Gigantic fires are devastating the Los Angeles region in the United States. Twenty-four dead, 130,000 people evacuated, more than 9,000 buildings and houses destroyed by devouring fires, carried by extremely powerful winds, and a fire site larger than the total area of Paris: this is the worst disaster natural history of the city.
Many Los Angeles residents have everything lost. We can read in The Mondethe testimony of neighbors who saw their entire neighborhood burn; of a retired couple who fled with their only possession. French expatriates in the City of Angels also testify, for example on BFMTV: they too saw their house go up in flames.
Stars are among the ultra-rich whose lifestyle largely causes the depletion of natural resources.
But it is not on these people that part of the French media coverage of the disaster focuses. It is, of course, about the glitz of Hollywood and the repercussions of the fire on French stars. « Patrick Bruel announces that his house has ‘gone up in smoke’” (BFMTV); “’I am devastated’: Laeticia Hallyday’s villa destroyed by flames in Los Angeles” (The Parisian) ; “‘Heartbroken’, Paris Hilton saw ‘her house burning live on television’” (TF1) ; “’We lost everything’: Laeticia Hallyday mourns the destruction of her house in the Los Angeles fire” (BFMTV, again); “Tom Hanks, Anthony Hopkins, Ben Affleck… these Hollywood stars evacuated or whose house burned down due to fires” (The Parisianencore).
Misleading
So, yes: if even Hollywood stars are affected by the climate catastrophe – because these extraordinary fires are above all caused by the climate crisis: it is the extreme drought which triggered them – perhaps they will finally put their global influence in the fight against global warming. Or maybe not: they are, after all, part of the ultra-rich whose lifestyle largely causes the depletion of natural resources and the excessive production of CO2.
But, in all cases, putting them forward as the major victims of this catastrophe is misleading: Laeticia Hallyday did not really “lost everything”. Patrick Bruel saw his “other refuge”which means it’s not his main “refuge”. Paris Hilton is not the only one to have “heartbroken”but everything media space that she occupies will not be dedicated to the thousands of strangers who are not lucky enough to have been born heirs and for whom the loss is much more colossal.
Easier to be moved by the concerns of Patrick Bruel and Laeticia Hallyday (…) than with those of our fellow Mahorese citizens.
Especially since a few months ago, insurance companies changed the contracts of thousands of residents in the Los Angeles area – including many people in Pacific Palisades, the neighborhood that was almost entirely destroyed by flames – for reasons of risk… of fire. These people have lost everything and won’t even touch insurance for which they have contributed for years. And they don’t have the fortune of stars to rebuild their lives elsewhere.
Double treatment
This avalanche of testimonies from residents desperate to have lost their roof, we did not observe it as much in the media when Mayotte was recovering as best it could from Cyclone Chido. However, the disaster was just as destructive, and the population in a much more precarious situation. But we don’t see Mayotte on our cinema screens: it’s easier to be moved by the concerns of Patrick Bruel and Laeticia Hallyday, or “French expatriates” than with those of our fellow Mahorese citizens, apparently.
On the same subject: In Mayotte, “in the morning, I open my eyes and I cry”
This is the famous « double media treatment » Western, the one that stood out at the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022 in the words of a BFM journalist: “We are not talking about Syrians fleeing the regime’s bombings […]. We’re talking about Europeans leaving in their cars that look like our cars, and just trying to save their lives. » Sprinkle these “Europeans who are like us” with some Hollywood glitter, and you get French coverage of the Los Angeles fires.
Receive Politis at your home every week!
