Corsica: a France that resists…

Far from the turpitudes of France, Corsica enjoys a simplicity of life which appealed to Pope Francis. An island that never stops fighting to remain itself, whether in the cult of its qualities or in its “distinguished” criminality…

Far be it from me to mythologize Corsica by forgetting the violence, murders, assassinations and terrorism which have tragically bereaved families and derailed this magnificent island.

Ancient virtues…

But how can we not be struck by the empathy and a form of esteem, even respect that the French feel more and more for life in Corsica, its greatness, its honor, its ancient virtues?

This obstinate pope who preferred the popular faith and this immense and intense Corsican fervor to the otherwise splendid official solemnity of Notre-Dame de Paris, undoubtedly understood everything that was unique about this territory, this naive, unpretentious belief in religious symbols and the obvious relationship of Catholicism with this island. No more learned skepticism, no fundamentalist conception of secularism, no refusal of crèches, no desire to eradicate anything that directly or indirectly refers to the Christian origins of France. Corsica appeared to me in these last days as the revenge of simple, spontaneous emotion, happy to express itself without the slightest shame or the slightest reserve, on rationality content with itself.

Also read, Aurélien Marq: The Pope, Corsica and jokes on secularism

How can we ignore the cult of these qualities which were sometimes so internalized that they did not need words, that they only needed these tuned faces and hands? Trust, loyalty, friendship, taste and protection of childhood, dignity, concern for the elderly and their experience.

Identity is not a dirty word there

For a long time, in terms of security, there were people in Corsica who were not touched. Rapes were non-existent and children were sacred. The elderly too. A sort of immunity left everything relating to intimate life and family existence safe. The offenses and crimes were located in another world, another sphere. Things have changed a little, they say, but I continue to think that Corsica still escapes this terrifying drift from the continent where no limits exist, where no brakes are placed on the release of the worst instincts. With an increasingly observed precocity and a thugocracy stopped by nothing, and not only in the field of drugs and drug trafficking.

Also read, Elisabeth Lévy: Hallelujah

Corsica never stops fighting to remain itself. Identity isn’t a dirty word there. Let us remember certain incidents, clashes in cities, on beaches, where to defend their community against those who claimed to impose their law and their force, the united Corsicans put the kibosh on it. And the warnings were understood. Where the continent too often gives in through weakness or fatalism, Corsica is too proud of what it is to let what constitutes it be lost. With the awareness that his resistance is legitimate.

I will not push the provocation so far as to consider that even in Corsican crime, there remain elements that distinguish it. We must not abuse this overly French slant, cultivated in the media, which seeks to give luster to the odious or the ignoble.

We do not need that to love Corsica, its population, these sometimes dark-looking beings, not giving in to easy kindness but waiting for time to have built, demonstrated, done its work. But then it’s for life! Corsica is a France that has not yet gotten into the habit of bending. Far from being outdated, I hope that it announces what one day we can become again. If the numerous tourists who go there and admire its magnificent landscapes and its incredible viewpoints could also imbibe what I do not hesitate to call its morality, they would gain in true humanity.