About eight months have elapsed since the last article I posted here. Like a lot of people, I have been burying my head in the sand, trying to forget that the worst had already happened. For a long time, I avoided switching American TV channels on. Yet I continued to hear. Sometimes I shuddered, as when there seemed to be an escalation of threats and tension between Kim Jong Un, the scary North Korean dictator, and Donald Trump. We would not sleep a wink if we didn't do our best to forget that even a country like North Korea with such an unstable leader has enough nuclear weapons to blow up our small planet!
Still a little over three years to go, holding one's breath.
The few American citizens I have had the opportunity to talk to, in the past months, seemed largely embarrassed by their choice of president, especially those who claim to be republicans, probably because they know they are partly responsible for bringing him in office. And yet, I found it almost touching to observe D. Trump, on his best behaviour (maybe, as he does not speak French, he had to keep his mouth shut, except when addressed in English), sitting primly on the right of Emmanuel Macron who was presiding over the ceremonies of Bastille Day, last July 14th in Paris. Despite being 30 years younger, the French president definitely appeared as the one who had the calibre of a head of state. In yesterday's NYT, I read that D. Trump attended the events in Paris last week, partly because E. Macron had told him: "They love you in France"! If Donald Trump believed that blatant piece of flattery, it implies, but that's not a surprise, that he seriously lacks in historical knowledge and that there is nobody by his side to fill in the gaps in his education. He definitely could do with a well-appointed think tank next to him.
As for us, the French, we are still in the blessed stage of congratulating ourselves for our good sense in the choice of our brand-new president. Among the dozen or so of candidates for the presidency, Emmanuel Macron stood out as the brightest, most articulate, most able to comprehend the complexity of our global world, and, last but not least, the most truthful and trustworthy of the lot. In a word, the most capable of manoeuvering the destiny of France, as one of the two main countries at the helm of the European Union, a very shaky union indeed, now that the UK has made its very unfortunate and ill-advised decision to leave the European boat, to sail, alone again, on choppy seas. The French, once more, have managed to avoid falling into the populist mirage. Let's hope this commonsense endures.
To be allowed to choose and decide is the prerogative of citizens of democracies, who are now equipped with multiple means of information, from social networks to the traditional press without forgetting innumerable TV and radio channels. And yet, more than ever, making an informed decision requires a critical mind and the ability as well as the time to ponder over several sources of information. Why did poor male white Americans vote in favour of someone who claimed he wanted to take away what a more equality-minded president had fought tooth and nail to provide for them? Why did poverty-stricken Welsh people cast their votes in favour of Brexit when a lot of their job opportunities come from the European Union? This morning I came across the front page of the latest issue of The Economist at my newsagent's. The headline read: "Britain is facing up to Brexit" and the picture underneath showed a lot of people on a beach, adult men and women, all kneeling with their heads buried deep in the sand, while, in the foreground, a little boy, bucket and spade in hand, was the only one to stand up and look, anxiously, to the future. There's no denying that, right now, UK kids are justified to doubt the commonsense of their elders.
