Adonis Diaries

“Tadjoura” by Jean Francois Deniau (written on Sept. 6, 2007)

I finished reading yesterday the French book “Tadjoura” that I borrowed from my aunt Montaha a week ago.

Twelve male individuals who had a long career, and some still holding on their jobs, have decided to meet once a month.  Everyman in the group has the name of a specific month, and on his namesake month the person will organize a dinner for the party and tell true anecdotes, though never about his adventures or himself.  This group has set rules to guide their behavior and the conversation.  August died and the group decided to elect a female to fill the vacant place.

July tells the story of Julius Gross who became a professional assassin hired by the Zionist terrorist movements after the WWII war to eliminate personalities that played roles in finding equitable solutions between the Palestinians and the Israeli State.  Julius is a Jew from Ruthenia, a territory attached to Slovakia.

Israel had already committed many atrocities like blowing up the British Headquarter in Jerusalem and killing comte Bernadotte, the UN mediator, and mass killing Palestinians in their villages.

The Zionist terror groups relied on the theory of the Irish Independence leader Michael Collins who argued that terrorism is valuable only in democracies because it can change public opinion; a professional killer should never take pleasure in his job.

During the Exodus ship adventure carrying Jews, and not being allowed to dock in Palestine, Julius was given order to blast the British Foreign Affair in the Chamber of Common.  Then Julius received a telegram to retrieve the bomb because the Israeli government re-examined the dire consequences; which he did by disguising as a lady cleaner.

August told of the French Doctor who visited the hot places where civil wars and famine where in full swing and how he managed to liberate a few compatriots by playing them with his tampered dice.  Doctor M drank no alcohol or womanized but he was an addict of gambling and loved to cheat in his games.  He told the French President: “Modern cruelty is the barbarous tendency for indifference”

September recounted the mafia intrigues in Marseille and Corsica and the law of the islands that are too logical to an extreme for keeping account of the balance in the number of vendetta. Lucky Luciano, the number one public enemy in the USA and who was sentenced to 50 years in Sing Sing prison, was expedited to Italy as a reward for the Sicilian mafia aid during the landing in Sicily of the US troops.

The main traffic was in the Chesterfield cigarette which tripled the profit from the city of Tangier to Marseille.  Because of a lousy undelivered box of Havana cigars, a war among the mafia gangs left over 17 deaths within a period of twenty years.

Another time, the newly elected French President had by rule to visit all the districts in France and thus, he had to pay a visit to Corsica where a dangerous independent movement is active.  The government paid $100 millions for a peaceful visit. The mafia was upset that the political movement didn’t have the politeness to share part of the money and another round of vendetta killing started for a long period.

October told stories about explorers and adventurers and heros of war and he stated Chesterton: “There is no good idea if it cannot be translated with words.  There are no good words if they cannot be translated in actions”.

October recounted the war adventures of Vanden, a sub officer in the French army who could neither read nor write, and who collected a gang of Vietnamese from army prison camps and trained them as night commandos and attacked the Vietcong at night and terrified them and became a recognized prized enemy. Once, Vanden faked to be a captured prisoner by his followers who were disguised as Vietcong and when they entered the headquarter they wiped out the guerilla leaders in the sector.

A French Ambassador in an African State plagued by civil war refused the landing of two French commandos companies on the basis that if he shows that he is afraid then he might be considered guilty by the African citizens and the French would be targeted. His categorical refusal saved the French nationals.  The Ambassador said after all went right: “We can count the dead that we are responsible of, but not the people that we were able to save”

During the presidential election, most parties from left and right selected the head of the Parliament to run against De Gaulle because he was considered the most efficacious to challenge him and he refused.  The opposition tried to blackmail him by taking pictures of sexual encounters and the politician refused again saying: “No. If you publish the photos I won’t be able to run anyway”

November told anecdotes about spies and the theme of “who controls who“.  The case of the French spy Henry Dericourt during the Second World War was recounted extensively. This was more than a triple agent to the British, German and Soviet Union and he managed to convince the Germans that the landing is planed for Pas de Calais and not in Normandy.  The French resistance had to pay a heavy price in its cadres in order to let the German spies trust the information of Dericourt.

December, a sea navigator, set up the meeting on an island off the French coast in the Ouessant where many naval wreckages testify to this dangerous location during this time of the year.  Only 6 members showed up and January, the President of the circle, received a letter from member May stating that he would have committed suicide by the time the party met.

May blamed January for his decision to commit suicide because he allowed questions of personal nature to insinuate within the conversations, and that his double personalities was becoming a burden for him.  May was a pedophile or liked younger males and August had divulged this information accidentally during the November meeting.

January decided to resign and August was elected President.  December said that no sailor is alone in sea and recounted the solo maritime adventure around the World of the Great Joshua Slocum a century ago. Slocum told the story of finding a Spanish navigator from the fifteenth century guiding the sail while he was suffering from a debilitating fever.

January invited the circle to his residence at Tadjoura, an island facing Djibouti but he didn’t show up.

January was made prisoner in Ethiopia during his service and for many years laughed during torture instead of reacting as is appropriate to the tormentors. Three semi African ladies were caring for the invitees; the grand mother, her daughter and her grand daughter; the members guessed that some sort of incest has been taking place in this house; as Lord Knowland said: “Incest is not a grave matter as long as it stays within the family“