Salut!

Pope Francis in Marseille: if ever healing powers were needed ...

 

The Pope will be in Marseille this coming weekend. Parts of the left decry President Emmanuel Macron's intention to attend the main focus of the visit, open-air Mass at the OM stadium, the Velodrome, as an insult to France's secular status. I'm of the left, OK softishly, and have no such complaints since French presidents have often attended religious service, not as worshippers but as heads of state.

My preview for The National ...

Catherine de Medici marries the future King Henri II of France, 1533

Socayna: shades of Liverpool as French drug wars claim another innocent life

 

On Merseyside, it was little Olivia Pratt-Korbel, nine years old and shot dead when a deranged drug dealer fired through her front door after another lowlife, unknown to Olivia's family, had fled inside to avoid his pursuit. And Elle Edwards, 26, died after being hit by another gangland hoodlum who opened fire outside a pub.

In France, the focus is on Socayna, a 24-year-old law student whose life was ended by a gunman who fired randomly in an attempt to intimidate those running a rival drug sales pitch in Marseille.

The Merseyside gunmen shot to kill known targets. Socayna was killed by a bullet fired wildly in the air. One of the murderer's bullets penetrated the wall of Socayna's bedorom as she sat at her desk studying and shattered her face.

I don't suppose he cares too much, but I do. If wealthy, I'd happily offer a big reward  to get him caught and convicted and an even bigger one to snare his masters.

My piece for The National on the short life and horrible death of Socayna ...

 

 

If you can’t stand the heat, avoid southern France for now

 

 

Just now, down in the south of France, it feels impossible to go out without seeing an air conditioning installation van outside at least one house in every street. After the sleeplessly torrid nights of recent past, we'll soon enough be raiding the savings ourselves.

This is a piece I wrote about la canicule for The National.

 

The photograph of the monument below shows us things have been worse: it commemorates the Landes forest fires of 1949 that killed 82...

 

 

Image:  'Par moi'   

Macron all at sea in the South Pacific

The explorer James Cook was the first European to sight the archipelago he called New Caledonia in honour of his Scottish father's native land, which he thought it resembled. Nearly 250 years later, 170 years after France declared it its own, islanders are restless. Many want independence. A sham referendum says a majority don't. But Emmanuel Macron prides himself on a modern, apologetic outlook on colonialism. His visit to the South Pacific resolved nothing. My thoughts for The National ...

A 48-hour visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to the south-west Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia has highlighted rather than calmed stirrings of discontent among those who dream of bringing 170 years of colonial rule to an end.

As far as it is possible to travel from Paris and still be on French soil, this far-flung outpost of France’s historic empire is fiercely divided on its destiny. Up to half its 280,000 citizens, notably the poorer indigenous Kanaks, want the excitement and challenge of independence while the other half, including better-off islanders with roots in metropolitan France, clings to continuity and stability as a French dependency.

Successive referendums have produced votes against severing the colonial ties, but by majorities that were narrowing until a poll in December 2021 was boycotted by independence supporters. Their demands for a delay in holding the referendum because of the impact of Covid-19 on New Caledonia were rejected, rendering meaningless the subsequent near-unanimous vote, in a derisory turnout of under 44 per cent, to remain French.

 

 

Sinead O'Connor: Nothing Compares .. but there were other great songs

'In its proper home'' ... this article can also now be seen at Salut!'s musical offshoot Salut! Live: follow this link

 

 

I fell in love over and over with the singing of Sinead O'Connor, taken so soon at the age of 56,

 

The Tour de France. Where the real winner is the breathtaking French landscape

Years ago, at Salut! Sunderland, the fan site then still in my hands (what has become of it, despite the bold ambitions theoretically held then by the new owner, is a minor tragedy of football journalism), I ran a short series in which contributors were invited to talk about another team they quite liked, or another sport they enjoyed watching or playing,

Watching TV footage of the stunning landscapes of France during this year's Tour de France (not forgetting Spain at the start of the event), I was reminded of one outstanding instalment, my friend Pete Sixsmith's colourful account of what had grown into an annual must-see for him.

It's well worth a read even if, like me, you are less than excited by cycling as a sport and even if you read it when it first appeared in 2010. I shall reproduce it without changes except to my introduction so please expect some references from then ...

 

When I lived in Paris, writes Colin Randall, part of the finale of the Tour de France took place in the street five floors beneath my front window on the rue du Rivoli. It left me cold. All it meant was that it was a lot harder to get around and watch while people I barely knew would ring up, feign close friendship and ask if they could come watch.

Pete Sixsmith begs to differ, and just loves those scrawny, “Steroids .. me?” beanpoles and their pelotons. Here's how he described his other sporting passion back in 2010 (I reposted it in 2019; we believe in recycling around here) ...

 

Nahel, French policing and the wages of sin

 

When I submitted my analysis of the latest French social crisis - the atrocious police killing of Nahel during a routine stop, and the fierce, unjustified rioting that followed - there were two important matters I did not know about.

I heard later about the vile attack on the home and family of an entirely blameless mayor in L'Haye-les-Roses. And later still about the utterly repugnant crowdfunding whipround for the family of a certain Florian, the police officer who killed Nahel Merzouk.

 

Nahel's photo, released by his mother. Described by Wikipedia as fair use

Grief, shame and mob violence dominate France after Nahel M's senseless killing

 

Much of my time as a journalist covering events in France - continuously for 20 years and intermittently beforehand  - has concentrated on the country's lamentable record in assimilating its large population of people who emigrated from former French colonies, mainly north and sub-Saharan Africa, or descend from them. As night follows day, fierce rioting has followed the senseless killing by police of a 17-year-old boy whose offences, irritating and dangerous but hardly at the high end of criminality, were to be driving without a licence and being unwilling to stop and be checked. We now know the M stands for Merzouk.

 

The accused officer has issued an apology. He faces a voluntary homicide charge. He also has the wholly dubious honour of being the intended beneficiary of a crowd-funding whipround, created and doubtless enriched by odious far right sympathisers. As I write, it stands at a shameful 830,000 euros - compared with 150,000 euros so far collected for the family of Nahel.

 

Much more, including the death of a fireman and a hideous firework attack on a mayor, his family and home, has happened since I wrote this analysis for The National (reproduced with the editor's consent). Sadly, we have not heard the last of this latest uprising against police violence, routine discrimination and stubbornly racist attitudes ...

 

Image by Toufik-de-Planoise

 

Senegal: Mane and N'Door call for calm as death toll rises

 

This is my look at the eruption of violence in Senegal, sparked by a prison sentence passed on a popular opposition leader after what his supporters see as a cynically engineered prosecution and - at the time of writing - yet to be enforced. My thanks as usual to The National for permitting me to reproduce my work here ...  

 

Random images of Senegal from the National Archive UK

France: its eternal beauty and intermittent beastliness

It is fair to say both countries of my dual nationality are important to me. They have exceptional if different qualities and glaring flaws.

Often, what I write about France is affectionate and admiring. Sometimes it is defensive, as when oafish attacks are aimed in its direction by the usual Little Engerlish suspects.

That’s how I introduced this article at Facebook. I went on to say it would be absurd to overlook the flip side, a country thoroughly uneasy with itself, large numbers of its people prepared to engage in or support casual disruption and even violence.

The spiteful sabotage by the anti-government CGT union of gas supplies to 100 restaurants is a case in point. Wholly blameless in the battle with the government and President Macron over limited pension reform, they should have been serving visitors to the Cannes film festival. The misguided, badly targeted action shows the far right is not alone in deserving reproach, as I seek to explain in this piece for The National …