LIKE MOST PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE in the freedom for others to do whatever they want and think whatever they like as long as they do not harm others, I am alarmed at the recent events in Paris involving the cold-blooded murdering of cartoonists at the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, although perhaps not as surprised as I should be, given the parlous state of Parisian society nowadays.
I SHOULD POINT OUT THAT I am not a great fan of this publication, and on the few occasions when it has come to my notice I have found it childish, as indeed I find a great deal of French humour. But being slaughtered at one's easel or keyboard for expressing one's rather limited and at times disrespectful view of the world must never be seen as a fair way to air our grievances.
BUT INDEED UNEXPECTEDLY, THE EVENTS have shown me something far more alarming over the last couple of days, and this is the utter inability of the French authorities to deal with such a crisis, suggesting, rather worryingly, that if indeed the merde ever hits the fan on a large scale in France then we would all do well to hope that proper police forces can be brought in from abroad to deal with it au sérieux.
TODAY I WENT TO LUNCH with the intention of finishing my reading of the amusing novel The Visiting Professor, by Robert Littell, which deals with the activities of a middle-aged university professor who almost accidentally discovers the pleasures of oral sex with a 23-year-old girl hairdresser he meets on his arrival in the university town he is visiting. Being a middle-aged university professor myself, I confess that I have found this novel rather gripping, to say the least, and expected to finish it over lunch in the peaceful town of Sintra today.
ALAS, THE CURIOUS EVENTS on the television news kept me from my reading, entranced as I was by what I was watching. Yesterday I watched for over an hour as policemen walked up and down a street in Paris, changing clothes, putting helmets on and taking them off again, loafing about and now and then remonstrating with citizens of the Republic who were crossing their paths carrying supermarket bags full of baguettes.
TODAY I WITNESSED SIMILARLY-DRESSED policemen walking up and down an embankment to no apparent purpose, slipping and sliding and falling over each other and arguing amongst themselves, while hostages were at risk of their lives in a supermarket and two terrorists were "holed up", as the television reporter put it, in a printing factory. Thousands of officers were involved, I was told.
RARELY HAVE I WATCHED anything that pre-announced so clearly that these events were going to end in disaster. This was at lunchtime. It now appears, according to the authorities, that the situation has come to an end, as the imbecile President Hollande has drawn a line under the matter with his speech some minutes ago. However, other sources suggest there may be "further gunmen" on the loose, and that several of the hostages have been killed by the police.
WITH A GOVERNMENT AND POLICE FORCE LIKE THESE, the main enemy facing freedom in France is not random hot-headed Muslims who can't take a joke, but Charlies like those in power who have no idea how to run a multiracial country, how to keep order when it breaks down or how to make anyone feel safe. The only absolute to come out of all of this lamentable business is that the extreme right in France are closer than ever to getting elected into power; and that means trouble for leftwing atheist cartoonists and Muslims alike.
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