Thanks to @HippyGirl for turning me onto this official announcement:
Le président de la République a reçu les familles des quatre passagers français qui se trouvaient à bord du vol MH370 de la compagnie Malaysia Airlines disparu le 8 mars 2014.
Le chef de l’Etat a exprimé le soutien de la Nation dans la douloureuse épreuve des familles de victimes qui restent dans l’incertitude sur les circonstances précises de cette disparition.
Au lendemain de la confirmation que le fragment d’aile découvert à la Réunion le 29 juillet dernier correspond à celui du vol MH370, il a fait avec les familles un point sur les recherches entreprises.
Il les a assurées de la mobilisation des services de l’Etat en appui des procédures judiciaires en cours en France comme à l’étranger pour permettre de faire toute la lumière sur cette catastrophe aérienne.
Les efforts de notre diplomatie seront poursuivis pour que la mobilisation et la coopération de toutes les parties prenantes permettent d’assurer le plus rapidement possible les progrès de l’enquête.
Translation after the jump. As ever, corrections appreciated.
The President of the Republic received the families of the four French passengers who were aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared on March 8th, 2014.
The Head of State expressed the support of the nation in the painful ordeal of victims’ families who remain uncertain about the specific circumstances of the disappearance.
After the confirmation that the wing fragment discovered in Reunion on July 29 matches that of flight MH370, he made a point with families on research undertaken.
He assured them the mobilization of state services in support of ongoing legal proceedings in France and abroad to help to shed light on this plane crash.
The efforts of our diplomacy will be prosecuted for the mobilization and cooperation of all stakeholders to help ensure the fastest possible progress of the investigation.
In my interpretation, Hollande was emphasizing that France is going to be putting legal pressure on Malaysia to open up the investigation. This would certainly be welcome by many of us who have felt frustrated by the lack of clarity in the case thus far.
It is highly suspicious that the confirmation comes on the heels of the visit to Malaysia by the French Defence Minster. ..who arrived on Malaysia national day through a military base with some other big shots and met the Malaysia PM ….ostensibly to push the sale of Rafale fighter jets and possibly a helicopter carrier.
Embattled Malaysia PM could have used the confirmation as a condition to go forward.
A small reminder. ..the scorpene submarines sold by France netted the PM a mind boggling RM500 million kick back. …
As I have mentioned before, I have been teaching full time in China, Malaysia, Thailand, India and the Philippines for the past 8 years. I always ask my students which is greater, honesty or kindness. They always respond by saying that truthfulness is important, but so is kindness, placing it higher. This is Confucian philosophy. Face saving is about not giving bad news. Anyone that has worked in southeast Asia knows that no one wants to be the bearer of bad news, so it is passed down the line and never reveraled until it absoltuely has to be. Malaysia is in deep face saving mode and caught up with western models of honesty. They may very well be hiding something but they won’t share anything until they have no other choice.
@Trip
Great to have someone here , who offers some insight in the asian mind about how they ue confucian thought in daily life. You sure know why are you ask these questions in the way you do and you sure know why you are using these particular english expressions. And you sure know, that Confucius develloped his philosophy as commentary to the I Ching.
Being an author of a lengthy study of the I Ching, i would try to amend your view.
There is indeed one most important Gua in the I Ching philosophy that defines the personal obligations (duties) of any human being. This is Gua 10 Lü (Fulfillment in the translation of Alfred Huang). Fulfillment is courtesy in the first place, the obedience to the principles of what is proper. Further on there is a second duty: to be righteous. Righteousness as the accordance of actions with what is right.
Well, in this understanding, courtesy is above everything, and that might include special treatment of the truth. Do you really think, that this is different in western culture? I guess we value courtesy in the same way over truth like Hollande did with the next of kin.