11/08/2005
The French this week must now feel they are living Camp of The Saints thirty years late.
Do you remember the allegorical tale in this 1973 novel by Jean Raspail? He tells about the end of his world, our world, where Western civilization is not destroyed by a meteor, nor some new plague, nor pollution, nor nuclear war. It is destroyed by an alien invasion — not aliens from outer space, but from the Third World.
As one reviewer wrote:
"The plot is very simple, and the quasi-documentary style is riveting. A million starving, filthy, disease-ridden Hindus set sail for the south of France, expecting to find Paradise. The French are struck by a paralyzing ’social conscience,' unwilling to defend themselves from this pacifistic invasion. France is overrun, followed by the whole Western world, as all the alien, inferior, and envious peoples of the Earth take their revenge upon our superiority. In a triumph of altruism, Europe and America are dragged down into the rest of the world’s squalor and wretchedness."
While the Mainstream Media seem not to want to emphasize exactly who is responsible the horrendous violence rocketing around France, these alienated French "youths' are immigrants, mainly Moslem.
According to the Washington Post article of November 6, 2005:
"Such a dramatic demand for recognition (by these youths) underscores the chasm between the fastest growing segment of France’s population and the staid political hierarchy that has been inept at responding to societal shifts. The youths rampaging through France’s poorest neighborhoods are the French-born children of African and Arab immigrants, the most neglected of the country’s citizens. A large percentage are members of the Muslim community that accounts for about 10 percent of France’s 60 million people." [Rage of French Youth Is a Fight for Recognition, By Molly Moore]
Importing cheap labor, not allowing the time for cultural assimilation, crowding people into poverty in close proximity to the good life of most Frenchmen, has proved to be a dangerous and short-sighted policy — but one which many countries, including the US, seem determined to follow.
An example of the resulting "down with the government" attitude described in Molly Moore’s Post article:
"A husky, French-born 18-year-old whose parents moved here from Ivory Coast. At 3 p.m. on Saturday, he'd just awakened and ventured back onto the streets after a night of setting cars ablaze.
"'We want to change the government,' he said, a black baseball cap pulled low over large, chocolate-brown eyes and an ebony face. 'There’s no way of getting their attention. The only way to communicate is by burning.'
"Like other youths interviewed about their involvement in the violence of the last 10 days, he spoke on the condition he not be identified for fear the police would arrest him.
"But he and others described the nightly rampages without fear, surrounded by groups of younger boys who listened with rapt attention. A few yards away, older residents of the neighborhood, many with gray hair, passed out notices appealing for an end to the violence."
These current riots will end, as have large riots in the US and elsewhere. But the message is clear! There is no such thing as a free lunch or profit earned by sweating it out of cheap imported labor.
The assimilation of a few, such as occurred in the US between 1925 and 1965 when fewer than 200,000 immigrants a year came here, is a good model for our future.
Continuing the present insane policy of immigration at present rates will spark turmoil, the undermining of our democratic form of government and bring further diminution of the strong middle class which has proved a bulwark for keeping us free and prosperous.
We can only pray that this French example will cause prompt and comprehensive action by our own leaders to:
These measures, and only these measures, which will "protect and defend" us, as our Constitution provides. Any national office holder who fails to join in enacting then must be voted out!
Donald A. Collins is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.