Friday, March 3, 2006

Less blarney, more blimey

by Suw on March 3, 2006

Just sitting in the airport at Dublin, waiting for my flight back to London*. Wifi seems to be non-functional, which is a shame, as it's ubiquitous throughout the airport, it's just ubiquitously crap.
I came over to see the guys from Digital Rights Ireland, and to give a lecture at Trinity College as part of the Legal Worships series organised by Dr Eoin O'Dell. As it happened, Ren Bucholz from Online Rights Canada and the EFF was also in town so we got to meet and have a chat with DRI about how the three (well, four if you count the EFF too) organisations could work together. This sort of alliance is going to be key to combating poor legislation and defending digital rights and sharing our information and concerns is going to be most productive.
An then, on top of all that I got a riot thrown in as a free extra bonus.
The riot was kind of strange, really. We were sitting in a Cafe Metro in the city centre, a few roads away from where the trouble was, but had Simon not had an RSS news feed set up on his mobile, I'm not sure we would have found out about it at all. Reports vary, as you'd probably expect, but it seems that the trouble started around 12.30pm, and went on for a couple of hours. By the time we'd finished with our extended lunch at 3.30pm, it was pretty much all over.
Walking down Nassau Street, though, was a bit of an odd thing. Smashed up shop windows, blackened patches of road where council workmen were working to clear up the mess left by the the car that had, until just a few hours previously, been parked on that spot, and then further up, a very upset woman standing looking at the still smouldering remains of her own car. There really wasn't much left, just a blackened skeleton of a car sitting in a heap of ashes, whispers of smoke rising silently into the air.
Across the road, a school minibus which once proudly proclaimed that it had been 'donated by the parents' stood, all but a few windows smashed in.
As we walked further up, round to O'Connell Street where it all started, there were more shattered and bulls-eyed windows, more black patches on the ground where the rioters burnt pallets scrounged from the redevelopment work going on along the whole length of the road. The reek of burning rubbish from a large bin still smouldering. Most of the street had been tidied up by the time we got there, but from the photos on Flickr and in the press you can see how the rioters used the paving slabs, barriers, and even a wheelbarrow as missiles to throw at the Gardaí.
The ostensible cause of the riot was the Love Ulster march that had been planned for that afternoon, but many of the rioters, according to press here, were opportunists. (I'm sure that some of those here for the rugby were delighted to find themselves presented with the chance to enjoy a little mayhem.) There was looting as well, and walking past some of the stores you could see their stock strewn on the floor behind the bent and buckled security screens that obviously weren't able to resist the onslaught of Lithuanians (in at least one case) desperate for new trainers.
I'm glad that we were a few streets away from the trouble. I have no doubt that it would have been terrifying to have been caught up in it, as a lot of shoppers and real rugby fans were. But after the fact, walking through Dublin with my DRI friends, all of us pointing out the worst of the damage and exclaiming as yet another ambulance hurtled past, it all seemed a bit distant.
This was the worst riot in Dublin for 20 – 30 years. But as with the Londoner's reaction to IRA terrorism in the early 90s, the mood amongst my hosts was more annoyance than shock. More 'what a disgraceful exhibition of poor behaviour' than 'oh my god, how could this possibly have happened'. Indeed, some posited that the riot had been allowed to occur for political reasons. Certainly, it seems odd that there were so few Gardaí around, and that they found themselves a little unprepared. Rumour had it that the rioters had been bused in by the coachful, and that makes more than a little sense.
By the time we got up to where it all started, it was pretty much back to normal, except for the workmen putting up plywood against the broken windows and random TV cameras left on tripods waiting for someone to take them away.
The most noticeable effect of the riot, other than the burnt out cars, was the way that the city locked right down. The Book of Kells was shut. The museums. Most of Trinity College's entrances. There was a picture gallery open, but I didn't see anything much because as soon as we got inside, a journalist rang wanting to know about the UK's National Vehicle Tracking Database.
The rest of the weekend was far less eventful, but far more enjoyable. Finally did get to see the Book of Kells, which is far, far smaller than you think it's going to be, and far, far more beautiful. It is truly amazing how finely detailed the illustrations are, and how beautiful the colours, even after all this time.
My hosts were a lot of fun, so thanks very much to Noirin and her family, Simon, TJ, Antoin, Colm, and everyone else who looked after me and kept me entertained.
* Of course, this post wasn't finished where it was started. I'm now sitting on my bed in Euston. More comfortable by half.

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Get that yurt out of here

by Suw on March 3, 2006

Five properties lined up for viewing on the weekend, variously in the Hoxton/Old Street area, Highgate, Notting Hill and Kings Cross areas. We shall see what we shall see.
I have been dreading this bit. Flat hunting in the UK has never been anything other than misery for me. Horrible landlords who rip you off, get overly anal over what you can and can't do in what is supposed to be your home, or turn out to be a complete fucking psycho. (Frequently, all three.)
Housing in London and satellite towns is expensive and usually shite. I've lived in houses that have mold, slugs, damp, and scorpions. Yes, that's right… ok, so it was only a little one but it was still a bloody scorpion.
Me: Hello, is that the Natural History Museum? I'd like your etymol… entymol… er… insect department please.
Insect person: Hallo, how can I help.
Me: Er, i seem to have something in my bathroom that… well, it looks like a scorpion.
Insect person: That's because it is a scorpion, madam.
Me: Oh.
Insect person: It's ok. They don't have stings and won't get any bigger.
Me: Oh. Thank you.
Me (thinks): So long as it doesn't go and get Mummy and Daddy Scorpion and all its little scorpion siblings, I think we'll be fine.
I've lived in places where I could hear the Northern Line rumbling underneath my room (nice), places where you could smell the Thames on a hot summer's day (not so nice), and places where the upstairs neighbour was a drunken ex-junkie petty thief who'd leave his radio on 'full' all night (really not very nice at all).
But at least these days flat hunting is not as painful as it use to be. Once upon a time you used to have to rise before dawn to get down to the corner shop to buy Loot. You'd sit and pour over the classifieds, trying to figure out what the random abbreviations really meant, then you'd go to the nearest phone box and try to set up a viewing. It got depressing after a while:

Every morning I wake up and it's the same. I get up, I buy the paper, and I circle them all. And I phone them only to discover that they've been taking by a bunch of fucking psychic house hunters. And they've all been goat*-infested rat-holes.
– Daisy, Spaced, episode 1.

At least now you can just go online, find a shed-load of flats across London that look ok and get your arrangements done with a lot less fuss. And sometimes they even have pictures. I am at a loss, however, to explain why – with unlimited space on websites to describe the property – do you still see ads like “One Double Bedroom Flat Close to Transport Amenities”. Wow… does the place have nothing to commend it?
Anyway, we've taken the first step. We've got our first bunch of viewings arranged. Tomorrow, we find out about the goats.
* I'm not sure if she actually says 'goat', but it really does sound like it.

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