Je Suis Charlie


I have an article written laid out in front of me. It is about social media, and my personal attachment to it. Today, I am sat here, about to type it up, but I feel there is something more important to write. That is, the terrible news from Paris, and the brutal assassination of the staff from Charlie Hebdo, as well as those killed in a Kosher Supermarket the following day. Everything seems quite trivial this week, apart from this news. 

The main thought apart from the unbearable sadness and anger, is confusion. Confusion as to why people would have so much hatred in their lives that they choose what was essentially a suicide mission, taking other people’s lives with them, in the belief of.... what exactly? To spread fear? To cause hurt to people? To make people more paranoid? I don’t know. It certainly wasn’t in the name of Islam.  

As for the fear - maybe they have done that in some way - people will probably look over their shoulders a bit more, for a time. For a time, there will be more police on the streets of Paris, but I feel that this will only be for a time, then life will eventually return to normal. The same way it has on the streets of London. Charlie Hebdo will continue to exist, albeit without their best cartoonists and editor, but it will stand defiant. 

When I studied French, part of that study was looking at Charlie Hebdo - mainly because the language was easier to translate in its bitesize chunks. I didn’t necessarily agree with the magazine’s way of offending everyone, however I admired their will and defiance for freedom of expression and free speech. The quote from Charb which is fast becoming the message from these atrocities is “I’d rather die standing than live on my knees” - and Charlie Hebdo is still standing, even if a number of their staff have now died defending it.

As for the hurt, it certainly has hurt people deeply. As a (very) part-time writer, I cannot believe that people would want to cause hurt to people that merely put their minds onto a piece of paper. People may not agree with what I say, certainly after the Oscar Pistorius writings I still get a lot of comment, positive and negative, but I cannot believe that people would then want to take that disagreement as to what is on paper as justification for killing others.

But where the terrorists have failed is by causing hurt, they have caused something a lot more powerful. They have caused people to come together. 3.4 million tweets were sent using the hashtag “Je Suis Charlie” in 24 hours. That’s a staggering amount of people coming together, to face the atrocities together. To say that we will defend the rights of free speech and we will condemn these awful acts, because we are all Charlie Hebdo - we are all one, and we will all defend our rights to free speech.   

There are areas in this world that have succumbed to losing their rights to free speech, areas such as Pakistan, where many women are not educated, and where Malala Yousafzai was shot, for being a normal girl going to school. A young girl defending her rights to be educated, to be more. To be a school pupil, what many kids in this country take for granted, and even not want. The Boko Haram massacre, 2,000 women, children, and the elderly being killed, for what?

At this stage, I can’t help but wonder, what next? What will happen in Paris, in Europe, in the wider world? Will people fear creating satire in future? Will self-censorship become even more censored? I don’t know. I hope not. I hope there still will be people like Charb, that will be prepared to die on their feet than live on their knees. That we won’t give up our rights to free speech, to our rights for liberté, égalité, fraternité - freedom, equality and fraternity, and that we will stand together, despite our differences. 

Je suis Charlie, et nous sommes tous Charlie. 

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