Salut!

Nahel, French policing and the wages of sin

 

When I submitted my analysis of the latest French social crisis - the atrocious police killing of Nahel during a routine stop, and the fierce, unjustified rioting that followed - there were two important matters I did not know about.

I heard later about the vile attack on the home and family of an entirely blameless mayor in L'Haye-les-Roses. And later still about the utterly repugnant crowdfunding whipround for the family of a certain Florian, the police officer who killed Nahel Merzouk.

 

Nahel's photo, released by his mother. Described by Wikipedia as fair use

Grief, shame and mob violence dominate France after Nahel M's senseless killing

 

Much of my time as a journalist covering events in France - continuously for 20 years and intermittently beforehand  - has concentrated on the country's lamentable record in assimilating its large population of people who emigrated from former French colonies, mainly north and sub-Saharan Africa, or descend from them. As night follows day, fierce rioting has followed the senseless killing by police of a 17-year-old boy whose offences, irritating and dangerous but hardly at the high end of criminality, were to be driving without a licence and being unwilling to stop and be checked. We now know the M stands for Merzouk.

 

The accused officer has issued an apology. He faces a voluntary homicide charge. He also has the wholly dubious honour of being the intended beneficiary of a crowd-funding whipround, created and doubtless enriched by odious far right sympathisers. As I write, it stands at a shameful 830,000 euros - compared with 150,000 euros so far collected for the family of Nahel.

 

Much more, including the death of a fireman and a hideous firework attack on a mayor, his family and home, has happened since I wrote this analysis for The National (reproduced with the editor's consent). Sadly, we have not heard the last of this latest uprising against police violence, routine discrimination and stubbornly racist attitudes ...

 

Image by Toufik-de-Planoise

 

Senegal: Mane and N'Door call for calm as death toll rises

 

This is my look at the eruption of violence in Senegal, sparked by a prison sentence passed on a popular opposition leader after what his supporters see as a cynically engineered prosecution and - at the time of writing - yet to be enforced. My thanks as usual to The National for permitting me to reproduce my work here ...  

 

Random images of Senegal from the National Archive UK

France: its eternal beauty and intermittent beastliness

It is fair to say both countries of my dual nationality are important to me. They have exceptional if different qualities and glaring flaws.

Often, what I write about France is affectionate and admiring. Sometimes it is defensive, as when oafish attacks are aimed in its direction by the usual Little Engerlish suspects.

That’s how I introduced this article at Facebook. I went on to say it would be absurd to overlook the flip side, a country thoroughly uneasy with itself, large numbers of its people prepared to engage in or support casual disruption and even violence.

The spiteful sabotage by the anti-government CGT union of gas supplies to 100 restaurants is a case in point. Wholly blameless in the battle with the government and President Macron over limited pension reform, they should have been serving visitors to the Cannes film festival. The misguided, badly targeted action shows the far right is not alone in deserving reproach, as I seek to explain in this piece for The National …

 

Mayotte: immigration, misery and the legacy of French colonialism

I suggested to The National that current chaos in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte - which in 2011 became France's 101st département - 1could be a good subject for my latest Comment piece. This is the result, reproduced with the editor"s consent ...   

 

 

Mayotte: residents of Kawéni, the biggest shanty town in France, lead miserable lives. Photo: Emily Cooper 

 

 

Sunderland's FA Cup glory vs (then) mighty Leeds, 50 years on

 

Forget coronations. This weekend is special because it marks the golden anniversary of arguably the greatest FA Cup final of all time.

As a lifelong Sunderland supporter, I desperately wanted a ticket. Phil, the sports editor of the Harrow newspaper where I was then working, promised faithfully he could and would get me one. He had 'great contacts' at Wembley. It would be a doddle.

Phil was also our neighbour in a company flat. His promise had been repeated as late as the eve of the final. On Saturday morning, May 5 1973, his flat was deserted. He was nowhere to be seen and nor was any ticket.

These are my recollections, helped along by those of Sunderland's goalkeeping hero, Jimmy Montgomery. and my great friend, Pete Sixsmith, who did get a ticket and also saw pretty much the whole of the cup run. I am grateful to the editor of The National (UAE) who consents to reproduction of my work here and to Jim Harker, who readily permitted the use of his magnificent drawing of the winning goal ...

 

 

 

 

Fifty years this weekend from the famous FA Cup final where unfancied, second-tier Sunderland defeated Leeds United, then a mighty force in English and European football, Jimmy Montgomery remembers his moment of goalkeeping glory as if it happened yesterday.

Marseille: a vibrant city and its deadly feuds

One of my favourite cities, Marseille, is never far away from the headlines and often enough for the wrong reasons. My piece for The National looks at the continuing series of gangland killings ...

France’s second and oldest city Marseille, with its rich but tumultuous history dating from its creation by ancient Phocaean settlers, has many faces.

There is the Marseille the tourists see: the magnificent Vieux Port; the exotic sights and scents of the North African market tucked behind the city’s main avenue, the Canebiere, and the rugged cliffs and hills of the nearby Calanques National Park.

Among its other faces is an uglier one that reveals itself in a relentless stream of gangland killings – the reglement de comptes or tit-for-tat assassinations committed in defence of drug territory or to avenge previous murders, and sometimes lesser provocations, by rival criminals.

 

                                                                               Image: Benh LIEU SONG

 

France: a beautiful country scarred by social unrest

France is in turmoil. Again. Each president takes office promising to reform outdated or arguably unaffordable practices and each runs into France's parallel democracy, the resistance of the street.

Emmanuel Macron has made his upheaval of the pensions system, which he claims is heading for calamitous deficits, the key feature of his second term. But in the absence of a parliamentary majority, has resorted to the controversial 49.3 decree that allows legislation to be pushed through parliament without a vote. This is how I assessed the crisis for The National, which permits the reproduction of my work here ...

 

 

In calm, precise tones she might use in lectures at her elite Parisian “grande ecole”, a student explained to a television reporter why she was smashing illuminated advertising signs during riots over President Emmanuel Macron’s contentious pension reforms.

“I think violence is unfortunately necessary,” she said, using a heavy implement to smash glass to cries of encouragement from others, unseen.

“I don’t attack cars or shop windows. I attack advertising.”

 

Roland Godefroy - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=127943623

 

Will the Sunak-Macron bonhomie survive the ´immoral’ new immigration policy?

 

As the BBC climbed down from its preposterous position on Gary Lineker, apologising to and reinstating him, I was finishing this comment piece for The National ....

 

Par President.gov.ua, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=119423950

 

 

 

Image: Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing - https://www.gov.uk/government/people/rishi-sunak image, OGL 3, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=125849356

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shamima Begum: the only moral decision is to make her face UK justice

This is not a post that will bring me popularity. It's not meant to. It is the argument I make against the British Government's decision to strip Shamima Begum of citizenship, even though she has no other viable nationality, because as a child she ran off to join the Islamic State.

I do not in any way seek to minimise the horrific nature of that sickening death cult or to excuse Begum for any crime she may have committed. But I strongly believe that there is no moral or intellectual case for what the Government has done. Bring her back, punish her if it is proved that she has broken the law - as civilised neighbouring countries do in comparable cases  - and strive to ensure she is genuinely deradicalised or, if suspicion remains, monitored

My Comment piece for The National (which consents to its reproduction here)...

Photo, issued by the Met police, of the girls as they began their dark adventure in 2015. Shamima Begum is on the right