In his novel “The Plague” (La Peste) Albert Camus extends the fight against epidemics to a global fight against the phenomenon called “Evil”. According to Camus the fight against the epidemic also symbolizes the French resistance against the Nazi occupation. A priori, this can also include all forms of Evil: Racism, apartheid, discrimination, injustice, intolerance, occupations, wars and genocides. Dr. Rieux, main character of the novel, launches into a hard fight against the epidemic, despite his fear and his medical difficulties:
“However, when you see the misery and the pain it brings, you have to be crazy, blind or coward to resign yourself to the plague”
thinks Rieux. He is a warrior, but refuses to be a hero: according to him “the only way to fight the plague is honesty” that is to say “doing your job” no more, no less , never give up.
If we think like Camus, who compared the Nazi occupation to a plague, all of Humanity is today under the occupation of a new epidemic called the New World Order. This scourge imposed by an elite global gang threatens Humanity and all democracies in Europe, particularly France.
PAYS DE DROIT DE L’HOMME ?
Can France, a country where more and more people can no longer repress their hate towards non-French or non-Europeans, be a country of human rights?
While the far-right defends secularism, the French revolution and opposes the war in Ukraine, can a country where left-wing parties say “let’s continue to arm Ukraine” be a constitutional state ?
Can a country that abandons secularism, turning a blind eye to religious fanaticism by allowing religious slaughterhouses and halal-kosher markets under the supervision of imams or rabbis, be a secular state?
What happened to this country of human rights and free thinkers like Montaigne, Descartes, Diderot, Voltaire, Camus, Sartres etc.?
I doubt that France is still a democratic and human rights country: No, the whole country is seriously ill.
MEDITATION ON MONTMARTRE HILL
When I first arrived in France in 1969, at the age of 19, (going to a student camp in Normandy) I fell in love with Paris. The first thing I did was to climb the Montmartre hill and see the city as it was. As I climbed the stairs from Pigalle, I saw sreet painters. As I passed through a street, I heard the sound of an old piano not well-tempered from the upper floors of a house. It was a tune by Chopin. I was completely spellbound. I was tired and sweating when I reached the hill. I sat down on the steps of Sacré-Cœur Cathedrale. A little later, a young boy came and asked me for a franc. I told him I was a student and an “étranger”, he nodded and smiled, walking away.
As I took a rest on the steps of Cathedrale and contemplate Paris from the Montmartre hill, suddenly I felt a completely different wind blowing there. This wind was a wind that did not exist and never existed in my country. It was a wind I had never experienced before. The name of this wind was: Freedom!
ANTAGONISM AGAINST TURKS
Indeed, there was also hostility towards the Turks at that time. But, as I was blonde and blue-eyed, they initially thought I was British and treated me sympathetically. There were also people asking me which region of France I was from! But when they learned that I was Turk, they were shocked as if they had seen an abominable creature with their faces distorted by surprise and pain, as if they looked like to fall from a donkey ! In fact, their reaction revealed to me how covered racists and hypocrites they are.
Finally, when I noticed that the French had such prejudices and antagonism against the Turks, in order to avoid their racist reactions, I started saying “I am Norwegian” instead of saying “Turk”. Wow ! So, when I present myself like that, miraculously no problem! Everybody is happy !
In the youth camp in Tronquay there were British, American, Greek, Czechoslovakian, French and Algerian students. There have never been such racist problems with them. Because at that time, the youth of the world was left-wing and united: The hippie movement and protest folk singers such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan led the youth of the world to unite. The young people were united and we made auto-stop without fear. There was no global problem like terrorism. The world was much safer than it is today.
So how do you think things are today? Unfortunately, the situation is even worse. When they hear my French accent, they think I am a refugee or an immigrant. Their faces fall again. Then I speak English. Then they think I am a tourist, try to speak with their ridiculous English accent. I am very amused by their accent. As a matter of fact, I am graduated from Galatasaray High School and French Philology of Istanbul Faculty of Letters. But the way that treat me likes this creates in my soul an uncontrollable sadness and disgust. I have a Jewish friend who lives in Austria. He also had the same problem when he came to France. Although he speaks French he speaks English to avoid reactions. It is a tragicomic situation.
A BACKWARDS METAMORPHOSIS
Since 1969 I observe how “La Belle France” is devastated. Every time I came and went, France underwent a metamorphosis but backwards: The butterfly turns into an ugly caterpillar!
Today I continue to observe with disgust the irrevocable and irresistible rise of xenophobia, racism and chauvinism in this country. It is difficult not to feel the hidden hate and intolerance that the French feel towards those who are neither French nor European. Vice versa: Non-French people reciprocally hate the French. No need for words: eyes, looks, behavior and body language betray them.
EVIL & INTOLERANCE
So, would it be logical to worry about only the rise of the far right or the far left, trying to consolidate voters in the middle? There is worse problem: Evil and intolerance are growing in France with its racists, its xenophobes, its religious fanatics, its communitarians, its jihadists, its terrorists, its refugees, its Blacks, its Africans, its Asians, its Salafists and its Zionists. Everyone is uncomfortable for those who aren’t like them and hates those who are different. No tolerance: Intolerance and hate dominate the country.
I regret to say but unfortunately this seems as an irrevocable and irreversible process as the situation worsens every day. Nevertheless, I want still to hope that there will not be a civil war as the French President warned before the elections. Finally, whoever will live, will see…. if we can survive.
Erdağ Duru 