Sarko posts?

It's a star-studded Thanksgiving in the Blogosphere. It seems that the French Blogosphere has been the site of a high-profile debate. It all started when French Cinema Star Matheiu Kassovitz (known to some as Fr. Riccardo, the Jesuit priest, in the excellent Amen) posted an attack on French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy (English Version, the original is in French) on his blog. He accused Sarkozy of being a "little Napoleon" ("Nicolas SARKOZY est certainement un petit Napoléon", literally "Nicolas Sarkozy is certainly a little Napoleon"). He also says that Sarkozy would have helped Dubya in the War on Terror ("Il aurait engagé la France auprès des Américains dans la « chasse à la Terreur » de Bush. J’en suis convaincu."), which is a serious charge in French politics. Mostly, it's moralistic prattling (odd a man who hates the idea of absolute truth) about how "violence begets violence" ("La haine attise la haine"). Of course, Mssr. Kassovitz doesn't deign to imagine his own response to the riots that recently engulfed France (and are still smouldering, by the way). He only says "true problems" must be addressed ("et qui se permet de menacer ouvertement toute une partie de la population française sans adresser les vrais problèmes."). To really drive the point home, he compares Sarkozy's response to the riots to the Israelis ("L’Intifada des différentes banlieues parisiennes ressemble effectivement aux affrontements qui ont opposés les enfants de Palestine armés de pierres, aux soldats d’Israël armés d’Uzis.", or "The intifada (?) of the various Parisian banlieues effectively resembles the confrontations between the children of Palestine armed with rocks and the soldiers of Israel armed with Uzis").
There are some great responses to Mssr. Kassovitz's non-dialogue. One of my favourites is "mathieu vous etes d'une demagogie a toute epreuve" ("Mathieu, you are a demagogue by any standard").
The best comment comes from none other than Nicolas Sarkozy himself. He has a rather long response and even-handed response, criticising Mssr. Kassovitz for his overly-sharp words. He also points out that Mssr. Kassovitz has no time for anyone who was victimised by the rioters-
"Pourquoi n'avoir aucun mot pour ceux dont la voiture a brûlé, les privant ainsi d'un outil de liberté et de travail durement acquis ? Pourquoi ne pas évoquer ces jeunes dont les gymnases ont été réduits en cendres et ces enfants dont l'école est détruite ? Pourquoi, par ailleurs, n'avoir aucune pensée pour les 110 policiers blessés, les pompiers caillassés et les médecins injuriés ?"
("Why don't you have a word for those whose cars were burned, and were thus deprived of a tool of freedom acquired through hard work? Why do you not evoke the youths whose youth centres (gymnasiums) were reduced to ashes and the children whose school was destroyed? Why, in addition, do you not have thoughts for the 110 policemen hurt, the calloused firemen and the injured doctors?")
He tells Mr. Kassovitz that he (Kassovitz) is ready to "accept the unacceptable," but all said, the tone of his missive is fairly respectful. Though it cannot be said with certainty whether this is Sarkozy speaking or not, I cannot help but admire him. Much unlike the sentimental fluff on Margot Wallstöm's blog, Mssr. Sarkozy gets directly to the point without becoming arrogant or condescending. He ably presents the other side of the story.
There are few things I like seeing more than a politically active entertainer (even a good actor, like Mssr. Kassovitz) put in his place by someone knowledgeable. I'm tired of "personalities" who no more understand the vagaries of morality and ethics than quantum physics. What makes it more intolerable is that these prattling idiots attempt to create policy from their child-like understanding of ethics. "Hate is bad, and using force to dispel rioters is hate, so we shouldn't do it." Then what should we do? Dispelling rioters isn't always an act of hate, and rioters are usually filled enough with hate as it is. It is the social conditions brought on by France's "superior" social model, along with their so-called "multiculturalism" (which looks to me a great deal like segregation) that filed away these poor foreigners in these banlieues and kept them from integrating into the larger society. They don't have jobs, and they're radicalised. The prattling of an actor won't stop these problems. Only serious debate over the future of the social model and the lives of these immigrants as a part of greater French society will begin to tackle the problem. In the meantime, civic order must be kept, and people who don't have real solutions for the problem should stop acting as if they do.