Ready To Meet My Maker

"I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter."
Sir Winston Churchill

A New Friday Furo Questus

...is up at The Wasatch Front.

Darkness In The City Of Light

From Reuters:

Shots fired as French riots escalate
By Paul Carrel

BOBIGNY, France (Reuters) - Rioters shot at police and fire fighter crews in the worst night of a week of violence in poor suburbs that ring Paris, as France's conservative government struggled to quell the unrest.

Youths who rampaged on Wednesday night left a trail of burnt cars, buses and shops in nine suburbs north and east of Paris, home to North African and black African minorities frustrated at their failure to get jobs or recognition in French society.

"It's a dramatic situation. It is very serious and we fear that the events could even get worse tonight," said Francis Masanet, secretary general of the UNSA police trade union.

Rioters torched 177 vehicles and attacked a primary school and shopping centre, local officials said. Four police officers and two firefighters were hurt, including one with facial burns from a Molotov cocktail.

Prefect Jean-Francois Cordet, the government's top official in the Seine-Saint-Denis region, confirmed shots had been fired at police and fire crews in three separate incidents.

"Four live bullets were fired. Two shots were fired at La Courneuve against police. One shot was fired at Noisy-le-Sec against fire crews, and one shot was fired against a fire crew in Saint-Denis," he told a news conference.

Cordet did not say what sort of weapons had been fired but media said local police recovered shotgun cartridges from the scene at La Courneuve. No one was reported wounded.

Twenty-three people were in custody, he added.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, accused by opponents of enflaming passions with his outspoken attacks on the "scum" behind the violence, maintained a conspicuously low profile.

He met Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin for a working lunch but neither man, rivals to lead the right in 2007 presidential elections, spoke out publicly over the escalation in the violence.

BAD FOR BUSINESS

At a supermarket in Bobigny's shopping centre, staff swept up broken glass and worried about the future.

"If this continues, I'll have to close. Clients are afraid. There's normally lots of people here at this time of the day," said a local cobbler who did not want to be named.

"It's because of the police that this is going on," said one black youth who did not want to be identified. "They are too violent. That's not what their job is."

Governments across Europe have been confronted with violence in deprived inner city areas, and the unrest in France comes despite Sarkozy's anti-crime drive led in the wake of President Jacques Chirac re-election in 2002, won on law and order issues.

Villepin has struggled to end squabbling within his cabinet over how to handle the disturbances that forced him to cancel a Canada trip.

The ruling Union for a Popular Majority is split between a pro-Sarkozy camp and rivals who support Chirac and Villepin, handing the opposition Socialists a rare chance to beat the conservatives over their much-vaunted record on crime.

"When you see what's gone on over the past three years, when neighbourhood police have been dismantled ... I think there's another failure to be noted," Socialist leader Francois Hollande said on French radio.

Sarkozy has scoffed at Socialist attacks, noting crime rose 15 percent during its last 5-year rule. He has sent 2,000 extra police to the areas to help enforce his "zero tolerance" on rioters.

Some leftwing police trade unions have criticised his policies and called for a return of neighbourhood police. One police union official described the unrest as a "civil war" and urged Sarkozy to impose a curfew in the affected areas.

The unrest erupted first in the Clichy-sous-Bois after two teenagers were electrocuted while apparently fleeing police during a local disturbance.

Local prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters police had not been chasing the pair when they clambered into an EDF substation, but he had opened an official probe to further investigate the matter.

(Additional reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich and Jon Boyle)
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

Take note of the identity of the rioters. Not easy to find, is it? Also note they are "North African," not Muslim. But Islam does appear to be an issue, since some of the happenings have occurred around mosques.

I'm not sure I agree that a lack of jobs is solely behind this violence. This is a clash of cultures as much as anything. I could be wrong, though. One of the biggest problems is that this is a very underreported story, at least in the American press.

The riots are in their eighth straight night right now, and seem to be worsening. What is going on, and why cannot the French restore order?

Update: Perhaps the riots are simply another symptom of cultural rot. See this article by Theodore Dalrymple for a more thorough look.

Not To Fail

A few thoughts on life on a gloomy day.

"Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand."
- St. Augustine

"American's solemn duty is to constantly renew its covenant with humanity to complete the grand work of human freedom that began two hundred years ago. This work, in its grandness and nobility, is not unlike the building of a magnificent cathedral. In the beginning, progress is slow and painstaking. The laying of the foundations and the raising of the walls is measured in decades rather than years. But as the arches and spires begin to emerge in the air, others join in, adding their faith and dedication and love, to speed the work to its completion. My friends, the world is that cathedral. And our children, if not we ourselves, will see the completed work -- the worldwide triumph of human freedom, the triumph of human freedom under God."
Ronald Reagan, 1991

"Remember this: When we come to the edge of our known world, we're standing on the shores of the infinite. Dip your hand in that limitless sea; you're touching the mystery of God's universe. Set sail across its waters and you embark on the boldest, most noble adventure of all. Out beyond our present horizons lie whole new continents of possibility, new worlds of hope waiting to be discovered. We've traveled far, but we've only begun our journey. There are hungry to feed, sicknesses to cure, and new worlds to explore. And this is no time for small plans or shrinking ambitions. We stand on the threshold of an epic age, an age of technological splendor and an explosion of human potential, an age for heroes.”
Ronald Reagan

"Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!"
George Washington

All around us are skeptics. Not a bad thing, entirely - it is good for someone to have a sober eye. Some take their "realism" to the edge of depression; nothing will work, it's hopeless, we're doomed.

I don't share that melancholy. We weren't placed here to fail.

That may sound overly religious to you, and my faith does indeed inform that belief.

I have no assurance that good will win, except in the end. And that comes only from my faith. If I could only trust in man, I'd have no assurance that good would prevail at all.

But. But what is the point of being here, if not to try. We weren't placed here to surrender. We have to try. We have too much yet to do.