Lisa Reinisch

A multicultural countdown to the Olympics

The Austrian delikatessen shop Kipferl, near Barbican tube

Here is a little guide to Austrian stuff in London, which I just did for Visit London’s countdown to the Olympics in 2012. Over the next two years, Visit London will feature the 205 countries that will be participating in The Games by looking at the places where expats go to mingle and indulge in bouts of nostalgia. Nice idea, isn’t it? That’s what I thought.

Not that I was a particularly active or homesick member of the Austrian crowd during my eight years in London, but I did enjoy going to places like Kipferl and The Tiroler Hut every now and then. Usually, it was just for the heck of it, but at other times perhaps also out of some irrational urge to check whether they were still there.

No matter what your opinion of the benefits (or lack thereof) of hosting the Olympics, Visit London’s approach to drumming up enthusiasm for the Olympics is a likeable one. They have chosen to focus of the city’s multicultural heritage, rather than the football-themed initiatives run by expats, some of which are borderline nationalist and none of which give you the insight into a culture provided by places such as the Ethiopian restaurant Sodere in Shepherd’s Bush, the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art in Highbury or the Finnish Church in SE16.

Inequality is a good thing because… Goldman Sachs says so.

After all, inequality ultimately leads to prosperity and opportunity for all - at least according to Brian Griffiths at Goldman Sachs. Speaking at a panel discussion on the subject “What is the place of morality in the marketplace?”, he also said that bankers should donate chunks of their re-inflated earnings to charity to make up for any perceived callousness.

So there you have it, that’s why Goldman Sachs has allocated an amount that is “just shy of the all-time high $16.9 billion allocated in the first three quarters of 2007″ for bonus payments this year. Out of charity.

All this at an event held at one of London’s oldest cathedrals on 20 October 2009, which was also attended by Financial Services Authority chairman Adair Turner, who called for a global tax on financial transactions to “redistribute bank profits to the world’s poor and to causes like fighting climate change”.

Wish I could have been there. Sounds like this debate, organised by the St Paul’s Institute got stuck right into the murky depths of the financial world’s moral quagmire. At least, that is what this Bloomberg report suggests.

The way the Bloomberg story is written has something incendiary about it, almost as if the agency reporter relished the chance to play off these two opposing schools of financial faith and really get the crowd going.

When faith meets finance, expect fireworks - in this case they take the form of deluge of criticism and, hopefully, a renewed interest in the question of if and how to reform the international financial system.

Islington shopkeeper puts ‘his’ Banksy behind perspex

This stencil by street artist Banksy appeared on Essex Road in March 2008

I came across this on Essex Road in Angel the other day. Judging from the perspex-glass panel over the stencil, I thought it must be a real Banksy.

This was promptly confirmed by an Islington Council spokesperson, who described Banksy’s work as “thoughtful and funny”.

The Tesco flag is not the only work by the famously anonymous street artist to be protected that way. His image of a rat near King’s Cross and his stencil of a classic artist finishing a scawled tag near Portobello market were also put behind glass for protection.

The protective measures have been taken by the owners of the buildings that Banksy chose to adorn with his work - not really surprising, seeing as his work is now selling for almost two million pounds.

Banksy has a global following that includes the likes of Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Christina Aguilera.

Several UK councils are also fans. In Islington his works even get restored when they are vandalised and spared while others are painted over or removed.

“Quite a lot of residents are keen on them and, generally, they are in favour of them. So, where it has been possible, we have helped to repair them. If it would cost a fortune, we wouldn’t do that,” the council spokesperson explained.

He added that even a real Banksy would be removed, if it led to complaints - which none of Banksy’s works in Islington have in the past.

“If our residents say we don’t like this piece of graffiti, because it is aggressive or promotes guns or something like that, we’ll get rid of it. We are not going to say ‘Oh, let’s keep it, it’s a Banksy!’”