¡Ay de aquel que navega, el cielo oscuro, por mar no usado
y peligrosa vía, adonde norte o puerto no se ofrece!
Don Quijote, cap. XXXIV

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domingo, janeiro 05, 2014
 
WHO?


Fireworks are the most traditional way to celebrate the New Year. But in certain French cities, immigrant youth burn cars. That’s right. The New Year’s Eve car burning has become so regular it is almost a tradition. Naturally, the story has gathered a lot of media attention. But all the mainstream reports on the subject are strangely vague about one thing—who is doing the burning. Every student of journalism learns that his or her article should answer the “five Ws”: who, what, when, where and why (and sometimes “how”). Who is invariably listed first.

Why have so many journalists suddenly forgotten their basic training? Perhaps the French media are keeping quiet for fear that publishing the truth will pour oil on the flames. Who are these rioting youths? The mainstream reports contain the hints necessary to put it all together.

Car burning “also became a voice of protest during the fiery unrest by despairing youths from housing projects that swept France in the fall of 2005,” continues AP. “At the time, police counted 8,810 vehicles burned in less than three weeks.

“Yet even then, cars were not burned in big cities like Paris, and that remained the case this New Year’s Eve. [Interior Minister Manuel] Valls said the Paris suburban region of Seine-Saint-Denis, where the 2005 unrest started, led the nation for torched cars, followed by two eastern regions around Strasbourg.”

Who rioted in 2005? At the time, the New York Times wrote that “a majority of the youths committing the acts are Muslim, and of African or North African origin.” Seine-Saint-Denis is heavily Muslim.

The Trumpet, 06/01/2013