Another example of French obtuseness:

"We are victims of our architecture," says Guillaume Parmentier, the head of a French institute, as he struggles to explain two weeks of rioting in the sterile high—rise ghettos populated by France's Muslim immigrants. True. But architecture is not the whole story.

Talk about misdirection. I have heard it all...poverty is the blame, discrimination is the blame, Israel is the blame, America is the blame, the Jews, Hindus, and Christians are the blame, the lack of education and opportunity are the blame...no, this French elite leader thinks...Architecture is the blame. 

Ed Lasky   11 09 05

Thomas Lifson dissents, slightly:

I detest the language of we are victims. But there is little question in my mind that the sterile Bauhaus architecture inspired by Francophone Swiss architect Le Corbusier plays a role in the social disintegration on view. It was on view in Pruitt—Igoe in St. Louis, and Cabrini—Green in Chicago, two high rise ghettoes built int he United States and demolished because of their malign influence on the lives of inhabitants. Keep in mind that this architecture was consciously designed to break down old ties and ways of life.