LATEST NEWS:

Letter to my daughter

Letter to my daughter

By: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, Nobel Prize winner for Literature (written in January 2015, after the attack on the magazine's editorial office Charlie Hebdo)

You have chosen to participate in the demonstration against the terrorist attacks. I am happy that you will be present in the ranks of all those who will march against crime and against the blind violence of fanatics. I would like to be with you, but I am far away, and to tell you the whole story, I feel a little old to participate in a movement where there are so many people. You returned enthusiastic by the sincerity and determination of the demonstrators; many young and many less young, some family members Charlie Hebdo-, others you did not know, had neither seen nor heard of, all outraged by the heinous attacks. You were touched by the dignified presence, at the head of the procession of the victims' families. You were moved as you saw a child of African origin marching, looking down from a balcony whose railings were higher than he. I truly believe that this was a strong moment in the history of the French people, which some desperate intellectuals wanted to believe were timid and pessimistic, condemned to submission and apathy. I think that this day has repelled the specter of discord that threatens our pluralistic society.

It took courage to march unarmed through the streets of Paris and elsewhere, because no matter how perfect the organization of the police forces was, the risk of an assassination attempt was too great. Your parents trembled for you, but it is you who have the right to bravely overcome the danger. And, then, there is always something wonderful in such a moment, which brings together so many different people, coming from every corner of the world, perhaps precisely in the sight of this child that you saw on his balcony, no higher than the railings and that you will remember for the rest of your life. It passed, you were a witness.


Now it is important not to forget. It is also important for people of your generation, because our generation did not know or could not prevent racist crimes and sectarian derivatives to act so that the world in which you will continue to live is better than ours. It is a very difficult undertaking, almost insurmountable. It is an undertaking of division and exchange with others. I mean that it is a matter of war. Without a doubt, the spirit of evil is present everywhere and a little wind is enough for it to spread and consume everything around you. But there is another war that is at stake, you understand: a war against injustice, against the abandonment of some young people, against the tactical oblivion in which we leave a part of the population (in France, but also in the world), not sharing with them the benefits of culture and the chances of social well-being.

Three murderers, born in France, have terrified the world with the barbarity of their crime. But they are not barbarians. They are the kind of people we can encounter every day, at any moment, at school, on the subway, in everyday life. At a certain point in their lives, they fall into crime because they have frequented bad places, because they have failed at school, because their life offered them nothing but a closed world where they had no place, they believed. At a certain point they were not masters of their own destiny. The first whisper of revenge that passed embraced them, and they took for religion what is only an alienation from it.

This descent into hell is what must be stopped, otherwise this collective march will be nothing more than a moment, it will not change anything. Nothing will be done without the participation of everyone. We must break the ghettos, open the gates, give every inhabitant of this country a chance, listen to his voice, learn from him as much as he learns from others. We must stop building a foreignness within our nation. We must heal the misery of souls to heal the disease that is eroding the foundations of our democratic society.

I think it is this feeling that touched you when you marched in the midst of this great crowd. During this wonderful moment, the barriers of class and origin, the differences of beliefs, the walls that separate beings no longer existed. There was only one people of France, diverse and unique, diverse and beating with the same heart. I hope that from this day on, all of them, all of those who were with you, will continue to march in their heads, in their souls and that after them their children and their children's children will continue this march.