" Regardez-vous tous dans les yeux. Toi Mohammed, toi Abdallah....Toi Julie, Marion... Tous regardez-vous...Luca, Guillaume... Et demandez-vous ce que vous voyez... Vous voulez que je vous dise ce que moi je vois? La France telle qu'elle est aujourd'hui... Dans sa pluralité. Je ne vois rien d'autre... Vous savez pourquoi? Car vous comme moi nous sommes unis par une seule et même idée. Un idéal, qui parfois peut sembler juste des mots dans le vent. Lancés par habitude, comme ça...Juste pour faire"genre"... Pourtant si vous y croyez, cet idéal est le garant de votre liberté individuelle. C'est la République qui unit... Sans religion, sans race, sans genre.... Les gros et les moches.... C'est cet idéal dans lequel il faut que vous croyez... Sans lui il n'est pas possible de continuer. Aimez-vous, embrassez-vous dans la rue... Sortez, buvez, fumez... Tous ensembles car vous êtes mes enfants... Tout comme vous êtes ceux de la Nation. Oui le racisme existe... L'exclusion, la discrimination.... Mais ce n'est pas la république qui le fait.... C'est nous.... Vous êtes tous là devant moi... Aucune distinction n'a été faite entre vous.... Tous avez droit aux mêmes choses.... C'est ça la République.... Avec tout ce que cela engendre... Pouvoir vivre, rire de moi même.... De toi aussi par exemple Abdallah qui est retourné..... De la religion, des profs... Seule la loi a le droit de vous l' interdire. Vendredi soir nous avons tous été frappés... Vous pensez qu'ils ont demandé la religion des gens avant de tirer? Non.... Aucune distinction.... Vous savez pourquoi? Car cet idéal de liberté, d' égalité et de fraternité leur fait mal..... On éradique ce qui fait mal... restez unis, comme cette classe..... Alors la république, votre république tiendra.... Votre liberté de vivre comme vous le voulez tiendra..... "
Deux dans la classe pleuraient..... Ils l'ont fait cette minute de silence..... Un 16/11 dans un lycée de banlieue...
If you find this post inappropriate .. Don't hesitate to delete it.. I would understand perfectly
Mèrci beaucoup jean-louis
That is indeed beautiful, it brought tears to my eyes also.
Even though I try to live my life by the tenets of the Christian Bible’s 10 Commandments and my father’s (excellent) moral influences on me, I do wish Tolerance & Respect was also practised by secular non-secular individuals.
Thank you very much again, making the time to translate for me - I share your pain, parce-que j’adore France, ou je retour Angleterre ci non!
Look at each other in the eyes. You Mohamed, you Abdallah... You Julie, Marion... All of you, look at each other... Luca, Guillaume... And ask yourselves what you are looking at... Do you want me to tell you what I can see? France as it is today... In its differences and diversity. I can't see anything else... Do you know why? Because you and I are bond by the same idea. An ideal that might seem only words into the wind.Thrown routineley; just like that... just to "pretend"... Nevertheless if you believe in it, this ideal is your own freedom's keeper...It's the Republic that unites... No religion, no race, no gendre... The fat, the ugly... You must believe in this ideal.... Without it it's impossible to walk on.. Love each other, kiss each other on the street.. Go out, drink, smoke... All together, because you are my kids... as you are the nation's. Yes racism exists, discrimination, exclusion. But it's not due to the Republic, it's due to us.... You are all in front of me, no distinction was made amongst you.You all have the same rights...That's what the Republic is. With all the things that it means... Being able to live, laugh at myself... At you as well Abdallah who is turning around... Laugh at religion, teachers... Only the law can forbid yu to do so.... We were all hit on Friday... Do you think that asked the people their religion before shooting ?No...No distinction... Do you know why? Because this ideal of Liberty, Fraternity and Equality hurts them....We eradicate what hurts us...Stay united, as this class is... So the Republic, your republic will stand.. Your liberty to live as you please will stand.. . "
Two in the class were crying... They respected their minute of silence... A 16/11/2015 in a suburban high school.
Thank you very much Jean-Louis,I do speak some reasonable French in limited situations, but the way French language is constructed in writing leaves me baffled, When there are 12000 Verbs to be conjugated, I’m definitely lost after my AVC 3 yrs go, and I only started to learn French for 1st time in 68 yrs, 8 years go!
Which doesn’t detract from the fact I am sad for France and her people after both Paris and Mali. I also apologise for the controversy my comment has caused and did not mean to add to your distress.
J-L, believe it or not I know brits who have been here 25 years and still can't speak a word of French ! They expect the French to speak English and they have absolutely no intention of learning the language...
I'll post at translation when I have ten minutes Shirley... Sorry, to my mind I thought that expats in France could speak and read a little bit... My mistake.
Vero I wasn’t exactly demanding it be only in English, I had hoped someone would have given me the gist of it in English. Did you read and understand my sentiment in I wrote after my 1st sentence? Also my reply to David’s comment just below yours.
I know there are many members on here, who are not fluent in both languages and I was not criticising Jean-Louis, as said previously I feel for French people, just as I feel for the Russian people, their families and friends, given they ALL died in the plNe crash, they had no choice or chance eithèr!
There has been little sympathy shown, heard or read anywhere for them. we are all human beings, what ever our language or culture, irrespective of country of birth or now living in.
C'mon Shirley it's not that difficult. I thought this site has the advantage that people are free to post in English and in French or even Berliner Deutsch if Brian 's around.
Not everyone can translate their precise sentiments into another language, when in the grip of strong emotion - expats of all people should understand that.
given this is an expats website, a version in English also, for those not fluent in French would have been nice to understand exactly not just the words, but also the precise sentiments from Jean-Louis! I can assume only that it is relative to the Paris tragedy and yes my heart goes out to France and her subjects, who have been affected by it, as well as other nationalities involved. the family of the young Englishman killed at the theatre, lives only a few miles from where I did in Uk, so I know the village well, if not the family.
Even our western society has youngsters who face a bleak future. One of the consequences of raising the retirement age is the huge figure for the unemployed between 18 and 24. Without a routine of work they will find it difficult to develop a work ethic yet they are society’s future. Bored senseless, recycling dodgy political beliefs with their peers, how much incentive would they need to try something a bit more exciting than their current lot? I know that this is not new, when talking with a Second World War veteran at Bayeux in June 1994 I was surprised how he described his landing in Normandy on DDay+6 as the most exciting moment in his life. He saw it as a real improvement on what he had experienced as a teenager growing up in the North East where the tastiest carrot on the stick up till then had been a job down the pit. It’s a complex situation now as it has been in the past.
Oh no way. Actually they have declared Christmas to be aa right wing conspiracy to make us all work, preferring themselves not to be disturbed in their hibernation.
The kids were removed and sent to a local catholic school as boarders.
The parents blamed me for “outing” them. I did not, but wanted to do so. Just did not know the system well enough.
Sadly the kids did not benefit and are two horrible, marginal, drug addicts.
No, I will be somewhere else for holidays, once I figure out where.
So we take it they are not being invited to your place for Christmas dinner? Every year an association I helped found here makes a special Christmas gesture being a quite generous box of goodies, mainly food, for local familes specified by the Mairie as being in need. I have preferred to not be involved in the distribution but along with everybody else in the group do get involved in raising funds. For the last few years one recipient of this largesse has been one of the people recently handing out abuse to les Anglais, generally, and me, specifically. No doubt the person enjoys the irony, but the delightful young children of the family will benefit, at least those that haven't yet been taken away.
We have a nasty neighbor who is now head of household with wife and kids just like him.
No amount of social work, welfare benefits or neighborly kindness has any impact.
All the neighbors Molly coddle all of them for the sake of peace and quiet.
Every Spring, in last week of March he roars out of his hovel, berating all, including animals, breaking fences, uprooting trees. This goes on for about two weeks until some authority intervenes and he is curtailed.
Curious for me though is to watch which neighbors use his violence to their own ends. He is a “fall guy” for quite a few of the local cabaliers. It has been said that ha wife is the criminal and he is the pistol in her pocket. It is true. She loves violence and mischief, but she has her cohorts.