Ali Akbar keeps Paris tradition of hawking alive

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Ali Akbar is a familiar face for everyone, which makes it via Paris Cafe every day, the last newspaper of the city, Hokar, brought the streets with his interesting screams.

“France is getting better!” He cries, the only headline he invents his goods to sell his goods in the higher markets of St. Germain Des Press.

“(Eric) Zemur has converted to Islam!” He screamed in the 2022 presidential election, citing the right -wing candidate.

Local and tourists at the left bank of Paris’s intellectual and cultural heart look amazing.

“Even the walls can talk about Ali,” Amina Kasai smiled at a restaurant in front of St. Jermain for more than 20 years.

He added that now 73, Akbar, a slim, excellent feature “character” in which the newspapers under his arm are a symbol of a neighborhood.

He told AFP, “Even regular tourists ask where they are if they don’t see it.”

Hard life

French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to make Akbar a night in the National Order of Merit soon in recognition of his “dedicated service to France”.

Akbar said, “At first, I did not believe it. Friends may have asked him (Macron) or maybe he may have decided himself. When he was a student, we often crossed the way.”

He added, “I am sure he has to do with my courage, because I have worked hard.”

Akbar, who wears round spectacle, a blue work jacket and a gurus cap, mainly sell copies of the French Daily Lee Monday.

When he arrived in France at the age of 20, he worked as a lack of poverty and hoping to send his family back to Pakistan, then a dish washer in a restaurant in the northern city of Ravan.

Then in Paris, he collided with Georges Bernier, also known as Professor Coron, who gave him the opportunity to sell his sarcastic newspapers Hara Kerry and Charlie Hebdo.

Akbar was displaced, suffered extreme poverty and even attacked – but despite the difficulties, he said he never lost.

He told his son Shahab, “Emmanuel Macron is going to put a bit of anti -septic on my wounds, which is the youngest of his five children at the age of 30.

Shahab, who describes himself as his father’s “very proud”, enjoy the list of multiple profiles dedicated to his father in the foreign press.

He said that when he started as a hawker in the 1970s, Akbar focused on the left bank of the river Saini, which was the area of ​​the university where “you could eat cheap”.

At the Rio Saint-Gileyum in front of the Mathematics Sciences PO University, he remembered learning French language from students like former Prime Minister Edward Philip and “Many other people who became ministers or lawmakers”.

‘A good mood’

There were about 40 newspaper hawkers in Paris – without a fixed news stand -stappy vendors who were stationed at strategic locations such as the Metro stations.

Akbar stood up to choose to walk around while choosing the Latin Quarter. In the 1980s, he began to invent thrilling headlines.

He said, “I want people to live happily. I do this to create a good mood, that’s all.”

But he admitted that it was difficult to bring good jokes.

“Everything is such a mess,” he added.

Akbar, who receives a pension of 1,000 euros (1,1175) a month, still works from 3pm to 10pm every day.

When the AFP met him in recent afternoon, the client was rare and between him. On average, he sells about 30 newspapers every day, while he started between 150 and 200.

He joking, “As long as I get energy, I will keep moving. I will die as long as I die.”

On the roof of a cafe, 36 -year -old Amil Ghali said Akbar was “impressive”.

“It’s good to see it in the digital era,” he said. “Unfortunately, our children will not experience the pleasure of reading the newspaper with coffee.”