Diversity thy name is London
By Tariq Bhatti
If you walk down a street in London, you usually see people with different hair, skin and eye colours. They may have white, brown or black skin and blonde, brown, black, or red hair, with blue, black, brown or green eyes. Many of the people you come across are British people but they all look different because Britain has always been a mosaic of ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity.
With over seven million people, biggest in Western Europe, London is probably the only capital that is more famous than the country it belongs to. It is the only city that justifiably can swagger of being pioneer of so many contraptions of modern life –underground train system being the most remarkable of all. London's tube network covers the largest area of any underground rail system, with 391km of tracks, of which around 171 km is underground.
Gray and windy days, hazy mornings, incessant drizzling, long shadows on grassy grounds, warm beer, invincible green suburbs, dog lovers, ‘old maids bicycling through the morning mist' and tapestry of mispronunciations and misunderstanding of various dialects is all that comes to mind with the thought of London. Jessica, 23, a bar attendant at Queen’s Head near Turnpike Lane, from Ecuador she came to London five years now. Sharing her earlier encounter with this city, she failed to control her laughter recalling how ‘I had to laugh when I first went by tube and saw everyone sitting with stitched lips and eyes glued to newspapers.'
London has many reasons to be proud of its grandiose past. On academic plane the city prides in its oldest places of learning, producing men of exceptional intellect. On political front, it derives its complacency from the corridors of oldest parliament in the world. Its sense of historicity is magnified by the presence of oldest living monarch. Its archival affluence is manifested by over 250 museums and 1,500 libraries, including the British Library, which contains more than 150 million individual items. The inhabitants of this city enrich their lives with 76 plays, 33 musicals, 19 operas and 16 dance performances each day.
The creative and cultural industry is the second largest sector in London (after financial/business services) which generates £25-29 billion annually. It is the world's most popular city destination, attracting some 27 million overnight visitors every year. One in six of all London businesses are run by women. It has four of the 16 UNESCO world heritage sites: the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the Tower of London, Greenwich and Westminster Abbey. The list can go on.
London –for reasons understandable though– always had a mythical and exotic charm for me. Our history books, colonial legacy and sixty years of coups and counter coups made this enchantment more profound. No historic tale of individual and national accomplishment or failure is completed without frequent allusions to this city. In the context of Pakistan its presence is overwhelming. From Sir Syed Ahmad Khan to Quaid-e-Azam, all had London associated with the stories of their life.
Diversity is at the heart of every aspect of London's cultural life. Over 300 languages are spoken and more than 14 faiths celebrated in every day life of the city. Almost half of Britain's black and minority ethnic residents live here. More than a third of Londoners belong to an ethnic minority community and the capital is home to 42 communities of over 10,000 people born outside Britain.
Reverse the coin.
For all its prosperity three of the five most deprived boroughs in England are in London. One in five of all drug offences in England and Wales take place in London. There are an estimated 45,000 crack cocaine users in this city. On average, each user spends £800 a week (one lac Pak rupees.) on crack cocaine. Nearly 70% of children from the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in London are living in poverty. 26% of London households with dependent children are headed by a single parent, Moms in most cases.
The rate of homelessness in London is twice as high as the rest of England with over 50,000 homeless households making 52% of Britain's homeless population. Of all unemployed people in Britain 25% live in London. ‘The strange mix of glitter and gloom in our cities is because of silly prioritization of policy makers, who spend 1.5 million pounds in less than an hour on fire work just to celebrate New Year of the Lord’ told William, a British youth, unhappily.
Asylum seekers in temporary accommodation are among the most isolated people living in London. There are over 40,000 asylum seekers in temporary housing in the capital. Most of them live in the poorest housing in the most deprived areas.
Despite its massive opulence, imposing towers, imperial shopping malls, magnificent pillars of awe inspiring buildings, many Londoners are lonely and isolated and remind of a touching imagery of a famous song “Message in a Bottle” sung by The Police in 1979.
The song is ostensibly about a castaway on an island, who sends out a message in a bottle to seek help. A year later, he feels that there is no need for love; and no meanings in waiting for the bottle to be rescued. Later on, he sees "a hundred billion bottles" on the shore, finding out that there are more people out there in the similar predicament.
Like the character in the song, dwellers of most of the cosmopolitan cities seemingly seek their rescuers but get no reply. On the shore of life, each contemplating traveller confronts this realisation that he/she is a ‘message in a bottle’ sailing without an intended destination.
The island and the bottle are metaphors to portray loneliness of us all – loss of identity in the sea of multiple identities. The discovery that ‘I am not alone’, nevertheless makes the agony palatable and keep us sailing on the shores of times with sealed messages within.
“Just a castaway
An island lost at sea
Another lonely day
With no one here but me
More loneliness
Than any man could bear
Rescue me before I fall into despair
I'll send an SOS to the world
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle”
By Tariq Bhatti
If you walk down a street in London, you usually see people with different hair, skin and eye colours. They may have white, brown or black skin and blonde, brown, black, or red hair, with blue, black, brown or green eyes. Many of the people you come across are British people but they all look different because Britain has always been a mosaic of ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity.
With over seven million people, biggest in Western Europe, London is probably the only capital that is more famous than the country it belongs to. It is the only city that justifiably can swagger of being pioneer of so many contraptions of modern life –underground train system being the most remarkable of all. London's tube network covers the largest area of any underground rail system, with 391km of tracks, of which around 171 km is underground.
Gray and windy days, hazy mornings, incessant drizzling, long shadows on grassy grounds, warm beer, invincible green suburbs, dog lovers, ‘old maids bicycling through the morning mist' and tapestry of mispronunciations and misunderstanding of various dialects is all that comes to mind with the thought of London. Jessica, 23, a bar attendant at Queen’s Head near Turnpike Lane, from Ecuador she came to London five years now. Sharing her earlier encounter with this city, she failed to control her laughter recalling how ‘I had to laugh when I first went by tube and saw everyone sitting with stitched lips and eyes glued to newspapers.'
London has many reasons to be proud of its grandiose past. On academic plane the city prides in its oldest places of learning, producing men of exceptional intellect. On political front, it derives its complacency from the corridors of oldest parliament in the world. Its sense of historicity is magnified by the presence of oldest living monarch. Its archival affluence is manifested by over 250 museums and 1,500 libraries, including the British Library, which contains more than 150 million individual items. The inhabitants of this city enrich their lives with 76 plays, 33 musicals, 19 operas and 16 dance performances each day.
The creative and cultural industry is the second largest sector in London (after financial/business services) which generates £25-29 billion annually. It is the world's most popular city destination, attracting some 27 million overnight visitors every year. One in six of all London businesses are run by women. It has four of the 16 UNESCO world heritage sites: the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the Tower of London, Greenwich and Westminster Abbey. The list can go on.
London –for reasons understandable though– always had a mythical and exotic charm for me. Our history books, colonial legacy and sixty years of coups and counter coups made this enchantment more profound. No historic tale of individual and national accomplishment or failure is completed without frequent allusions to this city. In the context of Pakistan its presence is overwhelming. From Sir Syed Ahmad Khan to Quaid-e-Azam, all had London associated with the stories of their life.
Diversity is at the heart of every aspect of London's cultural life. Over 300 languages are spoken and more than 14 faiths celebrated in every day life of the city. Almost half of Britain's black and minority ethnic residents live here. More than a third of Londoners belong to an ethnic minority community and the capital is home to 42 communities of over 10,000 people born outside Britain.
Reverse the coin.
For all its prosperity three of the five most deprived boroughs in England are in London. One in five of all drug offences in England and Wales take place in London. There are an estimated 45,000 crack cocaine users in this city. On average, each user spends £800 a week (one lac Pak rupees.) on crack cocaine. Nearly 70% of children from the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in London are living in poverty. 26% of London households with dependent children are headed by a single parent, Moms in most cases.
The rate of homelessness in London is twice as high as the rest of England with over 50,000 homeless households making 52% of Britain's homeless population. Of all unemployed people in Britain 25% live in London. ‘The strange mix of glitter and gloom in our cities is because of silly prioritization of policy makers, who spend 1.5 million pounds in less than an hour on fire work just to celebrate New Year of the Lord’ told William, a British youth, unhappily.
Asylum seekers in temporary accommodation are among the most isolated people living in London. There are over 40,000 asylum seekers in temporary housing in the capital. Most of them live in the poorest housing in the most deprived areas.
Despite its massive opulence, imposing towers, imperial shopping malls, magnificent pillars of awe inspiring buildings, many Londoners are lonely and isolated and remind of a touching imagery of a famous song “Message in a Bottle” sung by The Police in 1979.
The song is ostensibly about a castaway on an island, who sends out a message in a bottle to seek help. A year later, he feels that there is no need for love; and no meanings in waiting for the bottle to be rescued. Later on, he sees "a hundred billion bottles" on the shore, finding out that there are more people out there in the similar predicament.
Like the character in the song, dwellers of most of the cosmopolitan cities seemingly seek their rescuers but get no reply. On the shore of life, each contemplating traveller confronts this realisation that he/she is a ‘message in a bottle’ sailing without an intended destination.
The island and the bottle are metaphors to portray loneliness of us all – loss of identity in the sea of multiple identities. The discovery that ‘I am not alone’, nevertheless makes the agony palatable and keep us sailing on the shores of times with sealed messages within.
“Just a castaway
An island lost at sea
Another lonely day
With no one here but me
More loneliness
Than any man could bear
Rescue me before I fall into despair
I'll send an SOS to the world
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle”
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