All 10 entries tagged Deep And Meaningfuls

Trouble with a capital D

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4670370.stm

The reprinting of that Danish newpaper cartoon depicting the prophet muhammad (pbuh) is beyond ridiculous. Its inflammatory, divisive and dangerous.

For instance, if we were to substitute Mose for Muhammad (pbut) that cartoon would never of made it to print. The paper would be roundly criticised & labelled anti-semitic (& rightly so) if it dared too. And that would be the end of the story. But because its Islam (europe's current evil darling) this is not the case and situation becomes one of a debate about "press freedom" Vs the obtruse narrow-minded oppressive "muhammadians".

"I might not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"

How continental press try and hide behind "Press freedom" is pathetic. Voltaire would role over in his grave. There are limits to what we can say (or the National Front would have a field day). How this "press freedom" stance adopted by continental press is for the betterment of the general public I have no idea.

I would accept a claim of naivety when the cartoon was published orginally. Then it could be argued that this was a case of ignorance on the part of that newspaper and the cartoonist. However the reprinting of a blasphemous cartoon is another kettle of fish altogether and is a premediated attack on a religion & equates to religious incitement.

: 02 Feb 2006 04:42 |  Tags: Deep And Meaningfuls Politics |  Comments (18) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

2005– The week and a day that sat outside

As the year comes to a close, a plethora of articles documenting the year's major events await their release. Often written weeks in advance, they've been handed over to editors and keen interns to check and will only be revised upon an error of some sort being found, or an event of major circumstance occurring between now and the end of 2005.

But thats the funny thing about news, its dynamic, everchanging and well, new. Annual reviews are a luxury as the present past just happened with everyone looking, pointing and talking about it. It isn't exactly going to suddenly change on you while your back's turned like some other bits of bygone history do.

I won't write a review of the year as I don't remember past last weekend. However one week, well 8 days, (2nd- 10th July) does stick in my mind. The UK (and London in particular) was timetabled in to be at the centre of the world's attention, with Live 8 centre piece at Hyde park, the G8 summit, Commemoration Day celebrations and the possibility of the 2012 olympic games being held in London. For those 8 days any news worth its salt was going to be in London and that was it. Sadly while this was all anticipated and prepared for, it was events that we were unprepared for that stole the headlines.

2nd July- Live 8

So it began with the biggest civil movement in history. The centre piece in Hyde park, London. 3 billion people watched 10 concerts around the world with 1000 artists performing, all under the slogan "Make poverty history." Birhan Woldu gave us a big smile. It was fab.

But fab wasn't the point. Click your fingers, count 3 seconds and repeat. For every click a child in Africa dies of abject poverty. The point was stopping this from happening.

6–8 July- G8 summit

Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations, called Gleneagles G8 'the greatest summit for Africa ever'. The G8 and Outreach leaders- the worlds most powerful men gathered at a castle, to make sure they were all on the same page in their dictating of world politics. It was a historical event with aid, debt relief, the environment and controlling weapons poliferation¹ dominating the headlines.

6th July- Olympics 2012

Citizens in the five candidate cities watched tranfixed, as proceedings in Singapore got underway to choose where a lot of sweaty people would converge for a couple of weeks in 2012. London won! It felt fantastic. My sister wanted to go down to Traflagar square there and then, but we decided that we had left it too late. Anyway we reasoned, tomorrow there'd be the official party, which would be even bigger and better.

7th July- London bombings

It was such a crazy week to be in London. I can't begin to tell you. And then this happened.

8th July- Repercussions

Why did it happen?
Who was it?
Was it a suicide bombing?
Will infringing on our civil rights help prevent terrorist attacks?
What the fuck do ID cards have to do with stopping terrorists?
Can a multicultural society exist?
and many more questions were posed…

The G8 summit came to a conclusion, but questions hung over it and to whether it was a success.
Only time will tell if it was a momental achievement or otherwise.

9th July

As one country struggled with its wounds another had perhaps begun to heal. The Sudanese president signed a power-sharing deal that ended a civil war that had taken 1.5m lives.

Respects were paid at a memorial for Luther Vandross in New York.

A study was released that showed that 1 in 8 scots injured themselves when moving house.

The world continued onwards.

10th July- Commemoration Day

In its 60th anniversary, Commemoration Day marks the end of WWII. To mark the occasion a million poppies were dropped on the thousands of people who filled the Mall.

Perhaps I'm vainly searching for some symmetry, a deus ex machina to resolve this passage but I felt that in a week that began with us looking forward to the future, in a week where we were suddenly forced to question and scrutinise the present, that it was fitting that we ended it remembering the past.

A collection of surreal events, all occurring in the same period of time and in the same place. That was a hellva week and a day.

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1. Slightly off topic but ask yourself this: in war-torn countries where there is little if any infrastructure, where do these people (who are armed to their teeth) get their big shiny guns from, as they don't have the means to bloody make 'em. Oh, and which countries would you hazard a guess are the major players in weapon manufacturing?

: 17 Dec 2005 17:27 |  Tags: Deep And Meaningfuls |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Elections

A mate of mine has pointed out that my vote is a protest vote. Fair enough, it is. I wont vote labour as a)Tony is a liar b) his method of enunciating is highly irritating: when he talks has the annoying habit of. Stopping to take a. Breath in the wrong place.

So who to vote for? Not conservative. So maybe Lib dems or a minority party such as green or respect party.

Also i read the BNP manifesto. I feel in these instances ignorance is not bliss, and its lazy and very foolish just to label them as racist and be done with it.

: 01 May 2005 02:34 |  Tags: Deep And Meaningfuls |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Smooth as Silk!

Vote Veritas for veritas!!

Kilroy is a bloomin' marvellous fascist with his punchy one liners and a suave glowing personality. A champion of Aryans. One man who is willing to stand up against the abomination that is multiculturism. I can see him coaxing the masses with the voice of reason- that the multitude of different cultures here in our land have mixed and diluted our britishness. He's not afraid to voice the truth- that we Brits have been on this island since the dawn of time, and that its time we reclaimed it. Luckily Silky knows how to play the media game or else he'd be labeled a racist. He's going to change things for the better just like thalidomide.

: 15 Apr 2005 04:05 |  Tags: Deep And Meaningfuls |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Multiculturism in Great Britain

I remember as a kid going to the local Anti racist festival and seeing a poster or banner for a debate with the question of if there is such a thing as multiculturalism? Hmmm debates v. fun festival stuff, the choice wasn't a hard one, so I went off home, blowing bubbles from those hoopy things you dip in cheap plastic bottles containing soapy water ¹.

Anyway back to the main thing- i'll leave the footnotes for sidetracking and Narmi.

Now thinking about it it was an interesting question- does multiculturalism exist? Is this great nation a multitude of different cultures and ethnicities that have coalesced. Or is the whole thing really a idealistic idea? Is society simply the summation of smaller closed off communties divided by our ethnicties and religion. Where those who try an bridge the divide are in a minority and the only common denominator is that we happen to live on the same island together- but not together.

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1. Has any1 got around to giving those things a proper name? Its not as though everyone works up such a frenzy when they see those bubbles that we forgot to name the darn contraption from which they manifest.

Narmi says:
That is true, In the words of Shampoo "uh oh, we're in trouble, something's come along and it's burst our bubble." What relevance does this one hit wonder decade old duo have to do with anything? I hear u cry. Well i'll have you know that Shampoo were from the local girls school that was next to the common on which the festival was held. See everything fits like a jigsaw, never question Narmi.

: 30 Dec 2004 01:27 |  Tags: Deep And Meaningfuls |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Good enuf for the Boar!

Wrote this a while ago…. gave it 2 the Boar and never heard from them ever again…. I was crushed, i gave them everything, every-thing: A title and an article what else do they want from me huh?
i was such a happy chappy before then- anti-depressents wont giv me back my happiness u bastards!

Below is the article, if u like it comment below, if you don't like it send me a picture of ur head or ur head… either way I'll throw darts at it (i'm rather sensitive).

Be happy
Tired, having slept for 3 hours the night before, I was heading to Coventry with my copy of The Boar¹ for company, when a group of girls sat next to me. For the remainder of my journey I overheard the girls bitch and generally whinge about rubbish. Now women gossiping isn’t anything new, it’s natural for them, and I think “opening up” and “talking” is expected of us effeminately manly metrosexuals (or whatever the Daily Mail femail readers are after now). So normally I would have ignored their incessant chattering- except I couldn’t. Again this would not have been a problem had they been:
a) pretty.
b) discussing me.
c) discussing something that was interested me. And that’s includes many topics.²

Yet somehow in all that high pitched noise that they mass produced (punctured by higher pitched squeals), they didn’t say anything worth eavesdropping about. It was all centred on self-absorbed problems and ill-sentiment for fellow man and his “sluttygirlfriendwhotookmyman” type of problems. Sadly this self-absorbtion (which I will refer to for the remainder of this sentence as slfbtn) is an endemic of sigmoidal curvature that is prevalent in many of our fellow counterparts.³ Which brings me to my question, why are we students such a pessimistic sniping bunch of people caring only for material things and ourselves, and why do we complain about anything and everything, bitching like the number of bowel movements induced by a laxative?

Is it remnants of our teenage mentality, something we will grow out of? Because back then we were apparently moody and angry – uglier versions of Jim Stark, (though if you happen to be more handsome/beautiful then James Dean you ought to have had a philandererously good adolescent life).

But that of course is a stereotype. I had a happy teenage life bullying others and pulling wings off butterflies and aeroplanes. And you’d think that as you go through puberty and to your body things happen, you’d be happy- I was. But apparently not, we were a depressive petulant bunch and it was all blamed on hormones.

Or is it that as tomorrows leaders we see the problems that the world faces as insurmountable, become depressed and self absorbed to escape it all. Or even more alarming then is that we simply don’t care about the world problems, and enjoy our whinging. Are we a nation conditioned by a media saturated with critics for everything possible including critics of critics (that’s me) to criticise and moan.

Of course the reasons as to why are endless but the bona fide fact remains that for every happy student, there are five times as many miserable, languid or waspish and spiteful people. All this negativity is simply bad for the soul.

So I suggest we use that passion for complaining to stoke the fires of happiness, to spread some joy around as the dark winter months settle in. I say to friends and to strangers: be charitable and kind, share and give, but most of all lets all partake in some loving. After all we are all living in the greatest democracy in the world bar none, and we shouldn’t let our freedom go to waste.⁴

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1. I wasn't actually reading the Boar, it was actually Don Quixote- which i recently found out was pronounced as Don key ho T or Donkey hoT if you say it fast (fun for all the family)!

2. (Heres a plug) read my reeeeally interesting blog for many more interesting topics saturated with wit and stimulating stuff! My blog- one of the five daily portions of fruity goodness recommended for healthy living by Department of Health.

Secretary of State Rt Hon John Reed: 'Its true. Some silly sentences of sense^TM is a neccessity for life.' And MPs never lie.

Peter Mandelson and Bill Clinton: 'Its true politicians never lie!'

3. Waaaaat…. did that utterly senseless sentence just blow ur friggen mind!!?!

4. huh- in your face Boar [sniff] now I have a global readership that you could only dream of, and fans like him:

: 22 Dec 2004 13:28 |  Tags: Deep And Meaningfuls |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

ID cards– the return!

Continuing the topic I read from CB's blog Cool links its nice to know that the government does not think that we're complete twats and have quietly withdrawn their much herald claim that ID cards will help prevent terrorism. However this does makes me trust central gov. less, as the ID card issue has kicking around whitehall pre 9/11. What I hate is how they try and shove as much shit through that door while its still open, thinking that we'll buy it.

Will any 3rd parties be able to access the info in the gov. proposed central database? Because hell yes that'll be worth gold to them in terms of tailoring their commerical marketing toward us- I don't want pharmceutical giants knowing my medical history, let alone Primark knowing my height. Not to mention that the gov. (or civil servants who might abuse the data protection act) would make a tidy profit from selling it to them. Anyway I'm just being paranoid the govenment isn't/can't/couldn't do that right?

Trust issues aside ID cards do seem like a good idea, it'll be convenient for banking etc and it'll be interesting to see if the ID card scheme can help cut down on benefit fraudsters and hospital tourists who just take the piss. My fear is that these fraudulent dawgs will be determined enough to find other ways to manipulate the system and it'll be a waste of £8 billion used implementing the scheme nationwide.

Oh and it will have to be compulsory to carry them for ID cards to work, the idea that you get a choice to carry them is ludacris———->

Finally i think the government should mass produce a private sector funded everything card for every other card that we bloody carry (other then medical, debit and credit cards of course). It would so convenient. I could skip to tesco, sainsburys and Whsmith, to Rileys and then Uni…. u get the picture.

: 21 Dec 2004 14:49 |  Tags: Deep And Meaningfuls |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Hot Holly Valance with Cary Grant nude pics below!!

Subtitle: The prevalence of Mass commercialistion of Xmas through time. (so i lied)

Personally I think its wrong, this idea that Christmas has become mass commercialised. For hasn’t it always been? Ok so mass commercialisation you may argue can only be a modern phenomenon, as the ability to produce innumerable goods for commerce in unfathomable quantities is dependent on the technology and global free market environment, and the prevalence and accentuation of the Christian belief around the world today, (due to it being the only Superpower’s- USA- dominant faith).

But still mass commercialisation has existed through the ages. It all in the wording! Mass has a few definitions, including the grouping of individual elements such as that of people (as in masses). Now a critic may argue one can instantly discount (what I will aptly refer to as) the glory days, when Christianity was in its infancy and there were too few a follower to allow for a mass in mass commercialisation- and anyhow it’s still ludicrous, how does one commercialise a people? Well to answer that question one should look at Amish sect. In a bid to maintain their way of life their followers have had to commercialise their way of living, encouraging tourists to visit and thus spend money at their establishments. Hence commercialising themselves as a people. Christians were once in the minority, one of many sects that existed in the pagan Roman Empire, could it of happened back then?

Of course an idiot could accidently interpret mass as the sacrament Eucharist- Eucharist’s commercialisation. But as commercialisation is defined as the act of commercializing something; involving something in commerce. And commerce is the buying and selling of goods. Is it not fathomable that this can be applied to religion? In a bid to convert does not one have to sell the idea, concepts of one’s faith? And isn’t these rite such as Eucharist/mass, baptism, marriage, funerals inadvertently showpieces for this religion. Do people not dream of a white wedding even though they are not religious, does not Los Vegas thrive on the business generated from their fast food style weddings.

In the old days these rituals were not developed to the extent of what they are today, but compared to Paganism, they must have indeed seemed like spectacles for the disingenuous majority of people of the Roman empire at that time. While without doubt the religious doctrine and philosophies converted most (especially the poor), arguably many in the Roman middle classes only converted to Christianity when it became mainstream and fashionable, much like Kabbalah is for celebrities, or Islam is for boxers today.

As the majority of Britons’ view on Xmas, the “Mass Commercialisation of Christmas” is contemporary phrase with a single meaning that obviously can be applied to any religious festival be it Eid or Diwala. Its just so much bigger because of Christianity prevalence in the world today.

: 19 Dec 2004 02:13 |  Tags: Deep And Meaningfuls |  Comments (5) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

USA screws up AIDs programme

This article deals with nevirapine, and the problems with programme set up by the USA to help prevent african women babies' from contracting the virus from their mothers.

Can use this article to highlight how international programmes aren't as straight forward as one would hope.

: 15 Dec 2004 05:20 |  Tags: Deep And Meaningfuls Group4 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Israel–Palestine: Is there a new apartheid in the Holy Land?

Writing about web page http://www.sunion.warwick.ac.uk/palestine/index.html

That has to be one of the best debates that i've been too since coming to university. I'm still buzzing!

A distinguished panel, a receptive and open floor and a contentious subject. A big thanks has to go out to the friends of palestine society for organising the event and to the panel- they were all so good! It was enlightening and thought provoking.

Aaaah intellectual stimuli the best kind of stimulatant… well the best legal kind (other then khat, alcohol and prozac apparently) :P

: 24 Nov 2004 22:08 |  Tags: Deep And Meaningfuls |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem