The 213° week of the vigil
in front of WHO
The Vigil for the month of December 2008 was maintained by ...
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Guy Chatelan, Rachel Mauguet and Carole Bouvier - from 1st to 2nd December 2008 Philippe Gobet and Rachel Mauguet - from 3rd to 5th December 2008 Jean-Yves Peillard - from 8th to 12th December 2008 Gilbert Guirkinger - from 15th to 19th December 2008 Thierry Thévenin, Sylvie Baldens and Jean Marie Frontini - from 22nd to 26th December 2008 Jean Marie Frontini - from 29th December 2008 to 2nd January 2009 |
 Guy Chatelan (Gex-France) and Rachel Mauguet (Nancy-France) |
from 1st to 2nd December 2008 |  Carole Bouvier (Geneva-Switzerland) and Rachel Mauguet (Nancy-France) |
 Philippe Gobet (Geneva-Switzerland) |
from 3rd to 5th December 2008 |  Rachel Mauguet (Nancy-France) |
from 8th to 12th December 2008
SNOWMAN
There are now more than two hundred of us taking turns every working day from 8 am to 6 pm for about the last two years, and we expect more. There are only about a thousand doctors and health professionals who have dared to sign the appeal and in so doing keep faith with the Hippocratic oath. And we expect more. A thousand out of a possible six billion, that’s not enough.
At the 85th vigil in front of the World Health Organisation building, a small gentleman has dared to stand up to the amazement of the passers-by. It’s no accident that he’s there; it’s quite deliberate. It’s quite deliberate that his eyes are acorns from the hundred year old oak trees behind him. It’s quite deliberate that he has a clown’s nose. It’s quite deliberate that his mouth is not an expressionless straight line but rather a broad smile made from a curved twig. It’s quite deliberate that the placard he’s carrying is not aggressive or accusatory but a heartfelt appeal. A smile to remind those who can see it that life is stronger than death, a reminder that you open more doors with a smile. It’s also because of a smile that a few weeks before, a bus-driver stopped to meet the woman who had been smiling at him for what will soon be two years. He didn’t want to take any leaflets of information that he already knew from the Internet; he had belonged to this movement right from the start. He only wanted to tell her that a simple smile, like a “hello”, is important in his job too. There then followed a philosophical discussion about smiling, not in a hypocritical, inquisitive or mocking way … the story didn’t end with “They lived happily ever after”, but simply with a smile. In front of the little gentleman, you could sense the children’s eyes lighting up behind the windows as they pointed and cried: ”Snowman! Snowman!”
We saw it with the school kids who file past every day from the International School. “Snowman!”. Their faces light up, they point, take photos, come and talk to us. In one day, there was more of a response than there had been in all of the previous months. Among the events that day, I remember these. A man of Indian origin came over and said admiringly “What spirit !” referring to the length of time that we have maintained our presence. That’s right. What spirit. What a team. Then there was the woman who told us that in everyday life, she is considered an extremist when she asks people to make even the smallest ecological gesture for the community. She went away saying “Fortunately there are people like you to stand up for things&”. A young Chinese student who was absolutely determined to understand the reason behind our action. Then there was the elderly man with a beard who has cycled up the hill every week since the beginning of the vigil on 26th April 2007, and always signaled his support with his bell. He noticed the snowman, stopped to speak to us and gave us his card. He is an artist with a studio downtown. These things mean something: here at this international crossroads the children of this town join with the children of Chernobyl, Mururoa, Algeria, Nigeria, Rajasthan, the Balkans, Iraq, the Inuit children, Afganistan, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Three Mile Island…etc. Tricastin and all the other victims of radioactivity. Here at this human crossroad something is coming together that has been broken apart a thousand times. And we will carry on.
And the portrait at the snowman’s feet was also there for a purpose. There was no lack of respect- nothing inappropriate. It could just as easily have been a portrait of a father, a friend. Most people pass their life looking for “heroes” or “gods” to make them feel safe. And this man, Vassili Borissovitch Nesterenko, is one of these heroes. We will use his words, spoken when he visited Geneva, to guide us. “We will overcome” Onward to victory
Jean Yves
| Gilbert Guirkinger (Savoie-France) from 15th to 19th December 2008 |
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 Thierry Thévenin (Mérinchal-France) and Sylvie Baldens (Gentioux-France) |
from 22nd to 26th December 2008 |  Thierry Thévenin (Mérinchal-France) and Jean Marie Frontini (Chazé sur Argos-France) |
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Jean Marie Frontini (Chazé sur Argos-France) from 29th December 2008 to 2nd January 2009 |
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