A 73 -year -old newspaper seller from Pakistan should receive one of the most prestigious honors in France after more than 50 years of sale of daily newspapers on the terraces of cafes and restaurants in the fashion Latin district of Paris.
Ali Akbar began pedaling the newspapers after moving to France in 1973, employing a mixture of humor and energy to load the inhabitants and challenge the fall in sales.
In September, President Emmanuel Macron will make him a knight of the National Order of Merit, who recognized the distinguished service in France on a civil or military basis.
Originally from Rawalpindi, in northern Pakistan, Akbar began with Hawking Copies of the Satirical Hebdomedaire Charlie Hebdo to the students of the Sorbonne and neighboring establishments.
News of news sellers on the Kerb side were already a dying breed in Paris in the 1970s while television regularly replaced the word printed as the main source of news – a process that has accelerated only with the advent of the Internet.
But Akbar, the last seller of remaining newspapers who still walks in the streets of the French capital, managed to keep the tradition living with his ready smile, his sense of cheeky humor and his dedication.
“I love the feeling of paper,” said Akbar. “I don’t like tablets and all that kinds of things. But I like to read. Whatever the type. Real books. But never on screens. “
“I have a certain way to sell newspapers. I try to make jokes. So people laugh. I try to be positive and I create an atmosphere … I try to put myself in the hearts of people, not their pockets,” he said.
But work has become much more difficult in the digital publishing era.
“I am selling around 20 copies of the world in eight hours. Everything is digital now. People are not buying newspapers,” he said.
Despite such challenges, Akbar intends to sell newspapers as long as his health allows.
In a district where high -end shops and restaurants have largely replaced bookstores which once fed some of the most renowned philosophers in the twentieth century, many inhabitants say that it is one of the things that keeps the Latin district authentic.
“Ali is an institution. I buy him the world every day. In fact, we are doing a little more than buying the world for him. We have a coffee with him, sometimes we have lunch with him, ”said a grateful customer, Marie-Laure Carriere.
