The child of the country is the 'stranger'. |
Anne Townsend | 16
september 2011 |
| Will you please excuse me if this lines
sound like the vicar's homelie.... For a few months I have heard being
said here and there: « there are so few of us in these
villages! We ought to be able to get on together. » I agree;
I
entirely agree. But how are we to set about it? First we must accept the chilly reality that nothing is easier than to create hell for a neighbour and for the community as a whole, if it is what we wish for whatever reason. Yes, we all have a great power of disruption, even perversion, power to disarm the best intentions, if we wish to do so either in a spirit of revenge or simply to test our power. An accusing finger would be of no use. Let's recognize that we are all capable of harbouring this negativity, if not being guilty of it. The second measure to take is more positive: let's ask ourselves what is the strong point of our own personnality and how we can put it to the service of the community. Then, let's ask ourselves the same question as far as the 'neighbour' is concerned and let's encourage each other to 'build' the community. All very well, but we have to get to know him, this neighbour. Hence the importance to meet on neutral ground, leaving aside conflicts. But do we wish to meet? May be not if the other is 'the stranger, the foreigner, whose word will never weigh as much as that of the 'enfant du pays', the 'native', who, surely, has more rights than the disturbing outsider. Here, to show that this antagonism should not exist, I would like to speak of a writer, native of the Cevennes, who expanded at great length and with much love on his native province: Andre Chamson. This member of the Academie Francaise said of himself the he was a citizen of the world and, at the same time, said that his real, profound self, was everything that was 'native' in him. In other words, the Cevennes had moulded him. He did not want to be a regionalist writer, but he recognised that his roots were who he was To be what your roots are and at the same time citizen of the world... Why not let the world come into our villages from the outside? |
And I have said 'our', because this
village of Valquieres, I adopted it 20 years ago when we discovered
the house we bought and came to love. Now I would love Valquieres to adopt us, my husband and myself. Am I condemned to be an eternal stranger because my father chose to enter the French Navy with all the removals which this career entails, and consequently, the lack of roots? He fought the nazis in solidarity with everyone involved. As for my English husband, his paternal grandfather rests in a French cemetery, in the Somme. How many Brits gave their lives on the French battle fields during WW1? His maternal grandfather was lost at sea – along with several uncles – during WW2, all victims of nazism. Here too, didn't the Brits show a generous solidarity with France? And the victory was for all French people, including the inhabitants of our commune. Could we then stop ranking the inhabitants according to a hierarchy where the top are 'les enfants du pays'? Could we all be treated as equal citizens? A more serious consequence of the perception of the other as 'the outsider' is the underlying gut fear, often unrecognised, of the difference, the unknown, therefore of what we don't understand. Fear which can lead to aggressivity, to discrimination, to rejection of the other. Is it what we really want? While everywhere, in schools in particular, tolerance is being taught, and the fact that the difference found in the other will turn out to be a richness if we bother to understand it. To try to understand the other's point of view is an opening of the mind. If we want to appreciate a sculpture, you must not look at it from one angle only, but study it from every angle. Or else, let's remember this Indian proverb which tells us that to get to know someone we have to walk a few miles wearing his shoes. In the same way, our neighbour, 'enfant du pays' or stranger, who seems to be too 'different' – if not mad – or too dull and down to earth - has a unique and interesting personality which we should discover and appreciate. In this task of discovery we can only be winners. |
 
 
La
commune de DIO ET VALQUIÈRES, située dans le
département de
l'HERAULT, au pied des Cévennes, réunie
trois hameaux DIO, VALQUIÈRES et VERNAZOUBRES,
d'une
importance quasi égale, et abrite 139 habitants sur une
superficie de 1.877 hectares. La Gazette
de Dio et Valquières
est une initiative de citoyens concernés qui
surveillent de façon critique la politique
municipale.
Gazette
de Dio et Valquières
|