Malaise in civilization

News Mondays - Léa Farine

On Saturday October 29, a bloody pig's head was placed in front of a home for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers in Sion. While most of the elected representatives in Valais contacted by RTS Info said they were deeply shocked by this hateful gesture, UDC member Jérôme Desmeules justified it as «frustration with asylum seekers, whose presence is imposed by the canton without any consultation with the communes».

But in reality, such behavior says nothing about the people it targets, nor about any political issues relating to refugees. What it does highlight is the violence to which the discourse dear to the far-right parties leads. The empty concepts of «clash of civilizations», «clash of values» or, worse still, «culture versus barbarism», are nothing more than absurd window-dressing, giving a sense of legitimacy to individuals who let their own savagery explode, projecting it onto others.

Attempting to understand it better would be tantamount to giving value to an essentially senseless approach, because it is purely impulsive. On the other hand, this incoherence can be highlighted with examples. Here are two true examples from this week, which I believe reveal what I'm trying to express here.

I was out for a walk today when three young people overtook me on a moped. They weren't wearing helmets, were going much too fast and were apparently drunk. A fourth was following them on a bicycle. I met them again a little further on, in front of the closed gate of a level crossing. One of them was determined to cross on foot without waiting for the gates to open. He seemed annoyed, swearing, so much so that I felt uncomfortable. After the train had passed, he stepped over the barrier without waiting for it to rise and entered an abandoned building a little further on. I heard him breaking glass, maybe windows, throwing things. The others continued on their way, leaving the bike at the edge of the forest. Seeing this, the one who had just broken everything in the house shouted: «Come back, we have to put a lock on it, we risk having it stolen. There are a lot of Eritreans and Syrians passing through here».

A few days earlier, I'd been invited to dinner by a family of Syrians (those terrible bicycle thieves), to whom I teach French. At the end of the class, Ranya asked me if I had plans for lunch. As I had nothing to do, I simply accompanied her home. We ate and I met her children. Amran, the husband, played the oud, his daughter sang. When I left, they told me I could come back whenever I wanted, and that there would always be food for me.

So if there is a «clash of civilizations», I wonder which civilizations we're talking about. Between the one where people drive drunk at noon on Sundays, where they destroy other people's property, where they dump dead animals on their neighbors' doorsteps and the one where they invite almost strangers to eat at their homes, it's not the second one that seems the most dangerous to me. In reality, however, there aren't several civilizations. There are civilized people and uncivilized people. Fighting extremism, whether you're Swiss, Syrian or Eritrean, is just that: choosing civilization over obscurantism.

Write to the author: leafarine@gmail.com