Tag: multi-ethnic

Slavery, Cruelty to Animals & Afrin – 2018

Slavery, Cruelty to Animals & Afrin: On Saturday 27th January 2018 I photographed a protest against the imprisonment, torture and slavery of African migrants in Libya and their slavery in Dubai, the continuing protests against animal cruelty outside the Canada Goose store and a march by Kurds calling for an end to attacks by Turkish forces on Afrin. That protest took the same route as last Saturday’s protest against the attacks on Kurds in Syria, now by the Syrian army.

End UAE Support For Slavery In Libya

UAE Embassy

Slavery, Cruelty to Animals & Afrin - 2018

The protest outside the UAE Embassy had not been well advertised and was rather smaller than the organisers had hoped or the police had planned for. The United Arab Emireates was targeted as they fund armed groups in Libya which imprison, torture and kill African migrants and sell them as slaves.

Slavery, Cruelty to Animals & Afrin - 2018
One placard reminded us of the anti-slavery campaign over 200 years ago with the 1787 slogan ‘AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER’

African migrants are also trafficked to be slaves in Dubai, the largest city and capital of the UAE and the protest called for an end to this and for help to be given for slavery victims in Dubai to return to their families in Africa.

Slavery, Cruelty to Animals & Afrin - 2018

End UAE support for slavery in Libya

Canada Goose Protests Continue

Regent St

Slavery, Cruelty to Animals & Afrin - 2018
Protesters outside the Canada Goose store with a toy dog and a banner with bloody fur

Protesters continue their regular protests outside the Canada Goose flagship store in Regent St calling on shoppers to boycott the store because of the horrific cruelty involved in trapping dogs for fur and raising birds for the down used in the company’s clothing.

Slavery, Cruelty to Animals & Afrin - 2018

Their activities have been restricted by injunctions obtained by the store but they were still protesting every Saturday and on at least one other day each week.

They say ‘Canada Goose Murders Dogs’ . The clothing they sell uses fur from wild dogs caught in traps; caught in the traps and wounded by them, they slowly bleed to death and may be attacked and eaten by predators while still alive before the trappers return. Some of those caught gnaw through their own legs to escape and die slowly elsewhere.

Canada Goose protests continue

Defend Afrin, Stop Turkish Attack

BBC to Downing St

Several thousand, mainly Kurds took part in the march calling for an end to the attacks by Turkish forces on the Afrin Canton of Northern Syria, now a part of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (DFNS) or Rojava, a de-facto autonomous region in northern Syria since the 2011 revolution.

Many see Rojava and its democratic constitution which treats all ethnic groups – which include Arabs, Assyrians, Syrian Turkmen and Yazidis as well as Kurds – equally and liberates women as a model for the future of this and other multi-ethnic areas.

Turkey has long been engaged in a fight against the Kurds inside Turkey and was now attempting to eliminate those in areas close to its border with Syria. The PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a Kurdish nationalist organisation regarded by Turkey and its allies as a terrorist organisation, has been in armed conflict with Turkey since 1984, demanding equal rights and Kurdish autonomy in Turkey.

It was Kurdish forces, with the help of US air support that defeated ISIS in Syria, while Turkey was aiding ISIS in smuggling out the oil which financed their activities. But Turkey has the largest military forces in the area including weapons sold to them by the UK, France and USA as a member of NATO.

The PKK is a proscribed group in the UK and the police apparently seized a few PKK flags at the start of the march. It’s leader Abdullah Ocalan has been held largely in isolation in a Turkish jail since 1999, though in 2025 he called for the PKK to dissolve itself and announced an end to their insurgency against Turkey.

Many more pictures on My London Diary: Defend Afrin, stop Turkish Attack.

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East Finchley & Mill Hill -1994

East Finchley & Mill Hill: Pictures I took in May 1994 on walks around these areas of North London. I made relatively few colour pictures but you can find many more black and white images in my Flickr album 1994 London Photos.

Café, East Finchley, 1994, 94-54-53
Café, East Finchley, 1994, 94-54-53

I was amused by the contrast between the large image on the wall and the view out of the window. Then the ashtray on every table was the norm. There is a second picture on Flickr with a foreground table and ashtray

Mural, Mill Hill, Barnet, 1994, 94-54-41
Mural, Mill Hill, Barnet, 1994, 94-54-41

The mural on the shed in what I think was a school reflects the multi-ethnic nature of much of London, but not really of Mill Hill. According to the 1991 census only 18% of the population of the London Borough of Barnet belonged to non-white ethnic groups, with 12% Asian and only 6% black; and 2021, 57.7% of Barnet’s population still identified as White. The borough does have a large Chinese origin population and is home to London’s largest Jewish community.

Shop Window, Travel Agent, Mill Hill, Barnet, 1994, 94-54-43
Shop Window, Travel Agent, Mill Hill, Barnet, 1994, 94-54-43

What attracted me to this window was undoubtedly the three very different women it portrays (though the SALLY in large print was only a ferry firm operating out of Ramsgate.)

Perhaps deliberately, though I doubt it, the closest image of a woman is out of focus. I find her rather disturbing , partly because of her blue tint (cyan fades much slower than yellow or magenta inks) but also because of the rigid symmetry of her face and the ridiculous thing at the neck of her top.

Mag-it, Fishing Bait Machine, Mill Hill, Barnet, 1994, 94-54-45
Mag-it, Fishing Bait Machine, Mill Hill, Barnet, 1994, 94-54-45

Not only a machine selling maggots, but one which offers you a choice of Red, White and Bronze maggots, mixed maggots, giant maggots, red worms and casters. All apparently frozen and needing to be left in a normal bait box for 60 minutes to recover.

I don’t think there is anywhere in Mill Hill where it is worth fishing.

University of London Observatory, Watford Way, Mill Hill, Barnet, 1994, 94-54-46
University of London Observatory, Watford Way, Mill Hill, Barnet, 1994, 94-54-46

Since 2015 this had been called the UCL Observatory as although built for the whole of London University UCL have managed it since 1951, using it as a hands-on teaching observatory. On their web site it states:

“The Observatory building was designed by Mr L. Rome Guthrie and constructed by Messrs Leslie and Co.; construction commenced in July 1928 and was completed in 1929. The Observatory was opened by the then Astronomer Royal, Sir Frank Dyson, on 1929 October 8.”

I’d often looked out of a train window going north from King’s Cross and been surprised as we flashed past this building in an Intercity 125, and wasn’t quite convinced it was real amd not a folly or some figment of my imagination. Who I thought would build an observatory here given London’s weather?

Bunns Lane Car Cleaning Services, Bunns Lane, Mill Hill, Barnet, 1994, 94-54-35
Bunns Lane Car Cleaning Services, Bunns Lane, Mill Hill, Barnet, 1994, 94-54-35

Rather to my surprise you can still get your car washed and valeted on Bunns Lane, though I suspect its days are numbered, along with the adjoining Mill Hill Industrial Estate. The bridge carries the M1 over Bunns Lane and beyond that is a bridge for the main East Coast rail line.

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All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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