Log-book: February 2001

  Epiphany  Farewell Jean-Pol 
  Families expulsed from their lodging
  When will spring arrive in Iran?  Turkish demonstration 
  French Bibliography  Archives of Partenia 
  History of Partenia, Biography of Bishop Jacques Gaillot 
 


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Epiphany 
European network for a Church of freedom 

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"
   

 

     
   

 Brutally expulsed in the street... 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!

   

 

     
   

When will spring arrive in Iran?  How to give freedom? 

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.

   

 

     
   

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.