Okay here it is. In a conversation with my best friend the other day (gotta love a 10 hour and 30 degree F difference), we were discussing my blog. I know she reads it because she gives amusing and insightful comments. Okay not so insightful, we save those for actual voice conversations. As most of you know, I have the utmost respect for my Sug (aka Beth Martin) and we will discuss anything from religion to politics to the weather. I asked if she had read my post on the whole Vatican decree about gays in the priesthood and she had mentioned that she didn't want to offend anyone so she didn't put a comment. ..don't worry I told her she was being dumb. She then asked if I had followed the stories about the civil unrest in France. Okay Riots. Plain and simple riots. And I told her I had, but had refrained from commenting on them because...because....well..I don't know precisely why....which is when I promptly called MYSELF dumb. SO at the behest of SUG here goes.
The Riots in France
by: Me
Lots of people got mad and burned stuff. The end.
Just joking. Okay one of the things that I am in some perverse way happy about, is that these riots took place in France. Let me go on the record as saying Riots are never a good thing. Innocent people get hurt and in some cases killed; property gets damaged and lots of businesses, who otherwise were harmless and serve the community, get destroyed. Now that the disclaimer is done with. I am pleased that situations with horrible racial and economic inequality which result in unmitigated violence happen in countries other than the US as well. Seriously folks. I live in Europe. My mom is Portuguese and my Dad is French. The country that seems to think it has the greatest social system in the world just had 20 days of terror and bloodshed due to the economic and racial divide that exists between people of color (in this case also immigrants and muslim) and the white majority during the month of November. As many of you know, I am not usually the one to wave the American Flag around and shout from the roof tops about how great the US is. The US is a great country in many respects but also has a long way to go in others. HOWEVER, sometimes it gets my little ackadack (Sug's word for my portuguese heritage) blood boiling to so often be exposed to outright anti-American sentiment and hatred. I can not tell you how many times I have listened to the Anti-American-Bigger-Bully-Stupid President-War Mongering Bastards speech and politely turned the other way. Now it is time to say: Hey, we aren't the only country with racial and economic problems!
Well Mr Chirac, how about you look to your own country with it's 8973 vehicles burned and it's 2888 arrests! The inhabitants of the French suburbs (banlieue) suffer from unemployment at a much higher level than that of the rest of France. And according to data gathered by the BBC unemployment of people of foreign origin is 1.5 times higher than that of people of French origin, after adjusting for educational qualifications. An unemployment rate of 5% for French university graduates can be compared to the unemployment rate of 26.5% for university graduates of north African origin. Racial and religious discrimination against persons with dark skin or Muslim-sounding names has been cited as a major cause of unhappiness in the areas affected.
...see the US isn't the only country with problems.... I am not going to sit here and say I support the war in Iraq. I don't. I am not going to sit here and say that there isn't a problem with racisim in the US. There is. I am not going to sit here and say that there isn't a huge economic gap between white and black in the US. There is. I am not going to say that there isn't a problem with religious intolerance (ironic considering the 1st ammendment) in the US. There is. But I am going to sit here and say: No country is perfect so quit bashing the US all the time.
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5 comments:
But it's sooooo much fun!
And easy because no other country is so out in the open with their stupid decisions, rules, presidents, get caught with their human rights violations in such dumb ways and generally produces situations ranging from stomach turning horrible to hilariously weird. BUT every country has the same things happening, the scale is just different, sometimes for the benefit of the US and sometimes not. Like basic human rights, the US has it going okay compared to Afghanistan...
And Finland also gets it's moment of questionable glory in Amnesty Internatonals annual report, the following taken from this year:
"...the right to conscientious objection was acknowledged only in peacetime, and that the civilian alternative to military service was punitively long. It reiterated its concern at the fact that the preferential treatment accorded to Jehovah’s Witnesses had not been extended to other groups of conscientious objectors."
So we have people in prison for having an opinion. Does it ring any bells, anyone..? And yeah yeah, there are worse prisons and places where you can get locked up way more easily but just making a point.
Yeah Steph, what you said!
OK, so I won't be afraid of offending anyone, thanks Sug!
France. What can I say. America is arrogant? hmmm.... Dude, your homeland and stuff but what about German troups????
Anyhoo.
The USA is a big, ignorant superpower, OK, so what? I love America. I'm a dualie; half US, half UK and you know what? I'm kinda tired of the USA being the world police and I know that the world is tired of the USA being the world police. Weren't so tired of it in the 1940's, huh? OOPS, guess I shouldn't mention that.
You see as much as we appear to be ignorant boobs, we remember that we went to war on multiple fronts against major threats in a war that was really not on our soil. Now granted, it was a while ago but you can't just build up the gigandor military machine, point it at the Axis evil then say, "shut up you punks" fifty years on. What is built up just doesn't go away and we don't always play well with others. Sorry.
Case in point, sometimes we elect retarded people, like the President (I'm from New England so I'm allowed to say "retarded"), but we do it, and we televise it and it's out there because we don't hide it. Our laundry is out there. Is yours? I hate that we have no State Secrets Act like the UK, I wish we did, but we don't.
How about this? The USA will be right over here waiting to have whatever opinion the rest of the world should think we should have. Let us know when you need us to blow someone up, in the meantime, feel free to make fun of us. *eeehhhhh* wrong.
The Catholic Church? Pedophiles, corruption? I'm thinking they have better things to worry about than gay priests. Sweet Jesus. I wish all the priests were Gay Men. I'd go to church. It would be so supportive, the coolest guys on the planet are gay, except for my hubby.
'Nuff said.
I know, I know, USA gets more than its fair share of critisism!; but, you can expect that being numero uno, the top banana and the only superpower left. There is also this feeling of dissappointment of all the lost possibilities that could have been achieved if only the US had a better administration. Not so much hate but dissappointment.
It's so true! I think the problem is that the people who would make the best leaders don't want to be or can't stand the scrutiny. When the media puts them under a microscope looking for any little thing which also happens to be the things that make them human.
I couldn't be President, I inhaled in High School but, I'd make a damned good President.
When we are more worried about who our leaders are sleeping with or what they did 20 years ago than what his / her policies are then we are all in big trouble. And we are.
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