French Riots ...ended
manoj: "Hey, the recent French riots.. I heard its over!!".
raj: "Yes. Fortunately for the french, it ended. I always assumed Europe to be the only continent less into wars/fighting compared to all others... ofcourse excluding the extremes like antartica. But what happened in france with these riots, and some news websites pondering whether it was Jihad, beats the idea of Europe I had in mind".
preeth: "what's it all about.. Why did the riots happen?"
raj: "Like US, UK, France also attracts many foreign students and a lot of immigrants. Having been all the time in India, actually we guys dont understand immigration and its pros or cons much.. because india's immigrants to natives ratio is very very low.. in countries like france its close to 10% of the population. To give us an idea, that means 1 out of 10 people living in france.. is a foreigner.
"Also, greater than 5 million people are muslims in france. Europe and the west has always worried about france and turkey, for their considerably high muslim population in that half of the world.
"That's a considerable alien population to deal with for the french natives, and there are problems of discrimination. You should have heard about protests by immigrants now and then. And you should heard of this... france has a ruling in its constitution that no student would be allowed into colleges if he/she wears a muslim purdah, or a sikh turban".
jas: "Yes, something like our dress code here.. that we are protesting".
"Ah! this dress code we have is nothing.. its obvious.. here we are only being asked to come to college like a proffessional and especially girls not wear something to brand themself 'hot'", says mark looking at preethi's reaction.
"preethi responds angrily, "mark, stop that.. we girls dont wear for becoming 'hot'. you nuts only put your imagination skills to such use rather than studies".
"Now, now.. this is not about it.. stop any fight there", points raj calmly.
raj: "The french ruling on banning the purdah and turban created a wave of protests from muslims and sikh immigrants from India. All said, the ruling still holds.. but I am not sure whether the students are allowed into colleges with turbans, or, is their some kind of warm up time given till the ruling is enforced strictly.
"Now, the recent riots were organized by immigrants, most of them protesting were young men, who feel the french society neglects immigrants in many ways... There are unemployment problems, accomodation problems, racial discrimination, police harrasement, ... and all things that the french natives discriminate immigrants for.
"These riots have happened earlier when discrimination leads to some accident or creates disturbing issues. This time they say the riots would have ended earlier but for the electrocution deaths of two teenagers of African background hiding from police in an electrical sub-station. Then it sparked and became a more serious issue. Its also said that in one night on November 6th around 1400 vehicles were burnt and destroyed.. and since then the government declared a state of emergency.
"The interior minister of france even said that he has never in his life known of such three weeks of such extreme tension. The minister still said that he acknowledged the issues raised by the rioters on discrimination, but he was not happy with the way they are protesting by damaging vehicles and bringing normal life in danger".
"Now the riots have subsided, and the french government has promised addressing the issues raised".
raj: "Yes. Fortunately for the french, it ended. I always assumed Europe to be the only continent less into wars/fighting compared to all others... ofcourse excluding the extremes like antartica. But what happened in france with these riots, and some news websites pondering whether it was Jihad, beats the idea of Europe I had in mind".
preeth: "what's it all about.. Why did the riots happen?"
raj: "Like US, UK, France also attracts many foreign students and a lot of immigrants. Having been all the time in India, actually we guys dont understand immigration and its pros or cons much.. because india's immigrants to natives ratio is very very low.. in countries like france its close to 10% of the population. To give us an idea, that means 1 out of 10 people living in france.. is a foreigner.
"Also, greater than 5 million people are muslims in france. Europe and the west has always worried about france and turkey, for their considerably high muslim population in that half of the world.
"That's a considerable alien population to deal with for the french natives, and there are problems of discrimination. You should have heard about protests by immigrants now and then. And you should heard of this... france has a ruling in its constitution that no student would be allowed into colleges if he/she wears a muslim purdah, or a sikh turban".
jas: "Yes, something like our dress code here.. that we are protesting".
"Ah! this dress code we have is nothing.. its obvious.. here we are only being asked to come to college like a proffessional and especially girls not wear something to brand themself 'hot'", says mark looking at preethi's reaction.
"preethi responds angrily, "mark, stop that.. we girls dont wear for becoming 'hot'. you nuts only put your imagination skills to such use rather than studies".
"Now, now.. this is not about it.. stop any fight there", points raj calmly.
raj: "The french ruling on banning the purdah and turban created a wave of protests from muslims and sikh immigrants from India. All said, the ruling still holds.. but I am not sure whether the students are allowed into colleges with turbans, or, is their some kind of warm up time given till the ruling is enforced strictly.
"Now, the recent riots were organized by immigrants, most of them protesting were young men, who feel the french society neglects immigrants in many ways... There are unemployment problems, accomodation problems, racial discrimination, police harrasement, ... and all things that the french natives discriminate immigrants for.
"These riots have happened earlier when discrimination leads to some accident or creates disturbing issues. This time they say the riots would have ended earlier but for the electrocution deaths of two teenagers of African background hiding from police in an electrical sub-station. Then it sparked and became a more serious issue. Its also said that in one night on November 6th around 1400 vehicles were burnt and destroyed.. and since then the government declared a state of emergency.
"The interior minister of france even said that he has never in his life known of such three weeks of such extreme tension. The minister still said that he acknowledged the issues raised by the rioters on discrimination, but he was not happy with the way they are protesting by damaging vehicles and bringing normal life in danger".
"Now the riots have subsided, and the french government has promised addressing the issues raised".
posted by Harish Palaniappan at 11:22 PM
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