The streets of London have spoken. A week of post corona graffiti telling it how it is..or isn’t. A lot of wall scrawlings seem to be the analogue equivalent of click bait, spreading misinformation and provocation. Maybe that was always the point of graffiti with its history of anti-establishment proclamations. In the case of this one I’m not sure whether it’s demanding for the Tories to be wiped out or whether it is laying blame at the Government for the Covid deaths that have occurred in this country…either way it’s difficult to argue against…
Our current leader is a ditherer. Both in action and word. To have someone who is indecisive at the helm when strong and swift decisions need to be made is far from ideal. He is also avoidant which is also not a great trait in these times. This is the man remember, who hid in a fridge during election campaigning rather than deal with the press. Can we lay blame at his feet for the mismanagement of this crisis? Absofuckinglutely.
His election to P.M in December convinced me that there was nothing good going to happen in this country during his reign of power and that was before Corona. And this is beyond party politics. This is just based on him being competent (or not) in governing. He showed himself to be a useless clueless fuckwit on numerous occasions during his time as foreign secretary alone, forget about every gaff before that, so it really comes as no surprise that this fuckwittery continued once he was ruling the country.
And so once again we are being looked at with disbelief and pity from the rest of the world, who are slack-jawed by the incompetent actions of our government. You could say they are doing everything they can in an extremely difficult situation and they didn’t know what was coming but they did and they’re not. The advice from scientific experts was simple as to how to go about containing this virus…extreme lockdown, mass testing and contact tracing and they didn’t and still aren’t doing any of these things to the extent required for them to be successful.
So now what? Johnson’s recent speech was mocked for its confused and contradictory nature but it feels deliberate as it essentially absolves the government of responsibility and implies that its basically every man for himself. So we have to all just get on with it and hope for the best? Right, cheers for that…
When I was 15 years old I was in Class 5g at school. Is there a connection with the controversial mobile network currently being installed across the globe and the name of my class? No, there isn’t. Or is there?? Am I involved in the conspiracy? Not at all. Or is my admission followed by a swift denial in fact a cover up double bluff to make you think I’m not involved? And before I get sent hate mail and death rates I should say that I’m not actually involved. It has nothing to do with me.
Is the outbreak of Covid-19 anything to do with 5g? No, no more than I am but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything wrong with 5g. But by putting 2 and 2 together and getting ‘corona consipirasuey’ isn’t helping a genuine need to demand that this, soon to be, all pervasive tech be tested more than it has been which is not at all. Its potential harm to our health needs to be established before we get bombarded by its radiation from every single direction.
Meanwhile the whole insanely contagious Covid virus thing is a difficult thing to get your head around but that doesn’t mean it isn’t real. It is happening and it wasn’t man made although we are technically responsible, not for its creation, but for its spread into the human population through the side effects of intensive farming & habitat destruction. Air pollution has also exacerbated its harmful effects and under funded under-prepared pandemic departments were not equipped to deal with it despite governments being informed that something like this was always a case of ‘when’ not ‘if’ . Pandemics are not a new thing. This is just the next instalment in the continuing battle between viruses and living organisms which has been fought since the dawn of time, we just weren’t around to see the other episodes.
We are drowning in misinformation and up to our earballs in bullshit. So infinitely more important than trying to consume everything the internet is bombarding us with, we need to be able to disseminate what is factual in origin and what is supposition based on opinion. And even though the powers that be lie through their front, back and side teeth on an almost daily basis they ain’t lying about everything. And they ain’t lying about this. And unfortunately people’s unwillingness to believe it is in fact causing it to spread further as people are not taking the required precautions. I kinda get it. Corona is a proper headfuck. Firstly its effect on people is so vastly different..from no symptoms at all to death and every gradient in-between so it feels unreal. But the diverse reactions to our bodies do not mean it’s not a reality but as you also can’t actually see it, it makes it even more difficult to believe. But if you want to see the reality, go to the hospitals. go to the morgues.
I love a good conspiracy theory, who doesn’t? But you can’t just accept them as real until you have done your own research from multiple and reliable sources and fact check the shit out of it rather than just share something you got sent on whatsapp. Also, disinformation is spread when people are trying to cover something up so you have to work out what that is, for what reason and who has to gain. As the ole saying goes..follow the money.
In the case of 5g ‘they’ have done everything they can to supress any negative reports about it in a very forceful manner. They have taken down thousands of facebook pages & youtube videos and removed any dissent whatsoever because it is worth trillions to those rolling it out and they don’t want any negative publicity. Is that a conspiracy to cover up? Yes. Is it something more to it than that? Probably not, but they once again are putting profit before people and clearly will risk any health risks on the population in the process.
If you want a great conspiracy theory about Corona it’s that we are in fact in a virtual simulation and our computer masters needed to restrict where we go so they can update the system and do essential maintenance. Think about it. If they keep us confined they won’t have to run the entire program for each individual. Really makes sense if you think about it..but like a lot. Like till your brain seeps out of your ears in a mad bid for freedom to avoid thinking about it anymore. Please see scientific documentaries ‘the matrix’ and ‘devs’ for more info.
We have had a lockdown “of sorts” in this country. Unlike other countries in Europe, like Italy, France and Spain it was far less strict. We’re actually allowed out of our house and we don’t need a certificate to prove reason when we do. We could simply be out on our daily allocated walk. In the above shot, taken in Holland Park, coppers were telling this guy who was having a picnic with his daughter that he shouldn’t be there and rather than move on he gave them a bit of lip back and they actually took it and left. The entire police response to the lockdown that I have seen has mostly been limp, ineffectual and almost pointless.
In Hyde Park, where a lot of the shots from this week and today were taken (and all since the lockdown) you would never even know there was a lockdown on. Actually you can tell, because it’s busier than normal. And people aren’t just exercising, they are hanging out in groups, sunbathing, doing whatever they wish and the police just cycle past and do nothing. I can only come to the conclusion that they have either been told not to interfere or they don’t believe they should. Either way it is not being properly enforced and the general slackness in adherence of the rules from people out and about and the casualness of the U.K approach here does not reflect us being the worst hit country in Europe with the highest death toll.
They said that what happened in Italy couldn’t happen here but it did, and worse. And still our actions do not seem to correlate to the severity of our situation, other than our half-heartedness to dealing with Covid 19 is undoubtedly the reason why we have such a high percentage of fatalities.
It feels like, in the U.K, we cannot marry what we are seeing on the news with what our daily lives consist of. Cognitive dissonance in full effect. It’s like we are in a daze, sleeping walking through this disaster. Either that or we just don’t give a fuck about anyone but ourselves which am starting to think is the case. Our sense of community in this country is so utterly eroded by Brexit and the divisions that it created it also appears to have destroyed our ability to empathise.
I have spoken to friends and family over in Ireland (north and south) and they all say how courteous and respectful everyone is over there to each other. They make sure that they all give each other plenty of space when walking past each other and in London it is the opposite. No-one budges an inch for anyone. It is as if to alter their trajectory one iota would be an insult to them and if you give them a wide berth they seem to take that as an offence. Londoners also have this notion that they are like sharks, if they stop moving they will die.
And am also sick of couples who will not break into single file to walk past you. Surely your relationship is strong enough to be able to handle a moment of separation? And its even worse in the shops, everyone brushing past you to grab something, you turn around and someone is literally on you. And when you flash em the evil eye or ask them to back up (which have done several times) they look at you either oblivious or with indignation, like you are the one with the problem.
I just think if we have been given this luxury to be able to go out on a daily basis the least we can do is try to maintain distance from each other. It’s ironic but I used to go to the parks to get away from people and now there are more people there than on the streets. We all need to get out of the house to not go 100% stir crazy, but we have been given the responsibility to make this lockdown effective in reducing the spread of the virus so we should at minimum do that.
No-one likes to be told what to do but we need to not act like teenagers and accept this is necessary and if it isn’t done properly there was no point in doing it in the first place and our inability to adhere to the rules will just make this go on and on. I guess I should be grateful at least that we don’t have protestors here armed with assault rifles demanding an end to the lockdown. Although there have been occasion when I could have done with an AK-47…just to fire off a few warning shots naturally ;) I obvs don’t want to kill anyone and that’s kinda the point of all this isn’t it? Isn’t that why we’re doing all this?
P. s Some of you might have noticed I have reverted back to colour. I went into black and white at the beginning of the year because everything seemed so despondent and hopeless and that was before Covid (!) I’m not saying things have improved but now I need to steer away from the doom and gloom as a matter of self-preservation. For me colour is optimism. Colour is hope. Colour is the beauty of nature. Colour is a better future. And the skies are just so fucking blue because there is no pollution in the city right now it would be almost masochistic not to show that….
It is baffling to me that, even when we are in lockdown indoors and can’t go out for the most part and everything we do revolves around being online whilst staring at a device, people would still feel the need to be glued to their phones when they are outdoors, the one and only time in the day when you could actually interact with the real world. Has it so lost its grip in our lives we no longer even care to interact with it all?
And also, for the record, it is impossible to effectively social distance when you are not looking where the fuck you are going. You have to pay full attention as you walk around to ensure that you can create space around us to maintain a 2m gap…utterly unachievable who can’t see beyond the phone they are clutching in their hand. And its just makes it a fuck sight harder for everyone else. Smartphone zombies (or smombies) were fucking annoying before Corona but now they are beyond frustrating and potentially an actual hazard to your health.
So look the fuck up people…your life or someone else’s might literally depend on it…and you will soon be back indoors where there is fuck all else to do but endless screen based activity….and don’t worry, your dopamine hit will still be waiting for you…
All shots this week (bar monday) and today were taken on the great union canal which runs right across London on my daily allocated walk. I always used to use it as an escape from the carnage on street level and most of the time it just feels like it normally would down there. When you are walking along the canalside and the weather is glorious, which it has been, it always feels like you are on holiday. And that hasn’t really changed and then you see someone in a face mask and you go, oh shit, that actually happened, that wasn’t just a bizarre nightmare.
Am finding I am constantly flitting between forgetting and remembering. The former feels like a mind state designed for self-preservation, the latter impossible to shut out completely. But you gotta keep it at bay as much as you can. 24/7 Corona will eat you up and think you need to dip out as much as you dip in to survive and maintain sanity.
I have massively scaled down how much I look at the news and have skipped my morning skim through the headlines and that seems to be helping as now I don’t start everyday with despair and rage. I tend to check the news now only early evening as this thing is clearly settling in for the long haul. And so should we. We need to drop down to Def Corona 3.
Why I’m also detaching from the feed is that It feels like the majority of the reporting is now focused mostly on two entirely redundant things, the past and the future. Half of it seems to be about what went wrong, who is to blame etc but that is all now utterly moot. And so is any forward projection as to what is going to happen..because they just don’t fucking know.
And predictions are changing on a daily basis so most of it becomes redundant overnight anyway so you don’t need to be tuned into every miniscule development. Your future self is going to have to deal with whatever shit storm it will end up being down the line but you don’t need to put your brain there yet. Worrying about all conceivable eventualities will not make you more prepared, it will just eat you up. The old saying goes: “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans” but that should be updated to “If you want to make Corona laugh…”
So with the past and future both ruled out as irrelevant that just leaves the present. And that is where your mind should be anyway. Living in the moment sounds like new age bullshit but it has always been the key to contentment and happiness and that was never truer than now.. Your day today is all that matters. If you get into bed at the end of tonight and nothing terrible has happened to you or anyone you know, chalk it up as a win. And do the same tomorrow, and the next day and so on…
It is exactly 28 days later since they imposed the London Lockdown and when you walk the desolate deserted streets of the West End it is exactly like waking up in that movie. There is not a soul around and it is extremely eerie. It has truly become a ghost town. And the further into the middle you get the quieter it becomes. There is no traffic noise, no drilling, no voices. Only the sound of silence.
There is a stark contrast to the calm stillness of the city centre with its abandoned streets and the tension within residential areas, driven by the need for human avoidance where ever you go. The irony is that the busiest part of London has now become the quietest. In all my life I have never seen the city like this. It is beautiful but also chilling at the same time.
These shots were all taken on daily allocated walks over the Easter Weekend and all people photographed whilst maintaining social distance.
Music is written, performed and produced by Charlie B. Lyrics taken from Ghost Town by the Specials .
