One word. A very small word. Discreet. Spoken under one’s breath. A true political word. Powerful by its very restraint. A lit fuse that slowly leads to an explosion. The proof? Its journey: extracted from a sentence and context already surpassed, the word fattens by pecking here and there: the grain, it’s true, is not lacking! Indecency is a bit like the river Moldau, the symphonic poem by Smetana: joined by numerous tributaries of indignation, it swells and risks sweeping everything away in its path. The autonomous intelligence of the word reflects that of its author: posing the question of decency allows the lexical stratagem to work: the modest euphemism of thought leaves all the necessary space for subsequent appropriation and interpretation by others. The pleasure of scandal is presented on a platter to the final recipient. Indecency ignites like sulfur only upon contact with air: it requires transparency and publicity. Highlights of recent days.
The cumulative emoluments of former Minister Christine Boutin? Known to a respectable number of national political leaders, they are not considered indecent on Tuesday but become so, horresco referens, on Thursday, after the publication of a satirical weekly revealing their amount. The exorbitant price of hotel rooms for the Blues in South Africa? An intolerable controversy before the match. A much more debatable subject after their poor performance against Uruguay. “The match lacked finishing,” dared Raymond Domenech in his press conference: probably a slip following his discovery of an indecent article signed by Yahoo.auto about “the Blues and their fantastic cars!” Is this the reason why the players, deprived of their precious vehicles, can’t leave their luxurious residence, as local magazines claim?
Indecent again, according to Bernard Henri Lévy, is the Iranian veil worn by Laurence Ferrari while interviewing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran. The journalist is entitled to do her job. Furthermore, one should do as the Romans do when in Rome. Yet, the preconceived responses of the Iranian president certainly did not deserve such an expense: there’s dishonesty in allowing the statements that “Iran is a free country” and that “opponents have the right to demonstrate” to be heard and repeated. In the absence of TF1’s accounting of this unnecessary escapade, the Iranian lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Shirin Ebadi, fortunately quantifies the indecency: 800 political prisoners languish in the jails of the Islamic Republic. France 2, too, doesn’t fall short in terms of cynicism. On the 8:00 PM news, David Pujadas begins his interview with Vladimir Putin with an indecent “bootlicking,” according to Bernanos’s kind expression: “Russia is a democracy,” he says to the Russian Prime Minister visiting Paris. A puzzling evaluation, as at the same time, the powers of the FSB, the successor to the KGB, are being extended, now authorized to issue, with binding legal effect, warnings to individuals and companies to caution them. If not respected, proceedings can be initiated against defenseless citizens. Not to mention a report from the Russian Prosecutor’s Office, cited by Marie Jégo, the Moscow correspondent for Le Monde, which states, “eleven people die every day in Russian prisons, due to lack of care or as a result of ill-treatment.” Reassuring indecency of death. Especially that of others.
More than indecent, almost obscene in this time of global economic crisis and austerity plans, is the 2011 budget draft by the Brussels Commission, which proposes a 4.5% increase in the operating expenses of European institutions. Demagogic, and surely a bit retaliatory towards his government colleagues, is Jean-Pierre Jouyet’s, Chairman of the Financial Markets Authority, proposal to reduce his public salary by 20% to 30%. Embarrassed silence of indecency among government ranks.
While Martine Aubry seeks to “lock” the socialist primaries for next year and on the right, Nicolas Sarkozy strives to tactically eliminate any candidacy other than his own for 2012, the French might well sanction the future presidential deadlines. With a vote that could also be indecent.
