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Showing posts from August, 2011

a response to the riots

this is the blog i would have liked to write - says all the things i was trying to, but coherently and eloquently. Laurie Penny's blog or just read it here: " Tuesday, 9 August 2011 Panic on the streets of London. I’m huddled in the front room with some shell-shocked friends, watching my city burn. The BBC is interchanging footage of blazing cars and running street battles in Hackney, of police horses lining up in Lewisham, of roiling infernos that were once shops and houses in Croydon and in Peckham. Last night, Enfield, Walthamstow, Brixton and Wood Green were looted; there have been hundreds of arrests and dozens of serious injuries, and it will be a miracle if nobody dies tonight. This is the third consecutive night of rioting in London, and the disorder has now spread to Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol and Birmingham. Politicians and police officers who only hours ago were making stony-faced statements about criminality are now simply begging the young

say what you see

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Police in riot gear in Enfield, north London, on Sunday night. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters well, if you've any kind of social networking, internet access, or even (failing all that) the news, you'll have heard about the london riots by now. i've nothing very new to add to the pot - a number of other people already blogged much better on the earlier happenings (collection of links below), and the media finally seemed to have caught up with the facts, just in time for widespread coverage of the looting that seems to have become the main focus. first - in my opinion - simplistic overview:  police shoot a man - police fail to make statement/answer family's questions - vigil becomes riot - riot becomes widespread property damage and looting here are some earlier blogs which discuss this or at least provide some on the ground updates: http://thewestlondoner.wor ​dpress.com/ http://www.redpepper.org.u ​k/tottenham-this-is-what-y ​ou-get-fire/ http://

Then there are times like this...

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...when things seem like they can't possibly be that bad after all. peaceful moments when just the cat for company is perfect, and online articles inspire (thanks zaufishan ) and uplift (thanks ray ). and friends appear unexpectedly, and help make things feel better. (thanks j).

missing, inaction

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despite the flux of old blogs from my old facebook account i realised that i haven't actually written anything in a long while.  kind of been missing in action... you'd be forgiven for thinking i've just been sitting around with my feet up actually, i've just retreated a little from the virtual world i have been doing a fair bit of stuff, though...   gardening my niece and i started a whole nursery of seedlings on our balcony - that deserves  blog of its own. i've been taking a lot of photos and expanding my stash of camera bits the other day i actually referred to myself as a 'freelance photographer' - more in jest than anything else, really, though, just mimicking what a friend had just described me as.  not quite there yet. i've discovered new places  made first visits and had brilliant times learning from new friends developing friendships is one of  the things i've had a lot of time for other the past few months.  so whet