Il Volantino Europeo hors-série décembre 2017

Special issue December 2017 – Season’s Greetings

Bulletin internautique de l’Association Piotr-Tchaadaev

Bonne Année 2017! Happy New Year! Buon Anno! Boldog Uj Evet! Glückliches Neujahr! E glëckliches nëies! Un an nou fericit ! С Новым Годом ! Gelukkig Nieuwjaar ! Pace e salute!

For some years we are regularly alerted about birds’ disappearance on our planet¹ ². The same is said about bees (“no more honey or no [w]hore money?”- sorry for the spoonerism…), and even about ourselves, human beings. Dinosaurs also disappeared, who is actually bitterly regretting them?

About birds, our sources also mention that mainly common species disappeared; meanwhile the situation became better for some rare species, due to appropriated measures.

We won’t of course write our season’s greetings as a kind of Jean de la Fontaine transformed in an apocalyptic prophet, but this phenomena cannot let us indifferent: everything we can observe around us, from close or from far, shows that for many things, no appropriate steps are taken. Let’s think to migrants and environment, for instance. If the French President Emmanuel Macron recently organized a big “One planet summit” about climate change and said “We are losing the battle”, his policy about migrants has been qualified by “Le Monde” with “unprecedented harshness” and “the honour of France is at stake”³ (December 16th 2017). Politics are full of contradictions, everybody knows it.

To conclude, our wishes will be this year under the aegis of the owl: being full of wisdom and able to see in the darkness, for any small or big deal… Enjoy your season’s holydays and see you at the latest at the next “Divan on the Danube” (May 8th – 11th 2018 in Budapest). Best regards from the Editorial Board

piotr-tchaadaev@wanadoo.fr

1. http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2014/11/03/l-europe-a-perdu-plus-de-400-millions-d-oiseaux-d-especes-communes-en-30-ans_4516884_3244.html

2. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.12387/epdf

3. http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2017/12/16/migrants-l-honneur-de-la-france-en-jeu_5230752_3232.html