Suburban Terrorists

London Fields # 30
First published Inpress, Melbourne on 6 September 2006
NB: Each column has a name, but these do not appear in print; printed versions may differ slightly to those displayed here

London isn’t so much a city, as a series of villages and settlements that grew larger and larger until they encroached upon one another until they became an integrated whole. Thus there are still tensions and rivalries both within and between the divergent communities.

I was still at home with flu on 10 August, and had no idea why the air was full with the sound of choppers. Seven houses were raided in my borough, one of them opposite my corner shop. Airports ground to a virtual halt. There were talking heads saying that it was virtually impossible to screen hand luggage in a workable time, and so hand luggage became a no-no.

In the Evening Standard that evening, their article on the raid began: "One of the suspects believed to have been arrested in today’s raids is described as a young man in his twenties with a long beard and who wears traditional Islamic dress…" Meanwhile there’s been talk of racial profiling, and justifiable opposition to it.

But some people have decided to take such matters into their own hands. Passengers on the Monarch Airlines flight from Malaga to Manchester refused to fly because of the ‘suspicious’ actions of two passengers. They weren’t speaking in English, nor were they dressed in Hawaiian shirts, shorts and thongs. Definitely suss - because every good terrorist wants to be as conspicuous as possible, right? Anyway, the flight was kept on the ground until the two Muslim characters were removed. These two students caught a later flight a few hours later without incident.

Just an isolated case perhaps? Well, how about the story of Syed Husain, who’s lived in London for the last thirty years? He made a mistake though when he decided to take his relatives from Dubai on the London Eye - he spoke to them in Arabic. This led to a bag search, where his two small bottles of water and a carton of juice were deemed too great a threat to go on this giant upmarket ferris wheel opposite the Houses of Parliament. So while his rellies were held in a secure area, he made the 25 minute round trip to put the offending bag in a locker at Waterloo Station. Yet this still wasn’t enough for the security guard, who then insisted on a manual search in case this 65 year old man was carrying weapons. And how did British Airways, who own the wheel, react when this story broke? They offered him two free tickets. Yes come to Britain, as long as you dress right and speak English. Sad days indeed!

With all this going on, it seemed like a good idea to get out of the smoke for a while. Seeking fresh air, I headed to the nearest sea, joking with mates that the reason I was heading to Brighton was to stalk Nick Cave. Which was funny as no sooner than I walked off the station concourse than in front of me I spied the unmistakable figure of the tall, sartorially elegant Mr Cave himself.

He still has that ridiculous moustache, and was dressed in an ice cream suit and loafers. By the time I reached him he was sitting in the back of a tourist Tuk-Tuk, which run on fixed routes to Brighton landmarks. I asked him what he’d been up to, and he told me he had a new band called Grinderman, and that the LP would be out next April.

Back home again, I checked out the annual Walthamstow Festival. Last year they had Natasha Atlas and The Beat; this year there was a home-made dalek! Of course, weekend engineering works on the trains coincided with the event, so there were no tubes connecting us to the West End on the Sunday. Anyway, as a part of this, the art project A Thousand Faces of Waltham Forest was transferred to the hoardings of the demolished shopping centre. But in the light of raised suspicions following nearly thirty arrests, these headshots seemed more like a rogues’ gallery than a celebration of diversity. Which probably isn’t the idea behind the borough’s post-raids PR campaign - Waltham Forest: 225,000 people – 1 community.

But I finished the month by taking part in the monthly film quiz at my local. As Waltham Forest is the only London borough without a cinema, the quiz is run by the McGuffins (Alfred Hitchcock was a local lad) to help promote their campaign to reopen the local cinema which shut three years earlier. But what was great was the cross section of locals there, including the local MP. Now maybe not all the community would use a pub, but after all that has happened it was a nice way to spend an evening.

Of course, there are ongoing operations, and between the time I submit this and you read it, who knows what will have transpired. But the message is life in the capital goes on, even if some people have a new interpretation of what is meant by Neighbourhood Watch…

© James McGalliard 2007