INSEAD student Edouard Chehade was not in Paris one week ago today. But he knows Paris well, having spent part of his MBA studying just southeast of the city in Fontainebleau on INSEAD’s Europe Campus. Today he is in Singapore on INSEAD’s Asia Campus, finishing up the final weeks of his MBA program. Paris, though, has been a topic of every moment’s discussion since the November 13th terrorist attacks that killed 129 and injured more than 350, he says.
In the post that follows, Chehade mourns for the victims, those in Paris but also those who have survived or succumbed to similar events in Bombay, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Algeria, Pakistan and countless other countries. The remarkable diversity of the INSEAD class—where students represent more than 80 nationalities—means that he has friends who have lived in many of these very places.
Chehade jumped at the chance to share his post with the Clear Admit audience. “Yes, yess, yesss!” he replied immediately to our request. “If I can touch one person with this message, I wish to touch a million. It means a lot to me that a message like this one can be heard, that others feel the same about it and that it has as many platforms as possible,” he says.
In the post that follows, he calls for a greater humanization—across religions, cultures, geographies—a “gray zone” of tolerance that results when we witness how others live. “This must and will happen as our lives in this global world are more connected than ever,” he writes.
Unlike our usual Fridays from the Frontline contributions, this post has little to do with being a business school student, applicant or alumni. It has to do with being human.
The following post has been republished in its entirety from its original source, the INSEAD MBA Experience.
Ode to Humanity – From the World with Love
by Edouard Chehade
I’m in Singapore for my last few weeks at INSEAD. I’m not over there, not on the ground. I can’t feel the emotion and local vibe. But it must be palpable. In this precise moment, I miss the outdoor patios or ‘terrasse,’ French food and bistros, romantic atmosphere of a late night walk in Montmartre or the 19th century feeling of walking past the bookstores along the Seine River on a windy sunny day. I miss Paris.
There have been a few attacks in recent months and years. However, it’s the first time they strike straight to my heart. The first time I feel that my community, generation, values, way of life is jeopardized, taken for granted. In these times, remaining grounded is not a simple thing. Liberty, equality, fraternity. Three simple words.
Even though I am halfway around the world, on Asia Campus, it becomes a topic of every moment’s discussion with colleagues. Each attack targets a precise population, a precise community, meant to divide people, create a gap amongst groups for each to isolate and hide back amongst their own.
In the midst of this chaos, I think about my friends. All over the world, many lived similar events in Bombay, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Algeria, Pakistan and countless other countries. Communities that have been living similar events many times a year, and continue doing so as these events have become a part of their lives.
Those who know me will confirm my usual optimism. I know life carries on. I refuse to live in nothing else than a world filled with fairy tales and unicorns. I refuse to let these fairy tales go and acknowledge that Santa Claus, when I was a child, was but an old bushy-eyebrowed grandpa. The events of Friday night, November 13th, 2015 – these are the types of events that only reinforce my will to carry on walking with a spring in my step. I believe – I know that the world can be changed and that my generation will be a part of this change.
