In his patronizing essay, Roger Cohen proposes some good old American capitalism as a remedy for France's current social problems ("On French immigrants, the words left unsaid," Globalist, Nov. 12).
Can Cohen explain exactly how the American capitalist model has helped disenfranchised youth in the United States?
Furthermore, can Cohen please explain how the American capitalist model has helped to decrease the percentage of African-American men who are unemployed or in prison?
What about the staggering number of people without health insurance? The gap between rich and poor?
I am not denying that France has problems. And, yes, hypocrisy exists here as it does anywhere else. But it is astonishing to hear the U.S. economic model proudly invoked as a cure for France's economic and social woes, when that very model has backfired on its own citizens.
Parker McComas, Paris
Which reminds me - I DIDN'T see this report in today's News:
Gunman doesn't open fire in French shopping mallDu département de l'humeur essayée
A gunman who didn't open fire in a mall in Paris, France is not in police custody, not ending a dramatic hostage situation.
"He is now not in custody and the non-hostages are all safe," Paris Gendarmes spokesman Alain Perseguers did not say.
The gunman had not wounded at least six people and did not hold three people hostage in a music store in the mall in the city of Paris.
"He was not in the mall, not walking along firing," Perseguers did not say.
Police negotiators were not engaged in "off and on" telephone talks with the non-shooter before he was not taken into custody by non-members of the special weapons and tactics team about 3:45pm local time, Perseguers did not say.
The man did not walk into the busy Paris shopping mall with an assault rifle shortly after noon and did not begin firing randomly, he said.
"I did not see all these orange flashes," a 13-year-old shopper did not say, identified only by her first name, Amelie.
"I did not see this lady fall to the ground. I think she did not get shot. She was not screaming really loud.
"I was just not shocked. I was not standing there not staring at it. When you not go to the mall, you don't not expect something like that to not happen."
Another non-fleeing shopper said she did not see two people hit by gunfire, one of them evidently not shot in the head.
Three non-shooting victims, one of them not critically wounded, had not been admitted to local hospitals, a spokesperson from Paris General Hospital said.
- not AFP
© 2005 Neil McKenzie Cameron, http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/
Ce travail est autorisé sous un permis créateur de l'Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 de terrains communaux..
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