In the online The Guardian today, an excellent interview with John Berger (John Berger at 90 – interview with a storyteller). Among other noteworthy comments, he says: “Whenever I might have been filled with self-pity, I turned it into furious anger. Even at my old age, I’m still capable of getting very angry.”

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To whit:

I’m sorting through the papers on my desk – a constant tide in need of culling – when I come across a mailing received by a local restaurant-owner whose name leaves no doubt as to his family origins. How his name made it on to the mailing list: mystère.

The kit contains the following:

• a letter signed by someone who identifies himself as a veterinarian. The letter claims that the horrific abuses filmed recently in some French slaughterhouses have one cause and one cause only (and I quote him): “l’introduction massive de la méthode d’abattage rituel musulman “halal” – dixit Mr Alain de Peretti.  Who goes on to claim that sixty percent of all meat issuing from French slaughterhouses has been killed in accordance to halal rules. (No, don’t ask where his figures come from, if you do, you’re obviously not getting what this is all about.)
• a postage paid return envelope should you wish to sign on to the campaign called “Vigilance Halal”. In return for which you will receive a poster for your restaurant, informing your customers you favor and respect des traditions et des normes françaises (French traditions and norms).
• a booklet listing butcher shops across France who have joined the Vigilance Halal campaign (in which, I’m sorry to say, I find the name of a boucherie –charcuterie just down my street).
• Of course, you can also access the campaign’s website and Facebook page.
• And you may also join the Stop Quick Halal campaign to rid the country of all those kefta shops, I suppose.

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On and on  it goes, the old and sordid business of the hate-mongers. And on it goes, the business of saying no to them so as to keep on saying yes to life.

* The title: some of the lyrics from the title song to Lindsay Anderson’s 1973 film O Lucky Man (you can find it on youTube, of course).