DR 

But there is a more troubling aspect to the reaction to the defeat, which has focused on lack of patriotism, shared values and national honor on a team with many members who are black or brown and descended from immigrants.

The philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, who has often criticized the failures of French assimilation, compared the players to youths rioting in the banlieues, France’s suburban ghettos. “We now have proof that the French team is not a team at all, but a gang of hooligans that knows only the morals of the mafia,” he said in a radio interview.

While most politicians have talked carefully of values and patriotism, rather than immigration and race, some legislators blasted the players as “scum,” “little troublemakers” and “guys with chickpeas in their heads instead of a brain,” according to news reports.

Fadela Amara, the junior minister for the racially charged suburbs who was born to Algerian parents, warned on Tuesday that the reaction to the team’s loss had become racially charged.

“There is a tendency to ethnicize what has happened,” she told a gathering of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s governing party, according to news reports. “Everyone condemns the lower-class neighborhoods. People doubt that those of immigrant backgrounds are capable of respecting the nation.”

She criticized Mr. Sarkozy’s handling of a debate on “national identity,” warning that “all democrats and all republicans will be lost” in this ethnically tinged criticism about Les Bleus, the French team. “We’re building a highway for the National Front,” she said, in a reference to the far-right, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim party founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Philippe Tétart, a sport historian at the Institut d’Études Politiques, said that the undercurrent of racism was “very unhealthy, but one of the predictable negative outcomes of the World Cup defeat.”

France is confused about its identity and uncomfortable with the growing numbers and sometimes the attitudes of its immigrants and their children, he said. “What is certain is that we are going through in France questions of disobedience, of incivility, of loss of bearings, and this group of irritated young kids is an excessive reflection of those questions.”

In 1998, the French team that won the World Cup was widely praised for its multiethnic nature — black, white and Arab, and seen as a symbol of a more diverse nation. But today, Mr. Tétart said, the talk is the opposite.

Today’s players, he said, “come from a generation who come from the banlieues, and they don’t necessarily have the cultural background to understand what they did.”

Luc Chatel, the education minister, said on television Wednesday that he was “terribly angry” and shocked that Raymond Domenech, the team’s coach, who is blamed for some of the team’s disunity and apologized to the nation for the failures, refused to shake hands with the South African manager after the team’s final game.

“But I’m going to go farther,” he added. “A captain of the French team who does not sing ‘The Marseillaise,’ ” the national anthem, “shocks me, there it is. When one wears the jersey, one should be proud to wear the colors, you’re an example.”

He was speaking of Patrice Evra, who was born in Senegal and who found himself caught between players and managers as the team refused to practice after another black player, Nicolas Anelka, swore at Mr. Domenech and was removed from the team.

Mr. Sarkozy himself called a meeting on the disastrous result on Wednesday, summoning Prime Minister François Fillon, Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot and Rama Yade, the junior sports minister. In a statement, he said he had ordered them “to rapidly draw the lessons of this disaster.”

The racial makeup of the French team has long been an issue on the far right, even in a country where all the French are “citizens” and are supposed to have equal rights. Of the 22-man squad, 13 are men of color, with two born in French territories.

This month, Marine Le Pen, the vice president of the National Front and daughter of its founder, said that she did not see herself in the makeup of the team, whose players behaved as individuals, not as a team, and who were “fighting for advertising contracts more than for their country.”

“Most of these guys,” she added, “consider at one moment that they represent France at the World Cup, and at another they are a part of another nation or have another nationality in their heart.”

In her contempt, which carefully did not mention the factors of race and ethnicity but implied them, she was echoing her father, who in June 2006 criticized the team for containing too many nonwhite players and failing to accurately reflect society. He also went on to scold players for not singing “La Marseillaise,” saying they were not French.

On Tuesday, Mr. Le Pen said that “the myth of antiracism is a sacred myth in France.” He added, apparently with no irony, that he hated politicians who turned the national soccer team into “a flag of antiracism instead of sport.”

Now, the language of Mr. Chatel, the education minister, resonates with the themes of the Le Pens. That reflects, critics say, the general effort of Mr. Sarkozy and his party, over the last few years, to weaken the far right by playing on the same themes of patriotism, nationhood and identity.

DR

About twelve years ago, France was giving itself a new reputation. Cheese, onion and the baguettes, the very symbols of frenchness were replaced by football and the French national team: “Les bleus”. What a nice passport it was at the time for all the French citizens who happened to be travelling abroad. I remember in 2001 being the curiosity of the younger generation in the city of Exeter in England. At the time I used to work in a high school as a French language assistant. During the breaks the children of the school would often come to me and ask me to join them in their football games.  

It was also difficult for them to understand that football was not my sport and that I was rather basketball. In 2000 France was to win the European Football Cup, thus strengthening again the view point that France and football made one entity. Back in France I could notice the impact of those two victories on the French society as a whole. The French football team was characterised by its multi-coloured aspect, with more black football players than white ones. The “marseillais” Zinedine Zidane who was born some thirty years ago from Algerian parents had become the first French ambassador abroad; nevertheless, regarding the fight against racism or the social advancement of ethnic minorities within the French society, the victories of 1998 and 2000 revealed themselves of no avail.

Yet, throughout the country, in all school playgrounds, every boy, no matter their social, ethnic or religious back ground, dreamed of the French national football team. Football and other sports then appeared as the gateway for any coloured child willing to improve his or her condition in life.

During the last decade, the importance of football in France certainly had some positive economic repercussions on society; however, socially speaking, it appeared as a ramping plague alienating from education the most deprived children from the working class districts of Paris and its region. Today, the parents in the poor districts often appear more concerned with a possible sportive career of their children than with their marks at school. Football, more than school, is seen by many French parents as the only profitable investment when it comes to the future of their children. Working in a high school of the nineteenth district of Paris, I personally had the chance to observe the phenomenon.

So no one should be surprised if I say today thank you to the French national football team.  In South Africa this year the French football myth was more than destroyed. The national team is today completely crashed and ruined and I am quite satisfied with this. It is at its lowest level ever. In South Africa, this year, French football players have been indeed the clowns of the tournament. They were kicked out without even winning one single match in three matches. The behaviour and attitude of the players as well as that of the coaching staff was much criticised. But what if the malaise, misunderstanding and division within the French national football team was the just the reflection of a wider division and malaise within the French larger society? With the intervention of the French media and politicians, there is no doubt that the crisis within the national team has become a state affair that will, for sure, fill the headlines of the French newspapers in the weeks to come.

Let’s just hope that in the deprived districts, the French football rout will serve to make people stop thinking that sports rather than school are the gateway to social and economic advancement.

There are times when history just seems to repeat itself. I remember six years ago having nearly been in the same situation as the one Clotilde Reiss finds herself in today. At the time I used to work for the French consulate in South Kensington in London. I was on a temporary contract that could just last two or three months. But before I start this short story of mine, let me first explain the case of Clotilde Reiss. Clotilde Reiss is that French girl, aged 24, who was arrested in Iran last June. She had first come in Teheran to work as a lecturer for the academic year 2008-2009. On the day she should have flown back to Paris she was arrested at the airport and charged with plot and conspiracy against the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to the Iranian authorities the French student had taken part in the outlawed demonstrations before and after the presidential elections in Iran. She had sent pictures of the different demonstrations to people in France and written and forwarded to the French consulate in Teheran a report of several pages on the protest movements. At her trial, Clotilde Reiss recognized and admitted the charges held against her.

For the French Minister Bernard Kouchner, however, this is nothing but pure imagination, and conspiracy against the French Lecturer. Clotilde Reiss is “innocent” he claims. Thanks to a bail of 200 000 Euros paid to the Iranian government the young girl is now out of jail, awaiting the end of her trial at the French embassy in Teheran. Let me now tell you about my own experience while working at the French consulate in South London about 6 years ago. At the time I was also doing a PhD in English studies with Sorbonne University in Paris. My subject was “The Integration of the Muslim subculture in Britain at the dawn of the twenty first century, from theory to reality”. Because it was participant research I had to live in Britain for a while in order to get relevant information. Two weeks after arriving in the UK I was lucky enough to find this temporary job at the French consulate. I worked as a secretary, answering phone calls. I did not really appreciate the atmosphere that reigned there; and except for one or two people –among whom the vice consul- most of the people working there were unpleasant to me and even austere. In order to avoid them inquiring and investigating on my account, I judged important to tell them myself what kind of research I was doing in the UK in parallel to that job as a secretary. This could only but have lifted all suspicions that at the time I felt on me.

Strangely enough, the French consul of the time suddenly found himself very interested in the person I was. He particularly wanted to know more about my PhD research and even invited me for lunch in order to discuss all that. His questions were very much focused on the different people I had interviewed for my research, especially the Imam of the city of Exeter in Devon. The second time I was invited by him for lunch he was in the presence of a highly educated French gentleman who spoke Arabic and seemed to know the holly Qur’an by heart. The questions of the latter were even more focused on the different people I had interviewed. I will always remember his interest in my future carrier and above all, this sentence of his: “would you like to collaborate with us later, after completing your PhD?” -The answer was definitely “No!” I later learnt that the highly educated gentleman was working for the “DST” which means the French internal Security Service.

The question now regarding Clotilde Reiss is to understand what relations she had with the French consulate and embassy in Teheran: Was she or not against her will led to give the French authorities information on the protests? To what extent did she took an active part in the protests and their organization? Was she helped or influenced by any foreign authorities to do so? One thing is sure my own experience gives me no doubt that Clotilde Reiss might have been willingly or unwillingly manipulated by the French authorities in Iran. Just like me, she might have been approached by the French authorities, often using academic researchers for their own political aims. Unlike me she might have accepted to play the game and confounded academic research with spying on behalf of the French embassy and consulate.

By Dr. Moustafa Traore

DR.

Christophe Adji-Ahoudian is a man of the field before being a political actor; through his policy he is highly determined to put an end to the prejudices in the districts. It is for him a real « citizenship action ». Elected deputy mayor of the XIXth district of Paris, in charge of the youth department since 2008, he remains faithful to his program and has not stopped activist involvement.: it is more that an appointment it is a fight.
It is with this idea and faith to his commitments that he has set up the young talents festival, an event supervised by Mayor Roger Madec, since 2009, which values the skills of the young people in the « districts », an unavoidable event where all the fields of cultural activities are revealed for a couple of days.

Q: How will you define yourself?

As an Associative activist I joined the political field in a natural way. I subscribed to the PS in 2005 and then supported Roger Madec’s list during the municipal elections of 2008. From then on, he elected me deputy mayor in charge of the youth affairs. It is my first political mandate.

Q: How did you go from your associative action to the political arena?

The BGA (Bold Boys of Africa) is an association of friends, all young. It compensates the lack of initiatives for the young people. All the fights we had led for the training as well as for the cultural interest of the youngsters in the district, led me to political action. In our activist policy, there is necessarily a link between the associative and the political field.
But my political project reached its highest point during my journey in 2006 in the United States with our association BGA. We met a lot of Afro-American activists in several sectors and it opened our eyes: if we want to improve our fight it is necessary to get involved in all the sectors of society. When we came back in France, each of us undertook a mission in the sector which interestged him most. I have chosen the political arena..

Q: As Deputy Mayor in charge of youth affairs, do you consider yourself as a spokesman of the young people in the districts?

Before being interested in politics, I was committed to the creation of many associations, and I still stick to my role of man on the field which strengthens my link with the other young people.
They see in me the associative activist who has chosen the political tool to bring about more concrete answers. In my role of associative activist, I only had limited actions
I do not claim to be able to say that I am a model but hope my policy will meet its expectations as much as possible.

Q: Which results have your action brought about since 2008?

Concerning the training and jobs opportunities for the youngsters, we are in a very positive dynamic. Some examples of our actions: we lowered the cost of the BAFA to 50 euros to allow young people to have access to training and work as guides in children camps(the usual cost of the BAFA was 450 euros). We had 70 subscribers for 40 available jobs. The training in computing was a frank success because we had 7 times more subscribers than we expected. In September the forum on the Cooperative Education, gathered 350 young people, while we expected 50. This is concrete action which enables us to facilitate the professional integration of young people. It is necessary to know that all the led actions are made according to the needs and expectations of the young people of the district. Roger Madec, the mayor of the XIXth district dedicates a big part of his policy to the notion of diversity, which also defines the district.
Q: On the theme of cultural and ethnic diversity, the « salad bowl » ,….  You set up in 2009, the festival of the young talents. Where does this idea come from?

It is a kind of participative democracy. Indeed, this festival was born in a meeting between Roger Madec and the young people of the district, during the municipal campaign. During the meeting, young people voiced the will to be valued in their know-how. They did not want us to limit their images to crimes and passiveness.. The idea of the festival was born. We held our promises. When elected, we set up « the festival of the young talents » of the district in several sectors. The first edition was in July, 2009.

Q: What is the aim of this festival?

It is an initiative on 6 days, taking place in  July and in various places in the XIXth district of Paris. To present the cultural and sports talents we also want to show the geographical heritage of the district.
The implementation of the festival requires the creation of a specific program for the necessary costs and various stages to be followed.
First of all we elaborate and submit a program; and I make a budgetary proposal to the Mayor. Once validated, I present the godfathers thanks to door-to-door canvassing. Godfathers are the persons who are going « to chair » the festival. Once we’ve found the godfathers, we appeal to applicants for the young talents in the field of: the textile creation, Music, and humorist careers. These 3 domains will define the first three days of the festival. The three following days will be about: football, basketball and dance: the organization is delegated to local associations. For example for FOOTBALL it is BJA, for basketball it is Solitary FC and as regards dance it is Ivoiry Ebony.We organize committees with other associations to make sure that the actions are indeed in connection with the presented discipline. This year we shall add a competition of young talents entrepreneurship to encourage the young people who want create their own business. A message we give them is: « we support you in what you are, what defines you ».
This festival would not be possible without the mobilization of social actors. It is the tripartite commitment which takes place between the institution ( the City hall), social associations and young citizens ( the initiators).

Q: How are the godfathers chosen?

For the first edition in 2009, we have chosen the godfathers among the former inhabitants of the XIXth distirict and who are now famous: the main godfather are OXMO PUCCINO; Nasty, a dancer; Mamoutou Diarra, a basketball player; Mickael Djarousso; Sadio Bee or again the Comedie Club with whom we had worked previously.
For this second edition, we selected Agnès B for fashion, Djamel Debouze, Gad Elmaleh or Omar and Fred for the humorists. For the concert, we hope to get Yannick Noah or Kelly Rowland.
Our motto is to remain in a spirit of diversity so that the festival remains a real platform of human meeting and common experience.

Q: How are your financial partners chosen ?

For the 2009 edition, it was largely public financed (the city of bets, the city hall of the 19th district, the League of the Education, 3F, Paris housing association) and many associations and shopkeepers of the XIXth.
For this new edition, we want to widen our financial partners. Have more support from private partners (Banks and shopkeepers). Wide private support is a guarantee for the success of this citizenship intiative.
Q: How are you going to advertise this event?

We are going to use all means of communication to reach a wide and diversified target: pamphlets, posters,, Facebook (Facebook talents19ème), radio stations, TV channels. Last year Trace TV was present during the festival, this year we are also trying to get M6 as a godfather.
The dates 5th to 9th of July are held for the second edition of the Festival of the young talents. We hope to have as much success as last year.

Where do you have enquiries for the young talent’s festival ?

Christophe Adji-Ahoudian

Tel : 01 44 52 28 18

http :::www.mairie19.paris.fr/mairie19/jsp/site/portal.jsp

Facebook « Festival jeunes talents «

DR

There is something strange about politics, something that makes us like it against our own will. We often pretend to despise it, but in the last minute we cannot help coming back to it. Politics attracts you, even when you try to do your best to avoid it. As one of the British commercials broadcasted on a regular basis about four years ago used to point it out in Britain, “If you don’t want to do politics, then politics will make you”. 

In France, to make me take another path other than politics my mother often used to tell me that “before we were all born there was politics; in our life time there is politics; and, after we have all passed away there will still be politics”.

These two spoken truths had a real influence on me. They were at the origin of a real confusion deep inside. I was divided between dedicating my whole life to make things change in a political point of view, and on the other hand, something was telling me to avoid being too much politically involved. As a young man I was first a hundred per cent convinced by the French Socialist party, although I never really became a member. I did not want to take the card of the party for fear of being labeled a “socialist” forever. At the time people in the working class districts of Paris were not that much interested in politics. Only a few tried to fight back against the system while others preferred to be ignorant on issues affecting their everyday lives.

Now that we have entered a new era in which ethnic minorities have become “the must be included” of every single political party in France; those who tended to be ignorant on their poor conditions have opened their eyes. Many youngsters living in the deprived districts of Paris and its suburbs now see in politics a personal get away from their own condition in the ghetto.

Today in the district I live in, it seems that things have changed in a radical manner. I am no longer a convinced socialist and have even started to hate politics and all politicians no matter their political views. If you wonder why, let me put it this way:

The experiences of Rashida Dati, Rama Yade or again Fadela Amara have become kind of examples of “ethnic minority success stories” in French politics. The balance sheet in terms of political achievement and success for these three characters is weak, yet their position in the government seems to be envied by these same youngsters from the deprived areas who often criticize the role of the three women in the UMP government.

One can also see through this new phenomenon of active involvement of ethnic minorities in politics the work of the different political parties. The technique used to attract the younger generation mostly composed of people of immigrant backgrounds is the same whatever the political party. Job and accommodation opportunities are indirectly used as favours against a clear and active involvement in the different activities of the parties. The youngsters targeted are not always the most educated ones but rather “those easy to manipulate” as Marie Anoue a freelance journalist writing mostly for a street magazine points it out.

Joseph who is a friend of mine deeply involved through his association in the social work of the 19^th district often used to tell me how disappointed he was by both major political parties. His description of politics and the politicians in France was nothing else but a dark picture. Yet to my big surprise in the last regional election this same friend of mine suddenly turned out to be a fierce supporter of the socialist party. He even actively took part in the campaign. The explanation for such reversal makes no doubts: promises, and different advantages against a clear support.

It is thus indeed, that in the last regional elections the involvement -as candidate and not simply as voters- of people with ethnic minority backgrounds such as Africans or North Africans was without precedent. In other words Ali Soumaré’s candidacy for the regional elections was far from being an isolated case.

There is however an inconvenience in this new phenomenon. It seems indeed that the youngsters living in the deprived districts of Paris and its suburbs are now abandoning the music industry and community work to dedicate themselves to politics only. There is a clear decline today in those two sectors, which may also lead in a near future to catastrophic situations in the working class districts of the big cities of France.

Indeed, there is still no existing lobby or pressure group powerful enough in France in 2010 to protect the interest or to make the voice of the ethnic minorities living in the deprived districts heard. By entering politics there is a high risk of seeing those who used to be active in the neighbourhood abandoning social work and direct help to the people for a more personal political career. These people could also see soon their sphere of operation limited by the political party they have just integrated.

Unfortunately, in France it appears that unlike what happened in the United States and finally led to the election of president Obama in 2008, there still is some kind of manipulation or fashion phenomenon when it comes to the presence of ethnic minorities in politics….

DR

Immigrants’ voting rights: the debate is still raging

The debate on national identity and immigration is raised in electoral programs. With such a political tension dividing policymakers and citizens, as well as several political parties, Martine Aubry, the president of the socialist party, suggested that immigrants should have the voting right before the next local elections.

On Tuesday the 12^th of January 2010, the Socialist party whose head is Martine Aubry submitted a bill to the National Assembly to enable immigrants to vote during the next local elections. The European elections are not part of the debate yet. The government refuses to pass this bill and this reaction testifies that some policymakers are still disturbed by this debate which feeds electoral programs.

Indeed the government’s spokesman, Luc Chatel claimed on RFI, « This bill was not designed only for the coming local elections. » even knowing that this voting right was deeply linked to the notion of citizenship.  Eric Woerth, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, corroborates the government’s opposition claiming that the French population is not ready to welcome that proposal.

Paradoxically, a recent poll unexpectedly raised concern among the bill’s opponents, but was cheerfully welcomed by Eric Besson: the  high majority of French citizens (55%) accepts immigrants’ voting right for the local elections as the Secretary of Immigration wished such a result even if on a long-term period. He expressed his opinion on a TV political program, 17 heures politique, reported by an opinion poll made by the French broadcasting regulatory body for the magazine, Le Parisien Aujourd’hui en France, published yesterday.

Why this reform is taking such a long time in France whereas immigrants like their French counterparts contribute to the economic and social life of the country? This seems even more contradictory, knowing that immigrants have already been given certain rights: the right to vote during elections in works council, boards of directors of the Social security fund, social housing, industrial tribunals, associations. Immigrants also have the same basic rights as French citizens. Immigrants are taxpayers and are instrumental in developing local as well as the national wealth.

A few people fear that granting the voting right to immigrants, might give birth to an identity vote, a community vote and that the French nation might turn into a divided nation. Republican values might be threatened as well. There is no reason to think so. However, making a difference among voters on cultural grounds can generate tensions based on multiculturalism misunderstandings.

What about the French value of Equality born during the French Revolution: same rights, same duties…

When the immigration issue is raised in electoral programs and, political actions prevent immigrants from crossing European frontiers, the government completely forgets the colonial past. The ancestors of those who are called « immigrants » were instrumental in many episodes of this colonial past. Western countries and the colonized areas often cooperated on an unbalanced basis either to fight Nazism or to build Europe, destroyed by World War II.

At the Berlin Conference (1884-1885), European countries decided to divide Africa and its resources into political regions, claiming that this continent was the burden of the white colonizer. Rudyard Kipling used to say that the white colonizer had the duty to « civilize » African populations in order to « enlighten »this wild and heathen continent.

In August 1941, the Atlantic Charter, born at this conference between President F.D.Roosevelt and President Churchill, shed ligh$t upon the speech of the Four Freedoms which defined the foundations of a new international policy. The decolonization process was launched but was a long process in so far as most of the colonized countries only became independent in the fifties and sixties. African leaders educated in Western Europe took part in this struggle for independence: Kenyatta (Kenya), Kwame N’Krumah (Gold Coast/Ghana), Léopold Sedar Senghor (Sénégal) and Félix Houphouët Boigny (Ivory Coast).

In most British and French colonies, the transition to independence seemed easy but its impact on human, social and economic levels was disastrous; African nations found themselves morally and financially indebted. The geographical sharing of Africa brought about ethnic conflicts and wars caused by the new frontiers in Chad, Libya, Ethiopia, and Somalia… Decolonization has impoverished Africa, wasted its natural resources without any opportunity to export a wider range of agricultural products to European countries. Today the African trade is still under the powerful domination of Europe.

Fifty years after Decolonization, its evolutions and struggles, it appears that the economic and social situation has not really changed.

This symbolic celebration of independence is not only a means for Africa to be involved in political and economic matters on a global ground but also a means to assert Africa’s voice concerning political events; Understanding and sharing History means raising awareness, accepting consequences and tackling short-term or long-term issues.

We need to share a common memory, a common struggle and to find proper measures.  After decolonization, we may wonder: which role does Africa play in globalization? The issue has just been raised….

DR

The year 2009 is already coming to an end. A page is about to be turned. But more than that in a few minutes time, we will enter a new decade.  As everyone in Paris is getting ready for the event; make ups and best suits on, I am sitting up in front my laptop and meditate on the past decade. Ten years ago I was in my late twenties. The years 2000 were more those of my thirties. With my diplomas and certificates in the pocket, I was entering the world of real independence while slowly divorcing with the world of genuine youth. The new millennium was not to keep its promises though. The death of the last grand-Dad was the announcement in my family of many other deaths to come. I sometimes have the feeling that in the space of ten years, my bigger family was sharply reduced into a nuclear one. I can now realize what scientists and searchers mean when saying that life expectancy in some southern countries is much lower than in the western world.

The first part of the dying decade was more marked with international affairs. The hopes and dreams of the new century were rapidly extinguished with the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001. And many more deaths were of course to come with the “Wars of Mass destruction” on countries sharing different views, ideologies or civilization from ours.  

The first part of the first decade of the twenty first century was also the confirmation of the hegemony of Asia as an economic power. And, the announcement of the end of the American and European supremacy was to give more hope of freedom to the exploited nations. The African continent for example could find in China and India new trading partners. But more surprising, is the fact that some of the countries in Asia that were described in the seventies as part of the third world were in a very short amount of time to reach such a development level that they appeared now as a threat to the eyes of the Westerners.

The second part the first decade of the twenty first century were however to bring the most positive and promising signs. The world was at last to witness both the end of the Bush and Blair era and the end of the reliance on mass media. After the fiasco of the Wars against Weapons of Mass Destruction many more of our contemporaries were to open their eyes on true reality. The bombings in London were the vivid proof that the Alkhaida organization did not really exist as such. It also revealed that more factors and parameters were to be considered when trying to develop a real system of integration of ethnic minorities in the western world. After the United States got rid of a disturbing Hussein in Iraq a new Hussein was to take the reins of the most powerful nation in the world. In the United States, the election of President Barak Hussein Obama –the first African American president- was a revolution testifying of the success of the process of multiculturalism.

In France however the process of assimilation was to display pure racism. Genuine racism and Islamophobia were to become in the last years of the dying decade the French new national sport by excellence. While a black family was entering the white house in the United States and trying at the same time to put more fairness in international affairs, France was characterized by crimes often involving the police and in some occasions leading to social unrests and riots.

In terms of art and culture some big names were to leave us. The death of the philosopher Claude Levi-Strauss or again the king of pop Michael Jackson, were clear signs of our entrance into a new era. In a more personal point of view, the first years of the dying decade were the time of my encounter with the British culture. Thanks to the years spent in the U.K doing some researches on ethnicity I also became more aware of the situation people sharing a similar story to mine were experiencing in France. Because I felt more at home in Britain, I also decided to make the place my home for a while.

That period coincided with the slow death of the rap culture in France as well. In the late nineties I had entered the world of Hip Hop just to realize in the course of the first decade of the new millennium that the phenomenon in France was somehow limited and even reaching to its end. There are more things I could say on the first decade of the new century but time is short and it will be midnight in a few seconds.  

So to all those celebrating the new-year tonight, I wish them a Happy New Year

Written by Sitafa

Dear President Obama,

Do you really want to be the new « war president »? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do — destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they’ve always heard is true — that all politicians are alike. I simply can’t believe you’re about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn’t so.

It is not your job to do what the generals tell you to do. We are a civilian-run government. WE tell the Joint Chiefs what to do, not the other way around. That’s the way General Washington insisted it must be. That’s what President Truman told General MacArthur when MacArthur wanted to invade China. « You’re fired!, » said Truman, and that was that. And you should have fired Gen. McChrystal when he went to the press to preempt you, telling the press what YOU had to do. Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in’ hate these generals, from Westmoreland in Vietnam to, yes, even Colin Powell for lying to the UN with his made-up drawings of WMD (he has since sought redemption).

So now you feel backed into a corner. 30 years ago this past Thursday (Thanksgiving) the Soviet generals had a cool idea — « Let’s invade Afghanistan! » Well, that turned out to be the final nail in the USSR coffin.

There’s a reason they don’t call Afghanistan the « Garden State » (though they probably should, seeing how the corrupt President Karzai, whom we back, has his brother in the heroin trade raising poppies). Afghanistan’s nickname is the « Graveyard of Empires. » If you don’t believe it, give the British a call. I’d have you call Genghis Khan but I lost his number. I do have Gorbachev’s number though. It’s + 41 22 789 1662. I’m sure he could give you an earful about the historic blunder you’re about to commit.

With our economic collapse still in full swing and our precious young men and women being sacrificed on the altar of arrogance and greed, the breakdown of this great civilization we call America will head, full throttle, into oblivion if you become the « war president. » Empires never think the end is near, until the end is here. Empires think that more evil will force the heathens to toe the line — and yet it never works. The heathens usually tear them to shreds.

Choose carefully, President Obama. You of all people know that it doesn’t have to be this way. You still have a few hours to listen to your heart, and your own clear thinking. You know that nothing good can come from sending more troops halfway around the world to a place neither you nor they understand, to achieve an objective that neither you nor they understand, in a country that does not want us there. You can feel it in your bones.

I know you know that there are LESS than a hundred al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan! A hundred thousand troops trying to crush a hundred guys living in caves? Are you serious? Have you drunk Bush’s Kool-Aid? I refuse to believe it.

Your potential decision to expand the war (while saying that you’re doing it so you can « end the war ») will do more to set your legacy in stone than any of the great things you’ve said and done in your first year. One more throwing a bone from you to the Republicans and the coalition of the hopeful and the hopeless may be gone — and this nation will be back in the hands of the haters quicker than you can shout « tea bag! »

Choose carefully, Mr. President. Your corporate backers are going to abandon you as soon as it is clear you are a one-term president and that the nation will be safely back in the hands of the usual idiots who do their bidding. That could be Wednesday morning.

We the people still love you. We the people still have a sliver of hope. But we the people can’t take it anymore. We can’t take your caving in, over and over, when we elected you by a big, wide margin of millions to get in there and get the job done. What part of « landslide victory » don’t you understand?

Don’t be deceived into thinking that sending a few more troops into Afghanistan will make a difference, or earn you the respect of the haters. They will not stop until this country is torn asunder and every last dollar is extracted from the poor and soon-to-be poor. You could send a million troops over there and the crazy Right still wouldn’t be happy. You would still be the victim of their incessant venom on hate radio and television because no matter what you do, you can’t change the one thing about yourself that sends them over the edge.

The haters were not the ones who elected you, and they can’t be won over by abandoning the rest of us.

President Obama, it’s time to come home. Ask your neighbors in Chicago and the parents of the young men and women doing the fighting and dying if they want more billions and more troops sent to Afghanistan. Do you think they will say, « No, we don’t need health care, we don’t need jobs, we don’t need homes. You go on ahead, Mr. President, and send our wealth and our sons and daughters overseas, ’cause we don’t need them, either. »

What would Martin Luther King, Jr. do? What would your grandmother do? Not send more poor people to kill other poor people who pose no threat to them, that’s what they’d do. Not spend billions and trillions to wage war while American children are sleeping on the streets and standing in bread lines.

All of us that voted and prayed for you and cried the night of your victory have endured an Orwellian hell of eight years of crimes committed in our name: torture, rendition, suspension of the bill of rights, invading nations who had not attacked us, blowing up neighborhoods that Saddam « might » be in (but never was), slaughtering wedding parties in Afghanistan. We watched as hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were slaughtered and tens of thousands of our brave young men and women were killed, maimed, or endured mental anguish — the full terror of which we scarcely know.

When we elected you we didn’t expect miracles. We didn’t even expect much change. But we expected some. We thought you would stop the madness. Stop the killing. Stop the insane idea that men with guns can reorganize a nation that doesn’t even function as a nation and never, ever has.

Stop, stop, stop! For the sake of the lives of young Americans and Afghan civilians, stop. For the sake of your presidency, hope, and the future of our nation, stop. For God’s sake, stop.

Tonight we still have hope.

Tomorrow, we shall see. The ball is in your court. You DON’T have to do this. You can be a profile in courage. You can be your mother’s son.

We’re counting on you.

Yours,