French Integration Model Fails

In case you missed it, French Muslims have been rioting in Paris suburbs for the past 11 days. The minorities living in ghetto's are upset about a 30% unemployment rate in their neighborhoods against a national average of about 10%, and the Chirac government inabilty or unwillingness to do anything about it. Reuters had an excellent article about how maybe it is time to change the idea of French first. The arrogance that everything French is great, and if you are in France you have to acclimate to their culture and abandon their past. This model does not seem to apply anymore in global community with political barriers become easier to traverse. Here are a few juicy quotes from the article

"Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is the only top politician saying France's "republican model" falls short and that the U.S. or British "melting pot" approach could help break the cycle of minority exclusion, unemployment and revolt...

" Inspired by the "liberty, equality, fraternity" motto of its 1789 revolution, the French republic officially rejects any consideration of race, creed or color that could undermine national unity. It asks immigrants to integrate by forgetting their roots and becoming like the French, rather than the less ambitious view in countries such as Britain and the United States that newcomers should learn English, obey the law and pay taxes. "

David Broder wrote an excellent article on the problems with Samuel Alito, supreme court nomination. Check it out The lunge for the lifeboat