Notre-Dame de Paris: Why so much emotions?
City life . Culture . Media . Society . Travel
Burning for around fifteen hours on the evening of 15 April 2019, Notre Dame was and still be a huge burning issue for the media in France and worldwide. Every weeks, couples of articles are written to deal about the new challenges Paris has to face up with. If you are interested by this topic and if you are fed up with the dozens of articles written each day dealing about it, this blog-post is made for you! Indeed, I tried to summarize the main issues journalists talk about regarding the restoration and renovation question, what appears wrong with the government project, and the problem of donations, which continues to make a lot of ink flow.
We all know this cathedral built in 1345 and which is become one of the most famous ones in the world! It has not only a religious connotation, but it has also an historical and political one. Heads of State and famous writers like Victor Hugo visited the cathedral and contributed to make it and Paris more renowned. The day it was burning was also the day we started to begin to think on how we could rebuild it. And here is my first issue: the restoration and renovation question.
The restoration & renovation question:
For many architects the government wants to restorate the cathedral too early. Mary José Dumont,a renowned historian in France think that we need between ten and fifteen years to rebuild in a good way the cathedral. Emmanuel Macron, on the contrary can´t help thinking that within five years we will be finished with the restoration. There is even in France a new law project launched to boost the rebuilding process.
But, as explained many architects want to have more time to think and to reconstruct the cathedral as it was before the fire, or to think about a more “futuristic” approach. Some talk about a kind of instrumentalisation of the monument made by politics to be reelected during the next elections.
Another important issue is linked to donations made by companies and private individuals.
The donation problem:
Through many Internet platforms, several associations have collected money from individuals, who wanted to help a little bit the restoration process. It has pretty good worked until now and the amount of money is now estimated to 850 millions euros.
But the main problem is that the state and the city didn´t receive all the money. They just received 71 millions euros at the end of April 2019. So we can wonder where is the money if it still not given to the state. And there is about this question a big confusion too, mostly because the explanations given by the Heritage Foundation is vague: they usually say when there are asked that they still need time to register all the cheques they have become until now.
Some rich compagnies like LVMH, Total, L´Oreal have already given together more than 600 millions euros to the state and two famous rich families in France more than 300 millions. It appears really kind at first sight, but critics can´t stop saying that they gave money because they will receive a reduction of their taxes at the end of the year. Indeed, since 2003 the Aillagon law allows companies, which invest in the culture field to reduce their taxes from 60%. That means at the end that the donation would be partly financed by the state itself.
We can´t stop hearing this argument in almost all the interviews the yellow vests give to the tabloids.
“That the oligarchy gives for Notre-Dame is good, the tax exemplary would be even better, the good conscience does not hide misery and austerity”
Benjamin Cauchy, politician on Twitter
“In one click, 200 million, 100 million, it also shows the inequalities, which we denounce regularly, the inequalities in this country”
Philippe Martinez, general secretary of the CGT
Decrease in donations for the fight against poverty:
“We are very attached to where Father Pierre’s funeral was held. But we are equally committed to his cause. If you could contribute even one percent of the amount to the homeless, we would be moved.”
The Abbe Pierre Foundation
If the donations for Notre-Dame were huge, the donations for NPO and NGO tend to become really law. In France, associations fighting against poverty lost 4,2% donations during last year. So, the question we can raise is why have people decided to donate for Notre-Dame and not for associations like those fighting against children starvation. It is a question we often hear but also one of those that are usually not answered by protagonists when there are interviewed.
Interested in Notre-Dame issues?
You should have a look on these websites 😉 :
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/20/18507964/notre-dame-cathedral-fire-charity-donations
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