First of all, I have stolen the title of this column from the late Virginia Hamilton Adair; in fact, I borrowed it from her first book that Virginia published when she was ninety-three years old:Pictures of Ants on the Melon. In fact, that is how I imagined the world’s top leaders at the London Conference the other day, talking about the future of Libya without a Libyan delegation.

The protection of the Libyan population is said to be the main objective of the intervention decided by the most powerful. Let us assume – with Virginia’s eyes closed – that this is a genuine humanitarian operation: why have they not sent troops to Côte d’Ivoire, Yemen and/or Bahrain, knowing that their citizens are also in clear danger?

Virginia was blind when she wrote her book. However, he showed an extraordinary ability to see reality through, among other things, beautiful metaphors: people are in the world like ants in melon, drunk in the middle of the juice. Although the poet died seven years ago, I’m not sure anyone has described this melon-flavored human rights issue to me better.