Charlie Hebdo

There were so many things I wanted to say after the horrible crimes of early January in Paris that in the end I chose the easy route and just wrote nothing... I intended to buy like 10 copies of the first Charlie Hebdo after the massacre to take them to Asturies and give them to family and friends, as we tend to forget too easily and fast, and this horror must stay in our minds forever, so we can stay alert and prevent it from repeating. I tried for the first 3 weeks, but the copies would be finished as soon as they reached the kiosks, and it was difficult for me to be there before. I had completely assumed that I would not get one of these copies when I found a good bunch of them in a kiosk on February 21. This was the last reprint, next Wednesday they would be "back to normal" publishing a fresh copy every week. This next number had an impressive and defiant cover: islamofascists, Christian radical clerics, Marie LePen... depicted as the disgusting blood thirsty beasts that they are... Of course I also got a copy.

Ever since I regularly buy Charlie Hebdo every week. My minimum French skills allow me to read it slowly, losing some sentences, but getting most of it. Charlie Hebdo is a masterpiece (une chef d'oeuvre), I can not find a better definition. I have to admit that before the massacre I had never bought a copy. Indeed I knew quite little about its editorial line. Of course I knew about its criticism of Fundamentalist Islam, with the publication of the Mohammed cartoons, and of course I fully agreed and supported such attitude, but knew nothing about their views on other topics. Sadly, until quite recently (ISIS madness first and know the Paris tragedy have helped to change this) most left wing seemed stupidly reluctant or scared to critisise fundamentalist Islam, as likening it to Islamophobia. With that in mind, it was not clear to me if Charlie Hebdo would be particularly lefties or antifascists. Also, I thought this weekly publication would be not much more than a bunch of funny cartoons.

Well, how shamefully ignorant I was. Charlie Hebdo is above all an Antifascist publication, with a clear left wing stance (but without falling in outdated and simplistic "class war style" views). Notice for example that they have reduced subscription fares for students, unemployed, disabled or retired people. Furthermore, while the cartoons are pretty good and essential ("Stouf le Skin" is probably my favorite), there are some excellent articles and interviews about world affairs, that will keep you reading and thinking for a good while. They are at war against any form of fanaticism and do as much as possible to unveil the real face of "le FN". I could not agree more with them. Islamofascism and "le FN" are the 2 forces that could completely break apart the French society, a society that whatever scary stories you hear about the suburbs "quartiers sensibles" (sure many of them are true, but they are just a small portion of the country), is to my eyes the biggest example of integration in Europe (I read the other day what for me seemed clear without need of any statistic, that it has the biggest number of "mixed" couples in Europe).

Life is evolution, and while I used to say that I aimed one day to be fluent enough in French to be able to sit on the iconic French cafe for cultured people reading Le Monde Diplomatique (and understanding it fully) and enjoying a cafe noisette, now I'm much more into reading Charlie Hebdo while taking a "the a la menthe" (that's multiculturalism in practice). Only problem with this new goal is that in most places I know in Toulouse where I can get a the a la menthe (it's delicious, I got hooked to it in Marseille) maybe some of the customers would consider Charlie Hebdo slightly offensive.

Regarding being offensive, it seems like the Pope did some pretty sickening and disgusting statements about the Paris Massacre. He said something like: "if you swear at my mother 'expect a punch'". So this pope that many thought as an example of renovation and dialogue for the Catholic church has suddenly jumped into the wagon of ISIS and the likes... no words...

To wrap up this post, I'll leave you here a link to this very intense and emotive (and too short) interview with Luz, one of the survivals.

Well, I'll also add this picture so you can feel jealous of my desktop :-)