can offer a hand, but if that hand is not taken, there is not much that can be done.

While the French have not anything to help their selves out, the riots are not entirely their own fault. Just like the victim may share some blame for the crime that was committed against them, the final and ultimate blame rests with the rioters their selves.

I would just like to point out the riots are still going on.

cube

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