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Epiphany
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I was going to Versailles to a meeting "European network
for a Church of freedom". Just arriving I noticed a
tent and I went directly to it, without hesitation, as if a star
was revealing its presence.
Inside the tent a 38-year old man was undergoing a hunger strike,
he was in a weak state. He was happy to welcome me and to explain
his struggle. His fight was for the unfairness made against him
about his lodging.
The meeting in the house of the Sisters of the Cenacle was just
near by. It was proposed to share the Gospel in small groups
during the Epiphany celebration. When it came to me I talked
about what I had just seen: "Epiphany means manifestation.
God manifests himself in being born as a man to show his love
for humanity. Today, men and women demonstrate in the streets
to manifest and make known their demands. Just near by a man
is manifesting in the street, he is in his 51st day of a hunger
strike. Today for Epiphany a sign is given to us. Can we recognize
today the signs of the presence of God among us?
Next to me, a German woman spoke: " I feel sad because
I have not seen this man in his tent when I arrived yesterday.
I passed close without seeing him" |
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Farewell Jean-Pol
- "I don't want to see the sun rise or to see the sun
set anymore
"
- (Jean-Pol)
He was like a wounded bird not knowing where to rest. Anarchist,
anticlerical, tortured soul. He could not stand injustice. At
times he was taking drugs or drinking alcohol.
One day he managed to accomplish a wish dear to him: to invite
me to a restaurant at Buttes Chaumont in Paris. He was walking
on air. With all his weakness he looked to me very human. I liked
Jean-Pol. He told me about his project to go to Dordogne with
his girlfriend, she was every thing to him. I could not imagine
that it was a farewell diner.
Dordogne had been a failure for him and the breakup with his
girlfriend a drama. I received his last letter followed by a
poem.
"OK, it's done, I decided to clear this fucking world
of my malaise
I feel very bad, you know, I feel bloody
furious. I arrived in Dordogne full of hope. I feel cynical and
I hate myself. I would have liked so much to be useful, but my
life was miserable.
I feel sorry my dear Jacques to upset you, but you know, you
are the only person to whom I can speak"
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Families expulsed from their lodging. |
Twelve families squatting since a week in an apartment belonging
to the Town of Paris were brutally expulsed in the street by
the police. They could see the destruction of the staircase of
the building and the main door was walled up.
These families refused to go to a hotel where they cannot do
any cooking or to go back to the slums where their children are
often sick. They ask for lodgings but the City Hall administration
never responded.
They were forced by necessity to squat in this building, empty
for years, like 137 000 other apartments in Paris. One apartment
out of ten is empty in the Capital! But these families have to
camp in the street in the middle of winter.
One evening, with the media recording, we opened the barricaded
main door of the building. I saw the impassable stairs, full
of rubble. What a shame to destroy a staircase to prevent families
from having a lodging! |
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When will spring arrive in Iran? |
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A meeting on human rights in Iran was held in the Lamartine
Room in the House of Parliament, Paris.The Iranian resistance
organized this meeting. Dr. Saleh Radjavi spoke all about this
Islamic Republic which in fact is not republican neither Islamic.
The country is under the dictatorship of the Mollahs where the
freedom of speech is replaced by freedom of repression. Liberties
are confiscated, with the practice of cruel and degrading punishments:
public hanging and whipping, amputations
Many questions came from the audience. How to give freedom to
women in a country where half of the population was born after
the Khomeny revolution? If democracy is installed, what will
be the status of the religion? Dr. Radjavi left us with some
hope, there is a necessity to separate power and religion. Religion
is not fixed, the laic side of the Koran has to be discovered
and given a modern meaning. |
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Turkish demonstration
In Paris, Bastille square, many Turks demonstrate behind red
flags for the thousand prisoners in their country who are engaged
in a hunger strike. After 60 days they are in critical condition.
They refuse to be in isolated cells in such inhuman condition,
they oppose to the building of such jails.
Knowing this, the government decided to attack these prisons.
Tens of prisoners died, hundreds were wounded, one of the prisoners
set himself on fire. TV showed us terrible images of this drama.
The demonstrators slowly cross over the boulevards with slogans
in Turkish and French accompanied by music that I like very much.
The demonstration ended with speeches. They ask me to speak to
the crowd" Will our Parisian demonstration be heard by the
prisoners who are on hunger strike? Will our cries go through
the walls of the jails? The crowd with the red flags are sure
of it. |
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