Years of Poems and Spirits

Now I have to put out a mea culpa on an earlier post …

Updates:
1. Just saw a much better, deeper article (c) on NYT on the riots: explained what the French model really is (not the “soft power” as I implied), what else is out there (not one but three European models), and how each faired?
Answer: There models exist,
a. French: Supress ethnicity, force to conform to a common French identity. Policies: not encouraging ethnicity-based political associations. No affirmative actions. Consequences: lack of representation and recognition of ethnical differences. Misc: Slow citizenship process.
b. German/Austria: Guest worker program. Consequences: “discredited”. No citizenship. Now immigrants demand for recognition and citizenship.
c. British model: open door policy until Thatcher. Strong representations in politics. More like American model.

2. Sarkozy himself a 2nd generation immigrant, of Greek/Jewish background. Another Blair-Schroeder type: no ideology but pragmatic. See an interesting bio and short intro to contemporary French politics: “Ready for War”
Example: Tough law-and-order type but proposing affirmative action.

However, it is still fair to question Sarkozy’s tactic of painting victims as aggressors.