Protests in France and Ukrainian Maidans

Yesterday in France burned one of the most beautiful town halls in the country. With the same success could set fire to Notre Dame. What difference is destroyed if you do not care about the beauty, history and work of previous generations?

Ратушу Ліможа was built by 1883 in the neo-Renaissance style. Clock tower, sculptures, luxurious decorative decoration. The building survived two world wars. And 17 October people in masks broke windows, penetrated into and set it on fire.

The reason for the protests is expensive, insufficient funding for education, dissatisfaction with the government.

In Lyon, Sephora and Hugo Boss were smashed. In Bordeaux, the attackers penetrated to Louis Vuitton. In Nice, sportswear, shoes and electronics stores were looted. In Marseilles, a tourist office was set on fire. Cars and shopping premises were burned.

Як спалена пам'ятка архітектури XIX століття допоможе знизити ціни на продукти? І скільки флаконів парфумів потрібно вкрасти, щоб уряд збільшив зарплати вчителям?

I look at these pictures and remember our two Maidans.

I remember the smell of burning tires, barricades, paving stones, which were disassembled to protect against law enforcement officers. I remember beaten, mutilated and killed people. But there was no looting. No one robbed stores and did not take out clothes, shoes or electronics from there.

On the contrary, people brought food, medicine, money, warm things. Strangers fed each other, treated the wounded, took overnight in their own apartments. Kitchens, medical points worked. Самооборона Майдану monitored the order.

Opportunities for theft were lacking. However, Ukrainians did not think to fight Yanukovych by robbing neighboring shops.

In France, the peaceful demonstrations are regularly joined by radical groups, for whom the destruction of private property is a way of political struggle. Alongside there are ordinary thieves who have no business in politics.

Especially indicative is radical leftism, whose followers try to present the destruction of other people's property as a struggle against capitalism.

Логіка цих революціонерів прекрасна. Великі корпорації вони ненавидять, але їхню продукцію охоче крадуть і несуть додому. Причому найдорожчу. 

Another issue is French immigration policy.

In the video from the French cities, it is seen that young people with dark skin color are being trodden and robbed. In some frames, they make up the vast majority.

What we see in France is also a reason to sum up the results of decades of migration and integration policy. The state financed education, social assistance, support for disadvantaged areas. But no social program can replace the upbringing and internal culture of alien peoples if it is not inherent in them.

Poverty does not justify theft. Social inequality does not justify arson. And the origin of a person from oppressed nations in the past cannot be a justification for his crimes.

It is especially surprising when European politicians who cannot solve their own public security problems undertake to teach Ukraine, which on the way to ЄС has to take into account numerous European requirements, life according to which has demonstrated not only the impotence of the powerful, but also the degrading influence of the laws themselves.

See also: Large-scale riots in France: looters rob shops and smoke offices, in Paris, police detained more than 800 people

Європейська інтеграція не повинна означати безкритичного копіювання кожного рішення Брюсселя чи Парижа. Європейці теж помиляються. І деякі помилки коштують їм самим надзвичайно дорого, хоч вони цього й не визнають публічно.

Today's events raise much more serious questions than how many shops were robbed over the weekend. Can European civilization protect its own cultural heritage, law and order from those who do not consider them valuable?

The law-abiding French, who are French, will pay for the pogroms, and not just called them. Historical buildings and urban infrastructure will be restored from taxes. Shop owners will pay for repairs, calculate losses. It is unlikely that insurance companies will want to compensate for this "форс-мажор".

Наш Майдан was not bloodless. But Ukrainians even in the most dangerous days helped strangers and protected other people's property. Fighting with the authorities did not give the right to rob a neighbor.

Ратушу Ліможа was built for seven years. It stood for 143 years. In one evening, much of what was created by architects, sculptors and builders of the XIX century was lost.

A French passport can be obtained without knowing anything about French culture. But when the state is not able to protect its own town halls from pogroms, there are serious doubts about its ability to protect its borders from the Russian army, despite НАТО membership or some other organizations with empty-sounding names.

Europe has been delaying decisions on assistance to Ukraine for years, and meanwhile it is accumulating its own internal conflicts. Russia is already waging war near its borders. And if large-scale civil confrontation is added to the external threat, Europeans will have to decide against whom to put their soldiers first.

Source

About the author. Єлизавета Бєльська, art critic, essayist, publishing

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the authors of blogs or columns.