London's Burning

The recent events in my home country, England, have been well documented all over the world, via television news, newspapers and social media.

I've watched from afar via CNN and other news sources, barely able to believe my eyes. It has literally been like looking into the dark times of the Iron Lady's rule in the recession hit 1980's. I barely remember Toxteth and Tottenham, I was only a small child at the time, although I've since learned a lot about what those riots were about. Rioting is not the solution to any problem, but back then there was at least the pretence of a political agenda.

What has been so shocking about these latest events is of course, the fact that the people involved, these gang land thugs and louts, are for the most part, kids. The violence has spread like a frenzied wildfire, with the youth of the UK gathering through the powers of social media to wreak havoc upon the streets of the UK.

And what is the political agenda? There is none. Although there seems to have been a flash point that lead to events. A criminal, waving a loaded gun at police officers, got shot and killed. Tough fucking shit! If that's what he was doing with his spare time then he got what he deserved. If that's not the case and this guy was innocently killed, then sure, that's a valid reason for public outcry and indeed justice should be served. Although, quite how setting your own neighbourhood on fire and ruining the lives of your fellow neighbours strikes a blow at the government or in any way retaliates to the police, is beyond me! I hate to agree with David Cameron, but this is indeed just mindless violence at the hands of sick pockets of society.

I have friends in Deptford, South London, who have their businesses, a coffee shop and a tattoo studio, right in the middle of Deptford High Street. They happened to witness first hand these little bastards looting and destroying everything in their sight. Thankfully my friends were spared, but many others around them weren't.

Another friend of mine, Andrew Blackburn, witnessed first hand how the violence spread around the country and into his home city of Wolverhampton.

He's documented the aftermath in his blog, which you can check out here.

What sickens me more the anything, is that if there has been any kind of excuse used at all, it is that of disaffected youth, that there is a serious shortage of employment in the UK, that youth clubds are being closed down. No fucking way! Ok, since the recession hit times have indeed been tougher than most of our generation are used to, I get that. But let's get some perspective here... There are thousands upon THOUSANDS of children dying of starvation in Somalia and other parts of east Africa each week in what is the worst humanitarian crisis we have seen since Ehtiopia. That's thousands of young children under the age of ten who are simply wasting away to nothing because they have no food. It's hard to even imagine that horror from the comfort of our arm chairs here in the western world, the world where we just happened to get lucky enough to be born into.

These kids in Africa will never see a youth club. Many will be lucky to see next month.

Think about that as your smashing in your local corner shop, you vile, vile people.

And to think my grandparents risked their lives on a daily basis for six horrific years, for the likes of you lot...