I moved to Sydenham in the summer of 2008, having spent the six months previous in Amsterdam working in an Architecture office. I choose Sydenham because it is a great location, only 10 minutes by bus into the city centre and still a walkable distance. Its an area which has been moving forward and has benefited greatly from the economic boom, becoming a very sought after area for first time buyers. It has been slowly leaving behind is name for being a loyalist stronghold and becoming increasingly open and less territorial. The positives for living in this area are mounting.
Though there is a problem which seems to be growing and was encouraged by the economic climate of two years ago and reinforced by the recent down turn. That is Dereliction.
There were two derelict houses on my street when I moved in and subsequently there has been two house fires which rendered a third derelict.
The difference between this sort of dereliction and a typical run down area is that much of Sydenham’s problem is cause by developers. They buy up one, two, three houses in a row or in some cases as much as ten houses, basically half of one of the streets. Now this in itself is not the problem. The buying up of houses for development has its benefits as well as it problems. But where it goes wrong for Sydenham is what happens in the period between the residents moving out and the houses being rebuilt. That period can sometimes be anything from two to five years on average. What effect does that have on these streets. What atmospheres does it create and what social problems are generated?
In the light of what has passed, the most prodigious morsel of information that I was able to feast upon was in fact the need for cows in the inner city environment. How can a city exist without them....? In this coming age sans wealth where will tomorrows meat come from?
The future of the city depends fundamentally upon the introduction of the ‘Beaasts’ to the wretched and worthless streets. The city cannot go on. The life of the city once finely depicted on the silver screen described a city in disarray. A city besieged by its own wealth, its own greed. Devouring its own children.
As we stand by and watch own society consumes itself, the royal city of death as shown with flashing pink towers lives only to die.
Is it not so that the city itself is the very depiction of that self consuming monster. Driven by the inherent greed of man, creating both the beauty that makes it and the final poison that will slaughter its very existence. A bitter sweet concoction of life, intensity, beauty, escape and the ultimate pit of death.
[project 1 - thoughts]
I have come to a point.... a point of tiredness of the inspiration-less challenges to create change.
We lack challenge, we expect little, and believe even less is possible. Recently I've been having a little difficulty with the dull and mediocre expectations of people and their challenge to the world. It is so long since I've herd someone with single minded conviction lay it down. Somehow when challenged we need to be challenged with something beyond our own capabilities, beyond what we believe is possible. Something that we have to take hold of and run, and hope and pray that you will make it!
Its got to be all or nothing....
Do people simply not realise the potential? There is a world out their lying in a heap. An absolute mess, there's spots of untouched beauty and tranquillity, but there's also hells of pain and suffering and desolation, fear and hunger.
Its time we, in our lovely western society woke up to the fact that our footprint is casting more of a shadow over the rest of the world than we like to think. That when we buy our nice new clothes for 3 quid and eat our cheap food and our cheap shoes we are not innocent. It may not cost us much...
There's a a food crisis at the minute across the globe.... but funnily enough it isnt affecting us! Why do we feel that we should have the right to live in this way. What right do we have to sit and enjoy when the rest of these guys are in pain and fearing for their lives. We have become so wrapped up in our own happiness and our own comfort that we fail to see that it is at the expense of the rest of the world.
We have the power and the means, the expertise and the clout to change the world.... but not the WILL.
We want to do 'our bit' but we also want to have EVERYTHING. To have all that we 'deserve'. Its disgusting. Its time to give up on this shit, and change the world..... not the world in you.... forget yourself, and just make stuff happen. Everyone already knows the statistics, everyone knows the situation but is seduced by the hope of comfort, and drunk with the the pursuit of personal happiness.
Which is the GREATER evil?
to commit the evil,
or to STAND BY AND WATCH?
Strong words maybe, but Im sick of mediocre challenges to be nice people and be loving. We are hating the rest of the world right now. We have no love for them. Will we watch as they die, in their thousands. While we enjoy all the dreams we've ever had.... Its not about doing our bit.... its about giving up dreams, making sacrifices, not getting what you want....gaining the world.
In the end the poor and the starving will never go away..... they are with us to the end, making poverty history is impossible. But that doesn't make the slightest bit of difference to the bottom line. They are our brothers.....
Only snag was i was on an ancient specimen of a bike on which only top gear worked. We got the train up to Anna something and then bombed on up to the dijk.... though as it turned out we didn't really bomb so much, more we fought our way up to the dijk.... with heavy wind and a bike that weighed something similar to a small cow, going was tough! but alas we were heading directly into the wind to the dijk but after that point we were always turning with it until the last 12km down to Hoorn was going with it.... very nice!
Its quite glorious when you go somewhere where you have no idea what to expect... in the end the dijk [being the big long 25km one over the sea, as we where never more than 50m from a dijk all day!] was quite rubbish but all the places along the way turned out to be amazing.But after 70km it was nice to get back in the train and head back to Amsterdam for a few biers in Nieuwmarkt and laugh at the tourists in the falling evening light.........
