There's still a long way to go

Malala Yousafzai

I had not heard of this young woman until I saw the story on the news yesterday. There has apparently been much 'international' condemnation but none it seems from Islamic religious leaders; at least none reported. But this is not a post about religion. This is a call to women everywhere to stand up and fight for their rights. No one, NO MAN, is going to give you the right to education, to vote, to work, to choose how to live your life - you have to fight for it.

Conformity and Individuality

At the school where I work the new term has meant a new name, new uniform for Years 7 -11 and dress code for the 6th form students and staff. No, we haven't become an academy but the whole site is being rebuilt and the school re-branded. Hence the changes. 

I have nothing against school uniforms and I do think people should dress in an appropriately professional way. However in the debate leading up to these changes issues about other aspects of individuals appearance were also raised such as so-called extreme hair cuts and colours and excessive make up and jewellery. Opinions on these are far more subjective than say wearing old jeans and combats, yet they have become part of the dress code. How far should an individuals right to express themselves via their choice of clothes, hair, make-up, jewellery be curtailed in the name of looking 'professional'? 

Even for the students I am concerned that so much conformity will stifle their individuality. Admittedly many already conform in a different way; peer-pressure and media influences take their toll on youth. It's been a long time since I was a teenager but I remember how hard it is to work out who you are. Bloody hell I was in my 30s before I had any idea.

As well as this imposition of conformity in appearance there are other issues. Like the new IT system which doesn't allow you to make a shortcut on the desktop let alone have a background of your choice. Fonts, printer settings, everything has been dictated and while I understand the need for some corporate uniformity too much makes for a very boring work environment. A new door entry system will also mean movement of staff can be tracked. Plus we have been advised how to modify the way we talk in public so that no one over hears us saying anything bad about the school.

We all conform at sometime or another but if we are not allowed to be individual in even some small ways we may as well be Borg.

Class War #4

Government urges councils to sell off high-value houses

Here we go again - social cleansing. We have to pay for the twats with more money than sense who want to live in areas they think are trending or 'up-and-coming.

The Dark Knight Rises

Last week we braved the heat and a cinema without air conditioning to go see The Dark Knight Rises; the final instalment of Christopher Nolan’s take on Batman. I was looking forward to it very much after The Dark Knight even though I have a soft spot for Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman and 1992 Batman Returns with Michael Keaton in the lead. Burton’s noir vision of Gotham City and the dark side of being a ‘hero’, in my opinion, set the standard for all future comic book adaptations.

After Burton’s Batman films there were 2 further, less successful films before Nolan picked up the franchise with Batman Begins (2005). I thought this film was good but not as good as the Burton films though it did successfully introduce the characters, especially Christian Bale’s take on Batman. Nolan upped his game with The Dark Knight (2008). The arrival of the Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger, who won a posthumous Oscar, made the film. Ledger’s Joker was equally as manic as Jack Nicholson’s and twice as scary. Which is interesting as Burton’s films were rated 15 while Nolan’s only 12A. Yet I’m heard film critics refer to Nolan’s Batman films as ‘grown-up’. Of course these days 12 is the rating everyone wants for maximum returns especially on mega-million dollar budget films.

 

So as I say I was really looking forward to seeing the last part of the trilogy. Was I disappointed? Well a little. This is not to say it’s not a good film (if a little too long). Visually impressive, great action sequences and with a fine cast Nolan would have had to done something seriously wrong to have made this a bad film. My main source of disappointment was the villain, Bane, played by Tom Hardy. I’m not saying this was the actor’s fault, rather every time he spoke through the mask I couldn’t take him seriously; he sounded pretentiously camp rather than menacing. And returning to the theme of Batman Begins I’m sure seemed a good way to end the trilogy but it felt to me a little lazy. As for Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle aka Catwoman, well let’s just say she was no way as cool as Michelle Pfeiffer and frankly her only purpose in the film seemed to be to add the theme of starting over with a clean slate.

The ending of the film left an opening for the franchise to be taken up once again though without Nolan or Bale. I’m sure it will be but do wonder if anyone can truly out-do Burton’s or indeed Nolan.

Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner

Being as I am completely indifferent to the Olympics the only good thing about it coming to my home town has been the programmes about London that BBC2 & BBC4 broadcast in recent weeks. In particular  The Secret History of Our Streets, a 6 part series using Charles Booth’s 19th century social maps (Charles Booth Online Archive) as a starting point to chart the ever-changing character of London streets and its residents.

Starting with Deptford High Street SE8, once described as ‘the Oxford Street of south London’; a sorry tale of decline, a community broken up and officious local authority figures deciding the fate of residents with little regard to what people wanted. This was typical of many experiences of ordinary people particularly in the post-World War II years of ‘scum clearance’.

Staying south of the river the up and down fate of Camberwell Grove SE5 was a tale of property development and well-meaning folk wanting to preserve fine old buildings. Here developers built fine houses for the well-to-do who wanted to escape the rapidly growing city in what was then a semi-rural area. However the city soon caught up with Camberwell Grove and as the well-off moved on landlords rented out the houses to families who occupied rooms rather than the whole houses and the properties began to fall into disrepair. In the 1960s things begun to change as young middle-class people bought up these run down houses. And now the street is up-market again.

For the Caledonian Road N1 there was never such grandeur. A road leading up from King’s Cross with its railway station, the area was and is still considered ‘rough’. But here too residents fought to preserve what there was when British Rail threatened to destroy the community. And since the programme was aired there has been much controversy regarding the local landlord featured who boasted about his disregard for planning and building regulations. ‘No milk left in the Cally’

Property speculation in west London’s Portland Road W11 told a very different tale. Built with the well-off in mind Portland Road however soon was notorious as a slum. Again it was not until the 1960s that the street saw a turnaround in fortune; and what a turnaround. Now a banker’s enclave, the street has some of the most expensive property in London – with a council estate at one end.

Returning south of the river Reverdy Road SE1 was perhaps the least changed of the street featured, although here as everywhere changes were happening. Home to the ‘respectable’ working class in the 19th century this was a story of Bermondsey’s local politicians and for want of a better description, their Christian / Socialist sense of duty to the local people. When the now defunct Bermondsey Council bought up Reverdy Road and the rest of the West Estate properties they modernised them and ensure local people had priority in renting the houses, keeping the community together. Now however with the changes to housing policy and the ‘right to buy’ local people are not so dominate as they once were.

Finally the first council estate opened in 1896 in east London. Built by the long gone London County Council, the Boundary Estate around Arnold Circus E2 was to replace the overcrowded slums in the area. By today’s standards the flats would seems substandard with only some having indoor toilets and none having hot water, but in comparison to the buildings they replaced the flats were palaces. Trouble was at 10 shillings a week the people who had lived in the slums demolished to make way for the estate could not afford the rent them. Those that could afford it soon built up a sense of community; a mixed community with a large number of residents being Jewish. However in the post war years people wanted more than these neglected flats could offer and the community began to dissolve as they moved away to more modern homes. In the 1970s a very different movement to those seeking to preserve changed the fortunes of the declining Boundary Estate – squatting. This area of the east end was now home to many Bangladeshi families who were living in squalid and overcrowded conditions. Encourage to squat in empty properties belonging to the LLC’s successor, the now also defunct Greater London Council, the GLC ended up rehousing the families in the area. Of course now while the estate remains a council property (Tower Hamlets) many flats are now privately owned and overpriced.

This series was on the whole very good; with no ‘experts’ just commentary and interviews with former and current residents it gave a fairly rounded view of the social history of these streets. My only criticism would be that the role of poor and / or exploitative landlords, whether they be private or local authority, in the creation of slums was not given enough attention (though Peter Rachman was briefly mentioned) and it was implied that rent control (something desperately needed) was to blame for the fact that landlords let their properties decay as was the often asserted assumption that all council estates are poorly designed slums full of the ‘undeserving poor’.

Olympic Apathy

What can you do when you don't care about the Olympics & there's nothing else all over the TV? And if you say you're not bothered about the Olympics people think you're unpatriotic. it's all very tiresome. Can't wait for it all to be over. But then there'll be years of talk about the 'legacy'....bloody hell another 7 years no doubt!

Ignore the smug

What can you do but ignore the smug? Everyone, including me, feels smug from time to time, but some people it seems just have to continually express their smugness by criticising others and making out that they are superior. Best not to engage in any conversation with such smug gits, lest you lose it and end up having a pointless row.