Five minutes for the thousands of deaths in France.

Five minutes for the dead in other countries attacked by the heat wave.

Five minutes for the old, the physically handicapped, the weakened sick people who died, or who survived, further weakened by the heat so that no one knows whether they will be able to survive this shock.

Five minutes for all those who took care of them and also suffered the heat.

While there were no child deaths due to dehydration because mothers and fathers received a health education to avoid such a slaughter, five minutes to understand why our parents, who gave us life, died in solitude, the family absent or distant during the vacation, in the indifference and anonymity of the city, with its paradox of distance in the very nearness of neighbors, the weakening of our physical contacts in a universe of omni-directional communication.

Five minutes in the schools to open an instructive discussion about solidarity.

Five minutes to reflect on the patching up of our unraveled social fabric.

Five minutes so that torn up families don't forget life's duty.

Five minutes to prevent this drama ever repeating itself. The health risk of a heat wave, now having been identified by everyone, we must, as though

for children effect a preventative, solidary health education.

Five minutes to think that France may be exposed to other totally unexpected climactic risks like the storm of 1999 and this year's heat wave and to anticipate new emergency plans.

Five minutes to start thinking about the improvement of the responsiveness of our alert systems, with no mixing up of risks: ozone pollution in place of the heat wave.

How many deaths were due to ozone and to heat?

Five minutes to consider that our population is aging and that apart from the handicapped and the ill, our social solidarity is a political emergency that demands an action plan to counter this collapse of humanity.

The demography of the aged, the handicapped, the ill is known and it's a national duty, beyond any political divisions, to open our eyes to the present situation and plan for the future before it overtakes us as it just has.

Five minutes to remember that we will all age together and that it's a duty to prepare for the old age of our population.

Five minutes to say to ourselves, "Never again!"

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Professor Jacques Frija is the Head of Radiology at the Saint-Louis Hospital (Paris)

Translation: Truthout French language correspondent Leslie Thatcher.

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Heatwave Kills 12,000

By Kim Housego

The Age

Sunday 24 August 2003

Europe's relentless heatwave has officially killed 2000 people in countries outside France but in France, the record temperatures are thought to have killed about 10,000 people, officials say.

Italy, which previously refused to release figures, has now agreed to investigate its toll, bowing to a public outcry over increased deaths.

The Associated Press compiled death tolls and estimates in 18 countries. The highest official estimates come from Portugal, with 1300 deaths, and the Netherlands, with 500 to 1000.

In Italy, city authorities reported unusually large numbers of deaths in August compared with last year. But Europe is divided over how to go about the politically sensitive task of tallying heat deaths, with some health officials dismissive of France's10,000-victim estimate.

The French compared mortality rates this summer to last and attributed the difference to the heat. Some believe that if the same simple method is applied in Spain and Italy, their death tolls will soar.

The Italian health ministry previously insisted it was virtually impossible to establish a clear link between deaths and high temperatures. But yesterday it promised an investigation, under pressure from advocacy groups shocked by media reports that said death rates rose dramatically early this month.

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