11th September 2008

In an old cardboard box we keep at the bottom of the wardrobe I found a photo of myself taken in the 1980s. Other than the fact that I looked a lot younger, with an old-fashioned 'Afro' perm, it was the setting that gave me such a shock. I was sitting in front of a marble statue at the World Trade Centre in New York! I felt quite numb at the thought of what lay right there today. It's now 7 years since that fateful day, but the world is moving on - quite rightly so. And, after the fears of yesterday's experiments in Geneva, what else can we do? But, for the French, life is comme d'habitude. Although they are famous for the liberality of their bodies, their minds are quite another thing. In my experience, they do not like to dwell on their thoughts for fear of appearing ignorant. The French news channels seem to perpetuate this stance, not covering disasters such as 9/11 in anything like the regularity or concentration of English tv or Sky channels. No, French tv trawls across the different departements of France, giving a balanced look at what is happening across the country - sometimes lightweight, yes, but it doesn't matter. Yes, the French channels do include world events, but these do not saturate the news to the exclusion of all else. When in the UK, I try to limit myself to watching the news only once a day. Well, it's a constructive way to beat those depressive thoughts. 'The world might end?', 'a repeat of 9/11 around here?' Non merci. I'm too busy watching how to make champagne.