As seen in the Washington Square News.
PARIS – Storefront glass shattered, car alarms shrieked and the remains of abandoned elementary schools smoldered as groups of young French suburbanites violently expressed their contempt for their government for the 12th night in suburbs surrounding the City of Lights.
The riots were triggered by the electrocution of two boys of North African descent as they hid from police in a power station. They have spread nationwide in a haphazard attempt for solidarity among working-class immigrants against the social stratification and high unemployment rates that plague their areas.
Yet most Parisians slept soundly in their beds, unaware of the flaming destruction surrounding the city that was reported so enthusiastically by international media outlets.
In fact, the only scream heard was the apartment-shaking chorus of rabid soccer fans cheering their team on at the Stade de France.
When I took the ride on the Reseau Express Regional rail line from Roissy Airport through the suburbs to downtown Paris after a weekend trip to Rome, my only fellow passengers were tired businessmen in rumpled gray suits slowly nibbling on buttery croissants on their way to another early-morning meeting.
I arrived in exactly the advertised time of 29 minutes, as quickly and uneventfully as I had my first week here in August.
Upon my return, I noticed that family and friends had sent me a few e-mails asking if I was safe in my apartment in Paris’s 16th Arrondissement. I thought it strange that no one had asked me about my safety when I had traveled to London a few weeks back, a city still reeling from the summer bombings of its subway and bus lines.
But as with most Parisians, I found out about the riots many days after they began, when I saw a disconcerting picture of silhouettes of raised fists against a backdrop of flames splashed across a local newspaper.
The headlines screamed “Scum!” – the word Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy used to refer to the suburban teenagers wreaking havoc throughout the outlying areas of the city.
The riots are a result of poor domestic relations between French society and its working class, where many second- or third-generation immigrants are still regarded as outsiders.
In recent days, the government has instituted a strict curfew for youths after 10 p.m. in the suburbs, a little-used law resurrected from the 1950s. However, this law has no effect on those of us within Paris.
But separation is exactly how most permanent Parisians have experienced civil unrest in and around central Paris.
Within city limits, the nightlife still sparkles undisturbed as well-dressed socialites exchange phone numbers and kisses at the neon-lit backdrop of the Moulin Rouge.
I find fellow Parisians sitting outside at small tables despite the increasingly cold weather, nursing a single glass of red wine and chatting with an equally enthusiastic friend about how they’ve found a quaint little apartment in Bastille with a washing machine inside and a delectable patisserie underneath.
Occasionally I’ll pass by someone talking about the riots, but if I listen close enough, I find that they are really just using the news to criticize Sarkozy, Prime Minister de Villepin or President Chirac as they pet their lapdogs sitting underneath the table.
Though concerned about increased violence in days to come, most Parisians are dealing with the riots without changing their day-to-day lives.
Visiting students and professors display an array of emotions regarding the issue that range from simple apathy to extreme concern. Though some have been in worldwide locations during times of unrest – New York, Madrid, London – there is still a heightened sense of awareness among temporary residents of the city.
“I was around Republique [a site of activity inside Paris] the night they started,” CAS junior Meghna Shah said. “When it’s right near you, it’s damn scary.”
But after realizing the headlines didn’t match up with their daily experience – they hadn’t seen one blazing Renault, one armed police officer or one teenager with a “mort pour rien” T-shirt, which means “death for nothing” – life continued on just as it did before two kids hid in a power station and got electrocuted.
“I live in Paris and I see no effect of it other than a couple extra police officers on the street,” Steinhardt junior Jill Falman said. “I don’t feel as [the riots] are any threat to my security since they’re outside of Paris.”
Surely no far-flung riot would stop us from hitting the upbeat Latin Quarter on Friday night for a typical Parisian rendezvous with some hot jazz at a cool cafe.
Suburbs riot, but Paris’ center calm
As seen in the Washington Square News.
PARIS – Storefront glass shattered, car alarms shrieked and the remains of abandoned elementary schools smoldered as groups of young French suburbanites violently expressed their contempt for their government for the 12th night in suburbs surrounding the City of Lights.
The riots were triggered by the electrocution of two boys of North African descent as they hid from police in a power station. They have spread nationwide in a haphazard attempt for solidarity among working-class immigrants against the social stratification and high unemployment rates that plague their areas.
Yet most Parisians slept soundly in their beds, unaware of the flaming destruction surrounding the city that was reported so enthusiastically by international media outlets.
In fact, the only scream heard was the apartment-shaking chorus of rabid soccer fans cheering their team on at the Stade de France.
When I took the ride on the Reseau Express Regional rail line from Roissy Airport through the suburbs to downtown Paris after a weekend trip to Rome, my only fellow passengers were tired businessmen in rumpled gray suits slowly nibbling on buttery croissants on their way to another early-morning meeting.
I arrived in exactly the advertised time of 29 minutes, as quickly and uneventfully as I had my first week here in August.
Upon my return, I noticed that family and friends had sent me a few e-mails asking if I was safe in my apartment in Paris’s 16th Arrondissement. I thought it strange that no one had asked me about my safety when I had traveled to London a few weeks back, a city still reeling from the summer bombings of its subway and bus lines.
But as with most Parisians, I found out about the riots many days after they began, when I saw a disconcerting picture of silhouettes of raised fists against a backdrop of flames splashed across a local newspaper.
The headlines screamed “Scum!” – the word Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy used to refer to the suburban teenagers wreaking havoc throughout the outlying areas of the city.
The riots are a result of poor domestic relations between French society and its working class, where many second- or third-generation immigrants are still regarded as outsiders.
In recent days, the government has instituted a strict curfew for youths after 10 p.m. in the suburbs, a little-used law resurrected from the 1950s. However, this law has no effect on those of us within Paris.
But separation is exactly how most permanent Parisians have experienced civil unrest in and around central Paris.
Within city limits, the nightlife still sparkles undisturbed as well-dressed socialites exchange phone numbers and kisses at the neon-lit backdrop of the Moulin Rouge.
I find fellow Parisians sitting outside at small tables despite the increasingly cold weather, nursing a single glass of red wine and chatting with an equally enthusiastic friend about how they’ve found a quaint little apartment in Bastille with a washing machine inside and a delectable patisserie underneath.
Occasionally I’ll pass by someone talking about the riots, but if I listen close enough, I find that they are really just using the news to criticize Sarkozy, Prime Minister de Villepin or President Chirac as they pet their lapdogs sitting underneath the table.
Though concerned about increased violence in days to come, most Parisians are dealing with the riots without changing their day-to-day lives.
Visiting students and professors display an array of emotions regarding the issue that range from simple apathy to extreme concern. Though some have been in worldwide locations during times of unrest – New York, Madrid, London – there is still a heightened sense of awareness among temporary residents of the city.
“I was around Republique [a site of activity inside Paris] the night they started,” CAS junior Meghna Shah said. “When it’s right near you, it’s damn scary.”
But after realizing the headlines didn’t match up with their daily experience – they hadn’t seen one blazing Renault, one armed police officer or one teenager with a “mort pour rien” T-shirt, which means “death for nothing” – life continued on just as it did before two kids hid in a power station and got electrocuted.
“I live in Paris and I see no effect of it other than a couple extra police officers on the street,” Steinhardt junior Jill Falman said. “I don’t feel as [the riots] are any threat to my security since they’re outside of Paris.”
Surely no far-flung riot would stop us from hitting the upbeat Latin Quarter on Friday night for a typical Parisian rendezvous with some hot jazz at a cool cafe.