I have been staggered by the response of some people in Britain to the unrest that is sweeping the country. The same people that shake their sorry heads when street protests across the Middle East are crushed by dictatorial regimes are calling for an army presence on the streets of Britain, and I have heard plenty say the rioters and looters should be shot. Even highly trained conflict transformation professionals who have cut their teeth on Afghanistan and Iraq are simply sighing – claiming that “these people” are just bad-guys. I have been equally staggered by the number of my overseas friends, who actually appear happy that London’s burning. One tweeter (a TV personality) wrote smugly that he was not sorry the riots had happened because a UK delegate had been “preaching calm” in Karachi. Another Pakistani journalist wrote that he was happy that the “whites” got to see some violence first hand. I’m not sure what kind of logic this follows – but it feels juvenile (even nasty), when it is the citizens of both countries are suffering. No, Britain is not full of Royal Weddings, cream teas and people who speak like Mary Poppins. It has a dark underbelly of disillusionment, greed, and mistrust, like many places, that needs to be addressed. I imagine the Foreign Secretary is getting a call from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this morning expressing his concern for the shooting of Mark Duggan (the catalyst for events). The President of Iran never misses the irony. Some London residents have said that their city looks like Mogadishu this morning (although I am sure residents of Mogadishu might disagree). There is a sense that mindless violence happens “elsewhere” and not to us in Britain. When it happens to us, we are shocked that our people can behave in such a way. The blame game starts – it’s immigrants, it’s blacks, it’s people who are not “like us” – this makes it more easy to understand – but means that prospects of society’s wounds healing, and people actually tackling the drivers of this violence may diminish. But there are some real hero’s emerging. In the early hours of this morning, Twitter activists began a campaign to reclaim London – and Facebook groups appeared to help coordinate the clean-up efforts – which will begin across London today. Reports came in of how the Turkish Community gathered on the Kingsland Road in Dalston – preventing attacks on the shops and businesses there. (The Hackney Citizen website appears to have crashed as a result of the story – but when it recovers you will find it here).
I guess I will always look for these dramatic, positive stories and shy away from the hate. Not because I am some misguided hippy – but because it makes logical sense that distracting ourselves with the “worst” of any situation (often brought to us by the media and thoughtless gossips) will never help improve the situation. As every highly trained conflict transformation professional would know – real strength can be drawn from looking at the best.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
