Out and about in Paris last week with my
friend, Pamela Shandel, who took the photos.
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| Pamela's cappuccino et petite madeleine |
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| soldiers consult their map (!) in the courtyard of le centre de danse du Marais |
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| in the courtyard at 41 rue du Temple, watching un cours de flamenco |
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| collage of writers at les cahiers de Colette bookshop on the rue Rambuteau |
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| Brioches pralinées at Pralus on rue Rambuteau |
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| laying the pavés outside le Forum des Halles |
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| heading to the play park at Forum des Halles |
It’s that time of year again – the season
of dark red cherries, apricots, piles of green and gold mangoes outside the
Indian shops on the rue du Faubourg St Denis; a time of reckoning too – the bac
started a week ago and from now on until the end of the month there’ll be one
spectacle de fin d’année after another, parents wielding cameras and phones,
quite a few of them hardly watching at all in their urge to record their
child’s performance under the lights. I take my place in the queue to find
seats for two of my grandchildren’s shows, the first at the Bouffes du
Nord, the second at the Théâtre de Ménilmontant, both of them really excellent,
a huge tribute to the work done by children and adults.
I can’t tell you who’s still in and who’s
already out of the Euro 2016 competition because I’m not interested in
football. What I can say is that since the first match kicked off I have seen
enough loutish behaviour on the streets of Paris to last me a very long time.
The clusters of tee-shirted men displaying that mix of mouthy bravado and panicky
fear make me thankful I’m a woman. Lord of the Flies has been in my mind more
than once.
I know the footballing louts are ‘a tiny
minority’ and they are by no means only English and Russian, but every time they
elbow bystanders out of their way, slap someone round the head, bawl their
slogans and tribal songs in the metro, wave their flags in rival supporters’
faces, toss their empty beer cans on the pavement, all of which acts I have
personally witnessed, they put another layer of scum on the surface of social
life. The story that is circulating of a crowd of English supporters forcing a
seven year-old boy begging on the street to drink from a can of lager before
they gave him money may well be apocryphal but I don’t find it much of a
stretch after some of what I’ve seen.
I know this is a Paris bulletin but
exceptional circumstances demand exceptional responses. Two events have
dominated the UK front pages this past week: the murder of Jo Cox and the
referendum. Both resonate strongly for me here in the 18th arrondissement
where yet another camp of refuges has been established round the corner from my
flat on the esplanade Nathalie Sarraute. This after the recent clearing of the
camp outside the jardin d’Eole where by the time it was cleared there were
1,300 migrants and refuges from various African and Middle Eastern countries,
living in conditions of the most appalling squalor and degradation. I am told
that the police have now cleared refugee camps in this area 23 times in the past year.
Right at
this minute the rain is pouring down as it has done with monotonous regularity
in both May and June. Hard to imagine what it feels like to lie, (most of the tents are too small to allow you to sit up comfortably), listening to
the rain beating down on a thin layer of nylon above your head when it’s not
trendy urban camping you’re about, with a hot shower waiting and a change of dry
clothes in the cupboard (cf. a recent piece about rooftop camping in Brooklyn
in one of the broadsheets).
Another of the effects of these repeated
clearings is that in our neighbourhood whole stretches of public space have
been cordoned off by the authorities. They include parks as well as pavements and this in an area which is already short of open green spaces for
relaxation and play.
Fortunately there are other responses. La cohabitation is a fact of life here. I am proud to live in this area - one of the poorest and most overcrowded of the city - where incomers are seen in their singularity however many they are, where the inhabitants don't stint their efforts to help through the quartiers solidaires network and others like it.
I posted my ‘IN’ vote a while back. You can stay stuck in inaction and a sense of
powerlessness or you can do whatever you can, little as it may be, to counter
those whose only solution is to pull up the drawbridge, batten down the
hatches or head for the hills… I read a post from some British man yesterday which said that choosing which
side to vote for in the referendum is ‘a difficult decision’. Really? Who in their right mind would want to be immured in any kind of fortress with
the likes of Farrage or Johnson?
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| mes géraniums qui font face au mauvais temps |
i agree with much of what you say mum, the problem is that there is no alternative plan being put in place - it genuinely seems as though the political class has no understanding or idea of what to do about these people. It is perfectly reasonable for people not to want to have tents and squalor on their doorstep, no body wants that, but equally people should not want to see human beings treated as they are. The idea that you leave it to a few good minded citizens to take up the strain by providing hot meals and some soap is ridiculous. So other than raising the drawbridge, where are the alternative plans? This is where the governing classes have so singularly failed - where is the plan, not to look after migrants, nor to move them around like sheep, but to solve the problem. There is no credible and agreed plan, so we can pour scorn on the crazy ideas of the 'leave' campaign, but isnt there an obligation for governments to do something? See this kind of inaction and lack of solution really only reflects how mired in self interest and political atrophy they have become - where are the leaders here? Even Germany, with Merckle being considered one of the most powerful leaders in the world, doesnt have a plan. They have a philosophy, the open borders policy is a noble and completely shambolic one - where is the tax to pay for it, where is the plan, and process to house, integrate and make economically active those people coming in to the country. The reaction and attractiveness of the Right wing anti immigration policies is because there is no credible plan by the left to illustrate how this can work, far less how it can be a good thing, they are stuck in fear of the public sentiment and so are providing no leadership. In short there is no credible alternative to 'fear'. It is this failure of an alternative view that is the biggest gap in the debate.
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