the limping messenger

EIFFEL-TOWER & TRI-COLORE CAN BE NO SYMBOLS OF PEACE

I see popping up on Facebook and other social media this emotionalisation and sentimentalisation of a gruesome act, with a symbolism (the Eiffel-tower made the centre of the ‘peace symbol’) that prooves that those who make such a – well intended – gesture, understand neither the actual nor the historical meaning of the symbols they use.
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The Eiffeltower was made as a commemoration of the ‘Centenaire of the French Revolution’ combined with a World Fair in Paris. It stood for the colonial and imperial France of that time with it’s scramble for colonies in Asia and Africa. It is anything but a symbol of peace.
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Using this symbol seems also to deny the reality that the French governments (both Sarkozy and Hollande) that engaged in recent conflicts from Libya tot Syria and in African countries that belong to it’s old colonial empire, has seen no mass peace protests in the streets from the population against them, calling for other means than just advanced weapon systems to help solving conflicts. Also it seems to me that people using this new combined symbol are not aware of the aggressive weapon export role of France, showcasing their newest products on the military intervention battlefields of Africa and the Middle East (Dassault selling a whole bunch of Rafale fighter jets to Qatar recently, or Egypt buyingFrench Mistral helicopter-deck warships).
The Eiffel-tower stands both for Paris and for France as a symbol… for France as a state, France as a world-power, not for France as a nation of peace, or France as a “peace-maker”, or the French nation as a nation of victims… also just the French tri-colore as a symbolic gesture after the murderous attack, fails as well to have a critical differentiation between citizens and “their” government.