Qualities inherent in Londoners seem to find themselves within Arabs too. The constantly busy streets of London that filter out into less busy suburbs and areas full of terrible hospitals, overflowing schools, ethnic groupings that seem to pull their own kind closer together and 150′000 Poles; have so much in common with the Arab metropolis’ that count hundreds of terribly run hospitals (no superbug…yet), schools with demotivated teachers but no Poles – just constant rotational migration.
London is becoming more and more expensive – I remember when my daily 1-4 travelcard was under 3 pounds. Now its over five. I remember when food was cheap, when we could play football outside the house and my mother wouldn’t be afraid. Now my son would probably be fined for holding a ball outside the house after trying to dodge a paedophile. My car would be getting towed away as a result of an elusive west-African who now works from a moped that seems to have magical invisiblity powers and a super-fast tow truck driver.
It costs me money to leave my house and take my car to central London (where I was born). It costs me money to leave my house and take public transport to central London. It is cheaper for me to take the car. But there are those who want to make it more expensive for me. So If I do take the car, I have to pay a congestion charge. I have to find a parking space which will cost me a few pounds at least – and then I need to move the car after a maximum of two or three hours because I can’t get a new ticket.
It costs me taxes to live here. I pay more taxes than most other citizens in the developed world. So do about 40 million other britons who live and work here. But our NHS is really atrocious. It stinks. The waiting lists are ridiculous, waiting times are terrible – and now they are going to be made into private entities. Alot of my tax money goes there by the way – and now its going half private.
The education system is weird. Universities are rather atrocious when compared with universities around the world. Lecturers don’t get paid much – i would have liked to become one but I need money to live – students don’t learn much, and to be honest what I learnt at university (after going to three of the best in the country) is nothing compared to what people learn in the US or Germany.
But I love my country – and I love London. I love the cold during the winter, I like walking down cobbled streets and smooth modern ones. I like to speak with aged old war veterans and chuckle at their jokes. I love the summer when everyone walks around with a smile on their face and women who spent the year losing weight get the recognition/attention that they craved! I love the history of this old, die-hard city with its million stories of stubborn defiance, freedom loving people and history. I love London becaue it made me and made others far greater and far worse than me. It is a world of different people, languages and colours. It is my world. London.
