Now for the Paris Paralympics
Rashmee Roshan Lall
PhD. #FRSA Journalism @timesofindia @theneweuropean. Teaching university, London. Ex–BBC etc. UEA. Novel Hachette UK. Sign up below for This Week, Those Books read by more than 10,000 subscribers in 117 countries
The 2024 Olympics Games aren’t really over, they’re just on pause. Soon, a new set of elite international sports personnel will descend on the French capital ?for the?Paralympics, the third largest sporting event?in the world. By some measures, Paris went for Olympic gold in its efforts to level up the city. Excerpts from This Week, Those Books on two authors’ exclusive content. Sign up at https://thisweekthosebooks.substack.com/ and get the post and podcast the day it drops
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We have a huge treat: Paris-based bestselling British novelist Stephen Clarke and London author, academic and infrastructure expert Dr Dominic Davies write exclusively for This Week, Those Books on how the Olympic Games will transform Paris, the host city. Oui? Ou non?
–?Rashmee
The Big Story:
Even before the Olympics began, Paris won a gold medal for using the Games to kickstart a radical rethink of the city, its suburbs (or banlieues) and urban inequality.
This Week, Those Books:
The Backstory:
Paris 2024:
Rio 2016:
The most expensive Games ever, Rio was left with venues that are “white elephants”…
London 2012:
Sydney 2000:
This Week’s Books:
Stephen Clarke on his novel Merde at the Paris Olympics?
Publisher: pAf Books
Year: 2023
领英推荐
My rating: Hilarious, as always
For me, the most important change to Paris during the Olympics is the cleaning-up of the Seine so that (hopefully) the triathlon swimmers won't die of cholera.
However, my novel?Merde at the Paris Olympics?is about a change that WON'T happen.?Pétanque, France’s second most popular sand-based sport (after sunbathing) won’t be an Olympic event, just because the Parisian élite think it’s uncool...
Choice quotes:
“How exactly can I help you?” I asked them. “Why do you need an Anglophone?”
“The Parisian committee Olympique refuse to permit pétanque at the games of two sousand twenty-four,” Marjorie said in her French accent.
“Une honte!” Alain added. The shame of it...
**
“Of course, Paris was never going to knock down the Louvre to provide temporary accommodation for a bunch of athletes, but it went to the other extreme and decided to build its Olympic Village more than ten kilometres”
Dominic Davies on his book The Broken Promise of Infrastructure
Publisher: Lawrence Wishart
Year: 2023
My rating: Insightful
I show how spectacular infrastructures from stadiums and arenas to high-speed railway lines have been used to distract from much-needed local infrastructure investment. In Britain, this spectacle has been used for short-term wins in electoral politics and to avoid meaningful wealth distribution from London to the country’s poorer regions.
The book begins in Stoke-on-Trent, a small city in the middle of England, where in 2021 the promise of a new city centre was weaponised by politicians to distract from deeper failures of government…This broken promise of infrastructure goes back through history, in many parts of the world. Infrastructure has always been built to cultivate feelings of imperialist supremacy or nationalist pride…
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Originally published at This Week, Those Books
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