Thread: Jacques
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Old 09-18-2006, 06:45 PM   #2 (permalink)
Yau
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Quote:
Originally Posted by USA_ma View Post
"Le Bruit et l'odeur" refers to a speech given in 1991 by the mayor of Paris and later French president Jacques Chirac; it translates as "noise and smell."

This is an excerpt from the speech:

Comment voulez-vous que le travailleur français qui travaille avec sa femme et qui ensemble gagnent environ 15 000 FF et qui voit sur le palier  côt de son HLM entassée, une famille avec un père de famille, trois ou quatre épouses et une vingtaine de gosses et qui gagne 50 000FF de préstation sociale sans naturellement travailler. Si vous ajoutez  cela le bruit et l'odeur, eh bien le travailleur français sur le palier, il devient fou. Et ce n'est pas être raciste que de dire cela. Nous n'avons plus les moyens d'honorer le regroupement familial et il faut enfin ouvrir le débat qui s'impose dans notre pays qui est un vrai débat moral pour savoir si il est naturel que les étrangers puissent bénéficier au même titre que les Français d'une solidarit nationale  laquelle ils ne participent pas puisqu'ils ne payent pas d'împots.

In this speech, Chirac contrasts the situation of older generations of immigrants (coming from Spain, Portugal or Poland) to what he considers the current "overdose" of immigration, mostly from Muslim Arabs and Blacks. He deplores the situation of working-class French who have trouble making ends meet and see next door some immigrant family, with a man, three or four spouses and a host of children, living off welfare and not working  and generating noise and foul smells.

He then explains that in such conditions, the French worker, without being a racist, is bound to become mad (this is called a refutation in rhetoric)  an explanation of the successes of Jean-Marie Le Pen, campaigning on anti-immigrant platform.

This speech become infamous when it was sampled by the French band Zebda on their song "Le bruit et l'odeur" in 1995 from the album by the same name. The members of the group Zebda are ethnically Maghrebine.
The speech may be infamous, but immigration seems to be big and wide concern over europe (and Americans too). Perhaps our biggest lost over the past 5 years is that the confidence on multiculturalism. Quite sure that this issue will become even hotter in the election year.
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