20 Kilometers from the Eiffel Tower
Eric Hadj
Sipa Press pour Paris Match
La Forestière, a private residential estate in the heart of Clichy-sous-Bois (on the outskirts of Paris), was built in the 1970s and was originally designed for people on comfortable incomes. Thirty years later it has become one of the most indebted properties in France, undermined by wheeling and dealing by the administrators responsible for managing it. The buildings are totally run down, with leaks and a range of problems. Rats roam the buildings, trash piles up in the passageways, and only four of the twelve elevators in the buildings (from 5 to 12 floors) work; when they break down it sometimes take days to repair them. Nearly 3000 people from migrant background live in La Forestière and half of them are unemployed. Young people looking for jobs suffer discrimination and therefore lose any incentive to find employment. Some have as many as three higher degrees and diplomas and have done internship after internship, leading to nothing, except perhaps the government employment office, (the ANPE). Others work for the local council as youth workers, or end up doing a series of odd jobs.
Preview
At Clichy-sous-Bois there is no swimming pool, no move theater, no police station, no government employment office. There is one single bus service that connects Clichy-sous-Bois to the rest of the world: bus number 601. It takes you to the nearby town of Raincy where you can get the RER, the suburban rail link that goes to the center of Paris or to the shopping mall at Rosny-sous-Bois. The return ticket to Paris costs nearly 9 euros; no one can afford to pay for a ticket every day, so the younger generation spend their time at La Forestière, a.k.a. the “Fofo”, the “Forest” or the “Ghetto”, where they play football at the municipal sports ground or spend their days in front of the TV with their play-station. Unemployment, dropping out of school and family problems are fertile ground for delinquency. Young people do what they can to get money and swap addresses to find cheap clothes; mutual assistance is an important element in their daily life; they form a family unit. Nearly all of them were born in France and they see it as one of life’s injustices that they’ve ended up living here. The most common offences are driving without a license and driving without insurance; some commit more serious offences, but they are a minority. Very few smoke hash, but other youths from nearby housing estates come and smoke their joints at the bottom of the Forestière buildings. No one would dare smoke a joint inside for fear of running into a member of their own family. Anyone who owns a car or a motorbike is considered lucky; they are free to go where they like when they like. Motorbikes are parked in a safe place, usually on the landing, or even better on the balcony. In November 2005, there were demonstrations and rioting here, as was the case in other housing estates outside Paris, after the accidental electrocution of two boys who were running away from the police, but not many cars were burnt at La Forestière where the youths opted for confrontations in the street. Over a 12-month period, all the letterboxes have been replaced and the roofs have been repaired to stop flooding, yet for the young people here, nothing has changed. There is still nothing to do at La Forestière. And every day is Sunday. I would like to thank all the residents of La Forestière for their hospitality and kindness, and for the interest they showed in my work.
Eric Hadj
