4 ms·

Plenty of sources (in French). For example: Anti-Semitism: https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1999/06/18/la-plongee-antisemite-du-commandant-jacques-yves-

by bambax 6y ago

Plenty of sources (in French). For example: Anti-Semitism: https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1999/06/18/la-plongee-antisemite-du-commandant-jacques-yves-cousteau_3551090_1819218.html https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1999/06/18/la-plonge... Cousteau's first wife Simone was independently wealthy and financed his boat (Calypso) and expeditions. She lived on board most of the time (yet never appears on camera). But he had another secret family (with kids) on the shore with a former flight attendant, since the late 70s. Simone only learned about it in 1990. Letters were published where she asks a friend in disbelief if this can be true. She then died within a few months. Can't find the letters right now but I did read them then. Critique of "Le Monde du silence": https://www.rtl.fr/culture/medias-people/video-pourquoi-le-monde-du-silence-de-cousteau-est-il-naivement-degueulasse-7779029379 https://www.rtl.fr/culture/medias-people/video-pourquoi-le-m... In that movie from 1956 which won the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or, the team blows a whole coral reef with dynamite in order to "count fish living in it". They also catch live sharks on board and kill them with shovels "because seamen don't like sharks". You can watch the documentary and see for yourself.

NeutronStar 6y ago
From your very own article: > Et d'ajouter : "Cette réaction est normale, mais il est nécessaire de remettre le film dans son contexte : notre planète comptait 2,7 milliards d'habitants, la mer était une donnée inconnue, et à nos yeux, elle représentait une corne d'abondance inépuisable." > And to add: "This reaction is normal, but it is necessary to put the film in its context: our planet had 2.7 billion inhabitants, the sea was an unknown data, and in our eyes, it represented a horn. of inexhaustible abundance. " Context is everything.
henearkr 6y ago
This is his private life. It has nothing to do with your allegations of "bigot", "liar", etc. If this is your references, you end up having denigrated him. About your allegation of J. Cousteau having protected marine life "by blowin' it", it is his work that has raised the current awareness of the richness and fragility of marine life. Compare his positive achievements at the scale of the whole planet (or at least Western world) versus some small part of a coral reef he blew up.
YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
Regarding bigotry and antisemitism, there are, of course, caveats in the article you link: Interrogé par Le Monde, Erik Orsenna confie : « C'est évidemment une lettre ignoble. Mais j'ai peur que si l'on ouvre toute la correspondance des Français de l'époque, et si l'on écoute l'enregistrement de leurs conversations, on découvrirait beaucoup d'autre antisémitisme de cette sorte. Autrement, Pétain n'aurait pu rencontrer en France un tel accord, et des horreurs comme les rafles de juillet 42, organisées par la police française, n'auraient pas pu se produire. A la différence de son frère, Pierre-Antoine, dirigeant de Je suis partout, ce que je dis dans mon discours, et à ma connaissance, Cousteau n'a jamais émis ce genre d'ignominie en public ni ne s'est engagé dans aucune action antisémite. » Which is not to excuse anything, but it seems to me the majority of French society (indeed, European society) at the time held such views. Why single out Cousteau? And why do it in an article about a project undertaken by his grandson, who is not himself, I believe, accused of holding any of those biggotted views? Kin punishment is no less a barbaric practice than antisemitism (and islamophobia, as per the article above). As henearkr says below, the rest of your comment is about Cousteau's personal life, which is neither here nor there. This is not the Daily Mail.
- rsynnott 6y ago
  While the majority of French people would probably have been somewhat anti-semitic, I'm not sure that it's fair to say that the majority of French people were hoping that the Nazis would get on with deporting the Jews, already. That letter really is pretty bad.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
    The letter is prety bad, but my understanding is that until the atrocities committed by the Nazis forced the other Europeans to confront their antisemitism, such ideas were widespread in all European countries. [Edit: and of course, antisemitic ideas persist to this day.] Pretty much the same thing happens today with islamophobic ideas and with "the last racism", i.e. hatred towards Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, even though they were also subjected to genocide by the Nazis. Some people never learn- and Europeans, in particular, seem to have a particularly hard time to learn from our shared past of nationalism and racism and the brutalities committed because of them. In that, I'm speaking as a European, an EU citizen, a Greek citizen and someone very concerned about the waves of nationalism and racism that are still rising all around Europe. In my own country, it took cold-blooded murder for public opinion to face the fact that Xrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) is a band of criminal thugs and stop voting those bastards to the Greek parliament (now they vote for their dregs). If we expect blood to be spilled before we understand where fascism leads us, we'll just keep destroying ourselves over and over. And I'm very afraid that we will do exactly that. But, again, this has nothing to do with the character of Fabien Cousteau, which to me is pretty clearly what the OP is trying to attack, through his association with his grandfather, a practice that I find as revolting as the ideas expressed by the grandfather in the letter discussed in Le Monde.
secondcoming 6y ago
I think you'd be surprised at how much infidelity is a part of being French.
- Juliate 6y ago
  Says who? You mean, "part of being human"?

by bambax 6y ago

NeutronStar 6y ago

From your very own article: > Et d'ajouter : "Cette réaction est normale, mais il est nécessaire de remettre le film dans son contexte : notre planète comptait 2,7 milliards d'habitants, la mer était une donnée inconnue, et à nos yeux, elle représentait une corne d'abondance inépuisable." > And to add: "This reaction is normal, but it is necessary to put the film in its context: our planet had 2.7 billion inhabitants, the sea was an unknown data, and in our eyes, it represented a horn. of inexhaustible abundance. " Context is everything.

henearkr 6y ago

This is his private life. It has nothing to do with your allegations of "bigot", "liar", etc. If this is your references, you end up having denigrated him. About your allegation of J. Cousteau having protected marine life "by blowin' it", it is his work that has raised the current awareness of the richness and fragility of marine life. Compare his positive achievements at the scale of the whole planet (or at least Western world) versus some small part of a coral reef he blew up.

YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago

Regarding bigotry and antisemitism, there are, of course, caveats in the article you link: Interrogé par Le Monde, Erik Orsenna confie : « C'est évidemment une lettre ignoble. Mais j'ai peur que si l'on ouvre toute la correspondance des Français de l'époque, et si l'on écoute l'enregistrement de leurs conversations, on découvrirait beaucoup d'autre antisémitisme de cette sorte. Autrement, Pétain n'aurait pu rencontrer en France un tel accord, et des horreurs comme les rafles de juillet 42, organisées par la police française, n'auraient pas pu se produire. A la différence de son frère, Pierre-Antoine, dirigeant de Je suis partout, ce que je dis dans mon discours, et à ma connaissance, Cousteau n'a jamais émis ce genre d'ignominie en public ni ne s'est engagé dans aucune action antisémite. » Which is not to excuse anything, but it seems to me the majority of French society (indeed, European society) at the time held such views. Why single out Cousteau? And why do it in an article about a project undertaken by his grandson, who is not himself, I believe, accused of holding any of those biggotted views? Kin punishment is no less a barbaric practice than antisemitism (and islamophobia, as per the article above). As henearkr says below, the rest of your comment is about Cousteau's personal life, which is neither here nor there. This is not the Daily Mail.

rsynnott 6y ago
While the majority of French people would probably have been somewhat anti-semitic, I'm not sure that it's fair to say that the majority of French people were hoping that the Nazis would get on with deporting the Jews, already. That letter really is pretty bad.
- YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
  The letter is prety bad, but my understanding is that until the atrocities committed by the Nazis forced the other Europeans to confront their antisemitism, such ideas were widespread in all European countries. [Edit: and of course, antisemitic ideas persist to this day.] Pretty much the same thing happens today with islamophobic ideas and with "the last racism", i.e. hatred towards Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, even though they were also subjected to genocide by the Nazis. Some people never learn- and Europeans, in particular, seem to have a particularly hard time to learn from our shared past of nationalism and racism and the brutalities committed because of them. In that, I'm speaking as a European, an EU citizen, a Greek citizen and someone very concerned about the waves of nationalism and racism that are still rising all around Europe. In my own country, it took cold-blooded murder for public opinion to face the fact that Xrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) is a band of criminal thugs and stop voting those bastards to the Greek parliament (now they vote for their dregs). If we expect blood to be spilled before we understand where fascism leads us, we'll just keep destroying ourselves over and over. And I'm very afraid that we will do exactly that. But, again, this has nothing to do with the character of Fabien Cousteau, which to me is pretty clearly what the OP is trying to attack, through his association with his grandfather, a practice that I find as revolting as the ideas expressed by the grandfather in the letter discussed in Le Monde.

secondcoming 6y ago

I think you'd be surprised at how much infidelity is a part of being French.

Juliate 6y ago
Says who? You mean, "part of being human"?