The before and after of France
"It is no longer a before and an after," said Manuel Waltz when the nightmare is over. The French prime minister put into words what I thought all his countrymen after the dramatic weekend in Paris during which the terrorist attacks claimed the lives of 17 people.
Friday night in the Place de La Republique, the 26 year old Jerome originally from Algeria stood to tell me a few words about how he felt after the end of hostages and the murders. "Yet we have not fully realized. I fear, all fear - however long I taste something in the air war. Somehow we have to react as if we have not already war, soon we will have, "said the young French Muslim.
The reaction was organized immediately - a unity march, democracy and resistance to fanaticism. The impatience of the world on the course Sunday was so obvious that you knew from the start that what you watched the whole planet would be something historic and unprecedented.
Slowly the size of the reaction of the French became more and more clear with the announcement of the participation of leaders from around the world and estimates for the presence of one million citizens.
Eventually the estimates fell out, as approximately half a million people filled the center of Paris. For those who were there the rally was redemptive act. In most of the prevailing silence, despite the plurality. Every so often an applause spread like a wave from the beginning to the end of the course, an act allilosymparastasis, a way to give each other courage.
When someone threatens a society, a common lifestyle and the reaction values to make sense can only be collective. In it Parisians and the other Frenchmen who took to the streets of their cities did not disappoint themselves.
The course was a healthy reaction. You had the feeling that in five hours duration concentrated process of mourning: initially wailing and tears, after mutual support, consolation and solidarity and end of a determination to continue to defend their freedom, freedom of expression and freedom from fear .
But as magnificent and it was that he lived in Paris Sunday, things are not as easy to correct. The wounds in French society did not open with bullets on 7, 8 and 9 January. Even in the Place de La Republique there were people who had descended imagining other dangerous ideologies. While unity some chose to support the Islamists murderers and other found opportunity to assert their xenophobic message. In a country where the far right of Le Pen's lead in opinion polls may not be easy to fix things.
Fear and mistrust for each other is this "war smell" which was mentioned Jerome. And the problems are not only related to religious differences, but have serious social characteristics.
The presence of the leaders demonstration intensify these problems either with the perpetuation and expansion of social inequalities in their countries, or contempt for freedom of expression and of the press, or the restriction of religious freedom or even with the fomentation of terrorism should not create illusions that the world will change from politicians.
This module course was historic because it just showed how a people can come together against a threat from within and be the one who will try to find the solution. Even if the motivation of some who have joined their applause with many controversial, the sad and determined faces large and small French never had descended in a demonstration leave a hope that the message of unity, concentrated even misused by some to "Je Suis Charlie ", you can hold and prevail in the" after ".
Friday night in the Place de La Republique, the 26 year old Jerome originally from Algeria stood to tell me a few words about how he felt after the end of hostages and the murders. "Yet we have not fully realized. I fear, all fear - however long I taste something in the air war. Somehow we have to react as if we have not already war, soon we will have, "said the young French Muslim.
The reaction was organized immediately - a unity march, democracy and resistance to fanaticism. The impatience of the world on the course Sunday was so obvious that you knew from the start that what you watched the whole planet would be something historic and unprecedented.
Slowly the size of the reaction of the French became more and more clear with the announcement of the participation of leaders from around the world and estimates for the presence of one million citizens.
Eventually the estimates fell out, as approximately half a million people filled the center of Paris. For those who were there the rally was redemptive act. In most of the prevailing silence, despite the plurality. Every so often an applause spread like a wave from the beginning to the end of the course, an act allilosymparastasis, a way to give each other courage.
When someone threatens a society, a common lifestyle and the reaction values to make sense can only be collective. In it Parisians and the other Frenchmen who took to the streets of their cities did not disappoint themselves.
The course was a healthy reaction. You had the feeling that in five hours duration concentrated process of mourning: initially wailing and tears, after mutual support, consolation and solidarity and end of a determination to continue to defend their freedom, freedom of expression and freedom from fear .
But as magnificent and it was that he lived in Paris Sunday, things are not as easy to correct. The wounds in French society did not open with bullets on 7, 8 and 9 January. Even in the Place de La Republique there were people who had descended imagining other dangerous ideologies. While unity some chose to support the Islamists murderers and other found opportunity to assert their xenophobic message. In a country where the far right of Le Pen's lead in opinion polls may not be easy to fix things.
Fear and mistrust for each other is this "war smell" which was mentioned Jerome. And the problems are not only related to religious differences, but have serious social characteristics.
The presence of the leaders demonstration intensify these problems either with the perpetuation and expansion of social inequalities in their countries, or contempt for freedom of expression and of the press, or the restriction of religious freedom or even with the fomentation of terrorism should not create illusions that the world will change from politicians.
This module course was historic because it just showed how a people can come together against a threat from within and be the one who will try to find the solution. Even if the motivation of some who have joined their applause with many controversial, the sad and determined faces large and small French never had descended in a demonstration leave a hope that the message of unity, concentrated even misused by some to "Je Suis Charlie ", you can hold and prevail in the" after ".