Thursday 11 August 2011

Riot Clean Up


I didn't want to post about the UK Riots. Even though I live on the outskirts of London, and I walk through Brixton to get to work. I don't understand the mindless destruction so I didn't feel I had anything to say. I don't know why those people did what they did. I do know that they weren't just kids that were bored and had nothing to do, and they weren't all victims of their upbringing. For the most part they made the choice to do what they did, they weren't all poor people that needed to steal in order to feed themselves or a family.

Anyway, I don't want to talk about that. I want to post about the wonderfully amazing people that didn't riot, and the community spirit that followed the destruction. It makes me sad that I couldn't join in with fantastic cleanup effort (I think my 2-year old would probably have created more mess than we'd have managed to tidy!). I was lucky in my area that the damage was limited to a few selected shops, but I used to work at a shop in Clapham Junction and I have friends there and in Ealing who cannot believe the damage that has been done. There is wonderful work ongoing to help rebuild the shops and homes that were destroyed by the actions of the individuals who felt they had the right to smash and burn. Additionally there are community events being organised in the affected areas. I'd love to see the news focusing on looking at how great the communities are in coming together to help each other rather than argueing over excusing and shunting blame as to why the riots happened in the first place.

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If you are interested, check this out http://www.riotcleanup.co.uk/

If you are on twitter and want to help out try following @riotcleanup @riot_rebuild @artistsmakers @katenash @RebuildReeves or search the #riotcleanup

Please comment if you have any other links and I'll add them in. :)

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