On this penultimate eve of the handover of the EU's reins of power, I find myself meditating about our French EU confreres.

It's hardly a national secret that the French are up to their gills in immigrant absorption problems. We're talking about those frequent cries for human rights which their resident minorities in les banlieues always seem to be clamouring for. Ever ask yourself why?

A good Paris-based French friend recently explained the rudiments of the dilemma in a highly-detailed and voluminous email (one which I must reply to!): when the French were obligated to extend the hand of friendship during the mid-1960s to the various newcomers from its former colonial possessions in Africa and the Maghbreb-- made concrete in the form of French citizenship -- they did not. With the French authorities' rejection of newcomers to their shores, they signed their own fate and sealed their own doom.

This violent rejection of Arabs and Africans in France has lead to upheaval after upheaval in the Gallic nation.

That riots burst out (or threaten to burst out) every several years is a pickle of the French's own making, and they haven't anyone else to blame for their poor judgement. While they've dragged their heels on this issue for decades, the inevitable fallout threatens to tear about their societal fabric -- hardly the model that Czechs should be shooting for in their dealings with their own waves of immigration.

For a long time during the turn of the 20th-century, nationalist Czechs swooned in admiration of the French Republique.

They fell deeply in passionate love with the concepts of "liberte, egalite, fraternite" and desired similarly for themselves under the aegis of the Austrians. The famous send-off (dare I say, "f-you") to their Austrian overlords was the construction of the Parizska (Paris) thoroughfare, the tree lined boulevard spilling down towards Prague's Old Town Square commencing at the Bohemia Bridge that spans the Vltava river. This was at the height of the Czech love-in with all things French, the height of disgruntlement with the Austrians for their continued suppression of the Czech national ideal despite decades of demanding it for all subjects of Franz-Josef's realm.

To this day, there remains something of a silent pact with the French. An abiding love of all things French. Talk to any young Czech person and you'll see exactly what I mean. They can't precisely explain why they feel the way they do. They just somehow know that they must.

I find this humourous especially in light of the economic mismanagement of the French state as Members of the EU (they are chronic violators of the ERM = Exchange Rate Mechanism of the eurodollar). We're not even talking about the previously-mentioned internal societal problems with its newcomers (which I pray the scrappy Czech nation is not taking as its model).

France might have been a fine goal to shoot for in an era of repressive imperialist hegemony, that longing to shatter the heavy shackles of imperial servitude under the yoke of inflexible Austria. But it's hardly is a shining example to follow in our modern era. Any Czech decision-maker who continues to gaze fondly upon what's happening further West is not only misinformed, but also terribly deluded.

We are a small nation here.

As far as "Europe" is concerned -- a continental behemoth which can eventually deluge our nation with its Kafkaesque volumes of economic policy claptrap and apparently other obscure pieces of legislation, cultural and political -- Czechs have a right to demand more recognition for all things Czech.

In this respect, Czechs must indeed go their own way, setting the tempo for the nation in the way they uniquely see fit. "Joining" Europe in '04 was not the equivalent to handing over a blank cheque. There are provisos to the Membership, and I hope to G.od that Prague higher-ups haven't relinquished all the nation's sovereignty at the heart of Europe. Czechs do have a duty to make specific from the very general. If the EU's constituent Member States are unable to tweak the law as they see fit for their own national purposes, I cannot see the ultimate purpose of Union.

And, finally, a word about French immigration policy.

Let's hope the Czech Republic doesn't adopt the French model, because immigrants are good for this country for a number of reasons.

One, the Czech people are a rapidly declining population. By mid-century, Cesko needs to drastically inject some much-needed high-octane into the Czech census for the country not to suffer economically or lose its competitive technical edge.

Two, for reasons that I have long since held to be self-evident, shuffling up the gene pool in this country can hardly be a bad thing.

Whether intentionally or non-, it's been done countless times over the course of this resilient nation's existence. Whether it was as part of the "Come to Bohemia" invitations extended by the Premyslid monarch Premysl Otakar II ("The Fair") to German burghers during the mid- to late-13th century, or the infiltration of varying German and Bourbon stock from the vast swaths of Catholic Europe following the Hussite defeat at Bila Hora/White Mountain in the late 17th-century, or the arrival of newcomers from Eastern Europe following the Velvet Revolution and the fall of the Wall, we are -- in our own idiosyncratic way -- a Central European "Rainbow Nation."

Lastly, we must continue to bring in newcomers for our 2009 slogan -- "Europe Without Borders" -- not to sound like the dry, meaningless pronouncements of the former Communist authority. Like Mr. Havel once said from atop the Melantrich balcony: "I suppose you did not nominate me to this position only to lie to you as well."

Here's the thought of the day: doesn't colour do a great job of sprucing up the dullest of living spaces?