I just saw something incredible, and I don’t just mean england winning the cricket. i decided to take a walk to Woolwich this afternoon, to take a proper look at the damage there. What I saw was really quite life affirming. on the boards outside the burned out pub, people were writing messages. I don’t just mean graffiti – someone had apparently used his twitter account to set it up, first obtaining permission from the police. People from all walks of life are just coming, picking up a marker pen, and having their say. In a way it was a reaction to the violence, a statement from the comunity to the rioters that they can’t win. yet it s a also a forum, a place for people the vent their anger yet also to offer explaintions. While the fire was a manifestation of people s anger in the lacanian real, in a way that wall fuctions to translate that manifestation, as well as our collective reaction to it, in to the symbolic.