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It's interesting to see how struggling economies can be as much of a help as a drag to the powerhouses. This leads me into a discussion of the Roma people from France...
I hesitate to go there because I recently got eaten alive by my friends for suggesting that Barack Obama's endorsement of the construction of a Mosque/Cultural Center blocks from the site of the World Trade Center was insensitive.
It was, and the speech writers agreed, so he qualified his remarks in last Sunday's Washington Post. The headline was something like, "Obama Changes Mind on Mosque," in which he said he never commented on the wisdom of the choice in location - just their right to do so.
I don't dare give an opinion on the Roma expulsion except to say this: I lived in France, and don't feel like the media is fairly portraying the issue. In the small suburb outside of Paris where I stayed, a large Roma camp had illegally tapped into water and gas lines. The BBC report I watched last night cast them as deprived of those essentials.
People from the camp were known to harass children as schools let out, and I witnessed members of that camp flip over a broken down car and light it on fire. I also saw entire store parking lots that they'd taken over with their caravan. Did they have their reasons? I can't say, and like the eurozone's less productive economies, there has got to be a positive side to their presence.
I just want to paint the 80% of the French population in support of these policies in a culturally sensitive light.
Responding to this post with rage will not help others to understand your point of view, and personally attacking mine adds little to this world.
My belief on this problem you're talking about here is that of course some of the Romas, as they chose to live outside of the society, are committing felonies (from stealing to burning cars, definitely not a lot of drugdealers or violent crimes). Yes it is true, some of them are really well organised to commit these felonies and this is how they make their living, but my point is then: arrest these ones! When they really break the rules of the country they're living in, then arrest them. Don't decide all of a sudden as the government is doing now that they all should be send back to Romania! And I have to say, the way they're doing it doesn't feel good at all : to notify the family they're separating the women and the men, they are making proud announcements day after day about how many they've sent back...
ReplyDeleteAnd then, well here I don't think I really know enough on the subject to make a strong statement but : Romania is part of the EU. So as far as I know about how the EU works technically, romanians can circulate and work freely in any of the EU country. So I don't really understand the point of evicting people from one EU country to another. The construction of the EU is still very fragile and I don't really think these actions are sending a smart message to the french population, who tragicly voted No to the EU constitution a couple of years ago. Convict those who make the felony and that you can arrest, do not convict an entire community.
I'm not nearly as informed as you on French immigration issues, so forgive me if I'm completely off base, but it seems that the real problem here, as it so often is in areas of high crime, is more to do with poverty and desperation than any natural inclination toward criminal activity. It seems to me that the focus should be on finding solutions to the issues in Romania that force so many of it's citizens to seek refuge in France. For better or worse (although I'm inclined to think it's definitely better), all the countries of the EU are inextricably linked now, and a single-country attitude where foreigners are deported as a band-aid to a larger problem, simply won't suffice anymore. When these European countries banded together they gained a lot of strength, but with that they must also accept that their individual borders have been necessarily blurred. The problem of one EU member, economic or social, is now the problem of the whole.
ReplyDeleteMatt, thanks so much for your comment. I agree with your assesment that those comminting the felonies should be the ones who are arrested or forced to leave. Forced eviction is most definitely not the spirit in which the EU was created, but France's angle is that they were more open than other countries in the beginning, and now they're paying the price.
ReplyDeleteNDD, well said. I tend not to give all of my opinion in order to stir up conversation. I'm considering copying the firestorm that happened on facebook in regards to this, because this is the aim of my blog. Bis.