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British Jersey Shore is nothing like the real thing. 3 Days. (at Brighton Central Beach)

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Brexit Debate

A few weeks ago we had a debate for our political science class on Brexit. I have been closely watching the fallout which has occurred since the referendum and vote to leave the E.U. and I was immediately excited when I learned I would have the opportunity to debate its positive and negative aspects in class.

 I am personally of the opinion the Brexit is one of the greatest political missteps that has ever occurred in Britain, and that the negative repercussions will be felt for generations to come. However, it is always more fun to debate for the side that you don't agree because it allows you to think about an issue you are already familiar with from another point of view, and it also allows you to be better versed in the issue in general. 

My topic was Immigration and I am shocked to state that I agreed with a lot of the arguments which were being made. Obviously, there were the racist, xenophobic arguments that once always find, but there was a lot on the fact that Britain was simply not a large enough country to be able to accommodate the level of immigration which was occurring. There seemed to be bi-partisan agreement that immigration had to be curved because it simply was sustainable at the rate it was going. 

The debate itself was somewhat chaotic but very enjoyable and amusing at the same time. I found it particularly funny when Professor Davies asked at the end of the debate who would vote to leave Brexit and not a single person raised their hand. Hopefully, Brexit will not be as detrimental to the Britain and its Economy and its people as it is projected to be, but I have little faith.   

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5 more days to go. I can see the light, I can see the light . (at Arthur's Seat)

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Protest today in London against the Iranian governments unjust imprisonment of British-Iranian mother and charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. (at Kilburn, London)

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Buddhist Semester

This semester was intense. London is a busy city, and this was my first real time being by myself, away from family. For these reasons, I was glad that I was able to find a community of Buddhist and be able to meditate on semi-regular bases. It helped me stay calm and grounded throughout the semester particularly when I was feeling homesick. The leader of my meditation class and one of the founders of the West London Buddhist Center is one of my dads best friends an English man named Paramananda. I was able to spend some time getting to know Paramananda outside of class. I had dinner with him multiple times and stayed at his flat which was in Queens Park and just a short distance from our flats. His flat was what you would expect of a Buddhist monk, scarce but neat and clean. He is also mostly blind so he spends a lot of time in his flat meditating and listening to music as well as playing the piano and drums. 

I was intrigued to talk to my him about meditation and Buddhism but in general his outlook on life and current events particularly what was going on in American with Trump but also in the U.K. with Brexit. On the topic of Brexit, he found it ridiculous what Britain was doing.  He had a great deal to say on the matter of Trump but he also talked about how the anger and hatred that is being seen and felt around the world is not rooted in some sort of innate evil but instead fear. Ignorance and fear can drive people to do awful things were one the things he said that really resonated with me.

Something that I noticed when I would be at the meditation center was that I was always the youngest person there often by at least ten years. I'm not exactly sure why this is, I couldn't tell you if Buddhism, in general, is a religion which is in decline, I don't believe it is, and I hope that it isn’t. I think that a lot of young people, particularly my generation who are often stressed and have anxiety could benefit from meditation. For me being able to meditate regularly both at the center and on my own in the flat, helped me to be more focused this semester. I even tried to bring some of my fellow flatmates to the center, I was able to bring Saad who promptly fell asleep 15 minutes into the session. However, talking with him later I was glad to hear that he really did like going and felt very relaxed after the meditation.

While I was here in London the situation in Myanmar between the Buddhist majority and Muslim minority was intensifying and at times it was very hard to understand how a country that is primarily Buddhist would be able to commit such atrocities. Thankfully Buddhist philosophy and practice have very rarely inspired any sort of acts of violence but the sad reality was that in Myanmar it was self-proclaimed Buddhist monks who were preaching hate and division to their people. It was one of the subjects that I discussed with Paramananda. In all honesty, he didn't really have any answers. he simply said that any religious leaders who preach hate and violence, are not authentic representations of their religion. He told me that it was important to remember that when people commit violent acts very rarely is it because they are inherently violent.

 He talked about extremist in any religion are taught to be extremist, it is a process and often it has to do with the environment that they grow up in. He talked about how when he was growing up in northern England during the 1960’s and 70’s racism and discrimination was just part of the culture. It was often not even questioned or critiqued just accepted. He asked me that if I was a young Muslim man growing up in a world that was constantly telling me that I was a criminal, a terrorist, someone who followed a backwards and outdated religion and then regularly harassed who hard would it be for someone to take that anger that I had inside me and exploit it. he told me to remember that it is always important to remember that all major religions have an underlying group of morals and ethics and anyone from any religion can be a good and at the same time anyone from any religion can do terrible things, it doesn't have to do with the religion but the religious teacher and environment that the individual is placed in.

While I am excited to retune home I will admit that I am slightly sad to be leaving the Buddhist center and this routine I had come to appreciate. I hope that when I return to the States I will be able to find a center with a similar philosophy and community. I also hope that if I ever do return to London I will find that the West London Buddhist center is still up and running.            

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Community Engagement YMCA

When I wasn't meditating at the West London Buddhist Center I was working out at the Oldest YMCA in London. I know that sounds slightly ironic but it was the cheapest gym I could afford. I went to the gym on average 4 to 5 days a week for the last 3 months and I can safely say that in that time I got an insight into British culture, but also British gym culture.

On the first day of going to the Y I was immediately impressed by just the sheer size of the building. It was by far the biggest gym I had ever been to. There were four floors, including a cafe, a chapel, and a pool, and while the pool was closed for renovations they still provided their members with a pool they could use down the road at another facility. There were tons of classes that were offered for all YMCA members, including yoga, spin, abs, boxing, and Zumba. In addition, just by being a YMCA member you received discounts for different restaurants around London.

When I finally descended to the bottom level of the gym where the locker rooms and free weights were I was slightly nervous. There is always that awkwardness about going to a gym especially when you new. In the U.S. all the gyms I had been to before had had a certain competitiveness to them, particularly when it came to the guys who were working out. The macho culture was present in every gym I had ever been in and I was sure it would also be present here. However to my surprise it was not a potent as I had expected or experienced in the U.S. I’m not saying there were no hyper-masculine men walking around the gym staring at their biceps in the mirror, surprise surprise, men can be idiots in any country, but there definitely was a different atmosphere in the gym.

I think a major part of this is that British culture is so different than American. A gym in the U.S. is loud, strangers are talking to each other, asking for people to help spot them, asking how much longer someone is going to be on a certain machine etc.. in comparison the YMCA was the biggest, most quite gym I had ever been to in my life. In the weight room, which is typically one of the more loud and obnoxious places you can find yourself in and I was able to head everyone's music through their headphones. It was odd. One day my one water bottle leaked all over the floor of the weight room, there was water everywhere! Nobody made a big deal, nobody even acknowledged that it happened, everyone just continued to do their town thing and act like it hadn't happened.

The only people who made a lot of noise in the gym, talked to each other, to strangers were people who were obviously not British. It is funny because this was the same experience I had had all master riding the Tube, the only people I ended up talking to were all from other European countries. In the gym, the only people who I had conversations with were primarily Italian, Indian and Pakistani. Now I am not saying that they were not British, but they defiantly had not yet obtained that trademark cool demeanor that is known to the British people.

So I have been going to the gym for three months now and over these three months I have come to conclusion the British gyms are far superior to American gyms simply for the reason that due to the British culture of not interacting with people that you don't know when people are at the gym they are there simply to work out and focus on themselves. Something that I notice all the time at American gyms is that the woman who is working out often are getting gawked at and harassed by men. Its almost as if the best time to ask a woman out is when she is on her 5th mile on the treadmill. At the Y everyone was focused on themselves and couldn't be bothered with what anyone else was doing. I am ashamed to admit that I was one of the only men in the gym who would wear sleeveless shirts, apparently, it is not as common in London as it is in New Jersey.

Another major difference I noticed was that at the Y there was a lot of older men and woman who came to the gym on regular bases. At most gyms I go to in America the people who are usually there are mainly on the younger side of the spectrum, here, however, there were quite a lot of members who were in the 60’s and 70’s, I am not sure if this is simply because the Y is known as a gym that caters to older members or another part of British culture that many elderly people continue to go to gyms.

All in all I am glad that I ended up getting a gym memberbership this semester. I feel that by putting myself in an evnvironment in which I was surrounded by britsh people almost everyday I was able to pick up on some of the more unqiue social cues. I think it was alos interesting to be around men and woman who had just recently moved to London and were also trying to ajust and fit in to a country and culture that was very differnt from their own.  

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Hard at work outside the National Portrait Gallery // Trafalgar Square, November 2017 (at Trafalgar Square)

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Hard at work outside the National Portrait Gallery // Trafalgar Square, November 2017. (at National Gallery)

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Tube Time // Oxford Circus Station, November 2017 (at Oxford Circus tube station)

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“Rough Sleeper” on Kilburn high street // London, September 2017 (at Kilburn, London)

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Taylor Wessing Gallery

On Friday I visited the National Portrait Gallery to see the photos that were the finalist in the Taylor Wessing photography competition. The photographs which were entered were all unique in their own way, but they all had to be portraits.

Two photographs stood out to me in particular, the first was Catherine Hyland whose photos depicted the day to day lives of the people living on the Caribbean Island of Nevis. The second photographer was the South African Thom Pierce. He had a series of portraits on the Horseman of Semonkong.

One thing I noticed was that the majority of the photos were taken by photographers who were more of fashion photographers. Personally, I did not like their photos, I have never really appreciated fashion photography, not that I do not respect the photographers, just not my cup of tea.

The photo that won second place was taken by Abbie Trayler-Smith. The photo shows a woman looking through a rainy bus window as she is driven away from a refugee camp in northern Iraq. The first prize photo taken by César Dezfuli is a portrait of Amadou Sumaila, a sixteen-year-old from Mali, who was rescued in the Mediterranean Sea. César Dezfuli had a whole series of portraits of the economic migrants coming from North Africa to Europe.

Seeing the photos inspired me to submit some of my own photos next year for the same competition as well as other photo competitions, not because I expect to win anything but just to get in the habit of getting my work out there. I would recommend to anyone seeing the exhibit before it is taken down in January.  

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Portfolio Photos #2

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Portfolio Photos

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Eric, a master carpenter who due to the hard economic climate finds himself doing chalk paintings of current world leaders - - Trafalgar Square 2017 (at Trafalgar Square)

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Bonfire Night

Thinking back on Bonfire Night I can honestly say that the British don't know how to properly use fireworks. This is not an opinion this is simply a fact. England possesses a lot of knowledge that I’m sure the U.S. could learn from examples being the NHS, BBC, and pub culture, however, what I trulls believe the U.S. is superior in is the proper handling and setting off of fireworks.

I left the flats on Bonfire night excited, I knew little about the historical origins of Bonfire night other than what I was able to distantly real learning Sophomore year of high school and from V for Vendetta. After exiting the bus which had dropped me off a block away from Primrose Hill I began to walk towards the sounds of fireworks and loud excitable voices. The Hill presented a wide panorama of the cityscape, it was quite beautiful, and while fireworks were not permitted inside the park from this vantage point I was able to see fireworks exploding all over the London skyline. The only thing I was unable to see from my vantage point was the burning effigies which I had heard so much about.

When I returned back to the flats I looked up on Wikipedia just what exactly bonfire night was about. The very basic description would be that Bonfire night became a holiday and celebration because of the failed assassination attempt on the King James I. However since Guy Fawkes, the would-be assassin was Catholic there was a tremendous amount of anti-catholic discrimination and rhetoric used in subsequent years. In the days leading up to Bonfire Night, I read in the paper how many Catholics still feel that bonfire night is a night rooted in prodigious and hatred, particularly with the tradition of burning effigies in parks.

However from what is saw Bonfire night was nothing more than Londoners gathering together on a cool November evening sharing some food and drink and enjoying each other's companies as well as the subpar British firework display.

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Oslo -- Review

This semester there have been two plays I have been excited to see. The first was the Ferryman and the second, which I just saw last night, was Oslo. Oslo is play inspired by the peace talks between the PLO and Israel which occurred in secret in Norway during the late 90’s. The play is written by J. T. Rogers and was originally put on in the U.S. off-Broadway. However, Oslo since its off-Broadway debut has garnered a tremendous amount of critical acclaim and quickly moved to Broadway. We saw the west end rival and I felt that this play was, in my humble opinion, the best play I have seen this semester.

From the very begging of the play I was hooked, I’m not sure what it is about political dramas that are so exciting but Oslo felt very much like I was watching The West Wing or House of Cards. It is not surprising then when I later found out that the writer is currently turning Oslo into a screenplay, and its rights have already been bought. The play was over two hours long, but when it finished and I stood up to leave I knew that I could have easily sat through another two hours. Two things in particular really stuck out to me about the play, the first being the dialogue. I thought the dialogue was fantastic. It felt authentic and realistic, while at the same time not falling into the trap of being so dull and ultra-realistic to the point that the audience doesn't really care about what the characters are saying. The jokes were spot on, the abrupt outburst of anger by both the Israeli delegates and Palestinians felt authentic, and the heartfelt dramatic scenes never once felt sappy or cliche. The second area where I thought the players really did well was in its ability to remain neutral in such a heated debate. The play did not attempt to force you to its end to chose a side, pro-Israel or pro-Palestine, rather it allowed you to get a glimpse into the complexities of the issues. The play also held back no punches, both the Israeli government and PLO were critiqued and examined as well as Norwegian and American foreign policy.

However, I think the most important part of the play, at least for me was that I, a Jew and supporter of Israel, was able to watch the play next to my friend Saad, who is Jordanian and Palestinian as well as American but feels no love for the nation of Israel. We were both able leave the theater feeling that the play was well done and fair to both sides.  The dialogue that transpired after the play between me and Saad was I believe the play’s entire point, to create the atmosphere for a dialogue to take place between two, or nations that may not have a lot in common.

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Child Refugee Crisis

This week’s reading on the child refugee crisis I found particularly moving. The article told the story of a young boy named Wasil who had to flee Afghanistan so as to escape the violence of the Taliban. Wasil at age 12 was traveling by himself across Asia and through Europe trying to get to his extended family in England. Wasil ended up in a refugee camp in France fittingly named the Jungle surrounded by thousands of other scared children and young people hoping to escape the camp and make it to England. The picture the article painted was of a bleak hell scape, Lauren Collins leaves the reader with a sense of despair, not because of Wasil’s story necessarily but because we get an idea of just how many other young boys and girls are in a similar situation to Wasil and some in even worse situations.

Reading this article I thought of all the kids I have worked with back in Oakland many of them unaccompanied minors who have fled their native countries. I have had the chance to speak with several unaccompanied minors, some who have come to the U.S. as well as several who came directly from refugee camps. Hearing their stories and how long it had taken them to get to the U.S. were inspiring and disheartening a the same time. The amount of red tape and paperwork and vetting that goes on is astonishing. It takes years and years, I am always amused when I hear politicians talking about needing an even longer vetting process because of its a statement that shows how little they know ours understand about the vetting process. 

A group of my friends all came to the U.S. from them same refugee camp in Thailand. Some of them lived in the refugee camp for 6 months, one year, four years, and one of my friends lived in the refugee camp for ten years before he was able to get out of. He talked about how growing up in a refugee camp was great, he personally loved it. The reasons he gave for loving it were not surprising, he didn't have any school, he was able to just play with his friends all day. When I was listening to my friend describe his time in a refugee camp I didn't quite believe him when he said he really enjoyed spending ten years in a refugee camp, however, he is an incredibly good natured and happy go, lucky kid, perhaps for him it really had been a positive experience, but for many, like Wasil I don't think this is the case.