What a tragedy for the Sainte-Thérèse neighborhood—the neighborhood where I was born…
So on Sunday the 22nd, I tried to get to Fort-de-France via its boulevard…
No way!
But every cloud has a silver lining, so to speak, since, in order to turn back, I had to walk through the «alleys» of this neighborhood…
And what struck me then wasn’t the «gangs» or the «arsonists»—it was the extraordinary state of neglect into which the administration of our city and our country has allowed this neighborhood to fall…
CAR … What?
How can we cut off a neighborhood of poor but dignified people in order to open up the city to tens of thousands of vehicles that now benefit from a route allowing them to reach downtown in 2 minutes instead of the 10 it took via the old road, not to compensate them even once for this (unacceptable) intrusion into their environment, not to offer a second round of compensation to those who, before, used to feel the trade winds directly on their east-facing facades, and who, because of the «highway» that was forced upon them, are now forced to shut themselves in by closing windows and shutters to block out traffic noise—and their kids (oh, their kids!), who are also forced to «shut themselves in,» and deprived of their usual play areas, with that river so close by and now forced into the arms of…
… Not a single green space, not a single well-maintained garden, not a single music center, not a single judo school (though «Jacqot» had once started one, but…), not a single club where young and old can get together, not even clean streets (!)…
NOTHING but this road, this noise, this daily fear that their little ones might get run over, and this elusive feeling of total abandonment—sad and miserable…
What a mess…
And after all that, do you really think that even the most «unjustifiable» uprisings didn’t have their roots there?????
(Sad Tropics…)
Henri PIED
