Letter of the mad man after the Libyan case

DR

“Oh! If I was rich” used to tune a famous Raga song in the early nineties; at a time when because of my young age I would have imagined that life and financial success were easy things, just matters of good will. As time passes by and as we get older, the smell of death, and end and chaos comes closer to our nostrils. Notions and concepts that were clear and obvious to our understanding are blurring and progressively emptied of their sense and true meanings, to the point that questions such as: “what is the republic? What is laicité?” or again “what is international law?” have become difficult to answer even for the most educated among us.

The war launched on false allegations of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq eight years ago has revealed to the whole world that lies, greed and lack of consideration for civilisations with values other than ours are still and for long what fuels the economy of our western societies.

“What would you do for a few dollars, damn fool?” used to rap Kerry James, giving the impression in his lyrics that only the poor and the deprived were subject to irrational acts when it comes to collecting and gathering wealth and power. The present situation of France is proving us that reality is otherwise. It seems that money calls for more money and greed. For the sake of our economy and at the stake of the lives of many Africans, we plot, corrupt, divide and even declare wars using pretexts and false arguments in order to get free and cheap access to the raw materials we need for the functioning of our economy.

‘Colonisation was not a crime’ we are taught to think in the schools of “La république”; hence also the absence of any chapter properly dealing with this period in our history books. The whole French population has become amnesiac through the indoctrination of the values of the République; values it is important to mention here that most French intellectuals find it difficult to clearly explain and define. Scarce are, indeed, the glorious and positive episodes in the history of our nation. But the most frightening thing is without doubt the fact that we keep on repeating the same recurrent mistakes. We were in the past at the forehead of the slave trade; were also deeply involved in colonisation; collaborated with the Nazi regime in the 1940s. And later, using neo-colonialism, we carried on exploiting the ex-colonies with the help of few puppets we placed on the throne of the newly independent countries. When our technology and economy became challenged by emerging nations, we once again practised what we knew best to maintain certain supremacy; crime, dispossession, racial as well as cultural racism became the solutions to our decline and loss of influence in the world.

A nation that built itself on direct and indirect genocides and ethnocide, such is our nation, such are the true values of France and its République; such are our legacies. To the questions of national identity and secularism that the whole nation is asking itself just a year before the presidential elections, let me for once speak for those we scarcely

hear. I say: “Let us dream of a better world, a better life! Let us dream of passing to our descents, values other than that of France and its shameful République, but I can’t say more things here,

‘cause too many things lingering in my mind,

I won’t utter more things here,

‘cause too many strings binding my mouth!!! ”