Paris Housing Hell (4) it is oppression & it is political

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Monday November 14, 2005 21:50 by iosaf .:. the ipsiphi

J'accuse. Je vous accuse Monsieur President!

This is my 4th article looking at the Housing Crises and Extreme Poverty in Paris.

It is also direct response to tonight's speech by President Chirac on French TV in defence of the decision made today by cabinet to extend the curfew and (further criminalise) French youth for the next 3 months.

& for once Chirac didn't start a telly speech with the phrase "to the citizens of the metropolitan and overseas departments".

Quite a break. Instead he began "my dear compatriots". Oh dear, society is obviously going to the dogs. He then went on to agree with most of us in general {& me in particular} that the riots aren't political but the response is.

If you live in France you can read his words on pretty much most of the commercial news-sites with pretentions of "record". http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-706693,36-710206@51-704172,0.html
But one thing you can not do. I'll write that out again so the gravity of the prohibition really hits home- One thing you can not do, is leave an instant comment.

Throughout France the side-effects of Loi 3 Avril 1955 have by now quite properly kicked in. Let me make it clear that much of the coverage is politically biased, and has focussed on Sarkozy's bluster. No non-national may be deported from France unless they have been convicted of a crime and sentanced to more a custodial term of 18 months or more. Yet throughout France ex-voters but probably still supporters of the extreme right and Le Pen have reacted well to Sarkozy's offer to deport "automatically" 120 teenage offenders _on racial grounds_.

Neither newspapers nor tv sites are obliged by law to monitor chat or comment by users.
But we know that they do delete comments, and generally make a "cross selection" of "reader/viewer" opinion which is left for all to see. This has been an important emergent effect of the media we now have at our disposal in the XXI century. Indeed allowing viewers of RTe, BBC and TVfr to "have their say" has always been a territory quite close in basic principle to how indymedia works.
We could also remember the development of the blog. A new word for a global phenomona of for ther most part unread daily thoughts and ruminations. (well my own is _unread_)[have you visited my blog? -quite] But in France blogging is now the object of obvious state surveillance. The city of Paris and her tourists and citizens just experienced an Armistice weekend under curfew with no public assembly _because of a blog_. A teenager's blog at that. There are many sites which before these riots featured Sarkozy as other leading characters of the French establishment. All messages posted on them (if they offer the facility) are now providing _de facto_ intelligence to police _under emergency laws_ to dictate normal Urban and National life.

The question ought not be now-
What happened to the Republic?
or even
What is happening to the Republic?
but rather
How is the Republic to be saved?

.:.

_________________________________________

Paris housing hell 1
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=71693
Paris housing hell 2
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=72013
Paris housing hell 3
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=72750
Callejera á la francaise
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=72821

************************

By Joe C. of UWU WCM "la haine est dans la rue" (with many update comments and links)
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=72841
By Kay Velvet - The Glorious Revolutionary Federation of Fortune 500 Killers (M50/Blanchardstown Chapter)
"The Suburbs Are Ticking... Why The Nihilism Of The Paris Riots Is Not A Political "Insurrection" (with nightly burnt car counts and arrests)
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=72857