The Plan to deal with the Crisis - Gilet Jaunes

France is such a large rural country that there cannot be the same answer for large urban areas and la France Profonde.

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We live in a small rural town in Normandie (<2500 inhabitants) which is astonishingly well-resourced, dynamic and attractive.

My wife recently received a regular letter from the propriĂ©taire of an absolutely splendid mens’ and womens’ outfitter www.armoiresourdevalaise.fr L’ Armoire Sourdevalaise in the main street, announcing a range of festive activities and opportunities during the QuinziĂšme de NoĂ«l.

She wrote with bitterness and anger about les maux diverses et variés afflicting French democracy, and her struggle to survive. She announces des Journées Jaunes of open days and festive activities in her shop and around the town, celebrating and showing solidarity with the Gilets Jaunes. Her letter is hard to read without feeling her sense of indignation, sorrow and fury at the state of affairs in places like this.

I am greatly impressed by this uprising of popular activism and rebellion against précarité and les ignorants élites. It has my full support.

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One of my daughters asked if there had been any violent protests near me so I told her about the peaceful demonstration at my local super-u


She had seen footage of protesters being provoked and sprayed with tear gas and water canons and footage of women being punched in the face by police/military
she was appalled at the brutality of the police
she said she admires how the French of all ages stand together and stand up for each other
she said she wishes the English would do the same
x :slight_smile:

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Was this footage completely impartial, or had it been edited to appear that the police were acting in a certain way? And why is it different punching women in the face to men if both genders are behaving the same?

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I cannot support causing trouble for others to promote your point of view.
I cannot forget the head of Air France running for his life and being forced to scramble over a wire netting fence and the gendarmerie doing nothing.
The protestors tomorrow are being asked to come armed to smash and kill.
This is anarchy.
Is this what you support?

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I read a story on another forum where genuine GJ s had tried to protect the Tomb of the unknown warrior from rent a mob aiming to attack it. However it still got graffitied although not as badly damaged as it would otherwise have been

My neighbours are aghast at what they consider “desecration
” are these people French?? they are asking
as we chat
 :thinking:

A genuine protest is being hijacked and Macron should not be made to pay the price for lack of concern for rural France by previous governments.
We all need to pay some price for the cost of Climate Change, but those unable to pay need to be considered.
I heard one of the older protestors saying that he can now only afford a one week holiday in May.
When we were first married and when our children were small, we could not afford holidays at all, but we did not go out and cause trouble for others and prevent them going about their lawful business.

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Absolutely Peter, reminds me of “The man who would be King” periodically the people need to debunk the myth of divinity in our “leaders”. They need to be reminded they are there to represent the people.

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Of course I don’t support anarchy and neither do the Gilets Jaunes around here who behave with courtesy, restraint and good humour. There will always be hot-heads, opportunist thrill-seekers and petty criminals on the fringes of popular protest movements, and they are hard to distinguish until they act. You seem to support this view in your last post, Jane, that a genuine protest is being hi-jacked, or exploited by some who would discredit it.

As far as violence is concerned, many level-headed and peaceful citizens in modern liberal democracies have begun to realise that subtly hidden violence and oppression is being visited on them individually and on their communities by a powerful elite, who see the world as their lucrative playground that they can plunder, desecrate and befoul.

Trump, MBS, Netanyahu and their ‘allies’ are a totem of what they stand for. We have had enough. And I mean most of us.

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There isn’t a difference but that’s immediately assuming “the unarmed women with their arms linked” were engaged in reckless brutality against masses of armed police/military in full riot gear


I don’t know what footage she was watching Nellie
I think it’s likely that depending on what we watch or what we read then much can be made to appear in whatever way the authors want it to appear
???

Never a truer word spoken Pete
:heart:

As for the word “Anarchy” I think it gets bad press


“Far from being abstract speculations conjured out of thin air, such works have, like all social theories, been derived from sensitive observation. They reflect the fundamental and uncontainable conviction nourished by a conscious minority throughout history that social power held over people is a usurpation of natural rights: power originates in the people, and they alone have, together, the right to wield it.“

Of course we do not want the extreme right self serving so called politicians.
Neither do we want the extreme left where there is no room for self expression or hard work to make a difference.