Work by Stéphane Hessel: Time for Outrage!

The APROFED association is back with you this weekend to share with you the world-famous work of Stéphane Hessel, a French diplomat, resistance fighter, writer and political activist of German origin, published in 2010, entitled: Time for Outrage!

You can find his entire work at the following link:

Be Outraged! Revised and Expanded Edition (Those Who March Against the Wind) (French Edition)

A fervent defender of peaceful insurrection , he advocates, among other things, that:

– the general interest is superior to the particular interest,

– the production of wealth has continued to increase but the State says it can no longer cover the costs of citizen measures,

– the gap between the richest and the poorest has continued to increase,

– that it is necessary to have more justice and more freedom,

– that the Declaration of Human Rights should be respected,

– “You are responsible as an individual,”

– not to surrender to a power,

– the worst attitude is indifference,

– isolation and poverty breed hatred and poverty,

– the dignity of the human person is preferable to any political program,

– exasperation leads to terrorism,

– hope is the dominant force of revolutions and insurrections,

– that it is necessary to reach a negotiation between oppressors and oppressed in order to make oppression disappear. This message is also that of Gandhi, Mandela and Martin Luther King who were in favor of non-violence.

The association is therefore outraged by the recent remarks of the Minister of Overseas Territories indicating that “there is no credible alternative” to the draft Bougival Agreement. However, if this has been partially rejected by the State’s main interlocutor in the decolonization process, the FLNKS, it is therefore appropriate to continue negotiations with a view to finding common ground. The association recalls that, contrary to the Minister’s remarks, a large number of alternatives exist (federalism, protectorate, etc.), but it is the French State that does not want them.

A new push from the State risks crystallizing positions again and returning to confrontation.

This is why the association is once again calling for the sovereign powers of justice and internal security to be transferred to New Caledonia as part of the amendments made to the draft Bougival Agreement, the content of which is to be explained by the drafting committee set up today by the Minister. Such a measure would thus make it possible to give concrete expression to the notion of “shared sovereignty.”

We wish you a good read and remind you that federalism is the only solution to reconcile unity in diversity.