Sunday 15 September 2013

Hackney Kebab Shops & Questions For Gentrifers


1.

Conversation With Ali

I bought this Kebab shop in the Sixties, back when Lenny was about, cockney fella, a seven-foot tower block with a face like a truck. I was losing teeth on his knuckles for holding my face too high when he demanded stocks in my business for protection money. Do I miss my home being a place where my nose gets bollocked to the back of my throat? No. What you call “gentrification” I call “sleeping without a gun”. There is less blood to mop off my floor, less graffiti to scrub off my walls in the restrooms. One time Lenny brought a man to the shop, hacked off his penis and made him chew it, right in front of me. The worst thing I see in Hackney now are the haircuts. What happened to Lenny? Some guy rammed a pole through his brain and sorted out my luck.

 









2.

Questions For Gentrifiers

How many coffee shops do you need to open
to keep that entitled jitter in your walk?

Is it your business if people on council estates can’t afford
the air you breath?

Has the population of the towns you were born in increased or decreased?

Isn’t your fashion just an elitist attitude in uniform?

Does the term hipster offend you or is it a word that you claim?

Do you feel privileged or really cool in the presence of poverty?


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