My Passion Series - London

London; a city with many faces, wide as a country, fast as a swallow; its traffic indifferent from appearance, its roads of no particular size. It is an entire mass of amazement that over time has come to gather on a small patch of land making it choke with so much body contacts that sets off hilarious madness.

Actually, the above did not still define this wonderful city. Why did I like it actually? What makes if buff? Where lays its magic? Is London really as special as it appears or a slum with a diamond surface? There are so many questions to ask, dear reader. But we can’t finish it because again, it is a baggage of unusualness that can raise unending curiosity.

My love for London is mainly because it is very indefinable. It is a city of no mapped pattern. A city where freedom is free, welcome is to all. It opens its bowels and takes in whatever that seeks sanctuary. The uniqueness of London lies in its contents. Every language spoken under the sun; and even in mars, is found here. To me, London is the world’s parliament house.

On its street walks people minding their own business but having 2 seconds to spare for a very strange and unusual smile. You have to learn the London smile though. Yet regardless of the “You’re-On-Your-Own” lifestyle, you are never fully alone. There are available answers should you ask for directions. Yet, London lacks community.

This is a city where your next door neighbour never gets to know you nor care to. It is a city where you are always new in your neighbourhood. It is a city where regardless of all that, a stranger can give you 20p to complete your tube fare when you seem perturbed in front of the ticket machines. And adversely, it is also a city where you can die in your room and your housemates won’t notice. It is full of contrasts as much as similarities. I love London just for this lack of routine.

I love London; I love her because she is very unusual. I love her because she is kind and harsh. I love her because she is a mother and a hag. I love London because she is a significant unity of the world yet shows how much segregation can slow down the world.

There are sections for everything, from gay pubs to black restaurants, Asian corner shops to young peoples’ advice line, asylum seekers associations to foreign prisoners, list 99, right wingers, Tories, you name it. You are either in one or the other. Yet, whatever you are or believe in, you are never alone or lonely.

Global Warming, Who's innocent?

While looking out over the city of Manchester from the 5th floor room that I stayed part of my break t about 2am, something about global warming arose in my mind and seems to jump out at me from the city scene before me that morning. The glowing lights taking over the mountainous scene of the western Manchester show exactly how much the world is on fire.

But looking at that sight that night, I asked myself some questions; who are those generating those light over this city? Is there any anti-global warming promoter among the millions of people who these electric bulbs are glowing from their home, office, etc? Are these glowing lights necessary for the night? Do they have any advantage(s) or is it only disadvantages; of global warming of course? And even at that, do we actually need them? In fact, so many questions are there to ask.

So while I take in this sight of the burning earth before me, I thought we are not being fair to ourselves; the burners and the anti-burners. Yes we are.

Electricity, which obviously isn’t the only ice-breaking factor, contributes a good chunk to the global warming and we all tend to be using it. Where people are not, they are clamouring to have it or we call them under-developed. What I thought about was how difficult it was to use the roads, whether in the city or villages without light? Or is it easy?

Having experienced both scenarios myself, i accepted that the present situation is actually inevitable if we must get near to confident. Back in my ‘under-developed country, the lights go out sometimes and you can tell the difference walking or taxiing home under such dark atmosphere. And this is in the cities, but you could smell the villages where there is no electric light at all. With such situation, I appreciate so much the advantage of electricity and know that they have become quite irreplaceable.

On the other hand, anti-global warming activities should involve us all through minimizing our usage to the barest needful level. Yet in all, all this protest and anti-protest ate not called for as we need these things to refer the world as developed or modernizing. Those who stand against them should imagine themselves living in the 16th centuries and compare it to now. Those who burn the world (if any?) also should think of such times gone when people survived without these materials.

dA vINCI cODE & tHE cHURCH

When in 2004, Dan Brown published his blockbuster book Da Vinci Code, bookworms and book-atheist all went whoa! And our sight was blurred with the copy of the top chart novel all over the place. It was in every hand; in the train, in the bus, in aeroplanes, offices, and even in noisy Bricklane market, traders read it. But I didn’t.

As the days went by and Da Vinci Code kept leaping beyond the sky, the challenge boosted. It was while I listened to my lovely BBC TV that I heard how that the church clergies are against it. Really? Why? Then began my curiosity. I have to know; and thus I went looking for this forbidden fruit. And luckily for me, my lovely Tesco was offering it at a far too reduced price. The rest, reader, is story.

It was a wonderful intelligence put to paper. I read it non-stop and even got converts who it became their first book… hehe. But you know what? I am a Christian. And funny enough, I didn’t find anything discriminating nor implicating, castigating or defamatory, neither destructive nor whatsoever in the nice piece of work. To me, it was fiction at its peak, though I have my reservations, yet nothing concrete to think the book is against the church or God.

Well, I couldn’t wait to watch the movie when I heard it will be made into one. And trust me I saw it 2 days after it was in the cinema. It’s gorgeous though not equal to what I read in the book (never mind that, book readers never think a book can be completely acted out). On the Sunday prior to its release, my vicar mentioned it in his sermon. Oh dear! What trouble is it with this book? Rowan Williams talked about it in his Easter day address in Christ Church, Canterbury, and a lot more of them priests. But whatever makes them think they have the exclusive right to determine what is right or wrong? I think they are going beyond their priestly duty to meddle into people’s social and occupational life.

What I saw is that there is fear among these sect; the priests. And it makes me wonder; are we (church members) really on the same path with our priests? Are they really taking us to where we are told or do they have a hidden destination? Do they belong only to the physical church or have they got stakes in occultism? In fact, there is more than meets the eye in their defence of the Bible, of Jesus Christ, of God and all of this business.

The attack on Da Vinci Code by the clergy appear to me like a fear to threat. I believe in God, but I don’t believe I should fight for God. This is because the God I believe in is one that is powerful and capable of fighting for himself. Let me ask us a question; do you think that I should be buying clothes for Bill Gates if I really accept that he is as rich as said? If no, why then should I fight for a God that I think is powerful than me?

If the church is owned and set up by and for God, it will survive any attack. This issue of Da Vinci Code looks to me like the whole rancour of sexuality threatening the Anglican Church. The righteous primate of Nigeria and his co-angels have even taken enmity (what else can it be) with churches in America while they eat pork, snail, and never declare themselves unholy for any day against all that is written in the book of Numbers in the Bible. But looking at that glaringly, you can agree with me, they attack sexuality like people who has stuff to hide. I bet you they do.

Well, having observed all this, I think Da Vinci Code and any other suspected enemies are only being glorified by the defences from the church. Today, the book as well as the film draws more attention due to the fame the church has granted it. But, I also think, with the style of attack I have seen from the priesthood quarters, it is time the priests take an oath to declare their exemption from high cultic powers because they act like it most times.

My Passion Series - Trafalgar Square

London is diverse. It is cosmopolitan. Its is mixed. All that is true and they are what makes it buff. Secondly, these make me love London. But London is too big: from Heathrow to Hornchurch, from Watford to Wimbledon. It is a massive city that you find yourself travelling only with the comfort that it still is London. So what do we do?

For me, I have my favourite spot in London. It is a junction point, a portrait of the varieties of the world and its human race. Looked over by a warrior himself, sanctified by an apostle in the field, the walls of the collection of the past defending it, Trafalgar Square is my special spot in this over expanded city. Its fountains cool down rising temperature, its seats remind my bum of the tough world.

Since I arrived London in 2004, I have come to admire and love Trafalgar Square so much. Reason being that in her, I see the completeness of the cosmopolitan London. People of all nations, race, colour, creed, political affiliation, class, age, etc. I love sitting down in the Square, reading or just looking out. And you know what? I feel like sitting (with God) and looking over the world. Yes, that’s exactly how I feel. Because I can see everything that represent human. Beggars and Givers alike, poor and rich. Big and Small, black and white. Americans and Asians, Bangladeshis and Brazilians. Mixed married couples, colour mixed people. It is a fabulous place to be in.

When I feel low, when I feel separated, when I think I have no reach to the world, Trafalgar Square is the place to go communicate with the world. And sitting there I feel good when the wind blows the vapour of the beautiful fountain in the midst upon me on a hot summer day. It feels like being at the spring of life. Trafalgar Square is a gathering of the commotion of peace. It breathes love. It portrays commonality. It shows courage, it encourages acceptance. It is the epitome of the variety of mankind. In it, I think of the tower of Babel of an opposite purpose. The statue of Lord Nelson reaching out into the sky but not to challenge God - though I don’t believe that God lives in the sky or beyond it (see my thought on God in few days to come). The houses of parliament with the great old Big Ben directly in view farther a bit from the sit of political power on Dawning Street just off Whitehall. The gates to the Mall, leading to the palace of her majesty; (now you can imagine why I feel good being in this cosmopolitan square). It is a complete assembling point of my many passions.