january
In the past few days of schlepping thither hither, I have heard two 'persons under the train' announcements on the tube intercom. That's two suicides (or mangled attempts at them) that I heard of in my sporadic contacts with the network. How many more people have jumped in front of a train beyond this? I feel like I've forgotten what alienation feels like and am only now recalling it in shards, through announcements like this.
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8 comments:
Ah Jeremy. welcome to the civilised world. So nice of you to drop in from the cozy confines of Abuja. now you can see why I am desperate to get back home. Finks just aint waht they used to be.
London is a terribly lonely place. I was packed onto a train in rush hour in December and a woman dropped to the floor. I couldn't see what was going on cuz I was at the other end. All I could see was the men in their suits standing around her and staring down at her. They stared and did nothing, no one moved, until she woke up from her fit and walked herself off the train and onto the platform, where we all watched again as she had another fit and fell onto the floor.
I tried to leave a comment on your post about feminism saying that I don't think I have a choice but to be a feminist, but blogger wouldn't let me. I left a reply on my blog too.
toks-boy. sucide is also here - in Nigeria. People just don't talk about them and moreso, we don't have public spaces like the London tube to announce such. I am in my mid-20s and I know of at least 5 people who committed sucide. Unfortunately all but one are all women (in my age group) and the only man I know is my favourite uncle. We the younger ones only found out last year how he died. It is considered a family shame.
London is a terribly lonely place. I was packed onto a train in rush hour in December and a woman dropped to the floor. I couldn't see what was going on cuz I was at the other end. All I could see was the men in their suits standing around her and staring down at her. They stared and did nothing, no one moved, until she woke up from her fit and walked herself off the train and onto the platform, where we all watched again, as she had another fit and fell to the floor.
I've tried to leave a comment on your post about feminism several times, saying that I now don't think I have a choice but to be a feminist, but blogger wouldn't let me. I left a reply on my blog too.
its been a while since i heard or read news of suicide in Nigeria. and it is quite amazing that despite the intensity of poverty , suicide rate is quite low.
people still have reasons to want to live and hope for the best.
i guess thats why Nigerians are called the happiest people .
London is very cliquey. I lived there for a year in my early twenties, the loneliest year of my life. I also considered suicide several times purely because I could not connect to anyone. I did not know anyone from any African community. I lived in a rich Jewish area where they would cross to the other side of the street when they saw me coming, I worked for a so called left wing newspaper where I was the only Black employee (apart from the cleaners of course), and the staff were only into drinking their sorrows away each night. Any time I attempted to chat to someone, make friends I was treated as a leper. Why? I was 22, attractive, intelligent, I just didn't know anyone and there was no avenue for me to get to know anyone. As a single woman I could hardly go to clubs, bars on my own, so i was caught in a catch-22. Needless to say I gave up my London dream and left after a year, I was so relieved to go, so I can understand some of the isolation London dwellers go through.
Woa, do and come back. I was in London last week. Bloody nightmare and it snowed. Freaky. Do not miss it at all. I wonder how I lived there.
London may be impersonal and alienating... but so is any other big city where people are so busy rushing around trying to make money that they don't have time for deep personal relationships.
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