Monday 18 December 2017

NOT THERE YET.

Do They Care?

Regular readers will remember that local people round here (particularly on the estates, but also along the Harrow Road) have the perception that public authorities don't much care about them, so here's a new example. A Warwick Estate resident was mugged in the lift of her tower block. They took her bank card and used it almost immediately to draw money from the machine in the Costcutter shop on the Harrow Road. She is no shrinking violet, and reported the mugging to the police, with the precise time, and descriptions of the robbers, and urging them to view the cctv recordings, as there are cameras both in the lift and the lobby of the block. She knows about the cameras, because she was instrumental in getting them installed (paid for by residents' money). A little later she received a letter from the Metropolitan Police saying that no further action would be taken as "no cctv recording existed", but that the Westbourne Safer Neighbourhood Team had been informed. Well, that wasn't true either. To be fair to the Police, it is possible that City West Homes are not actually using the cctv cameras that exist on the estate; it is possible that their contempt for their tenants is such that they don't switch on the cameras that the tenants provided. Yes, I'm sure it's cheaper not to actually run the cameras and have anyone actually supervise them, but might it not have been polite to tenants to let them know that, if that was the case?

When I used this story in my sermon yesterday I got a response from a parishioner who lives on the Brunel Estate, who told me she was sure it was the Police rather than City West to blame, based on her experience. She was robbed at knifepoint, when pregnant, and pushing a toddler in a buggy, and duly reported it. The very next day she received a letter saying no further investigation was possible. Hmm.

Our dedicated Ward constables are good, enthusiastic and hardworking, but of course they are not in fact the police officers who actually investigate crimes, and local people have a very clear perception that crimes happening on the estates are of little interest. As far as the Met is concerned a certain level of robbery, burglary and car crime is to be expected on our estates, and frankly constitutes background noise. In Westminster, it is perfectly clear that the West End is the big deal for policing, alongside the royal and governmental areas, and up to a point that's fair enough. I think local people do get a bit grumpy about tourists being prioritized in front of them, but you can understand a strong desire not to kill the golden goose. So we must keep the streets of the West End safe, so tourists aren't frightened away, but estate-dwellers in north Westminster have nowhere else to go and have to put up with it.


And So It Begins

St Mary Magdalene's School Christingle Service was the first test of our substitute Christmas arrangements, having a church full of scaffolding. The school very wisely decided to halve it in size, so it was just a Keystage 2 service (the infants have Nativity plays) which meant that we could actually fit into the school hall, along with parents, and even have room for a stage. It was, of course, much less atmospheric, but perhaps being well-lit was responsible for the parents behaving better than they usually do in church. I felt I should inject a little more religion into proceedings since we were in a secular space, and that seemed to go down fine. I was interested to see the ukuleles being played, as they are stored in the "creative room" where we have the Class Mass, but it wasn't terribly exciting, as they were just strummed. They haven't got onto the full George Formby yet.

The Benefice Carol Service had to happen at St Peter's, and we had no idea what to expect. It had to be simpler, because there is no room for a choir, and hence the service would be shorter, as there could be no choir carols. James had got together a couple of string players, and so we had three short musical pieces, but essentially we did much as we normally do. Obviously, the atmosphere was different: 1970s functional worship-space instead of 1870s neo-gothic basilica. Curiously, two readers made mistakes in when they were supposed to come forward, which normally never happens; was this really the inherent informality of the building affecting the participants? Certainly, the awe-inspiring side of St Mary Mags does make people check that they're doing things right. Some experience this as being uptight, though that's certainly not the desired impression. Anyway, we had a relaxed Carol Service, followed by copious mince pies and mulled wine. We even had a dog in the congregation. Normally, at St Mary Mags, a charming Maida Vale lady comes to the Carol Service with her Jack Russell; this year a vulnerable lady who we know well, and who lives just behind St Peter's, brought her little dog (which wore a thick coat), so that tradition was maintained.

Tuesday 12 December 2017

WHO IS SYLVIA, WHAT IS SHE?

Who Is Sylvia?

I went to see the ballet "Sylvia" at Covent Garden this week. Helen and I went to see it when they first revived it ten years or so ago, but I had no recollection of it. I should remember it, as the score, by Delibes, has several terrific tunes, some of them quite famous, and I realised as soon as the overture began that I ought to remember this. The ballet was choreographed by Frederick Ashton in 1952, though there are earlier French Romantic and Imperial Russian versions, and it's not generally regarded as one of Ashton's best works; he intended it as a vehicle for Margot Fonteyn, then at her height of stardom. The designs are also gorgeous, by Christopher and Robin Ironside.

"Sylvia" is a beautiful spectacle, but what people regard as unsatisfactory is the mixture of rather far-fetched classical mythology treated in a rather straight-faced fashion, with what is frankly pantomime (dancing goats, anyone?). I was struck by the seriousness with which Ashton treats the mythology, but started to wonder whether a new version ought to be attempted, making reference to contemporary sexual politics, because those questions certainly emerge. Sylvia is a hunting nymph, devoted to the goddess Diana, and is therefore pledged to chastity (Natalia Osipova was magnificent as the virginal huntress in the first act) but she is desired by two men, the shepherd Aminta, and the hunter Orion. Now Aminta's love for her is genuine, inspired by Eros, but Orion only wants to possess her. I have to say that when Aminta first declared his love and laid hands on her, it was clear that he was not understanding her lack of consent, because she was definitely saying "No". So she shoots him. Well, actually she's trying to shoot the statue of Eros, but he gets in the way (told you it was far-fetched). Eros then shoots her, and so she comes to reciprocate Aminta's love.

The really challenging thing, though, is Orion's characterization, because he's a piece of absolutely shameless orientalism, and the second act, set in his island cave (to which he has carried off Sylvia) becomes quite uncomfortable. Orion is depicted as an oriental potentate, complete with luxurious tent and scantily-clad concubines. It's all very mixed-up, as Orion's set-up involves Arabian, Chinese and vaguely Indian elements, compounding a sort of generalized English orientalism that was characteristic of the 1820s (see the Brighton Pavilion) rather than the 1950s. Now it's perfectly true that both Greeks and Romans regarded people from the East as their cultural "other", so it's not unreasonable to depict Orion in this way, putting him in voluminous trousers rather than the shifts and tunics the Greeks wear, and giving him villainous facial hair. His two concubines, in what are pretty much belly-dancer outfits, are a bit harder to take, but the real discomfort came for me in his two slaves, gorgeously dressed in red and yellow chinoiserie who then did a silly "Chinese" dance with tambourines, to a bit of plinky-plonk music. Now I presume Delibes wrote the music to deliberately sound "Chinese" so it's fair enough to make the dance Chinese, and to be fair it's not as grotesque as the Chinese dance in the Nutcracker, which has begun to embarrass the Royal Ballet, who changed the choreography last year, but the reason it feels uncomfortable is because it's racist! No-one would continue to use an "African" dance that depicted cannibals and blacking-up, but we appear to be less sensitive to grotesque caricatures of East Asians. It's meant to be funny (though I don't think I found this sort of thing funny even when seeing the Nutcracker as a child) but the amusement value comes from the humiliating depiction of a racial group according to a comic stereotype, so how is that okay? 

I don't want to seem po-faced about this, but this is beginning to feel like something that needs to change. One of the distinctive things about ballet is its ability to adapt, and there is enormous variety in the productions of even the most famous pieces, with whole dances being added and subtracted, so there's not really a "canonical" version of the great works in the repertoire. All of which should make it not too difficult. I really like some of the "authentic" versions of Imperial Russian ballets which try to re-create the spectacle of the 1890s (and no-one loved orientalism more than them) but that's a piece of cultural history, not a work of art for today. Sometimes "oriental" sounds appear in music just to suggest something exotic, and personally I think that's fine, because the "exotic" is a positive category, though I know some people would disagree, but what's really not on is the use of a national stereotype for comic or demeaning effect. Sorry, pretend Chinamen dancing sideways with hands at ninety degrees to their wrists are embarrassing at best, and frankly no longer entertaining in polite company.

Tuesday 5 December 2017

ON MY BIKE



Hi-Vis

Last week several people told me that the government were going to compel cyclists to wear helmets and high-vis clothing. On investigation I find that this is fake news, which is just as well. Apparently, such a proposal is being investigated by government, but the evidence from Australia is compelling, where bicycle use has dropped dramatically since the imposition of compulsory helmet-wearing. Since bicycle use has enormous health benefits (as well as being good for traffic congestion and the environment) no rational policymaker wants bicycle use to decline.  There is also a philosophical point here about victim-blaming; if you compel cyclists to wear protective clothing, you are saying that cyclists are the problem, and the authors of their own misfortune. Sorry, not so. But I do realise that it is a lot cheaper and less politically difficult to make rules for cyclists rather than to actually enforce the existing traffic laws where they are routinely flouted by lorry and car drivers, or to enforce safe design principles on the bus and truck building industry, or to design safer road layouts. In fact, I think we all (cyclists included) need major re-education in conducting ourselves in a civilised manner.


Goslings and Cygnets

I probably mentioned before that a pair of swans on the canal have managed to keep seven cygnets alive, which is remarkable. When resting on my bike rides I regularly see a pair of Egyptian geese on the pond in Regent’s Park, and they have five goslings, not terribly old, which is very encouraging. I hope they are old enough to survive the winter cold. Sadly, the pair of Egyptian geese who live here on the canal show no sign of procreation. Charmingly, they were walking back and forth from the water to the grass, one following the other, each time I cycled past today, and they made little chuntering noises as you passed, as though concerned about your behaviour.


An Assault

I was punched while out riding recently. It happened as I was accelerating away from the pedestrian crossing at Clarence Gate, at the bottom of Regent’s Park; there was a group of people on the pavement, and as I passed them I received a blow on my upper arm, not hard enough to knock me over, or even to hurt, but just a total surprise. I didn’t stop, as my momentum had taken me a long way past before I properly registered what had happened, and what would I do? Get off my bike and wheel it along the pavement to ask, “Which of you hit me?” assuming they were still there? No, I just cycled on, wondering why, because this was completely out of the blue; I hadn’t done anything to upset anyone, nor had any cyclist in front of me. I came to the conclusion that it was because of the jersey I was wearing. Regular readers will be aware of my enthusiasm for brightly-coloured jerseys that have some significance; well, on this occasion I was wearing a recently acquired Team Euzkadi jersey, which is a brilliant lime green, bearing the word Euzkadi in black lettering, and with the left sleeve coloured in the design of the Ikurrina, the Basque flag. It had not occurred to me that wearing a Basque team jersey would be regarded as provocative in London, but I can only conclude that this was what was going on. The assault happened in the wake of the Catalan “independence” controversy, and I suspect I met a Spanish nationalist who was so enraged by the Catalans that he regarded my Basque jersey as just another threat to the integrity of his homeland. I should not, perhaps, add that I think the Basque claim to autonomy is much stronger than the Catalans’, but that the Spanish government are absolutely right in their interpretation of the constitution though they have been astonishingly clumsy in the way they have gone about addressing the matter.


Closed Estate Offices

You will remember that I voiced some apprehension about City West Homes’ (Westminster’s equivalent of the Kensington TMO) closure of their estate offices. They told us the few personal callers they actually received could be dealt with more efficiently on the phone to a call centre, and that this would free up housing officers to be present on the estates. Well, I can’t comment on the presence of housing officers out on the estates, but on this estate they were actually available in the office in the past. Meanwhile, tenants who try to phone find that they have to hold for ages (routinely ten minutes) and are then answered by people who have no local knowledge, which makes reporting anything very inefficient and frustrating. Those who turn up in person to the central office, at Westbourne Terrace, are made to feel very unwelcome, while if you try to email you find that you cannot email any named individual, and so pursuing an issue becomes very trying as it will be dealt with by different people on each exchange of emails. The tenants are left with the impression of an organisation seeking to evade responsibility, and to clothe all its actions in anonymity. Trying to keep the tenants at a distance is exactly what Kensington’s TMO used to do. There does seem to be a pattern of behaviour.


Fire Alarms

I don’t mention the Kensington TMO gratuitously, but you would hope that people would learn from the appalling experience of Grenfell Tower. It seems not. Keyham House is a tower block on the Brunel Estate, just over the tracks from us here, (and also in Westbourne Ward) and there the fire alarm is constantly going off. It rang for seven hours recently, and for four hours on another occasion. Residents are stopping up the alarms with paper to dull the sound. Everyone in authority seems completely accepting of this situation. City West have known about it for months. Have they no imagination? Have they not thought what it must feel like to live in a tower block where you know the fire alarm is malfunctioning? How can it be acceptable not to know whether a fire alarm sounding is real or not? This demonstrates a total lack of care, and I suspect that the “arm’s-length” nature of City West just encourages that ethos, because nobody really feels responsible. I am sad to say this, as I know some good people who work for them, but the contempt displayed by City West for their tenants makes me very angry.