I lived in France for many years and I learned a new item of vocabulary near the beginning of my time that kept on coming back year after year. The word is canicule and it refers to a long stretch of unusually hot weather. Of course the first few times I heard people use the word I assumed it was an entirely positive term but over the last few years the expression has taken on more sinister overtones.

In August 2003 there were fifteen thousand more deaths of the more vulnerable members of society than usual at this time of year, casualties directly attributable to an intense heat wave. Most of the victims were amongst the elderly. Worst of all, there were 57 people who died and whose bodies were never claimed. There was outrage at the time directed at families who went away on holiday without a second thought for their aged relatives and who simply didn’t care even on their return.

We’ve already had a canicule this summer and as I prepare for my annual return to my old haunts in the south of France I have mixed feelings. Obviously, I want the weather to be hot and sunny but I can share the apprehension of the French authorities as the mercury stays fixed at well over thirty degrees. I listen regularly to France Inter and I hear the emollient President Chirac asking everyone to keep an eye on those most likely to succumb to the extreme weather conditions. I applaud him as he exhorts the young to watch over their elders but the main problem is that the duty of care comes across as such a novel suggestion in a world where people obviously crave community but choose to satisfy this need on screens rather than in real life. My own son spends hours playing a game where simulated characters simply go about everyday lives of stupefying banality and people certainly don’t succumb to anything as prosaic as the heat of the canicule.

I catch myself wondering why speeches like Chirac’s should be necessary and asking why we should have to have it spelled out to us that we are responsible for one another. After all, surely that’s true at all times and not only in the exceptional conditions of the canicule. The question, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ Isn’t that the first and worst lame excuse in the Bible? We should bear one anothers’ burdens. Do we really need dodgy politicians to explain that to us?