London - Looted and in Flames

I am absolutely speechless. A few nights ago (Thursday night in fact), I met a friend from JC who is in London for a few weeks for dinner. He asked me, "is London safe?". Without hesitation, I replied in the negative. Over the last 2 years, I've started to feel a little safer than when I first arrived. But I never felt completely at ease. Least of all when I pass through some of the most dangerous boroughs in the capital every week. But tonight has left me in disbelief that such uncivilised acts could take place in such a widespread manner in a supposedly civilised society.

In case you are wondering and are concerned, I'm safe, indoors and hope to remain so.

However, the scenes I see on the TV (laptop to be more exact) have been heartbreaking, frustrating and horrifying.

These are a (small part of a) generation of youths who have grown up in the "modern world". Technology has changed the way we think, communicate, and influence others. Or perhaps London is now facing up to years of unaddressed delinquency as loots destroy their very own neighbourhoods and communities. One reporter was asked by the studio, "what are the parents doing? why are the kids on the streets?" and the reply was "the kids are always on the streets". The scale of the problem is obviously far bigger and far more fundamental.

And so I've spent almost the whole night glued to the BBC news watching the events unfold all around me on TV and shaking my head way too often. Now, as I watch cars, buses, shops, and hundred-year-old landmark buildings go up in flames, and people shamelessly looting shops in broad daylight, I reflect on the depravity of man, and the extent of wickedness. These people obviously knew they were doing wrong, for they wore masks, balaclava and tshirts over their faces to avoid getting recognised on CCTV and to avoid suffering the consequences of their actions. The sad truth is that they will probably never be caught or face justice in the courts, but their conscience, if not already seared, will forever pierce them.

As buildings and vehicles burned all around the capital, with Hackney just a couple of miles north of here and Peckham and Lewisham not far south, I tried to imagine what hell would be like. Even in relatively decent neighbourhoods - directly across the capital from where the violence first stared in Croydon (SW Greater London) and Clapham Junction (quite an expensive hip area) - crazy people have gone on a rampage. The video footage from helicopters are terrifying enough, and the firemen stood very small beside flames many times their height which threatened to engulf them. Burnt out buildings are now threatening to collapse, and have to be pulled down and destroyed forever. Grand Dames of the high street that have stood for centuries, gone in an hour. Nothing is sure; nothing stands forever on this earth. Another lesson to never build with wood, hay or stubble.

Across the world over, there is bad news on every corner. The financial markets are in perpetual meltdown, there are uprisings all over - Syria, Libya, etc, and society is crumbling. This is truly a godless and perverse generation. The end is nigh? God, be merciful.