【明報專訊】Hong Kong is home to one of the biggest French expatriate populations - an estimated 20,000 French people live and work here. While few of us boast a thorough understanding of French culture, we certainly welcome its presence through the city's many cultural institutes, restaurants and outlets. Little did we expect the merciless attack in Paris on 13 November - a wake-up call to anyone who has romanticised the city. For all the beauty it affords the world, Paris is also the capital of a country increasingly involved in some pressing international conflicts, which have taken their toll on ordinary people who collectively stand for their country's foreign policy, despite being individually uninvolved. For this painful dilemma in human existence, we mourn.