Income gap an acute issue for many nations

The meeting I was attending in a venue near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on Friday and Saturday last week was abruptly cut short, as expected, due to a gilets jaunes, or yellow vest, protest. The graphic scenes from the previous weekend that were broadcast on TV time and again - burning cars, looting, and police firing tear gas and rubber bullets - were scary.

Friends had advised me to stay at the hotel and not go near the protest. But they were advising the wrong person, a journalist whose instinct and duty would suggest otherwise.

As I set out toward the Champs-Elysees early on Saturday morning, I met many yellow vests on their way there. They were from different parts of France, such as Normandy and Corsica. Their anger was written on their faces as I chatted with them, despite my limited French and their limited English.