Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/602004
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 15 NOVEMBER 2015 II Paris attacks Place de Republique Place de la Bastille 9:25pm LE PETIT CAMBODGE Shooting At least 12 dead 9:32pm RESTAURANT COSA NOSTRA Shooting At least 5 dead 9:49pm BATACLAN Shooting, Explosions At 1 police 4 terrorists suicide CLOSING the country's borders and announcing three days of public mourning in response to the madden- ing terrorist attacks on Friday 13 November, President François Hollande declared war and promised 'ruthless action' against the perpetrators of the attacks which he believed were 'prepared, organized and planned from abroad, with complicity from the inside' – now clearly placed at the door of Islamic State militants. Ordinary citizens starting their November weekend at a packed concert, at a popular ethnic restaurant and at the stadium in the French capital, could not compre- hend how so quickly their leisure time was turned into a bloodbath with ambulances screaming down the boul- evards, as Paris was left to wonder: why us, yet again? This is perhaps the most enigmatic question that shocked Parisians, remembering the Charlie Hebdo massacre merely ten months ago, are asking today. De- termined not to give in to terrorism controlling their liberty to live a normal life, they must wonder why this growing, globalized terrorist organisation has targeted random recreational spaces at the heart of ordinary Pa- risian life instead of the expected institutional or military targets. Hurting the lives of common people infuses a sense of insecurity and destabilisation that exposes the vulnera- bility of solid state structures. Helplessness induces pan- ic and despair which, when provoked, could easily turn into hatred and divisive reaction, racism and intolerance. That is why Hollande and several other world leaders in the West have rushed to the media to assuage citizens with an appeal for unity and sang froid in the face of the traumatic devastation, and to reach out to all those who might have escaped physical harm but are psychologi- cally marred by another harrowing experience in their own familiar habitat. Attempting to find logic behind this carnage in France is not easy but maybe the January mayhem of martyred journalists did attract a grand manifestation of global grief on the streets of Paris, giving terrorist strategists the pleasure of magnified publicity dispensing trepida- tion. That such a dreadful event occurred in the capital of the French Revolution where liberty is revered as a sacred tenet, the consequential effect becomes stronger. The temptation to curb people's liberties by imposing security controls, closing commercial outlets, suspend transport and forego entertainment would in the long run not only exacerbate a siege mentality but would also diminish the ability to counter terrorism. Ideal respons- es are hard to come by. Wars – and the fight against terrorism is increasingly becoming another world war – demand unity and de- termination, but as we have seen this week in Malta on migration, the political corpus in Western democracies prefers peaceful negotiations, dialogue and fraternity – another Parisian revolutionary precept. Unfortunately this cordial approach does not always work and when it does it usually takes eternity to attain the desired goals. Scholars of history believe that there is no future with- out interpreting the past. Perhaps the last of the famous three maxims of the French Revolution – equality – points to an investigation of past failures in Europe and elsewhere. Migration is not a phenomenon of our times. Many social analysts believe that the root of some of the evil lies in the lack of integration certain migrants to Western countries seem to have experienced. Disen- chanted immigrant youths in big cities are often prone to illusionary ideology, falsely receiving promises of a eu- phoric future to be inherited by heroic bravados. When this fizzles out into unattainable aims the end result pro- duces envy, hatred and revenge of the other. We must stand united in the face of this assault on who we are, on how we live, on the values we propagate as be- lievers in universal human rights. Terrorism has no reli- gion, but we can stand resolute in the face of the hatred that wants us to live in fear. We refuse to change. Charles Xuereb is a broadcaster and academic special- ising in French issues We must stay united in the face of this hatred Charles Xuereb Paris. A city under siege as terrorists strike