Wednesday 9 December 2009

Winner Of The Rod Liddle Diplomacy Award….

A father whose son is in a coma after he was run over, shot and stabbed in a gang turf war, has described life in London as like a “jungle” .
Bit hard to know what to say to that, isn’t it?
His father Antoine Ndjoli, 49, who has now left Deptford’s Pepys estate where he lived due to fear of the other gang members, came to London in the 1980s as a refugee after fleeing violence in the Congo.

He said: “After all that background and what I’ve seen throughout my life, to see this sort of violence is just terrible. I would never have imagined this happening.

“When you turn to look for a reason you see there isn’t one - no proper reason why somebody should decide to take someone’s life.

It’s like life is nothing to them, like it’s just playing.”
Still, at least in the UK you can drink the water.

Oh. Wait…

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of one of the brief visits I made to Zaire. A contingent of soldiers drove through Kinshasa shooting at anything that moved because they hadn't been paid that week.

banned said...

So pleased I left London. We lived in a reasonably nice part but it was clear which way it was going and, to be honest, it was the ladies in our crowd who did not like the idea of raising children there, and they were right.

Malthebof said...

So Antoine how many countries did you pass through on your journey to claim refugee status in GB?
There is no historic link between Congo & GB, how about Belgium, France or somewhere closer Nigeria, Cameroon, Guineau so many to choose from.

Mark said...

'There is no historic link between Congo & GB, how about Belgium, France or somewhere closer'.

Malthebof- that's also true of Mozambique & Rwanda,both of which are now in what used to be called the 'British Commonwealth of Nations'.

Commonwealth citizens, of course, have the right to vote in UK elections (a right, as far as Im aware, no other Commonwealth country extends to non citzens). If enough Rwandan refugees cast their newly minted votes for Labour members in next years election, and thereby enable Gordo to hang on in power by the skin of his teeth, I wouldn't be surprised to see Congo invited by Milipede to join the Commonwealth club as well. After all, why try to persuade the natives to vote for you when you can cook up a whole new subset of ethnic vote banks via the 'commonwealth citizenship' route ?

Anonymous said...

How on Earth do you have the time to find all these stories, AP? How many papers / news sites do you read?

JuliaM said...

"...to be honest, it was the ladies in our crowd who did not like the idea of raising children there, and they were right."

Always listen to the ladies... ;)

"So Antoine how many countries did you pass through on your journey to claim refugee status in GB?"

Good point!

"After all, why try to persuade the natives to vote for you when you can cook up a whole new subset of ethnic vote banks via the 'commonwealth citizenship' route?"

And increase that with postal voting when they are settled here...

"How many papers / news sites do you read?"

Not that many, actually - the online Mail, Telegraph, Indy and Guardian in that order (I dropped the Times when they outed Nightjack).

I get the free Metro hardcopy on my way to work.

Then there's the online 'locals' - about 5/6 all told of those.

Mind you, that's a workday. At the weekend or on a day off, I can really do some browsing. :)