Tail wags dog at Museum of primitive arts
It was supposed to be one of those ennobling moments – uniting us all in the fight to save our environment from the relentless onslaught of our own worst selves. Instead, it left me with a feeling of ridicule, watching those hoping for power play-acting a senseless charade.
Nicolas Hulot, a very popular television presenter and committed ecologist who announced on Monday that he is not, after all, running for presidency, had persuaded ten of the principal candidates to endorse publicly his Charter for the Environment. All of them, and more, have already signed the charter, but that was not deemed enough by M. Hulot, who sees his role now as an outside, non-involved pressure, a thorn, if you like, on all in the cause of the environment. So yesterday, at the new Musée du quai Branly, brain-child of Jacques Chirac and known colloquially as the museum of primitive arts, ten candidates agreed to come and publicly swear allegiance, bend the knee to the Great Green God. A sort of re-run of Runnymede in 1215, when King John was obliged by his barons to sign their Charter, known as Magna.
Hulot’s charter is perfectly reasonable. It consists simply of ten aims and five propositions. The aims include: making industrial products which either last longer, can be repaired easily or at least re-cycled; reducing our reliance on coal, gas and oil; re-thinking transport to decrease road-traffic. There has to be a limit to urban sprawl, so that green spaces are preserved; a tax on things that harm the environment. Agriculture must be re-orientated, respecting “le travail paysan”; in health-care the charter aims to concentrate on prevention rather than curing problems once present; research must be for sustainable projects. Finally, in its international policies France must give priority to the fight against further and increasing environmental damage.
None of it is revolutionary, some of the aims may be questionable but on the whole they are worthy. The five propositions are similarly well-intentioned, a deputy prime minister in charge of sustainable development, for example. So why do I feel yesterday’s exercise ridiculous?
It was the very concept of a public ceremony. There’s nothing wrong with getting someone who’s likely to become the world’s most powerful president to commit in public to an environmental charter, and obviously anything to do with elections will be done in the full glare of the press. The mistake, for me, especially since the host was the telegenic Hulot, was to stage it like a superficial chat-show, with each guest wheeled-on, slotted a certain number of sound-bytes to promote his or her latest product while the beaming host nods approvingly, then wheeled off to make room for the next guest, who is received with audience applause which wipes from the memory what the last person has just said. Rather like the radio and television news which put numbers of dead in Iraq in the same breath as the number of goals scored by a football club. It trivialises. We all know that nine out of the ten candidates will never have to put their commitment to the test – for them it is pure show and a waste of everybody’s time. We all know that the one person finally elected will adopt only those measures which he or she finds politically expedient at the time. Like a television chat-show, all it does is promote the ever-smiling host.
Except that this one failed in the most important part. Hulot’s wish, apparently, was that all ten candidates should be photographed together – forget our differences, solidarity in the face of the global warming. A rousing company sing-song as finale, so we all leave feeling better. But for his image-conscious guests, that was too much. Royal, first on, was not going to be photographed next to Sarkozy, last on. Everything was carefully orchestrated – not by Hulot but by the candidates. Like any other chat-show host, he was being used, the tail wagging the dog. Which just made it seem even more ridiculous.