Obama Invites Visit from French “Outer Cities”

It might appear slightly insulting that the U.S. Ambassador to France in Paris is going around recruiting young people from French outer-city “ghettos” to Washington D.C. to participate in a summit for CEO’s of the Muslim world. After all, explains Laila Nassim, project manager of an organization called 100,000 Entrepreneurs, “France is not a predominantly Muslim country.”

But there is no cause for surprise here. Americans often associate impoverished neighborhoods with Islam. Secularism is among those topics that cause deep misunderstandings between France and the United States (hence the endless astonishment of the elites in the United states regarding the constant French concern for dress codes.)

It so happens that the ambassador, Charles Rivkin, former television producer in Hollywood and former financial adviser to the Obama campaign, is very interested in the outer cities. A Yale graduate, according to his biography, he was also at one point an intern with Renault. On April 2, he was in the town of La Courneuve. On April 13, he was in Bondy, where he brought along Samuel L. Jackson, one of the “bad guys” in Pulp Fiction. The young people were delighted, especially when the actor promised to invite them over to the west coast. The end result: “The U.S. ambassador is better known in the suburbs than Sarkozy’s ministers,” says Majid El-Jarroudi, another French guest.

The presidential summit for entrepreneurs was part of the efforts outlined in President Obama’s Cairo speech on June 4, 2009. The U.S. press, which had immediately understood the nature of the speech, a vast program based on public diplomacy aimed at America’s potential enemies, did not bother to make the trip to cover the summit. But Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and half of the government spoke to the 250 delegates from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Turkey … and France.

Imagine George Bush doing the same! “We would not have come,” said the young people. Nevertheless, according to experts, Barack Obama’s projects strangely resemble those of his predecessor. The “Greater Middle-East”, for example, one of the former Republican president’s whims, is not without a link to the Obama administration’s partnership programs. However, there is an important difference, insists a diplomat: “Obama placed the political issue — the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — at the center of his foreign policy. With his Greater Middle-East, Bush tried to get around it.”

After going over the first set of questions (“why us?”), the French youth found themselves explaining the French system to their American contacts. “They may perhaps interpret this in Muslim terms — the non-Muslims — but us, we’re not in there,” said Laila Nassim, after giving an interview to Al-Hurra, the U.S. Government’s Arabic channel. It’s not every day that we can “speak Arabic without being stared at” or that we see “two Nobel Peace Prize winners in 24 hours”: Obama and Mohammed Yunus, the inventor of micro-credit, who appeared in a panel alongside a representative of Goldman Sachs.

Laila Nassim, who sends businessmen to visit schools in order to “give young people a taste of entrepreneurship,” was fascinated with the discussion of her organization’s business model, “Is it really the role of a non-profit organization or is it the whole business of training teachers that must be reviewed?”

Kader Nasri, the creator of an energy drink called Scarface, which he plans on becoming the rival of Red Bull, made contact with the federal agency in charge of authorizing imports. “Coming here has allowed me to do B2B with Arab-Muslim countries.” And nothing beats the American style red carpet. “We are valued. We feel important. Here, people will sum up your good qualities rather than your flaws.” In his case, it was the U.S. Consul General who came to Avignon to invite him over.

Majid El-Jarroudi had already been to the United States. He was inspired by the law which requires U.S. public service agencies to sign contracts with businesses managed by minorities (Minorities Business Act) to build their firms for entrepreneurial diversity. He learned about inspiration, the heart of the American dream. “The Secretary of Commerce said that his grandfather used to sweep floors and didn’t even speak English. Those are the types of examples we want to hear. In France, who has such stories to tell? “

He had a drink with Mohammed Yunus. He has been consulted by the Department of Commerce and the State Department, but the French authorities deprive themselves of the assets brought by minorities, including market opportunities. “Yet, we are a path into a world which the French have not managed to enter.”

In Val-Fourré (in the town of Mantes-la-Jolie, Yvelines, near Paris), the largest public housing complex in Europe, more than 50% of inhabitants are under 25 years old, he says. “Is it a third-world country? Who in France is doing something? And who is asking us to use our experiences and pull our resources together? It’s the U.S. government!”

Majid is right. If there’s something to be surprised about, this is definitely it.