FRANCE ON FIRE

 

 It is absolutely calm and absolutely terrible. We are in St. Germain des Près, next to the church where Brazilian exiles in the 1970s protested against the military dictatorship in our country. Some stores open, others like Hugo Boss, completely closed with heavy plywood to prevent looting that has spread across France in the last five days. A policeman killed in cold blood a 17-year-old, Nahel M. Roadside approach in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. Little is known about what and how it happened, because the police, unlike in São Paulo, do not use cameras. The policeman was arrested and France went up in flames. All over France, including the island of Reunion, overnight, young people, whose average age is 17 years old, set fire to shops, buses, cars, public buildings and everything they cherish in front of them. From 38 arrested on the first night, the number rose to 1311 on the fourth night, with 1350 vehicles burned, 2560 fires on public roads, 234 buildings degraded and 79 police officers injured. By luck and divine grace, with no more dead. Forty-five thousand policemen on the streets, with the most sophisticated defensive weapons, brucutus (armored vehicles that seem to come out of movies) and scenes that look like we are in Ukraine and not in France. The rebels use Molotov cocktails, fireworks turned into weapons, hunting rifles, and mercilessly attack and plunder not only Apple and Nike, but small merchants whose origins are their own. From a fair protest over a criminal death, it turned into an appalling war, where fear spread across the entire country and no one knows who the enemy is. The government acts rigorously and carefully. How do you face an army of 12, 13 year olds, 17 year olds? There is no manual for this. The French justice system, which has not been able to judge the deaths caused by the police in recent years, acted quickly. The first young people have already been sentenced to community work. And the government established a fine of 200,000 reais per family whose child is involved in looting and fires. The economic damage will be enormous. Insurance companies are trembling, the government has already said it will help and tourists are fleeing. France has become, with this conflict, preceded by the recent yellow vest protests and protests against the new pension law, an absolutely unpredictable country from the point of view of social stability. But earlier revolts were promoted by other generations, by visible organizations. This is a different conflict. Perplexity, the intense use of Tik Tok, uncontrollable, and a part of the French population that today is made up of children, but tomorrow will be adults, voters and will dominate French politics. Social and religious differences, allied to the racial issue, have disintegrated the social fabric and put democratic governance itself at risk. It's terrifying to find yourself in a country that explodes due to a tragic accident like this one. The physical revolt of children and young people leaves the country perplexed. Political leaders lack the credibility to stop the uprising. Religious leaders, especially Islamic, ask for calm. Jews are afraid that the uprising will also increase an already growing anti-Semitism. The fear of going out into the street is not visible, but when the crowd starts to confront the police, even on TV, it is terrifying. And why is it happening? Millions of explanations point to a marginalization of racial and religious minorities in terms of opportunities for social ascension, the increase of gangs dominating social structures and the absence of the state as an agent of security, economic development or promoter of social services. In other words, a failed state model, including with regard to technological changes, many of which the French led. There is no lack of thinkers in France to explain the state of affairs. And there is no shortage of those who do not accept that the status quo only has a future of revolts. France in its history was a country of ruptures, of social changes that changed the world. And now, how is it? 2.7.2023.