Notting Hill Beats the Charms of Hackney

I made a last minute decision today to cycle over to Hackney for the London Coalition Against Poverty's meeting with representatives from South Africa's shack dwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo.

‘Talk to us, not about us’, the slogan of the Durban’s shack dwellers says. But it was not to be. I arrived at 3pm, but by 3.30pm, with no speakers, the organisers were forced to begin the meeting with a discussion about their own activities whilst waiting for the South Africans to arrive from Manor House. Then after a half-hour of this, we were told that they were in Notting Hill.

Why? They had gone shopping. It may be ten year's old but that bloody Hugh Grant film has a lot to answer for.

So I had to make do with this film of Abahlali baseMjondolo's activities: