georgephillip
Diamond Member
Chris Hedges believes the recent mass murders in France have less to do free speech than with the "rage of the dispossessed."
"If you spend time as I have in Gaza, Iraq, Yemen, Algeria, Egypt and Sudan, as well as the depressing, segregated housing projects known as banlieues that ring French cities such as Paris and Lyon, warehousing impoverished North African immigrants, you begin to understand the brothers Cherif Kouachi and Said Kouachi, who were killed Friday in a gun battle with French police.
"There is little employment in these pockets of squalor.
"Racism is overt.
"Despair is rampant, especially for the men, who feel they have no purpose.
"Harassment of immigrants, usually done by police during identity checks, is almost constant. Police once pulled a North African immigrant, for no apparent reason, off a Paris Metro subway car I was riding in and mercilessly beat him on the platform.
"French Muslims make up 60 to 70 percent of the prison population in France. Drugs and alcohol beckon like sirens to blunt the pain of poor Muslim communities."
Sounds a little like Camden or Detroit.
Maybe there's a connection?
Chris Hedges A Message From the Dispossessed - Chris Hedges -Truthdig
"If you spend time as I have in Gaza, Iraq, Yemen, Algeria, Egypt and Sudan, as well as the depressing, segregated housing projects known as banlieues that ring French cities such as Paris and Lyon, warehousing impoverished North African immigrants, you begin to understand the brothers Cherif Kouachi and Said Kouachi, who were killed Friday in a gun battle with French police.
"There is little employment in these pockets of squalor.
"Racism is overt.
"Despair is rampant, especially for the men, who feel they have no purpose.
"Harassment of immigrants, usually done by police during identity checks, is almost constant. Police once pulled a North African immigrant, for no apparent reason, off a Paris Metro subway car I was riding in and mercilessly beat him on the platform.
"French Muslims make up 60 to 70 percent of the prison population in France. Drugs and alcohol beckon like sirens to blunt the pain of poor Muslim communities."
Sounds a little like Camden or Detroit.
Maybe there's a connection?
Chris Hedges A Message From the Dispossessed - Chris Hedges -Truthdig