At first I was surprised, perhaps even slightly amused.
Now I stare in disbelief. My brain struggles to accept the reality of what I see. Riots? In London???
I have never seen or heard of anything as grave as what is taking place in "the City" today.
There were riots in my home country once. They lasted one day. People targeted supermarkets mostly, and took food. There were no fires. Those of us with a critical eye suspected they must have been coordinated somehow by the opposition, seeing as how they broke out on the same day, all around the country and seemingly out of nowhere.
If what is happening in London had taken place in my home country, the whole world, my people included, would have said “third world country, what do you expect”.
And yet, looking at poor people in London, with their dark skins, their poor housing, their broken neighbourhoods, their ordinary clothes… I could easily fool myself and see any impoverished, suburban neighbourhood in Latin America.
But this is not Latin America. This is the capital of one of the richest nations on Earth. The birthplace of the industrial revolution. The living proof that capitalism doesn’t end poverty.
In Latin America, we have the excuse of poverty. When something bad happens, when the poor are really poor, we can comfort ourselves by saying “we are a poor country, there isn’t much we can do”.
But there is plenty Britain could do. This country has just spent 9.5 billion pounds in preparing itself for the “Olympics”.
Dear Britain.
Thank you for showing your human self. Humans react when provoked. And it’s a relief to discover that despite centuries of indoctrination and “civilization”, you can respond to the violence done upon you.
Thank you for proving Theresa May wrong. I sincerely wished you hadn’t had to resort to this. I’d like to believe I tried to stop things getting to this point. I promise you I’ll carry on working so that you will never see yourself in this situation again.
I wish you the strength and compassion to see yourself as you are, take responsibility for what you have become and heal yourself accordingly.
Love
Mary
2 comments:
"I wish you the strength and compassion to see yourself as you are, take responsibility for what you have become and heal yourself accordingly."
But of course they wont, you've been here long enough to know that by now right?
What they will do is double down on the same policies that have created this situation.
Somehow the Conservative Economic Terrorist party and its media wing will find a way to use this as an excuse for even more economic terrorism against the poor and disenfranchised, more cuts to vital services in their areas, routine curfews, more indiscriminate police repression, humiliation and brutality against all the people in these areas making no distinction between the hardworking law abiding people and the criminals, as a “solution” to the “mindless thuggery”.
The population will become even more racist if that's even possible, blame the poor for their poverty even more, and elect a majority Conservative government next election who will promise to be even more extreme.
These people never learn Mary, their response to a fire is always to order barrels of gasoline to be thrown on it, and they are the majority.
There's simply too many right-wing morons who consider right-wing idocy to be common sense in this country led around by their nose by the people who fleece them daily. The country is corrupt to the core and beyond redemption.
Yesterday I would have disagreed with you, Robert. Today... I'm not so sure. After witnessing over and over again how middle class white people in authority positions dismiss any possible link between social conditions and violence, I fear that these riots will not be enough to change the course of history.
I sincerely feel and fear for us all.
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