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A New Europe in Search of its Soul - Emanuel L. Paparella

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Sarkozy: Leave French people alone - Part 3
by Akli Hadid
2008-03-18 08:37:59

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A racist and an anti-Semite

Like many French personalities, including France’s highest ranked politicians, Nicolas Sarkozy has made several statements that show how racist and anti-Semetic he is. His whole manifesto is based on a racist concept of France, and he has opened the doors to the normalization of racist comments.

When French personality Eric Zemmour says that the US solves its immigration problem by sending half of its black population aged 18 to 25 to prison, one can not but think that it is a racist statement. African Americans have been in the US for century, and are thus not immigrants. However, the fact that this personality’s comments are tolerated show that Sarkozy is not only determined to end racial thinking in France, he also encourages it.

Sarkozy has often blamed several minorities for what they are, and has not hidden the fact that he dislikes Muslim women. He once said “If you come to France and you wear a veil, if you go to one of the administrative buildings, then that's not acceptable. If you don't want your wife to be examined by a male doctor, then you're not welcome here. France is a country that's open”. Problem is, many of those women who wear veils are French citizens, and as the president of the French population as a whole, it is unacceptable to blame a certain category of French people just for wearing a veil.

Sarkozy was behind the law that prohibited wearing the veil in France. Though all religious signs were targeted, it was the Islamic veil that drew most media attention. There are over 5 million Muslims in France, or roughly 10% of the population, which Sarkozy has repeatedly targeted as a threat to French values. Since most Muslims living in France are French citizens, the veil is an integral part of French society, and therefore should not be omitted from French values.

Sarkozy has repeatedly, as Minister of Home Affairs and as President, made statements that only a Hitler could have made. During the Fall 2005 riots, he said about the rioters “You've had enough, haven't you? Enough of this scum? Well, we're going to get rid of them for you”. When riots occur in a democratic country it would be more natural to negotiate with them than to say that you will get rid of them. And what does getting rid of a population mean anyways?

Sarkozy apparently also dislikes his opponents. He told one person who disliked him to “Scram then, asshole” (Alors casse toi, pauvre con in French), an attitude that, frankly speaking, should get him impeached. I don’t know a single country in the world where a president curses openly curses people, and when they do, it is often followed by genocides or mass expulsions of a category of people.

Sarkozy apparently doesn’t like Muslims, young suburban people and his opponents. A few weeks ago he also showed a scornful attitude towards Jewish people. In a formal gathering with Jewish associations, he claimed that every 5th grader would have to write a letter to one of the 10,000 children that died during the Holocaust. It would have been an excellent idea had it been the Ministry of Education who had studied the idea before submitting it to a commission that would enact it. But Sarkozy had other intentions.

He wanted to use Jewish people in order to make people forget about his twisted private life. He wanted his idea to draw as much attention as possible in order for people to blame Jewish people for inciting Sarkozy to come up with such an idea. Indeed, in an anti-Semitic France, Sarkozy would divide French people even more, and all minorities would suffer from those divisions, but Sarkozy would come up as the winner, as he could pass any crazy security enforcement law that he wishes in order to put an end to a tormented France.

Sarkozy is destroying French people, and is sadistically enjoying it. He has done nothing about the country’s economic situation, and seems to enjoy power as a way to achieve all his dreams. His latest whim: making his 21-year-old son run for the Municipal elections. Sarkozy is sick, desperately needs constant attention, and from now on, I will change the channel or stop reading as soon as I see his name. Enough Sarkozy, leave the world alone!

sarkozy France Prejudice

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Emanuel Paparella	2008-03-18 11:56:05
Ah, the forces of the subconscious. What would a Freud, or a Charlie Chaplin or a Fellini for that matter, make of the fact that Sarkozi's roots are semitic and he rules a country full of anti-semites who rather misremember the Holocaust than remember Vichy? One wonders.


AP	2008-03-18 15:07:00
Don't be too catastrophic, Hadid! And it seems he didn't "make" his son run for elections: the boy actually Wanted to (and communicated that to his father later on)! On the contrary of what you say, I think that most of these sentences are rather naïve, when compared with the majority of the political speeches we hear/read every day. ps - It is not Sarkozy who doesn't like Muslim women, you should rather insurge against the fact that most Muslims don't like Muslim women!!


AP	2008-03-18 15:16:57
And it is not a great argument to say that African Americans have been in America for a century, African Europeans have been in Europe for more than ten centuries, and we still have wrong immigration policies too. Oh, but I see what you mean: he shouldn't use the word immigration, as they are american citizens, he should just use the words exclusion and racism. You are right about that. ;)


AP	2008-03-18 15:37:26
But solely the act of saying "African American" is a trap expression, it's like saying: you're neither here nor in Africa, but somewhere in between. Under the cover of tolerance, it can hide something deeper.


AP	2008-03-18 15:41:10
Finally, I would very much like to read your comments (and your indignation) on those articles of the woman condemned to death accused of being a witch and the other whose husband has cut her nose and ears off!!


Akli Hadid	2008-03-18 16:48:00
Thanks for your comments. To answer your comment, Prof. Paparella, Sarkozy is a Catholic. And by knowing that France, a country which gave birth to dozens of Holocaust deniers, should have come up with something better than one day saying that France will not regret (se repentir) its past and then the next day make public that all 5th graders will have Holocaust victims as their imaginary buddies. That can only piss off other minorities who suffered from French government atrocities in the past. Sarkozy knew the idea would cause a huge debate among French people and could only please Holocaust deniers and adherents to conspiracy theories. Alexandra, national values are declining and ethnic values are rising. Most African conflicts are due to ethnic tensions (relative deprivation theory=when a group of people thinks they are deprived from the power they are entitled to). The rise of ethnic values often results from economic crisis (like the global economic crisis we are witnessing) and a president who encourages ethnic thinking or "communautarisme" when prices go up by up to 50% in France and when the oil costs more than 100 bucks a barrel can only be suicidal. No one thought ethnic violence would be one of the features of the post-modern world, but it seems as though the French media and Sarkozy want to make that a reality.


Emanuel Paparella	2008-03-18 21:49:37
Thanks for the informative and fruitful dialogue Mr. Hadid. Your are right, Mr. Sarkozy is indeed Catholic but most probably one of those millions of Catholics in Europe who are such by mere culture and tradition and birth but live less than exemplary lives even by pagan standards. His grandfather was a Jew who converted to Catholicism; so his roots are indeed Jewish. As Tony Judt amply explores in his voluminous book on Europe, many times we in the West end up misremembering, by which he means that we like to open a museum or erect a monument to the Holocaust but cherish not a bit to draw the proper ethical lessons from such a horrible event. Elie Wizel is correct, those lessons have not been drawn yet and that in itself says something our purportedly superior “enlightened” technological civilization. It is one thing to have the cohorts of anti-semites and xenophobes in France misremember, but when one with Jewish roots misremembers the Vicky government, that is even more perplexing and indeed ominous of where our civilization is heading.


AP	2008-03-18 22:30:05
You know, Mr. Paparella, not only the europeans have to draw ethical lessons from the Holocaust, also the US have to. The whole world does. It wasn't even properly solved by the US and Europe, the way they solved it was putting most Jews out of Europe in a new state in Middle East and dividing Germany in half! Not long ago, we had the article on Tamera - founded by german people!


AP	2008-03-18 22:38:57
...among which is Benjamim Mendelssohn, from a notable Jewish german family, including philosophers (Moses Mendelssohn) and composers (Felix Mendelssohn). If someone with such a background shows no resentments and is one of the main mentors of a Peace Research Centre with roots already spread worldwide (including a close connection to Palestinian peace workers), how can you say with so much certainty "In Europe they didn't draw lessons out of Holocaust"???! Well, they did, and from the fall of the wall also!!


Emanuel Paparella	2008-03-18 22:46:17
Indeed Ms.Pereira, I couldn't agree more. However, had you read my message carefully it would not have escaped you that eveb though I refer to Tony Judt's book on Europe for the concept of "misremembering" I am not concerned with silly cultural wars between the EU and the US (the caricature of Europeans from Venus and Americans from Mars...)but with the fate of Western Civilization. Indeed we are in the same boat, willy nilly and either we save oursevelves together or we drown together. The cultural wars can be found in each of the Western nations; there is no need to make them continental. Indeed, anti-Americanism and anit-Europeanism (which exist on both sides of the Atlantic) is a very short sighted policy. I think we agree on that. Or am I wrong?


Emanuel Paparella	2008-03-18 22:54:02
The one who has repeatedly mentioned that the proper lessons have not been learned within Western Civilization is Elie Wiezel, an Nobel Peace winner which I also mentioned in my original message. I should mention that I agree with him. To bring it close home. Were I to forget that my originally Jewish family left the Hiberian peninsula to sojourn in Italy and converted to Catholicism some four centuries ago; that would indeed be a strange way of remembering one's cultural roots. That is my perplexity at Sarkozi "misremembering." What are the sub-conscious forces and the projections at work here? I think Freud and Jung would agree too.


AP	2008-03-18 22:59:56
Of course we agree on that. "the caricature of Europeans from Venus and Americans from Mars" --> in which book did you see such caricature? :) Yes, because you know, one obviously can't generalize that no Europeans have drawn lessons out of Holocaust... or no Americans. And it's obvious we are all on the same boat - not only Europeans, Russians and Americans, but the whole Humanity. And then things have to become much more flexible, as human rights are universal and economic wars which smash them unacceptable.


Emanuel Paparella	2008-03-18 23:12:15
As far as African-American and Italian-American and Polish-American is concerned, Mr. Pereira, you forgot to include that little hyphen between the two cultures. No, I am not chiding you for your English which is very good and I understand that everybody makes typos, even English professors…but for the fact that omitting that symbolical sign means to run the risk of forgetting that everybody in America is an immigrant, that African-Americans have been on this continent for more than three centuries and much longer than most Italian-Americans, Portuguese-Americans, Jewish-Americans. The only American (a misnomer too since that refers to a continent, not a nation) are the Native American and they are on the reservations, out of sight out of mind. But back to the hyphen; the hyphen is symbolical of the bridging of two cultures. To be able to do that, as difficult as it is, means to be a better American, not less of an American. Is to be able to grasp that we are not a melting pot but a symphony of cultures and we all play our own unique instruments. To be able to bridge more than one or two cultures is indeed the hope of a global village at peace. I am afraid that globalization and the leveling and destroyng of unique cultures in the name of Machiavellian power and hypernationalism will not do the trick.


AP	2008-03-18 23:22:17
Of course Sarkozy should be much more careful about ethnical tensions inside France. I don't find the letter idea bad, Akli Hadid, it has nothing directly to do with Muslims, has to do with Europe and Holocaust, and muslim kids at schools, as you well say, are french citizens, so they should be teached empathy towards fellow citizens' loss. He could have the same idea about a letter to palestinian victims in Middle East too, but that's another story. But your name, Hadid is Muslim, right? So you are as much impartial as Sarkozy to talk about... Anyway, those are silly religion games and they don't say nothing to me.


AP	2008-03-18 23:42:37
"the hyphen is symbolical of the bridging of two cultures" LOL of course that's your tolerant vision of the expression, as african-american might be much more often used to refer to black skin people (even if they have a european background) than polish-american or german-american or european-american is to refer to white skin US citizens. if they are american citizens, born and raised in America for generations now, then they are "Americans", full stop. You don't go there with hyphens! That doesn't mean forgetting their background either. I guess a way out of it would be transforming the "American" concept, and assume from the start that a word alone can refer to someone with japanese eyes, black skin or yellow hair. That's different from "constantly remembering" your background, even if that "remembrance" is a fallacy introduced by arbitrary things like skin colour and hair type, as a person's culture can have absolutely nothing to do with what his/her phenotype suggests.


Emanuel Paparella	2008-03-19 00:09:04
Indeed, Ms. Pereira, understanding and bridging of cultures other than one's own has indeed precious little to do with skin and eye color. I think we agree on that much and perhaps we should begin with what we agree and read each other's statements carefully.


Akli Hadid	2008-03-19 00:26:21
For your info, Alexandra, my name was given by French people last century. Until then my people had no name. My family is pagan, with no Muslim roots. One thing I can't deny is that Sarkozy thus far has not targeted Shamanists. I was born in New York, in a country Sarkozy seems to love. But as a militant of global citizenship, I am repulsed by the fact that Sarkozy (or that anyone) deliberately categorizes people by ethnicity in order to divide.


AP	2008-03-19 00:49:01
I should say sorry for my mistake then. I understand your repulses, nevertheless I think there are much worst ethnical dividers. Anyway...


AP	2008-03-19 01:11:54
I justify my mistake though: Babylon Turkish-English «akli adv. mentally, in or with the mind, with regard to the mind; adj. spiritual hadid bible names (Arabic); a place in the tribe of Benjamin near Lydda, or Lod, and Ono (Ezra 2:33; Neh. 7:37). It is identified with the modern el-Haditheh, 3 miles east of Lydda.» There is also a cultural centre in Brazil named "Al Hadid (O Ferro)" or "Al Hadid (The Iron)", an Islamic welfare cultural centre. So your family could be pagan, but you certainly have Arabian names. Which is quite nice, because Arab-speaking people have an amazing heritage and quite nice aspects in their cultures, including poetry and architecture and mathematics. I'm curious about this: are you a pagan too?


Emanuel Paparella	2008-03-19 01:42:29
To answer your question Ms. Pereira, the book where that caricature can be found is titled Of Paradise and Power and it is by Robert Kegan. I have written a whole article on the caricature which was promptly attacked by those at Ovi (fortunately only few) who like to jump on their horses and attack before even reading the whole article... Should you be curious, you may retrieve the article at this Ovi site: http://www.ovimagazine.com/art/2321


Emanuel Paparella	2008-03-19 07:30:27
Some musings on names: Barrak Obama is an African name which certainly does not sound like the typical Anglo-Saxon “Christian” last name which most African-Americans, such as his pastor, carry; for you see, African-Americans carry the names of their former masters. Most of them were never immigrants. The immigrant came here on his own. The African-American was brought here in chains and stripped of his original African name. Some white immigrants, on the other hand, have changed their original name to an Anglo-Saxon to Anglicize themselves and better hide their original culture and disappear in “the melting pot,” while they go around making fun of the names of those who have refused to change it. They also made sure to remain ignoramuses about the culture and language of their parents or grandparents. Malcom X and few others African-Americans dared to disown his master’s name and their religion too and that immediately prompted accusations of ingratitude from the white descendants of the former masters. They made sure that those with no name or no proper name would never become president of the United States. Paradoxically, it is the one with the African name and not the ones with the “Christian” Anglo-Saxon name that may end up becoming president of the United States. Indeed, times seem to be a-changing. Eventually an African-American pagan with no name will appear and he will run for president. Then we will know that a “more perfect union” has finally been achieved. It certainly ain’t perfect now.


Akli Hadid	2008-03-19 08:23:47
Prof. Paparella, My ancestors come from a remote place lost in the Algerian mountains of Kabylie. Our last name was randomly given to my ancestors by colonial forces in the late 19th century. There are also Christian Hadids in Lebanon and Syria and Jewish Hadids in Israel. Islam did not reach my ancestors village, though, since my parents left Algeria in the 70s, people had started converting to Islam and Christianity. Before that, my ancestors had what I believe are pagan beliefs close the Shamanism. I myself have always claimed that I have no religion, or as Camus would say about his mother, I never asked myself the question of whether god exists. Indeed, over at my place, the word god is not in the family dictionary. We mention "the eye" or the spirit, as a form of reincarnation of spirits living among us. But having grown up miles away from my ancestors village, I was never initiated to that practice.


Akli Hadid	2008-03-19 08:46:38
To close the chapter on my personal life, the one of the reasons I left Europe a couple of years ago was that I was tired of people asking me where my ancestors came from, trying to figure out every detail of my ancestors life. Religion was a hot topic. People would see me light a cigarette during daytime on Ramadhan and go like "but aren't you a Muslim?". People would also be embarrassed to ask me out for a drink thought I enjoy drinking pretty much everything. Same went with food, people would stare at me with amazement when I would order a "Parisien". Upon arrival in Korea, I would tell people I have no religion and it would stop there. The reason I'm saying all this is: is it because you're from a certain country or because you have certain beliefs that you should not be allowed to mention certain topics? In Europe, I'm afraid to say, you can still get killed for having the wrong ancestors or beliefs. Here in South Korea or in the US, if you get killed, you were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. So do I have more legitimacy to talk about certain things because I'm Algerian-American having grown up in France and Turkey?


Emanuel Paparella	2008-03-19 09:23:00
Mr. Hadid, you have unflinchingly described a personally painful existential experience which is worth pondering; namely, the experience of being defined by the colonizer out to civilize the savages and “Christianize” the pagans of the world. That used to be called “the white man’s burden.” Unfortunately the white man is still peddling such an ideology of power masquerading as the spread of civilization. Now he sells it as a patronizing condescending concern for the poor of the so called third world: to do good to Africa while conveniently forgetting that only a short century ago he went to Africa to do good and did very well indeed. How genuine such a new found concern is can be assessed by looking at how he treats such people in his own home while mouthing platitudes about human rights, also conceived as given nobless oblige rather than inalienable. From what you relate is is evident that when religion allies itself with such a travesty of democracy and civilization it loses all legitimacy. At that point a pagan Socrates begins to look more attractive than a saint, for indeed spreading the good news of the gospel is not synonymous with spreading imperialism. The ideological religious fanatic is usually unaware of that distinction and ends up in idolatry: the idolatry of power. Indeed, the colonizer defines the colonized by changing his original name or imposing a new name. That is the first and most pernicious act of colonization. Malcolm X was surely on target when he disowned the name imposed on him by his master. The temptation to disown all cultures and allegiances and traditions and become a world citizen must surely have been there but, to his credit, he resisted it and remained loyal to his people and his country.


Akli Hadid	2008-03-19 09:46:17
Prof. Paperella, I don't mind bearing a name that was given to me be the colonial power. It's just a name after all. I don't mind my heratige either. I'm not proud of it, nor do I reject it. I just think that we live in a world where people are not ready to accept the notion of becoming global citizens, because searching for its roots, to me, does not mean trying to find one's directions but trying to figure out who we can exploit. Last night I had a conversation about the cast system in India. Imagine 1 century from now, people searching what cast they used to belong to. One would say, I used to be an untouchable, so you owe me reparations for all the damage you caused me. The other would say, I was from a higher cast, my ancestors used to own this land, so I want it back. When politicized, history becomes dangerous. Therefore I believe that what happened in the past should stay in the past. I tend to look towards the future. Identifying myself with my past or regretting it will not help me advance any further.


Emanuel Paparella	2008-03-19 09:59:29
On the other hand, perhaps you'll agree that to declare with Henry Ford that history is bunk is to condemn oneself to reapeating it wholesale, good and bad and to ensure that the future is not as good as it could be. That is why Tony Judt is on target when he says that we should not monumentalize history and then move on (he calls it "misremembering")but learn its lessons and live a more aware existence.


AP	2008-03-19 13:14:49
Mr. Paparella: In my family, I have englishmen and black people on one side and French Jewish converted, Muslims and Arabian/Berber on the other side - so what am I: an English-Portuguese, an African-Portuguese, a French-Portuguese or a Moroccan-Portuguese?? Goodness... I suppose this should create an identity crisis in my head, because of calling myself simply a "Portuguese" instead of "bridging the cultures with hyphens"??!!! Mr. Hadid: What am I: a Jewish-Portuguese, a Catholic-Portuguese, a Muslim-Portuguese or an Anglican one?? "In Europe, I'm afraid to say, you can still get killed for having the wrong ancestors or beliefs. Here in South Korea or in the US, if you get killed, you were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time." --> interesting theory...humm... No one said you can't refer to certain topics (you actually should because of knowing them better), I just ask you not to victimize yourself and not to interpret always what can sometimes be simple curiosity of your friends and compatriots towards your background in a bad sense, okay? It doesn't help nor you nor them, you should actually use it in a positive way to let them learn something about your background and other cultures, and even debate on that.


AP	2008-03-19 13:28:37
Because, you know, calling "a racist and an anti-semite" to a head of State who was not only elected by the majority of the French but has Jewish roots as well, does mean trying to divide people also, Hadid.


AP	2008-03-19 13:53:36
ps - elected by the majority of the French including many French Muslims (knowing his background, which is not only Jewish, but Protestant and Catholic as well). Of course one can discuss quite many of his political positions, like his opposition to same-sex marriage, for instance.


AP	2008-03-19 17:42:41
Mr. Hadid: my view on racism and anti-Semitism is obviously AGAINST! I just think you can fail to communicate your reasons by adopting the very same strategies and insulting him like that... one has to be more clever. Of course there are many people who, as you say, "feel guilty" for belonging to a given minority. For those people, it's important to underline through education that they shouldn't cede to "inferiority complexes" like that, but simply be proud of their background. For the society in general, and french one here in particular: racism should be abolished once and for all, and diversity valued always in the inestimable richness and potential it brings to a society!!