I wonder if European newspapers will rush to reproduce these cartoons?
The New York Times also covers France’s very own ‘cartoon crisis’ (thankfully, this one does not involve any Muslims), as does Jason Burke in the Observer. The Independent, though, covered the story a little earlier.
France’s involvement in the Rwandan genocide: The Rwandan government has released a report which accuses the former president François Mitterand and more than 30 senior French officials of aiding the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide, which resulted in the killing of up to a million people in 100 days.
Here is a report from Chris McGreal of the Guardian back in early 2007:
I wonder if Nicolas Sarkozy will speak out in favour of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo this time around?
France rejects citizenship for a Muslim woman from Morocco because her practice of “radical” Islam is “incompatible with French values.” Another version here.
Re-writing the idea of Europe: The Financial Times expresses scepticism over France’s proposals for a ‘Mediterranean union’, which may end up involving the Maghreb, Egypt, the Balkans, Turkey, Israel and Syria.
The Economist seems more upbeat about these proposals.
Another reason why France is a failed society:
Jokes about the French and war? Here’s one:
Just another reason why I think France is a failed society and racist to the core:
[Faïza] Guène should have a charmed life, a famous Frenchwoman who embodies her country’s cultural mix. But discrimination in France is so widespread, that even she - a star writer and currently one of the country’s biggest literary exports - is plagued by it. Last year, Guène married in a religious ceremony and the couple looked for a flat to rent near her parents in Pantin. Her husband is black and was born in Ivory Coast. “When people said estate agents were racist, I always told them to stop exaggerating. Then it hit me in the face. Just walking into an estate agent’s office was a nightmare,” she says. She found herself telling her husband to stay at home while she went alone - being north African and having slightly lighter skintone would be “less bad”, she reasoned. When she made bookings to see flats over the phone, the name Mademoiselle Guène didn’t sound “too north African”. But when she arrived at appointments and they saw her, she was not allowed to see the flats. Seven months later, they still had no home. “I’d seen an apartment I liked but heard nothing. Then one of the women from the estate agents’ called and whispered: ‘Look I live with a Moroccan guy, I know it’s not easy. The boss is away. Come in and sign the contract, so at least when she gets back there’s nothing she can do about it.’ I felt like I was stealing it; that it wasn’t legitimate; that I’d got in through a trap door.”
(Via Mr Moo.)
Remember, this is a country that unable to acknowledge its own sordid past:
The BBC’s Paris correspondent, Emma Jane Kirby, has a report on how the United States is trying to promote a better image of itself in France’s banlieues.
Brigitte Bardot is fined £12k for inciting racial hatred.
The Chinese authorities are telling tour operators in the country to stop selling holidays to France.
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