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My babies are asleep tonight, earlier than usual, sleeping after a day in sunny gardens, sniffing flowers and rolling on the grass. Outside their window two little girls play on the old tree stump, across the lawn a father sits in his front garden, a toddler's abandoned bike at his side, whilst his wife chats to the neighbour.
It could have been so different. Until last night I have spent many hours lamenting that we moved out of central London before having children. Worrying that they will grow up in an artificial world where they are surrounded by mirrors, where there is little to question and to consider. London; home of assortment, art, action and aspiration. Today I am grateful for the fact that my little boys have not had to sleep in fear, have not had to wake up to destruction and have not had a mummy who is stressed from trying to keep the devastation from their eyes and minds. There is a lot to love about London, it is a truly unique city that I have been lucky to experience so much. Having lived in Kilburn, Leytonstone, Finsbury Park and Southwark and having taught in Secondary schools in Hackney, Wembley and Deptford, I have had so many uplifting and heart-warming experiences of this, our wonderful city. It has comforted me, held me in its warm bright lights, encouraged me, inspired me.
So why were such large swathes of our beautiful, magnificent , strong city reduced to flaming devastation?
Tomorrow, when parliament re-opens, politicians will banter, a game of blame tennis will take place across the partition line of the House. Hours will pass and what will become of it? The police will regain control, perhaps beleaguered, but still in control. The debris will be swept up (and probably not by a mayor bearing a broom in a photo opportunity as opportunistic as the riots themselves). The casualties will become numbers on insurance claim forms. The kids will go back to school in their stolen trainers, the ones who were there will recant their roles, play up theri parts, will claim they were the ones who brought down Carpet Right or Footlocker. Those not involved will keep silent, or talk quietly amongst themselves, keeping their basic mobile phones in their bags. The teachers will hold meetings, discuss how to address the summer's activity, until they are reminded that there is no time in the curriculum to sit down and talk with the kids, that exam league tables are not conquered through exercises in civil rights and civic responsibilities.
In time (a month or so) the stolen mobiles will be outdated, devalued and discarded. The trainers will lose their box-fresh gleam. The television will begin to show Christmas adverts, happy, smiling families around stacks of presents, their consumer needs, nay their consumer rights, fulfilled. They will tell us that the TV sets we currently stare at are inferior replicants of the giant 3D screens that the family in the Argos ad congregate around. Internet sites and magazines will feature the Beckhams shopping for the essential Ralph Lauren outfits their children will wear for a couple of hours on Christmas day.
And our children, London's children, will look around and see what we have placed value on. This "stuff," this shiny, bright, bleepy, fast-connecting, never-sleeping collection of products are what we have taught them to hold dear. We have inspired them to aspire to ownership of material possessions. We have trained to want more, faster, better., getting their fix of satisfaction, contentment worshipping at the altars of Apple. Sony, Nike, Adidas. But we haven't taught them means to acquire what they desire. Instead we have taught them that instant gratification is not only possible but easily accessed.
We live now in a frighteningly fast, disconnected society. Everything is instantaneous; entertainment, communication, shopping, itunes, YouTube. It is also all remote, the human touch is lost to this generation. Of course the rioters didn't think of the emotional consequences of their looting sprees, there is no emotion in buttons and screens. They used what we have taught them to value in order to fulfil the aspirations we have implanted in them. We ask why this has happened? Because we have instilled values in our children that are consumerist, not humanist.
We ask why this happened now? It is not difficult to see how the vigil being held for Mark Duggan may have escalated to protest to riot to looting. What happened next is really a simply and hardly shocking connection. The kids from Tottenham shared their booty pics via mobile networks, TV news programmes showed rolling pictures of emptied shelves, children hauling TVs bigger than themselves. The lights were lit: We can get anything we want. For free. They have, why can't we? We can. We can!
And so they did. And when they did others saw, not lawlessness, not endangered lives, but laptops, mobile phones, ipods, trainers, watches - all for free, as in a dream.
There has been talk that this was political protest, a reaction to cuts. It was not this. We have instilled greed in our children.
Others say that it is race related. It is not this. We have taught our children to lose their uniqueness and want, like robots, what they are told to want. To be who the corporations want them to be.
Some say it is a reaction to the, as yet, uninvestigated shooting. It is not this. We have failed to teach our children to engage politically.
Many more will blame parents, politicians, teachers, the justice system. It is not them, It is all of us. We have taught our children to communicate remotely, devoid of patience, respect, touch.
Some will say the kids are bored. It is not this. It is the opposite, we have overwhelmed our children with a technological society that is moving too fast. Tension, frustration, anger, these base emotions, boil not for a cause, but when they can't instantly access Facebook, when a text remains unanswered, when their video won't immediately download.
I do hope those who comment on what they think the problem is have had the wonderful opportunity to actually speak to London's kids before they make sweeping statements. I'm not making excuses, the riots are horrendous, vile acts but it is not about immigration or teaching, there is so much more to it than that, the cultural undertone of London's teenagers which we adults have failed to address is what lies beneath. The riots are not political they are opportunistic, they are about kids who see have seen others getting free shit and they want some. We shower our kids with images of millionaire footballers, £3000 teles, £500 mobile phones, £200 trainers, what the fuck do we think they will learn to value - property, livelihoods or flashy electronic gadgets.
We, as adults, as parents, as members of society, must now remind our children what it is to be here, amongst others. To enjoy the passing of time, the comfort of friends. To look at life full on in the face, not through a screen. Re-educate ourselves to enjoy simple pleasures, not burden ourselves in the quest for another gadget, another pair of shoes, the latest interactive video game. Talk to our children, redress their values, teach them what really matters.
We can move on, but unless changes are made, we'll be looking back in another decade's time and asking why, all over again.
