Philippe Labro is a writer, filmmaker and journalist. Every Friday, for CNEWS, he comments on what he saw, experienced and observed during the week. A subjective and free notepad.
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 25
Here is our first “back to school” column. This term “re-entry” is related to the language of schooling. We go to school, college, high school. And the adults come home too, good or bad students. Good or bad news from a very busy summer.
Bad students and bad news. What to start with ? The thugs who, too often now, spoil the life of football stadiums, with these distressing images of the Nice-Marseille match, these uncontrolled supporters – but are they controllable? Yes, without doubt, the English have succeeded in doing so. There are all kinds of solutions. Let us not forget the courageous gesture, a long time ago, of Robin Leproux to stem the violence of certain PSG ultras.
In truth, these incidents have no importance in the face of the fires which ravaged the Var, and, beyond our Hexagon, burned the entire Earth. From Greece to California, from Peru to Turkey, from Algeria to Albania, from Siberia to the Amazon. There were 184,114 fires in progress on our planet on August 8. And to think that there is still some time, the former President Trump expressed doubts about the consequences of global warming …
It is also he, the disastrous Donald Trump, who, in a neglected way, concluded the Doha agreement in February 2020, which opened the door to disaster: the return of the Taliban, the withdrawal of American troops, confirmed by Joe Biden, who condemns a people to fall back into the hands of the worst of the worst systems, the intolerant Sharia law, summary executions, girls deprived of school, religion that crushes everything, annihilates everything. Does the United States no longer want “endless wars”? We can understand them. But was it necessary, for that, to expedite abandonment, to demonstrate improvisation, naivety, ignorance? The despair of these women, their babies in their arms, who jostle each other at the doors of Kabul airport, the panic that has led some to cling to the wings of an airplane, to then fall into the void, all this is lamentable, and the “observers” have plenty of time to account for America’s loss of prestige and credibility.
It is not so much the gloss of the editorial writers that interests me, but rather the imminent fate of the women who had learned to become lawyers, doctors, professors, journalists, musicians, artists, and who risk, today, the total deprivation. of their independence. This Afghanistan affair is certainly the worst news of the summer of 2021.
The good students and the good news. First, we forget, sometimes there is this entire French medical body which continues to fight the Covid epidemic, which assists, heals, anesthesia, vaccinates, protects these nursing assistants and these stretcher bearers, these teachers and boarders – all of them, still there, summer or not, vacation or not. Let’s salute them.
Then, and this is irrelevant, there are some rather reassuring figures on employment and unemployment, and the pace of an economic rebound. And then, fortunately, the “return” of culture. Nearly 500 novels are expected by the end of October. At the cinema, we can’t wait to see Drive My Car, Onoda, BAC Nord, La terre des hommes… The concert halls await us, the theater, the exhibitions. Let’s also listen to the best songs of George Harrison in the album All Things Must Pass, which celebrated its 50th anniversary. The title Isn’t It a Pity alone sums up the atmosphere of today’s world. “Ain’t it a pity, ain’t it a shame, how we break our hearts,” the song says.
Let us try to forget this shame and smile at the faces of the children who will take the road to school, in complete freedom to be, to love, to learn, in a country which is anything but a dictatorship.