Bush makes the horned hand sign
Bush salutes his boy-scout friends
March 21, 2005
[December 2011: Pope Benedict XVI makes a mistake with the scout sign!](/BIG BROTHER/signe_main_bush.htm#pape)
Given the nature of the reactions following the creation of this page, I would like to add a preamble. First, readers are reminded that, in front of any information or message, they should think for themselves. The second remark is to recall that humor can be used to draw attention to information that might be in a different category and of a completely different level. In these times when the freedom to inform is at risk of being lost at any moment, it is not useless to start training to:
*- Write between the lines - Read between the lines. *
To write between the lines, one uses a mésographe. To read between the lines, one uses a mésoscope.
I was a scout when I was a kid. For the street kid I was, without a penny, used to the asphalt of Rue Jean-Baptiste Dumas and the Porte de Champerret in Paris, it was my first contact with nature. At the 54th Paris, the atmosphere was a bit strange. Today we would say that this troop was "coached" by people from the far right. But at the time I knew nothing about politics. We were a group of "raiders." This was during the Indochina war. Other scouts had hats like Canadian mounted police, sticks with ribbons, long pants and high socks. They played games where they tied scarves to their belts, in the back, trying to steal them from each other. We had green berets, we were dressed in khaki and we did "raids." During camps we were made to "jump out of a parachute." We were woken up in the middle of the night and taken in a truck for a Rambo-style mission. From a truck moving at a moderate speed, we were "dropped" from the back and did a "roll." Then, in pairs, we had to follow a direction with a compass, all night long, equipped with gear from American surplus. We had khaki flashlights, khaki canteens, and knives with 20 cm blades (other scouts had Swiss knives). At eleven years old, we crossed rivers naked with all our gear fixed on our heads. We knew how to cross ravines by laying a trunk across, after cutting it down with an axe in a few minutes, and descend on a rope. At that age I was able to cut down a tree with a 20 cm diameter in a flash, build a nailed bridge and set up a tent in the trees, six meters high, or on stilts. Additionally, I was able to set a broken leg, apply a tourniquet and without hesitation, I would have been able to suture a wound.
The troop was coached by a troop leader named Claude and a priest, Abbé Vicat, with sunken cheeks, the kind who don't laugh often. In fact, we didn't laugh at all. Nowadays we would say "we were there to suffer." Well, I liked nature, that was mainly it. But later I found that it wasn't really necessary to have such a serious face when doing camping or sports.
We did "drill," that is, marching exercises, like marines with "half turn while marching," etc. We sang strange songs, like:
The street belongs to the one who goes down it
The street belongs to the flag of the white caps
Against us, hatred
Against us, cries and curses
Trampling the dark mud
Go the white caps
http://ingeb.org/Lieder/obssturm.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-_ixdAzAAY&feature=related
http://bian.ca/refer/obssturb.MP3
the French Foreign Legion (the white caps)
It was only many years later that I learned that the song came from the panzer division that had stormed into France in 1939.
You will find this song from the German tank division at:
or:
MP3 version:
(in original version)
hansons taken up by
, the Chilean troops, etc.
Notice the skull on the collar. Very suitable.
Making a parenthesis on the internationalization of military marching songs, I remember that when I was conscripted at the base of Caen-Carpiquet in 1961, all the students from the Grandes Ecoles were gathered there. Naturally, we were given this song, but also others, straight from the Nazi troops. There was something like "For you, Véronika, Ah, Ah, Ah ...." and many other songs. Imagine the look on all our Jewish classmates. And in the Grandes Ecoles they are legion (as one of my friends from the time said: we all have a little Jewish blood, otherwise we wouldn't have gone to school!).
It didn't take long to find the German lyrics. And when the small lieutenants commanding the sections (small ... polytechnicians) launched these marching songs, they were a bit surprised.
-
But, what is this?
-
Lieutenant, it's better to sing them in the original version, isn't it?
The base command forced us to sing the French versions of these Nazi songs. We proposed traditional French songs. Refused, a struggle, lots of punishments, officers-in-training confined to the base. But the class stood united, in solidarity with the Jewish students and the command had to give in.
Returning to my scouting episode, I simply found it curious, when we passed through villages, that the inhabitants closed their shutters as we passed.
Finally, in this strange atmosphere, I explored the caves of Rochefort, caving, I sailed in rough weather on a corvette, near Benodet. I remember images that looked very much like those in the movie "The Crab with the Golden Claws," when you see the corvette diving into the waves in rough weather.
It was a change from the asphalt and games consisting of navigating boats in gutters.
At each camp we had "losses." That is, a large number of kids were "evacuated to the rear," meaning their parents came to pick them up, often in pretty bad shape. I'm surprised that at that time they didn't finish off the untransportable. Looking back, it's surprising we didn't have any deaths. But, let's say that this training served me when I was a safari guide in Kenya, much later.
What I remember is the scout salute. See the drawing A on the following board.
Normally, this allows people who have been scouts to recognize each other, in the street or in the subway. Sometimes I meet people who look quite sporty and I think "maybe they were scouts?" So I make this sign. But since I never had much success, over the years I finally gave up.
There are many scouts, though. The Pope, for example, was also a scout. The proof: he makes sign B. It must correspond to the scouts of the Vatican. Since I have never been present at his public appearances, I haven't been able to see if other scouts from his troop replied to him.
In fact, if you look closely, many people have been scouts. It's quite nice to recognize each other with a hand sign. Churchill, for example, made the sign of the British scouts (C). At that time there were many people making the same sign and who had probably also been scouts in England. I didn't know that Le Pen had been a scout there, because he often makes the same sign as Churchill.
I eventually understood that scout signs can vary from country to country. For example, sign D is the one used by scouts from Arab countries. When you are observant, you see that practically all the Mollahs were scouts, as well as Bin Laden.
In E, the recognition sign of American scouts.
In January 2001, George W. Bush was elected President of the United States. There is a video referring to this period. There is something I found quite nice. When Bush parades in public, after his inauguration, as shown in this video, he makes a variation of the American scout sign with his hand. He salutes his childhood friends with whom he must have done camps. You can see this sign at the beginning of this video. Olivier Rouault, who is more computer-savvy than me, extracted the brief sequence where you can see him making this sign:
Bush making a sign to his old scout friends
This short sequence is at the beginning of the 40-minute video:
http://crea.sites.free.fr/gwbushlepetroleaupouvoir.wmv
It must have made a big impression on Bush in his life because I noticed that he often makes this sign. It proves that he has remained very young at heart.
**The recognition sign of the scout troop to which G.W. Bush belonged in the past. **
A reader had sent me photos of him making this, but I wondered if it might not be a montage, since it didn't look like the sign I knew until then, the sign E, the one of American scouts. If there are people who have these images, I could put them on this page. This video suggests that he really makes a sign and I wonder then which scout troop it could be. If someone could shed light on this. What surprises me is that so many people have been scouts in this troop, in the United States, for example Berlusconi. There too, if you have photos, it would help to clarify things.
This certainly proves one thing, that scouting is much more developed than one might think.
Another photo of Bush making a sign to his old scout troop.
Photo by J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press
**Bush addressing American university scouts **
**Younger, in Texas, with a leader, during a scout camp **
**In the street **
At the office
**When Bush's hands are occupied, his assistant makes the scout sign on his behalf **
Here's something I didn't know: Mrs. Bush also did scouting in her country:
**Mr. and Mrs. **
**At any event, they never forget to show their unwavering attachment to the Baden Powell movement **
Traditions are lost, but in the Bush family they seem to be very much alive, despite the somewhat outdated nature of scouting. The photo above shows that Mrs. Bush was clearly also part of a scouting movement. In the photo below, which seems to show one of George W. Bush's daughters, you can see that the next generation is assured and that she is already proudly displaying the recognition sign adopted by her parents.
**Bush, very proud of his daughter, also initiated into scouting **
**Condy recognized the sign **
Others, faithful to their membership in the same scout movement:
Dick Cheney
Tom Ridge, former director of the United States security services
It is confirmed that Berlusconi was in the same scout troop as Bush:
**Me too, I'm in... **
**And I confirm! **
as well as the wife of Schwarzenegger, from the Kennedy family, photographed here on their wedding day:
Of course, one of the characteristics of the scouting movement is that it touches all layers of the population:
**The Beetles **(on the right, John Lennon reminds us that he was a scout when he was young)
Clinton, with a scout leader
**Another former scout, politician, Dan Quayle, from Indiana **
Michael Youn, television host
I think this one is a scout rock star, at a jamboree
**Finally, a specimen of an old scout, bearded ** ---
Sarkozy was also in the same scout troop as Bush, Berlusconi, and many others ** :
 
**Before his rise, on the left. After his election, on the right, showing his loyalty to the movement founded by Baden Powell **
**What a wonderful movement, beyond petty divisions, beyond the oceans **
What's nice is that scouts around the world have recognition signs. Here, Obama, shortly after his election, reminds of his membership in the movement, and he even does it with both hands, to be sure to be well understood. Scouting really extends beyond borders and skin color.
But, according to a reader, it seems that with the thumb free, it means "I love you" in sign language
**Was Obama talking to deaf-mutes that day? ** **Question: How do deaf-mute scouts recognize each other? **
Here, another image of Obama addressing the deaf-mutes
Obama, having become president, thanking his deaf-mute voters
What's surprising, and I had never noticed it before, is the number of orators from all sides, from all regions of the world, who never forget to send a friendly salute to the deaf-mutes:
Hillary Clinton, saluting the deaf-mutes
Bill Clinton, sending a loving thought to the hearing impaired
**Even a touching gesture from Sarah Palin, the running mate of candidate McCain **
Two executives of the McDonald's society, one saluting the deaf-mutes, the other making the scout sign
**The same one, saluting the Japanese scouts **
Finally, a Thai general sending a message of love to the deaf-mutes of his country
Other variations of this World Organization of Scouting :
The Dalai Lama
**Obama and the ... deaf-mute scouts? **
Here, it's clear for the deaf-mutes
How many deaf-mutes in the world!
Another beetle-scout
Cher gives a musical performance for deaf-mutes
Celine Dion during a show in Las Vegas, for the deaf-mutes
Another artist, during this recital for deaf-mutes
Delicate attention from Michael Jackson to the deaf-mutes
Discreet wink from Bush, at the Queen of England, to the local scout friends
Mac Conaughey, former scout
Another member of the show business, former scout
Elizabeth Taylor saluting deaf-mutes around the world
December 2011 :
We know that the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, is old (84 years old), has difficulty moving and articulating his messages, which makes him closer to God. It's a pity, on the occasion of his homily, that he made a mistake with the sign. Indeed, the Vatican scouts have their own recognition sign (boxed in red, on the left). But the faithful will certainly forgive this mistake, attributable to the canonical age of the Great Shepherd: