The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest: Grand Final Pt.10

This must be read as a direct continuation of Part 9; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/the-2016-eurovision-song-contest-grand_30.html

In terms of the threat from Islamic terrorism the only country in the Eurovision area that comes close to Israel is France.

To give you idea just last Friday (27/5/16) a French soldier was wounded in a knife attack carried out by two men who wished to avenge the killing of Muslims. This is such an Israeli story that if the headline hadn't told me that it was a French soldier skimming the article I probably would have just assumed that Tarn was somewhere in Israel.

A recent terror attack in France that is particularly relevant though is the January 9th 2015 (9/1/15) siege at the Hypercacher Kosher supermarket in the Port de Vincennes area of Paris. This is widely considered part of the Charlie Hebdo series of terror attacks that began on January 7th (7/1/15).

In Port de Vincennes Ahmedy Coulibaly entered the supermarket and immediately killed four French Jews. He then took 15 others hostage before being killed when the police raided the building. Coulibaly claimed the attack in the name of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

With the attack taking place in the middle of an Israeli election campaign the incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately flew to France to take part in a memorial service for the dead. There he urged all of France's Jews to return with him to Israel where they would be safe from such anti-Semitic attacks.

At the Song Contest later that year Israel was represented by Nadav Guedj.

Originally born in France Guedj and his family were a perfect example of French Jews who had followed Netanyahu's advice and migrated to Israel. The song "Golden Boy" seemed to be a savage mockery of Netanyahu's attempts to portray himself as the leader of God's chosen people or golden boys and girls as they return to the Jewish homeland.

As such France's entry this year saw them exercising their right of reply.

France: This year they were represented by Amir who like Guedj is Jewish and had been born in France before his parents had migrated to Israel. However unlike Guedj Amir had migrated back from Israel to France specifically to represent them in the Song Contest.

Apart from his travels between France and Israel everything about Amir's biography screamed immigrant.

His father was born in Tunisia which explains his Arabic sounding name while his mother is herself the result of a mixed marriage between a Moroccan and a Spaniard. That helped to highlight that excluding Israel not only does France have the largest Jewish population in the Eurovision area it also has the largest Muslim population. A very large part of that Muslim population comes from the former French colonies in North Africa such as Tunisia and Morocco.

The reference to Spain was a reminder that the Medieval Caliphate that ISIL claim to be trying to recreate actually included Spain. Technically currently Spain actually extends into Morocco with the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Therefore amid all the chaos of the Balkan route for migrants from Turkey it is important not to forget that there is also a security risk much closer to home. I think it was Winston Churchill who stressed the importance of North Africa as a way to attack Europe's soft-underbelly via the Mediterranean.

If you really want to dig down into the Jewishness of it all in 1492 the Catholic King & Queen of Spain expelled all of the country's Jews under the Alhambra Decree. It is only in 2014 that Spain passed a law allowing the descendants of Spanish Jews known as Sephardi Jews to return as Spanish citizens.

The video in support of the song was a direct rip-off of the video for "Hall of Fame" by The Script featuring Will.I.Am. So complete was the plagiarism it served as a coded warning. Under absolutely no circumstances did France want to win this year and thus be forced to provide security for the 2017 Song Contest on top of everything else.

The Hall of Fame video of course featured a young man learning to box and a young deaf woman learning to ballet dance. The only difference in the French video is that is featured a young black man being taught to ballet dance and and young white girl learning Taekwondo. This reversal of traditional gender roles obviously tapped into the Non-Binary Gender issue that Obama's got is panties in a bunch about of late.

Elsewhere in the contest where this topic was referenced it was done so in mockery of Obama. Unfortunately France seems to have missed the joke. Sadly I don't even think it was a deliberate mistake to highlight how much France needs its Jews back from Israel - the land of Dana International.

The reason why taekwondo was chosen rather then say boxing, judo or karate is because of Belgian taekwondo fighter Mourad Laachraoui. His younger brother Najim Laachraoui is suspected of making the bombs used in the November 13th 2015 (13/11/15) Paris Massacres and on March 22nd 2016 (22/3/16) blew himself up in Brussels Zaventem Airport killing 17 people in the name of ISIL.

As such the Laachraoui brothers provide a talking point about integration with Mourad Laachraoui being held up as a shining example of its success and Najim Laachraoui being condemned as an example of its failure. Following the Song Contest Mourad Laachraoui was selected to represent Belgium at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

I just have a tiny, little bit left to do. However at around 17:00 on 31/5/16 (UK date) I seem to have completely run out of talent. I'll try and get back to this later.

Edited at around 19:00 on 31/5/16 (UK date) to add above and below;

The French song itself was "J'ai Cherche" which roughly translates as; "I've Been Looking For You."

Featuring lyrics such as; "You gave me the will to be myself // Gave a meaning to my questions // You have killed the fear that was sleeping here // that was sleeping here, in my arms." it seemed to express a desire to unite all of France's different religious and ethnic groups in a warm embrace.

However with lyrics such as; "That we find a lost paradise inside ourselves" and a title that sounds a bit like "L'Chaim" which is broadly Hebrew for "Life" it seemed particularly aimed at French Jews who may have been tempted to follow Netanyahu to the promised land.

The chorus of the song; "You // You're the one that's making me strong // I'll be looking looking for // You // Like the melody of my song" was sung in English rather than French. It is hard to understate just how earth shatteringly dramatic a Frenchman choosing to sing in English truly is.

One thing that really annoys me about all these various terrorist attacks, riots or racist incidents that occur in France is that invariably some moron on social media will immediately say; "Further evidence that Multiculturalism just does not work!"

What is so annoying about that attitude is that France rather famously rejects the philosophy of Multiculturalism. Instead they adopt an aggressively secular approach to immigration that forces all immigrants to completely abandon their own culture and fully embrace French culture.

In the UK or the US when we talk about secularism we mean a society where the practice of religion - any religion - is actively encouraged. So much so that the government is not allowed to discriminate against anyone based on the religion they practice. The French interpretation of secularism though means a society where you are not allowed to discuss your religion in public at all.

An example of the difference is that in the UK whenever you access a public service - even accessing the police by being arrested - you are forced to fill in this almost an essay question about your ethnic background, your religion, your gender, your sexual preference, any disabilities you may have and even your economic background. This data is collected to make sure that the public service in question isn't discriminating against any of these minority groups.

Under French law the government is simply not allowed to ask these sort of questions about the people using its services. As a result the French government doesn't have any empirical way of determining whether say young black men are being unfairly treated by the police or the Courts. 

The French can't even tell you how many male Muslim prisoners they have at any given time. As the examples of the Coulibaly brothers, the Kouachi brothers, the Abdeslam brothers and the El Bakraoui brothers amongst others demonstrate this is extremely important in terms of identifying young prisoners who may be at risk of being radicalised into Islamist terrorism so they can be protected from more militant inmates.

France's aggressive secularism is a particular issue within the school system. This is an area that the UK of course sees a key to helping promote ethnic/religious integration and social cohesion. French law - specifically 2004-228 - however expressly forbids any display of religious or cultural difference within the school system.

Unlike in the UK French school children tend not to be forced to wear a school uniform instead being free to chose their own clothes. As such this ban on the display or religious symbols presents particular problems when it comes to Islamic modesty standards of dress. Obviously the wearing of the Hijab in French schools is completely forbidden but certain schools have taken it much further to forbid female students from wearing dresses that are considered too long or sleeves that cover too much of the arm.

This ban on displays of religion or culture even extends into the school lunch room. It is actually against the law for French schools to provide a Halal option for Muslim students or a Kosher option for Jewish students. Vegetarian options only seem to be permitted because no one culture or religion can claim a monopoly on not eating meat. 

The ban on the serving of certain types of food in schools is not only limited to religion. Certain French schools have been known to ban the serving of tomato ketchup because it is seen as too American and therefore an insult to French culture.

The problem with this type of law is that when you start telling people that they can't wear certain types of clothes of eat certain types of food you are also telling them that they are not part of society.

Once you start telling people that they are not part of the society in which they live they start looking for other societies such as ISIL where they will be accepted. They also become much more willing to attack a society which has so clearly rejected them.

Another area where the French are particularly protective of their culture is language.

This is very clearly on display at Eurovision where much like in Canada everything has to be said twice. Once in English and again in French. For the benefit of all the French people who speak English perfectly well but just refuse to do so.

When it comes to immigration and integration language is an extremely complex issue.

Despite my support for the philosophy of multiculturalism I still think that immigrants should be strongly encouraged to learn the native language of the country they are migrating into. After all if you don't understand the language you won't be able to read the advert for the apartment to rent outside of the ghetto, you won't benefit at all from being at school and you certainly won't be able to find a job.

However saying that you should learn a second language is not the same thing as saying you should be forbidden from speaking your first language.

As such I feel much more comfortable about supporting government funded language lessons for immigrants than I do about the recent German proposal to strip welfare payments from immigrants who fail to learn German. However I don't feel so uneasy about that I'm about to raise a flag of protest against it.

The French however are so protective of their language that there is a specific law - the Toubon Law - that stipulates that a set quota of songs sung in the French language must be played on French radio.

From an artistic perspective this is utterly infuriating. Particularly for French rappers of North African origin who tend to blend French and Arabic together in the same song. This forces the censor to tot up the exact number of French words versus the exact number of Arabic words used to determine whether a certain song can be added to a radio playlist. It makes everybody's blood boil.

As such Amir choosing to sing part of his song in French and part of it in English provides a convenient way for France to signal to the Eurovision audience that they may have made a mistake by rejecting the philosophy of multiculturalism.

I am worried though that this French embrace of religious and cultural tolerance may have led to the Eurovision juries making an absolutely horrific mistake in voting for Shamali Province.

Their ineligible entry this year also mixed two languages. English and Tatar which is more commonly referred to as; "Crimean Turkish." Under President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkey has become a state sponsor of Islamic extremism and terrorism.

The specific words that Jamala sang in Turkish were; "I couldn’t spend my youth there // because you took away my peace."

To me that sounds like a stage whisper to the Muslim audience going; "I want to sing in the Muslim language // I want to wear Muslim dress // The Zionists though they stop me // They stop me." 

To my mind that is the complete and exact opposite of calling for religious and ethnic tolerance.

My concerns were deepened in the post final press conference when a Turkish journalist asked Jamala what her star sign was.

Although I don't think anyone seriously believes in astrology this is generally considered quite a fun getting to know you question. The interloper Meghan Trainor even referenced it as a potential chat-up line in her recent song; "No."

Jamala though responded by scowling at the journalist as if he'd caused her the greatest offence possible by suggesting she was a Pagan and and as such worthy of execution by all good Muslims. She responded curtly;  

"I Believe in Allah."


And there it is. After two weeks and ten episodes I have finally completed by post on the Grand Final of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.

There remains of course the stand-out entries from this year. However what makes them outstanding is the creative way in which they invoke the themes I've spent all this time detailing. Therefore you will excuse me if I gradually cover them as and when I get a bit of free time.

After all at this point, for the sake of my sanity if nothing else, I really need to talk about something else for a bit.

21:20 on 31/5/16 (UK date).