Nessie

If anyone cares, here is an alternative point of view of the double standards of what is happening in Paris. Revolution in Ukraine? Yes, please! Revolution in France? Rule of law! When violent protests shook Kiev in 2013, Western analysts and leaders quickly threw their support behind the anti-government ‘revolution’ — but after weeks of Yellow Vest protests in France, the reaction has been very different. While Western governments and commentators denounced the Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych and urged that he give in to protesters’ demands five years ago, this time around, they are denouncing the French protesters and urging President Emmanuel Macron, whose popularity stands at about 25 percent, to stand firm against dissatisfied citizens. Western media coverage has also differed drastically with reports describing French protesters as rioters, while Ukrainian protesters were described as revolutionaries. The contrasting reaction has prompted many to ask the question: If a so-called revolution is allowed to happen (and even applauded) in Ukraine, why not in France? French police have cracked down on the ‘Yellow Vest’ protesters in bloody clashes, during which water cannons and tear gas were deployed to disperse huge crowds, who responded by throwing stones at officers. The extent of the chaos has even caused officials to mull imposing a state of emergency and prompted concerns that protest movement could spread to countries like Germany and the Netherlands. Worried government officials and French and European political commentators have eagerly called for the “rule of law” to be respected and for violent protesters to respect French institutions. In Kiev, however, when protesters set fire to cars, defaced public property and attacked police officers, they were held up as heroes. Law and order was of little concern to Western media which wholeheartedly supported the Maidan movement. Similarly, when anti-government protests kicked off in Syria in 2011, Western leaders and commentators advocated the swift overthrow of the government and provided moral (and material) support to anti-government rebels during the subsequent civil war which ripped the country apart. During a visit to Argentina for the G20 Summit last weekend, Macron vowed that he would “not concede anything” to the “thugs” who want “destruction and disorder.” His unwillingness to cave in the face of a mass protest movement, however, has not prompted any calls for him to step down and respect the will of the people, as happened in Ukraine and Syria. On Twitter, well-known French political commentator and media personality Bernard-Henri Lévy, lashed out at the Yellow Vest protesters, accusing them of “playing with fire” and saying that all that matters is respect for French institutions and the democratically-election president. Lévy’s followers, however, were quick to remind him that his reaction to protests in Ukraine were quite different. Lévy, who was in Ukraine during the Euromaidan movement, actively promoted it, giving speeches and tweeting enthusiastically about the protests. When Yanukovych was overthrown, he described it as a “a historical defeat against tyranny.” As the protests raged on for the third week, other Twitter users sarcastically mocked the patronizing Western reaction to anti-government movements in other regions, with one suggesting that perhaps hundreds of Arab experts could get together at fancy conferences to attempt to decipher the causes of this fascinating ‘European Winter’ movement. Another said it was about time that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on Macron to exercise “restraint” and ensure that the “freedom of expression and demonstration” are respected in France. Sarcasm aside, it looks very much like violent revolutions and regime change are only a good enough solution to crises in countries far away from the centres of Western power and influence and led by uncooperative governments. When the rumblings of revolution are felt in Paris, where Macron remains committed to upholding a neoliberal, West-centric world order, it's a different story entirely. https://www.rt.com/op-ed/445475-france-protests-hypocrisy-media/

Exactly. The farse of Macron didn't last long.

I have a feeling that this is not just a coincidence... The embryo of this brazilian fascist movement come from June 2013 massive protests, at that very point people took the streets to demonstrate against the political system headed by the left party. The right have hijacked that movement and gradually radicalized the people in hope to win the 2014 ellection, but that effort didn't work as expected and the left won again the presidency that year, so the right intensified even more the propaganda against the left by using a massive scandal of corruption to undermine the government. The president at that time Dilma Rousseff was impeached and the leader of the left workers' party Lula is jailed. This painful process paved the way of the rise of the far-right. Besides those internal circunstances, the crisis on Venezuela have massively intensified. Trump was ellected on the US and the threat of war is looming South America right now. It can't be just coincidence that Jair Bolsonaro won the presidency with the approval hand of Steve Bannon, the man behind the Trump election. The Trump administration have made some kind of a deal with the brazilian far-right to put in place a military subservient government in Brazil, because they have already foreseen a very likely intervention on Venezuela to remove the dictator Nicolas Maduro from power, and also they want to break Brazil from the BRICS, undermining China and Russia from the global geopolitical sphere.

We can only hope that it's just rhetorical... but even if he doesn't drag our civil rights through the mud like he has said many times over, the damage has already been done because many people are feeling empowered to openly discriminate minorities...

@Jazzy Jan its a situation we could never have imagine just a few years ago. Its scary how society can plunge to fascism that quickly and makes me wonder if it has always been there... just waiting for the right time to surface. It seems this is some kind of a world fenomenon happening, people are in search of a saviour and looking for enemies everywhere.

Thank you @runa. Its really depressing how things are deteriorating very fast here. I have even considered to move out of this country, but for now i will stay and see what happens when he officially assumes the presidency in January. We can only hope that all his strong words against minorities are just rethorical, but what worries me the most is the people that are composing his government, he is puting in charge a mix of military personal and a lot of religous fundamentalists, its a recipe of a disaster...

It is the worst possible situation ever. I feel so depressed that i can’t even talk about it. Have you ever fear for your life? This is how we LGBTQ+ are feeling here with this new tyrannical theocratic regime. Our only hope is that the world be aware that Brazil has fallen into the hands of fascism and we are in grave danger.

Its disgusting how the american ‘free press' are trying hard to imply that Palestinians are to be blamed for their Genocide... 🤮

Why antagonize North Korea with military drills, when peace is within reach.... 🙄

And they call Russia a censoring dictatorship

Yeah lets just pretend that Israel never illegally annexed eastern Jerusalem in 1967??

He is insane. This will blow the middle east in flames of war. The US has just managed the unthinkable: a declaration of war against all arab nations, uniting traditional enemies at last.

I hope you are not laughing now.

You really think people are just demonstrating and they will just keep doing that? I don't think so, and not a sign of any dialogue is happening right now! Don't you think a dialogue with madrid is needed rather than just force the catalans a new ellection? What do you think the supposed ellection would be like? I may not know everything about your country background, but what i know for sure is that the whole world is talking about how the spanish government lost its legitimacy when it shipped in thousands of armed thugs to beat peaceful catalans in their own streets, for the high crime of marking a piece of paper. By doing this horrible act, madrid has just signaled how brutal they can be if they feel like it. I wouldn't be so sure that the situation couldn't escalate to a regional conflict.

I always respected your point of view, i know the topic is very sensitive to you, but let me put this kindly: unless you have anything constructive to reply, please stay on topic and avoid personal attacks. Thank you.