{"id":27894,"date":"2015-01-15T17:47:31","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T15:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/?p=27894"},"modified":"2015-01-14T22:47:48","modified_gmt":"2015-01-14T20:47:48","slug":"jesuishumain-im-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/2015\/01\/15\/jesuishumain-im-human\/","title":{"rendered":"#JeSuisHumain (I\u2019m human)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Friday, January 9th.<\/strong> It has been only two days since the atrocious massacre that happened in Paris. On Wednesday morning, the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were assaulted, leaving 12 people dead and many others seriously injured. Among the victims were five cartoonists, which were recognized for their talents and also for being openly acid, irreverent and provocative.<\/p>\n

I have known Charlie Hebdo for some years now, and although I\u2019m not French and thus I don\u2019t know well the men behind the cartoons, I felt deeply shocked. First of all because 12 people, 12 human beings, were killed because of their work \u2013 drawing cartoons. Secondly, because every second I was reminded of how ridiculous and useless their deaths were. And finally, because different feelings invaded me: fear, anxiety, insecurity, and a profound, deep sadness.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>However, the sheer madness continued: on Thursday morning, an armed guy shot a policewoman in southern Paris, and later that day she died because of her injuries. The suspects of the attack to Charlie Hebdo had been identified – and they were thought as linked to a radical Islamist groups, notably Al-Qaeda. Special forces started the manhunt around the country and paranoia started to grow. At the same time, thousands gathered in the main squares of many French cities to pay respect to the victims of the murderous attacks. Today [9 January 2015]<\/em>, around 1pm a new hostage situation took place in Porte de Vincennes, southeast Paris. Another armed guy, allegedly related to the two gunmen responsible of the Charlie Hebdo attack, assaulted a kosher supermarket taking a group of people hostage. At this point in time, sadness and fear were both overwhelming feelings.<\/p>\n

Through these lines, I would like to put the finger on what saddens me the most, which is the indiscriminate killing of people, anywhere in the world. And when I say \u201cpeople\u201d, I don\u2019t put next to it \u201cinnocent\u201d, because I want to avoid the Manichean approach of \u201cme\u201d vs. \u201cothers\u201d. After reading (and taking part in some of) the debates on social media among my friends that belong to a variety of beliefs, religions and cultures, the only thought that keeps popping out in my mind is that every human being, every human life, is as precious as the others no matter where you are. And this means that yes, the killing of dozens of Yemenis that same day in Sanaa\u2019 is as saddening as the 12 people that were shot in Paris.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sunday, January 11th.<\/strong> After reading dozens of articles presenting different points of view on what has been happening since the attack at Charlie Hebdo, as well as debating with friends the whats and the whys, all I can think of is: we need to do much more to attain more peaceful and tolerant societies, and aim at justifying less in the name of an ideology or religion.<\/p>\n

I strongly believe that the aftermath is as important as what happened today, where 4 million people rallied in France to defend freedom of expression and to mourn all 17 victims of these 5 days of horror. And when I think of the aftermath, there are many ideas that come to my mind. It is sad to see that, in the name of whatever reason, we are capable of losing our humanity. That instead of dialogue, violence is prevailing. What happened in France is as atrocious as what has been happening all around the world, where hundreds of thousands are killed, tortured or imprisoned because of senseless reasons. More than ever, I am convinced that education (and in particular, human rights education) is our only \u201cweapon\u201d to defeat the ignorance, the prejudices, the injustices and ultimately, the violence.<\/p>\n

\n

Since last Wednesday, I have read many articles that try to analyze the causes, find some reasons to justify the attack, or simply to take position as a mere observant. And something has been bothering me about the whole \u201cI condemn the attacks, BUT\u2026\u201d speech. Because there is no \u2018BUT\u2019 to be added. You do not kill someone else because of a cartoon. You do not kill someone else because he or she was not a \u201cgood Christian\u201d or a \u201cgood Muslim\u201d. You do not kill someone else because he or she questioned your beliefs. You do not kill someone else, period. When we lose all our arguments and give up, that\u2019s where we are failing as human beings. Because that\u2019s what we are: imperfect, sometimes irrational, human beings that are also capable of learning and improving.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And when I say this, I am not disregarding all the factors that should be taken into consideration when trying to understand what happened and why. Yes, I agree that we have fallen deeply into the dialectic of \u201cme vs. you\u201d, \u201cEast vs. West\u201d, and so on. I also agree that racism and xenophobia are nesting again in Europe. I acknowledge the fact that the Muslim community has been the object of unjust accusations (\u201call Muslim are terrorists\u201d and similar shortcuts). I even admit that the historical evolution of the French society since the 60s could have something to do with all this. However, using all these facts to start justifying what happened, that I cannot do. And I defend the idea that in such disturbing times, we cannot overlook the essential: we must get our humanity back.<\/p>\n

What will happen next? We probably should question ourselves, as individuals living in multicultural societies, and this is a call for all those reading this piece. Let\u2019s do some self-criticism and put the finger on what are those things that we should change to be better individuals, and thus build better societies. Let\u2019s go back to the essentials and read again the UN Declaration of Human Rights, and repeat to ourselves that we may not always agree with what others say and do, but as Gandhi said, \u201can eye for an eye makes the whole world blind\u201d. As Amnesty International<\/a> puts it so well, \u201cNot everyone will share the same opinions all of the time \u2013 but no exchange of ideas should end in a bloodbath (…) The right to freedom of expression is an essential linchpin for the realization and exercise of all human rights. Granted, it is not an absolute right \u2013 there are certain, very limited, circumstances where free speech can be restricted, for example, \u201chate speech\u201d or incitement to discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Yes, you have the right to feel offended. You have the right to complain, to appeal, even to ask for a legal procedure against the one you think offended you. But every time you feel offended, think that questioning your beliefs, your values or your faith should help you to be stronger. And consider, also, that if the questioning invalidates your beliefs, then maybe it\u2019s an issue between you and your own set of principles.<\/p>\n

As L\u00e9a, a 6 year-old-girl said: \u201cWhen we don\u2019t like a cartoon, we don\u2019t kill people. We draw one even better\u201d.<\/p>\n

Written by Barbara Santiba\u00f1ez, AEGEE-Paris and Content member of Democracy in Practice project<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday, January 9th. It has been only two days since the atrocious massacre that happened in Paris. On Wednesday morning, the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were assaulted, leaving 12 people dead and many others seriously injured. Among the victims were five cartoonists, which were recognized for their talents and also for being openly acid, irreverent and provocative.… Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":27895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[8],"tags":[571,1595,1593,1596,1597,1594],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27894"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27931,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27894\/revisions\/27931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}