This photograph was taken in 1994 on a Pentax Asahi, 35mm SLR. Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse First Boston, HSBC, Citigroup and the FSA had been occupying the Wharf for only three years. Thatchers Needle (as it was known then) stands alone at this moment in time. The Wharf dominates the skyline and those who live in poverty on the other side of the river cannot be seen. The river Thames is a metaphor for the divide between the rich and the poor that exists within global society and throughout South East London.
As English society continues to meander its way through the process of globalisation, how globally aware will our children become. In my late adolescence thinking beyond my back garden I only got as far as St Paul’s Cathedral and the Post Office Tower. Communication is now more fragmented than ever and the time my children spend on their phones or tablets is used viewing films they are interested in. Make up videos, slime films and epic fails are a few of the YouTube videos I see played by the young people in my home. They can filter out the media content they have no interest in and like most of us, they do. Knowledge is everywhere and it’s going to transform the global world we live in.
When I began my anthropology degree in 1997, globalisation extended my world beyond London and suddenly I was aware of far off distant tribes in places I’d never dreamed of such as Papau New Guinea. I was being transformed into a colonial apologist and my eyes were opening to the Imperial history of the country and culture I was born into. I couldn’t get my head around most of the knowledge I was trying to gain including the communist manifesto but a lecture on Karl Marx ignited something within me and I my inspiration came from the anti-capitalist movement, dependency theory and the world system movement. My perspective of the world continued to develop and I found myself challenging the society I lived in. The inequalities and injustices that exist throughout the world have been on my mind for a while now and this is my space to have that freedom of expression. This is my time to be my articulate self and hopefully highlight some of the global inequalities that exist within this world. We are no longer governed by politicians, corporate greed has a hold on each and everyone of us and I hope for my children to grow in a world that will one day be at peace with itself.
