The beggars, vagabonds and vagrants on Brick Lane are Clowns. They rove up and down the bustling, bursting nexus of ‘Edge’ and ‘Cool.’ Leaping in front of passers-by, the beggars interrupt poser and tourist alike, snapping them out of their meticulously-constructed reverie, demanding if not money then acknowledgment.
The tourists and visitors to this strange and wonderful place weather the vagrants with ironic grins plastered firmly on their preened personas, trigger-fingers poised over camera shutters, a witty anecdote about Kurosawa or Kierkegaard instantly available.
But the dirty secret of Brick Lane is that every Bethnal Green resident and West-London tourist alike knows that the beggars, vagabonds and vagrants belong to the Lane much more than we do.
They are jesters, dancers and storytellers, weaving narratives of suffering and thirst … performing their assumed absurdity for us. They perform for us and we pay them, as much to stay as to go away.
Filed under: Placeless, Spaceless | Tags: Bolivia, Evo Morales, The Economist, The Nation
The Nation & The Economist are the original nemeses. Both existing for almost as long as each other, with The Nation sporting the slogan ‘Unconventional Wisdom Since 1865′ … they consistently do ideological battle on the larger issues of our time.
The Nation could be said to fight in the corner of liberalism, progressives, and controlled markets, while The Economist fights strongly for the Laissez-faire economics that has come to dominate late capitalism.
Interesting to note how differently they report the same issue.
Here is their respective coverages of the recent referendum victory by Bolivia’s president Evo Morales:
Interesting, no?
Virgin1 was showing Fargo tonight … in 4:3.
There is no greater crime. That’s like taking the mona lisa and cropping it to a passport photo … da Vinci would not be pleased.
My love of Place is entangled,
entwined; wrapped up
in my self concept.
I cannot stay in London,
I must leave the Place,
the pace, the race.
It will own me; change
and pervert me.
I’ll come back when I am stronger.
–
It is hard to leave a Place you love.
For in loving a Place, you grow.
Self and Place; entwined.
If I tear myself free, what
will I leave behind?
But I am ready to leap, hoping
one day to return; changed
by those other places, loved;
those other selves, discarded.
“I exist, despite you.”
Will I return? One day.
Michael Clay
–
INSPIRATION:
“I dreamed so much of walking in the future here
sometimes I seemed to have remembered it.”
- French Poet Louis Aragon.
