"Although there is nothing wrong with pledging money to help rebuild a famous and historical building, many debate the hypocrisy of those donating hundreds of millions of dollars"
-- Charlotte Porter
On April 15th, 2019, smoke and flames began to arise from the top of Notre Dame cathedral. It took over nine hours for firefighters to get the flames under control, but by that time much of the roof had been destroyed. The famous spire collapsed among the smoke. Public prosecutor of Pairs Rémy Heitz said that the fire was “likely accidental,” although the investigation is likely to be a lengthy process. However, investigations aside, one of the most notable details that’s arisen from the fire is the large amount of money that has been donated towards its rebuilding. As of twenty-four hours after the fire, $700 million had been raised. As of April 22, over $1 billion has been donated to rebuild the famous cathedral.
Although there is nothing wrong with pledging money to help rebuild a famous and historical building, many debate the hypocrisy of those donating hundreds of millions of dollars. Some bring up that Flint’s water crisis could be fixed with $55 million. Others mention that it would cost between $122 million and $489 million to hire enough boats to clean the Great Pacific Garbage Patch for a year. This billion dollars could go towards the $20 billion it would take to end U.S. homelessness. The three African American churches that burned in Louisiana could be repaired with $1.8 million. It raises the question: why are people so much more willing to send their money to repair a building than to help with people's lives and the environment?
One plus-side of the many donations to the rebuilding of Notre Dame is that it helped raise attention to the arson attacks by 21-year-old Holden Matthews. Matthews burned three African American churches in Louisiana and was charged with arson. Although this attack was devastating, it did not get much media coverage when it first happened, but due to the intense media coverage of Notre Dame’s burning, people have brought lots of attention to the church fires. As of now, the GoFundMe to rebuild the three churches has exceeded its goal of $1.8 million by over $300,000. On the morning before the fire, the fundraiser had gotten less than $100,000 dollars.
Although good has come out of Notre Dame’s media attention, negative things have come of it as well. On April 20th, people in Paris violently protested, expressing their anger over the attention given to Notre Dame. They were upset that so much money was going into the rebuilding of Notre Dame while their attempts to fight wealth inequality were being ignored. Sixteen-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg said that she did not want to diminish the Notre Dame fire, but wished there was an equal outpouring of support to combat issues such as climate change. Above all this, if the fire is covered by insurance, a large sum of those donations won’t matter.
Many people believe that the funds given to notre dame were given to make the donors look good. The first large donation came from Francois-Henri Pinault, who is the head of Kering, a luxury goods group that owns Gucci and Saint Lauren. Pinault donated 100 million euros as the cathedral was still on fire. Pinault’s rival and owner of Louis Vuitton, Bernard Arnault, donated 200 million euros hours after Pinault’s donation. Finally, the Bettencourt-Meyer family, the largest shareholder in L’Oreal, pledged 200 million euros to the damages of Notre Dame.
Many people believe that they were taking advantage of France being at the center of attention by associating their brands with the city. Others think that this could be helpful to the brands’ political positioning, as they want to be seen as helpful to the president’s calls to rebuild. Either way, the donations are most likely not simply due to the kindness of these multi-billionaires’ hearts.
All in all, there really is no right or wrong answer to where this money should go. On one hand, Notre Dame is a beautiful and historic building that has been standing for centuries and is well loved by many Parisians. On the other hand, many believe that there are bigger problems in our world than an old monument being damaged. But the damage has been done, and Notre Dame will be rebuilt.
One plus-side of the many donations to the rebuilding of Notre Dame is that it helped raise attention to the arson attacks by 21-year-old Holden Matthews. Matthews burned three African American churches in Louisiana and was charged with arson. Although this attack was devastating, it did not get much media coverage when it first happened, but due to the intense media coverage of Notre Dame’s burning, people have brought lots of attention to the church fires. As of now, the GoFundMe to rebuild the three churches has exceeded its goal of $1.8 million by over $300,000. On the morning before the fire, the fundraiser had gotten less than $100,000 dollars.
Although good has come out of Notre Dame’s media attention, negative things have come of it as well. On April 20th, people in Paris violently protested, expressing their anger over the attention given to Notre Dame. They were upset that so much money was going into the rebuilding of Notre Dame while their attempts to fight wealth inequality were being ignored. Sixteen-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg said that she did not want to diminish the Notre Dame fire, but wished there was an equal outpouring of support to combat issues such as climate change. Above all this, if the fire is covered by insurance, a large sum of those donations won’t matter.
Many people believe that the funds given to notre dame were given to make the donors look good. The first large donation came from Francois-Henri Pinault, who is the head of Kering, a luxury goods group that owns Gucci and Saint Lauren. Pinault donated 100 million euros as the cathedral was still on fire. Pinault’s rival and owner of Louis Vuitton, Bernard Arnault, donated 200 million euros hours after Pinault’s donation. Finally, the Bettencourt-Meyer family, the largest shareholder in L’Oreal, pledged 200 million euros to the damages of Notre Dame.
Many people believe that they were taking advantage of France being at the center of attention by associating their brands with the city. Others think that this could be helpful to the brands’ political positioning, as they want to be seen as helpful to the president’s calls to rebuild. Either way, the donations are most likely not simply due to the kindness of these multi-billionaires’ hearts.
All in all, there really is no right or wrong answer to where this money should go. On one hand, Notre Dame is a beautiful and historic building that has been standing for centuries and is well loved by many Parisians. On the other hand, many believe that there are bigger problems in our world than an old monument being damaged. But the damage has been done, and Notre Dame will be rebuilt.