Broken Britain

By Tanvi Gupta

It came as shock when BBC broke the news, of one of the biggest turmoil of the decade, over live telecast from the streets of London. I don’t think even India, be it at the height of madness during rallies or political unrest, has ever seen such wide scale open looting like that did in U.K. While we blame the Indian government for its inefficiency, it is now clear that the developed nations are no better, the lawlessness and poor police action encouraged local gangs in spreading the situation to the other cities of Britain as well.

Although, for a nation already reeling under a ripple ramification of economic despair and unemployment, this eruption was much- predicted; the current state of U.K is shocking and depressing. The role of non-white population during the riots was undisputable but, there were a substantial number of whites’ part of the arson. Hence, it is evident that the death of Mark Duggan was just a trigger and that the riots were actually an explosion of the pent-up fury of the oppressed youth.

Moreover, the London riots turned social media anti-social giving social media a troubling new addition to its lexicon. The mobile phone was “weaponised” as the young on the rampage were messaging to incite participation in the looting and spreading the hostility to other parts of Britain. Of the lot of social media being used, the blackberry messenger, thanks to its much-discussed encryption, was the most difficult for the police to crack.

Clearly the British government has a lot of damage control to do, from repairing public property to social security. The riots have tarnished the image of the country especially when it is preparing to host the world’s largest sporting event next year.