Kairos n°5

It is to be expected, and the first signs are already visible, that those who have always been the guardians of the established order, will be scandalized, offended, resonate with the polemics of the media — which always pretend to pass them on when they are the ones who give it all its light — even vituperate sometimes, against what begins to seem indecent: the exorbitant salaries, the royal endowments and the iniquitous prerogatives. Their affected indignation should not make us forget that these are the very people who have allowed the deployment of what they now condemn.

The same people, from the right to the governmental left, since for a long time nothing distinguishes them anymore, will sympathize in a distressing media show with the distress of the Arcelor Mittal workers and will try in vain to persuade « Lakshmi » to change his mind, brilliantly demonstrating, for those who would still doubt it, who holds the reins of power. At the 43rd World Economic Forum in Davos, that hidden place where important decisions are taken, especially those that affect the lives of workers around the world, Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo could only express the « incomprehension » of the Belgian authorities regarding the decision of the steel giant. It is not surprising that these comments were relayed in a daily newspaper which, on the same day, saw its chief editorialist sign an editorial « The same fatality, from Genk to Liège⁽¹⁾ ». « Fatality »: « supernatural force by which everything that happens (especially that which is unpleasant) is determined in advance in an inevitable way⁽²⁾ ».

Meanwhile, in France, farmers took to the streets. Their cries, however, were not directed against the production logics that make their children sick, but against a European directive limiting the use of nitrate. A 20 year old measure but never applied, farmers were afraid of the threat of financial sanctions from Europe:
« Of course, the environment is a good thing, but there are limits.Of course! It is curious, however, that these limits always adopt the same circularity and that the search for profit never comes up against the limits dictated by nature…
It is that the first parcels to be depolluted are most certainly those delimited by our minds: « we have this speech of saying « we must not pollute anymore », and well then we do not circulate anymore, we do not drive anymore, we do not produce anymore and we do not live anymore⁽³⁾! »

…as soon as we have arrived at the idea that production, whatever it is, is equal to life.