Posts by Hebe
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Hard News: London's Burning, in reply to Carol Stewart,
Muriel Newman; On The Smell of An Oily Old Bag.
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Hard News: London's Burning, in reply to recordari,
You're nothing in Christcrunch if ya don't have a solar cellphone charger and a generator.
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Hard News: London's Burning, in reply to Rich Lock,
It's also a far more intense and visceral experience than any gig or sporting event I've been to, before or after - orders of magnitude more so.
I can quite easily disengage from and dispassionately observe a sports crowd or gig crowd. I doubt it would be that easy in any sort of public disorder-type circumstancesIsn't the buzz all about power -- gaining it, using it, and coming out on top (even if its only in the form of a new pair of trainers)?
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Hard News: London's Burning, in reply to Rich Lock,
Good ; I'm not the only PA reader with a filthy mind.
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Hard News: London's Burning, in reply to Islander,
As the parent of identical (genetically and aesthetically) twins I find that comment a bit creepy. You probably don't mean it like that, but I've had to defend my two from day one from various sorts of unhealthy interest. Substitute "black", "gay", "disabled" or "women" -- or any group it's not okay to differentiate -- for the word twins and you might understand my point.
One day I may have enough energy and time to write a blog on this one. Just don't say "double trouble" around me. Please.
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Just in from my friend, as I was posting the previous. She's safe. In Notting Hill Gate, nearer Westbourne Park end, holed up in the flat:
The night before last there was a lot of noise of shouting, cars roaring and breaking glass. As far as I can tell, the shop on corner of my street has smashed windows, a couple of other shops near the Gate too. One shop at the Gate on fire but put out quickly and the Ledbury pub round the corner was invaded by rioters trying to mug the customers. The owners chased them away with machetes! They (rioters) seemed to be around 14 or 15 years old.
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Speaker: Listening to Coldharbour Lane, in reply to Conrad Heine,
It’s also a product of a long-standing narrative in Britain which has seen elites across the political spectrum look the other way as many of a generation of urban youth, the stereotypical council-estate-dwellers, are excluded. The boom years camouflaged this.
I totally agree. The words and attitudes I have been seeing on the net and screen in the past few days are exactly like those I used to see in then-edgy areas like the All Saints Road at the top of Ladbroke Grove in the Thatcher years.
That sullen despair has hardened into the fuck-you described by the Londoner who posted on the previous thread, dcnbwz, who said:
There are conditions here that have allowed at least two generations to grow up outside of (another borrowed term I like) "the social contract"....when people ask where are the parents, it might be that they don't care, that they do care but can't stop their kids, or simply that they're part of it too. I don't know. These kids have no empathy. They appear to be nihilistic. And they don't care. Not all I know, but a fair few I would guess. And you have to look at how they have grown into this. A complex answer, not least the conditions some, if not all have to endure. Some will be down to upbringing, a majority down to peer pressure.
How do you turn this around? And what's next?
And that scares me for I see the same disenfranchisement hardening in this country too. Meanwhile, nice Mr Key strokes the stainless steel fridges of the voting class, and I'm wondering why an old friend in London is not replying to my emails...
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Joe Wylie,
I see the central-city clean-up as part of the pioneer hangover mind-set of dominating the natural world: "Quick. Clean it up now. Nasty, nasty mess." See, if we chuck all the rubble in a big heap at Burwood then we can start again and make a nice new city. Or can we? I find the time-frames the powers-that-be are officially espousing just absurd. It's geological time man, not a quick fix year or two; god knows when this seismic sequence will stop.
The waste of fine demo materials distresses me too. I watched the giant diggers tear through our local supermarket and thought sadly of all the long-run corrugated iron they just trashed while my house could do with a new roof.
I do like the cardboard cathedral though. It could sit next to the giant diaphragm in Hagley Park. Then imagine if Ohakune would give us their giant carrot.
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They are right; it was big.
http://www.quakestories.govt.nz/about -
's ok. I'm delaying academic thought while drinking coffee and wasting time.