Cicilie among the Parisians

In my previous entry I had forgotten to paste in a link, which would have given more sense to the claim that choosing between Le Pen and Sarkozy isn’t much of a choice to some radical commentators. This omission gives me the possibility to return for a second to the poster put up around Paris just before Christmas, which didn’t make the ruling party very happy: Votez Le Pen.

The first time I saw the poster on the wall, someone – in typical French public, democratic tradition – had embellished Sarkozy’s face with the facial characteristics of Dracula. (The streets of Paris are full of such popular voicing of opinion, on posters or as comments written on the wall or on other signs or posters). Quite understandably, the poster has created a number of discussions on the Internet, as well (see further down).

Picture to the right: A sticker on the wall with a drawing of a matchbox with Sarkozy's face and the text: 40 banlieue matches.

A non-exhaustive list of sites on the Internet discussing the controversy:
- An article on the matter in The Guardian (in English!)

- Articles (in French) from the political group (Act up, for HIV positives, who made the poster in order to protest against the immigration policy of Sarkozy: The press release “A poster to denounce a racist discourse and a fatal policy” and an article on all the controversy it stirred.

- Le Monde's article (in French) "Act up withdraws the poster from their site"

- An interview with Sakrozy in Liberation (in French) "I know better than Thuram what's happening in the banlieues" and the reply from Act Up the day after: "Sarkozy caricatures himself".

- A number of discussions in Internet chat rooms and blogs: France TV 5, samizdat.net, les indigenes de la republique,
Indymedia, rebellyon.info, grioo.com, and so on...

Two days ago President Jacques Chirac proclaimed the end of the state of emergency which has been in place in France for almost two months. At the same press conference, the president also announced that the law paragraph obliging teachers to “teach the positive effects of colonialism on the former French overseas territories” should be rewritten. The paragraph was implemented in February last year and has made it to the headlines once in a while since then. However, it wasn’t until after the November revolts that mainstream politicians, really started giving much attention to the controversial issue.

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One month ago I had problems leaving the house in order not to lose out on some heated debate or in-depth reportage covering the riots on TV or radio. Now the debates have entered the public spaces in Paris, and on some days they’re so prolific that if I choose one, I lose out on others. For instance last Thursday there was a demonstration against l’état d’urgence sociale (the social state of emergency), supported by a range of political organisations, a few labour unions and at least one political party (Les Verts – The Greens). As such street demonstrations pop up every second day in this city, that opportunity was the first to be eliminated from my range of choice on this afternoon’s schedule. It was more difficult to choose between a seminar arranged by the French Association of Anthropologists on the actuality of anthropology and the crisis in the banlieues and a debate at Institute du Monde Arabe on “the children of immigrants and integration”. I made my decision on the basis of the number of names of participants originating outside Europe.

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Message at bus stop at Place de la Nation, Sunday 11th December

I should have provided a proper welcome to my blog from Charonne (as I’ve moved house) and to the new name (Cicilie amongst the Parisians), but I’ll leave that for later. We’ll jump right into the action with an in medias res report from this sunny winter Sunday. Today I went hunting for posters from Les Racailles de France (the Riffraff of France). This group, consisting mainly of girls in their twenties from the suburbs of Paris, has put up 300 “commemorative plaques” in key areas of the capital, saying things like: “A homage to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to construct and reconstruct a France which keeps them, their children and grandchildren outlawed from society. When will there be a law on the positive role of immigration?”

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Two weeks ago, at the time I finished my French lessons, I had planned to quietly sit down and rethink my research project. The goals of the project still seemed justified, but I was not sure about the approach; I felt I was about to suffer from a severe information overload.

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Apart from a visit to the cemetery with about 50% of the French population on All Saints’ Day (La fête de la Toussaint) and a visit to the Institut du monde arabe for the exhibition L’âge d’or des sciences arabes, fieldwork the last week has mostly consisted of watching TV and reading newspapers. If it weren’t for the media, I would have no idea that the Paris region is making it to the headlines many places in the world. The media, on the other hand, is - not surprisingly - full of it.

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There are also real youth, whom we must help… Interior Minister Sarkozy has not really been up to it when making public statements lately, to say it the least.

Poèsie de banlieue

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Today I stumbled upon a demonstration again. I’d been walking around Bas Belleville looking for the spot where the last barricade of the Commune de Paris had been finally defeated.

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