La DdC Takes on Oil — A Photo Story
A satirical photo story: the Duchess of Crestignac, now president, settles the oil question with impeccable Crestignac logic.
La DdC2 min read
In Crestignac, the price of oil is rising. At the Palace, the advisers are summoned urgently.
— Your Grace, the price of oil is going up.
— Then let us stop putting it up.
Silence.
An adviser ventures to clarify:
— Your Grace, we are not the ones putting it up.
— That is more serious still. So we are paying more for something we do not control.
La DdC rises.
— Convene the Council.
Around the great table, experts, advisers and economic representatives present charts, graphs and dossiers.
— Crestignac still depends heavily on oil.
— Dependence is regrettable enough. Paying to remain dependent amounts to obstinacy.
An expert interjects:
— But we cannot simply do away with oil overnight.
— I never asked you to do away with the night. Let us attend to the day first.
The advisers take frantic notes.
La DdC steps into the Palace courtyard, where journalists and the people of Crestignac await her.
— My dear people of Crestignac, oil is an energy source of the past on which we still depend in the present to prepare for the future. This situation clearly lacks order.
A journalist asks:
— Your Grace, what, then, have you decided?
La DdC pauses.
— Since oil is becoming too expensive, we shall buy less of it.
Astonishment.
— And what will you replace it with?
— With whatever is not oil.
An adviser murmurs:
— That is an extremely broad category.
— That is precisely what gives us room to manoeuvre.
In the days that follow, bicycles, small electric vehicles, public transport, walking and improbable inventions take over Crestignac.
La DdC inspects the first measures.
— Your Grace, we have already reduced consumption.
— You see. All we had to do was begin before we had finished.
On the Palace balcony, La DdC gazes out over Crestignac.
An adviser asks her:
— May we announce the end of oil?
— Certainly not. As long as any remains, someone might still manage to sell it to us.
She turns to him.
— Announce instead that we have begun to do without it. That is much harder to contradict.
Final caption:
CRESTIGNAC — Ever further. But differently.