Burning Down the Future
Chris Hedges
Burning Down the Future
Mr. Fish / Truthdig
LONDON-The hulk of Grenfell Tower, its charred sides covered by sheets of
white plastic, stands as a mute and ominous testament to the disposability
of the poor and the primacy of corporate profit. On June 14, 2017, a fire
leaped up the sides of the 24-story building, clad in highly flammable
siding, leaving 72 dead and 70 injured. Almost 100 families were left
homeless. It was Britain's worst residential fire since World War II. Those
burned to death, including children, would not have died if builders had
used costlier cladding that was incombustible and if the British government
had protected the public from corporate predators. Grenfell is the face of
the new order. It is an order in which you and I do not count.
I walked the streets around the tower on the two-year anniversary of the
fire with Kareem Dennis, better known by his rapper name, Lowkey (watch his
music video about Grenfell)-and Karim Mussilhy, who lost his uncle, Hesham
Rahman, in the blaze and who has been abruptly terminated from two jobs
since the disaster apparently because of his fierce public denunciations of
officials responsible for the deaths. Families, some wearing T-shirts with
photos of loved ones who died in the conflagration, solemnly entered a
building for a private memorial. A stage was being prepared for a rally that
night a block from the tower. It would draw over 10,000 people. Flowers and
balloons lay at the foot of the wall that surrounds the tower. Handwritten
messages of pain, loss and love, plus photos of the dead, covered the wall.
The demolition of Grenfell Tower will take 18 more months as each floor is
methodically dismantled.
