July 14th : shining a light on others
The group included a young farmer settled in Finistère, a palliative care nurse at Zuydcoote hospital (Nord), a Red Cross volunteer in Seine-Saint-Denis, an Air Force helicopter pilot, an epigenetics researcher at the national centre for scientific research, a soldier wounded in Afghanistan, an apprenticeship supervisor at the Schrader factory in Pontarlier (Doubs), a secondary school head teacher in a high priority education zone in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), a police officer from the Marseille investigation and operations squad, a gendarme mobilised during the recent fatal floods in the Var, a firefighter mobilised during Storm Xynthia and a CEO who relocated his iron smelting works from China back to Dreux (Eure-et-Loir).
These twelve men and women, French citizens ‘honoured in recognition of their work and courage’ were invited to a July 14th dinner, held instead of the traditional garden party, which was cancelled this year in view of the economic situation. ‘This is what a national day is really about’, said Carla Bruni-Sarkozy during the military parade on the Champs-Élysées, ‘…shining a spotlight on others.’
This year’s July 14th military parade marked two anniversaries: the centenary of the Air and Sea Forces and the 50th anniversary of the independence of thirteen former sub-Saharan African colonies: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Central African Republic, Chad, the Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo, whose troops were thus invited to march past their respective Heads of State, assembled on the place de la Concorde. ‘Today we celebrate the blood tie forged by the contribution of African troops to the defence and liberation of France’, the French President wrote in his official message, observing that ‘Thousands of African soldiers gave their lives for France during the two World Wars.’ The gathering was therefore designed to ‘celebrate the strength of the links which history has woven between our peoples. And the power of today’s reunion will help us jointly build our future.’
Nicholas Sarkozy had spent the previous evening with the thirteen African Heads of State, while their wives enjoyed a friendly working meeting to discuss health in Africa with Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. For, as Jean-Claude Narcy pointed out in an interview following the military parade, there is also a strong bond between Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and the African continent, evidenced for example in her trips to Burkina Faso and Benin in her role as Ambassador for the Global Fight against AIDS, designed to raise awareness of the issue of mother-to-child HIV transmission. After highlighting her commitment in this way, the journalist then joined the First Lady for discussions with the partners of French soldiers who had left for the front¾on whom a spotlight also deserves to be shone.
