France (481- ) has long been one of the top countries in the West. The Romans called it Gallia. It fell to the Franks after the fall of Rome and became France. Even though the name had been changed, the country kept its Roman ways which in time became what we think of as French.
France has not always been united under the government in Paris. Parts have broken away for a time, such as Burgundy and Aquitaine.
Till the rise of the British Empire in the 1800s, France was physically and politically at the heart of the West. It stood between all of the other large Western countries: Spain, Britain, Germany and Italy.
Much of what we think of as Western is really just French. Their two great conquerors, Charlemagne in the early 800s and Napoleon in the early 1800s, have both made the French way of doing things the Western way.
France has now fallen to a middle power. It still has a good military but it has lost most of its empire and is no match for America. It is a fate it has not yet fully accepted.
France is friends with America. It helped to free America from Britain in the 1780s, while America helped to free France from Germany in the 1940s. Both have stood as examples of freedom and democracy for the West. France does not always agree with America and will stand up to it, but they remain friends. They have too much in common.
France has been attacked by Germany two times in the past 100 years. To prevent this from happening again, France has bound Germany to itself and the rest of Europe through the common market of the European Union. If Germany has too much of its money in France, the thinking goes, it will dare not attack it.
You see where this is going: France also hopes to make the European Union a counterweight to America.
Time and again France has set the course of religion in the West:
- In 496 Clovis I, its first king, became Catholic not Arian.
- In 732 at the Battle of Tours it stopped Islam from taking over the rest of Europe.
- In 1229 the king overcame the Albigensian heretics in the south of France.
- In 1572 on St Bartholomew’s Day the French killed their Protestant countrymen in a horrible bloodbath. This stopped the West from becoming entirely
Protestant. - In 1789 the French Revolution, overthrew the power of the king and the Church. France became the first secular state in Europe: one based not on religion. It became the example for the West.
Now it seems close to a sixth turning point: the rise of Islam in France. Muslims this time have not come as an army but as Arabs moving to France looking for work.
The Arabs wear their religion in public, refuse to become French and have far more children than the French. The fear is that in a hundred years France will no longer be France but North Algeria.
See also:
France will not get my prayers. The racists are getting exactly what they asked for and now want to be victims.
“A statement said: “The authorities allowed the far right to hold a demonstration last Sunday, inciting racial hatred, making death threats, and burning a Qu’aran in the middle of boulevard Jacquard (Calais’ main street).
“In the evening 5 nazis wearing hoods went to attack migants near the Eurotunnel. These events made many people in the jungle understandably very angry and we suspect that this was linked to the reasons for the riot.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/calais-migrant-camp-fire-france-6830330#ICID=FB_mirror_main
LikeLiked by 2 people
As late as 1961 the French knew what to do with islamic invaders:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_massacre_of_1961
LikeLike
@Sharinalr
“France will not get my prayers. The racists are getting exactly what they asked for and now want to be victims.”
That is true.
I think what’s also missing from the big picture is that France’s military has been bombing Syria since September, and who knows what damage has been inflicted on innocent Syrians..
LikeLiked by 3 people
@sharinair
You do realize that fire only happened AFTER the terrorist attacks, right? And new information shows it probably was accidental, not started in an act of retaliation.
LikeLike
France is the country that gave us the Revolution, liberté, égalité, fraternité,
Yeah, if you were white and a male.
LikeLiked by 3 people
And as always there is the ‘false flag’ ‘background chatter’… syrian passport found near ghost operative’s body from running street gunfight in paris?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/paris-terror-attacks-syrian-passport-found-on-body-of-suicide-bomber-at-stade-de-france-a6734491.html
LikeLike
Theirs a lot of selective outrage going on. Bomb Americans in Boston or kill Europeans in France and the world looses its mind.
Meanwhile the U.S. quietly drones people in countries like Syria, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Ethiopia and Somalia and Americans show no empathy.
Obama dropped the legal age of enemy combatant to 12 and the pentagon describes civilian casualties as “militants” to bring collateral damage reports down to “acceptable losses”.
No one speaks about the connection to American foreign policy and the refugee crisis in Europe. Or the consequences of arming different factions of ideological madman and the resulting carnage.
So out of all this will be more Islamophobia, blame and bias against immigrants, nationalism and a shift towards right wing or totalitarianism at the expense of civil liberties.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Viewing different social media comment boards lots of Islamaphobia from commenters. This event is very disturbing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Paris is also very racist they hate the Africans and other people of color or anyone who them deem are not “French.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
I feel bad for the people of France, they had a rough year!
God bless the souls of the innocent people who lost their lives last night.
That being said, I will say, I’m not surprised that it’s happening in France.
They have a large African/Arab/Levant/ Muslim population that feels disenfranchised.
Because of their colonial past, France is now paying the piper for having to open their doors to their ex-colonial citizens,
whose countries they had robbed into poverty, and that’s why many Africans/Arabs/Levants had to move to France.
but Is it fair that modern day French citizens should suffer for the sins of their past leaders and present leaders.
big mess
LikeLiked by 2 people
Anyway, I posted this on the “Open Thread” but it’s probably more appropriate on this thread:
“As of today, 2014:
14 African countries still have to pay colonial debt to France.
In order to gain “Independence” from France, African countries had to sign binding “Cooperation Accords”.
through the colonial pact, African nations had to put 85% of their foreign reserve into France central bank under French minister of Finance control.
(This brings France about 500 billion dollars a year)
France has been holding the national reserves of fourteen African countries since 1961:
Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
France allows them to access only 15% of the money in any given year. If they need more than that, they have to borrow the extra money from their own 65% from the French Treasury at commercial rates.
To make things more tragic, France impose a cap on the amount of money the countries could borrow from the reserve.
The cap is fixed at 20% of their public revenue in the preceding year. If the countries need to borrow more than 20% of their own money, France has a veto.”
http://www.siliconafrica.com/france-colonial-tax/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bloomberg wrote an article about the France-Africa banking agreement:
(the article states that France takes in 20 billion and not $500 billion as the previous article I brought in states)
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-04-17/african-monetary-union-stirs-criticism-of-france
“A hoard of cash sits in the Bank of France: $20 billion in African money held in trust by the French government and earning just 0.75 percent interest.
Now economists and politicians from 14 Central and West African countries say they want their funds returned and an arrangement dating back to the days of France’s colonial empire ended.
France holds the money to guarantee that the CFA franc, the currency used in the 14 nations, stays convertible into euros at a fixed exchange rate of 655.957.
The compulsory deposits (mandatory deposit) started more than half a century ago, when the then-colonies had to place all their financial reserves in the French Treasury.
The deposit requirement has dropped over the decades: Today the African members entrust 50 percent of their reserves to Paris. (instead of the original 85%)”
Linda says:
and I’m purposely using a white, western publication because as we know, Abagond’s resident white apologists/trolls/race realists and coconuts, don’t believe anything unless it’s written by white people
LikeLiked by 1 person
This ‘bargain’ was made between the African former colonies and the French as part of the Pacte Coloniale which accompanied their independence and controlled through a single currency, the CFA franc.
Below are the 11 main components of the Colonial Pact that has been in effect since 1950s between France and it’s 14 ex-African colonies: (taken from previous article)
1) Colonial Debt for the benefits of France colonization:
The newly “independent” countries should pay for the infrastructure built by France in the country during colonization.
2) Automatic confiscation of national reserves:
The French Treasury is holding billions of dollars owned by the African states of the francophone nations of West and Central Africa in its own accounts and invested in the French Bourse or Stock Exchange. The Africans deposit the equivalent of 85% of their annual reserves in these accounts as a matter of post-colonial agreements and have never been given an accounting for how much the French are holding on their behalf, in what have these funds been invested, and what profit or loss there have been
http://theafricaneconomist.com/economically-enslaves-west-african-countries-by-france/#.VkhMvb_0OSo
3) Right of first refusal on any raw or natural resource discovered in the country:
France has the first right to buy any natural resources found in the land of its ex-colonies. It’s only after France would say, “I’m not interested”, that the African countries are allowed to seek other partners.
4) Priority to French interests and companies in public procurement and public bidding:
In the award of government contracts, French companies must be considered first, and only after that these countries could look elsewhere. It doesn’t matter if the African countries can obtain better value for money elsewhere.
5) Exclusive right to supply military equipment and Train the country military officers:
Through a sophisticated scheme of scholarships, grants, and “Defense Agreements” attached to the Colonial Pact, the Africans should send their senior military officers for training in France or French ran-training facilities.
LikeLiked by 2 people
6) Right for France to pre-deploy troops and intervene military in the country to defend its interests
Under something called “Defense Agreements” attached to the Colonial Pact, France had the legal right to intervene militarily in the African countries, and also to station troops permanently in bases and military facilities in those
countries, run entirely by the French.
7) Obligation to make French the official language of the country and the language for education
A French language and culture dissemination organization has been created called “Francophonie” with several satellites and affiliates organizations supervised by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs.
8) Obligation to use France colonial money FCFA
The CFA franc is freely transferable, allowing capital to exit the CFA zone and enter France without any oversight. There are no limits to its convertibility but African countries cannot create money themselves — they HAVE to use the CFA franc
(During the introduction of Euro currency in Europe, other European countries discovered the French exploitation scheme–when asked to end the program, France refused.)
“A rumour emerged that the CFA franc – two closely-related currencies used by 14 countries in western and central Africa – would be devalued by 35 per cent on January 1, 2012.
a devaluation would reduce the price of raw materials produced in CFA zone countries by 35 %, France would be able to buy 3 oil barrels for the price of 2.
Conversely, CFA zone countries would have to export much more in order to obtain the same amount of money as before the devaluation.”
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/12/2011121312953758399.html
(according to the article, any African leader in the past and present, who attempt to break the Pact with France, finds themselves murdered, arrested for trumped up charges, or in a “coup d’ etat” {government overthrow})
LikeLiked by 2 people
9) Obligation to send France annual balance and reserve report.
10) Renunciation to enter into military alliance with any other country unless authorized by France
11) Obligation to ally with France in situation of war or global crisis
The only upside I see with this 50+ year old agreement, is that to foreign investors, these African countries seem “safe” because the CFA franc is tied to the Euro, thus making these countries economy(s) “stable” and it attracts investors.
but the downside is that, these African countries remain poor because they cannot compete in the global market — they unfortunately “sell low and buy high”.
“Member CFA states have a combined gross domestic product of $157 billion and a population of 154 million. By comparison, Nigeria, which isn’t part of the union, has a $568 billion economy and more than 170 million people.”
http://mgafrica.com/article/2015-10-02-linked-to-colonial-france-west-africa-rebels-against-cfa-franc-analysts-say-its-a-loveless-marriage
There is a song I like by Chris Rea called “Fool if You Think It’s Over” (thought you said good-bye)
That’s what France told it’s African colonies when they thought they were “free”
LikeLiked by 2 people
This refugee camp was burned down hours after the terrorist attack in Paris. I have seen no mention of this in the American news media. Again more selective outrage, no empathy. Islamophobia if France is getting violent.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/calais-migrant-camp-on-fire-6830330
LikeLike
@ Linda
France also has troops deployed in many of those countries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deployments_of_the_French_military
LikeLike
@ Linda
Wow. The French Empire in Africa never fell.
LikeLike
Benjamin
I am not simply talking about the fire. What I quoted above are events that happened a week prior to the attacks and then fire. Read the full article dear and try again.
LikeLike
Isn’t it sad, Abagond…. the French Empire in Africa is alive and well
Then people in the West have the audacity to ask “how come Africa can’t get their sh’t together!”
I have no words for this…I was speechless by the amount of money France drags in from these 14 countries — yearly!!
$20 billion to $500 billion a year!!! — 50+ years worth of blackmail
Anyway, here also is the map of all of Frances current bases in Africa:
LikeLiked by 3 people
What does it take for those 14 colonies to break free from France?
LikeLike
Oh, just a few precautions by their prime ministers and leaders:
bullet proof vests, kevlar helmuts, bomb sniffing dogs and robots, over-paid staff who won’t be tempted to leave the windows and doors open for a few pennies on the dollar, eyes in the back of their heads
LikeLike
Francophone Africa feeds the snobbish French. Get Africa’s minerals out of the equation and France will collapse like house of cards. They disgust me.
LikeLiked by 2 people
“The Arabs wear their religion in public, refuse to become French and have far more children than the French.”
I can’t imagine you saying something like this, Abagond, in the PC era of the 2010’s.
LikeLike
@ LoM
Doesn’t he speak here more to the disastrous state of the French political establishment?
LikeLike
@ LoM
Does Fillion stand for a particular conservative wing within the Republicans? I can’t really see much difference between him and Sarkozy and Juppe. Though I get my information on France mostly from German sources and they pretty much care only about economic and European policy in France.
LikeLike
@LoM @Kartoffel
How much agency do individual European countries still possess over their economic policies and how much is dictated by oligarchs in Brussels/Davos?
LikeLike
@LoM
I just hope they don’t run from centrist austerity into the arms of the far right.
LikeLike
Quite a bit happened, looks like Fillion is done and Macron has excellent chances to become the next president.
@ Afrofem
Sorry, I didn’t answer your question right away in Dec and then forgot about it. I try to give a short answer to your deep question.
One has to distinguish between the EU and the Eurozone. The EU determines police through regulations (dierect European laws) and directives (member states have to transform them into national law, but have some leeway). Those are passed by the European parliament. Some policy areas have gotten much more attention than others, for example consumer protection laws are mostly European. The EU has little competence to do direct economic policy (spend money, raise taxes), this is theoretically still done on the national level.
The exception is currency policy done by the ECB that is independent from any political control (other than the election of its directors).
Austerity and national economic policy is controlled within the Eurozone (memeber states who have the Euro, so not UK, Denmark, Sweden and most of the Eastern states) by the notorious Troika (ECB, IWF, European Comission, but not European Parliament). The Troika is an ad hoc formation to control the reform (austerity and deregulation) in countries who have accessed relief money.
If a state hasn’t done that it theoretically is still in control (of course no tariffs, laws that dicriminate against other European citizens or companies). It depends if a state can still lend money from anybody else other than the other European states. That leaves pretty much just France and Central Euorpe.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Kartoffel
Thanks!
LikeLike