PhD life is so stressful at times… I love what I’m doing, but I’ve been writing so much these past months for my research that I haven’t had lots of time to chill and relax.
Anyways, something quite interesting happened to me the past month. Something that I’ve been waiting to do since my early age: I went for the first time to U.S.A.! Well, only to New York City, but still..
View of NYC from the Staten Island ferry
Not that I’ve been wanting it with all my heart, it’s never been my lifelong dream and there were always other destinations that topped the list of place I wanted to explore. Chance in a way pushed me to go to NYC, so I grabbed that opportunity and went for it (thanks Joanna!).
But I can’t deny the curiosity of finding out what the States are like, because of the role that America played in my life. Despite living in another continent, far away separated by a whole ocean, I grew up completely embedded in American traditions, style, culture and music. I didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything to get immersed in these American values. They would just reach me in the comfort of my own home, specifically in the living room when seated in my sofa in front of the good old Black box. All I had to do was let the ‘process of Americanization’ hit me with its endless Hollywood films, TV series and that sacrosanct wonderful channel that was MTV. That was how Italian media rolled, much like other European countries and other countries globally. In a way, I must admit, it served as a buffer to my liminal upbringing and very confused Sri-Italian identity. This ‘American media invasion’ actually created a safe-space where I didn’t feel the pressure to conform, a fluid/neutral ground where everyone in Italy or even Sri Lanka were equally foreigners.
Even now, it’s hard for me to acknowledge how much of my own urban/popular knowledge has been moulded by this constantly. And being a media student, that’s basically all I do: dissecting every single idea, value, theory I’ve formed in life based on my own media habits! This year I was pushed even further as I was given the opportunity to lead two seminar groups on the module Media & Globalization, where we analysed how media globally has been crafted to favour only some countries and to disseminate the ideologies of those countries (well mostly ONE!). Spoiler alert (..and drumroll): it’s the United States of Americaaaaa!!!
I mean, this is basic media studies curriculum, nothing more really.
So you get the jist… when this opportunity of going to NYC popped up, I couldn’t say no. I was curious to know what all the
fuss was about.
I went there and I enjoyed every minute of it, mostly because of the company that surrounded me but also because I was away from my daily routines of LondonTown. I just needed an excuse to get away really. And true fact of NYC: everything is indeed big and bold.
I also got the chance to meet relatives I hadn’t seen in ages: my cousin once removed Priyashan whom I hadn’t seen in 10 years almost and my other cousin thrice removed Minol. I don’t even know if the family-relationship is right, anyways we’re blood related but more than that our parents grew together and my mom was his godmother. It was the first time seeing him in more than 20 years! I mean the few memories I have of him are the jaded ones during my summers in Sri Lanka as a little 4-years-old spoilt brat hehe! I remember him fondly, the Aiya (big brother) with a gentle heart, teasing but never bullying me, across the street whenever we would walk past his house or during the very long church services. From what I saw his heart is still full of kindness and warmth.
It was another glimpse at how our Sri Lankan diasporic community has spread all over the world and it made feel extremely proud that they’re both very well established at their work in Staten Island.
Anyways, moving on from this nostalgic digression, on a general level as was expected my high expectations left me disappointed. So I guess this is also a lesson of the risks that entail having big expectations in life (don’t get your hopes high, folks… just saying 😉 ). No well, it isn’t merely that. I only stayed less than a week there, so I can’t really judge fully. But what left me quite speechless was the amount of inequality that was all around the city. I got to stay both in Brooklyn, Bushwick area known to be a bit ‘rough’ (I didn’t think so tbh), and Midtown New York, 5 minutes away from Times Square. I got to see two sides of the many varied ones that feature in the City.
Yes, I do know that inequalities are inherent in every city, I’m very much aware of that. I’ve witnessed it in every single place I visited, it’s a big issue in the cities where I’ve lived (Milan and London) and undoubtedly in Sri Lanka as well. However, I’ve never seen such stark contrast between ‘the rich’ and ‘the rest’ in a so-called Western city, that sells itself as a model for the rest of the world.
I guess this is the result of capitalism and the neoliberal model and puritan mentality. But it just feels wrong. If this is really how our capitalist cities should be modelled on, I’m not quite certain it is the ideal way a society should function. If this is the end result, to put it in the simplest of terms: we’re fucked! I’ve never seen so many homeless people in my life, not even in London. The stats are clear about it:
- “In recent years, homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s”.
- “In March 2017, there were 61,936 homeless people, including 15,525 homeless families with 23,445 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system. Families comprise just over three-quarters of the homeless shelter population”.
I’ve been to a talk about the future of work and the rise of the automation period, where human will be replaced by machines. We’re not really talking about ‘the future’ as this 
phenomenon is becoming reality every day that passes by actually, Amazon being one of the most notorious examples. However, while walking in the streets of Ne York I wondered what the future holds for many people living in the cities around the world and what will happen to humankind in general. My prevision is that homelessness will inevitably increase without a basic income provided by governments. Funding wars or walls is complete non-sense when you’re faulty internally, when your own people are miserable and you’re not doing anything to alleviate the problem. It’s the clichè idea you hear most leftist groups talk about, but it’s freakin’ true!
Honestly it hasn’t put me off from seeing the rest of the States and I intend to do so in the future for sure, but it’s made me deeply question the future that we’re facing, that resembles more and more to all the major dystopian films that I’ve seen so far. That said, I’m not giving up. It’s made me even more motivated to do something even in my little to improve this situation around the world. For now maybe it’s just helping out homeless people in the neighbourhood, but it’s definitely better than nothing. We MUST help each other out, empathy is our only way.
P.S. Funny thing: Joanna got upgraded to” UpperClass” (note the very socially infused term) on Virgin Atlantic on the way back…. and managed to get me in too!!! Sorry just wanted to brush it off at someone! It’s a bit far fetched, but this little thing, made me go: ‘Nati, everything will be alright…!’ So, Yay to luck (and amazing friends)! ;P
A Transnational Child 