Inner London is a part of my life, living in Clapham as a student and then three years in Hoxton as a curate. So I feel about it as perhaps only a Londoner can.
The riots are going to be a field day for the media, and I could write some of the reactions myself, particularly at what we might call the “guardian” and “telegraph” ends of the spectrum.
So I am thankful to come across a really intelligent, sensitive response from a woman who knows life at the street level. She is a remarkable woman, whose family were obliged to leave Iran following the Iranian revolution. But she has given herself to a very different life.
see : http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/camila-batmanghelidjh-caring-costs-ndash-but-so-do-riots-2333991.html
We’re used, travelling around London on the Underground, to the Tannoy telling us to “mind the gap”; now it is coming home to us, that the gap between those young people who feel excluded from wealth and opportunity, and the rest of society, is more immense than we can imagine; and it does not help that those involved at the top posts of government and opposition come from a privileged background. How can they begin to imagine what life is like for someone on a run-down estate ?
Another brilliant article shows how dangerous it is to think of London troubles as a problem belonging to the black community:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/08/tottenham-riots-not-unexpected
At the moment I cannot find the right words to pray about it all. The moment of “the still small voice” has not yet arrived; the earthquake, wind and fire is all around. And other cities are being drawn in to the disturbances as well; we are seeing the downside of “twitter” and “facebook” and instant communication which is sometimes like pouring petrol on flames.
Still, small voice, we need you ! ( Perhaps that is a prayer after all. )
Canon Alan Amos
