지난 주말에 프랑스에서 빈민가를 중심으로 소요사태가 일어났다는 헤드라인을 보고, 월요일에 출근하자마자 관련 기사들을 좀 훑어보아야겠다고 결심했습니다. 그리고 월요일 아침이 되었지요. 모 포탈사이트 뉴스검색을 통해 프랑스 소요사태에 대한 한국 기사들을 보다가 마시던 커피를 엎지를 뻔 했지요.

어떤 언론사든간에 대다수의 한국 기사들이 1) 소요사태가 무슬림 청년들의 주도로 일어났다, 2) 대단히 폭력적인 시위로 차가 불타고 마을이 불타고 있다 정도의 현장 스케치였으며 취재를 하던 한국의 모 일간지 기자가 시위대에 의해 얻어맞았다 는 기사를 헤드로 내보내고 있었습니다.

아무도 왜 그런 소요사태가 일어났는지에 초점을 맞추지 않았으며, 심지어 한국의 유명한 보수 일간지는, ‘거 봐라, 반미 반전하더니 프랑스 니네들도 별거 없지 않느냐. 꼴 좋다’ 는 의도를 다분히 담은, “이번엔 프랑스가 당했다” 는 헤드를 내보냈습니다.

이쯤되자 슬슬 골이 나기 시작한 저는 워싱턴포스트지를 뒤져보았습니다. 프랑스어를 못하는 관계로 프랑스 신문은 볼 수가 없고, 일단 급한 데로 개인적으로 가장 좋아하는 영문 신문인 워싱턴포스트를 찾은 것이지요. 그곳의 프랑스 소요사태 관련 헤드는 아래와 같습니다. 요약하자면 “프랑스 청년들의 분노는 자신들이 존재하고 있음을 알아달라는 주장에서 나온 것이다. 이번 소요사태를 일으킨 청년들은 결코 조직적인 이슬람 반동세력이 아니며, 그간 지속되어온 정부의 무관심의 결과다. 불을 지르지 않고서는 정부의 관심을 끌 수 없었다는 절박감에서 비롯된 사태이다” 라는 이야기는 인터뷰를 통해 알리고 있습니다.

영어공부도 할 겸 읽어보시는 것도 좋을 듯 합니다.

[Washingtonpost 2005-11-06]

Rage of French Youth Is a Fight for Recognition
Spreading Rampage in Country's Slums Is Rooted in Alienation and Abiding Government Neglect

By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, November 6, 2005; Page A01

LE BLANC-MESNIL, France, Nov. 5 -- Mohammed Rezzoug, caretaker of the municipal gymnasium and soccer field, knows far more about the youths hurling firebombs and torching cars on the streets of this Paris suburb than do the police officers and French intelligence agents struggling to nail the culprits.

He can identify most of the perpetrators. So can almost everyone else in the neighborhoods that have been attacked.

"They're my kids," said Rezzoug, a garrulous 45-year-old with thinning black hair and skin the color of a walnut.

While French politicians say the violence now circling and even entering the capital of France and spreading to towns across the country is the work of organized criminal gangs, the residents of Le Blanc-Mesnil know better. Many of the rioters grew up playing soccer on Rezzoug's field. They are the children of baggage handlers at nearby Charles de Gaulle International Airport and cleaners at the local schools.

"It's not a political revolution or a Muslim revolution," said Rezzoug. "There's a lot of rage. Through this burning, they're saying, 'I exist, I'm here.' "

Such a dramatic demand for recognition underscores the chasm between the fastest growing segment of France's population and the staid political hierarchy that has been inept at responding to societal shifts. The youths rampaging through France's poorest neighborhoods are the French-born children of African and Arab immigrants, the most neglected of the country's citizens. A large percentage are members of the Muslim community that accounts for about 10 percent of France's 60 million people.

One of Rezzoug's "kids" -- the countless youths who use the sports facilities he oversees -- is a husky, French-born 18-year-old whose parents moved here from Ivory Coast. At 3 p.m. on Saturday, he'd just awakened and ventured back onto the streets after a night of setting cars ablaze.

"We want to change the government," he said, a black baseball cap pulled low over large, chocolate-brown eyes and an ebony face. "There's no way of getting their attention. The only way to communicate is by burning."

Like other youths interviewed about their involvement in the violence of the last 10 days, he spoke on the condition he not be identified for fear the police would arrest him.

But he and others described the nightly rampages without fear, surrounded by groups of younger boys who listened with rapt attention. A few yards away, older residents of the neighborhood, many with gray hair, passed out notices appealing for an end to the violence.

A man with wire-rimmed glasses handed one of the sheets to the black-capped youth. He accepted the paper, glanced at it and smiled respectfully at his elder. The boy then carefully folded it in half and continued the conversation about how the nightly targets are selected.

"We don't plan anything," he said. "We just hit whatever we find at the moment."

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