My neighbourhood burned and all I got was this lousy soundbite

There’s been a lot said lately about the neighbourhood I live in – and neighbourhoods like it. There’s been a lot written about the people who live here, and what’s compelled them to burn down their own streets. I’ve spent days reading the commentary, listening to windbag politicians churning out the same old platitudes. I’ve dropped off donations for those burned out of their flats, harangued our useless mayor and burned with a peculiar indignation that a lot of the people’s opinions that I’m reading are those of people with powerful voices who did not grow up or even set foot into the communities they speak of. It’s unheard of for me to write anything political here, but I’m not happy having this particular elephant in my room.

I live in a neighbourhood were the police are regularly posted near the local tube station at school closing time, not I might add because of any law and order hotspot but simply to “reassure the general public”. The kids are noisy, boisterous and take up a whole lot of pavement, but I’ve never seen them do anything really shocking, let alone criminal. The crack den that operated unmolested 500 yards down the road was genuinely scary and far rowdier than the kids. What does this tell the kids?

I live in a neighbourhood where a gang of hooded youth will step back politely with an apology when I want to pass, but roaming gangs of adult men will sexually harass and follow women with impunity. It’s never them I see getting stopped, searched and told to move on. In this neighbourhood the local bus route is regularly disrupted as groups of up to twenty police officers board and search the bus for “fare dodgers”. Sinister barely describes how it feels. Does this happen in Kensington and Chelsea? I think not. What do the authorities think of the people of my community to order such a thing? Are we all already criminals by default?

I live in a neighbourhood which recently suffered cuts in youth services of seventy five percent, where popular youth groups and adventure playgrounds vanished overnight. Where young people have positive experiences and role models from outside of their homes stripped away in the name of cuts. What is better for these youths, to know that there is somewhere safe for them to go, where your postcode does not matter, where an alternative to gang culture is available and where adults genuinely give a shit about what happens to you – or where these cuts have now sent them – the street corner, to boredom,  the dealers and the gangs. People need to get off their moralizing high horses about how these kids are “undeserving” or how “I never had that in my day and I turned out ok” or how it’s their parents responsibility – youth groups are a practical antidote to alienation THAT WORKS. It’s pragmatic. Kids are a lot less likely to burn down the high street if they are busy doing something else. Also, taking away the only alternative to the street corner sends a strong message. You are pointless, you are insignificant, you are powerless. Well a lot of kids found a way to feel powerful recently, and I am totally freaked out about what message they gained from that.

In a society where mobile phones and trainers pretty much define who you are even “respectable” people get caught looting. The shock and howls of amazement when people like school assistants and graphic designers get caught with looted sportswear are hilarious. YES! Even people with careers can loot! Temptation and greed is universal folks, but isn’t it interesting that sticky fingered professionals are seen as an aberration, despite the fact that we’ve all seen politicians who are not too proud to nick a few quid from the taxpayer. But their looting is sooo much classier than what happened in Tottenham, I mean, it almost slipped by unnoticed.

I live in what many would call a deprived neighbourhood, and before I lived here, I grew up in another one. There was one thing in common with both. People would look at us as if we were some kind of exotic virus, tut tut about what was to be done, call us names, give big jobs to their developer buddies to build us a swimming pool if we got rowdy then piss off again. No one ever wondered, seriously, what it’s like to know that the rest of society simply saw you as scum. No one ever wonders what we actually want or need or listens when we actually tell them but we are often spoon fed architecture that we didn’t want and is not fit for purpose. Poor areas are often “improved” by “gentrification” – a process by which much loved local pubs, cafés and shops get bought out and replaced by high end eateries, bars that do not welcome locals and expensive luxury flats. Rents skyrocket so that locals get forced into only the very very worst accommodation while hip young things move into their old homes and sneer at the former occupants. If you live in London and are really lucky you may find your home, park or favourite shops bulldozed for an Olympic stadium. What an honour! These are the improvements that are forced upon us, while public services that we badly need are snatched away.

And as Tottenham, Croydon and other towns and neighbourhoods burned, already there were those who were mocking the looters for their poor taste. Oooh, look, they’re looting JD sports! Hahahaha!!! They’re cooking their own food in Macdonalds, what a hoot!!!! Twitter dissolved in an indignant howl that can be translated simply as CHAV SCUM and the powers that be told us not to worry, they wouldn’t let a little thing like human rights get in the way of dealing with these feral rats. “Security” measures better suited to regimes like Egypt or Syria are bandied around by our Prime Minister. And quicker than you can say lets demonize the urban poor suddenly there is funding. Funding for the return of public services? For senior citizen or youth groups? Anything positive at all? Errr.. no. For more rods to beat us with.

Further reading:-

An open letter to David Cameron’s parents

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Every day is Earth Day

I’ve been torn about writing something for Earth Day. Earth day should be every single day, and I am so very wary of tokenism. However I rarely make my beliefs explicit here and I have so much stuff to get off my chest, so where do I begin? This blog usually takes a diary form, with me describing something  I’ve seen or experienced of the natural world in a narrative of some kind, and though I do try to infuse it with passion or meaning however slight, so often it just reads like a damn travelogue. Maybe it’s time for once to ditch the pretty narratives and get on with writing about why these places, these animals and plants matter.  Not just why they matter to me personally, (although they do and I’m not intending to scrub the personal from my writing as if it were dirty, quite the opposite) but why they matter to us all.

No matter how little we do to stop global warming, habitat destruction and pollution in general, I don’t (perhaps foolishly) believe we have the capacity to completely destroy life.  But if we carry on dirtying up the nest, Gaia will eventually shuck us off with one elegant shrug; us and all that we live beside in lovestruck familiarity – whales, tigers, all that charismatic fauna we love to watch on tv and all your favourite wild flowers too, we’ll all go together when we go.  When a report is published describing a decline in zooplankton of more than 70% since the 1960s, as top banana in the food chain we need to be worried. If we want a world fit for cockroaches to live in, we are currently going the right way about it.

We all depend on our biosphere. Once that’s screwed so are we all, and oh,  let’s not forget just how extremely screwed our children will be.  There is no way off this planet; some day we will realise that there is no-where left to run. Global warming, habitat destruction and all that these entail make for a crisis far bigger than any other that humanity has had to face, yet we keep our heads down, sweat the small things and do nothing about the big fat gas guzzling elephant in the room.

We can ALL make a difference, by using less energy, lobbying for more clean renewable energy sources and not least protesting the lack of change from on high. Don’t wait for Government or big business to make changes, be the change yourself! Whatever your political or environmental beliefs, who wouldn’t want clean fresh air and a safe place to live,  given the alternative?

Get Busy… click the links and find something positive to do on Earth Day!

Greenpeace International

Greenpeace UK Climate Change Page

Friends Of The Earth International

Energy Saving Trust

Centre For Alternative Technology

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The Earth Is Burning

All yesterday I kept coming to my computer to upload and share images of  a snowy, festive London, and every time I tried my eye was caught by news of unfolding devastation in Australia. It seemed grossly inappropriate; I just couldn’t do it. Harrowing eye witness accounts of entire towns lost in a four storey conflagration made the British reaction to our own extreme weather event feel mortifying,  almost laughably hobbit like – people complaining because they couldn’t get to work? Stamping their feet in indignation when our otherwise gentle climate throws a wobbly and we – horror of horrors – run out of grit for the roads? I do not mean to belittle the danger in our recent unusually heavy snow and rain (people have died here) but I’ve been observing our nations joyless reaction to the whiteout with a growing sense of disbelief. Actually, I’ll qualify that last remark by saying that every single “real” human being I’ve spoken to has loved the unaccustomed snow (the rain not so much) and the carnivalesque effect it has on human behaviour. The unfolding news in Australia has I hope given a new sense of perspective to politicians and press who enjoy the whipping up of shamefully petty discontent and anger to such futile and self serving effect.

I’m currently looking out of my window at swirling black rain clouds and hissing rain; the beauty of last week utterly vanished, we have a leaking roof in the kitchen and it’s so dark here I’m having to work with the light on. There’s no sign that the rain will let up any time this week, and right now it feels like it could easily go on forever. Right now however I’m also profoundly glad of these cold soaking conditions – my dreams have been scorching, acrid.

Ranting about climate change at this point is horribly tempting but then I’d be no better than the politicians and the press – hijacking real and terrible human suffering to pursue an agenda. Right now I just want to express my horror and sympathy to the Australian people, and to anyone with loved ones there.

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Buy nothing day…no purchase necessary

Tomorrow, November 24th 2007 is the UK’s annual Buy nothing day. To quote the official UK website:-

It’s a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from consumerism and live without shopping. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!

I agree with the above sentiments so strongly, despite being an ethical shop owner myself. That’s right, I don’t even want you to buy from me! I think it’s bizarre that shopping has become such an important leisure activity when there is so much more fun to be had elsewhere. Last weekend I was being dragged round Hamleys in central London by my partner who wanted a gift for his niece. It was so packed in there that security guards were manning the escalators to ensure it was safe, so suffocating you were breathing other peoples air, I lasted about 30 seconds before I frantically squeezed my way out of that shrieking madhouse and on to the tourist clogged but marginally saner Oxford street. Not my idea of a fun way to spend a weekend, and yet it seemed to me that the whole world was out shopping and diddn’t feel my fear and loathing one bit. Do people really, truly enjoy being corralled into consumer hellholes where they will shell out more than they can afford for some vacuous plastic crap that will be spurned and forgotten by boxing day? I confess, I have always been freaked out by how, when it’s the weekend and I grudgingly have to go to some soulless DIY store for some supplies, it is rammed solid with entire families doing what looks suspiciously like recreational shopping. Do me a favour people, on the 24th November, watch a favorite film, go play some football, take a walk on a blustery beach, sunbathe if your climate will allow, eat some pizza, read a good book, start writing that novel, go for a bike ride, sit in the pub all day, go to the park, a museum, a lovely garden, stay in bed, make some stuff, paint a picture, bake a pie… do anything – ANYTHING – but shop!

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