Although they never fail to take us aback, French riots have followed the same distinct pattern ever since protests broke out in the eastern suburbs of Lyon in 1981, an episode known as the "summer of Minguettes": a young person is killed or seriously injured by the police, triggering an outpouring of violence in the affected neighbourhood and nearby.

Sometimes, as in the case of the 2005 riots and of this past week's, it is every rough neighbourhood that flares up.

Throughout the past 40 years in France, urban revolts have been dominated by the rage of young people who attack the symbols of order and the state: town halls, social centres, schools, and shops.

An institutional and political vacuum

That rage is the kind that leads one to destroy one's own neighbourhood, for all to see.

Residents condemn these acts, but can also understand the motivation. Elected representatives, associations, churches and mosques, social workers and teachers admit their powerlessness, revealing an institutional and political vacuum.

Of all the revolts, the summer of the Minguettes was the only one to pave the way to a social movement: the March for Equality and Against Racism in December 1983.

Numbering more than 100,000 people and prominently covered by the media, it was France's first demonstration of its kind. Left-leaning newspaper Libération nicknamed it "La Marche des Beurs", a colloquial term that refers to Europeans whose parents or grandparents are from the Maghreb.

In the demonstrations that followed, no similar movement appears to have emerged from the ashes.

At each riot, politicians are quick to play well-worn roles: the right denounces the violence and goes on to stigmatise neighbourhoods and police victims; the left denounces injustice and promises social policies in the neighbourhoods.

In 2005, then Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy sided with the police. France's current President, Emmanuel Macron, has expressed compassion for the teenager killed by the police in Nanterre, but politicians and presidents are hardly heard in the neighbourhoods concerned.

We then wait for silence to set in until the next time the problems of the banlieues (French suburbs) and its police are rediscovered by society at large.

Lessons to be learned

The recurrence of urban riots in France and their scenarios yield some relatively simple lessons.

First, the country's urban policies miss their targets. Over the last 40 years, considerable efforts have been made to improve housing and facilities. Apartments are of better quality, there are social centres, schools, colleges and public transportation.

It would be wrong to say that these neighbourhoods have been abandoned.

On the other hand, the social and cultural diversity of disadvantaged suburbs has deteriorated. More often than not, the residents are poor or financially insecure, and are either descendants of immigrants or immigrants themselves.

Above all, when given the opportunity and the resources, those who can leave the banlieues soon do, only to be replaced by even poorer residents from further afield. Thus while the built environment is improving, the social environment is unravelling.

However reluctant people may be to talk about France's disadvantaged neighbourhoods, the social process at work here is indeed one of ghettoisation - i.e., a growing divide between neighbourhoods and their environment, a self-containment reinforced from within. You go to the same school, the same social centre, you socialise with the same individuals, and you participate in the same more or less legal economy.

In spite of the cash and local representatives' goodwill, people still feel excluded from society because of their origins, culture or religion. In spite of social policies and councillors' work, the neighbourhoods have no institutional or political resources of their own.

Whereas the often communist-led "banlieues rouges" ("red suburbs") benefited from the strong support of left-leaning political parties, trade unions and popular education movements, today's banlieues hardly have any spokespeople. Social workers and teachers are full of goodwill, but many don't live in the neighbourhoods where they work.

This disconnect works both ways, and the past days' riots revealed that elected representatives and associations don't have any hold on neighbourhoods where residents feel ignored and abandoned. Appeals for calm are going unheeded. The rift is not just social, it's also political.

• Dr François Dubet is a an Emeritus Professor at the University of Bordeaux.
• This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

On Saturday, Brian and Hannah Tamaki and about 100 Destiny Church supporters arrived at Ihumatao.

Hannah Tamaki said she was there "supporting the people on the ground".

Mana Movement leader Hone Harawira arrived at the same time as the Tamakis.

Harawira and Tamaki seem to be better tuned to the "people on the ground" than mainstream New Zealand.

A revolution underway?

"Even though he arrived at Ihumatao with members of the Destiny Church which was odd to me, he's representing an important Maori constituency in doing so," says Christine Rose on the Daily Blog.

"Some people have been scathing of the popular support the Ihumatao protestors have received. There have been accusations of bandwagoning," she says.

Rose, however, suggests another explanation; Ihumatao is a unifying cause.

She says they are:

• frustrated with past injustices that are perpetuated today
• sick of the privilege of corporates
• angry at the ruination of shared heritage, of desecration for money
• sick of political complacency, of the conservatism of power

"Ihumatao is being described as a revolution, this era's Springbok Tour, our Bastion Point, the biggest Maori movement of our time," she says.

Who is listening?

In 2017 The Ihumatao protesters attended the Fletcher shareholders' meeting

They had obtained the right to attend by buying Fletcher shares.

They didn't get much airtime. Board chairman Sir Ralph Norris had the microphone one was using to ask questions turned off to silence her.

The shareholders' feeling towards the protesters was hostile.

Just shrug and forget it

"Aucklanders have got used to crass developments, and the steamrollering of the past, and feel powerless to stop it," says Rob stock writing on Stuff.

"Our tendency is to shrug and just push it from our minds.

"The truth is Fletcher is building at Ihumatao not because it is a good idea, but because it is convenient."

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• thedailyblog.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: nzherald.co.nz

He says he forgives the police who charged him with the 1992 rape and murder of Susan Burdett.

Pora was convicted twice for this offence and spent 21 years in jail.

In March the Privy Council quashed his convictions and recommended he not be put on trial again.

After his baptism he taught himself to read using a pocket bible. "I'm a different person now. Humble. In the past I'd have been, yeah, aggressive."

He says he has lost his anger and his attitude. "I don't have anything towards anyone anymore."

Pora said for the first two years he marked time, keeping note of each passing day. "And you just get sick of it. It was slowing down everything."

Years passed between visitors.

"As the years went on I just started to realise no one cared, so I might as well live the lifestyle of being in prison, the art and craft of being in there."

Five years ago Pora's case was taken up by a former detective Tim McKinnel.

His work led to Pora's convictions being quashed.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz

Images of the Child Jesus, popularly known as the Santo Nino, have been dislodged from their altars as the shanties of slum dwellers in five villages of Tondo district in Manila were demolished this week to make way for a government road project.

The new road - Road 10 - is supposed to be wide enough to accommodate six lanes in both directions and is expected to improve traffic flow in and out of Manila, which has become notorious for its congestion.

The project, however, will also render some 1,600 people homeless.

Homelessness may yet again be the fate of 27-year-old Mary Jane Paco, who lives with her husband and one-year-old child on Road 10.

Before they moved to their "rent-free" shanty, Mary Jane's family, all devotees of the Child Jesus, lived on the sidewalks outside the Santo Nino de Tondo Parish Church.

Their shanty on Road 10 provided them, and their Santo Nino, shelter for the last three years.

Mary Jane says they may yet again live in the streets, and maybe go back to their old refuge on the sidewalk outside the Tondo church after authorities flatten their home.

Yolanda Gamido, 53, finds herself in the same predicament. She rents the shack she lives in and is not qualified for relocation. Although she has two married children, Yolanda lives alone, barely getting by on her pension. Continue reading.

Source: UCANews

Image: George Moya/UCANews

Meg's chronic health condition ruled out paid employment, so she was on a benefit.

The budget recorded the family's 2012 weekly income as $484 and proposed the following spending:

• Food: $130 for simple but nutritious meals recommended by the University of Otago Department of Human Nutrition.
• Housing: $119 for a state house at a subsidised rate.
• Household energy: $40 - the house was neither warm nor in a good shape; it may have been condemned shortly after - sewage flowed outside when it rained.
• Medical and educational costs: $53, despite our providing "free" health care and schooling.
• Transport: $97 - high because the house was badly located and they needed to travel for health care.
• Phone: $26.

These amounts total $465, leaving just $19 a week for everything else, including clothing and footwear, entertainment, recreation, dental care, consumer durables, insurance and a variety of things that could be considered normal, such as haircuts, presents, school trips and pets.

There's no allowance for alcohol or tobacco, you'll note. Continue reading.

Dr Brian Easton has written an economics column for The Listener for 30 years, holds positions at four NZ universities, and has advised the NZ government.

Source: The Listener

Image: Emma Beer/Stuff

Unless they make allowances for the religious faiths of their ever more diverse workforces, they will suffer lawsuits, official rebukes and protests from staff.

Employees increasingly expect to be able, for example, to dress in accordance with their faith while at work, and be given appropriate times and places for prayer.

The latest admonition came last month in new guidelines from America's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, pointing out the steady rise in religious-discrimination cases (3,721 last year, up from 1,709 in 1997) and setting out what that means.

For example, businesses must respect the personal styles of their staff—Rastafarian dreadlocks, say—if these are inspired by faith.

And religiously attired workers must not be hidden away to avoid upsetting customers of a different faith.

European firms are still absorbing the impact of last year's victory by a British Airways worker who won damages at the European Court of Human Rights after she was denied, temporarily, the right to wear a cross with her uniform.

In advice updated last month, Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission urges firms to meet religious needs, even if expressed by only one employee, as long as they do not infringe the rights of others. Continue reading.

Source: The Economist

Image: The Telegraph

My lasting memory of that time is the chaos of the situation.

There was a camp that was beginning to be established and some families were trying to set up home on the pitches that they had been allocated.

The sight of the new arrivals who had not yet been registered in the camp was particularly distressing: small groups of people sitting in whatever shade they could find, waiting to be called forward.

They all, invariably, looked completely traumatised: their faces were blank, expressionless, looking as if they were not even sure if they were still alive.

The few bundles of clothes or household utensils that were around them were now all of their worldly possessions.

"All of them, without exception, had a look of fear on their faces"

At one point I went down to one of the crossing points at the border - a swampy, marshy area covered in dense undergrowth.

From the way that the mud had been churned up, this had been the point that many of the people at the camp had left Rwanda.

There was still a trickle of people coming over: mothers, grandmothers, small children, but very few men of any age. Continue reading.

Sunday was the twentieth anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide. Rob Rees was Africa Programme Officer for CAFOD (Caritas England and Wales) at the time.

Source: CAFOD

Image: CAFOD

Previous events have left countries with decaying venues and huge bills that take years to pay off.

Local communities are increasingly unhappy that a large portion of their government's funds are directed towards events that might line the pockets of corporations, but do little to support local industry.

The $51 billion Sochi Winter Olympic Games — believed to be the most expensive Olympics in history — may have showcased modern Russia to the world, but it also shone a spotlight into the darker corners of the country's society: its treatment of LGBT people, the crackdowns on free speech of groups like Pussy Riot, and the corruption among the country's elite.

The spotlight will soon turn on Brazil, with the World Cup kicking off in June.

Here too, the event has brought world attention to the country's issues.

Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets to protest the enormous financial costs, the forced evictions of communities, and the exploitation of construction workers.

Marginalised people bear the brunt of costs for these global events.

A new report from Caritas Australia estimates that around 200,000 people have been forced out of their homes in favelas in Brazil to make way for the construction of venues for the World Cup - that's one in every 1000 people. Continue reading.

Source: Eureka Street

Image: ShutterStock

But here in Syria, where St Paul found his faith, many churches stand empty, targets for bombardment and desecration.

Aleppo, where I have been bishop for 25 years, is devastated.

We have become accustomed to the daily dose of death and destruction, but living in such uncertainty and fear exhausts the body and the mind.

We hear the thunder of bombs and the rattle of gunfire, but we don't always know what is happening.

It's hard to describe how chaotic, terrifying and psychologically difficult it is when you have no idea what will happen next, or where the next rocket will fall.

Many Christians cope with the tension by being fatalistic: that whatever happens is God's will.

Until the war began, Syria was one of the last remaining strongholds for Christianity in the Middle East. We have 45 churches in Aleppo.

But now our faith is under mortal threat, in danger of being driven into extinction, the same pattern we have seen in neighbouring Iraq.

Most Christians who could afford to leave Aleppo have already fled for Lebanon, so as to find schools for their children.

Those who remain are mostly from poor families. Many can no longer put food on the table.

Last year, even amid intense fighting, you could see people in the streets running around endlessly trying to find bread in one of the shops. Continue reading.

Bishop Antoine Audo SJ is the Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo and president of Caritas Syria.

Source: The Telegraph

Image: Caritas

Samoa's Land and Titles court has issued an injunction stopping members of the Congregational Christian Church at Tanugamanono from doing any further work on the family's land.

A family member says they sought the order after church members continued cultivating the land, thinking the family would never return.

A group of matais, recently lost an appeal against a damages award it has pay for banishing a family from the village.

The appeal has been dismissed but the amount of punitive damages has been cut by 50,000 US dollars.

They were to pay about 400,000 US dollars in damages, including legal costs, to the family of Afu Faumuina Tutuila for the banishment and the destruction of their property, including houses and vehicles.

The 16 defendants, including two former MPs of the ruling HRPP party, had appealed against the original ruling by the Supreme Court.

The case has its roots in a dispute between the Tutuila family and the faipule or village leaders of Tanugamanono.

On 20 August 2010, the Court ruled on a compromise between the church and the family where the church would get its extra land and the family would be able to stay on next door.

The Court compromise centred on a floral hedge row that had grown up between the two properties.

However, village elders were angered by the family going to the Land and Titles Court and unlawfully, "in defiance of the Constitution and the Land and Titles Court, met and resolved to banish the whole family from Tanugamanono," according to a 2012 Supreme Court ruling.

Source

• Radio New Zealand International
• Radio New Zealand International
• Samoa Observer
• Image: Samoa Observer