The title of this article is that of a chapter in the book Tristos tropics by Lévi-Strauss. The author writes that in our travels around the world, it throws our own filth in our faces. The phrase must have sounded strange a century ago, but we have to admit today that it is prescient. Indeed, the West (17% of the world's population, 54% of the income) is met with indifference, contempt and even hatred in the rest of the world (83% of the population, 45% of the income). As in order to know yourself you need to know how others see you, maybe we can start the process by using some elements of that rubbish.
What must the rest of the world think seeing Biden's embrace of Netanyahu? Everyone knows that while the atrocities of Hamas are the sole responsibility of their perpetrators, the resurgence of settler pressure in the West Bank has eliminated any practical possibility of a viable Palestinian state.
"We will have security", said a former Israeli admiral recently, "as long as they [the Palestinians] have hope". With Netanyahu, hope is lost. Netanyahu has done this to please the orthodox partners who kept him in power and, therefore, beyond the reach of justice. And the president of the world's first military power, on which the Israeli army depends, has been unable to do anything other than express his feeling like any other individual, embrace Netanyahu and pray to him to sweeten the planned extermination of the inhabitants of Gaza .
What must the Ukrainians think, bogged down in a dead-end war in which they hold on to the promises of America and Europe, dependent for their survival on American and European military aid, seeing that their needs are passing on the events page? How can they trust the promises of aid, in the war and in reconstruction, when they see that their European neighbors are upset because their cereals are competing with them?
How can the inhabitants of the so-called global South attend our contortions in the matter of climate change? We already know that the Paris agreements will not be fulfilled in time and form (although no one has officially said so). The industrial sectors responsible for most of the emissions are delaying the decarbonisation plans; in agriculture, those in charge invoke food safety as an excuse to extend the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Decarbonisation in the West will cost enormous amounts of resources; but it will also be necessary to help the countries of the South so that they have access to cleaner forms of energy. Seeing how the meetings continue without it being possible to reach relevant agreements, will the rest of the world believe in the leadership of the West?
Let's not extend the blacklist by going back to the colonial period; these three still living examples should be enough for us to become aware of where we are in the world. Our values, the monopoly of which we boast, are empty words, portraits hanging on the wall. We have stopped cultivating the virtues that inspired them: courage, compassion and honesty. The immigrants we reject come to us because they admire our lifestyle, our external freedom, and our material well-being. But they don't admire us. Maybe it's time to regain their respect, but we'll have to make an effort.
