Paris is burning...

The feuilletons have stepped up coverage of violence in the French suburbs. Author Francois Bon, who has done considerable work with young people in the suburbs, voices his depression at the violence in France in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. "For years people have been struggling against the general disdain, and gained only centimetres at a time. The suburb of Pantin, where I'm now giving writing workshops, has a community youth centre where a dozen people, often locals, help out. But in the end you come up against a wall – and all that's left is fear. It strikes me that my years of work here are at a dead end. Last June, when I was doing a series of portraits for arte with two trade apprentices, a gang of 10- and 11-year-olds forced us to turn around in our tracks. They were still children, not even young men. And three weeks ago in Pantin I was about to give a workshop in the library for young hairdressing students. At first five, then ten youths physically prevented me from teaching literature to their sisters and girlfriends. Suddenly the sweat shirts and hoods were there, and showed me, the 'white' guy, what it was like to be disdained. It's appalling."

In the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Johannes Willms describes the blind spot in French society. "It is a political taboo in France even to officially acknowledge ethnic or religious ties, in view of the state principle of 'egalite'. This self-inflicted blindness goes so far that it is explicitly forbidden to publish relevant statistics. For that reason, no statements can be made with certainty about the minorities living in the country – no one can say what deficits these minorities suffer from, or how these can be corrected with specific measures. Such things are strictly looked down upon as discrimination."

In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Jürg Altwegg blames in part the poor teaching of French colonial history for the violence: "The outbreaks of violence seem to go hand in hand with the dispute over colonialism and the Algerian War, which are finally being talked about... Discussions on France's colonial past were prompted by minorities who felt left out of the process of dealing with World War II and the Vichy era. Observers talk of a 'competition among victims'. People are going into battle with the Shoah victims armed with the slave trade. It was Islamic theorists around Islam scholar Tariq Ramadan who started up this battle when they called for an Intifada after the banning of the Islamic scarf."

In the die tageszeitung, Isolde Charim sees the burning suburbs as the third media manifestation of poverty following New Orleans and the storming of Ceuta and Melilla. The rioting youth in France are responding to the refugees in the South. "We are vividly reminded of the onrush of the poor from Africa. These became 'visible' for the first time when chunks of their flesh hung from the barbed wire fences that Europe uses to protect itself from them. The Africans just wanted to get to Europe, just wanted a space of hope. And now they are getting an answer from those of the second or third generation who are already here. They have gotten into 'Fortress Europe' without, however, really arriving."


Die Welt, 08.11.05

For the fifth time, Germany has been placed on the UNESCO red list for maltreatment of its heritage sites: the latest violation is the decision to build a bridge across the Elbe in the heart of Dresden. Asking "is it unfair to see this as an expression of self-hatred?" Dankwart Guratzsch considers with dismay and disgust the fate of some Germany's most significant historical sites. "The Wartburg, Germany's most beautiful and best preserved, historically most significant castle, is under threat by a wind park. The Loreley, the fairy tale cliffs of the Rhine valley, and the 'Waldschlösschen view', the most famous view of Dresden, are being attacked by highway bridges. Two other unique city views have been spared desecration by a hair: Potsdam's cultural landscape, which was to be subjected to a shopping centre and the Cologne Cathedral, which the city patriarchs wanted to wall in with highrises."