I'm actually a fed up of hearing about the so called depraved sector of our community in London. I was born here and went to school here and actually was educated with the very people who's children are probably something to do with the riots that are gong on today. I'm totally unemployable in the real world, and I always have been. I've found my own creative and very enjoyable outlets, I'm not rich, I struggle making ends meet. I'm the daughter of an Hungarian refugee and grew up in north east London along with other immigrants, West Indian, Jamaican, Indian and Greek in the 60's. We were the foreigners. I went to a school with English people who said the most ridiclous things. Obviously this was an age ago, but have things changed? I'm still hearing the old woe of people who resent other people making the most of themselves. I had a typical education of the time, one where as a female you were expected to perhaps have a career and then get married and start a family, and coming from a family where my old fashioned father endorsed this idea, trying to arrange suitors for me at age 15, I somehow knew that it wasn't really what I wanted in life. For some people it is and I have no problem with it, but for me it really wasn't the be all and end all.
Now then, and this is where our island mentality comes in, my father was incredibly racist, claiming that when new 'foreigners' arrived he was here first here and that gave him some sort of standing, bitter and resentful he worked hard at a job he felt was beneath him. Who are the people now rioting? A mixture of second and third generation immigrants and English who forebears have a huge work ethic, high family standards but who have somehow lost the plot. I went to give a motivational talk at Barnet college where total disinterest pervaded, even though we have access to information via the internet, libary's, gallery's and the old tv... the students there just weren't bothered, I even told them to go out, have a good time and write about it, the reaction? Throughly dismal, London is a place where you can see and do things everyday more or less 24/7, were they interested, not in the slightest, with the exception of 2 or 3 students their faces were a blank. When people say the educational system here is not good enough surely there has to be some spark from the pupil, when I was at school I was even caught up with the attitude, 'well what's the point?' lethargy soon set in, I soon found other things to spark my imagination.
I am reminded here of the old 'bug in a rug' story, I picked up somewhere along the way. Basically it's the tale of a bug living in a square inch of the most beautiful persian rug. Going around in circles it's existence is invaded when another bug comes to visit and wonders why he is traveling round in circles when outside his square inch are the most wonderful patterns to explore!
People sometimes really do expect things to just happen with absolutely no imput from themselves, not everyones like that but there seems to be a sector of our community where bombarded with trash tv, celeb culture and generic lifestyle just expect that's how their perfect existance is gaged. Owning the latest technology, owning the must have trainers or designer gear makes the perfect situation for them. This is all brand envy, brainwashing and they've unwittingly fallen for it, where did the looters head off too? Onto their own doorsteps of course, the places where they pass and shop at everyday. Lets face facts these so called rioters don't seem the smartest of people, infact the whole thing seems a senseless opportunity to get a few freebies. A bit of a jolly, a laugh thats got out of hand spearheaded by a few petty criminals who in the community may have a bit of kudos.
Princess Julia 2011
well said julia!
ReplyDeletemiss you xxx