René Robert, known for his flamenco photos, died of hypothermia after falling on a busy road with seemingly no help.The death has shocked many, but echoes the indifference that the homeless face every day.
PARIS — On a cold night last month, Swiss photographer René Robert, 85, fell on the sidewalk of a busy Paris street and remained there for several hours — with seemingly no help , apparently ignored by a group of passers-by.When a medical team finally arrived, Mr Robert was found unconscious and later died in hospital from severe hypothermia.
Many in France were shocked by the blatant lack of sympathy in the country’s capital.But what makes this episode even more poignant is the identity of those who find him and seek help in the first place—both homeless men are all too familiar with the daily indifference of bystanders.
“They say, ‘I can barely see, I feel like I can’t,’” Christopher Robert, executive director of the Abbé Pierre Foundation, a housing advocacy group, said of his conversations with the homeless.”It really resonates with this event.”
In the early hours of January 20, the two homeless men – a man and a woman – spotted Mr. Robert, who is known for his black-and-white photos of flamenco’s most famous artist, while walking his dog..
“Even if you were attacked, nobody moved a finger,” said Fabian, 45, one of two homeless people who found the photographer on a street around 5:30 a.m. , the street includes cocktail bars, smartphone repair shops and an optical shop.
The exact circumstances of the incident remain unclear, but Robert was suffering from severe hypothermia when ambulances finally picked him up, according to the Paris Fire Service.For those close to Mr Robert, it was a strong indication that he spent most of his time on busy sidewalks.
On a recent cold, windy afternoon, Fabian said she had been living on the streets of central Paris for the past two years after she was fired from a carpentry job at a shipyard on France’s Atlantic coast.She declined to give her last name.
Her home is a small camping tent pitched on a narrow pedestrian street that runs along the side of the church, a few hundred feet from where Mr. Robert fell, on Rue de Turbigo.
Wearing baggy purple trousers and a scarf around her head in case she catches a cold, Fabian said Mr Robert and his partner were one of the few community regulars who came here to chat or get some change, but most walked away without looking back. past.
In January, an evening census led by Paris City Hall estimated that about 2,600 people lived on the streets of the French capital.
solar led street light
Born in Fribourg, a small town in western Switzerland in 1936, Mr. Robert settled in Paris in the 1960s, where he fell in love with flamenco and began recording famous singers, dancers and guitarists such as Paco de Lucía, Enrique Morente and Rossio Molina.
Mr Robert was found with small bruises on his head and arms, but his cash, credit cards and watch were still on him, suggesting he was not robbed but may have felt unwell and collapsed to the ground.
Paris hospital authorities declined to say whether the doctors who examined him were able to assess the cause of his fall or how long he had been on the street, citing medical confidentiality.The Paris police also declined to comment.
Michel Mompontet, a journalist and friend who first brought attention to Mr Robert’s death on social media, said in a viral post that Mr Robert – a flamenco artist emotionally Open “Humanist” – seems like a cruel irony.suffered from the indifference of bystanders.
“The only person who calls emergency services humanely is a homeless person,” said Mr. Montponté, who works for France’s national radio and television broadcaster and has known Mr. Robert for the past 30 years.A video of him condemning Mr Robert’s death was widely circulated online.
“We’re used to something intolerable,” Mr. Montponté said, “and this death can help us reconsider that indifference.”
Post time: Feb-14-2022
