I have always harbored mixed feelings towards United Kingdom (UK), a country that once subjugated
mine and with whom we as a country share a bloody history. At the same time, I
also admire greatly its literature, language and arts. I therefore took up the
journey to the UK with the same mixed feelings and to see for myself what this
erstwhile mighty Empire, where the sun never used to set, is truly like. And
after a three week trip to some parts of the country, I must say that I am
genuinely struck by its beauty, cleanliness, its love for art, literature and
history. I did not find it wanting in any of these and I am sure no one will.
However I have also come back with some rather disturbing facts and this blog
post is about these troubling issues, as UK’s beauty and magnificence requires
no further praise.
Oxford, my
first destination. A
friend had described Oxford as the paradise for academics and I indeed found it
so, with wonderful libraries and museums with free entry. However when I stayed
there for over a week, I began to discover the other side of Oxford too. The
first revelation came from the tourist guides. Some of the guides were not
associated with the Oxford University but possibly with the Oxford town or the
nearby country side. These guides were eager to share the historical disputes
at Oxford, popularly called Town verses Gown.
The phrase Town vs. Gown was coined due to the historical animosity
between the privileged university students who often wear long ceremonious
gowns and the rather not so privileged locals (town people). In the past, some
of these disputes took the form of riots with bloody deaths on both sides. One
of the worst riots in the 13th century is remembered as the St.
Scholastica’s Day riot. In fact, these riots are remembered also because the
scholars who fled Oxford are said to have later established the University at Cambridge.
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| Church and Collage buildings at Oxford. Photos: Nandini Oza |
Today, while
the dispute between the academics and the locals are not bloody as in the past,
the disparity and difference between the Town and the Gown continues and is
visible. One occasionally comes across some subtle resentment against the plush-with-wealth
academic institutions of Oxford University and its students who are understood
as being the progeny of very wealthy parents or/and are on elite scholarships
or who can afford exorbitant loans. One hears statements like: “This department
or college has so much wealth that no one even knows how to count it anymore.”
Or “This College where so and so Prime Minister studied has so much land that
it touches the outskirts of Cambridge.” Or “The cost of living in such a small
town as Oxford has gone up as high as the city of London because of the rich
University and its rich students.” Or “Such and such school has been built by
such and such arms dealer with his such and such tainted money, but then what
money that is flowing here does not have a controversial source/past?” Or “The town’s
people ultimately fell in line because the money was with those wearing the
gown.”
Amidst the grandeur
of Oxford University and its many awesome buildings, a rather plain looking
drab building, situated at the end of the street where I lived, drew my
attention each time I walked past it. It drew my attention because it was an
odd one out, with high walls and prominent CCTV cameras at its gate. Although
the building did not look like a prison exactly, it certainly seemed a place
with high security. One day as I was
walking past, I found two harried looking unkempt men standing outside its
strong and locked gates. I stopped to ask them what building was it. Instead of
answering my question, they in turn asked me if I was in trouble and needed any
help. I said I was fine and it was just that I was curious about the building’s
high walls and tight security in an otherwise safe town as Oxford. The two men told
me that it was a centre for the homeless. This intrigued me even more. Why should
such a small town like Oxford with so much affluence and influence, a town that
has shaped such powerful leaders like Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, David
Cameron, Bill Clinton, Tony Abbott, HM King Abdullah of Jordan, Crown Prince
Naruhito of Japan, Benazir Bhutto, Indira Gandhi, etc. have homeless people at
all? And why should the building be so secured? Some of my friends will say - it
is not in spite of, but because of such leaders who have been shaped here that
there are people who are homeless and across the World. And I guess it is a point
worth reflecting.
Though I was
on a holiday, I could not help visiting the centre for the homeless at Oxford the
next day. The visit was an eye opener as one of the administrators told me that
though the official count of the Oxford town is 26 homeless people; the figure
is deceptive because there are many more that are homeless. The reason he gave for
the discrepancy was equally disturbing. He said that the administration of the
town is not happy that the homeless are seen at all in this town [of such
repute] and so they are harassed and driven far away from the main town by the administration
and police. Therefore there are many more homeless in Oxford but they are not
visible.
I also got
the following information from the centre:
2. As the homeless walk and live outside in bitterly cold nights, there is a high incidence of injury to the feet needing immediate medical attention.
3. Some of the first few services the centre provides are counseling, a washroom, warm clothes and food.
4. There is a high incidence of mental illness among the people who approach the centre in particular and in fact in the society in general.
5. The
centre receives only part of its funding from the council and the rest is
raised through charity.
7. The doors of the centre close in the evening and the homeless have to leave the centre for the night.
It is the
last point that I found at odds with the situation in India. The shelter homes for
the homeless (where they exist) in India are for the nights too and it is okay
if the homeless fend for themselves during the day and remain visible.
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A community
centre at Oxford for people to just come and feel happy and without spending
money.
|
A couple of
days later, while I was reading a news paper at a restaurant in Oxford, one
particular news item caught my attention. The headlines in the Oxford Mail
said, “Freshly cooked food off the menu as community hospital kitchens close.”[1] On
following up the matter further, I found that earlier kitchens provided freshly
cooked food to the patients admitted in the hospitals. However as a cost cutting
measure these kitchens were closed down. With this move, not only were the
patients going to be deprived of fresh food but this was to lead to loss of
jobs in an already tight/saturated job market. Moreover this was going to have
ripple effect. The local community that was supplying locally produced fresh
material to these kitchens too would be adversely affected in favour of packaged
food industry. [2]
While this news concerned the community hospitals in Oxfordshire, there was
news about the National Health Service (NHS) of UK itself facing many problems!
NHS is a State owned health care system that still continues to function on the
principle of universal health care. Some other essential services have been
privatised including the famous British railway, which I found terribly costly as
compared to other modes of transport within UK itself.
While the
problem of the homeless and community hospitals at a place like Oxford bothered
me, I was really jolted out of the peace and tranquility that prevailed at
Oxford when I randomly picked up a local newspaper at one of the super markets
one day. I was shocked to read about the death of two young men from the British
Air Force base at Oxfordshire killed in what was reported as a Helicopter Crash
in Afghanistan.[3]This
news came soon after the news of US air strikes having killed the staff of the hospital
run by Doctors without Borders in Afghanistan. Although things at Oxford went
about as usual and there was no sign of any apparent turmoil even with the news
of the death of the two young men of Oxfordshire, it was difficult to keep
under wraps that UK is very much at war in the Middle East and that Oxfordshire
had paid a price too. Even the corporate media empire (BTW, Rupert Murdoch too
studied at Oxford) has not been able to gloss over the war and its peril as
coffins come home and so do the civilian asylum seekers, persecuted in what is cleverly
termed ‘collateral damage’ in the war. That UK is feeling the brunt of the war was
clear as even Tony Blair issued a “qualified apology” for the Iraq war.[4]
While I
thought of all this during my stay at Oxford, I wondered how much of these
social and political issues both local as well as global concern the University
of Oxford, a university that takes pride in being ranked as one of the top
universities in the World.
London,
my next destination: I have a special connect with London. My parents lived and studied in
London in the early fifties and I grew up with stories and photographs of London
of that time. Out of the many photographs taken sixty years ago, one particular
photograph of my mother with hundreds of pigeons at Trafalgar Square was the
one I was very fond of as a child. Therefore when I visited Trafalgar Square I
wondered where all the pigeons had gone as there were none. We concluded that the
pre Diwali celebrations organised for the Indian diaspora at the square that day
must have driven them away. For me, a
visit to Trafalgar Square minus the pigeons was an incomplete frame and so I
made one more trip the next day and yet the pigeons were absent! Looking up the
web, I learnt that a deliberate effort had been undertaken to eliminate the
pigeons from Trafalgar Square at a great financial cost to the city of London.[5]
While I do not wish to go into the merits or the demerits of eliminating
pigeons here, Trafalgar Square is not the same without the pigeons at least as
far as I am concerned.
I must also
say that the National Gallery at London and the London sky line from the banks
of river Thames overwhelmed me, though the London Eye I thought was a bit of an
eyesore. I was overjoyed to see the beautiful paintings of my favorite artists
at the very well maintained National Gallery.
However the joy of seeing the authentic sketch of one of my favorite authors,
Jane Austen, and the many original masterpieces of great artists like Vincent Van Gogh was somewhat dampened by the
din and crowds of London. And among the many sights in London, three frames in
particular will remain etched in my memory forever. One frame is that of the
Trafalgar Square minus its pigeons and the other two are as follows:
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| Some of the regiments at Buckingham palace during change of guard ceremony. Photos: Nandini Oza. |
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| One of the many street artists at Trafalgar Square, struggling to make ends meet. The image taking shape here was that of an Injured and wronged Christ. Photo: Nandini Oza. |
And I must
also mention that along with the above frames, the sound of deafening sirens of
ambulances rushing about in London that made me jump in fright a couple of
times will also remain in my memory. When I casually mentioned to a friend
about the sirens that could turn someone deaf, he said many of these ambulances
must be rushing people with alcohol poisoning particularly on Saturday nights. This
term of alcohol poisoning is not very commonly used in India and it had not
really registered in my mind in spite of having read about the high profile
case of Amy Winehouse. But binge drinking seems to be a problem among people of
all age groups in UK.[6]
Scotland,
my third destination: Scotland
was breathtakingly beautiful. I particularly enjoyed the small town of Peebles
and the capital city of Edinburgh for more reasons than one. No words or
pictures can do justice to the landscape or the crystal clear streams and lakes
of Scotland. I would recommend all those who visit UK, to not miss Scotland. I
myself hope to visit it again and take some of its walking tours.
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| Edinburgh. Photo: Nandini Oza. |
During the
trip, I also came across some signs of the recent referendum conducted to know
if the people of Scotland wanted to break away from UK and be independent.
Naturally this reminded me that even Scotland shared a bloody history with
English people in the past and that sentiments to break away still run high for
several reasons. However what I wish to share here is about the Highlands of
Scotland where we made a day trip.
While I found
the Scottish Highlands stunning and spectacular, a friend living in Scotland described
them as an ecological disaster! The Highlands were once well forested with
diverse flora and fauna. The Industrial Revolution and then the World Wars turned
large tracks of this mountainous land barren, and much of the dense tree growth
that is seen today is mostly industrial plantations, our friend explained.
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| The stunning Highlands. Photo: Nandini Oza |
On reading
about it further, I found that several factors have been put forth for the
highlands having lost substantially its native tree and forest cover. Some of
these factors are the growth of agriculture, sheep rearing, wars, industrial
revolution, rise in deer population for sporting, climate change, natural
phenomenon, etc.[7]
What is more disturbing is that fast growing trees for industrial use have replaced
the native species on a large scale. Sights similar to the photograph below do
mar somewhat the beauty of the Highlands. Lately, many trusts and organisations
have been making efforts to replant native species and regenerate the natural
ecology of the Highlands. However it seemed to me like a drop in the ocean as
Industrial logging as well as consumerism seems to be on a rise. We ourselves
generated more garbage during our stay in UK in a week as compared to what we
generate in over a month in India. And this, after we cooked at least one meal
during the day and mostly did not eat take away/packed/ready to eat foods. And
yet, while we see garbage anywhere and everywhere in India, UK has cleverly
managed to keep its mind-boggling waste/garbage out of sight too. While some is
recycled and some goes into landfills within UK, some even leaves UK for
distant and “poorer” shores.[8]
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| Industrial logging. Photo Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deforestation_-_geograph.org.uk_-_165560.jpg |
While the
above issues are mostly region specific, there were some issues that are
general which I wish to share here. One morning, at Oxford, while I was sitting
at a restaurant, a young woman approached my table and asked me if she could do
some belly dancing for me. I did not know what to say and did not want to
insult her either. So she did some dancing for me, sat at my table and abused
the Government for having messed up the lives of the common people, declaring
people of unsound mind, over prescribing medicines, and so on. She also said
she dropped out and could not complete her PhD because she could not afford it.
She abused the State on several other issues for half an hour without taking a
pause and then suddenly left. After she left, the restaurant manager came to me
to apologize for the young lady’s behavior. However I felt that though the
woman clearly was in some sort of distress or under the influence of some substance;
she was talking a lot of sense. On one another occasion, at a bus stop in London
one morning, I found a group of four young people not only drunk out of their
minds but also egging me. I ignored them of course but it did make me feel ill
at ease. I was also stopped several times, both in Oxford and in London, by
young people, sometimes dressed well, asking me to give them a pound.
While I
ignored these incidents as being unimportant, it was only when a friend and her
young daughter told me the following that I grasped the seriousness of the challenges
that the youth in UK face today:
Some of these
concerns were shared by other young friends we met in UK too. Some other problems that were shared with us
were lack of good jobs, rise in cost of living, broken homes, etc. It was while
I was traveling in the London tube, I overheard a conversation between a set
of two parents (P-1 and P-2) which I think sums up the life of youth in UK
today:
P-1: We are
going on a holiday with our daughter to Austria.
P-2: Oh! That
is very nice. We are returning home after taking admission for our daughter at
the University here.
P-1: Is not
the youth of today lucky?
P-2: Yes, but
only if they have both the parents...
P-1: Agree,
but only if the parents are rich...Ha! Ha!
After a three
week thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing trip to UK, a trip to a country worth
visiting at least once if not more, when I returned to India, I was once again
hit very hard by the many problems my country faces. But then, India’s problems
are there for all to see, document, film and report. Where as in UK it is only
when one scratches the surface that some of the skeletons tumble out. Otherwise
everything in UK looks beautiful,pristine, orderly and peaceful. I therefore
conclude that while the sun is still shining brightly over Great Britain, it has
certainly set over many of its people. And I cannot help wondering - has the sun
set over far more people in UK than what is seen on the outside and therefore
the rise of the labor leader Jeremy Corbyn?
Nandini Oza
October
2015-11-07
[1]http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/13844632.Freshly_cooked_food_off_the_menu_as_community_hospital_kitchens_close/
[4]http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/25/tony-blair-sorry-iraq-war-mistakes-admits-conflict-role-in-rise-of-isis
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