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Post by whollygoats on Dec 10, 2018 0:44:03 GMT
So....Is there somebody who can clue me in to why there is so much civil strife in France right now?
I hear of 'yellow jackets', but am unable to identify any agenda or objectives associated with this group or any group involved in the rioting.
Is this just a regular event in France? Everybody go out in to the streets and tear up shit just for the hell of it?
What is the 'protest' about?
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Post by whollygoats on Dec 10, 2018 0:45:10 GMT
An increase in the petrol tax?
Really?
The French riot over an increase in the petrol tax?
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Post by Alvamiga on Dec 10, 2018 1:59:08 GMT
I think it's deeper than that. More related to the poverty gap and so on. Petrol just ends up being at the centre of such things because on increase just takes money from other areas of people's finances because they essentially have to buy it to get to work and are over a barrel!
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Post by Moose on Dec 10, 2018 2:20:46 GMT
Oh well you know .. French. Once in a while they feel the urge to get together and knock a few heads off.
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Post by spaceflower on Dec 11, 2018 23:28:14 GMT
The French farmers usually go out and protest violently and then they get their way. It is a well-known French tradition. I think the French presidents reward bad behaviour.
I also think it is the gulf between the well-educated and highly paid people of the big cities (who voted for Macron) and the rest of the people who feel that nobody listens to them.
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Post by Mari on Dec 27, 2018 8:57:16 GMT
There are multiple problems underlying these protests: there is a lot of poverty, even more unemployment and most cities have ghettos where the young underprivileged gather with no obvious opportunity to get out of that situation. There's also the divide between white and non-white French, though it isn't as blatant as in the US. Furthermore, France as a country has had a deficit for the last couple of years, almost stretching to the last couple of decades, and they just can't seem to switch to better economical alternatives. Due to their bad economy they have had to cut budgets a lot, making the situation worse every time. I guess the increase in tax on petrol was the straw breaking the camel's back.
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Post by whollygoats on Dec 27, 2018 14:04:02 GMT
Interesting. If what Mari says is accurate, then the French do an admirable job of hiding all that from tourists.
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Post by Mari on Dec 27, 2018 17:17:28 GMT
They're not particularly hiding it. It's more that tourists don't visit the ghettos and out-of-luck towns, i.e. towns that used to thrive on for example the coal industry but now have no viable other enterprises. If you travel through France, you can find lots of these towns. The bigger names and those towns along touristic routes are saved by tourism. By the by, did you know that the French educational system is quite rigid? I personally think that also contributes to the lack of improvement over the years.
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Post by whollygoats on Dec 27, 2018 20:27:03 GMT
'Rigid', as versus chaotic, like the American school 'system'?
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Post by Mari on Dec 28, 2018 8:51:47 GMT
It's like how they taught in the 50s here with a huge emphasis on respect for the teacher and transferring knowledge. Kids are supposed to be sponges soaking up the knowledge. Creativity and individual thought is something to be developed after you graduate.
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Post by whollygoats on Dec 28, 2018 14:11:28 GMT
Interesting. I was told that English education was much like that....that all the teachers of any given subject, nationwide, were all on the same page in their text/workbook on the same day. Lockstep.
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