Saturday 28 March 2009

Princes Amongst Men: The Gypsy FILM Festival 2009


24/04/2009 20:00 at RITZY-PRINCES AMONGST MEN: THE GYPSY FILM FESTIVAL 2009
Coldhabour Lane, London, London and South East SW2 1JG
Cost: See Listings

Greetings and welcome to the 3rd Princes Amongst Men: Gypsy Film Festival! This festival was conceived by Garth Cartwright after his book, Princes Amongst Men: Journeys With Gypsy Musicians (Serpents Tail) was published in 2005 and readers began enquiring as to how they could get to see the various feature films and documentaries he described. Being a South Londoner Garth approached Picturehouse and the Gypsy Film Festival got underway in 2006. Since then lost classic feature films, brand new feature films and many documentaries have been screened. Directors, cinephiles and Roma rights activists have taken the stage to talk about certain films and the Ritzy’s upstairs bar has been transformed into a Gypsy-flavoured party across the weekend. The Ritzy, Brixton April 26-28 FRIDAY: Latcho Drom. The Princes Amongst Men DJs (Garth & Leon) will be on the decks and all are welcome. SATURDAY: Gypsy Music Spectacular – a variety of live performances, festival footage and videos from the ‘60s to ‘00s. SATURDAY: Roma doc’s: Pretty Dyana: A Gypsy Recycling Saga (Serbia 45 mins) and Cymbalom Legacy (Holland-Hungary 45 mins) Ritzy’s upstairs bar hosts French singer-guitarist Florence Joelle, accompanied by accordionist-keyboard Lucie Rejchrtova, performing a blend of jazz, blues and Romany songs (Princes Amongst Men DJ support). SUNDAY: Roma Human Rights Event: doc’s on the plight of Roma communities in Turkey, Kosovo, Serbia, Bulgaria and the UK. SUNDAY: I Even Met Happy Gypsies + Children Of The Brass Band Village. Ritzy’s Upstairs bar for live music from klezmer band The Matzoh Boys and DJ sets from Princes Amongst Men.

AND


Princes Amongst Men

01/05/2009 13:00 atGREENWICH PICTURE HOUSE -PRINCES AMONGST MEN: THE GYPSY FILM FESTIVAL 2009
180 Greenwich High Road, London, London and South East SE10 8NN
Cost: See Listings

GREENWICH PICTURE HOUSE on May 1st (Friday), 2nd (Sat), 3rd (Sun) FRIDAY: Latcho Drom SATURDAY: Pretty Dyana: A Gypsy Recycling Saga and Cymbalom Legacy. SUNDAY: Roma Human Rights Event.

Gujarat 'riot minister' resigns

BBC

A minister in India's Gujarat state, Mayaben Kodnani, accused over the anti-Muslim riots of 2002, has surrendered to police and resigned her posts.

Ms Kodnani is alleged to have led a mob of rioters in Ahmedabad's Naroda Patiya area. She denies the charge.
Nearly 60 Muslims were killed in this Muslim-dominated area with more than half of the 1,300 houses destroyed.
After evading arrest for two years, Ms Kodnani had asked the Gujarat high court for bail but was refused.
Following the rejection, Ms Kodnani on Friday resigned from her posts as junior minister for higher education and minister for women and child welfare
Witnesses
Dismissing the bail application, the high court said that "religious fanatics don't belong to any religion and they are no better than terrorists".
A special investigating team, appointed by India's Supreme Court to investigate several riot cases in Gujarat, says more than a dozen witnesses saw an armed Ms Kodnani leading the rioters.
Ms Kodnani, a member of the state's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has denied the involvement.
Analysts say the news will be an embarrassment for the BJP with parliamentary elections due to begin in just over two weeks.
Gujarat's Chief Minister Narendra Modi was accused of failing to halt the religious violence.
In fact, his opponents say he indirectly egged on Hindu mobs who are believed to have led most of the attacks.
But his supporters say he could have done little under the circumstances to prevent the violence.

Kodnani, Patel surrender before Special Investigation Team

State minister for higher education Maya Kodnani on Friday surrendered before the Special Investigation Team, constituted by the Supreme Court, which is probing the Godhra riots cases afresh.
Earlier today, she resigned from the Narendra Modi government after Gujarat High Court cancelled her anticipatory bail for her alleged role in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case.
Holding that religious fanatics are no better than terrorists, Gujarat High Court cancelled the anticipatory bail of state minister Maya Kodnani, accused in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case.
The High Court also cancelled the anticipatory bail of Jaideep Patel and rejected the plea of both the accused seeking time for further appeal.
"Communal harmony is the hallmark of democracy and religious fanatics are no better than the terrorists," Justice DH Vaghela said.
The court held that presence of Kodnani and VHP leader Patel at the scene of offence is prima facie established from the evidence produced by the Special Investigating Team (SIT).

Minister arrested over India religious riots case

Fri Mar 27, 2009 6:48pm IST
AHMEDABAD, India, March 27 (Reuters) - Indian police arrested the child welfare minister for the western state of Gujarat on Friday for leading a mob that attacked Muslims during one of the country's worst religious riots seven years ago, officials said.
The arrest of Mayaben Kodnani is an embarrassment for the state's ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the country's April/May parliamentary election.
Some victims and witnesses alleged that Kodnani led a Hindu mob that killed more than 100 people on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city in 2002, police said in the charge sheet against her.
"The charges against Mayaben Kodnani includes abetment to murder, conspiracy to kill people and use of firearms," Mitesh Amin, Kodnani's lawyer, told reporters after her arrest.
Kodnani has said she was innocent and being framed.
Human rights groups say about 2,500 people, mostly Muslims, were hacked, beaten or burned to death in Gujarat after a suspected Muslim mob burnt alive 59 Hindu activists and pilgrims inside a train in February 2002.
India's Supreme Court has criticised the Gujarat government for failing to protect Muslims and compared its chief minister Narendra Modi to the Roman emperor Nero, said to have played the lyre while Rome burned.
Kodnani, who resigned as child welfare minister an hour before her arrest, was taken into custody after her bail plea was rejected in court.
Another accused, Jaidip Patil, leader of the hardline Hindu group Vishwa Hindu Parishad, was also arrested over the same case.
"They are in our custody and we will present them in court tomorrow," Pravin Mall, an investigating officer, said in Ahmedabad.
Patil, standing beside Kodnani, also protested his innocence.
"We are both innocent, we have been falsely charged in the case and we will prove it," he said.
Officials say 4,252 riot-related cases were registered in Gujarat, but police in the state dropped more than 2,000 for lack of evidence.

Tuesday 24 March 2009

British museum, some details



Hello


Ninive



small man walking :)

Two sides of one cup



Bye,bye

Wednesday 18 March 2009

News from the Island

Hi there,
the sun is out in this city and the flowers show all the colours of spring. Yesterday was the first day we could spend just for us both, so we decided on a walk. Starting with the New River path which is part of the Capital Ring Walk, we walked towards the south east, and passed two water reservoirs on which there is a sailing school and a "lakeside café".


A heron just stood next to the river and did not move an inch. Our first break was at a café inside Clissold park, surrounded by mothers with kids and teenagers just out of school in their uniforms, fighting each other either about girls or girls about boys or just because there is a drinking fountain which can be used.
On one of the benches a meeting of pairs took place: two old white men in wheelchairs, two ultra orthodox jewish men in their tweens and two black men in their thirties. All of them on or around one bench talking and eating, what was the connection between them? Who was the nursing whom? A writing circle, discribing Stokey's park landscape? A club of magicians, practising outdoor magic? A three-generation gay annual meeting...?
We walked on and found an old cemetery, Abney Park, completely overgrown with plants and bushes, broken tombstones scattered around, a lot with inscriptions of children who died below the age of 1 year about 150 years ago. The central chapel empty and out of use, some grave cover stones half open as if someone had escaped... at nighttime there would be quite a diffrent story to be told walking in here.


Walking down Cazenove street: more Haredim on cycles, running down to the next shtiebel, fetching the children from the jewish primary school, coming back with shopping bags, stopping to have a chat with a neighbour, a Bengali muslim man, who is sitting in his red Toyota car. An old age home, jewish, another, municipal school next to it, opposite a Koran school, a punk in a blond mohawk crossing the street, a blue Ford with open windows and full volume Rap music passing by, inside a black youngster with sunglasses... what a street. At the next crossing the picture changes, council housing, people on the street waiting for the bus, young women standing at a corner, smoking and chatting, an old lady sitting on a wall with her walking stick, sunglasses and a small transistor radio next to her, listining to the raggae music channel...


We catch the bus at Clapton towards Whitechapel, crossing Hackney central, Cambridge Heath and Bethnal Green, Bethnal Green Road full of people, clothes stalls in the street, shop owners in front of their shops, enjoying the sun, chatting, all over people talking with each other... a barber in the sun with his eyes closed talking to a customer (?), who obviously doesn't need a hair cut, he is bald, schoolchildren running down the street, nearly knocking over a man with "the lite" newspaper, turning into a alleyway leading to a green patch and football pitch. Approaching Liverpool street station, the crowd increases in density, we take Liverpool street down to Finsbury circle, a green park enclosure with white collar people sitting in the sun having their lunch, an NHS ambulance worker with full gear next to his ambulance cycle, resting before his next call. At Moorgate, we find our way to the entrance of the pedestrian highway towards the Barbican.
Concrete buildings with plants and water, a mixture between a 70s urban dream construction and a modernist nightmare, the sunny weather smiled upon it today. Our second break, next to the water, feeling a bit tired, resting inside the center, writing some postcards, then going back on the 141 bus, home. A wonderful day!

Monday 16 March 2009

Good news from South Africa - End of the Dr. Rath Affair?

After a long lasting struggle against a very harmful person, it looks like Mr. Rath is finally out of his bloody buisness in South Africa, after being banned in European countries years back.

TAC is pleased to report two positive developments that all but bring the Matthias Rath saga to a conclusion:
  • State Takes Action Against Matthias Rath
  • Rath appeal against Cape High Court judgment lapses

State takes action against Rath

On 13 June 2008, the Cape High Court ordered the Minister of Health (then Manto Tshabalala-Msimang) to take steps to prevent Rath and his agents from conducting unauthorised clinical trials and from publishing advertisements about the medicinal effects of Rath's product VitaCell. The state was also ordered to investigate these unlawful actions by Rath.

The court case arose because of the state's failure to investigate or stop Rath's unlawful activities. The court also interdicted Rath and several of his agents from continuing the above activities. The applicants in the case were TAC and the South African Medical Association (SAMA).

Last year, TAC member Sylvia Fynn discovered that the South African National Civics Organisation (SANCO) was continuing to distribute Rath's medicines from a facility in Durban. SANCO was also discouraging patients from taking ARVs. Fynn photographed a bin where patients had thrown away their scientifically proven medicines, apparently with the intention of using Rath's medicines. The Southern African HIV Clinicians Society (HIVSOC) also collected information on Rath's activities in Durban. Both the TAC and HIVSOC sent our information to the Department of Health. We have since communicated extensively with the Department. We have been impressed by the co-operation we have received from Department officials.

We are pleased to announce that the Department is attempting to implement the court order. We have received a letter, signed on 27 February, from Dr J. Gouws of the Department's Law Inspectorate stating:

I thank you for the information shared ... I wish to inform you that following the order of the Cape High Court ... the Department has embarked on investigation against Matthias Rath and Dr Rath Health Foundation Africa to ensure compliance with the said Court Order.

The said investigations are at an advanced stage and we have had successes in this regard. On the strength of our investigations, criminal cases have been opened by the Department for the alleged contraventions of the and are being investigated by the South African Police Services (SAPS) in Durban. Our investigations continue parallel to the SAPS investigation and we are hoping for more success.

The TAC welcomes and thanks the commitment and co-operation of the Department of Health over the last few months in this investigation. We also thank the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society for collecting evidence of continued infringements of the court order. Bringing charlatanism under control following the era of state-supported AIDS denialism is an immense challenge, but by taking action against Rath the Department of Health is sending the right message to other charlatans. This is an important first step.

We hope that a warrant of arrest will soon be issued for Rath. While it is unlikely it will ever be executed because Rath has left South Africa, it will be important symbolically to close this tragic affair, which has directly cost the lives of several of Rath's patients and indirectly cost the lives of countless others who were confused by the false messages of Rath, supported by former Minister of Health Tshabalala-Msimang.



Rath appeal against Cape High Court judgment lapses


Following the Cape High Court verdict, Rath lodged an appeal. TAC in turn counter-appealed (because we believe some aspects of the judgment could be stronger), and applied for an interim execution order. Rath's leave to appeal was granted, but so was TAC's leave to counter-appeal and our request for an interim execution order. Simply put, this means that the Cape High Court order against Rath would stand until the appeal was heard.

Matthias Rath has however failed to file further court papers and is now out of time. The appeal process is therefore over and this court case is now complete. The Cape High Court order stands unchallenged. Our lawyers have therefore begun the process of redeeming their considerable costs from Rath.
Background

Matthias Rath is a vitamin salesman and charlatan who claims his products reverse the course of AIDS and that ARVs are toxic and unnecessary. He also claims his products treat diabetes, heart disease, cancer and many other ailments. He started his activities in South Africa in 2004 and received extensive support from state officials and the Minister of Health for his unlawful and deadly activities. TAC, SAMA and many other organisations have campaigned for Rath's unlawful activities to be stopped. To TAC's knowledge, Rath's enterprises no longer have a signficant presence in South Africa and the vast majority of Rath's unlawful activities in the country have ended.

For more information on Rath and his wrongdoings, see these URLs:

International Film Festival - London 18 -27 March 2009


From March 18-27 the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival returns for its 13th year in London with nine days of screenings and discussions focusing on some of the most pressing stories of our times.




Please join us for Opening Night at The Ritzy for EDEN IS WEST, a remarkable new film by renowned filmmaker Costa Gavras. Special discussion with filmmaker Costa Gavras and noted author Caroline Moorehead, and free public reception to follow.
Book Now: The Ritzy, 19 March 19.00.

http://www.hrw.org/iff/london

Thursday 12 March 2009

American Protester Critically Injured by Soldiers in Ni'ilin



Punk Soli-Concert for Anarchist against the Wall
Freitag, 13.03.2009
a
b 21.30 in der Köpi
Köpenicker Straße 137
Berlin

http://awalls.org/tristan




Ten wasted years: UN drug strategy a failure, reveals damning report


















The UN strategy on drugs over the past decade has been a failure, a European commission report claimed yesterday on the eve of the international conference in Vienna that will set future policy for the next 10 years.

The report came amid growing dissent among delegates arriving at the meeting to finalise a UN declaration of intent.

Referring to the UN's existing strategy, the authors declared that they had found "no evidence that the global drug problem was reduced". They wrote: "Broadly speaking, the situation has improved a little in some of the richer countries while for others it worsened, and for some it worsened sharply and substantially, among them a few large developing or transitional countries."

The policy had merely shifted the problem geographically, they said. "Production and trafficking controls only redistributed activities. Enforcement against local markets failed in most countries."

Representatives from governments are split in their efforts to formulate an international drugs policy for the next decade. The UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs is due to formulate a strategy over the next two days, but there is widespread disagreement among delegates and a general feeling that an opportunity for a united approach has been lost.

In an article for the Guardian, Mike Trace, chairman of the International Drug Policy Consortium, says: "We're about to see the international community walk up the political and diplomatic path of least resistance. It will do nothing to help the millions of people around the world whose lives are destroyed by drug markets and drug use. And the depressing thing about it is that we can all book our seats for 2019, to go through this charade again."

Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, has defended the approach. He is due to talk today on organised crime, which he has described as "one of the unintended consequences of drug control". He will warn that "a criminal market, of staggering proportion, risks undermining drug control" and outline a three-pronged approach to tackling drug-related crime.

In London, however, Lady Meacher, speaking on behalf of more than 30 members of the Lords, warned that the existing hardline prohibitionist strategy, which has been led by the US, had been deeply damaging. It was now being challenged by politicians, scientists and lawyers around the world, she said.

"We are concerned that the war on drugs has failed and the harm it has caused is far greater," said Meacher, at a briefing organised by the drugs advice charity Release. "What we want the UN to do is accept that the previous declaration was hopelessly unrealistic."

She said that Barack Obama had yet to appoint a new drugs tsar in the US but there were already signs that he was adopting a more liberal approach to the issue. The US president has lifted the ban on federal funding for needle exchange programmes, which are seen as crucial in the struggle to combat the spread of HIV.Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch, director of the global drug policy programme at the Open Society Institute, Warsaw, said: "It is now clear that after months of negotiations, millions of people around the world will continue to suffer needlessly. Thanks to the global 'war on drugs' over the past decade, close to 2 million people living in the former Soviet Union are infected with HIV, half a million US citizens languish in prison for non-violent, drug-related crimes, and billions of dollars are spent on destructive military actions in Colombia while the production of cocaine continues to rise."

The first two days of the session will be held at ministerial level to assess progress made in the decade since a special session of the UN general assembly set the target of a "drugs-free" world. The aim has been criticised for not addressing the problems of addiction and treatment.

Prof Tim Rhodes, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Health, said the number of injecting drug users around the world could have reached 15 million and this was responsible for 10% of global HIV infections.

Rhodes said the problem was particularly serious in Russia, where intensive street-level policing had exacerbated the difficulties.

Monday 9 March 2009

"The truth comes as conqueror only because we have lost the art of receiving it as guest."
The Fourfold Way of India (1924), Rabindranath Tagore

Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Race



The concept of race is an ideological one and has nothing to do with science or rational concepts. The ten things below are a bit simplistic but a start to think about its everyday use in politics and increasingly in medicine.
Indru

RACE - The Power of an Illusion

Our eyes tell us that people look different. No one has trouble distinguishing a Czech from a Chinese, but what do those differences mean? Are they biological? Has race always been with us? How does race affect people today? There’s less – and more – to race than meets the eye:
  1. Race is a modern idea. Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide people according to physical distinctions, but according to religion, status, class, even language. The English language didn’t even have the word ‘race’ until it turns up in 1508 in a poem by William Dunbar referring to a line of kings.

  2. Race has no genetic basis. Not one characteristic, trait or even one gene distinguishes all the members of one so-called race from all the members of another so-called race.

  3. Human subspecies don’t exist. Unlike many animals, modern humans simply haven’t been around long enough or isolated enough to evolve into separate subspecies or races. Despite surface appearances, we are one of the most similar of all species.

  4. Skin color really is only skin deep. Most traits are inherited independently from one another. The genes influencing skin color have nothing to do with the genes influencing hair form, eye shape, blood type, musical talent, athletic ability or forms of intelligence. Knowing someone’s skin color doesn’t necessarily tell you anything else about him or her.

  5. Most variation is within, not between, "races." Of the small amount of total human variation, 85% exists within any local population, be they Italians, Kurds, Koreans or Cherokees. About 94% can be found within any continent. That means two random Koreans may be as genetically different as a Korean and an Italian.

  6. Slavery predates race. Throughout much of human history, societies have enslaved others, often as a result of conquest or war, even debt, but not because of physical characteristics or a belief in natural inferiority. Due to a unique set of historical circumstances, ours was the first slave system where all the slaves shared similar physical characteristics.

  7. Race and freedom evolved together. The U.S. was founded on the radical new principle that "All men are created equal." But our early economy was based largely on slavery. How could this anomaly be rationalized? The new idea of race helped explain why some people could be denied the rights and freedoms that others took for granted.

  8. Race justified social inequalities as natural. As the race idea evolved, white superiority became "common sense" in America. It justified not only slavery but also the extermination of Indians, exclusion of Asian immigrants, and the taking of Mexican lands by a nation that professed a belief in democracy. Racial practices were institutionalized within American government, laws, and society.

  9. Race isn’t biological, but racism is still real. Race is a powerful social idea that gives people different access to opportunities and resources. Our government and social institutions have created advantages that disproportionately channel wealth, power, and resources to white people. This affects everyone, whether we are aware of it or not.

  10. Colorblindness will not end racism. Pretending race doesn’t exist is not the same as creating equality. Race is more than stereotypes and individual prejudice. To combat racism, we need to identify and remedy social policies and institutional practices that advantage some groups at the expense of others.
Copyright (c) California Newsreel, 2003
RACE - The Power of an Illusion
A three-part documentary series from California Newsreel

Images from one year


Squat in Florentin, Tel Aviv


Ukraine, outside Kiev


Darabi, Mumbai, India


Oxford, UK


Marathias, Greece, Jotta's family olive grove


ראש העין Rosh HaAyin, Israel, the barber next to Micky's clinic


מכתש רמון Makhtesh Ramon, Israel


Barenboim Benefit Concert for Gaza in Berlin, January 2009


Istanbul, Galata with view on the Bosphorus.


London, Millenium bridge

Manchester in snow early February





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Sunday 8 March 2009



Mainzer Street, Berlin-Friedrichshain, after the eviction in 1990. The story is still to be told about that street, squatted during a time of big changes in Berlin (wall came down, reunification). The time for an alternative seemed possible, but a lot of it got destroyed and only a few pieces remain, part of the subculture of the city.

My first visit to Yarl‘s Wood

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to join one of the experienced doctors from Medical Justice to see patients and detainees in the deportation and detention center near Bedford, Yarl’s Wood. That facility is relatively newly built, after an uprising broke out inside the previous building, which destroyed the structure due to a fire which was placed by the detainees to their mattresses. Several hunger strikes brought a lot of attention to the situation of mainly refugees and asylum seekers from African countries inside those deportation centers (The Home office calls them removal centers).

Yarl’s Wood is run by a private contractor called SERCO, the slogan of that company is “bringing service to life”. In the last couple of months Medical Justice raised awareness and public interest with the work they are doing in a very professional, compassionate and assertive way. They managed to see more and more detainees on the base of a second independent medical opinion and work together with asylum seekers and former detainees, giving workshops, advocacy and direct medical and legal support. One of the pressing issues is the detention of children and unaccompanied Minors; there are about 2000 children in detention in the UK, which is in itself a violation of British legislation as well as international human rights law. HIV positive and AIDS patients with poor immune status, who receive antiretroviral medication, get deported to the countries of origin or others, although the further treatment is not certain. There are constantly violations of international law happening, like in many different countries in the EU to make it more and more difficult for refugees to enter and stay.

Arriving at Bedford station with a fast train from St Pankras railway station in London after a 37 minute journey, to reach the center either a taxi or a private car is needed. After another 15-20 minutes the compound is in sight and appears from a distance like an ordinary industrial area. The entrance of Yarl’s Wood looks like the entrance of a motel. The visitors welcome reception and the staff entrance next to the court building. Everyone is polite and friendly after checking passport and taking away mobile phones, kindly asked to wait for your accompanying person. Walking behind the friendly nurse with the relevant keys, fences, barbed wire and double locked doors appear. The health center is the place where patients are received and it looks like an ordinary consultation room, with posters on the wall to advice about a regular smear or breast check (cancer screening) or immunization check or one says:” If you like to get a second medical opinion we are happy to assist you to find one at your own cost.” For us the detainees don’t have to pay. The patients are coming ne after the other, when called down by the head nurse, who was extremely friendly (bringing coffee and cookies and stating, well there are quite a lot of lovely people in here, not all are a pain in the a..), well to us.

To make it a bit shorter: we saw 6 women and 2 children (5 and 7). Both of the children were in a dreadful mental situation. The girl was clenching to her mother, the boy was not responding to his mother, closing up, getting angry, being sad, feeling worried about his mother, it was terrible. He is born in the UK and has British citizenship, he should go to school and play football (he is a defender and is fan of Manchester United), but Home office wants to deport his mother and not to be inhuman and cruel the boy with her. They didn´t have a lawyer, so they got one through Medical Justice and hopefully they will be released soon and will be able to stay. It’s the third time in a short period that they got detained after a house raid in early mornings.

Stop detention of children and anyone else, stop deportation! http://www.medicaljustice.org.uk/

Hello and welcome,


After one month in London a lot has happened. Moving on a two day journey from Berlin to this city, with some basic items inside some boxes and most of my stuff still in Berlin, gave me the chance to transfer myself slowly but steadily into a new chapter of my life.
Discovering Hackney, a borough in London with so many different layers, the Arsenal stadium and the devoted fans living around it or as far away as Uganda; the parks and markets with some 100 different languages spoken, mothers and some fathers talking to their children in mother (father) tongue, to each other in English and the children to each other in a mix, which can hardly be understood by anyone... orthodox jews living door to door with traditional moslems and christians, I do not know if there is some kind of contact between them or just a kind of tolerance without understanding, well I am anyway not religious...
Turkish shops and people in the streets give me a kind of familiarity, Berlin-Kreuzberg crosses my mind and I still tend to speak German to the Turkish guy behind the Döner take away.
Finsbury park is one of the nearby green spots where so many find their way to jog, play football or rugby or tennis, just sit and read a book or talk via laptop with someone somewhere far or even not so far away, children running after all the different animals and rampaging among the flowers which just show up, because the sunshine promises spring. There is this old railway track which was transformed into a path for cycling or walking, one part of a whole ring going around London, the so called "capital ring", 78 miles. There are still old woods in the city, a small echo from a different time...
more soon