14 LISTENER AUGUST 10 2019L
ike the Listener, although not
quite like the Listener, a friend
in Baltimore and my aunt in
New Zealand are turning 80 this
year. Every era of modern history has
seen extraordinary developments,
but anyone born the year that World
War II began can look back on aston-
ishing transformations.
Sally, my US psychotherapist
friend, is about to retire from private
practice. Recently, late in the even-
ing, after watching a baseball game at
Camden Yards, we walked back along
the wonderful Baltimore waterfront
to the apartment she shares with
husband Charles. Before we moved
to the US three years ago, everything
I knew about the city I’d learnt from
the TV series The
Wire.
It made me
assume that the
only circumstances
in which I would
ever end up on
Baltimore’s water-
front would be if
life took a dramatic,
unexpected and
dire turn to the
dark side. But the
rejuvenation of the
city’s inner harbour
is an example of
successful urban
planning and
development.
It doubtlessToday, fear of crime
is pervasive, butthat was not the
case 80 years ago.Living with change
These days,
poor children
in New
Zealand are
more on New
Zealanders’
minds.AL
EX
SC
OT
T
“So, what do you do?”
means the homeless, the drug-addled and other
unfortunate stragglers in life are eking out their
meagre survival on different hard streets not far
away but, as with social change and, for that
matter, contemporary architecture, if you are in a
position to benefit from the enhancements, then
they are very good, indeed.
As we walked, Sally talked about growing up
in Columbus, Ohio. When she was a girl, no one
locked their houses, she said. Nor should they, if
they wanted home deliveries. The milkman would
come inside to put the milk in the fridge. Clothes
that were left out for cleaning were returned by
the cleaners, who came inside to hang them in
the hall closet. Grocery orders were delivered and
left on the kitchen bench, except for the chilled
items, which were put into the fridge.
During my childhood in New Zealand,
everyone I knew went from not locking their
houses to locking them. My family were the
same. Presumably, at some point in the 70s, my
parents were responding to the perceived or actual
increased risks of burglary. I do not know how it
was 80 years ago, but, today, the fear of crime is
pervasive.
My aunt remembers the plate being passed
around in church in Hastings to raise money forpoor children in China. Doubtless,
there are still millions of poor children
in China, but these days, poor chil-
dren in New Zealand are more on New
Zealanders’ minds, and China has the
world’s second-largest economy. From
the smallest domestic details to global
power shifts, nothing is static.I
t seemed somehow apposite that
on our final weekend in our US
house, my daughter’s school
friends arrived for dinner shocked
and all talking at once about the
news that a classmate had just been
arrested for murder.
One of the girls read out the latest
news story on the incident. It seems
Barba Koroma Jr, 17, had argued
with his father while they were out
in the car, then Koroma allegedly
stabbed him. When the car crashed,
the teenager dragged his father’s body
into the woods. Koroma, whom my
daughter and her friends last saw at
school and who previously seemed
not to have drawn attention to him-
self in ways good or
bad, is charged with
first- and second-
degree murder.
The police
mugshot that
accompanied the
story shows a young
black man – just
another kid to his
peers. If convicted,
he will go from
school to jail, from
student to inmate,
missing out the
step of having a life.
Whatever the family
backstory, it is a
tragedy.
Farewell, America. lBACK TO BLACK
JOANNE
BLACK
IN WASHINGTON DC