Facing Flooding
France is a strange country. She has known, for at least a thousand years, that she is a flood-prone country. She has experienced flooding many times in her history, sometimes in dramatic ways. Nevertheless, each time the threat has diminished, she has become complacent; she was no longer vigilant, and she did not prepare herself to face the floods once again, by acting on the most basic causes of the problem, which can be identified first and foremost as lying in poverty and ignorance.
By studying the history of France, we recognize that at least one out of every four of the country’s total population, over the past thousand years, has been exposed to the risk of a flood. And that is still true today because this country fails to remember and is unaware of the pending danger. It is often taken aback when a major flood occurs. As it was, France was not as hard hit during the 20th century, compared to certain neighboring countries, and she forgot to be prepared and be ready to face these dangers.
Three lessons need to be learned from these experiences:
1. It is through remembering the dramas lived that they can be avoided. It is through memory that threats are dealt with. How to convince those who have never faced such a peril of the danger? Where flooding has been unusually severe and violent in the past, people are better trained and prepared. Elsewhere, they say there is no risk, as they are driven by the illusion of safety.
2. It is by creating appropriate conditions to avoid them that dangers can be averted most lastingly. The poorest people and the least well informed groups are the most at risk from flooding. Therefore we must begin by combating poverty and ignorance.
3. We live in a world where short-lived, instant gratification and amnesia dominate. Nothing is more dangerous to a civilization, and to a democracy than not remembering what has been a threat to it, and what has been a protection for it.
Each community must train its agents on the dangers of flooding, in order to prepare for them. It must also develop a culture of risk, in the words of Serge Tisseron with his accurate use of the term
? memory of disasters ?. It must also adopt the right structural policies, in order to prevent this type of paroxysmal events of imbalance.
We will already have understood that this perspective remains valid, word for word, if the threat of water is replaced by that of, also timely, anti-Judaism, anti-Semitism and racism.
France is a strange country. She has known for at least a thousand years, that she can be covered by a tide of racism. She experienced this tide many times in her history, sometimes in dramatic ways. Nevertheless, each time the threat has diminished, she has become complacent; she was no longer vigilant, and she did not prepare herself to face it once again, by acting on the most basic causes of the problem, which can be identified first and foremost as lying in poverty and ignorance. Today, at least one out of every four of the country’s total population, has foreign origins. And yet evil forces are at work once again to flood the country with their murderous mud. We can remove them only by vividly recalling the shameful events of the past, by keeping a vigilant watch with every resurgence, and by acting on the root causes of the problem which remain ignorance and poverty.
English-Literature teacher, Team/Project Leader, Director of Studies, Writer
10 年I do enjoy reading Jacques Attail's features like this. It is subtly French, literary and uses nuances of leit motifs - flooding, negligence, poverty racism and the implied inhumanity. One should never be complacent in other words, like I was. Like many in the world of letters, I marvelled at the glorious French internationale , "Libertie, Fraternite and Eqalite," for it reflected on my world dream but, as Jacques pointed out, may it was intended for the French only? For certainly, everyone's a l'etranger if they're not French; er, by registration. So it's not utterly racist as there's a choice to make. The equation of flooding with poverty and racism is a powerful line; subtly revolutionary for this digital age of well informed readers for whom war and revolutions are for a bygone age. Thank goodness for that and may we never have to suffer another war for our descendants; yet, will we live on, make the best of it, live with it ( as many replies rightly commented ) or is there a real solution? Like the way the brilliant Dutch dealt with living below sea-level and have developed some amazing engineering feats? And why is it we hear so little about this state of the art, pushing the boundaries achievement that doesn't fight against nature but uses it to improve human lives? Yes, France is a strange country because it is beautiful and unique. I had a second home in normandy for 20 years and I know that was only a small area of France. The folks are simple in terms of politics and make references to what they know; so they would call me Anglais instead of Chinois or Malaysie, especially the older ones. It would be interesting to know more about the younger generation of French today, especially when they are much more mixed nowadays. I am currently in South China where the younger generation are so amazing - well connected with world, informed and well meaning. Let's hope the younger generation can do much better than our generation of dreamers; well, at least most of us. But I would like to hear more about the Dutch and their innovations on water projects.
Story Producer at ThinkFactory Media, Inc.
10 年Recalling the past is important but it has limited value because the present does not identify with the past. In some ways that is due to the circle of life and in some ways because if people cannot feel it, see it or hear it in its original perspective the meaning is lost on them. The importance of history is that it is a record of human nature. It tells us what we do if we create certain circumstances and what the result was of the choices we made. If studied from that perspective then history becomes vibrant, alive and relevant to the present. Ignorance and poverty will unfortunately always be components of society so our only recourse is to strive to minimise them. I think it better to redefine, agree upon and act in unity on common values to stand upon the shoulders of our ancestors and fulfil our responsibility to them and to our fellow citizens to make today better than yesterday. This leads to innovation and to continuity because it becomes a thing of value to maintain the good of the past rather than in the political arena for example forsake maintenance and strive to put something new in its place in your own image.
Focused on providing rental assistance to families facing housing insecurity in Santa Clara County
10 年In California, we live in a dry, fairly rainless climate. When it rains here, we are fooled into thinking that rain is a normal thing. It is not. Our populations and agribusinesses have grown under the illusion our climate can sustain unending expansion. Once again, we are hit by a severe drought. Actually, we are not in a drought, we had a few wet years in the last decade. We are back to normal. C'est la vie!
Administration Support at Wiseability Services
10 年Anti-Judaism and Anti-Semitism are m the same thing.