3rd June 2018

Mamoudou Gassama, 22, left his home in Mali and trekked across Burkino Faso, Niger, Libya and Italy to arrive, undocumented, in France. Whilst most illegal immigrants in France hide from the authorities at a time of rising restrictions against them, Mamoudou didn’t think twice when confronted by a domestic situation in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. Now labelled Spiderman by Parisian mayor Anne Hidalgo, the video of him scaling, singlehandedly, up 5 storeys to rescue a 4 year old dangling from a balcony, has gone viral. The child’s father had not only left his son alone whilst shopping, but also delayed his return by playing Pokemon Go on his cell phone. Whereas in Britain Mamoudou would have probably been deported, in France he was awarded citizenship and given a job as a firefighter. At a time when across Europe, innate hatred of immigrants created Brexit and also the new government in Italy, one man - plus the power of digital tech - reminded everyone of the word Fraternite. Bravo Mamoudou!