"Yellow Vest" ? The Majority of French People Are Among the Richest 10% in the World

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THOUSANDS OF YELLOW VESTS (GILETS JAUNES) PROTESTS IN PARIS CALLING FOR LOWER FUEL TAXES, REINTRODUCTION OF THE SOLIDARITY TAX ON WEALTH, A MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE, AND EMMANUEL MACRON'S RESIGNATION AS PRESIDENT OF FRANCE, 09 FEBRUARY 2019. BY NORBU GYACHUNG, CC BY-SA 4.0. VIA WIKI COMMONS.

" Yellow Vest " ? The Majority of French People Are Among the Richest 10% in the World

In France, the concern for inequality makes poverty invisible. For example, the organization Oxfam, whose name is related to the famine ( Ox ford Committee for Fam ine Relief), focused his campaign on the rich. The media gave the names of billionaires who would own as much as half of humanity but did not say a word about the poor. Yet, naming poor people increases their sympathy for them and promotes altruistic decision, as many studiesshow.

The invisibility of the poor could be explained by the current context. After long months of saying that yellow jackets "suffer", that they are "in distress" and can not "make ends meet" or "fill their fridge", can we still talk about those who live on $ 1.90 a day?

There is certainly good news: the proportion of the world's poor has fallen drastically. Forty years ago, it was over 40%. Today, only 10% of the world's population lives on $ 1.90 a day. Half of these people live in Africa.

So, imagine that you have 100 euros to give. You can give them to Christian, one of my students, born in Burkina Faso: he will send them to his family who live with $ 1.90 a day, as nearly half of Burkinabe. But you can also give them to Eric, father and driver, who earns a little more than 54 euros per day, the value of the daily smic.

How are you going to spend those 100 euros?

'Paris Good Fashion' Launches 5-Year Plan Making Paris Center Of Sustainable Fashion Industry

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MERCI STORE PARIS. PHOTO BY ROBIN BENZRIHEM ON UNSPLASH

'Paris Good Fashion' Launches 5-Year Plan Making Paris Center Of Sustainable Fashion Industry

The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of the world’s carbon footprint and is considered to be the second biggest polluter of fresh water globally, producting 20% of the world’s industrial wastewater. Forbes adds that the global fashion industry uses 24% of insecticides and 11% of pesticides required to produce crops used in garments.

Until now, London has led the international pace in the fashion sustainability movement. This week, Paris weighed in with a new five-year plan designed to establish French credentials in this critical arena of public policy and environmental action.

Called ‘Paris Good Fashion,’ the project outlines a five-year plan to build an open, collaborative community of fashion professionals, entrepreneurs, designers and experts working together to make Paris a sustainable fashion capital.

Frédéric Hocquard, deputy to Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, and Antoinette Guhl, deputy in charge of social economy and solidarity, as well as former fashion journalist Isabelle Lefort, promised a more comprehensive project outline at a June 2019 event that will also feature campaigns promoting fashion recycling and conferences surrounding sustainable discussions

Macron Appoints Politicos Across Left & Right | Francoise Nyssen Is Culture Minister

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Macron Appoints Politicos Across Left & Right | Francoise Nyssen Is Culture Minister

In purely pragmatic terms and for several reasons, France has far more to fear than America. Watching centrist president  Emmanuel Macron assemble his new cabinet, he seeks to bridge the left-right divide, poaching leading figures from across the political spectrum.

What a change from Trump, who says his only commitment is to the largely white, high-school graduates who voted for him. The rest of Americans can go to hell, as he installs individuals who reject science, educational achievement, women's rights to birth control, labor laws, and goddess knows what other ideas embraced by the other 75% of the country.

With Americans learning that just two months ago, Trump asked then FBI Director Comey if he could imprison journalists, Macron appoints Françoise Nyssen, a publisher, as culture minister.

Belgian-born Nyssen is the CEO of Éditions Actes Sud based in the southern city of Arles, which has published the work of Nobel Laureates Imre Kertész and Svetlana Alexievitch, as well as Prix Goncourt winners Laurent Gaudé, Jérôme Ferrari, and Mathias Ernard.

Laurence des Cars Named New Director Of Musée d’Orsay in Paris

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Laurence des Cars. Photo ©Sophie Boegly.

Laurence des Cars was named the new director of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, officially appointed by French President Francois Hollande on February 27. Currently the director of the Musée de l’Orangerie, des Cars will assume her new post on March 15, for a tenure of at least five years.

Le Monde reports that des Cars’s appointment is also significant in that she’s only the second woman curator to head a major Paris museum, alongside Sophie Makariou at the Musée Guimet.