BEIJING, Nov. 15 -- In one case, the catalyst was Hurricane Katrina; in the other, a freak electrocution accident in a Paris suburb.

    What followed drownings and dislocation in the United States, riots across France has forced each nation to confront problems of racism and poverty that are deeply entrenched but usually ignored.

    The parallel soul-searching is taking place in two countries where politicians and pundits have long delighted in mocking the other's perceived hypocrisies and flaws.

    "I'm not sure you can say that one country's system is better or worse than the other. Neither works very well," said Dominique Moisi of the French Institute of International Relations.

    "Each government waits for the problems to occur in order to address them, and their first reaction is slow and inadequate."

    Experts from both countries said the United States, with its painful history of slavery and segregation, has been more willing than France to acknowledge and address racial tensions.

    "In France, issues of discrimination were not supposed to arise," said Francois Heisbourg, a leading French foreign policy analyst. "Officially, we're all equal. It's politically incorrect to say otherwise."

    The principle of equality has such weight in France that authorities generally do not collect racial or ethnic demographic data and have shunned U.S.-style affirmative action programs.

    "Affirmative action in the United States at least recognizes that racism exists, that problems are linked to color," said Dominic Thomas, who grew up in France and now teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles. "The French talk about how they're indivisible, but they end up with unrepresentative government."

    Catherine Durandin, a Paris-based expert on trans-Atlantic relations, said she had been impressed by the efforts of Americans including former presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush to raise money for Katrina's victims.

    "The most shocking difference in France is that there is no solidarity with the suburbs," she said. "The main reaction is fear, how to prevent the contagion from spreading to the more prosperous parts of the cities."

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)