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The walls came tumbling down
Friday, February 3rd, 2012 02:44 pmOn Tuesday this week, I saw via the Twitter from the Ilford Recorder1feed that the Christian Centre in Clement's Road, about 2/3 mile from the Gin Palace had collapsed.
Happily there were no fatalities and only a few relatively minor injuries. I expect someone will get Hell to pay (you should forgive the pun) as the building - or rather the steel frame of the building - was only topped off last month and they had barely started filling in the areas between the frame.
I mention this for two reasons. Firstly, the council wisely cordoned off the surrounding streets to keep sightseers away while the tidy up and investigation takes place. This necessitated diversions on many local bus routes, including the three that drive past the Gin Palace. That is as you would expect, but the fact that the diversion route seems to change on a daily basis isn't and this means that I have seen bits of Ilford I never knew existed in the past couple of days.
How exciting.
My second reason for mentioning it is to report a conversation I overheard on the bus yesterday, coming back from Stratford. It illustrates two sides of the racist coin: a sense of resigned victimisation on one side and the casual and unthinking use of the same on the other.
Once the bus started on its diversion, the one youth asked why the bus was diverting, and he was duly told it was because of the collapse of the Christian Centre. He thought about if for a while and then offered the opinion that the blame would doubtless be pinned on the Moslem community, because, effectively, everything that ever goes wrong is blamed on them and terrorists.
I was initially pleased to hear his friend say something along the lines that he expected the cold weather had more to do with it, but then he went on to suggest that it was probably some feckless Polish worker not doing his job properly.
So there you go. Within seconds the the turnabout from perceived victim to dispenser of casual racism in the community, showing that every grouping has the capacity to encompass both sides of the issue.
It is to weep.
1The small, but perfectly formed local organ of news, truth, justice and mainly, advertising.
Happily there were no fatalities and only a few relatively minor injuries. I expect someone will get Hell to pay (you should forgive the pun) as the building - or rather the steel frame of the building - was only topped off last month and they had barely started filling in the areas between the frame.
I mention this for two reasons. Firstly, the council wisely cordoned off the surrounding streets to keep sightseers away while the tidy up and investigation takes place. This necessitated diversions on many local bus routes, including the three that drive past the Gin Palace. That is as you would expect, but the fact that the diversion route seems to change on a daily basis isn't and this means that I have seen bits of Ilford I never knew existed in the past couple of days.
How exciting.
My second reason for mentioning it is to report a conversation I overheard on the bus yesterday, coming back from Stratford. It illustrates two sides of the racist coin: a sense of resigned victimisation on one side and the casual and unthinking use of the same on the other.
Once the bus started on its diversion, the one youth asked why the bus was diverting, and he was duly told it was because of the collapse of the Christian Centre. He thought about if for a while and then offered the opinion that the blame would doubtless be pinned on the Moslem community, because, effectively, everything that ever goes wrong is blamed on them and terrorists.
I was initially pleased to hear his friend say something along the lines that he expected the cold weather had more to do with it, but then he went on to suggest that it was probably some feckless Polish worker not doing his job properly.
So there you go. Within seconds the the turnabout from perceived victim to dispenser of casual racism in the community, showing that every grouping has the capacity to encompass both sides of the issue.
It is to weep.
1The small, but perfectly formed local organ of news, truth, justice and mainly, advertising.