The Editorial

To Bee or Not To Bee by John Penberthy, told about the spiritual trip of a bee named Buzz in his search for God. Buzz is saturated with routine daily activities – gather honey, improve and protect the nest – began to question the meaning of life which he lived and the existence and influence of God upon him. In his search, he met a wise old bee, Bert. Although not explicitly, Bert helped Buzz in finding answers to all his spiritual questions. In the end, Buzz is able to understand what the meaning of life and the existence of God that he’d been looking for.

To Bee Or Not To Bee book

It is fitting that this book has been translated into 13 languages. The contents really deep and touching. John Penberthy with a genius capable of ‘translating’ lives and desires of an individual human being into the life of a bee and its colony, makes us feel they do not make any difference to us.

There are many philosophical sentences from the book, such as:

- It is perfect for thinking that life is not perfect.

- The mind is a great servant, but a lousy employer.

- Happiness can not be pursued, but must follow.

- Life is a journey from I to we.

At first thought, this John Penberthy book was about the ‘rich’ who are tired of piling up wealth and hope to find spiritual peace. But this book is actually about the ‘normal’ working day and night saturated for a living and live their lives, who then tried to find answers by doing the spiritual journey. Finally, we need to realize that our current circumstances and what we do today, no matter how boring it is, is a great gift from God that we should be grateful.

What makes this novel interesting is how Frederick Forsyth presents the details of facts and events. This could be the advantages and weakness in the eyes of its readers. For those who like stories with a plot quickly this can be tedious, especially if the reader does not master the material presented as the author.

An example is the matter of weapons used by the Jackal. Here the author describes in detail from the size, type of metal, trigger tools, etc. which would make the lay reader will be bored guns, but for those familiar with the weapon may be this is the fun part.

Apart from weapons, details about the theft of a passport, international driver’s license and making false passports, disguises the Jackal, how he fooled the security and immigration, how to work a detective in assembling the data, and so also is depicted in this novel. Moreover, the authors also describe the background of French politics in the reign of Charles de Gaulle, which would certainly add insight readers in terms of the political situation of France in the 60′s.

All these were mixed by Frederick Forsyth to became an interesting story, though in the beginning a bit boring because the details of the above but in the bag-the last chapter the reader will be taken at the peak of suspense when the President had been shooting guns in the Jackal.

In this novel also narrated how the Union Corse, an organized crime syndicate in France who are older and dangerous than the Sicilian Mafia helped French police to hunt down the Jackal. Unfortunately Forsyth less explore the involvement of the Union Corse, if only the role of a secret organization is given a larger portion of this novel would be more interesting.

Of the many world leaders who received death threats, Charles de Gaulle, (President of France from 1958 to 1969) is one of the president who repeatedly escaped from an assassination attempt to himself. The most famous of which occurred on the date August 22, 1962 where he and his wife were shot while driving a car. The plan was commandeered by  Colonel Jean-Marie-Thiry, a member of the French army and leader of the OAS (Organisation L’armee Secrete), a secret military organization that intends to impose de Gaulle because they thought the President had betrayed his country by giving independence to Algeria which was originally a French colony. The plan failed and Colonel Thiry was sentenced to death by a court miltier France in 1963.

That event inspired Frederick Forsyth to write the novel The Day of The Jackal (1971). Frederick Forsyth began his story just before the execution of Colonel Jean-Marie-Thiry. Then the story moves back into the events of the murder trial of de Gaulle commanded by Colonel Thiry.

The death of Colonel Thiry, as leader of the OAS did not make the despair of its members. Learning from previous failures, Colonel Rodin, one of the OAS officials made a secret plan to try again to kill President de Gaulle via the services of a professional killer. To prevent the leaking of this plan, only three OAS officials and the assassin know the plot.

The whole murder plan submitted to the assassin with a code-named “the Jackal”. OAS provides payment requested by the Jackal for 500 thousand dollars. After receiving an advance from the OAS, the Jackal started to perform a variety of preparations ranging from ordering a special weapon with bullets tipped that will destroy everything inside the skull, making 4 pieces of fake passports, and camouflage gear.

The assassination plot against President de Gaulle is smelled by the police, only this time they are made almost helpless because they know only the physical characteristics of the Jackal, tall with blond hair, other than that not a single archive and data owned by the French security on behalf of a murderer, when, where, and how this professional killer will be in action.

With the president’s life at stake, the French police, led by Claude Lebel, assisted by police from five European countries plus America and Africa to fight with time and intelligence of the Jackal in implementing the assigned tasks.