Last year we lost our way. We witnessed the emerging of a world more divided than ever, more fragile than ever and more tragic than ever. Politicians reached their limit – have they finally become irrelevant? – dolls tossed around as they tried desperately to weather a storm of unfathomable events and consequences. They acted so entrenched in their shortsighted views, focused on the now, the immediate and personal benefit.
I cannot help but wonder: where is the feeling of national pride? Where is the consistency, the cohesiveness? Where is leadership with a capital L? Show me the strong and courageous leaders that made the world we once knew possible. Point me towards the new kings, the new Churchill, the new Roosevelt, the new De Gaulle or Lee Kwan Yu. Where are the ones courageous enough to provoke the birth of a new world?
Europe ah, good old Europe – the old continent has never more been in tune with its name. Or shall we coin it the fading continent?
The European ideal appeared more and more like a dream that will never be fully realised. Look at it – from Schengen to the single currency, the vision of a strong united front is more and more a thing of the past. Quarrels and dissension are everywhere – the migrant crisis, the debt crisis, the secessionist crisis, and you could list many more.
The economy is in a total shambles, all theories and certainties are slowly but surely collapsing. Stock price and bond yields, inflation and debt, deflation and growth, Interventionism versus free market, all models that have been tested and retested, challenged, but to no avail. There is turmoil on every front.
Last year we watched new somersaults, with tumbles in values. We have witnessed naming and shaming – auf wiedersehen VW – purges in every part of the world, from Nigerian National Petroleum – where are the 20 missing billions? There have also been mysterious disappearances of high-ranking Chinese nationals and industrialists.
This is before we arrive at the religious extremism that rocked Paris.
A casual Friday night on good old planet Earth, for those keen just to live their lives with all the mundane little things, a drink with friends, a concert long awaited or a football match.
The terrorists targeted life, future and freedom. For we French, at home or abroad, this was a 9/11, and it came with a vivid recollection of months of terrors for everyone else.
Last year, we lost our voice. We must have been in shock. We could only listen. We were unable to speak. We were afraid.
Now we are opening 2016. It is a new year, it is a new dawn and we all ought to be feeling good. In 2016 let us change everything. Let us take position, to fully live again, to dream again, to rekindle political activism, for everyone and anyone.
Let us believe in humanism, in enlightenment and human rights again.
Let us cure the economy. How? I do not know, but I believe that with optimism, patience, endurance and diversity of thinking, everything is possible – with the courage to acknowledge failure, observing the world, and going back to basics.
In 2016, Let us fight on every front, for everyone.
It is always better to die trying, to die standing, than to live our lives in fear or on our knees.
In 2016, let us take back our voice.
With love to Ambre Crocis.