Days and Nights in London Now by Craig Taylor - Essay Example

London Project Number Department Text Craig Taylor: London: Days and Nights in London Now Among manystories that Craig Taylor has told, his Days and Nights in London Now, As Told by Those Who Love, Hate, Live, Left and Long for It, presents the most vivid accounts of London. In the story, he makes mention of subway laborers and sex workers, homeless people and the rich, immigrants and seasoned citizens, malcontents and patriots, the dreamers and the pragmatists, and the approaching and the receding. The import of their story is that it invokes in the minds of readers, the question on what London actually is. The writer seems to answer this question covertly by introducing the different aforementioned perspectives, so that he seems to intimate that London is what it is to the commercial sex worker, the patriot, the immigrant, the laborer and the poor, among others. This is the case since the author captures what living in London entails through the words spoken by these characters. To also answer this question, Taylor took five years to collect materials for Londoners. While at it, he collected narratives from all the 32 boroughs, conducted formal interviews, and took comprehensive notes on the materials gathered. The interviews were run on over 200 people. An example of an attempt at the question on the nature of London is the interaction between Taylor and the hyperactive trader, at the New Spitalfields Market. Not only is this exchange important since it is one of the few instances in the story where the author is overtly felt, but also because it answers the question by painting London as a busy city that runs on a 24 hour economy. Particularly, this exchange takes place nocturnally, meaning that even at night, businesses in London operate as usual. This is so much so that the author falls into van to take a 10 minutes nap because of fatigue, as the city buzzes on with life. In another wavelength, even in the wake of the variegated nature of London, the author acknowledges in a clandestine manner, the metropolitan nature of the city. The subway, the busy entrepreneurship and the extent of cooperation that he receives from interviewees are matters that underscore this reality. As a matter of fact, Taylor’s dexterity at conducting interviews exposes regular people (the interviewees) as orators, philosophers and poets. To the city planner, Mr. Peter Rees, London is a partner, while an urban angler John Andrews and street photographer Davy Jones see the city as beautiful and deteriorating, respectively. To a pilot and an Iranian refugee, London is a beautiful place (Taylor, 2012, 7). A rickshaw driver, Dan Simon by name, likens looking at Thames and its sparkling rays of lights from the Waterloo Bridge to gazing at a gemstone that has been meticulously sawn into two halves. This confirms that to Simon and many others, London is an embodiment of architectural ingenuity and dexterity at planning. Evaluating the Insights the Texts Offers into the Nature and Meanings of London as Reality, As Experience and As Practice There can be no repudiating that Taylor offers profound meanings to the reality, experience and practice extant in London. As for the reality of London, the city comes out as more entrepreneurial than morally puritanical. This is well confirmed by not only the different professionals in the story, but also by the presence of commercial sex workers therein. An analyst can only agree with Taylor, since this assertion is underscored by London being variegated with people from different social classes and culture. The experience that is London is also verifiable, given that London is a magnificent architectural design that is graced with magnificent features such as Thames and the Waterloo Bridge, magnificent buildings, waterways and water bodies, and the giant city clock of London, among others. It is not fortuitous that the Iranian refugee finds the city an object of marvel. Nevertheless, the street photographer, Davy Jones’ verdict on the city reveals a possible failure on the side of city planners and council to maintain the city. Concerning practice, Taylor rightly admits the city being a cultural melting pot. Because of globalization and its forces, London comprises refugees (as is shown by the presence of the Iranian refugee) and different professionals. The presence of commercial sex workers does not only testify of this multicultural reality of London, but also, of the tolerant and accommodative mien that continues to prevail there-from. Contrasting this with the reality in restrictive regimes such as Iran may help underscore this reality, since commercial sex workers have to operate in a very clandestine manner therein. It is this accommodative and tolerant predisposition that also allows Taylor to gather his information from different people, since this information consists of different views on life and London as a city. Text 2: Guy Arnold’s Migration: The Changing World One of the most riveting books that have ever been written concerning migration is Guy Arnold’s Migration: The Changing World which was published in 2011 by Pluto Press. Overall, the book advances a compelling case for transnational organizations and governments to adopt openness and liberal views in migratory matters. One of the ways Guy Arnold achieves this feat is by debating the challenges and contradictions that accost government policies and governance, whenever there are state-sanctioned attempts to limit immigration. Guy Arnold argues that from the 1990s up to present, the world has faced an unprecedented transnational movement of people. He maintains that although America and Europe have historically been the main targets of immigration, yet a new wave of immigrants is beginning to sweep over China, as people continue to search for greener economic pastures. Arnold maintains that this has been the case, following China’s huge and rapid commercial, industrial and developmental growth. Citing statistical provisions of the United Nations (UN), Arnold continues that the global population is bound to increase by about 2.5 billion over the next four decades. The import of this is that by 2050, the world’s population is likely to have demographically shot from 5.4 billion (the official number of UN’s population count in 2007) to 7.9 billion. Concerning the present, Arnold asserts that the number of immigrants globally, has risen from 36 million to 191 million, between 1990 and 2005. Arnold divulges that the more developed countries will experience a near statistical doubling of those who are 60 and above (from 245 to 406 million in 2005 and 2050 respectively), and a decline of the under 60s (from 971 to 839 million in 2005 and 2050, respectively). This statistical estimate, Arnold uses to advance his case that while the world and the developing countries are likely to experience population growth between 2008 and 2050, developed countries are bound to experience stagnation (2011, 2-3). It is against the backdrop of the prognosis advanced above that Arnold compels western countries to address the question of the tenability of replacement migration as a way of sealing the gap created by the inordinately distributed aging population and the general demographic decline. This is especially the case with Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation, Japan and the Republic of Korea. Arnold maintains that migratory laws and policies have been applied in a double-faced manner. While the repatriation of refugees, the control of a country’s entry points and the voluntary return of refugees are always facilitated by the state, exceptions are always extended towards skilled personnel. Likewise, Arnold takes a Marxist approach when analyzing the problem of migration. Particularly, this is seen in the instance he maintains that understanding the global North and South relationship is mandatory in this effort. It is a fact that the industrial, technological and economic development of the North has led to unequal relations between the two. Particularly, technological and industrial development in the global North and the underdevelopment of the South have compelled the latter to depend on the former. This unequal relationship has left the North increasingly developed and the South, underdeveloped, with many people migrating from the South to the North, in search of employment opportunities, highly advanced learning, self actualization and better lifestyle. In this light, he demonstrates that migrants are very important in filling skills gap, advancing countries, and moderating demography by catalyzing aging. Arnold acknowledges that other factors that have spurred on immigration include availability of cheap labor, as is the case in China, India, the European Union (EU) and the US. In respect to the foregoing, Arnold is categorical that global immigration is a constructive force against archaic and narrow version of nationalism. Evaluating the Insights the Text Offers By referring to power packed statistical data to underscore and authenticate his standpoint, Arnold makes an interesting reading for students, policy makers and decision makers. This is especially the case since he provides demographic statistics of America, Africa, Europe and even Asia, while not falling short of explaining a complex that trigger the movement of people. Above all, it is a fact that Arnold fails to address the political and socioeconomic challenges that come with this global movement. For instance, it is a fact that multiculturalism has made it very hard to fight terrorism. Since multiculturalism is a product of immigration, and thereby leading to a racially cultured population, it becomes impossible to identify potential terrorists. Likewise, it is unlikely that immigrants develop nationalistic values towards their host countries immediately. This makes it very unlikely that as a nation is in the precipice of sustaining a terrorist assault, an Islamist will become more patriotic and work with his host country, in lieu of his religious convictions. Likewise, even as people continue to pour accolades on immigration as the rallying point behind a worldwide cultural melting pot, there are failures to address subsequent cultural and legal challenges. For instance, in respect to the growing wave of cultural relativism that will have emanated from multiculturalism, it will be interesting to witness attempts at reconciling legal injunctions, scarcity of economic values and diverse socio-cultural values. This attempt will be further complicated by the presence and activities of lobbyists, pressure and interest groups. Bibliography Arnold, Guy. 2011. Migration: The Changing World. Pluto Press: London Taylor, Craig. 2012. Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now- As Told By Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It And Long for It. Harper Collins Publishers: London Read More