I recently flew back from Europe and boy are my arms tired (gratuitous RyDub joke)! Seriously though, my arms aren't tired, nor is any part of my body, no nothing about this trip was tiring, rather, it was quite eye opening. We can debate later how many commas I should be using.
So why was I there? I was invited to give a special talk at an academic conference in Lille, France. To get there, I had the choice of flying to either London or Paris and since I was already heading to France (and because I have no interest in going to Paris) I decided to start the journey off in foggy ole London town.
The trip begins...some photos will be scattered throughout.
So we left from DC en route to London and everything just splendid. I was looking forward to this trip, but had been so busy lately I hadn't really put any thought into it: I was just going to go and take it all in without an agenda. I wasn't quite sure what to expect either. London wouldn't be like I have pictured it from a collection of BBC and Channel 4 comedies could it? I was somewhat surprised by what it was like there.
When we got to the airport (and the hotel), one thing became very apparent: all of these service workers were foreign. The same thing tends to happen here in the states, but not to these numbers as minorities seem to be hired in great numbers at these transportation hubs. What I immediately noticed is that London is an international city. Again, go figure, but it was different than what you might see in LA, Chicago, or perhaps even New York: it was difficult to run into any locals.
Now the UK had just had their election the eve before and the conservative party won. Other more radical right-wing parties were gaining traction leading up to the election and many have speculated why they were becoming more popular. London is one of the most expensive cities in the world and while millenials are almost completely being shutout of the housing market there, older generations are finding the London they knew, along with lots of jobs, have become unaccessible to them.
Now don't me wrong, London was and is beautiful and amazing. While housing in ultra expensive, food seemed to be reasonable. Meat was especially well priced and everything I saw at local markets and grocers appeared to be of much higher quality than what we have available to us in the States. This is where I began to notice some things that were strange to me.
England is the land of Kings and Queens, or at least I have heard that saying before. But seriously, they had and still have, although only as a figurehead though, a monarchy. They have a royal family. We fought for our independence partially due to their having a monarchy so seeing this up close and personal was both breathtaking and off-putting to me. On the first day of our trip we went to
Windsor Castle. From wikipedia:
Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. The castle is notable for its long association with the English and later British royal family and also for its architecture. The original castle was built in the 11th century after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I, it has been used by succeeding monarchs and is the longest-occupied palace in Europe. The castle's lavish, early 19th-century State Apartments are architecturally significant, described by art historian Hugh Roberts as "a superb and unrivalled sequence of rooms widely regarded as the finest and most complete expression of later Georgian taste".[1] The castle includes the 15th-century St George's Chapel, considered by historian John Martin Robinson to be "one of the supreme achievements of English Perpendicular Gothic" design.[2] More than 500 people live and work in Windsor Castle.
Windsor castle is simply an amazing place and a living piece of history. Here's a shot from the walkway. The cathedral is on the left.
I can't show you everything here so go back and check out that wikipedia link. But what I wanted to express here is that after touring Windsor Castle I couldn't help but understand why people throughout time have risen up and fought back against their rulers. The inequality that must have existed during the age of kings must have been incomprehensible, and I am so proud to live in a country that doesn't have a monarchy...even if theirs is just a figurehead.
One thing that immediately stood out to me was in the gift shop. Every little trinket I saw said "Made in UK". Can you imagine that? Has anyone toured near the White House lately? Where would you expect things to be made in our gift shops? The answer is obviously China. It wasn't hard to see that the UK takes pride in their local producers and had some level of protectionist trade policies put in place to help their locals out. We then headed to
Eton College a near 600 year old boarding school where the ultra elite send their kiddies to become heads of state and business leaders. Again, here's a beautiful photo:
This is where GW would have gone to school if he wasn't American (he may be a citizen, but he's not American). Eventually we mosied over to Buckingham palace:
Which was impressive as well. It wasn't hard to see that the UK is a place of great inequality and they are the European country the most like the USA. While they have a national healthcare system, they do not have universal free education. Students are expected to foot the bill just like us and then enter a job market in which their parents won't leave. Couple in automation destroying millions of jobs and you have a recipe for disaster. At least you should, but I never really saw any homeless there. Maybe two guys total and I went around the entire city. Maybe I missed them? But in Chicago or, hell, even in State College you would see many more homeless and distressed people. Why is this?: Socialism.
More commentary to come.
