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FYI France: Inst.Hist.duLivre, & re. la solidarite'...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Mon Sep 17 19:03:14 2001
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 07:48:36 -0700
From: Jack Kessler <kessler@WELL.COM>
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FYI France: Inst.Hist.duLivre, and a note about la solidarite'...
Getting back to normal after last Tuesday's events -- as we are
advised to do -- but without forgetting... there is a note about
French reactions, following the announcement here...
* IHL: a reminder, for anyone who will be in France this month
and next, that the new Institut d'Histoire du Livre is sponsoring
the following events -- http://ihl.enssib.fr/
* Sep 25, tuesday -- Le commerce du livre ancien en
Europe et aux Etats-Unis aux XIXe et XXe sie`cles --
Confe'rence publique: Bernard M. Rosenthal -- Lyon, Ecole
normale supe'rieure - Lettres et sciences humaines, 18h30
entre'e libre
-- and, Mon 9/24 thru Thu 9/27, all three of the following
will be held at the Lyon Ecole normale supe'rieure -
Lettres et sciences humaines, 08:30 to 17:00, register at
http://ihl.enssib.fr/3_ecole/information/inscription_fr.htm --
* Le dernier livre: texte et image a` l'heure du
nume'rique -- Michel Melot
* Conservation et e'tude des imprime's e'phe'me`res --
Michael Twyman
* Typographie et calligraphie 1450-1830 -- James Mosley
(in English)
But now also that note, concerning "la solidarite'":
France is a nation far more tied to the Arab world than is the US
-- physically closer, with a longer and more intimate history of
contacts with the Moslem and Arab and general North African and
Middle Eastern worlds, with greater personal memories of souks
and minarets and the North African and Middle Eastern ways of
life than most Americans possess, with far greater related
problems of immigration and minority difficulties and reliance on
petroleum, and with a far longer experience of terrorism and of
wars fought on home turf... It is very different, in these
things, to be French.
France also enjoys a reputation among Americans for being
difficult, especially among US government people and particularly
among US diplomats. Charles De Gaulle was no exception, in many
American minds: with the French generally, in international
relations, many Americans become impatient too often over the
various minor frictions, and small policy disagreements, and
petty cultural differences, which occasionally separate the US
from this close ally. "Qui aime bien, cha^tie bien" would be well
- translated into l'ame'ricain, and made a fundamental part of
the US - France relationship, going both ways.
So I thought it might be useful, even important, to present here
a couple of the French reactions to the events of last Tuesday
and the ongoing terrorism crisis. "Talk is cheap", and "actions
speak louder than words", and so on, I know. But the French have
stood by us before -- as we have stood by them -- and they may be
standing by our sides once again, very soon. The cost will be
very great to them, if they do. It is comforting to see that
however complex the world becomes the hearts of the French, as
well, are with us: (my tr.) --
* The French president --
"Terrorist attacks in the United States, Interview with the
President of the Republic, M. Jacques Chirac, with CNN (Paris,
September 13, 2001)"
"A poll just has been published in France which shows
that 96% of the French are in complete solidarity with the
American people and with the American authorities. I have no
memory of having seen such unanimity ever before. Above all,
there is the problem of 'the reason why'. The impossibility of
responding to this question. This madness, this absurdity, this
cruelty. Nothing, nothing can justify this, and the French are,
yes, I emphatically repeat, entirely in solidarity with the
Americans."
"Those responsible for this must be found. The United
States is now making a considerable and it seems to me very
effective effort, using all of the evidence and any guilty
parties found, so that one will be able to determine who is at
the origin of this murderous folly. And when it is time to punish
this murderous folly, yes, France will be at the side of the
United States."
"We are not seeing here a clash of civilizations, because
that would be saying that some civilization might be able to
adopt terrorism as a normal and natural means of expression, as
an element of its culture. I cannot imagine this, that any human
society might adopt such a position. So I believe that terrorism
represents more a disease of some society or other and, as such,
it must be considered an aberration which must be eliminated from
world civilization, as a matter of Human Rights."
[Question: "Many people in the world have said that this
has been an attack on certain aspects of American foreign policy.
It is no secret that France has had differences with the United
States over foreign policy. Does this create difficulties if you
envisage our participation in a coalition which will take all the
measures which the United States its allies judge to be
necessary?"] --
"No. One can very well not agree always over everything.
That is the characteristic of any family, and it will be true of
the international family as it is of all families. But there is
one point on which it is not possible to have any divergence of
views -- on which it is not possible to have differences -- that
is the necessity of fighting against this perverse malady, this
vice which is terrorism. And in this area it is not possible to
have differences between the attitude of France -- the attitude
of all civilized nations, whatever are their religious and
economic and philosophical associations -- and the United States."
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/actual/dossiers/attentatsusa/chirac130901.html
* The French prime minister --
"Terrorist attacks in the United States, Interview with Prime
Minister Lionel Jospin on 'TF1'" (Paris, 12 septembre 2001)
"...I feel for the considerable number of American
victims and for all who have been touched by this. Every hour
which passes reveals more the extent and the horror of what took
place in those American cities yesterday."
"We are entirely in solidarity with the United States, in
the face of this test which has hit them. We are completely
determined to engage ourselves, as we always have, against
terrorism. We must not confuse terrorist groups with the Islamic
World, with which we have friends and partners."
"France has been touched in the past by terrorism. We
know that the menace exists. It is too early to tell whether this
incident menaces the United States alone. Will other nations be
involved? Of course we will cooperate with our European neighbors
and with the Americans in analyzing all of this..."
[Question: "Will Cohabitation impede the functioning of
French authority?"]
"No thought, no word, can suggest this. You must have no
doubt that, in situations of this sort, it is together -- the
government with the president -- that we act."
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/actual/dossiers/attentatsusa/jospintf1120901.html
... plus, have a look at the French national flag, flying at half
- mast over the Quai d'Orsay, at,
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/actualite/article.asp?cat=3&th=0&ar=2579
A French friend writes, "I believe that Washington thinks war,
when Europe has justice in mind". I hope that this is not so. I
hope very much that both are thinking "justice". The US leaders,
so far, are speaking of and budgeting for long - term and
thorough campaigns -- there is more opportunity for justice
there. Colin Powell and the others have keen aversions, often -
expressed, to the kneejerk retaliation strikes which Clinton
tried. I am just not certain, myself, yet -- nor is anyone, I
think -- of what must be done to achieve "justice" in this case.
But it now is just as easy to drop a hijacked 767 onto the Tour
Eiffel, or Notre Dame de Paris, or La De'fense on a crowded
weekday morning -- or on Buckingham Palace or Trafalgar Square --
or downtown Cairo, the Great Mosque of Mecca or central Riyadh,
the Forbidden City, Chadni Chowk or the Taj Mahal -- as it was to
drop one on the World Trade Center in New York City last Tuesday.
Any idiot can do it now, apparently, armed only with a razor
blade cardboard cutter and a shortcourse from some matchbox pilot
training school.
As for current safeguards -- anywhere in the world -- well, if
they can hit the Pentagon...
--oOo--
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