'The looting will be photoshopped'...

[Images from here]

[Images from here]

For whom the fires burn...

It all started on August 04 when this young man, Mark Duggan, was shot dead by police in Tottenham, North London. The police initially claimed that he was armed and had been the first to fire at them – a claim that was later officially disproved…




Members of the local community held a peaceful protest claiming his innocence and demanding justice…



Then all hell broke loose in the ensuing hours and days amidst calls by his family for rioters not to use his shooting by police as an excuse to loot and “burn town and country down”…



Meanwhile some youngsters involved in the rioting have been talking about the reasons for their actions citing, among others, widespread anger and frustration, unemployment and the rising cost of living.


[For a more in-depth analytical article see here]


Related Posts:

London Closing

Tottenham 2011 meets Brixton 1981

It all started on August 04 when this young man, Mark Duggan, was shot dead by police in Tottenham, North London. The police initially claimed that he was armed and had been the first to fire at them – a claim that was later officially disproved…




Members of the local community held a peaceful protest claiming his innocence and demanding justice…



Then all hell broke loose in the ensuing hours and days amidst calls by his family for rioters not to use his shooting by police as an excuse to loot and “burn town and country down”…



Meanwhile some youngsters involved in the rioting have been talking about the reasons for their actions citing, among others, widespread anger and frustration, unemployment and the rising cost of living.


[For a more in-depth analytical article see here]


Related Posts:

London Closing

Tottenham 2011 meets Brixton 1981

London closing...

London 08/08/11

Just before 9p.m. I go to my almost daily essential shopping run to Sainsbury’s Camden main store. It normally closes at midnight on weekdays but now it’s already closed. On the glass doors a notice: “… due to the incidents across London this store reserves the right to close earlier”… As I turn back to go to the nearest Sainsbury’s local convenience store I notice a couple of police officers aided by a shop’s employee packing the boot of a car with cases of bottled water…

I get to the convenience store via Camden High Street noticing that most bars and restaurants normally open till late are already closed or closing. After ten or so minutes inside, not yet made my mind on which bargains to go for except for a reduced price double pannacotta and caramel desert at 75p. I’m approached by an employee asking me to leave the store “because it’s closed”. Surprised, I argue: sorry but I’ve been inside this store for more than 10 minutes and when I came in I didn’t see any notice about the store’s earlier closure – it normally closes at 11p.m. He, a Black man, argues back: but the store manager has asked everybody out because we have to close immediately! I insist: then you shouldn’t have allowed me in the store when I came in!

He then calls the manager, an Asian man, who starts telling me that because of the riots they have to close now, to which I respond: then you should’ve put a notice outside the store about the change of closing time and not allow anyone in after that… He concedes that it should’ve been the right procedure but urges me to finish my shopping quickly and leave the store… So I did and with that seriously compromising my weekly budget.

As I leave, the doorkeeper, another Asian man, apologises: sorry for this today madam, maybe tomorrow we will be able to give you the normal appropriate treatment. I say: thank you, maybe tomorrow…

Whether it will be better or worse tomorrow I don’t know, and I don’t know how it was in London’s 81 either, but what I felt throughout the entire saga from Sainsbury’s Camden main store was a deep feeling of sadness and depression that I’d only experienced before in times of curfew in Luanda’s 80’s…





London, 09/09/11



... So, as everybody knows by now things didn't get any better, quite the contrary: the rioting spread across London and various other cities in the country. It reached Camden High Street where a few stores (mainly dealing in digital technology) got the windows smashed and a number of others started boarding up their entire fronts.

All the local supermarkets, main and conveniences, normally closing at midnight, closed at around 3p.m.

Our local library, which normally closes at 7p.m. closed at 4p.m.

It's London closing indeed...





London 11/08/11



This afternoon, walking by a road in the Chalk Farm residential area, I see on the other side of the road a black man being questioned by two policemen. He takes a folder from his bag which he leaves on the pavement and starts showing them some papers and explaining what appears to be his entire life, or at least the last few months of it.

I stood on my side of the road staring inquisitively at them, my hands firmly on my hips, until one of the policemen notices me, returns my staring and then asks: is there anything of the matter? I return: sorry? He asks back: is everything ok? And I reply, while taking off my sunglasses: well, I don’t know… He asks again: is anything concerning you? I then engage: yes, I’m concerned about him, pointing at the black man in the middle.

By then the three of them had turned in my direction and the black man said to me, smiling: oh, thank you for your concern. To which I ask him: are you ok? He replies, crossing his arms on his chest: yes, my sister, I’m ok, everything is ok, don’t worry… So, I said then everything is ok and, relieved, moved on walking by my side of the road.

Meanwhile, elsewhere police cars, ambulances and fire brigade roaring sirens flare up around town and the times the air smells of something like burning flesh…




London 12/08/11


The local convenience store I was hurried out from the other day is now all boarded up but with a notice outside: we are open as usual…

It is a Asian-only staffed store where only recently I started to see a couple of Black employees. This is noteworthy as the overwhelming majority of local food shops, convenience stores and off licences are owned and/or staffed by Asians and the big chain supermarkets like Sainsbury’s increasingly have been outsourcing staff from the Asian trading community.

The relevance of this is that, as it happened in other initially race-based riots, e.g. Brixton, members of the Asian community tend to end-up being indirectly targeted ‘via their shops’… Many papers’ front pages today bring the story of three Asian men who died during the riots.

But things around town and country appear to start calming down.


RELATED POSTS:

Tottenham Riots

London 08/08/11

Just before 9p.m. I go to my almost daily essential shopping run to Sainsbury’s Camden main store. It normally closes at midnight on weekdays but now it’s already closed. On the glass doors a notice: “… due to the incidents across London this store reserves the right to close earlier”… As I turn back to go to the nearest Sainsbury’s local convenience store I notice a couple of police officers aided by a shop’s employee packing the boot of a car with cases of bottled water…

I get to the convenience store via Camden High Street noticing that most bars and restaurants normally open till late are already closed or closing. After ten or so minutes inside, not yet made my mind on which bargains to go for except for a reduced price double pannacotta and caramel desert at 75p. I’m approached by an employee asking me to leave the store “because it’s closed”. Surprised, I argue: sorry but I’ve been inside this store for more than 10 minutes and when I came in I didn’t see any notice about the store’s earlier closure – it normally closes at 11p.m. He, a Black man, argues back: but the store manager has asked everybody out because we have to close immediately! I insist: then you shouldn’t have allowed me in the store when I came in!

He then calls the manager, an Asian man, who starts telling me that because of the riots they have to close now, to which I respond: then you should’ve put a notice outside the store about the change of closing time and not allow anyone in after that… He concedes that it should’ve been the right procedure but urges me to finish my shopping quickly and leave the store… So I did and with that seriously compromising my weekly budget.

As I leave, the doorkeeper, another Asian man, apologises: sorry for this today madam, maybe tomorrow we will be able to give you the normal appropriate treatment. I say: thank you, maybe tomorrow…

Whether it will be better or worse tomorrow I don’t know, and I don’t know how it was in London’s 81 either, but what I felt throughout the entire saga from Sainsbury’s Camden main store was a deep feeling of sadness and depression that I’d only experienced before in times of curfew in Luanda’s 80’s…





London, 09/09/11



... So, as everybody knows by now things didn't get any better, quite the contrary: the rioting spread across London and various other cities in the country. It reached Camden High Street where a few stores (mainly dealing in digital technology) got the windows smashed and a number of others started boarding up their entire fronts.

All the local supermarkets, main and conveniences, normally closing at midnight, closed at around 3p.m.

Our local library, which normally closes at 7p.m. closed at 4p.m.

It's London closing indeed...





London 11/08/11



This afternoon, walking by a road in the Chalk Farm residential area, I see on the other side of the road a black man being questioned by two policemen. He takes a folder from his bag which he leaves on the pavement and starts showing them some papers and explaining what appears to be his entire life, or at least the last few months of it.

I stood on my side of the road staring inquisitively at them, my hands firmly on my hips, until one of the policemen notices me, returns my staring and then asks: is there anything of the matter? I return: sorry? He asks back: is everything ok? And I reply, while taking off my sunglasses: well, I don’t know… He asks again: is anything concerning you? I then engage: yes, I’m concerned about him, pointing at the black man in the middle.

By then the three of them had turned in my direction and the black man said to me, smiling: oh, thank you for your concern. To which I ask him: are you ok? He replies, crossing his arms on his chest: yes, my sister, I’m ok, everything is ok, don’t worry… So, I said then everything is ok and, relieved, moved on walking by my side of the road.

Meanwhile, elsewhere police cars, ambulances and fire brigade roaring sirens flare up around town and the times the air smells of something like burning flesh…




London 12/08/11


The local convenience store I was hurried out from the other day is now all boarded up but with a notice outside: we are open as usual…

It is a Asian-only staffed store where only recently I started to see a couple of Black employees. This is noteworthy as the overwhelming majority of local food shops, convenience stores and off licences are owned and/or staffed by Asians and the big chain supermarkets like Sainsbury’s increasingly have been outsourcing staff from the Asian trading community.

The relevance of this is that, as it happened in other initially race-based riots, e.g. Brixton, members of the Asian community tend to end-up being indirectly targeted ‘via their shops’… Many papers’ front pages today bring the story of three Asian men who died during the riots.

But things around town and country appear to start calming down.


RELATED POSTS:

Tottenham Riots

Tottenham Latino - Por Isaac Bigio*

No primeiro fim de semana de agosto, toda a imprensa mundial reproduziu fotos dos edifícios e veículos queimados em Tottenham, no que é apresentado como o pior ato de vandalismo ocorrido no Reino Unido, neste século, e que já está se difundindo para outras partes da capital inglesa, dando vazão a um descontentamento – principalmente com os cortes nos gastos públicos promovidos pelo governo de coalizão, já motivo de vários protestos de estudantes e sindicatos este ano – que parece não ter fim.
Apesar de Haringey, o bairro que inclui Tottenham, ter o quarto índice de pobreza mais alto de Londres e um índice de desemprego de 8.8% – o dobro da média nacional, com uma vaga disputada em média por 54 candidatos –, há outra face do distrito, que é o mais multiétnico de Londres e talvez da Europa: este é um lugar onde muito se promove a harmonia e a multiculturalidade, e onde há fortes raízes latinas – como as deste colunista.

Multiculturalismo

Tottenham é uma das duas partes de Haringey, ao noroeste de Londres, por onde passa o rio Lea, pouco antes de desembocar no Tâmisa, na vila das Olimpíadas de 2012. Quando se chega ali, causa surpresa ver uma loja somali ao lado de uma japonesa, ao lado de uma turca, ao lado do maior mercado latino-americano do Reino Unido (o Pueblito Paísa), etc.
Desde seu surgimento, Tottenham teve uma forte presença de imigrantes provenientes do mundo de fala hispânica e portuguesa. Ali viveram vários notáveis com nomes e sobrenomes ibéricos como Baltazar Sánchez, que introduziu a cana de açúcar e os doces na Grã-Bretanha, e vários membros da corte de Catarina de Bragança, a rainha portuguesa que popularizou o chá e os garfos na Inglaterra e cuja família governou o Brasil durante a maior parte de sua história (incluindo a primeira terça parte de sua vida independente).

Judeus hispânicos

Ainda hoje, quando alguém chega a Tottenham, vindo do centro de Londres, pode passar por Stanford Hill, um dos bairros de judeus ortodoxos mais antigos do Atlântico. Diferentemente dos judeus das Américas (provenientes da Europa oriental), os da Inglaterra chegaram falando espanhol e português, pois foram deportados de sua Ibéria natal no mesmo ano em que Colombo iniciou a conquista dos ameríndios (1492).
Muitos dos judeus de Tottenham têm suas raízes nessa imigração hispânica de quase quatro séculos, e vários deles rezam na Sinagoga Espanhola e Portuguesa, que é o único templo hebreu na Europa que nunca fechou, em três séculos de vida.

Harmonia

Tottenham é um lugar onde se podem encontrar templos de todas as crenças convivendo em harmonia. Cada domingo há uma missa em espanhol na igreja católica de Santo Inácio, a qual está em frente a um dos edifícios da maior igreja não-católica nascida na América latina (a Universal, criada no Brasil) e está rodeada por mesquitas e sinagogas de todas as tendências (desde as que apóiam Israel até as que pedem que este país seja substituído por uma Palestina árabe).
O castelo de Bruce, em cujo parque termina o Carnaval de Tottenham e o Carnaval Latino, o maior do norte de Londres, foi anteriormente uma escola que atraía, no século 19, muitos hispânicos interessados em aprender inglês.
Infelizmente, pobreza, discriminação e falta de oportunidades também marcam esse distrito, povoado em grande maioria por uma população de origem imigrante, cuja relação com a Polícia Metropolitana de Londres está há tempos avariada, devido à revistas constantes para averiguações e mortes sem explicação, como a do jovem Mark Duggan, ainda não esclarecida, em cuja cena do crime só foram encontradas balas provenientes da armas dos policiais.

(*) Isaac Bigio vive em Londres e é pós-graduado em História e Política Econômica, Ensino Político e Administração Pública na América Latina pela London School of Economics. É um dos analistas políticos latino-americanos mais publicados do mundo. Tradução de Angélica Campos/BR Press.

No primeiro fim de semana de agosto, toda a imprensa mundial reproduziu fotos dos edifícios e veículos queimados em Tottenham, no que é apresentado como o pior ato de vandalismo ocorrido no Reino Unido, neste século, e que já está se difundindo para outras partes da capital inglesa, dando vazão a um descontentamento – principalmente com os cortes nos gastos públicos promovidos pelo governo de coalizão, já motivo de vários protestos de estudantes e sindicatos este ano – que parece não ter fim.
Apesar de Haringey, o bairro que inclui Tottenham, ter o quarto índice de pobreza mais alto de Londres e um índice de desemprego de 8.8% – o dobro da média nacional, com uma vaga disputada em média por 54 candidatos –, há outra face do distrito, que é o mais multiétnico de Londres e talvez da Europa: este é um lugar onde muito se promove a harmonia e a multiculturalidade, e onde há fortes raízes latinas – como as deste colunista.

Multiculturalismo

Tottenham é uma das duas partes de Haringey, ao noroeste de Londres, por onde passa o rio Lea, pouco antes de desembocar no Tâmisa, na vila das Olimpíadas de 2012. Quando se chega ali, causa surpresa ver uma loja somali ao lado de uma japonesa, ao lado de uma turca, ao lado do maior mercado latino-americano do Reino Unido (o Pueblito Paísa), etc.
Desde seu surgimento, Tottenham teve uma forte presença de imigrantes provenientes do mundo de fala hispânica e portuguesa. Ali viveram vários notáveis com nomes e sobrenomes ibéricos como Baltazar Sánchez, que introduziu a cana de açúcar e os doces na Grã-Bretanha, e vários membros da corte de Catarina de Bragança, a rainha portuguesa que popularizou o chá e os garfos na Inglaterra e cuja família governou o Brasil durante a maior parte de sua história (incluindo a primeira terça parte de sua vida independente).

Judeus hispânicos

Ainda hoje, quando alguém chega a Tottenham, vindo do centro de Londres, pode passar por Stanford Hill, um dos bairros de judeus ortodoxos mais antigos do Atlântico. Diferentemente dos judeus das Américas (provenientes da Europa oriental), os da Inglaterra chegaram falando espanhol e português, pois foram deportados de sua Ibéria natal no mesmo ano em que Colombo iniciou a conquista dos ameríndios (1492).
Muitos dos judeus de Tottenham têm suas raízes nessa imigração hispânica de quase quatro séculos, e vários deles rezam na Sinagoga Espanhola e Portuguesa, que é o único templo hebreu na Europa que nunca fechou, em três séculos de vida.

Harmonia

Tottenham é um lugar onde se podem encontrar templos de todas as crenças convivendo em harmonia. Cada domingo há uma missa em espanhol na igreja católica de Santo Inácio, a qual está em frente a um dos edifícios da maior igreja não-católica nascida na América latina (a Universal, criada no Brasil) e está rodeada por mesquitas e sinagogas de todas as tendências (desde as que apóiam Israel até as que pedem que este país seja substituído por uma Palestina árabe).
O castelo de Bruce, em cujo parque termina o Carnaval de Tottenham e o Carnaval Latino, o maior do norte de Londres, foi anteriormente uma escola que atraía, no século 19, muitos hispânicos interessados em aprender inglês.
Infelizmente, pobreza, discriminação e falta de oportunidades também marcam esse distrito, povoado em grande maioria por uma população de origem imigrante, cuja relação com a Polícia Metropolitana de Londres está há tempos avariada, devido à revistas constantes para averiguações e mortes sem explicação, como a do jovem Mark Duggan, ainda não esclarecida, em cuja cena do crime só foram encontradas balas provenientes da armas dos policiais.

(*) Isaac Bigio vive em Londres e é pós-graduado em História e Política Econômica, Ensino Político e Administração Pública na América Latina pela London School of Economics. É um dos analistas políticos latino-americanos mais publicados do mundo. Tradução de Angélica Campos/BR Press.

Tottenham 2011 meets Brixton 1981 [*]

Tottenham 2011

















Brixton 1981



















*[Adenda (10/08/11): For an indepth analytical article see "Tottenham 2011 and Brixton 1981 – different ideals, similar lessons" - here]

Tottenham 2011

















Brixton 1981



















*[Adenda (10/08/11): For an indepth analytical article see "Tottenham 2011 and Brixton 1981 – different ideals, similar lessons" - here]