[BRIEF NOTE] Two Followups

[rfmcdonald]

• According to the European Jewish Press, Alain Finkielkraut has apologized for his recent remarks, blaming the November riots in France's banlieues on spoiled immigrants who should leave France if they weren't happy with their situation in life and discounting the effects of racism and social exclusion.

He stressed he was not making generalisations and that his analysis was more aimed at “certain” immigrants and not immigrants “in general”.

Finkielkraut nevertheless stated that he would not want to shake the hand of the person the Le Monde article depicted him as.

“The person which emerged from this patchwork of quotes, I hate him, I do not recognize myself in this degrading individual. It is a nightmare,” Finkielkraut said on the Europe 1 radio station on Friday.

• Despite Krist Novoselic's attempted intervention in Island politics, last Monday "64 per cent of voters on Prince Edward Island said No to the possibility of adopting a form of mixed-member proportional representation." In Tuesday's editorial, The Guardian of Charlottetown argued that this both reflects the alienation of Islanders from their political system, and offers hope that this might be repaired.

There’s no doubt the subject has been of great interest to Islanders, although it was slow in igniting public interest. The last two weeks of discussion seemed to generate debate not only on electoral reform, but on the fundamental relationship between the electorate and the political system. Voter apathy and cynicism, lack of attention and respect by our politicians toward the voter and the need for parliamentary, not electoral, reform — these were just some of the subjects that came up as a result of this exercise.