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Fatal blaze
22 people of whom 11 children died
in a terrible fire that devastated in the middle of the night
a hotel in Paris. There are many that are seriously wounded.
It is one of the most serious fires ever to hit the capital.
The victims are African families in a precarious situation, living
in an overcrowded hotel with no emergency exit, by the social
services of the city of Paris.
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I went on location and mingled with
people gathering there spontaneously. |
Still under the shock, we stay there
silently.
Then came indignation and anger. " What an horror!' "
We should not see things like that in 2005 in a Paris hotel ".
" The poor are always the victims ".
For many years now, the association " Right to housing "
of which I am a member, is asking to end accommodating the families
in tourist hotels, a stopgap for public authorities, unsuitable,
precarious and often dangerous. This way, hotel managers get
richer and richer at the expense of the poorly housed. Many thousands
of families are accommodated in such conditions in Paris ad Ile
de France.
We demand the enforcement of the requisitioning of Paris vacant
buildings law. This is an emergency.
The next day, again I went to the location where the blaze occurred.
In the narrow street, there is an indescribable crowd. The slogans
reflect the anger of the Africans: " Never again "
" Enough is enough ". Television reporters and journalists
with microphones try to interview me in this roaring crowd. If
the Africans are without official papers, for my part I am without
a word. |
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Palestinian prisoners
The solidarity committees with Palestine organized an evening
debate on the question of the prisoners in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
I am glad to be invited and to have the possibility to speak.
We received a warm welcome. The meeting was held in a packed
parish hall.
Palestinian food has been displayed on the tables.
The screening of the film " Stolen childhood " by Saed
Adoni is remarkable and was a great opening for the evening.
I am sitting next to Omar, the young chairman of the Palestinian
students. He spoke of the present political situation in Palestine.
In my view, his speech was very pessimistic.
Yoav, an Israeli, is a conscientious objector. His testimony
was courageous. Refusing to do his military duties and to be
a soldier had a lot of bad consequences for him.
As for Lana, the chairman of the committee, she narrated all
the suffering of the families of the prisoners.
On a population of 3 millions Palestinians, it can be said that
every man or almost every man, at one moment of his existence,
has been imprisoned in an Israeli jail. There are now 8000 prisoners,
of which 128 woman and 380 children, 11 to 16 years of age.
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The colonization attempts to smash the Palestinian resistance
by massive and arbitrary imprisonments.
At the same moment, the 800km apartheid wall locks the Palestinian
people in the largest jail in the world. |
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Child protection
African families without official papers have occupied
the premises of Unicef-France Parisian committee requesting support
and protection from this organization devoted to protect the
rights of the children.
These families are trying by this means to escape from the massive
arrests that lead police headquarters to detain in prison people
with no official papers. These families know that schools are
not anymore a shelter for their children since the police do
not hesitate anymore to enter these establishments to pick up
the children.
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A month ago a dozen men made a decision to go on a hunger
strike. I go to visit them regularly. During a press conference,
one of them declared: " I am going on a hunger strike for
my children. They are the light of my life. I want them to lead
a normal life and to have access to school like the other children.
I am ready to die for them".
As I am writing these lines, the spokesman for the families telephoned
me to tell me that the police have arrived in great number to
seal off the area. This is a prelude to expulsion. |
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Occupation of a building
This beautiful Parisian building with 22 apartments is
now being sold piece by piece, one apartment at a time by its
new owner. The building bought in one block at 3 500 euros per
m² will be sold at 6 000 euros per m². Tenants unable
to pay this price will be forced to leave. They are threatened
with expulsion.
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Their situation is just as dramatic as that being experienced
by those who live in inadequate housing. |
That is why the families living in inadequate housing,
before the police can act, have gathered in front of the building
while I am climbing to the 5th floor with a few people responsible
of the association for the right to housing.
Two homeless families have settled in vacant apartments in this
building.
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Real-estate speculation is aggravating the housing crisis.
It adds to the problems of people living in inadequate housing
the problem of the expulsion of tenants. |
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The threat is uniting the tenants. Everybody is speaking
to everybody else and they are visiting each other. Solidarity
is growing and is extending to those who are in inadequate housing.
The same combat is uniting them. |
