Azouz begag wiki

Friday, October 21, 2005 Updated:Tuesday, October 25, 2005 

The French government has protested officially to the US government for some border control that it deemed "a little excessive" with respect to a French minister travelling to the US on October 13 on a diplomatic passport and with a diplomatic visa.

French spokesman, Jean-Baptiste Mattei said; "We protested to the U.S. authorities and have received clarifications via the State Department, which recognized that a professional fault had been made by the officer. He has been reprimanded and will go through a retraining program." The spokesman declined to give details of the incident, but said the action of the officer had been "completely out of place with respect to a government minister."

The official, Azouz Begag, was born in Lyon, France of Algerian lineage. A researcher in socioeconomics at CNRS, and a writer, he is now delegate minister in charge of the promotion of equality. His functions include most notably the fight against racism.

Neither governments provided specific details about the incident, at first. However, further details have emerged. According to Le Monde, Mr Begag was told by an officer that his diplomatic visa was not valid for giving conferences, then was taken to an interrogation room. Mr Begag was due to be met at the airport by American officials and French consular officers, but due to miscommunication they could not find him in the airport when he arrived.

It is not the first time that Mr Begag has had to confront suspicions of his identity. He mentioned an event in a French bank where, when entering with a woolen cap, he was taken for a thief and the police was called in. He also mentions the difficulties which, he says, people of Arabic origin have when entering the United States since the September 11, 2001 bombings. He has a personal experience of

Book by Azouz Begag

Le Gone du Chaâba (transl. The Kid of the Chaaba), translated into English as Shantytown Kid by Naima Wolf, is an autobiographical novel by Azouz Begag about his life as a young Algerian boy growing up in a shantytown next to Lyon, France, called the Chaâba by its inhabitants.

The story covers a period of approximately three years in the life of the protagonist and deals with issues developing from the clash between two cultures, that of France and that of North Africa, as well as the difficulties of finding a cultural identity between the two. The story focuses on the cultural differences between the Arab and French communities, as well as how the two groups react to each other. A version was filmed in 1998 by Christophe Ruggia, and received a César Award nomination for Best Debut.

Synopsis

Taken from the French version of this article

The novel tells the story of Azouz, a young Algerian. He lives in Chaaba, a slum on the outskirts of Lyon, in a miserable hovel with neither water nor electricity, amongst other Arab families.

Azouz has two older siblings; a brother named Mustafa and a sister named Zohra. Even if they do well at school, they are required to work menial jobs at the shops in order to make a little money for their families. At school, Azouz sits at the front of class and always listens to what his teachers say. Despite arguing with his father Bouzid, he gets the second-best mark in the class after handing in an essay.

He is very happy, but soon certain Arabs in his class mock him and ostracise him, no longer considering him an Arab. Unlike his friends, his father is very proud of him, and constantly repeats that by doing well at school, Azouz will be able to get a good job 'like a Frenchman', rather than ending up a mason like his father.

Later, his uncle, who is estranged from Azouz's father and who also lives in Chaaba, is arrested by the police because he is inv