Page 32 - Bulletin, Vol.81 No.1, May 2022

EDITORIAL

By Odette FOUDRAL

In January 2021 I gaily sent my good wishes to our members in the naïf belief – like
everyone else – that with vaccinations coming available, the pandemic was a thing of
the past.

We had to change our thoughts, keep our masks on, accept booster vaccinations and
limit social life to a minimum.

So, in January 2022, I felt it would be hypocritical to send out wishes for a happy new
year.

Today, the pandemic is still a part of our lives but has moved to second place after the
crisis in Ukraine. We have been dumbfounded; the populations fleeing from the folly of
the tyrants to other countries; exactions hidden by the pandemic in the information on
television. Only by reading the more “serious” newspapers did we discover the horror
and the misery that we were too perturbed by the situation to see. There is a bitter
sentiment that we are again living in the perversity of the lesser evil as in 1938 which
nevertheless ended in a war.

Let us hope we are mistaken.

To crown it all, retail prices are rising sharply, often for no particular real reason. More
and more families are having to rely on food banks. We can all help, but the profits do
not always end in the right places.

Today’s world is certainly not the same as before. Impatience, intolerance, bad faith
have become part of our daily lives.

Happily, the small pleasures can still be enjoyed by everyone: squirrels playing on the
grass, a carpet of flowers, and a bottle of good wine to share with friends.

So, let us sing together with the Gauls:

You’ve got to laugh, you’ve got to laugh

Before the sky falls down upon us

You’ve got to laugh, you’ve got to laugh

To stop the sky from falling down

Translated by Elisabeth BELCHAMBER

30 AAFI-AFICS BULLETIN, Vol. 81 No. 1, 2022-05