Caricatures

Here we go again... Seven years ago the Jyllands-Posten published cartoons which fuelled the anger of extremist Muslims around the world. Another 'Muhammad cartoons row' has erupted after the publication of drawings in Charlie Hebdo. Let me be clear about this: satire and caricature are essential to freedom, and we should not yield to intimidation or threat from fundamentalists. To celebrate the right to satirize, here are a few caricatures on religious issues. #1 and #2 are by James Gillray (1757-1815) and today they would no doubt cause a fatwa to be issued on the artist's life. #3 is a 16th-century Protestant caricature picturing the pope as a cannibal. #4 is a modern cartoon making fun of the militant atheists waging war on Christmas in the United States.

#1. 'Presentation of Mahometan Credentials.' Oil painting.

#2. 'Théologie à la Turque or The Pale of the Church of Mahomet.' Etching.

#3. 16th century engraving. Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Français.

#4. Cartoon. 

Diplomatic mysteries

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 The brutal attacks on U.S. diplomatic compounds in the Arab world may prompt interest in a new genre in thrillers, the “diplomatic mystery,” stories set in American Embassies abroad. The creator of the genre, William Shepard, is a former career diplomat who served as Consul General in Bordeaux, France. In 2009 he published The Saladin Affair, in which al-Qaeda hatches a plot to assassinate U.S and European diplomats. His latest novel Vintage Murder (2012) is set in Paris and Bordeaux and takes the reader into the shadow world of ETA terrorism. Another book I recommend reading is John Le Carré’s The Constant Gardener (2000), also a 2005 film with Ralph Fiennes, in which a British diplomat investigates the murder of his wife in Kenya and uncovers scandals involving the Foreign Office and the pharmaceutical industry.

L’attaque sanglante du consulat américain à Benghazi me rappelle qu’un nouveau genre littéraire est justement apparu ces dernières années, le « diplomatic mystery ». Son inventeur (et à ma connaissance seul représentant à ce jour) est William Shepard, ancien consul des Etats-Unis à Bordeaux. Ses thrillers se passent dans les ambassades américaines à travers le monde. J’ignore s’ils ont déjà été traduits en français. Dans The Saladin Affair (2009), Al-Qaïda fomente l'assassinat de diplomates américains et européens... L’action de Vintage Murder (2012) est située en France, des diplomates américains à Paris et Bordeaux ayant à faire à l’ETA. Je recommande aussi La Constance du jardinier (2000), grand roman de John Le Carré dans lequel un diplomate britannique en poste au Kenya enquête sur le meurtre de sa femme, dévoile un trafic de médicaments et finit par être assassiné lui aussi ; le film du même titre de Fernando Meirelles (2005) est excellent également.

Syria/Syrie: Gertrude Bell

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For academic purposes, I am currently reading the books of British female travellers in the years 1850-1910. One of them is Gertrude Bell, a writer, diplomat, spy, and archaeologist who published Syria: the Desert and the Sown in 1907. Her life and her role in the shaping of the modern Middle East obviously remind us of T.E. Lawrence. The reading of her book is of great literary and cultural interest. Besides this, it sheds light on Syria’s tragic plight today. Below is an excerpt on civil wars and how to end them…

Mes recherches me conduisent à lire en ce moment les récits de voyageuses britanniques des années 1850-1910. Parmi elles, Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), dont la vie d'écrivaine, diplomate, agent secret, archéologue, est un roman en soi. L'un de ses livres s'intitule Syria: the Desert and the Sown (1907). Sa lecture est passionnante, littérairement, culturellement, et parce qu'il nous plonge aux sources de la fabrication politique du Moyen-Orient moderne par les puissances coloniales ; à l'instar de son contemporain T.E. Lawrence (d'Arabie), autre espion-écrivain, elle contribua à forger l'Irak et la Jordanie d'une manière qui pèse encore aujourd'hui sur la géopolitique de la région. Voici un extrait (en anglais) de ce livre qui éclaire à bien des égards la situation tragique que connaît la Syrie aujourd'hui ; il s'agit des guerres civiles et des moyens d'y mettre terme...

The muleteers and I listened with breathless interest as one story succeeded another.
 "There are good customs and bad among the Arabs," said Namrud, "but the good are many. Now when they wish to bring a blood feud to an end, the two enemies come together in the tent of him who was offended. And the lord of the tent bares his sword and turns to the South and draws a circle on the floor, calling upon God. Then he takes a shred of the cloth of the tent and a handful of ashes from the hearth and throws them in the circle, and seven times he strikes the line with his naked sword. And the offender leaps into the circle, and one of the relatives of his enemy cries aloud : 'I take the murder that he did upon me!' Then there is peace. Oh lady! the women have much power in the tribe, and the maidens are well looked on. For if a maiden says : 'I would have such an one for my husband,' he must marry her lest she should be put to shame. And if he has already four wives let him divorce one, and marry in her place the maiden who has chosen him. Such is the custom among the Arabs."