The scenes from Tottenham and other parts of London were distressing and the looting and vandalism is – I think – despicable.
It has been depressing to watch.
But I found similar scenes not so long ago – though perhaps without the same level of mindless vandalism but with much more severe loss of life – in Egypt and Tunisia were actually uplifting and I took these as a “demonstration” of democratic forces at work”. The ruthless putting down of protests in Syria is also distressing and all my sympathies are very clearly with those protesting.
I am still trying to reconcile my own “double standards” in my own mind.
Was the level of hopelessness and despair in Egypt and Tunisia which forced ordinary people onto the streets and caused governments to fall so different from the hopelessness and powerlessness felt by the crowds in Tottenham or Brixton? Is the feeling of being oppressed in Syria any different from that felt by some in the UK?
Opportunists and hooligans and plain criminals were surely present in all of these scenes.
But I am still struggling to clarify the differences in my own reactions to myself.
The k2p blog 