And wallop goes another French tradition

Oh dear. The New Year has not got off to a great start here in France. First there was the apparent challenge to the country’s café culture with the introduction of the smoking ban in public places and now another Gallic bastion has bitten the dust with the cancellation of the Dakar rally.

Mind you, the former Paris-Dakar as was, and then from 2002 consecutively and confusingly Arras, Marseille, Clermont-Ferrand, Barcelona and two times Lisbon – Dakar, only dates back to 1979 so has far less to do with the traditional image of France than the Evil Weed.

The annual race across the desert was abandoned just a day before it was due to start after the French foreign ministry advised against tourists travelling to Mauritania. That warning followed the murder there on Christmas Eve of four French tourists.

As 15 of the eight stages were due to pass through Mauritania plus a rest day in the capital Nouakchott, it seems that wisdom has prevailed. Organisers also reported that direct threats had been made against the race itself. The security of the participants, hoards of journalists and team technicians had been paramount, they said, in their heeding the French government’s advice to call the whole thing off.

The rally has had scheduling problems in the past. Two stages were dropped last year because of terrorist threats. And in 2000 and 2006 organisers arranged for the rally to rerouted to avoid the North of Mali and Niger.

But it’s the first time in its relatively short history that the Dakar will not take place at all.

Of course not everyone thinks that it’s much of a loss that there’ll be no fume-belching vehicles careering though some of the poorest parts of Africa.

Critics – and there are plenty of them – accuse the rally of being a mere circus reserved for the rich. A sort of off-road version of Formula 1 with cars, motorbikes and trucks criss-crossing their way across the desert dunes, while a collection of jet setters including singers, actors and models “helicopter” in their wake.

Just take a moment though to think about what we’ll all be missing this year.

First up of course is the impact on the poor old environment. No rally means no desert dust will be thrown up by those 500 or so gas guzzlers and there’ll be no accompanying convoy of fuel, food and water to sustain the competitors while locals look on. Those same locals also won’t be able to complain about their livestock being hit or killed in accidents.

And while on the subject, no rally also means no chance to add to the death toll – currently put at 48 over the years according to organisers’ figures. That number includes at least 17 locals and 25 competitors, as well as the rally’s founder Thierry Sabine.


Thankfully though the organisers have reassured everyone that this year’s abandonment doesn’t mean the end of the rally. Apparently it is a “symbol that cannot be destroyed” even if terrorist threats seem to have done a pretty good job of it this time around.

But just how much of a symbol it is, was perhaps summed up by – of all things - the Vatican’s official newspaper last year, which described the event as “a bloody, irresponsible, violent and cynical attempt to impose questionable Western tastes on the developing world.”

Anybody want to second that?

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