This is tragic and extraordinary. I can’t believe such a thing has happened in a small rural village.
Yep, quite scary when the violence we see (at a distance) on the News becomes “real-life” and so close to home. 
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It’s merely conjecture on my part, uninformed by any reliable data from the brief account of this tragic incident in the local press.
But what stands out for me is that the suspected killer was very young and possibly an immigrant from Haiti, one of the most desperately poor and generally benighted island nations on earth.
We shall have to address more incidents like this as young émigrés are displaced from very deteriorated parts of the southern hemisphere, and struggle to adapt and survive in densely alien cultures, while possessing no resources of education, money or social support to help them settle and re-invent themselves in a new environment.
Many such third world cultures produce people in whom individuation and a strong sense of personal identity is much less in evidence, and of much less social value, than in the north.
In cultures which seem alien to their general understanding, and in which they make no progress, such immigrants become highly anxious, and eventually this anxiety turns to pathological depression.
This depression in African and some Asian cultures often and even usually presents as persecutory delusions of a psychotic kind: with pervasive and irrational suspicion of others, amounting to terror; and to lethal violence to perceived persecutors, often at random and directed at innocent strangers. Not uncommonly, perpetrators are diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenics. Or judged to have acted as terrorists of one stripe or another.
Many mental health professionals with experience of ‘cross-cultural psychiatry’ have legitimate concerns about such mis-diagnosis and inappropriate treatment, which is widespread.
But as I say and believe, we are going to see more of this as the tide of emigration from (climate-driven) hostile regions increases, and as debate about how to manage it remains shallow and weak.
My thoughts, of course, extend to those who knew, cared for and loved the young victim, as does my appreciation of those who have responded to its aftermath both professionally and as a community of concern.
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So far, the only reaction I’ve heard from people is “he’s a black, what do you expect?” …“they should all be sent back …” etc., etc.
I asked my neighbours what they’d think if the bloke had been from the same village & white…“well, it wouldn’t happen, would it!?”
Not sure why it is happening, but every daynow, it seems I am reading about someone who has stabbed/shot/murdered someone within their family or a neighbour - colour/nationality seems to play no part in it.
Folk seem to be very much “uptight” and smouldering emotions finally explode with disastrous results.
Mind you, this does seem to be happening in all parts of the globe… violence is on the increase.
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Somehow over the last 20/30 years the value of’ life’ has been lost and until it is seen as ‘precious’ again tragedies like this will continue unabated.
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That’s an unfortunate response but not unexpected. I imagine feelings are running high. I suppose my question would be why would you take a knife to a rural fete?
I briefly read the report in the paper this morning…the reason for the attack is still unknown.
One thing for sure though, the chap from Albine was seen as being a decent young man, & had not long met a lady from the north whose mother (I think) lives in Aussillon.
Whatever the case turns out to be, it’s one life lost under unnecessarily tragic circumstances, & several lives ruined into the bargain…including that of the perpetrator.
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Mandy, see my post on the prevalence of mental illness amongst young emigrés from third world countries. Illnesses that are ‘hidden’: people with profound depression, suicidal ideas, or delusions of persecution usually suppress their symptoms: they are polite, often smiling, and seem to function normally. Sometimes they hallucinate (hear voices that taunt, threaten or command).
Behind this self-protective façade they are tormented and terrified. They dread attack, and will lash out at an imagined assaillant. It’s a mental illness. Such people commonly arm themselves when venturing out.
I’ve spent much of my life in the care of such people. They are ordinary men and sometimes women. Like those mothers that kill their children ‘to protect them’ from diabolical attack.
It’s hard for ‘lay people’ to understand. Only people with psychiatric experience know it as an everyday reality, centuries old. It’s why most cities and big towns had huge 1,000 bed asylums on their outskirts until they were closed down to save money.
Care in the community is a bad joke. It has never worked because it was done on a criminally inadequate budget. Like care of the elderly. And soon our NHS under Johnson.
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I don’t think we know enough about the young man to comment. We don’t know if he was recently arrived in France or came as a baby. We don’t know if he came with his parents or as an orphan. Does “originaire” mean he was born in Haiti or he is just of Haitian origin but born in France? His race/origins may have nothing to do with what happened.
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Absolutely Bob.
So the victim was definitely from Albine?
Yes Mandy
Florent Basso (?)…he lived on th road that goes up toward Sales, by all accounts
You make very fair points as always Mandy, and they are echoed in the first sentence of my own comment.
Mine was a comment on the increased incidence of serious mental illness amongst young émigrés especially those from very poor or war-torn countries.
The incidence of violent crime in their home countries is much lower than in the developed world, and is usually associated with robbery.
No doubt the truth will eventually emerge, although the courts now deal with mentally ill offenders in prison. Because it’s a much cheaper option than a mental hospital. The mentally ill now end up in prison, which provides custody but nothing in the form of therapy or humane care.
Our goals are full of them. I worked in the prison service as a Buddhist chaplain for twelve years, so I’ve seen it at close quarters, as well as a psychiatric nurse.
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A French person understands ‘originaire de XYZ’ to mean born in XYZ, not ‘born in France but that’s where the parents or grandparents were born’.
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Thanks Vero for that explanation.