Tired of ideas and terrified by emotions, the modern man spends most of his time quarreling with numbers, finding them more reassuring: some are essential like those of unemployment or inflation, others more frivolous like those of voting intentions in the first and second rounds of presidential elections. Certain numbers, seemingly more harmless, can become downright unbearable. Recent boundaries have been crossed, both abroad and in France.
Each new year, the Iranian Ministry of Justice assesses the “Diyeh,” or blood money, a sum that anyone responsible for someone’s death, whether by crime or accident, must pay in “compensation” to the deceased’s family. Should we see the 34% increase in this “price” compared to the previous year as a “fair” return of oil profits? Nevertheless, the amount remains half when the victim is a woman. After all, Jewish, Christian, and Zoroastrian men also benefit from the same rate as Shiites… since 2003.
The execution of Afghan journalist Adjmal Naqshbandi, who served as an interpreter and guide for Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who was released after the probable payment of a ransom of several thousand (million?) dollars to his captors, also speaks volumes about the value of life in certain parts of the world. “His government was not interested in his fate,” the Taliban said regarding the Afghan facilitator. Plainly, his exchange value was zero. Unlike Westerners held against their will, his life and his death had no price. In the worst sense of the term.
It is also appropriate to sweep in front of our door. While nine children in Seine-et-Marne are fed only bread and water because their negligent parents did not pay the “price” of their meals at the nursery school canteen, senior business leaders with highly questionable economic and financial performances pocket particularly high severance payments. While the highest salaries can be allocated to successful executives, the injustice of making employees pay the “price” for poor management by the executive is deplorable. The indecency of the 8.54 million Euros to “reward” errors that, at Airbus, result in the loss of 10,000 jobs will do nothing to ease the already contentious relationship between the French and wealth and money, a strange peculiarity of our country within Europe. Indeed, there are “fair prices” that infuriate.
