The Organizers

FYI, in the comment section of the previous post a reader mentioned Gates of Vienna, which also covered the news of Saturday's riot in Paris that followed the cancellation of a money giveaway. The information at GoV is essentially the same, but there is a bit more speculation over the so-called "machete" in the hands of one of the thugs. Those interested should check it out.

Meanwhile, Novopress would like to know more about the people responsible for organizing such a blatantly cynical event:

On Saturday, riots of uncommon violence occurred in Paris. If there is no doubt about the participation of non-European immigrants (the videos and photos speak for themselves), there are questions about those who organized this giveaway that ended so violently.

The media spoke of Stéphane Boukris, in charge of marketing at Mailorama, the company that organized the event. Mailorama is itself an affiliate of Rentabiliweb. More about that later.

Stéphane Boukris' resumé is impressive. A graduate of ESSEC (Advanced School of Economics and Business) and of San José University in California, Boukris, 25, earned a Masters Degree in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from ESCP-EAP (Advanced School of Business-European School of Management Studies), headed by Daniel Rouach. He won the BFM (Berlin-Frankfort-Münster) Academy award in 2008.

How is it that such a brilliant person, a graduate of our best schools of management, did not anticipate the provocative nature of such a undertaking, especially in this time of crisis? Unless we assume that these schools and their students live in another world.

Now let us look at Rentabilise, the parent company of Mailorama. The beginning of an article published in Capital provides a few interesting clues:

"Kilt, dark glasses, dreadlocks and boots with cleats, at 38 Jean-Baptiste Descroix-Vernier seems to have stepped right out of "Matrix". Residing on a barge in the industrial port of Amsterdam, this pleasantly eccentric guy from Lyons runs one of the trendiest start-up businesses of today, Rentabiliweb.

Placed on the stock exchange in 2006, four years after its founding, it is worth almost 100 million euro today. 'Exceptional results, even on the Internet,' notes Marc Oiknine, manager in charge of investment funds.

Attracted by the performance of this cyber-Visigoth, several figures from the business world decided to bank on him. Bernard Arnault, CEO of Louis Vuitton/Moet Hennesey owns shares worth 6.3% of the enterprise. Stéphane Courbit, former head of Endemol France (producer of "Star Academy") controls 10.3%. As for the Board of Directors it includes in its ranks Jean-Marie Messier and former free-market liberal minister Alain Madelin. "The more I feel like a Leftist, the more I surround myself with people of the Right," jokes Descroix-Vernier. "But in business matters, we are on the same frequency."

Note: This is the opposite of Sarkozy who, touts himself as a conservative but surrounds himself with Leftists. But it shows, too, that the market liberals (wrongly called "Rightists") and the progressives, a.k.a. Socialists, spring from the same anti-nationalist, open borders, pro-EU, pro-immigration matrix.

As Novopress points out in its closing sentences:

The two share-holders mentioned (Bernard Arnault and Stéphane Courbit) were part of those who celebrated Nicolas Sarkozy's victory on May 6, 2007 at Fouquet's restaurant.

Reminder: This dinner at Fouquet's became notorious in the minds of the French who saw it as a sign of rich men exploiting the people, or as a "conservative" candidate celebrating with his wealthy right-wing cronies. The feeling was that Sarkozy should have begun his reign more humbly. But that dinner was only the beginning, and hardly cause for complaint considering what came afterward, though it did set the stage, so to speak...

The two administrators (Descroix-Vernier and Boukris), sang to us the praises of supra-national free-market liberalism in its most unregulated form.

Supra-national liberal markets, and non-European immigration: this is the explosive cocktail that is dissolving French identity, the ravages of which we glimpsed last Saturday in Paris.

An article posted about 4 days ago at Nouvel Obs has more to say about Rentabiliweb (or Rentabilise), the company that owns Mailorama. Spokesmen for the parent company sent out the following explanations:

Rentiliweb "deplores the chaos that occurred" when the distribution of money was cancelled. "All precautions" had been taken and "a smooth operation was assured".

"Rentiliweb shares the anger of all those who were happy to see money from publicity going, for once, into the pockets of the consumers, instead of into management."

Note: I need not point out the ludicrous nature of that statement.

The police arrested ten persons, nine of whom were kept in custody, saying that the organizers of the event had been warned that "distribution of money as a means of promotion was forbidden" and that "threats to public safety" were likely.

But Rentabiliweb insisted that Mailorama "had received formal and written authorization to hold the event." "Without this authorization, without the express agreement of the police authorities, without the guarantee that all steps had been taken to insure public safety, Rentabiliweb would not have taken such an initiative..."

Only 50 policemen had been engaged. Metal barriers had been installed, quickly climbed over by the crowds. By 11:00 p.m. the decision was made to cancel the operation "at the request of the police", according to the company.

"Rentabiliweb is concerned that a festive event, well-meaning, can be organized without incident in Canada or in the United States, but apparently not in France," said their communiqué. Jean-Baptitste Descroix-Vernier announced that he would donate the entire sum of 100,000 euro that was to be distributed, to the Public Assistance fund ("Secours Populaire").

Note: Despite the protests of the company, the French Interior Ministry has announced it will bring suit against the organizers "who were the cause of the trouble."

Note: Regarding unregulated supra-national free-market liberalism, alluded to above, I feel compelled to add the following thoughts that I jotted down while doing this post:

It cannot be stressed enough that businesses with no national feelings or loyalties, no cultural affiliations, and no motivation except money, such as Rentabiliweb, must be distinguished from traditional American-style capitalism that may be local, regional or national, that is intimately tied to loyalty to its own nation and to a sense that the fate of that nation depends in large measure on the ability of its people to enrich themselves through personal efforts and a religious-based work ethic. A system where the fate of the individual is largely in his own hands, and is not remotely-controlled by a cynical, irresponsible, beholden-to-none bureaucracy has been the foundation of America's success until recent years. As we lost our original principles, we moved more and more into globalism/socialism, financial scams of all kinds, nihilism, open borders suicide and national dissolution. The connection between the get-rich-quick mentality and Socialism was soon apparent. Capitalism does not mean get-rich-quick. It refers to a life-long effort to become as independent as possible. One is never completely independent, nor should one be coddled from cradle-to-grave.

Likewise, socialist programs, when limited to a specific group or nation, are not necessarily bad. They become bad when they are used as a lure, as a form of bribery or blackmail, or as a crutch that deprives the individual of his sense of pride in his personal accomplishments.