This is an English translation of my column Troïka : Il va peut-être falloir s’en occuper nous-mêmes ! of February 27 2015.Thanks to Ioana-Noemy Toma for her kind help !
Jean-Daniel Magnin sends me a newspaper clipping that tells about the actress Emma Thompson stating she will not pay income tax – which she’s in the habit of doing, so long as all those who don’t pay it – and are in the habit of not doing so, remain out of jail. This is civil disobedience for you: a way of taking matters into your own hands, should the government or governments fail to do so. Food for thought here!
Zebu wrote something on the Arte documentary about the Troika and a very good thing he did. Right now I’m watching that same film, and believe me there is a lot of stuff in there. Many things which, if true, should send many of these Troika people (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) straight away into jail.
Instead of for instance pestering Dominique Strauss-Kahn, as French justice has recently been doing, about peccadilloes, it might be a very good thing to hear what he may have to say about a statement made there by one of the talking heads (Philippe Legrain, a former adviser of Manuel Barroso at the European Commission) that he deliberately pushed the head of the Greek people under water in order to release 20 billion euros for the French banks, to make this the dowry of the French presidency’s prospective candidate that he was at the time.
Is this true or untrue? God knows it might not even be true! How would you know? Well, actually, as a matter of fact we would precisely like to know what Mr. Strauss-Kahn thinks of the assertions of an insider such as M. Legrain. This is why the idea of a public opinion tribunal to judge the heads of the Troika may not be a bad idea after all – you know, just as the Russell-Sartre Tribunal on war crimes in Vietnam.
Mind you, the corpses are much less conspicuous with the Troika; but with millions, as in Greece, having lost access to health insurance, people are likely to croak out of sight.
Just as Emma Thompson is saying: let’s have the scoundrels indicted! That they are our leaders is a lame excuse for not doing so.
What’s your feeling, you people here, the readers of PJ’s Blog, about such an idea as a “Russell tribunal” for dragging to the court of public opinion the Troika crowd, those I affectionately call « priests of a ferocious creed »?
J’ai trouvé cet échange intéressant car situé sur une ligne de crête délicate, comment interpréter un phénomène impromptu dans une…