The Plow — March, 10th
Editorial — On the unacceptable loss of a human city
This is a translation of the article first published in the French newspaper Le Monde on March 10th, 2020.
22 days ago, humanity woke up facing a phenomenon beyond our understanding. Something that previously had its place in science-fiction literature or disaster movies. We had to collectively accept this otherwise unthinkable reality, challenging our oldest certainties, interrogating our place in the universe and our relationship with the sacred.
Not surprisingly, our social networks were the vehicle of our first reactions, allowing us to, if not comprehend, at least admit this new reality, connect it to things we understand, bind it to our daily lives. So we had fun with it. We compared it to Astroturf, a can of Coke, or even an Amazon Echo, whose injunction to “Play Despacito” would trigger a sonic blast of dramatic proportions.
But if we have used humor as our first weapon in the face of crisis, like we often do, it shall not distract us from the necessary pursuit of truth that will follow. Starting with its very first enigma: where does this object come from?
If the vast majority of scientists who expressed themselves in the past few weeks agree on an extraterrestrial origin, the opinion of religious representatives couldn’t be more opposed, seeing it as undeniable proof of the creator’s hand. Adding to this, as a sinister yet usual consequence of the aforementioned social networks, are a litany of theories attributing the whole thing to a US Army project, Russian secret services, or simply denying the very existence of the phenomenon, a mere creation of the media to shift the public’s attention away from the Coronavirus pandemic — despite the fact that we cover it extensively in our pages, insisting on the fact that we are just seeing the beginning of it.
Still, while the object is very much real, despite the skeptics, it is true that we presently lack any kind of solid information to ground our analysis on. Operation Trajan, supervised by the NATO forces, has been in full force for a week now. But it has been firmly blocking every scientific endeavor aimed at closely studying the structure, as well as withholding any data they might have acquired on their own — a tactic that hasn’t been met with an explanation yet, and that is rumored to be contentious within the very highest ranks of the organization. As a consequence, as of today we still don’t know the weight of the cylinder, its composition or the mechanisms that propel it, intelligence nonetheless critical to be able to determine the actions that could stop its catastrophic movement.
That said, in the absence of a solution to what’s now become the single most important mystery of our times, we have to start facing its present, direct consequences.
More than 10 000 people have been forced to leave their houses in the last two weeks, with many more to come. We now know that a majority of them will not be able to get back to them, the cylinder having left a 10 kilometers wide, hundreds of meters deep furrow where entire cities once stood. Romania and Hungary have to quickly put in place a massive relocation program for their populations, or this sudden situation will deteriorate into a major economic crisis, affecting a whole generation of East-Europeans.
But most importantly, crucially, the international community has to act now and face the worst possible scenario: if we cannot stop the cylinder before April 6th, humanity will endure the destruction of Budapest, a city that has seen three millenniums, made of countless unique architectural wonders, several of them UNESCO world heritage sites, and home to 1.7 million people.
It is a cataclysm that does not compare with anything in recorded History. One would think of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, victims of the nuclear fire, the Great Fire of London that destroyed most of the city in 1666, or the sack of Rome or Jerusalem in ancient times. But the nightmarish fate that now threatens Budapest is only foreseen in mythology, as a new Atlantis, a biblical deluge. Because while we can reasonably expect that the Hungarian government will successfully evacuate the capital’s population, preserving countless lives, it won’t save the physical place. The city risks complete obliteration, down to the last structure, down to the terrain itself, mangled, plowed by the object.
There is still time to save what can be: move the contents of the Hungarian National Museum, National Gallery, Ludwig’s Museum for contemporary arts, Kiscelii Museum, and many others, up to the Gallery of Terror or the Pinball Museum if we can. But even if most of the major museums in the world already proposed hosting the millions of items in the national collections, how can we deal with the architecture? The Holocaust Memorial? The St. Stephen Basilica, with its 87 meters tower? The Hungarian Parliament, the biggest building in the whole country?
In the 60's, the UNESCO managed to displace the entirety of Abu Simbel’s temple in Egypt of several hundred meters, to preserve it from the rise of the Nil’s water following the construction of a dam. Granted, the operation took 4 years, and its proportions had nothing in common with the rescue of a complete city — and in less than a month.
This is, indeed, a challenge of epic proportions, yet one that will come to define what we, Humans, can be against a common enemy. We can only succeed if the nations of this world start acting together, without delay, setting aside our differences.
Budapest, as an irreplaceable human accomplishment, is our shared treasure, and it would be an equally shared loss. We will not, we cannot accept it without fighting. It would be a shameful act of cowardice for our species, a crime against ourselves. A crime against humanity.
— Le Monde
The plow appeared like that, somewhere in eastern Europe. Since then, it slowly rolls west, crushing everything on its path. What is it? Why is it there?
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Finally, this work is written by a non-native English speaker. If you see something weird about the grammar or vocabulary, do mention it via email or messaging.
