Next Gen News

A 17-year-old who watched on television in shock, such as riots 's Restaurant returns to Tottenham' near her family \ s streets

My family's restaurant

It 's heavy rain on Wednesday evening when I return with my family' s Ghanaian restaurant, Akwaah 's Kitchen, just off the Tottenham High Road, where the unrest began. We had seen a much larger restaurant with room for more than 100 people running the catering large local Ghanaian community, but the economic downturn has forced it intolerable, and we zoom out last year.

Our new place was only two months when the riots began to open, but right now my step-father is more worried about what is wrong in his neighborhood, as his new business. "It 's obviously a problem of discipline. Some children have been no limits during the riots, all four of my children were sitting in front of me saw it go on TV and I said," Don' t move ' , "he says as we sit at one of the empty tables. It is quiet today, there are only a few to eat, how we clear things are 't come back to normal yet.

Watching the riots on television with my family, which was shocking on Saturday night. I could 't believe what is happening around me. The well-known places of my childhood had turned into a war zone. It hurt to see the Aldi supermarket go up in flames. I'm often in there on the way to school to buy snacks, but now it was looted and burned. It was tough at Tottenham recently. This year, Haringey Council's cuts, the closure of most of the community 's run youth clubs. Nothing can justify the riots, but my stepfather is anxious to talk about these issues: "So much was taken away by these young people in such a short time, it 's no wonder that they' re angry and betrayed . I know how hard it is to tell my kids they can 't have something and not be able to give them a different explanation, but "Things are more closely' \."

The Restaurant Co-Manager, Nana Agyeman, remembers that on the night of the riots, everything seemed normal, although it "a kind of protest of the road, which seemed to us from the hand". When she went to work after midnight saw the extent of destruction: .. "It was just despicable We must respect the police, but they need because they trust us to see if the people that they can 't protect us, that' \ s wrong. Police only stood and watched them destroy the Community \. "

Now she is worried about the future. \ If "they [the rioters] back, and if so what if I 'm not so lucky? And now all of my expenses are going sky-rocket, business tax, insurance, everything. But the community is so supportive and that 's all I can ask for what I \. "

At the Salon Berce appears booming business, but Stacey Tambu, the hairdresser and barber shop managed, says revenue by 60% since the unrest: "It .. dead on the first ladies were afraid to come here was"

I think Stacey braids of a young girl 's hair in the little parlor at the back of the barbershop. According to Congolese music plays and lively discussions in the air, but Stacey has a commanding voice and say too much about the recent events.

On the night of the riots, she left the salon during the evening to attend a funeral, returning to see the devastation. "There was a police car on fire under the bridge. I've never seen anything like this in my life. Everything was getting smashed, robbed, chaos!'

Since the riots has Stacey was furious: "The people tried out, it was the only black children, but that 's not what I was doing it every \ .."

She makes no excuses for what happened, but believes that the "aggressive" stereotype of disadvantaged areas like Tottenham hooligans may have inspired. "It 's upsetting to see the church issued are described as animals, it doesn \ on a ghetto and the young people' help .. T, the situation is there something they live up to"

I don 't the way that my church has often been depicted in the aftermath of the riots. Some newspaper reports and TV coverage of Tottenham have it sound obscure, with little resemblance to the area that has good memories for me. It 's not the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, but it' s my home.

In school for test results

The next morning 's time to get my test results. I 'm nervous and add a cloudy sky just my hunch. It 's been a difficult year for the school in a way, as construction work meant moving to a temporary site at a previously disused school building, while our common room was housed in a portable building. But the atmosphere on my all-girls 'convent school in Hackney is still good. The staff place great emphasis on the importance of values ??and social commitment.

I let out a scream of joy when I open my envelope to discover I 've got four As at AS-level in my tear. Looking around me on the girls always look their A-level results I am a mixture of responses were, some happy, others not, while others examine desperate logging on to the UCAS website to see if they've 'their places despite secured obtaining the necessary qualities. My head teacher, Jane Gray, is here to congratulate and regret with students, thrilled with how well we 've done a whole. "This is truly the best day of the year for me," she says. "If parents and schools work together, 99% of the time their children come with success."

It was great to meet so many school friends again, most of which I saw hadn 't since before the riots. I was so all my friends who lived in the middle of the riots and was in constant contact with them worried about BlackBerry Messenger.

Sandra Frimpong is studying the nursing at Middlesex University. She lives on the farm Broadwater property and felt the effects after the riots in the morning when they go couldn 't to her store around the corner, because they are too afraid, were open. "It was just stupid, you waste places will only make their lives more difficult stores, job centers, supermarkets -.. And it 's parents, going to have to pay for everything that is".

But Sandra knows first-hand the tension caused by poor relations between the police and young people: "I've been with my brother so many times when he's been stopped and searched by the police for no proper reason. It's too much."

Nancy Adimora won three As and is the law at Queen Mary, University of London read. She feels "\ no connection" to the young people involved in the riots: \ "It's ridiculous to feel for some of them have a right to do these things because we live in these conditions.

"We 're all a part of the same company, but opportunities in different ways. Some see social deprivation as an excuse to steal, destroy and to complain, while others see it as motivation to do better in life , and use most of what we have. We 're all opportunists. "

As I leave school I'm overwhelmed with emotion thinking about the people I've spent several years with and who are now going on to pastures new. With everything that has gone on recently, it feels important to share these happy moments with my mates. At the moment, I don't feel daunted by the prospect of another year of midnight revision followed by £9,000 tuition fees.

The London Citizens Network

It 'sa short bus ride from the school in Whitechapel to visit the offices of London Citizens, the network of community organizers in East London. It 'sa journey that I have done many times in the past year working as a youth leader with the citizens. It is gratifying to know I 'm working on something valuable as its living wage campaign at a low wage increase does. Nearly 1,000 people had come to send peace vigils in and around Hackney last week organized by the citizens.

The atmosphere is busy, almost hectic, as people rush in and out of the meeting, but we found a quiet room. I 'm glad to hear that they don' t believe that churches have been destroyed by the riots, although they reported that some people used the riots as an excuse to "grab their neighbors and to settle old scores have heard. It 's as in Bosnia, people exploit the situation. "

It is a crucial time for citizens. "We 've done it must be [arrange] better and smarter than the gangs," says managing director Neil Jameson. "Gangs have a high level of awareness, so we got 've to work harder against them, gangs provide the people power, prestige and territory, so we'. Ve got to offer them an alternative - and that is politics ".

Jameson as a community organizer at the same time as Barack Obama made in Chicago in 1989. In May he attended instead of the meal, which Obama for the queen of the American Embassy.

Be their immediate response to the riots, a massive consultation, during which they hope to obtain the views of 100,000 people in the capital, looking to decipher the problems and work towards solutions.

Sebastien Chapleau, Senior Community Organizer for Hackney, grew into one of the toughest in Paris Banlieues . He sees parallels between his youthful experiences there and the current situation.

"Every Christmas they used to burn cars on my estate," he says. "It was as if they were saying, 'We can't afford to buy things like this or give nice presents so we're going to destroy it.' It feels the same as the looters deciding that because they can't afford to buy the stuff in the shops they are going to steal or destroy it. It's sad."

To learn more about what do young men in Tottenham, I walk a few meters down the road from White Hart Lane Stadium Spurs 'football field, the Haringey Boxing Club.

It is a modest one-story building in the parking lot outside the Tottenham Community Sports Centre, located far away from its glamorous neighbor on the street, but in 11 years has the club in the heart of the community.

When I arrive, the evening session just started and the boxers sweat under the coach 's firm view. A sign outside the gym advises players "Leave your attitude at the door". Gerry Willmott MBE, a local police officer, founded the club and coach the aspiring fighters. It is about the cuts, which shut down eight of the affected community 's 13 youth clubs this year.

"Any kind of club that 's of interest from young people hanging around they will keep in the road and away from peer pressure that she gets into trouble," he says. Until this year the club ran a summer scheme for more than 300 young people aged 11-18: "say I 'm not, I could have predicted the riots, but if the kids had come here, I would have to are able to talk to them and gauge feelings. "

He feels that youth services have been irresponsible "ripped" and are for the community. His club has some recommendations of youth crime and children's teams, which were excluded from schools. "I tell them that I 't turn your life around, but if you want change then I can help you."