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About the attacks on Paris
10 years ago
I wrote this yesterday morning. I felt the need to express myself... My English is floppy so you can correct me...
I was in Paris last week. I feel sick in front of such barbarism. I think - I hope - that all my closed ones and their families are ok. A friend of mine lost someone. We feel shock and sadness and we don't know what to do.
But looking at the horror will not make it disappear. I think we try to understand something that is beyond what we could imagine. We try to make it real and bearable in some way that would make some logic out of it.
Numbers, measures, consequences... We try to find a way to react. We are in shock.
I think of the people I met in Syria. I think of my friends in Egypt, of this country where I learned to be free, to be happy and to trust people. I think of the people around the world who have to deal with the risk of being arbitrary killed by fanatics everyday, because they do not dress the good way, because they love differently, because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time... I think of the countries teared by war between a tyrant and extremists... of the people in between. I think of Syria, of what we didn't do, what we let happen.
Today in France we learn the taste of blood, the irrationality and the absurdity of violence. We all feel shock and sadness but we cannot let our vision get blurred by tears. We have to be brave, to go on with our lives because looking at the news every minute will not make things better, for us or for them.
After the tragedy of the 12-11, the United States declared a war on terrorism that lit the flames we face today. The invasion of Iraq, then the departure that let the power in the hands of a Shiite minority, alimented the rising of Daesh/Isis, giving it its leaders, people familiar with oppression, oil contraband and terror. We let things rot and people die, genocides happen, chemical weapons being used against civilians... We are at war with terrorism, with fanaticism. We are at war with Daesh and we cannot let them have what they want : to divide us, to make fear stop us from acting when crimes are committed against Humanity, and to put hate in your heart against those who are the true victim of their barbarism : the Muslims, the Arabs, and all the minorities of the territories they conquered.
I was in Paris last week. I feel sick in front of such barbarism. I think - I hope - that all my closed ones and their families are ok. A friend of mine lost someone. We feel shock and sadness and we don't know what to do.
But looking at the horror will not make it disappear. I think we try to understand something that is beyond what we could imagine. We try to make it real and bearable in some way that would make some logic out of it.
Numbers, measures, consequences... We try to find a way to react. We are in shock.
I think of the people I met in Syria. I think of my friends in Egypt, of this country where I learned to be free, to be happy and to trust people. I think of the people around the world who have to deal with the risk of being arbitrary killed by fanatics everyday, because they do not dress the good way, because they love differently, because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time... I think of the countries teared by war between a tyrant and extremists... of the people in between. I think of Syria, of what we didn't do, what we let happen.
Today in France we learn the taste of blood, the irrationality and the absurdity of violence. We all feel shock and sadness but we cannot let our vision get blurred by tears. We have to be brave, to go on with our lives because looking at the news every minute will not make things better, for us or for them.
After the tragedy of the 12-11, the United States declared a war on terrorism that lit the flames we face today. The invasion of Iraq, then the departure that let the power in the hands of a Shiite minority, alimented the rising of Daesh/Isis, giving it its leaders, people familiar with oppression, oil contraband and terror. We let things rot and people die, genocides happen, chemical weapons being used against civilians... We are at war with terrorism, with fanaticism. We are at war with Daesh and we cannot let them have what they want : to divide us, to make fear stop us from acting when crimes are committed against Humanity, and to put hate in your heart against those who are the true victim of their barbarism : the Muslims, the Arabs, and all the minorities of the territories they conquered.
We are too good at killing people with bombs and guns. It is high time we show refugees of the Middle East love, care and respect, and provide them with food, water, clothing, healthcare, housing and financial security as best as we can.
Paris' Night of Horror, which happened hours after a suicide bombing against Shi'ite Muslims in Beirut, is just the most recent and most violent expression of the revenge of religious conservatism against democracy, liberalism and egalitarianism.
The good people of the world have to confront extremists of many kinds. They'll know it is time to fasten their seatbelts when even Buddhists are worrying about extremist Theravada Buddhists in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.
I wish that the barbarism of Daesh could draw a line and make people realize how conservatism can lead to the worst. I wish that someday we can say "never again". Modernity, freedom doesn't belong to the West. We are not a model for the world. Everywhere people share the same values of peace and respect ; it's simply human. I can't say how it saddens me to see the Middle East to the hands of monsters. They brought us mathematics and astronomy. They transmitted to us the Antic knowledge of Greece and Rome...
I had the chance to travel a lot when I was younger, not for tourism but to meet people. People are people anywhere, and their cultural differences are a nice thing. I'm glad the world is full of people who think and live differently than me, how boring it would be otherwise...
But we face an extremism that want to erase difference and Culture itself. An extremism that makes the world less human. They are fascists.
Compassion, respect for life, respect for diversity : we have what they lack, and we must not forget it.