Unreal Paris: Police Remove the Homeless from Paris by Bus to Make Way for Olympic Games
By Stephen Wilson, one of our reporters abo
It was as if I couldn't escape from him! That is… I was being followed around by specter of the late French philosopher Jacques Lacan {1901-1981}. First, my daughter had eagerly proclaimed how “Lacan has helped me make sense of my experience and inspires my creativity.” She handed me an English translation of some of his works and was even having French lessons to read him 'in the raw.' The work baffled me. He even made Hegel look easy. With immense relief I gave up reading the translation.
Last Saturday things got much more interesting… My 12-year-old student of English started to quote him or rather misquote Lacan from a bizarre story behind a video game he had heard. He stated, “If you want to maintain a sense of reality keeping looking into the mirror.” Then later he said, “If you want to maintain a sense of reality don't look into the mirror.” But which was it? Someone was playing with words! “Make sure you remove all the mirrors in your room in the wake of alien invaders.”
A picture of Lacan suddenly surfaced on a television screen on the video warning of the 'the impact of the real.'
The controversial philosopher Jacques Lacan was a proponent of psychoanalysis and philosophy of structuralism who maintained that the unconscious had a language of its own and that people have a very fragile sense of identity if at all based on invented imaginary images. It is very difficult to handle the reality of their real identity and they feel a lack of something or a vacuum which they fill by using symbols as well as words. We partly base our own self on the fantasies we weave.
According to Lacan, 'the real', or 'a disruptive force of reality' looms up from time to time exerting a destructive and traumatic influence. The claim is that a person lacks a solid and unified sense of identity and does all he can to conceal this by using imaginations and words. The person as a subject or free individual is really an illusion. This reality undermines complacent assumptions which flatter any strong sense of self hood. The real causes a fissure or chaos turning things upside down. Fantasy authors behind some video games have started perhaps misapplying his idea of 'the real' by stating the arrival of aliens represent the manifestation of 'the real.'
I doubt my notion of 'the real' coincides with Lacan's. However, over the past few days the French police have been rounding up the homeless in order to render Paris more presentable for the coming Olympics.
The police are seeking to reassure people that Paris is a postcard city that is scenic, serene and romantic. They want a Paris as enchanting as the city shown in Woody Allen's Film “Midnight in Paris” (2011). The city where any miracle might happen! And Paris retains a reputation as a city which can cater for all our needs: artistic, aesthetic, spiritual, romantic, and intellectual. It is the city where countless American writers as well as Irish writers such as Jame Joyce and Samuel Beckett found refuge.
Unfortunately, visitors find a huge gap between the hype around Paris and the brutal reality. Tourists find Paris is overcrowded with endless long queues to get into museums, accommodation is fully booked over the Summer, pick pockets can be watching them, things are expensive, and the local people don't appear so hospitable or warm as anticipated.
Perhaps Japanese tourists suffer the most. There is a term called the Paris Syndrome where according to the Japanese Embassy as many as 20 Japanese tourists suffer a breakdown from cultural shock and require medical aid. The Paris Syndrome means tourists arriving in the city and seeing the reality of the place are shattered by Paris not coming up to their high expectations.
My advice to visitors is to come to Paris with the lowest expectations. He who expects nothing will never be disappointed!
The French authorities see the presence of the homeless as a blight on Paris. They are the unwelcome 'real'. What is the 'real' in Paris? We don't need profound philosophical or confounding metaphysical explanations to point to an estimated 3600 homeless on the streets of Paris and 30,000 in France alone. In greater Paris the number of homeless comes to 4,277.
The lingering presence of the homeless represents a striking reminder of Macron's promise in 2017 to ensure no homeless would be on the streets within two years. It is now 2024! The homeless are still here. The number of homeless has shot up. This includes many children.
Paris happens to be hosting the Summer Olympics this summer from the 26th of July to the 11th of August. More than 10,500 athletes will be competing in 329 events. Over the past 13 months the authorities have been moved an estimated 12,545 homeless, immigrants, and children. Tent camps have been dismantled and the homeless and others deemed 'undesirable' bused out beyond Paris.
This social cleansing has intensified over the past week. Those expelled from Paris are not only the homeless but sex workers and all kinds of beggars. Although begging has been legal in France since 1994, such activity is not welcomed by the authorities.
The homeless are being removed by bus. Homeless advocates have condemned the measures. Paul Alauzy of the charity Medicins du Monde, described the methods as 'social cleansing.' The aim is that Paris “will appear in the most flattering light possible for the Olympics.” It is also hoped that the authorities can hide the misery and suffering “under the rug.” If this really were a dignified solution to the problem, people would be fighting to get on the buses. However, they are not.
Homeless advocates and supporters claim the authorities are in the process of making it impossible for the homeless to survive and function. This is because many of the homeless in Paris strongly depend on all kinds of material as well as medical support from charities based in the city. Being suddenly detained and driven out turns their world upside down. Even the Mayor of Paris has expressed misgivings. The Paris 2024 organizing committee is at pains to distance themselves from such measures. It claims that it is not responsible for those brutal clearances.
Strange things can happen in Paris. What if a visitor to Paris mistaken for a homeless person found himself being stopped and thrust on to an odd car or bus? It is unlikely he would find himself going back in time to the 1920's meeting up with Scott Fitzgerald or a friendly and amiable Salvador Dali as in the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris, 2011.
Instead, he would find himself in a special detention center rummaging his pockets for a French phrase book. Like it or not, the homeless are part of 'the real' which any of us might see by looking into the mirror at some time in our lives. It can be as disturbing and unsettling as any of Lacan's reflections or thoughts on 'the real.'
Indeed, let's get real about homelessness!