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I have a lot of thoughts about these riots, and no I am not really surprised at all.

Everything written recently kind of skirts around the race issue that is at the center of this whole problem. Poverty, of course, is inevitably attached to race (or vice-versa) in most developed countries, and it is no different in France.

I've said for years that the French economy is so cannibalistic that it is heading for a big downfall, I had no idea that it would manifest itself into this level of riotous violence, but France has a very real history of "Revolution and Revolt."

Also, I jumped immediately to the organization idea. For the violence to have spread like that indicates a real organized effort.

My honest reaction is that France kind of deserves what it is getting here. I love the country but they treat immigrants very poorly, and the opportunities to succeed in France are limited when compared to our country. One thing that has always troubled me is the lack of a minority presence in the political arenas. To my knowledge, there are still no North African members of the assemble (Congress) and no North Africans in the president's cabinet. For that matter, I don't think that there are any blacks either, and the French gov't recently stipulated a minimum requirement on the number of female candidates that each of the major parties would have to put forward for the assemble. Implying that there weren't enough women in goverment either.

All minorities have been underrepresented in gov't over there, and I think you are seeing a real expression of frustration as a result.