Against all odds… very Merry Christmas to all!

Dear friends of BV,

Because there is already a bit of Good Friday in Christmas, especially for those who have lost a loved one, our thoughts go first to those of our readers who have been affected, this year, by the disappearance of a loved one. or by those who are alone, on this New Year's Eve. How can we not mention, on this occasion, these families with whom we cried this year, those, in particular, of Philippine, of Nicolas: there, it is no longer just about sadness that we are talking about, but about anger. It was not an accident or illness, in other words fate, that killed them but the incompetence of a failed state in matters of immigration and security.

We then think of the Mahorais, victims of a natural disaster, which has become a real tragedy for the same reasons as mentioned above… For the same earthquake, the consequences are not the same in a far-sighted Japan as in a far-sighted Türkiye. inconsistent urban planning. It is the same, changingcyclones.

We still think of Boualem Sansal, this 75-year-old writer who will spend Christmas behind bars, as an Algerian Solzhenitsyn, as if, far from serving him, his recent French nationality was an aggravating circumstance, even a mortal sin.

We think, finally, of the Christians of the East, in particular Syrians, fearing going from Charybdis to Scylla… They are Cassandras, distraught whistleblowers, to whom we blind Christians of the West do not listen.

But we cannot at the same time pretend to celebrate Christmas, gather around the nativity scene – this innocent nativity scene that has become a political issue -, without cultivating Hope and joy: we wish you all a very happy Christmas!