Given the media saturation of the Paris killings, there can be few who are unaware that they happened in the suburb of St Denis, but those climate activists who were looking forward to a 10-day Paris holiday, courtesy of other peoples’ money, may no longer be as keen as they were.
St Denis is also the venue of next month’s 21st Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21). COP21 has already “copped” (sorry) one blow. Thanks to the three-month State of Emergency in France: all outdoor activities have been cancelled, including a parade through the streets by the estimated 40 000 delegates and hangers-on on the eve of the talks.
What effect the killings will have on the money-making side of things can only be guessed at, but it seems unlikely that COP21 will now provide the bonanza the French government was expecting.
It is also probable that given the new demands of its security forces, it is already regretting having splurged e170 million (R2.5 billion) on COP21 in order to present itself as Europe’s most fervent supporter of the climate change theory.
Climate Armageddon
It is just (faintly) possible that even the most fervent of believers in climate dogma will recognise that civilisation faces more immediate threats than a debatable theory predicting climate Armageddon a century in the future. It will be interesting to see whether these acolytes will flock to Paris in their thousands. Will the promised 40 000 turn up to provide the colour and street theatre that makes an otherwise dull conference highly newsworthy for the television cameras?
Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.
If they do not, if they have second thoughts, if they find that the conference venue is disturbingly close to the site of the shooting, then the economic argument to justify holding it in Paris (happily endorsed by the UN organisers) falls rather flat.
This is the promise COP21 organisers put forward, probably taken from the international conference organisers’ handbook:
“The… conference will feed directly into the local economy and (there) will be creative activities and jobs.
“The tourism sector in Île-de-France (the centre of Paris some distance from the conference site) will directly benefit from these economic spin-offs.
“(It)… will bring around e100m… due to various expenses of participants (accommodation, catering, shopping, etc).
“To develop and operate the website of Paris-Le Bourget, nearly 60 providers and enterprises are mobilised. Employment generated by the event will receive priority to people living in the region.
“There are also plans to raise about 600 young people, living mainly in Seine-Saint-Denis. 200 of these young people… (in training and professionally qualified)… will be able to realise their study internships with the event specialist providers working on the COP21.
“And 400 students, mainly from the universities of Paris VIII-Saint-Denis and Paris-XIII-Villetaneuse, selected for their knowledge of one or more foreign languages, will participate in the reception and orientation of visitors on the site Paris-Le Bourget and in railway stations and airports concerned.”
The excitement is palpable. There are even great words from President François Hollande himself that risk being seen later as the height of hubris. It cries out for the reader to stand to attention and to sing La Marseillaise.
On December 10, 1948, France hosted the UN to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. During COP21, France will welcome all countries to a new stage of rights. It should be set to music or carved in stone as a monument to pomposity.
The bloody battle on the streets of St Denis should make a Paris holiday less attractive, but the predicted legions of green enthusiasts may turn up in their thousands after all.
Extravagances
One can only hope our government does not add to them by repeating its extravagances at COP20 in Lima, to which it sent the entire staff of the Ministry of Environment Affairs, including the office cleaner.
Meanwhile, the cancellation of the planned mass march/mardi gras on the eve of the conference has dampened the organisers enthusiasm or their imagination. Now the plan is for everyone attending COP21 to donate a shoe to be placed on a heap planned for the Place de la Republique. Each shoe (left foot no doubt) will have the name of the donor written on the sole together will a message to do with climate change. The other shoe presumably goes in the donor’s mouth.
No one seems to have considered that old shoes might not go too well with the thousands of flowers in memory of the dead and messages of condolence for their families left on the same spot.
A much better idea would be for climate activists and COP21 delegates to learn the words of the French national anthem. Among its verses is this one:
Do you hear, in the countryside,
The roar of those ferocious soldiers?
They are coming right into your arms
To cut the throats of your sons, your women!
Given the circumstances, these lyrics of La Marseillaise might be more appropriate. Don’t you think?
* Keith Bryer is a retired communications consultant.
** The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Independent Media.
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