Hypocritical Western Media Silent As "Dictator" Macron Uses Live Weapons Against Protesters

Events in France have just taken a murderous turn yet there is no global outrage. On the 13th of January, reports emerged that French riot police were now using semi-automatic weapons against Yellow Vest protesters but instead of calling it the human rights disaster it was, the move was qualified as a "law and order crisis". A former Minister in the French Cabinet, Luc Ferry had earlier suggested that live weapons be used so as to give police the means to "put an end to this violence". This is exactly what all blood-thirsty dictators normally say before cracking down on protesters and yet Macron seems to have heeded the advice.  

Indeed, at least 10 people have been killed (nine from accidents and one from being hit by the police) while more than a thousand have been detained by the police. The police had already drawn ire for firing rubber projectiles causing serious injuries to protesters. It is well known that the police have been shooting flash-balls (LBD40) to horrifying consequences. Now that officers are now going around the streets brandishing Heckler & Koch G36 weapons, things just got a bit more serious. Add that to an impending change in riot laws and France bears all the hallmarks of a modern-day dictatorship. In fact, the protesters have rightly called him a dictator. No one has been shot just yet but the future looks grisly.

While Western mainstream media is all too happy to brand African leaders undemocratic autocrats for their signature heavy-handed responses to protests, it is utterly hypocritical that Macron seems to escape that brutal appraisal simply because he is European. Evil should not have a color and yet the West would have us believe it is always black. This is harmful to the broader discourse of human rights as arrogant, despotic African leaders root their impunity in Western double-standards. In effect, Western hypocrisy is the last bastion of dictatorship in Africa. It is the same contradictory standard that has dealt a fatal blow to the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court and yet the West shows no contrition. 

At this rate, the common citizens in the West and in Africa will continue to suffer. For the pummelled yet disgruntled French legitimate concerns, livelihoods, and lives themselves will always be trivialized; sacrificed on the altar of the globalist agenda. Admitting that something untoward is happening in France would be admitting that the West has no business playing global big-brother. It is admitting that Europe has no moral clout to preach human rights when its own people are being brutalized. It is a sign that the whole world, not just Africa, is a work in progress. What Europe cannot countenance is that African states are grappling with the same questions bedeviling Europe and thus there is no room for condescension but collaboration.

Until everyone has the guts to call Macron and his ilk by their true names -dictators, Africans will continue to be brutalized in their countries by leaders who package themselves as pan-African champions defying the West. In fact, by some convoluted logic, it might even be true. After all, Western philosophy has proved itself to be that White Men can do no wrong and when black African leaders challenge it even in the most macabre fashion, they emerge as counter-cultural dare-devils who are the epitome of black power. They emerge as bold Africans sticking it to the man. Even legitimate criticism of these African despots is then dismissed as Western propaganda meant to derail the Pan-African train. No wonder murderous dictators end up being lionized!

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