Hounslow Is The Heartbeat Of Heathrow, The World’s Busiest Airport
Hounslow Is The Heartbeat Of Heathrow, The World’s Busiest Airport
Free Online Articles Directory
Why Submit Articles?
Top Authors
Top Articles
FAQ
ABAnswers
Publish Article
0 && $.browser.msie ) {
var ie_version = parseInt($.browser.version);
if(ie_version Login
Login via
Register
Hello
My Home
Sign Out
Email
Password
Remember me?
Lost Password?
Home Page > News and Society > Culture > Hounslow Is The Heartbeat Of Heathrow, The World’s Busiest Airport
Hounslow Is The Heartbeat Of Heathrow, The World’s Busiest Airport
Edit Article |
Posted: Apr 14, 2010 |Comments: 0
| Views: 170 |
]]>
HOUNSLOW IS THE HEARTBEAT OF HEATHROW, THE WORLD’S BUSIEST AIRPORT
By SHAMLAL PURI in London
HOUNSLOW lies on the fringes one of the world’s busiest airports – Heathrow. The Asian community has made Hounslow its home. In fact, the heart of Heathrow beats with the Indian workforce dotted all around Hounslow.
Hounslow is a bustling suburb of greater London. From a sleepy village some centuries ago, Hounslow is today a bustling town and a melting pot of cultures. Here you will find people from all parts of the world living in harmony.
An influx of people to the two towns of Hounslow and Southall in the county of Middlesex only gives a rich picture of a multi cultural society with people from Africa, Europe, US, Australia and the Asian continent.
The high street in Hounslow which was known for its characterless shops a century ago today attracts top names from the retailing industry.
While Hounslow is getting a reputation for its variety of shops and stores, restaurants and fast food chains are also springing up faster than one can count. The variety of multi-cuisine eateries spoils one for choice. One would find anything to tickle one’s taste buds from Thai, Indian, Chinese, Italian and Mexican food making the place a home away from home. It would be difficult to dine out without a reservation as the popular restaurants are always packed to capacity with long queues waiting outside to be seated.
But behind the plethora of these establishments lies the growing lack of service at some of these places.
Good service has become a thing of the past with some shopkeepers, trading with the ‘don’t care for the customer attitude’. Lot of businesses are owned by foreigners settled here recently. They operate strictly on a ‘no refunds policy’ unless the goods are defective. Goods can be changed or sometimes a credit note is issued to be cashed within a certain time frame. The shopping experience is not the same as in the major chain stores, where customer satisfaction is a priority and the return policy is 28 days of a guaranteed refund.
There is no shortage of people visiting these establishments.
But behind all this hulla-ballo lies one pressing worry in the minds of many people who have lived here for many years. The sudden influx of new immigrants is a cause for concern to them.
‘They took our jobs’, is the thought many have in Britain as their jobs are taken over by a multitude of immigrants flooding the country on a lower salary.
The plethora of people in Britain is also placing a mammoth challenge not only for the National Health Service but also on the Government to provide housing, Social Security and in combating anti-social behavior.
Some immigrants, especially the uneducated ones from the Indian subcontinent and Europe, deliberately adopt a policy of not working. They instead survive on Government handouts for years. People with big families qualify for a substantial income support and live in substantial council-owned properties.
Official figures show that around 950,000 people draw unemployment benefit. The Government paid around a whopping £13.3million in benefits to dead people! It would take around 25 years if the illegal immigrants in Britain were sent back home costing the Government around £250million a year according to a recent programme on Television’s Channel 5.
‘Immigrant pregnancies stretch the National Health Service (NHS). More than 500,000 eastern Europeans have migrated to the UK following the accession of eight new member states to the EU in 2004. The impact on services appears to be far greater outside major cities’, according to a recent BBC report.
‘While large numbers of migrants are work permit holders from US or India, a sizeable influx are from the EU who do not need a work permit or a visa. Until recently asylum-seekers and refugees represented one of the largest immigrant categories, including Sri Lankan Tamils, Serbians and Somalis in the late 1990s and Zimbabweans, Iraqis and Afghanis in the early 2000,’ according to another report by Prof. Steven Vertovec, a social anthropologist and Director of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford.
Expatriates are raking in the money. The husbands work within their field while their wives take jobs in supermarkets and chain stores or even as free-lance cleaners.
The same scenario is repeated in Leicester, a city around 100 miles from London, where many Asian communities are well settled since the 60s and 70s.. Here too new migrants are seen, many of them are exploited as they work for next to nothing. Again the locals would be deprived of jobs as no one would employ them as they would need to be paid the minimum legal wage.
Migration Watch Chairman Sir Andrew Green, in his report of September 2005, said, ‘This influx must stop’. He talked of the massive increase in immigration and its consequences. ‘The flow of immigrants has trebled under the present government. An extra one million immigrants have arrived since they came to power. And immigration will add five million to our population in the next 30 years. This amounts to 84% of our population growth and is equivalent of five times the population of Birmingham. This is not “scaremongering”. It is the government’s own population projection. The real question is whether we need another five million people on this island, adding to a population which is already at record levels. Yet we will need an extra one million houses in the next 20 years just for immigrants. Where are we going to put them?’
There was a major cut down on local staff a while ago to cut costs of running businesses. Out sourcing work to India by banks and many businesses is considered cost effective. Where a query can easily be attended locally the telephone call is diverted to a call centre in India. But one is diverted back to a local office in UK if the call centre staff are not in tune with the query, so how does the cut backs in local staff and out sourcing work to call centers helping Britain?
Banks, Building Societies, and Stores now-a-days are all seen to take on foreign work force.
Shops in Hounslow mostly employ foreign nationals. There is an influx of shops selling low-priced goods – as low as one pound (US.50) for an item. The store is appropariately named The Pound Store. Then the 99 pence store came followed by Asians opening these types of stores daringly competing with these two major stores. Just next to 99 pence store came a 98 pence store. Further down the street there sprung a 90 pence store, with a slogan ‘every penny counts’. Followed by an 89 pence store. Surprisingly they all survive. Many of these stores are owned by the Sikh and Muslim communities. Now Hounslow high street in comparison with the 18th Century is surrounded by Asian businessmen selling merchandise from household goods, clothing, shoes, jewellery, mobile phones and accessories.
Primark store became a big hit throughout England, Spain and Ireland. With a slogan “Look Good Pay Less” and trading under the name of Penneys in Spain and Ireland has taken the high street businesses by storm. Founded by Arthur Ryan, it has a chain of 138 stores in the United Kingdom. Their goods are a favourite among the local community and tourists who find the merchandise value for money. I saw big crowds mainly of Eastern Europeans and Somalis settled in the town, at the Hounslow branch of Primark.
The store’s distribution centers – a 650,000 sq. ft. unit at Magna Park in Leicestershire, and a 200,000 sq. ft unit at Naas, Primark Stores Ltd. is a subsidiary of Associated British Foods (ABF). ABF is a diversified international food, ingredients and retail group with global sales of £6 bn, and 75,000 employees in 46 countries. Their buying team travel internationally to source the latest fashion garments for their targeted young fashion conscious unisex customers of under 35s. The expertise of the purchasing team in sourcing the season’s key fashion trends in high-quality and value for money merchandise have won them a Retailer of the year award in December 2006 from the British Council for Shopping Centres. Primark stores have been awarded a string of awards.
The staff selection process focuses on recruiting a mix of applicants, here again the foreign nationals dominate the work force in Hounslow. Another popular store opened is the American chain store, T-K Maxx, famous for selling branded goods at 60 percent cheaper again employs a foreign work force. The opening of Asda supermarket in Central Hounslow has also attracted many foreign nationals in their work force.
In UK, Diwali, Ram Navmi, Janmashtami, Holi, Dashera, Navratri, Vaisakhi and Eid and Christmas, Chinese New year are all celebrated with great passion.
Southall town which had 55 percent Indian and Pakistani community is also now a diversed multi-culture society with many migrants settling here.
There is a street festival organised by the Sikh community in Southall about a week before the religious day known as Vaisakhi (Baisakhi). Vaisakhi, the Sikh New Year, is the holiest day of the calendar for millions of Sikhs worldwide. In London it is celebrated fervently by the Sikh Community. The procession looks a colourful event with large community taking part. The procession starts from Southall through Hounslow, this year in April. The traffic came to halt until the procession had passed. Police and volunteers controlled the traffic.
Vaisakhi is also celebrated at Trafalgar Square, London. It is organized by Vaisakhi London Committee supported by the Mayor of London. It is a free event. The programme start with Shabad Kirtan – religious hymns – performed by groups from London Gurdwaras (Sikh Temples). This is followed by classical music, Dhol drummers, live music, dance, guest artistes and DJs from local Indian radio networks.
The message of Vaisakhi as described by the Sikh community has particular relevance today in multi-cultural and multi-faith Britain. Vaisakhi promotes friendship and mutual respect as the way forward. This is consistent with the command of Guru Gobind Singh Ji: “Consider the whole of humanity as one; we are all children of the One God.”
The Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara was opened in Southall at the end of March 2003: this is the largest Gurdwara outside India. Many people visit the Gurdwara in the morning. There are two Christian Churches and three Mosques here.
Glassy Junction, a pub in Southall serves several Indian draught beers and is the first and only pub in UK accepting payment in Indian Rupees. Broadway the main street has the largest shopping centre. There are many big stores converted into bazaars with lots of little shops within selling a variety of items giving one a feel of mini India.
There are a variety of Grocers and Restaurants. The Sweet Marts on the Broadway selling sweets and savouries are very popular but the hot Jalebis (an Indian dessert made of batter, deep-fried in a coil shape and served in sugar syrup) from the Jalebi Junction are sold in their stall on Southall’s main street is still a favourite among many. A visit to Hounslow and Southall leaves a sweet taste in the mouth. – Shamlal Puri
Retrieved from “http://www.articlesbase.com/culture-articles/hounslow-is-the-heartbeat-of-heathrow-the-world039s-busiest-airport-2152676.html”
(ArticlesBase SC #2152676)
Watch your traffic increase just by submitting articles with us, click here to get started.
Liked this article? Click here to publish it on your website or blog, it’s free and easy!
Shamlal Puri -
About the Author:
Shamlal Puri is a veteran British journalist, broadcaster, author and press photographer. He has worked with the media in Europe Africa, Asia and the Middle East. His latest novel ‘Dubai Dreams: The Rough Road to Riches’ ISBN – Hardback 978-0-9552627-2-2, Softcover – 978-0- 9552627-3-9 has been released around the world in 2010. He is widely traveled in a journalistic career spanning 30 years. His work has been published in more than 250 magazines, newspapers and journals around the world. He is also the author of Axis of Evil: Blood Money and That’s Life; Michael Matatu at Large (based on his columns in Drum and its sister magazines.)
]]>
Questions and Answers
Ask our experts your Culture related questions here…
Ask
200 Characters left
What are the busiest airports in the world ?
What are some strategies to increase cross-cultural communication ?
How many airports are there in the world ?
Rate this Article
1
2
3
4
5
vote(s)
0 vote(s)
Feedback
RSS
Print
Email
Re-Publish
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/culture-articles/hounslow-is-the-heartbeat-of-heathrow-the-world039s-busiest-airport-2152676.html
Article Tags:
hounslow, heathrow, britain, uk, shamlal puri, culture, community, indians, asians
Latest Culture Articles
More from Shamlal Puri
Africa Is Not More Savage Than Europe
Much of the wide middle region of the continent has been infested since earliest times by the tsetse fly, a carrier of sleeping sickness among people and a comparable fever among their cattle. Riverbanks and plains alike are plagued by the malaria-carrying mosquito. And let us not forget that there is the deadly yellow fever.
By:
Chris Kanyanel
News and Society>
Culturel
Mar 04, 2011
Earth Changes and the Gimme Kids
The Gimme kid can be someone of any age because it applies to anyone who has entitlement issues. We can see it in our children who think the world owes them a living and in their parents who allow them to get away with this mindset.
By:
Connie H. Deutschl
News and Society>
Culturel
Mar 04, 2011
Lifes Great
A look into three main areas opportunities, Education and Freedom. These three areas will be addressed.
By:
Craigl
News and Society>
Culturel
Mar 03, 2011
Need Some Water Cooler Conversation?
Some people call miscellaneous information trivia. Others call it a conversation starter or small talk. I usually call it interesting.
By:
Knight Pierce Hirstl
News and Society>
Culturel
Mar 03, 2011
Austro -Asiatic Tribes (BONDA)
One of the oldest tribal people of Malkangiri dist which is in the state of Orissa (India) are Bondas. The origin and affiliations of the Bondas are obscure but we have to accept that these tribes are a member of a group of Austro-Asiatic tribes. These tribes took shelter some remote date back in the wild Jeypore hills.
By:
Tripati Narayan Mishral
News and Society>
Culturel
Mar 03, 2011
Reology And The Quantum Puzzle
From the previous two articles we addressed the bazaar world of reality’s subatomic structure.
This article reviews how some of these bazaar findings were arrived at, and Quantum Mechanics ongoing dilemma with the “Measurement Problem”, or need for an observer for reality to appear physical.
By:
Anonymousl
News and Society>
Culturel
Mar 03, 2011
UFOs: The Observational Reality Supporting Extraterrestrial Visitations: Part Three
The Fermi Paradox postulates that extraterrestrials should be visiting Planet Earth. That’s the theoretical part of the equation. UFOs provide the counterpoint – the observational part of the equation.
By:
John Prytzl
News and Society>
Culturel
Mar 03, 2011
UFOs: The Observational Reality Supporting Extraterrestrial Visitations: Part Two
The Fermi Paradox postulates that extraterrestrials should be visiting Planet Earth. That’s the theoretical part of the equation. UFOs provide the counterpoint – the observational part of the equation.
By:
John Prytzl
News and Society>
Culturel
Mar 03, 2011
SHAM MARRIAGE IS A PASSPORT FOR ‘LEGAL’ ENTRY INTO THE UK
Foreigners are openly flouting British immigration laws using marriage
to British passport holders to gain entry into the United Kingdom. London journalist SHAMLAL PURI investigates a racket which is adding
the number of migrants to the UK at a time when the Government is
talking of controlling the entry of migrants.
By:
Shamlal Puril
News and Society>
Freel
Nov 12, 2010
lViews: 151
lComments: 2
INDIAN ILLEGALS RISK LIFE AND LIMB FOR THE GOOD LIFE IN BRITAIN
While India is leaping to the forefront as the global economic power-
house, many Indians continue to be lured to the United Kingdom. They enter the country using legal or illegal means. SHAMLAL PURI in London reports on the growing scram for the UK and the growth of illegal immigration. Has the British Government been defeated by unchecked entry of illegals?
By:
Shamlal Puril
News and Society>
Freel
Nov 12, 2010
Remembering the legendary international motor rally driver Shekhar Mehta
It will be five years since the death of the world famous motor rally driver Shekhar Mehta. He was the only man to finish the gruelling Kenya Safari Rally five times, creating a world record. London journalist SHAMLAL PURI who covered this tough East African motoring event for many years and met Mehta several times, remembers the man who rose from humble ranks to become a legend in the world of motor rallying.
By:
Shamlal Puril
Automotive>
Carsl
Oct 22, 2010
lViews: 101
OH KOLKATA!
London journalist SHAMLAL PURI visited Asia recently. He records his impressions of the Indian city of Kolkata, a unique melting pot of cultures and a place with its teeming millions.
By:
Shamlal Puril
Travel>
Destinationsl
Sep 09, 2010
PILGRIMAGE TO WALES
Deep in the tranquil countryside of Wales is the Skanda Vale Hindu Temple which receives more than a million visitors from UK and around the world. London journalist SHAMLAL PURI visited the shrine recently and returned with lasting memories.
By:
Shamlal Puril
Spirituality>
Religionl
Sep 03, 2010
On Board The Buses In The City Of Gold
Dubai advertises itself as a posh city where you rub shoulders with the rich. While that is true to some extent, spare a thought for those who are not so rich and have to depend on the public transport. Our intrepid traveller SHAMLAL PURI visiting Dubai rubbed shoulders with the daily strugglers in this cosmopolitan city.
By:
Shamlal Puril
Travel>
Destinationsl
Apr 15, 2010
CURRY IS THE KING IN THE UK
The first Indian restaurant opened its doors in London more than 200 years ago but the venture flopped and its owner was declared bankrupt. But Sake Dean Mohamet’s sweat in the kitchen did not go in vain because he created history and opened the doors to a multi-million dollar Indian food business. SHAMLAL PURI takes a look at the Indian culinary delights available today in the UK. He writes never will an Indian coming from India miss the food back at home.
By:
Shamlal Puril
Food and Beveragel
Jan 15, 2010
IS BRITAIN TURNING A BLIND EYE TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE?
Domestic violence is so unmentionable that it seems not to exist in the UK’s Indian community. It isn’t talked about, it isn’t revealed and it certainly isn’t tackled. Many Indian women are reluctant and too fearful to seek help. Reporting from London SHAMLAL PURI investigates the plight of those who suffer in silence.
By:
Shamlal Puril
Home and Familyl
Jan 02, 2010
lViews: 126
lComments: 1
Add new Comment
Your Name: *
Your Email:
Comment Body: *
Verification code:*
* Required fields
Submit
Your Articles Here
It’s Free and easy
Sign Up Today
Author Navigation
My Home
Publish Article
View/Edit Articles
View/Edit Q&A
Edit your Account
Manage Authors
Statistics Page
Personal RSS Builder
My Home
Edit your Account
Update Profile
View/Edit Q&A
Publish Article
Author Box
Shamlal Puri has 10 articles online
Contact Author
Subscribe to RSS
Print article
Send to friend
Re-Publish article
Articles Categories
All Categories
Advertising
Arts & Entertainment
Automotive
Beauty
Business
Careers
Computers
Education
Finance
Food and Beverage
Health
Hobbies
Home and Family
Home Improvement
Internet
Law
Marketing
News and Society
Relationships
Self Improvement
Shopping
Spirituality
Sports and Fitness
Technology
Travel
Writing
News and Society
Causes & Organizations
Culture
Economics
Environment
Free
Journalism
Men’s Issues
Nature
Philosophy
Politics
Recycling
Weather
Women’s Issues
]]>
Need Help?
Contact Us
FAQ
Submit Articles
Editorial Guidelines
Blog
Site Links
Recent Articles
Top Authors
Top Articles
Find Articles
Site Map
Mobile Version
Webmasters
RSS Builder
RSS
Link to Us
Business Info
Advertising
Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy | User published content is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Copyright © 2005-2011 Free Articles by ArticlesBase.com, All rights reserved.
Shamlal Puri is a veteran British journalist, broadcaster, author and press photographer. He has worked with the media in Europe Africa, Asia and the Middle East. His latest novel ‘Dubai Dreams: The Rough Road to Riches’ ISBN – Hardback 978-0-9552627-2-2, Softcover – 978-0- 9552627-3-9 has been released around the world in 2010. He is widely traveled in a journalistic career spanning 30 years. His work has been published in more than 250 magazines, newspapers and journals around the world. He is also the author of Axis of Evil: Blood Money and That’s Life; Michael Matatu at Large (based on his columns in Drum and its sister magazines.)
