The death of an 85-year-old man who reportedly succumbed to hypothermia after falling and spending nine hours sprawled and ignored on a bitterly cold street in central Paris has prompted grief, anger and incredulity in France and beyond.
Rene Robert, a Swiss photographer known for his shots of some of Spain’s most famous flamenco stars, died last week after slipping while on one of his nightly walks around the busy Paris neighborhood where he lived.
According to his friend journalist Michel Mompontet, Robert fell over on Rue de Turbigo, between the Place de la Republique and Les Halles.
“He suffered a dizzy spell and fell,” Mompontet said in a series of Twitter posts. “Unable to get up, he lay rooted to the spot in the cold for nine hours until a homeless person called the emergency services. Too late. He had hypothermia and couldn’t cling on to life. Over the course of those nine hours no passerby stopped to check why this man was lying on the pavement. Not one.”
Mompontet, who also recounted the circumstances of his friend’s death on France TV Info, said Robert had been “killed by indifference,” adding: “If this awful death could serve some purpose, it would be this: When a human is lying on the pavement, we should check on them — no matter how busy we may be. Let’s just stop for a second.”
Mompontet said that many people — himself included — often looked the other way when it came to people on the street.
“Before giving any lessons or accusing anyone, I need to deal with a little question that makes me feel uneasy,” the journalist told France TV Info. “Am I 100 percent sure that I would have stopped had I been confronted with that scene — a man on the ground? Have I never turned away from a homeless person lying in a doorway?”
The death, which occurred in an area of Paris where many homeless people sleep rough, has sparked a debate about civic responsibility and basic human decency.
A headline in Le Figaro read: “The photographer Rene Robert, dead in the indifference of the middle of the street.”
The Spanish embassy in the Netherlands wrote on Twitter: “The death of Rene Robert, who immortalised with his camera all the great artists of flamenco, challenges our collective conscience.”
Robert, who photographed flamenco legends including Camaron de la Isla and Paco de Lucia, was remembered by another of his more recent subjects.
“Very sad at the loss of Rene Robert, who I was lucky enough to meet and be photographed by,” said the Grammy-winning flamenco singer Arcangel. “I can’t understand why no one helped him; I don’t want to think that we live in a society with so few values.”
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
RSS