The sculptor of the statue of Prime Minister Honoré Mercier, a monument that adorns the terraces of parliament, survived the sinking of the titanic. As the ship sank into the icy waters, he found room in a rowboat.
A specialist in metal tributes for notables, Chevré assured his subjects of coming to the surface of the present, proving that the past can always become our topicality again. At the time of the impact of titanic with an iceberg, in April 1912, the sculptor was busy playing cards. He was traveling to Ottawa to take care of a bust of Wilfrid Laurier. His friends traveled, like him, first class. Those of the lower classes were denied access to such a pretty salon. They were confined to the steerage, which allowed the high society to preserve its privacy.
Lower class passengers were often immigrants. The assumption that infectious diseases were linked to immigration encouraged their exclusion. When the titanic sank, these outcasts were only belatedly warned of the drama that was unfolding. They were unaware of the paths to the open air. Many did not speak English. Some still managed to board lifeboats.
A veritable floating palace, one of the largest ever built, the titanic had neglected basic security measures, as if the luxury in which its distinguished passengers wallowed were enough, whatever happened, to keep everything afloat. Is that any different from the disregard for safety shown by the owners of this little submarine, the Titana passenger vehicle for billionaires that imploded on June 18?
The powerful often display an extraordinary levity towards the worst, in the name of feeling that they enjoy all possibilities, including the power to alter the laws, even those of physics. You should have heard Elon Musk, in recent days, hold forth on French television, on the sidelines of his meeting with the President of the Republic. The billionaire intends to “extend humanity”, he says, by leading it to the Moon and Mars, quite certain that it is possible for him to eliminate the gap between his imagination and reality. The urgency of noting that, on Earth, we are all caught in the same boat obviously escapes him as much as his fellows.
The fantasy of the Pasha’s life promised by the titanic remains alive. To the point where uninhibited millionaires, well settled in the weightlessness of their privileged life, can now wear on their wrist, to better give themselves the feeling of even mastering time, a Romain Jérôme Titanic-DNA watch, whose structure incorporates some fragments of the famous ocean liner.
In 2013, an Australian billionaire, Clive Palmer, had the ambition to build in China, this kingdom of pastiche, an exact replica of the titanic. Nine floors, 840 rooms, a princely staircase… A decade later, the administrators of his company said they wanted to find a few million diverted to this project which seems to have sunk in the sea of sarcasm.
In the village where I was born, it was said that one of the shareholders of the local factory, one of the richest men in the region, had lost his life on the titanic. Legend or truth? It was at least in the order of things that a man of excessive wealth should find himself, at the hour of death, in the company of his fellows. John Jacob Astor IV, Benjamin Guggenheim, George Dunton Widener, John Thayer, Henry B. Harris, Isidore Straus, Dennick Wick as well as Canadian railroad magnate Charles Melville Hays all died on the titanicfor lack of a sufficient number of lifeboats and safety measures.
Many other very rich people died on this ship, but 97% of the women and children who traveled in first class were saved. Among passengers traveling on lower class tickets, only 42% survived. Looking at the children alone, nine out of ten of those in first class were saved from the freezing waters. However, for those from the lower classes, it was just over three in ten.
The ship’s crew, made up of workers from the working classes, sank in full force. The president of the shipping company found a place on board one of the few rescue boats. Everyone recognizes the dignity of the members of the orchestra who played until the ship disappeared. This elegance of the musicians did not prevent, after the tragedy, the company which had rented them their work clothes from claiming payment from the members of their family.
In recent days, while the search was in full swing to find some billionaires who had gone on a pilgrimage to the site of the sinking of the titanic, some claimed without embarrassment that these people deserved what happened to them. That’s pretty rude and stupid. A life remains a life. And life is priceless.
However, why does this right to live appear, even today, subject to a very variable geometry, depending on each person’s assets? While the national navies of three major countries, sonars, sophisticated planes and state-of-the-art diving gear were deployed quickly to rescue these stupidly reckless billionaires, the number of migrants who died at sea because they were left to fend for themselves keeps climbing. The UN Refugee Agency reports that thousands of people are disappearing at sea without a trace. Don’t they too have the right to help worthy of the name? Like the orchestra of titanicwill the symphony of the powerful continue to be played for a long time to come, in front of a half-blissful public, in defiance of the misfortunes whose cries it buries?