<B>By Alain Jeannot</B>

We are in a block of flats at Aubervilliers, near Paris in France, in July 2006. The intriguing presence of a swarm of flies on a balcony drives the watchman to raise the alarm. He informs the person in charge and the firemen who, in France, intervene in emergency situations. When they open the fully locked flat, the horrible and inconceivable scene of two human bodies in an advanced state of putrefaction unfurls before them. According to the autopsy, the death of the young Mauritian woman and her daughter aged four dates back four months!

?How come people did not notice their absence for such a long time?? thundered an outraged journalist on the air. In what kind of world are we living when our absence passes unnoticed until insects reveal the presence of our corpse in the middle of a busy town of modern Europe. To add insult to the injury already decried by our journalist, shall we not rightly ask ourselves if it was not the presence of our poor fellow citizens, which had passed unnoticed for all this time! It?s only when one acknowledges the presence of somebody that one comes to notice his/her absence. Was this the case for the young woman and her daughter at Aubervilliers where, according to one neighbour, only a dearth of fraternity could have led to such a macabre happening?

Fraternity is indeed one of the values, which helps us to weave the vital network of cooperation between fellow human beings. We do not need to dine at our neighbours? place everyday but acknowledging their existence to start with is a smart beginning in fighting the insidious scourge of indifference.

Saying hello and holding a short conversation, time permitting, is a good beginning, pending the development of a more elaborate and healthy inter relationship where neighbours really come to know each other and can rely on each other on common issues such as neighbourhood watch programmes, for example.

Time and the stress of a busy life determines the quality of our relationship with others. People who struggle between their family life and hard job schedules sometimes rightly claim they have no time to look after anything else.

Yet they should make the effort because, even if progress tends to be measured in tangible economic terms, it is not always the case. How advanced is a society which lets its people die and rot in their flats?

In the important endeavour of reaching out to each other, people should be encouraged by the authorities, which should play their role as social developers. I still remember the very laudable initiative of a ?neighbour?s day? in France itself, where the syndics of block of flats organised a get-together for the inhabitants around a table.

Outside such venues, regular sports and leisure events may be organized to encourage people in the natural venture of interacting with each other.

Believe me kids, we are not meant to be lonely travellers in this great voyage of life.

On the ship, which ultimately takes all of humanity to a common destiny with certainty, holding each other?s hand in fraternity is as vital as it is natural. People say it?s not always easy but cooperation should be given a chance if society is to advance in the right direction in the fight against filthy, deadly indifference.