Shakespeare the humanitarian

The following blog post was adapted from an article that appeared in THE DAY.

Shakespeare intervenes in refugee crisis

THE DAY, Wednesday, 16 March 2016

http://theday.co.uk/arts/shakespeare-intervenes-in-refugee-crisis

This is the only known script in Shakespeare’s hand...

The British Library has digitised a powerful speech in Shakespeare’s own handwriting: a heartfelt plea for the humane treatment of refugees. Does the bard have an answer to Europe’s crisis?

Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, is sticking by her welcoming policy for refugees, despite the mounting resistance from EU citizens. And yesterday she found support from an unexpected source: England’s most famous writer and beloved bard, William Shakespeare.

A powerful speech appealing to the humanity of a xenophobic crowd has surfaced as if from beyond the grave - or rather, the British Library has digitised the handwritten document in time for this year’s anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

Scholars believe that the speech was inserted by Shakespeare into a play about Sir Thomas More by less interesting writers, and commentators were quick to point out that it has a spooky affinity with today’s refugee crisis.

The scene of the play takes place on 1 May 1517 - a day which later became known as ‘Evil May Day’ (cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_May_Day). French, Belgian and Italian immigrants had travelled to London to escape various religious and political wars in Europe. Inflamed by an angry speech calling on ‘Englishmen to cherish and defend themselves,’ a violent mob of working-class apprentices marched through central London, where many of the foreigners were living.

Sir Thomas More, who at the time was under-sheriff of London, was sent to calm them. He asks them to imagine the ‘wretched strangers’ with ‘babies at their backs’, ‘plodding to the ports and coasts for transportation’. It is a description that could be taken straight from today’s shores in Europe, which saw hundreds of thousands cross the Mediterranean in search of asylum last year.

More then asks the crowds to put themselves in the strangers’ shoes. He asks: “How would you like to be treated in their place?” And he finishes with a scornful summary of the crowd’s ‘mountainish inhumanity’ (i.e. big as a mountain or perhaps referring to the supposedly backward mentality of people who live in mountainous regions?).

Thomas More

‘It is striking and sad just how relevant it seems to us now considering what is happening in Europe,’ said the British Library’s curator, Zoe Wilcox. ‘At its heart it is really about empathy.’

'Your great trespass'

This a powerful speech, say some, but let’s not get carried away. The circumstances of 16th-century England were strikingly different to Europe today. There was no European Union, no Daesh targeting civilians. There are 50 million more people in England and Wales now than in 1500. Political decisions should not be dictated by a long-dead writer from Warwickshire.

This is wilfully missing the point, argue others. Of course Shakespeare is not directly addressing Nigel Farage. But his words prove that this is an issue that returns throughout history. It is easy to fear outsiders, but xenophobia is always proved wrong as a culture adjusts to its new arrivals. We must remember our common humanity - and no one is better at reminding us than Shakespeare.

"London is the world’s greatest city; we cannot sit back and do nothing about the rough sleeping crisis."

The text below was adapted from an article published in The Guardian, dated Sunday 17 July 2016 (click HERE), written by Sadiq Khan.

Close partnership and innovative approaches are needed to curb the rising numbers of homeless people inherited from the Conservative administration of London. I am committed to tackling London’s housing crisis in whatever form it takes – and the rise in rough sleeping over recent years is a growing source of shame that we have a moral imperative to stop.

People end up on the street for many different reasons – leaving care or hospital, problems with debt, unemployment, mental health, family breakup – and so the help they need is varied too. We can support some rough sleepers, particularly when they have become homeless recently, through programmes such as No Second Night Out.

In more entrenched (i.e. long-term) cases regarding homeless people, a more intensive intervention may be needed, as a one-size-fits-all (i.e. one solution to all problems) approach does not always work. We can promote innovative approaches by making our funding of agencies that help homeless people conditional on these agencies achieving results – an approach that has proved successful in helping people access and remain in stable accommodation.

But, crucially, we need not only to help rough sleepers on the street, but also to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place – and that’s why I’ll be launching a No Nights Sleeping Rough taskforce with prevention central to its approach. This taskforce will bring together all the agencies to tackle rough sleeping as we will only make a difference through close partnership. The taskforce will set the strategic priorities for services the mayor provides, come up with proposals for new initiatives and projects, and lobby government for the changes we need.

A Labour mayor and government dramatically reduced rough sleeping at the start of this century and I’m determined we’ll do it again. Making a difference won’t be easy, but I will lead the way.

To do:

1) Listen to the teacher read and comment the article, noting pronunciation, vocabulary and expressions, and summarising the main points of the article.

2) Read the following information on The Guardian:

The Guardian is a British national daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821. It is edited by Katharine Viner. It is part of an international media group which includes The Observer (a British Sunday paper) and The Guardian Weekly (an international roundup of articles from various papers). In 2013, The Guardian's print edition had an average daily circulation of 189,000 copies, behind The Daily Telegraph and The Times, and ahead of The Independent. The newspaper's online edition was the fifth most widely read in the world as of October 2014, with over 42.6 million readers.  In the UK, its combined print and online editions reach 9 million readers. The Guardian was named newspaper of the year at the 2014 British Press Awards for its reporting on government surveillance.

3) Answer the following question:

What type of people read The Guardian do you think?

4) Translate the title.

5) Read the following information about Sadiq Khan:

Sadiq Aman Khan (born 1970) has been Mayor of London since May 2016, succeeding Conservative Party Mayor Boris Johnson. Khan was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 to 2016. He is a member of the Labour Party. His election as Mayor of London made him the city's first ethnic minority mayor, and the first Muslim to become mayor of a major Western capital. As mayor he has limited charges on London's public transport and focused on uniting the city's varied communities. He was an active supporter of the unsuccessful Britain Stronger in Europe campaign to retain the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union.

6) Question:

Why does Khan describe London as “the world’s greatest city”?

7) Read the following information about the Labour Party:

The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Growing out of the trade union movement and socialist parties of the nineteenth century, the Labour Party encompasses a diversity of ideological trends from strongly socialist to moderately social democratic (social democracy includes the belief in collective responsibility for social welfare). Founded in 1900, the Labour Party overtook the Liberal Party as the main opposition to the Conservative Party in the early 1920s, forming governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and from 1929 to 1931. Labour later served in the wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after which it formed a majority government under Clement Attlee. Labour was also in government from 1964 to 1970 under Harold Wilson and from 1974 to 1979, first under Wilson and then James Callaghan. The Labour Party was last in government from 1997 to 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Having won 232 seats (out of 650) in the 2015 general election, the party is the Official Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In September 2015, Jeremy Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party.

8) Question:

Why does Khan want to solve the problem of rough sleeping?

9) Read the following information about sleeping rough in London:

According to the CHAIN (Combined Homelessness and Information Network) database, 8,096 people slept rough at some point in London during 2015/16, an increase of 7 per cent compared to 2014/15 (though these figures are probably an underestimate). 57 per cent are aged between 26 and 45 years with 1 in 10 under 25 and 11 per cent over 55. 43% have problems due to alcohol, 31% have problems due to drugs, and 46% have mental health problems. 32% had served time in prison. 41% are UK nationals, 37% are from Central and Eastern European countries, 2% are refugees from Eritrea and Somalia. About 15% of rough sleepers in London are women (many have been physically attacked, verbally abused and sexually assaulted). Reasons men end up on the streets include: relationship breakdown, substance misuse, and leaving an institution (prison, care, hospital, etc.). Reasons women end up on the streets include physical or mental health problems and escaping a violent relationship. Social causes include: high levels of poverty, unemployment, the inadequate benefits system, lack of affordable housing and poor management of social (council) housing. Emergency accommodation includes: cold weather or winter shelters, night shelters, emergency hostels, nightstop schemes for young homeless people aged 16 to 25, women's refuges for women fleeing domestic violence.

10) Questions:

> What do you think the consequences of sleeping rough are on individuals?

> What do you think the consequences for London are of having people sleeping rough?

> Is there a problem of people living on the streets in the area you live?

> What solutions to solving the problem of homelessness can you come up with?

Further research:

> Crisis (homelessness charity) website

> Article from The Mirror: There are 10 empty homes for every homeless family in England

Rebel millionaire's house...

Click HERE to read an article from The Guardian!

Hackney haircuts

Click HERE!

Housing for the super-rich in London...

Click HERE!

> Cool London is dead...

> Billionaire capital of the world!

Subway, tube, métro... What is YOUR experience of the underground?!

Housing for the poor in London...

> Article from theguardian on 2015 protests in London against shortage of social housing

> Video on London's housing for the poor

> BBC 2014 documentary on homeless families in the UK
> Short films by residents

What's it like where I live?

Yara Shaikh (19) is from the south London district of Camberwell (Borough of Southwark). Here, she describes life in her area...

 “In Camberwell, everyone just clicks; there isn't really an issue with different ethnicities and cultures. I've lived around the same people for years and you are always bumping into someone you know, or you know the person who owns this or that market stall – it kind of reminds me of EastEnders a bit so I like it. To me it's different to most areas because it has so much community spirit.

Tragedy in Council flats... Click HERE!

There are a lot of old blocks of flats around my area and there are so many areas that are renovating flats; there is a lot of construction. I feel like the area doesn't look pretty. More lights, more decoration would be nice. When I head to areas like Chelsea and Kensington and there is renovation happening to a building, they always have lovely illustrated or painted boxed covers to hide the scaffolding, but in my neighborhood all you see is the grey structures and pipes. I feel that whoever comes up with the ideas for covering scaffolding in creative ways needs to spread the love everywhere, instead of just keeping it in Chelsea. If your area looks pretty, you feel happier and have more pride in looking after it, whereas if it looks all doom and gloom you couldn't care less.

Security

Generally I feel safe here – but sometimes, especially in winter when it gets darker earlier, I do this thing where I keep my keys near my knuckles. It was a trick my mum taught me where you put the keys in between the spaces of your fingers and keep your hand in your pocket so if anyone tries to attack you out of nowhere when you punch them it will be harder.

Around here there are a lot of undercover police but you can see their belt and stuff. So that makes me feel like there is something bad going on, rather than making me feel safe. Also many of the community support officers, they just walk around pestering young people that don't need to be pestered and are just innocently going about their day.

I don't feel that threatened in my area; there's always someone drunk in the park or someone dealing drugs at the end of my street, but they won’t bother you if you don't bother them, so: no eye contact and just keep walking and you'll be fine.

Technology

I am cautious of technology knowing too much about you. I don’t want a phone that encodes my fingerprints, I feel like it's too much, too invasive. And even with the Xbox, because the internet signal is always on, the camera that's part of it is on too. So I would never get that; I don't want a camera peering into my living room.

Big brother?

Nothing seems to happen without technology any more. I was on the street recently and someone asked me for directions and immediately I went to type it into Google Maps. Now that everything is so accessible at the end of your finger, I feel like it gives young people another reason to be lazy. I always make sure that when I am with someone, I turn my phone face down because I think it's rude otherwise.

Transport

I use the Transport for London journey planner website to track if the trains are working. For travel, I use the map that's embedded in my phone – I type in the postcode or name and just follow the line. It's really convenient because I get lost a lot, my sense of direction is really bad!

Leisure

In my area there isn't a lot going on, from art to music to community events. Every Saturday, there's an NHS van which comes and tests blood pressure levels for free. It's cool but that applies to the older generation more. There are farmers' markets too, but they are for older people. So we just head to the cinema or the 02 Arena; culturally, my area doesn't offer a lot...

Urban renewal?

The environment

It depends what you grow up around. When I was in school, in science class we always talked about global warming and it was always something that was brought to my attention. But I guess in everyday life you don't really stop and think: is what I am doing harming the planet? I would like to see it implemented into law, so in your day-to-day endeavors it's something that you have to do – made part of your daily habits. In supermarkets at the moment you are encouraged to bring your own bags, but there's no law about it, so it's hard to create change – all bags should be recyclable and we should charge for plastic bags. Social media campaigns only help temporarily; we need to enforce it more so it becomes force of habit.

What's missing?

I would like my area to be cleaned up and more maintained, with less people on street corners doing bad stuff. I came back from Oxford Street earlier today into my area, and it's so different. The difference in buildings tells you exactly where you are – in my area the drains are busted, the paintwork is peeling, but in west London everything is clean, the buildings are white marble. My area is dirty. Then you stop and think, well, obviously drug dealers are going to be dealing here because there aren’t any crowds here and the buildings are not very well maintained so the dealers think it's OK for them to do their thing here… There's grey brickwork in my area, no white marble; the bricks have damp and mold around them because the drains are busted. There's bins everywhere, overflowing.”

Adapted from a Guardian article 

Questions / to do:

1. What does Yara like about the area in which she lives?
2. What does she dislike about it?
3. What does she think should be done to improve it?
4. Find a map of south London on the Web and print it out; highlight where Camberwell is located.
5. List basic facts and figures on the London Borough of Southwark.
6. Print out a few photos of Camberwell that show the different parts of the district.
7. Explain why you would like/not like to move to Camberwell.

Assignment:

1. Write a description of life in your own area (take pictures!).
2. List suggestions to improve your area.

Questions on London

1. What does “urban sprawl” mean?
2. What is the population size of the biggest city in Europe?
3. What does “to commute” mean and how does it apply to London?
4. What is a “Borough”?
5. What is the area around London which limits urban sprawl called?
6. What is a “New Town”?
7. What are the two CBDs of London called?
8. What is the political district of London called?
9. What have been the effects of the toll fee?
10. What is the name of the river that largely determines London’s layout?

More questions on London

1. What does "agglomeration" mean?
2. How many people live in Greater London?
3. What is the Green Belt?
4. What do Stevenage, Harlow and Milton Keynes have in common?
5. Which is the oldest part of London?
6. What is Westminster?
7. What was the Docklands area redeveloped into in the 1980s and 1990s?
8. How has London tried to limit traffic congestion?
9. What was the "Blitz"?
10. Who built the Tower of London and when?

Lesson 1: London, a large city undergoing major changes

 The City

Westminster

Part of Docklands

View upriver

What are the economic, demographic, and environmental changes affecting London?

Refer to pages 82 and 83 of your textbook (HATIER, 2de Classes Européennes History Geography)

Comments on document 1, page 82:

• Sprawling is tentaculaire (qui s’étalle) in French.
• Agglomeration means a large urban area (urban core plus suburbs and outer suburbs).
• It is a world city (an “anglo-saxon” city, i.e. where English is spoken).
• In terms of population size, it is only the 25^th largest in the world (biggest in Europe), with about 15 million people (for Greater London).
• It was the largest urban area in the world (with the largest port) in the 19^th century and up to the 1930s.
• The City in London is the second financial centre in the world (after New York).
• Document 1 shows London on a smaller scale than the document 2 map; it gives information on London in its wider context.
• London is at the centre of a spider-web-like communication network (road and rail) which links the capital to the South-East, the rest of the UK, and indeed the rest of the world (via the Channel tunnel rail link).
• Every day, nearly 4 million people commute from the suburbs to go to work in central London.
• Central London + suburbs + outer suburbs = Greater London (32 Boroughs spread over 1,500km²).
• The Green Belt (= 5,000km²) around London was decided as part of the Greater London Plan in 1944; it limits the amount of housing and urban sprawl, and preserves the countryside.
• The Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty also preserve the countryside (they were created in 1949 as part of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act).
• New Towns like Stevenage and Harlow were built to reduce the urban pressure of the centre of the capital.

Comments on document 2, page 82:

• Urban mutations means changes over time of a town or city.
• There has been a settlement in this area from well before the Romans.
• Llyn-Din (meaning the fort near the lake) is the Celtic name for what the Romans came to call Londinium.
• London was built next to a ford crossing on the Thames, on a relatively high sandy area of the surrounding marshland.
• The City is the oldest part of London, built around a port and a bridge over the river; London was a merchant city.
• William the Conqueror built the Tower of London in 1078 to protect the city.
• The City is today a Central Business District (the eldest of two CBDs) with the Bank of England and the Stock Exchange.
• Downstream from the City, docks were built for large merchant ships between the 1850s and the 1920s during the height of the British Empire, when Great Britain traded all over the world.
• The dock basins could be closed so the ships would not keel over at low tide.
• Because of the extensive damage to the docks during the Blitz and the increase in size of merchant ships, the London docks were gradually abandoned.
• The Docklands area around Canary Wharf was redeveloped in the 1980s and 1990s into a second CBD (with offices, luxury residencesand an airport).
• Upstream from the City is Westminster, the political centre of London with the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey (where the crowning ceremonies take place).

Answers to the questions on documents 1 and 2:

1) Introduce the maps.

Document 1 map has a smaller scale than document 2 map; it shows London in its wider context.

Note the Green Belt, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and New Towns which are means to limit London’s urban sprawl.

The dense motorway network plus two international airports show that London is a major transport HUB.

Document is a map that shows detail of the different areas and their functions of the centre of London.

The dense road and rail routes are indicated (not the underground Tube though).

The smaller map of the original site of London shows us how much London has spread since medieval times!

2) What relations exist between a city and its environment? What are the policies that shape the expansion of a city?

The way a town develops obviously evolves according to its environment; the Thames is what structures the layout of London: buildings spread out along the north and south banks of the river. The Thames was an essential transport route for merchandise (and people) up until the first half of the 20^th century.

Urban planning also affects how a city grows: for example, in London, the activity and type of population of the docklands area has changed because of a redevelopment initiative; the railway lines to the outer suburbs and New Towns have created residential areas outside of London to relieve urban pressure; the creation of the Green Belt has discouraged urban sprawl.

3) List the advantages of London’s original site.

The original site had the advantage of: a ford crossing over the Thames (there were therefore two means of transport at this crossing point: road and river); dry ground above the surrounding marshland; water; a reasonable distance to the sea.

4) Describe the different districts and their functions (make use of Google Earth too!).

EAST END: residential, CBD

CITY: historic centre, business district

WEST END: shopping and leisure

WESTMINSTER: political centre

SOUTH: shopping and leisure, residential

NORTH; residential

Description of document 3, page 83:

• In the foreground, on the right, is Southwark (note the new City Hall, the headquarters of the Greater London Authority).
• Tower Bridge over the Thames joins the south bank to the north bank of the river.
• In the foreground on the left (north bank) is the Tower of London (the City is to the left, out of the picture).
• Moving downriver, one can see the renovated Saint Katharine’s Docks, inner city residential areas (including council estates), then the new Docklands CBD (recognisable by the tall prestigious buildings).

Comments on documents 4 and 5, page 83:

• Document 4 is an extract from an Australian newspaper (dated 2003), giving an international perspective.
• Document 5 is an extract of an article that appeared in The Economist, a British magazine, in 2004.
• Both documents describe London’s efforts to limit traffic congestion, namely a toll fee on cars entering the centre of London.
• The toll fee was unpopular (because very expensive), but it has proved successful (there has been a 30% drop in car traffic).
• Pollution levels have also declined.

Why do we build skyscrapers? The example of London's The Shard

Not everyone likes it... Article on The Shard from The Guardian

Reaching for the sky (short radio program with transcript on The Shard)

Take a tour of The Shard's viewing platform (video)

Interactive view from the top of The Shard (The Guardian)

Will skyscrapers solve the problem of over-crowding?
Crossword puzzle on London sights!

Questions on "Reaching for the sky":

1. How tall is The Shard?
2. What is a "shard"?
3. What is the London Eye?
4. Where is the world's tallest building?
5. What does "dodgy" mean?
6. Why do several London buildings have strange nicknames?

Questions on "Will skyscrapers solve the problem of over-crowding?":

1. Why, according to Mr Johnson, are skyscrapers a good thing?
2. Should skyscrapers be included in an ecocity do you think?

The 2012 London Olympic Games... sustainable?

London is the only city to have hosted the Olympic Games to have taken into account sustainable development from the beginning of planning. The town is conscious of what they have to do as regards the environment and people...

Before hosting the Games, London has undertaken to do the following things:

• use existing sites in the United-Kingdom when it's possible,
• only build new structures that will be useful after the Games,
• build temporary structures in all other cases.

Their approach is to use available resources rather than overuse them.

There are five key areas : climate change, waste management, biodiversity, integration and healthy living.

London's purpose is to make the Games a means of improving the quality of life in the South East of London and in the whole of England.

Greening the city thanks to the Games...

 Watch the BBC video!

 The greenest games to date?