For all of the West's rhetoric on liberation, freedom and equality, France has exposed itself as intolerant, racist and in denial of immigrant communities that have been living there for many years. As a response to the recent riots the buzz word has been "integration"; but without it being clearly defined are communities that have for so long being denied equality supposed to suddenly cross the threshold and meet the acquaintance of their fellow citizens?

Would it not perhaps be better that we begin to acknowledge, understand and accept each other's presence and way of life?

It is not difficult to understand why the youth are uprising. To be young, to be ignored – it gnaws the soul, it kills the spirit of any human being. When every door is slammed in your face until there are no doors; the volcano must erupt when it can no longer withstand the pressure of the seething magma!! The frustration is more than a "social malaise" that President Chirac talks about. It has been fermenting for years and it is severe shortsightedness on the part of the French authorities not to have expected a reaction at some point.

The youth are not packages with expiry dates, discarded when they have served their purpose. They are an integral part of society and largely define the character of the society in which they live. The depth of hopelessness that the youth feel is perhaps best described by the words of a French teenager, "For too long the problem has been the same. You know how it feels sometimes? It feels like they have locked us up and thrown the keys away. Now all the world can see that we exist."

France cannot justify ignoring and discriminating its immigrant communities, especially the youth. 'The youth are our future' – it's a cliché but true. If the French government wants to ensure social peace, it would have to grant all of its citizens equal opportunities and allow them to feel that they are a real part of French society. If the youth, at least, are given what is rightfully theirs then perhaps the integration that they preach will no longer be a myth and actually become a reality