Londonward

It was payday today. Only problem? I wasn’t paid.

The long and the short of it: I went to the cash machine to get some money out for lunch. “You may withdraw NIL” was the friendly message I got. The next step was to go to the bank to ask if they’ve accidentally put the money into the other account I mysteriously have. They hadn’t.

I was fuming by the time I got to the HR department. A guy I explained my problem to asked me for my name and immediately recognized who I was. Apparently, there had been a problem with a contract I had been issued for 3 days of training prior to my actual starting date. I asked them if they had contacted my department about it because I for one hadn’t heard anything was wrong after I’d signed the new contract. Apparently they had been in contact with the departmental administrator, but no-one had thought to tell me I wasn’t getting paid. It also doesn’t explain why I wasn’t paid for the entire time my other contract was valid (that is, the time between my original planned start date and today). Who cares about when I get paid for the 3 extra days of work I did in September?

I told the HR guy that I’ve been waiting to get paid for 2 months now and that any extra days would just push me deeper into the red. He said there was nothing else he could do except “maybe” put me on a “supplementary payroll” where I could get paid on the 5th of December. Hooray! I told them that I would require some sort of documentation stating why this has happened, for being overdue on rent or something. In this country, it’s always good to have letters stating things. But a letter won’t remove the fact that I am flat broke until I do get paid, which seems to be in 5 days.

People put up with this?

In a city of 8 to 10 million people, it’s probably quite rare to come across an event quite like what I experienced tonight.

I met up with a friend from way back, from like 13 years ago when I lived in Zambia. Over some drinks, we got talking like there was no time gap at all, which was quite cool. It eventually got around to where we’d lived and he mentioned a place in Dulwich previous to his current residence. I immediately asked him for the name of his landlord when other details he described were really familiar.

Turns out it was the exact same address we’d been looking at renting sometime in late April/early May. In fact, he had been sleeping off the night before in the one bedroom we couldn’t see in the flat. I distinctly remember the landlord giving us a quizzical look when he found out we were from Finland. He could have said something, but it took until half a year later to find out that I’d been less than a metre away from this friend whom I hadn’t had any contact with for more than a decade.

I was searched under Section 44/2 of the Terrorism Act 2001 today. A uniformed officer stopped me as I was walking down the steps from the train platform and recited a rehearsed and well-worn spiel about me being detained under the terrorism act and that he was under orders to search me for any articles involved in an act or the preparation for an act of terrorism. I was completely befuddled, but of course I didn’t have anything to hide.

As his colleague took down my details the officer patted me down. I lifted my arms perpendicular to my body for him to have proper access to my upper body but he said “no, don’t do that, we’re not in America here.” We got to talking a little bit, and he mentioned that they find drugs and knives on people daily. He also said that as “the right to search people had been granted by the Home Office, they had to exercise that right or it was liable to be taken away”. Essentially, he said the stop and search routine was a deterrent for anyone thinking about committing such acts. So when I was standing there during the late morning rush hour, I was part of the UK deterrence to any marginalised youth against plotting terrorist acts.

I didn’t feel embarrassed standing there, a policeman patting down my legs. Inconvenienced, yes. I definitely had mixed feelings. I mean, on the other hand I have nothing to hide, and he was only doing his job that is enshrined in the law for public protection. Who knows, maybe that Transport Police Officer didn’t care for the law personally. Thing is, there’s a fine line to walk between catching terrorism in the bud and abusing a power that essentially allows anyone, anywhere, to be detained and, increasingly, kept for long periods without official charges.

The state is for the benefit of the people. Is it becoming a Leviathan, increasingly uncontrollable by the people?

A message in my inbox this morning totally stunned me. A girl I went to school with when I lived in Zambia asked me if I am the person she knows. Turns out she’s in London as well and has stayed in touch with most of the people I knew back then. I’m going to have to take some time to get my head around the 11 years it’s been since I saw any of them and heard from most.

Everyone seems to pass by London at some point.