The Paris Olympics may look fair and inclusive on TV. The truth is much darker | Rokhaya Diallo
this unifying narrative introduced an Olympic and Paralympic Games that in reality are not all that inclusive. (…) To make these Games happen, Paris had to undertake a programme of intense social cleansing.
According to an investigation by a collective named https://lereversdelamedaille.fr/ (The other side of the coin), 12,545 people (including 3,434 minors) were evicted – some of them forcibly – across the Paris region between April 2023 and May 2024, which is a 38.5% increase on the 2021-22 period (twice as many as last year, and almost three times more than in 2021-22 for the minors)
(…)
Another odious policy that has accompanied preparations for the Olympics and Paralympics is that homeless people have been hidden or driven away by such measures as the installation of anti-homeless urban furniture. Almost 1,000 students were forced to vacate their university accommodation (provided by the official student services organisation) for police officers, firefighters and healthcare workers on duty during the Games. Many of them reported their shock at being met by utterly squalid conditions, including cockroaches, mould and mice. In addition to the filth, what is shocking is that it has taken the Olympics to expose the living conditions of students, despite repeated denunciation by their unions. (…)The surveillance extends well beyond QR codes. The legalisation of algorithmic surveillance, which allows for real-time behaviour analysis using AI to anticipate supposedly suspicious acts, is a “violation of the right to privacy”, according to Amnesty International. This system, fuelled by human biases against certain populations, will be amplified. Moreover, it will persist beyond the Olympic Game.
