Hi guys. Here's something that I would like to share with you - it is a music video, now I watch loads of cool music videos on Youtube all the time but this one particularly struck a chord with me. It is a rather unusual song called 'Pas Essentiel' (Non Essential) by French rapper/slam poet Grand Corps Malade (GCM). I listen to a lot of radio stations online to get my dose of non-English music, I tend to favour Dutch, Austrian, German and French radio stations and that was how I first discovered this song. If you don't speak French, I think the music video is visual enough to convey the story - it is about how GCM feels about France under a strict lockdown: in the video we see a young man in a mask walking around the deserted streets of Paris with all non-essential services shut but somehow, he managed to sneak into the famous Olympia Hall theater and dances on an empty stage for a brief moment before being chased out by a security guard. The video also features so many Parisians whose businesses have been shut for months because they have been classed as 'non-essential'. The video brought a tear to my eye because like so many people, I have simply put up a brave front with everything that we have had to endure in this pandemic and there's even that sense of shame if one dares to complain about not being able to do the things we like because there are many other people suffering far more than us. This music video captures that sense of ennui and frustration that has become all too familiar to us in the last 12 months.
Paris is like a third home to me - apart from Singapore and London, it's another city where I have lived both as a student and when I worked there. I have seen snow covered frozen ponds in the Bois de Boulogne in the winter and have partied in the streets of Paris during their annual Gay Pride parade. I remember walking around the streets of central Paris when I was working there in 2014 and it had been 15 long years since I was a university student there but everything still felt so incredibly familiar to me. Oh I really want to go back to Paris again and see this incredible city but not when everything is shut and looking so miserable. I have such happy memories of the time I have spent in Paris and I want things to return to normal there as soon as possible. In 'Pas Essentiel', GCM talks about all the wonderful things that Parisians love about life in Paris: kisses, opening a new book, sincere smiles, going to concerts, walks in the woods, dancing all night, meeting friends, lively shows - all of which are now deemed non-essential during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thankfully things are much better here in the UK as the new cases and deaths haven fallen rapidly (mostly thanks to our successful vaccination programme) but for most of continental Europe, the situation is getting worse as a third wave is sweeping over the continent - leaving most Europeans weary with that 'oh no, not again' feeling. One of the perks of living in London is being so close to the continent but for the last 12 months, travel to Europe has been highly restricted and it looks like it will be mid-May before non-essential travel (ie. holidays) to Europe would be allowed again. Here's hoping that there will be light at the end of the tunnel for our friends on the continent in the near future, many thanks for reading.
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