Another article of mine published in Areo Magazine. I wrote this in the aftermath of Samuel Paty’s assassination, the French teacher who was beheaded by a terrorist for having shown the Charlie Hebdo caricatures to his students during a class on free speech. The international reaction to Emmanuel Macron’s eulogy for Paty was perplexing. It showed a deep misunderstanding of the French context and sometimes even attempts to sow division by spreading false information.
This post was originally written for the EnvEast Doctoral Training Partnership student blog. EnvEast is a collaboration between three UK universities, including University of East Anglia where I am carrying out my PhD. The blog can be found here
“Fluctuat Nec Mergitur” “Battu par les flots, mais ne sombre pas. Tossed by the sea, but not sunk.”
The centuries-old motto, which appears on the French capital’s crest, has been a central rallying cry in the wake of the Paris attacks.