The end of the world.

I had that uneasy post-Brexit feeling.

I woke before five, went to look at my phone.

It took me a while to take in the news.

TRUMP to win.

I went back to bed.

I didn't sleep.

I got up and turned on the TV.

TRUMP wins another state.

My son came down to breakfast, followed by my daughter

TRUMP has won.

They couldn't believe it.

They didn't have many words, they dropped their heads and ate breakfast.

I went to the university, the students were sitting, muttering in the gloom, lights unlit.

My colleague arrived.

She had not slept.

She had received a message from her young grandchild.

TRUMP NO.

There is that feeling that we as adults have not done enough to protect our children from this.

We have let down the kids.

How did we let this happen?

What else can happen now?

Huddling in the dark.

Students huddled together preparing themselves for their class.

One or two stopped me to ask for a few words.

Some were speaking about war.

I couldn't find the words in English.

I spoke French.

I felt they needed reassurance.

I wasn't much of a reassurance.

They couldn't believe it.

TRUMP won.

I found two student blog posts in my RSS reader.

"The end of the world"  Mael had written.

There was a picture of TRUMP and then it was blank.

I flipped it into a Flipboard magazine and then saw there were some words.

I opened it.

There were no words.

I suppose sometimes no words are better than nothing.

I opened it up again on the PC.

I found a black page, with writing which shone out.

This morning, we are in mourning.

A world just collapsed, one that will succeed it gives hardly want to know we can still believe and yet it will live with, is to show the challenges he proposes, show uncompromising on our values and ways of thinking, continue to affirm our faith in the belief of a carrier humanism of hope and progress.

We do not have the choice.

Mael maybe thought that he couldn't write in English, he had never blogged before.

Christ!

Mael's meaning shines through his unpolished English.

MOURNING.  BELIEVE. LIVE.
UNCOMPROMISING OUR VALUES. 
FAITH.  HOPE.
We don't have the choice.


"Slippery Slope."  Maxime had written.

I noted the word  'hangover.'

There was a strange feeling of the day after in the classroom.

An American election and the young in a terrible state in France!

I went back and read Maxime's post.

Far from being paralysed by the news, Maxime was thinking of the action to take.

If TRUMP won.

Le PEN can win.

"What is a big part of my hangover too is that I think about 2017 in France. If a racist man could be president of the USA why not in France ? The Front National party could be access to the Elysée. 

I can uderstand that people vote because a Fed up but why vote to the extreme. I believe that 1936 is a good exemple to say that's not the solution. The solution is in part of everybody. 

So my french friends and all people I know who live in a democratic country, I'm happy to see you hit by the news of D. Trump president, but don't stop here ! Engage you, participate of politics debates, vote!" 

A sneeze in Bamako and France gets cold.

A few hours later, I overheard a vigorous conversation going on between a group of students.

One of them, Abba, from Bamako, Mali, was busy educating his friends on global politics and colonialism.

"Where do you think the French Nuclear Industry gets its uranium from?" He asked

"There aren't many uranium mines in the Massif Central."

"'What do you think the French army is doing in Mali?"

"Have you heard of Areva?"

"Did you hear that they have found oil in Senegal?"

Time out to think.

The students were preparing 'gap year projects'.

It occurred to me that this might be a fruitless task for someone from Mali.

"No, it's ok he said, I have a diplomatic passport."

I was somewhat relieved...

He would indeed be able to get to New Zealand.

"I have always dreamt of going to New Zealand." he said.

We spoke of the injustice of "freedom of movement."

The other students were attentive, listening.

Whose stories count?

We spoke of how histories are weapons of the powerful.

"This is not the American Dream, this is the American Nightmare," I quipped.

"Oh yes that's a movie" one of the students chipped in.

"American Nightmare One, American Nightmare Two."

I fear that I shall sleep badly.

I blog to mark the day.

Fuck it.

I go and find Abba's card trick tutorial.

He'd never made a video before.

It took him hours.

If you listen carefully you can hear him, you can hear them speak.

BELIEVE. LIVE.
UNCOMPROMISING OUR VALUES. 
FAITH.  HOPE.
We don't have the choice.