London calling.

i've been viewing the uprising in England over the past
couple of days. outrage over the shooting death of a
man in Tottenham has gotten out of control. and yet there
IS a weird sense of order in these disturbances, one
that you have to go to the past in order to truly grasp
the idea.

i worry about family over there. and i think about the
last time my Nikes tread upon British soil, about ten
years ago to be exact. the disturbance is about a block
away from my Uncle Pal's main home, and that brought it
all too close to home for me. see, there's many elements
to what's going on over there. i heard a reporter on CNN
speak about her interviews with some youth, who feel that
they're doing this because the government doesn't listen
to them. their educational opportunities have been slashed
down a couple of times over the past two years. the economy
is stunted. they see the royal family shell out tons of
British pounds for Kate and William, but they're left to
scramble for whatever they can get. the rich are getting
richer. it's the same argument we're now seeing take place
here, clothed in political partisanship. but we tend to
forget that we have more ties to the UK than we think,
don't we?

another thing to consider is the Empire's view on the
Afro-Caribbean populace. while it's not the rabid nationalist
hatred that bubbled over in the 1960's and again in the
1980's with the rise of the skinheads, it's not all tea
and violets either. the bobbies are notorious for their
violence towards them and the Asians as well. and now
they have guns. i remember when i last visited, that was
a proposal on the table because they were deeply concerned
about illegal weapons smuggling and violence. and put the
blame on the yardies. you can't be surprised when the
people go through such 'sufferation' and eventually they've
had enough. especially when a young Black man such as
Mark Duggan dies at the hands of the police, and EVEN
MORE SO when it's found out that the police LIED. my
Uncle Pal has been in England from 1960 and he's seen it
all. the riots are a block from his home in Clapton now.
Brixton is ablaze along with Leeds.




(Darcus Howe speaks to the BBC)

of course, there are those who don't give a damn about
what happened. they're out to get some free stuff. you
will always have bottom-feeders around who make things
worse. but let's not forget why this is going on. it's
too complex to just be considered 'riots'. it's a
movement of sorts. you have to consider the term when
they're using BlackBerry messenger and the PS3 to
coordinate. we can only hope that things settle down,
and that the British government can really investigate
and work towards solving the issues at hand here. they'll
want to sweep this away given that the Olympics will be
there in a year, but they shouldn't be so oblivious.
and let's hope the extremely criminal element gets
separated from the rest of what's going on. and i will
pray for the safety of my uncle and his family over
there.