The Grapes of Wrath

Who said underdeveloped countries had a monopoly over the oft-heard (bad) excuse of poverty leading to terrorism? The situation in tremendously impoverished Southern France is dire enough to cause local wine growers to commit suicide or, for the braver of them, terrorism. The latest threats of the group calling itself “CRAV,” or “Regional Viticultural Action Committee,” are anything but empty. If their “actions” -i.e., attacks, ranging from wrecking supermarkets accused of selling foreign wines on the cheap to bombing buildings, railroads and vehicles– are under-reported, this is merely an indicator of the ‘background violence’ in France, which may help in justifying terrorism elsewhere. Recall, for instance, the riots of 2005 that started in the French suburbs. Thousands of cars were burnt every night; but when were the riots officially declared to be over? When just under a hundred cars a night were burnt -this marked, according to the authorities, a ‘normal average’.

Likewise, the French strategy about their home-grown terrorism (and sometimes about their not-so-homegrown one too) is to minimize its impact in the media. Incidentally, this has also long been the French (conjointly held by the public authorities and the Jewish leadership) strategy regarding anti-Semitic attacks. Obviously, though, not talking about it doesn’t make it go away. Rather, it creates a culture of violence, which, ironically, is exactly what the French accuse the Americans of having.