Christmas Advent

                                                            Christmas Advent

At the beginning of December London is preparing for Christmas. At the moment the talk is of seasonal cheer. Everybody is exhorted to show some kindness though quite why this is only necessary at Christmas is a moot point. The run up to this shows the placing of Christmas lights which are placed in many of the streets. Many homes as well will compete to offer these lights in more and more extravagant forms. In most workplaces a large Christmas party is planned. This can be the only get together in the workplace for a whole year and the spirit of this is togetherness and good cheer. The shops will be encouraging all to shop till they drop and many shops will become impassable with crowds filing all the supermarkets. Many people are buying Christmas presents for their children in August and it is still fairly common for people to save up for a whole year for the event although in many cases it is the credit card that is taking the slack

 This does not always resonate with a country which is rapidly ceasing to be in any but a nominal sense a Christian country. In many ways it is more reminiscent of a folk festival with most of the religious undertones being long forgotten. Most people are hardly aware of the significance seeing it as an excuse to have a knees up. All will be forgotten anyway in the preparations.

The festival is billed as a commercial feast and all the economic statisticians are poring over the data already to see of there is any sign of recovery in spending. There will be a lot of analysis of the takings in shops and whether or not there will be signs of recovery. One consequence of Christmas is that subsequently there will be many sales of discounted goods in January to get rid of the additional stock of Christmas. The figures from these will also be exhaustively analyzed.

The day itself is seen as a festival only for family. Most of the population will be maxing out their credit cards in preparation for the feast. In some places there will be a competition to staff different birds inside each other to see who can offer the most sumptuous Christmas dinner. The feast of calories and cholesterol continues with most families opting for turkey though a sizeable number will buy goose instead. All the trimmings will add a fair amount to the bill of course. Festive foods such as Christmas pudding and mince pies will be in evidence all around. 

All will be exhorted to be nice to each other over Christmas. We will all be told to set these issues aside. In the country it is generally considered to be a scandal if anybody spends Christmas on their own. Hard pressed families will come together to join in the enforced Christmas gaiety. However another consequence will be that the pressures of the preparations will lead to family fights and ruptures which can continue into the New Year and beyond.

On the day itself very few work places will be open. All shops and public transport will be shut and the few taxi drivers that operate will be paid handsomely for it as they operate on vastly increased fares or this period.  A few pubs will be open at reduced hours as people escape the various tensions produced by the enforced togetherness. In this way the society is one where all are virtually forced to celebrate.

 After the day litter bins will be overflowing with all the paraphernalia of seasonal indulgence, the wrapping paper, the old Christmas crackers and the remains of overindulgence in both food and alcohol.

Inevitably the mood will carry on to the hopes of the New Year and then suddenly cease. By January everyone is broke and contemplating the debts that have been produced by the gaiety. In its place an air of depression will stalk the land as all are thinking of what has been spent.  Seasonal cheer will have gone, Winter will be still with us and most of u will have little to spare in the bank!

A day in South London

                                                            A day in South London

Today of all days was to be an action packed day. I had to get off to work early and before that to vote in the local authority by election. This by-election had cause quite a lot of local acrimony with the Liberal Democrats out in droves. I had been canvassed four times by them myself. In this mood I set off to vote early in this by-election on my way to work.

This hope of voting early and quickly was soon to be dashed as I entered the polling station  only to be told I was at the wrong polling station and that I had to go up the road. I protested as this station had been clearly indicated on the card. The polling official was insistent so I headed off to the other poling station which was about five minutes walk away. Another lady had been told the same and was also complaining about having to get to work

I arrived at the other polling station only to be told that I had to go back to the original polling station. One of the officials was speaking on his mobile  and he said ”I have a gentleman here who is quite irate” Well of course this time I was irate after having been sent on a mini tour of the ward's polling stations. I asked who I could complain to and was given the name of the head of electoral registration to complain to and was told that my original polling station had been given instructions. I was asked where I lived and it appeared the whole block had been the subject of confusion.

This time the polling official apologized profusely and issued me with a ballot paper. Of course this time I was able to vote. Such was that even with the local authority organizing the polling it was  not simple matter. I could not have made this up! I was able to board my bus to work.

After work I just popped in to the supermarket to get a bottle of wine to take to my friend who I was going to see later. This however was nota simple matter as a ferocious argument broke out in the supermarket. On one of the aisles I saw  a lady abusing one of the supermarket staff. In general of course my instinct was to move to the checkout.

Later I saw an employee move to the checkouts saying to the staff  ”You see that lady with the kettles you are not to serve her!”

She then told the woman she would not be served

“That lady has assaulted me

“Why should I do a thing like that?”

“You barged into me with the kettles?”

The employee then said “I am the franchisee and I can say who we serve or not! And we are not serving you!”

The lady then stormed into an ante room and the door then opened to show her talking to the security guard. She was then ejected promptly from the store.

One of them said about the employee

“She has got a temper”

Everybody stood at the checkouts open mouthed at this fight that had been going on>

Well never a dull moment in South London!

Remembrance day London

                                                Remembrance Day London

Once again the yearly rituals are back with us. Poppy day is here again. For a few weeks before the day poppies will be sold mostly by sellers from the Royal British legion as a source of income. Many will buy these poppies as a sign that they remember the sacrifice of the troops who fought in two word wars and in other wars.

In many ways the greatness of the day is that it is mostly not political. People of every background celebrate together. There are no bounds of politics as a nation remembers those who died in the great conflicts. The tone is rather somber. There is no passing out of military bands. Most people just speak of remembrance at this time. The official ceremony takes place at the cenotaph in central London, a great monument to the dead of the world wars

On the day and for a few weeks before poppies are sold everywhere. Sellers lurk outside stores and in the streets while everybody clamours to get one of the red poppies on sale! Most public figures are expected to wear them and some tend to complain occasionally about “Poppy Fascism” and being forced to wear one.. However the general consensus is that it would be mean spirited not to wear one.

The main problem on the horizon is that young people tend to be less aware and so poppy wearing among the younger generation is not so common. In some ways the generation that fought in the second world war is dying off and their descendants are ageing fast. There is still however some commemoration of those killed in the wars of today such as in Afghanistan and Iraq. On the day convoys of bikers can be seen with all the remembrance insignia.

Services of remembrance are held throughout the land. The main message is the sacrifice of the generations and the memory of those who did not come back.

While most poppies are red some white poppies are also made. These tend to be used by pacifist groups. There is also a purple poppy worn by animal welfare organizations. This commemorates the animal victims of the war. These are usually worn alongside the red poppy. The event is fairly unique in that it is almost universally celebrated

Stolen Generation

                                    Stolen generation

In this age of austerity questions are never asked about what happens to the young people in our society. In many ways they will make up a lost generation as they fight tooth and nail for  a foothold on the ladder to success. While it is certainly true that older workers face discrimination there is always a problem with young workers entering the job market for the first time. As they have no track record there are very few employers who will give them a chance

One of the first acts of the coalition government was to  make university fees prohibitively expensive top the extent that many of them have been deterred from going to university. This has resulted in many people seeking options that do not involve going to university. These however are becoming harder to find.

Successive governments have operated on the premised that more and more people should go to university. Past generations grew up secure in the knowledge that a university place would guarantee success and in many ways the feeling has arisen during the course of the current recession that the old idea that every generation would be richer than their parents has been fatally undermined. Now many people are having to deal with a rather different reality.

In this post austerity world jobs are very few and far between and so opportunities are very limited. For most young people life is an endless round of application forms and interviews none of which seem to lead anywhere. The graduate market is fairly saturated and many graduates are finding themselves in the competition for menial jobs.

Previously these were given out to those who had no qualifications at all. Now however employers have their pick of graduates to interview and so consequently can pick and choose. The competition for first jobs is intense. Now internships which are unpaid are seen as the way. However even these are subject to the amount of influence parents have and often as of before it is not what you know but who you know that counts.

This scenario plays out increasingly among the richer segments of society. Of the less rich there is little account apart from the fact that it is often seen that they way to a good standard of living is to be involved in crime. In accordance with this the prison population is booming. This is to some extent raised by the fact that not only have young people nothing to do but the traditional means of keeping them occupied such as youth clubs have been hit hard by cuts in local authority budgets.

As a result a whole generation of young people risks becoming a stolen generation with no prospect of work and no prospects of any meaningful activities. The increasing crime rates tell their own story. While official figures are doctored to make it look as if crime is falling a lethal cocktail of cuts in police numbers and an expanding number of young people points o a different interpretation. Everybody now speaks of the increase in crime in defiance of official figures.

The problem of alienated youth which has already expressed itself in the previous year’s riots is not one that is likely to go away. Since the recession began a whole generation of people have  become disengaged from society as a whole. As the politicians debate economic policy which seems to most people to be more and more obscure the fact remains that there is now a generation that threatens to become a huge ticking time bomb at the heart of Britain. Whatever is done it is likely to be a development that will scar the country or a generation. It is also a development that has not fully run its course as whole generations have grown up never aging a proper job. In years to come the country is likely to rue this lost generation and the subsequent breakdown in the cohesion of the society as crime rates rise and the society continues to break apart.

What is to come from all of this is anybody’s guess.

OHbama's

                                                OHbama's

The days seem so long ago when at the start of the economic troubles in which we now live London watched the American elections. So many people spoke of their hopes at that time, hopes of a new politics and a new economic beginning. Obama was wildly popular on this side of the pond and everybody was wishing his campaign well.

For many people it was the idea of a break with the previous Bush years. Also there had been fairly general condemnation of the Iraq war and President Bush had been held responsible. Still the vote was eagerly awaited and when Obama won the city was jubilant. From all across the political spectrum people had supported Obama, the idea of the first black president in particular emphasizing the new age of racial tolerance was a powerful one.

The country watched in belated anticipation as the election results poured in. When it became clear that Obama had won there was general rejoicing! In the area of London in which I live he was wildly popular and people were talking about it everywhere. In the markets, on the buses and in the pubs it was one of the main topics of conversation

In this atmosphere I met an American who had set up a new stall in the nearby market. He had set up a stall to sell memorabilia of Obama’s victory. When I first met him he wore a badge saying he had attended the inauguration. On his stall he sold fridge magnets and photographs of the queen standing with the Obama. In the atmosphere of that time they sold like hotcakes and people were snapping them up all over the place. He had come into the situation that the country was euphoric about what was seen as a great new development. The conservative party promoted this as the idea of change and many of their grandees were courting controversy by backing a Democrat party contender.

I met the man who established the stall several times. First he had a commercial winner and his products were just flying off the stall. All round people were buying them. However you cannot live for so long on one idea and eventually the novelty wore off. My friend diversified and started selling Jamaican food and CDs. The food part became increasingly difficult particularly in regard to Britain’s rather extensive and onerous food hygiene regulations. In a while the food stopped and all he concentrated on was soul music and reggae music CD’s along with a smattering of soft drink labels from the Caribbean and tee shirts of Jamaica

Previously he had used the slogan for his store which he called “Ohbama’s” “better than your mama’s”. This seemed to strike a chord for a while and with the new terms he seemed to prosper to some extent. I would often meet him on my travels and he seemed to work well with the changing fashions. His business of music CDs seemed to go well and he was selling a lot of music, even to the extent of employing an assistant. He seemed a steady presence on the street.

And then a year ago he was gone. The sign disappeared! The shop stood vacant for a wile and then suddenly a new shop appeared selling Naan bread. In the atmosphere of this part of London the shop seems to do well. Every Saturday they churn out Naan bread. But of my friend there is no sign.

Now the US elections are seen from a distance. There is not the same enthusiasm as there was before and it is seen as a distant side issue. Londoners are intent on getting on with their lives and the pull of domestic worries is greater still. The election generally at present seems to excite little comment among ordinary people. The papers mention it mostly in the vein that it will be a shoo in for Obama. However on the streets the same passions are not excited and it seems a distant story of little relevance to ordinary people>