and I can talk with my comfortable mouth, with my comfortable clothes and my comfortable house.
Not wanting to speak too soon but it seems that the riots are coming to an end, thankfully.
Russell Brand has already written something better but I'll give you my thoughts anyway.
Do forgive me for preaching to the extreme.
Where to begin... Well. I can safely say that I don't remember ever being so scared in my own town, in my own country. For some countries, I assume that hearing sirens all the time or having violence so close to home is part of their daily life. For me, in my cosy hometown that is Twickenham, I am not used to being on edge. Which is kind of pathetic, because my town wasn't even one of the areas that was badly affected. But you know me, I am a bit of a sentimental wuss.
It's more seeing places I know and visit being torn up. After watching the news since 6pm at the start of this week and hearing Camden had been hit, I did cry. Slightly because I was under the impression they had destroyed Electric Ballroom, a place where I have many memories and I love Camden to bits. Mostly with frustration, because it kept getting closer to home quicker and quicker and I simply did not understand why people could care so little about how much they were fucking up others' lives and homes. And for a moment I let myself slip into the aggressive-defensive mindset of 'THEY ARE ALL THUGS AND MINDLESS CRIMINALS, LET THE POLICE SHOOT THEM DOWN WITH PLASTIC BULLETS, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE ABOUT WHY THEY'RE ACTING OUT', out of anger. Which I am ashamed of, really, because that held me back from examining the context.
I believe I know some of the context. That some of the acts of violence were caused by people who have been let down in more ways than one by our government, as well as society, whose aggression has been building and building and the riots are them reaching boiling point. Coming where I come from, I can't really understand it to its core because I have grown up comfortably, without poverty and been offered a number of privileges. I can empathise with some of these people but I have not experienced it, so no, I struggle to truly understand it at times. I can only imagine what it was like.
I still feel anger and bitterness towards them however because while I can understand their frustration stems from and wish things could be better for them, I do not condone the damage they've caused to my city and others through vandalism, arson, looting, assault, etc. I know that some of them were fucking angry and that maybe they haven't been given a chance to vent until now but there is still a part of me which is hateful towards them for doing what they did. People have lost their businesses, their livelihood, their homes, not to mention died or been seriously injured, for fuck's sake.
Oh and let's not kid ourselves, some of those rioters were fucking cowards and opportunists at worst, who saw a chance to steal and be selfish and fuck up shit just because they could and they didn't think they'd face the consequences. They are truly assholes. I hate these people more than the rest.
But then again, it is so easy to judge when you're like me. I've seen people of my class and position on facebook condemn them so quickly, completely shut down and refuse to hear any explanation or reason for the riots. And yeah, I'm embarrassed to say I have joined in, because not only do I have a chance to voice my opinions and anger, but I have people who will listen. And I don't get why you would lash out like that because I prefer to use words and reasoning than violence.
So, taking all this into account, you may see why I struggle at times to understand why they'd react that way. But now, I feel it's necessary to step outside of my comfort zone and find out why.
It is really very easy for me to sit here and condemn the rioters on my social networks, it would be really easy for me for to completely ignore the context. But I don't want to. That wouldn't get me anywhere. Sure, I'd love to move on asap and concentrate on returning to normality. But I can't. I need to take something from these riots, something more than 'fuck me that was horrible and scary and gosh I'm glad my friends and I are safe' (I am really glad that everyone seems okay btw, jsyk). I need to examine why it even happened, what (besides the Mark Duggan shooting) triggered it and what can we do about it.
Because really, what are we going to learn from this? I would really like an answer to that. And I don't see those bell-ends Cameron, Boris or Clegg coming up with anything any time soon.
I still haven't really come up with a solid answer about how we can prevent something like this from happening again, how we can go about changing things so that people don't feel the need to burn down buildings or attack the police or loot a department store completely.
Honestly, I don't want my generation and the next to grow up feeling that disconnected and hateful of everyone around them because we were let down by a careless and useless government and society.
To state the bleeding obvious, things are changing in the UK and if we don't acknowledge it, we're going to end up tearing at each other's throats.
The UK riots are still riots to me, however much they've made me think and reflect. Not a protest or rebellion, those things have an actual cause to be fought for, an objective in mind. This definition I found online for riot explains it best for me - "an outburst of uncontrolled feelings". Which is exactly what it was.
But it's an outburst which we need to take into consideration, something our prime minister should really consider, before he condemns this whole mess and tries to forget about it all, writing it off as "unjustified" and "unacceptable" and simply leaving it at that.
//preachy mcpreacher.
Let's have a tiny heart-warming picspam. Despite all the shit "social media" received, Twitter proved to be a great way of finding temporary support and a sense of community amidst all the chaos.
ilu kate nash ♥
because a cuppa works every time.
"Riot clean up", @riotcleanup arranged meeting points for volunteers to come and clean up some of the mess left over from the riots. It was developed in hours on Twitter. Amazing. They did mexican broom waves and everything.
Mandy Palmer RT'd this, bless her.
Birmingham.
last but not least.
thoughts are welcome. hopefully I haven't pissed anyone off. ♥
love you all, I'll blog with happier news next time hopefully.
Russell Brand has already written something better but I'll give you my thoughts anyway.
Do forgive me for preaching to the extreme.
Where to begin... Well. I can safely say that I don't remember ever being so scared in my own town, in my own country. For some countries, I assume that hearing sirens all the time or having violence so close to home is part of their daily life. For me, in my cosy hometown that is Twickenham, I am not used to being on edge. Which is kind of pathetic, because my town wasn't even one of the areas that was badly affected. But you know me, I am a bit of a sentimental wuss.
It's more seeing places I know and visit being torn up. After watching the news since 6pm at the start of this week and hearing Camden had been hit, I did cry. Slightly because I was under the impression they had destroyed Electric Ballroom, a place where I have many memories and I love Camden to bits. Mostly with frustration, because it kept getting closer to home quicker and quicker and I simply did not understand why people could care so little about how much they were fucking up others' lives and homes. And for a moment I let myself slip into the aggressive-defensive mindset of 'THEY ARE ALL THUGS AND MINDLESS CRIMINALS, LET THE POLICE SHOOT THEM DOWN WITH PLASTIC BULLETS, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE ABOUT WHY THEY'RE ACTING OUT', out of anger. Which I am ashamed of, really, because that held me back from examining the context.
I believe I know some of the context. That some of the acts of violence were caused by people who have been let down in more ways than one by our government, as well as society, whose aggression has been building and building and the riots are them reaching boiling point. Coming where I come from, I can't really understand it to its core because I have grown up comfortably, without poverty and been offered a number of privileges. I can empathise with some of these people but I have not experienced it, so no, I struggle to truly understand it at times. I can only imagine what it was like.
I still feel anger and bitterness towards them however because while I can understand their frustration stems from and wish things could be better for them, I do not condone the damage they've caused to my city and others through vandalism, arson, looting, assault, etc. I know that some of them were fucking angry and that maybe they haven't been given a chance to vent until now but there is still a part of me which is hateful towards them for doing what they did. People have lost their businesses, their livelihood, their homes, not to mention died or been seriously injured, for fuck's sake.
Oh and let's not kid ourselves, some of those rioters were fucking cowards and opportunists at worst, who saw a chance to steal and be selfish and fuck up shit just because they could and they didn't think they'd face the consequences. They are truly assholes. I hate these people more than the rest.
But then again, it is so easy to judge when you're like me. I've seen people of my class and position on facebook condemn them so quickly, completely shut down and refuse to hear any explanation or reason for the riots. And yeah, I'm embarrassed to say I have joined in, because not only do I have a chance to voice my opinions and anger, but I have people who will listen. And I don't get why you would lash out like that because I prefer to use words and reasoning than violence.
So, taking all this into account, you may see why I struggle at times to understand why they'd react that way. But now, I feel it's necessary to step outside of my comfort zone and find out why.
It is really very easy for me to sit here and condemn the rioters on my social networks, it would be really easy for me for to completely ignore the context. But I don't want to. That wouldn't get me anywhere. Sure, I'd love to move on asap and concentrate on returning to normality. But I can't. I need to take something from these riots, something more than 'fuck me that was horrible and scary and gosh I'm glad my friends and I are safe' (I am really glad that everyone seems okay btw, jsyk). I need to examine why it even happened, what (besides the Mark Duggan shooting) triggered it and what can we do about it.
Because really, what are we going to learn from this? I would really like an answer to that. And I don't see those bell-ends Cameron, Boris or Clegg coming up with anything any time soon.
I still haven't really come up with a solid answer about how we can prevent something like this from happening again, how we can go about changing things so that people don't feel the need to burn down buildings or attack the police or loot a department store completely.
Honestly, I don't want my generation and the next to grow up feeling that disconnected and hateful of everyone around them because we were let down by a careless and useless government and society.
To state the bleeding obvious, things are changing in the UK and if we don't acknowledge it, we're going to end up tearing at each other's throats.
The UK riots are still riots to me, however much they've made me think and reflect. Not a protest or rebellion, those things have an actual cause to be fought for, an objective in mind. This definition I found online for riot explains it best for me - "an outburst of uncontrolled feelings". Which is exactly what it was.
But it's an outburst which we need to take into consideration, something our prime minister should really consider, before he condemns this whole mess and tries to forget about it all, writing it off as "unjustified" and "unacceptable" and simply leaving it at that.
//preachy mcpreacher.
Let's have a tiny heart-warming picspam. Despite all the shit "social media" received, Twitter proved to be a great way of finding temporary support and a sense of community amidst all the chaos.
ilu kate nash ♥
because a cuppa works every time.
"Riot clean up", @riotcleanup arranged meeting points for volunteers to come and clean up some of the mess left over from the riots. It was developed in hours on Twitter. Amazing. They did mexican broom waves and everything.
Mandy Palmer RT'd this, bless her.
Birmingham.
last but not least.
thoughts are welcome. hopefully I haven't pissed anyone off. ♥
love you all, I'll blog with happier news next time hopefully.