Posted on 07/14/2010 12:07:27 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
France has staged its traditional Bastille Day parade amid criticism from human rights groups at the invitation of some African leaders.
Soldiers from 13 African nations marched through Paris on Wednesday to mark 50 years of independence from French colonial rule.
Protesters denounced France's ties to its former colonies in a demonstration on the eve of the parade, condemning some of the African leaders invited to the ceremony of committing atrocities.
"We are scandalised by the presence on the official stand, among the heads of state invited by [French president] Nicolas Sarkozy, of dictators who fire on their own people," Odile Tobner of Survie, one of the groups leading the protest, said.
'Colonial nostalgia'
Rights groups were angered by the presence of countries such as Niger, where a military government took power in a coup five months ago and where French nuclear firm Areva has lucrative uranium mining contracts.
But Sarkozy insisted the parade was not about colonial "nostalgia" during an address to the African leaders on Tuesday.
"I know very well the notion of privileged and special relations, this flood of suspicions and fantasies, but the time has come to face up to it together, without inhibitions and without looking back," he said.
Herve Morin, the defence minister, also dismissed the criticism, saying there was "no indication" that there were war criminals among Sarkozy's guests.
About 12 African heads of state attended the parade along with Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni.
The parade saw fighter jets fly over the city, followed by African troops marching down the Champs Elysees avenue, headed by an all-female unit from Benin.
They were followed by French troops, firemen, police, armoured vehicles and marching bands.
The heads of state from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad and Togo sat watching from the official stand.
Ivory Coast was represented by a government minister but did not take part in the march. Forces from Madagascar also joined the parade.
Bastille day is an annual French holiday that marks the storming of the Bastille prison on July 14, 1789, signalling the start of the French Revolution.
* The French revolution was against a monarchy at home. The American Revolution was against an imperial monarchy abroad.
* Americans were used to governing themselves so the transition to independence was relatively easier. We got George Washington. The French eventually got Napoleon.
* The French had enormous concentration of wealth, the ruling class lived in enormous luxury while people were starving in the streets. The American colonies had a much better distribution of wealth because of general support for free enterprise and besides being more politically democratic were also more economically democratic. The French Revolution had a lot more to do with class - it was the poor rising up against the rich.
* The French Revolution turned into a bloodbath and months of unrelenting terror due to spasms of reprisal killings. This eventually resulted in the rise of a military dictator.
the American Revolution resulted in a constitution that is still being used today.
I sometimes look at Obama and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and Eric Holder, and think of Robespierre.
None of them have the French scoundrel’s intellect. I was in Paris several times during the mid-Seventies and found 14 Juillet a great time and place to meet some beautiful French girls. At that time, I had no interest in their intellect or even whether they spoke English.
Ooh la la.
When love is in the air,
everyone forgets Robespierre.
I was not comparing their intellects to his, I was thinking about how the revolution that he worked so hard to bring about turned, and consumed him.
The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.
If 'Thou shalt not covet' and 'Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.
- John Adams
‘Thou shalt not covet’ and ‘Thou shalt not steal’
are inherently violated by socialism.
I find it unfathomable that people can claim that socialism is Christian.
Usually those who find socialism being Christian, are really government worshiping humanists. They need the cover to fool the weak or unBible reading believers.
Hopefully, the American nimrods O, Harry & Nancy won’t get that far.
RE: The French were seeking equality, the Americans were seeking liberty. The French were seeking to eliminate the distinctions of nobility, wealth, and rank, the Americans were seeking to be left alone. The Terror wasn’t an unfortunate accident, it was inevitable, given the premises on which the French Revolution was based.
I wonder if the French TODAY ever seriously consider the premise by which they celebrate their “Independence Day” ( for want of a better word ) is based on.
I believe if they took a long hard look, it isn’t something to be proud of.
Not even Frenchman Alexis D’ Tocqueville was happy with the way France turned out after Bastille Day.
I have found from personal experience that when you show one of those people how the bible refutes their ideology at every point,
they will reject the authority of the bible before they give up their ideology.
I would disagree.
The French Revolution was a revolt of new money against the old nobility.
The French government was structured to favor members of the landed nobility in terms of offices, commissions, charters and concessions and - according to French law - it took four generations for a respectable family to marry its way into the nobility.
Wealthy commoner families who had prevailed in the market and built fortunes were disgusted to continually lose opportunities and preferments at the top of society to individuals who had nothing to recommend them but blood.
This is why the the landed nobility were hunted down and murdered by the Revolutionaries while the Revolution itself was run by wealthy commoners.
The leaders of the Revolution were not dockworkers and teamsters - they were almost all lawyers. It was the revolt of a stalled upper middle class against an entrenched upper class.
But first they had Rospere(sp?), a total nut cake who started chopping even the peasants heads off after a time.
Rospere = Robspere, I think.
How about William Jennings Bryan? Tolstoy?
How about William Jennings Bryan? Tolstoy?
Bravo and amen! The truth, at last. Indeed, the French peasantry (the real ones, who lived in the countryside and worked the land) were generally loyal to the throne.
And yes, every unwholesome revolution -- from France to Russia to pathetic post-colonial Africa -- ends up eating its own. Some sooner than others...
Robespierre
The British Empire became a foreign power only after the revolution. It was actually a civil war that resulted in severance of territory. The same thing would've happened in our subsequent Civil War had South won.
"* The French had enormous concentration of wealth, the ruling class lived in enormous luxury while people were starving in the streets. The American colonies had a much better distribution of wealth"
True, but so did French colonies we well. The distribution of wealth on the British Isles was hardly different from that in France.
Thanks, I could have looked it up and I know how to pronounce it:)
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