Paris Is Burning, Fire Is Spreading To Holland, Belgium, Germany And Canada

DISCLAIMER : Someone angrily denounced me for being a poor 'journalist'. No lah. I am just a hobby writer having fun.  I was trained as a banker. I still think like a banker. Always preparing for the worst. And I am a business person, forced to act like a businessman. Ok. 

A reader mentioned about the ongoing civil unrest and riots that are going on in France and in Paris.  It has not been reported much in the media but for FOUR weeks now hundreds of cars have been burnt and riot Police have been fighting running battles with angry Frenchmen and women.

Todate no one has been killed - I think.  The rioters are wearing yellow safety vests which are mandatory safety gear inside every vehicle in France. Hence it is being called the Yellow Vest riots. Or the Yellow Vest movement. 

There are now calls that President Macron resign or be impeached. Macron's popularity is now below 20%.  The scarier thing is over  80% of French people are behind these riots.

• Life is getting tough in France and elsewhere in Europe. 
• They say the average French worker makes less than 1500 Euros or RM7,088. 
• That is not much for a European nation. 
• A French farmer makes about 365 Euros a month or RM1,725.  
• That is subsistence survival already.  
• To make ends meet some French are working 70 hours / week. 
• That is a lot of hours of work.

The riots have not died down but seem to be spreading. There have been similar but smaller riots in Holland, Belgium, Germany and now Canada.

The immediate spark that ignited the riots was Macron doing two things 

i. imposing a carbon tax on diesel fuel which caused the price to go up. 

ii. abolishing some taxes on the rich people

That was the immediate spark. 

The fuel tax has since been abolished. 

The rich still have the tax breaks.

But there really is more to these riots. Here are two quick videos.

Link :  https://youtu.be/6AQoGdN_Zp8

My comments : Burning cars is an annual event in France. Every new year's eve - which is  19  days away - gangs of marginalised French youths of Moroccan and Algerian parentage will roam the streets of Paris burning cars that are parked along  the kerb. Hundreds of cars will get burned.

When the French riots broke out I was looking out to see if the North Africans were again involved. To my surprise they were not. 

This Yellow Vest movement is almost completely white Frenchmen and women. 

One of the organisers is a white Frenchman school teacher.

This is serious.

There are other aspects to these riots. Small businesses are suffering or closing down because the French government imposes very high "taxes" on hiring workers.  In Malaysia,  we employers must pay 13 % of our employees monthly salary to the EPF.   This is a tax  on the employer. We also pay SOCSO but that is minimal. If we employ foreign workers we must pay levies, Fomema medical checks etc. All this adds up.

In France they also have similar "taxes" on employers. But in France all these extra charges and taxes adds up to almost 100% of the employee's monthly salary. As a result many small businesses suffer or cannot grow. As the girl in the video says it so simply 'Government CANNOT tax the people into prosperity'.

• Then I caught one video where the French said they were getting fed up of being 'politically correct' all the time. 
• Where they were not allowed to speak freely anymore for fear of 'political correctness'.

In the same video the protesters were asking why do Frenchmen have to live in economic difficulty when France takes in so many foreign immigrants and spends taxpayers money on foreign immigrants.

I think this is  'hitting the nail on the head'. The fact that the Yellow Vest protests have spread to Holland, Belgium, Germany and also Canada indicates that it is more than fuel prices. 

The white folks are protesting too much foreign immigration and encroachment on their super modern European way of life.  

Well sheltered inside their comfort zones,  the white people in Europe had left it to the ultra rightists like Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen and others to be 'politically incorrect' about foreign immigration.  Although the ultra right was soundly defeated in the last round of elections,  a rising number voted for Le Pen and Wilders. Le Pen secured 34% of the vote in the last presidential elections in France.

Here is some news about the French right ie Marine Le Pen.

Marine Le Pen ran for president twice

In 2017 elections, she made it to second round

receiving almost 34% of the vote 

‘Yellow Vest’ protests

Le Pen called Macron to “recognize society’s suffering 

and deliver immediate, very strong responses

as Yellow Vest protests rattle country

tens of thousands of protesters taken to streets across France since mid-Nov

demanding lower living costs and calling for Macron to resign

Negotiating grievances difficult for Macron 

demonstrators from different backgrounds 

there are no official leaders

Macron viewed as candidate for rich 

out of touch with middle and lower middle class French

protests forced government to repeal gas tax

Macron resisting reversal of tax break for wealthy 

worst rioting France has seen in decades

It has been FOUR WEEKS since the riots began. They are NOT simmering down. New Year's Eve is a huge bonfire in France every year.  Unemployed Moroccan, Algerian and other North African migrant youths vent their frustrations at French society by burning hundreds of cars.

I think this year the white people are going to be doing the same thing. The white people are targeting expensive cars - identifying them with the wealthier folks. If these riots do not simmer down soon Macron may have to resign. He is really unpopular in France. 

Even if Macron resigns it will not solve all the problems in France overnite. The French have made serious mistakes. They have let in too many immigrants who cannot assimilate. The French have imported serious problems.  These immigrants became refugees because they were not civilised enough in their own countries. Now they have brought their less civilised behaviours into France. 

N'theless the French must sacrifice someone. To soothe the fires. That will be or should be President Macron.  FOUR WEEKS is a long time. Another FOUR WEEKS is unimaginable.