
The lesson from the ruins of Notre Dame: don't rely on billionaires - fanf2
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/18/ruins-notre-dame-billionaires-french-philanthropy
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roenxi
It might have been something like 100 years since Notre Dame's last major
reconstruction; it isn't completely beyond the realm of possibility that
nobody remembers _how_ to build a French Gothic cathedral.

It is all very well to impugn the rich, but if literally none of them have
offered up a single cent there probably is a reason. Given the sums involved,
it would be irresponsible to just heap money on someone who didn't have a plan
or specific request for what the money was going to be for. 'Rebuilding' is a
very general term that doesn't cover any of the who/what/why/how-s of project
management.

And the idea that the donors want some sort of creative influence isn't as bad
as it sounds. I'm put vaguely in mind of the Eiffel tower when it was opposed
as the "useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower" by artists of the time. Great
works create their own dignity after the fact.

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Emma_Goldman
>"Given the sums involved, it would be irresponsible to just heap money on
someone who didn't have a plan or specific request for what the money was
going to be for."

Then they should explicitly say so and press whoever is responsible for the
rebuild to draw up and publish such plans. Perhaps drawing up those plans is
one of the costs that has to be met in the first place; perhaps what those
plans are depends upon the sums at the dispense of the cathedral; perhaps they
already exist.

>"And the idea that the donors want some sort of creative influence isn't as
bad as it sounds. I'm put vaguely in mind of the Eiffel tower when it was
opposed as the "useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower" by artists of the time.
Great works create their own dignity after the fact."

I don't think the primary claim is an aesthetic one, that art funded by the
rich fails on artistic grounds. It is a political one. The rebuilding of
France's greatest national monument should not be under the control of a few
billionaires, or treated like a grand pendant for their self-glorification.

~~~
roenxi
It is a church, where the founding text of that religion has all sorts of
injunctions to go and donate to the needy. Having a christian cross made of
gold already embeds a bit of tension in the whole project.

The building of Notre Dame is going to be an exercise in someone showing off.
The questions of who and why are only important as far as they impact the
artistic integrity of a very grand building. I'll admit to not seeing a
difference between politicians showing off, billionaires showing off or the
Catholics showing off. The result will be a monument to the pride and ability
of the French people.

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Emma_Goldman
I think there is a real difference between France as a nation creating a
marvelous aesthetic object, and a handful of billionaires doing so. In the
first case the focus isn't on the individual but the collective, and ideally
on its better qualities. In the second, it is necessarily on the individuals,
whose wealth and status exists at the expense of that of most everyone else.
One is the correlate of democracy; the other is more reminiscent of despotism.
That's my view, anyway.

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bmmayer1
How about 'don't rely on bureaucrats who create faulty fire detection, alert
and communication procedures'?[0]

[0][https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/07/16/world/europe/...](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/07/16/world/europe/notre-
dame.html)

~~~
C4stor
Noone relied on billionaires until they went out of the blue and announced
huge donations. If they had just shut their mouth, we would be doing just as
well with a different financing in mind.

The article is about the less than honorable practice of such publicity
stunts, and not about blaming anyone about the fire.

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yellowstuff
There could be bad reasons why the pledges haven't been paid out yet (they
never intended to give the money.) There could be good reasons why the pledges
haven't been paid out (they want to know how much is needed and what it will
be used for, or no one knows how much is needed yet.) I don't know which it is
and the article isn't interested in telling me. He just uses the situation as
an opportunity to complain about people he doesn't like.

~~~
vgaldikas
Well if they reason they don't give the money is because they don't know how
much is needed ... Well surely they didn't know at the time of pledge either?

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Bucephalus355
This reminds me of the Council on Jobs and Economic Competitiveness
established by the Federal Government in 2009. This group, which included some
of the biggest CEOs then and now, such as Jeff Immelt from GE (led to the
group), met 4 times across 5 years.

No statement beyond a press release announcing the creation of the group was
ever drafted. Nothing was ever done beyond 2 televised 60 minute meetings. The
group officially shutdown in 2013.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President%27s_Council_on_Jobs_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President%27s_Council_on_Jobs_and_Competitiveness)

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ksaj
The Church itself is where one can find the money that they should be relying
on. They're clearly less reliable than the billionaires who probably readily
note that the Church has more than enough money to fix it back up themselves.

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Belphemur
We written piece reminding people that pledging money and donating it are two
differents things.

Unsurprisingly all is about control and taking. The billionaire don't want to
donate they want to invest, they want to own the cathedral.

As usual, the rich don't really care.

~~~
rwmj
The few really rich people I have known think about making and keeping money
all the time, to a far greater extent than ordinary people. (This may not be a
representative sample of all super-rich people of course). I worked with one
who promised a generous share of the company, and then when I fell from favour
spent all his efforts on taking it back. And succeeded - the painful lesson I
learned from that at age 24 was always read every line of the contract you're
signing.

