Carpe Diem

When Metal and Poetry collide - Love it

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 01:53:32 -0400

When Metal and Poetry collide - Love it

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Sat, 08 Oct 2011 03:56:08 -0400

Save the awesomeness that is BBC4 in its current guise!

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 14:49:36 -0400

http://iphone.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/savebbcfour

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Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:23:58 -0400

What should be done with the rioters now?

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:59:00 -0400

As news emerges from the courts, it seems that although many people are not being granted bail, lots of individuals - mainly children, are being fined for their parts in the violent disturbances that have wracked our nation - the average amount seems to be £200.

I don’t ascribe to the ‘throw them all in jail for a lengthy period’ view. Not because it is undeserved, but because it will simply cause, rather than resolve problems. If opportunistic, impressionable, young criminals are imprisoned for lengthy periods, they will be exposed to harder, colder criminals and will do networking of the worse kind.

If parents are imprisoned, their children will lose even the meagre support and safety they have, and they will be even more likely to follow in their parents’ footsteps.

Fining £200, however, is neither adequate, nor useful. Is a kid with three Pandora bracelets, stashed away and his/her mates harbouring looted ipad and Blackberry really going to be chastised and concerned over this paltry punishment?

In the U.S. (and I believe this may have started to be implemented here) drug runners and lords have their material possessions confiscated - because this is their main reason and justification for their actions.

I’m not talking about stopping benefits or snatching houses away that could hurt uninvolved family - but I think luxury items such as games consoles, jewellery, fragrances and gadgetry should be confiscated, sold, and the proceeds to be put towards rehousing the poor individuals who have had their houses/shops burnt and looted, and their memories, homes and livelihoods snatched away.

The individuals involved should be made to film an apology, and offer an explanation and justification for their action - viewable by all. They need to learn their masked marauding has failed and they will be exposed.

Rather than a custodial sentence, there needs to be a structured, heavily monitored community service scheme, where people are made to clean up and rebuild the communities they have destroyed. This needs to be done with the involvement of professionals such as plumbers, builders, electricians, bricklayers, decoraters etc. This will enable the individuals involved to see good, honest work being done, and will ensure these individuals see the consequences of their actions - and what it takes to rectify them. In addition, if the programme is structured correctly, they should be able to take away skills in key areas and maybe even achieve some certification to enable them to achieve gainful employment and see this as a worthier pursuit than mindless looting.

I think, if and where appropriate, and if the victim is willing, one to one, overseen meetings should take place between perpetrator and victim, so they can see the human impact of their actions, and how their crimes do not just affect corporations, but affect everyday people.

Response to the suggestion that society has excluded the 'impoverished'

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:51:00 -0400

In what way are they excluded? Middle income families like my own are the ones that are worst off. Lower income families in recent years have had free school meals, help with uniforms, trips, transport, child benefit, working family tax credit, housing benefit, job seekers’ allowance..the list goes on.

Society has evolved as a result of Britiain’s technological evolution, heavy industry has all but disappeared in the last 40 years and so working class families don’t have a sense of community and they feel alienation and envy. Previously, they felt a sense of equality with their neigbours - they may have had nothing - but they had nothing together. Now people don’t know their neighbours. There also been the emergence of celebrity culture and our role models have changed to those that have a dispensable income, frittered away frivolously, on money they haven’t really earned. In addition, celebrity culture has contributed to the sexualisation of both adults and children, resulting in children having sex earlier, getting pregnant, and having no parenting skills, and thereby the cycle continues.

So what’s the answer? Go back to pre-industrial revolution? Get rid of television and what is ostensibly a lot of negative transatlantic influence? Hardly. These people need to realise that there are, and always have been, differences in the circumstances of people, if they wish to change their lot, they need to do so lawfully, and they need to persevere.19 century society was a lot more fractured and unequal than this century - our society is hardly Dickensian! These people should be grateful to not have the morbidity and mortality rates of those times, a relatively free NHS, and should be appreciative of the fact that they are not shivering and hungry in a poorhouse, as they trunch round in their stolen Adidas trackies messaging on their Blackberry torch.

More thoughts on our social situation

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 06:32:04 -0400

I agree with some of the comments regarding the police - my liaisons with the police have been varied - I have been really impressed with some officers I have spoken to and disgusted with others.

As for investing in our youth - this is what happens everyday, there has been huge investment in schools - I teach in a really deprived area - one of the worst in the U.K. and my kids have a stunning £30 million building, 45 after school classes and teachers that go above and beyond on a daily basis - they have a wide range of work experience arranged for them, business and sporting links, school trips to the theatre and outward bound courses - and this is true of many, many schools. So the idea that these children need investment and are somehow hard done by, is ludicrous.

Yes, it is a challenging environment globally when it comes to the economy and therefore work isn’t readily available. If you look at the 9k tuition fees and how they are actually designed to be paid back, and the fees and interest involved - students are actually better off than 10 years ago when I was at university!

Children need to develop a better work ethic, parents need to take some responsibility and god forbid, employ some parenting skills, including establishing some discipline.They need to bring up their kids and reward good behaviour with praise and affection, not with ipods, PS3s and DS. People need to break out of this bubble of materialism and celebrity worship, and need to revere people for the work that they do, and the talent that they demonstrate, not for just being thrust into the limelight, and for debauched behaviour. People like footballers need to be paid their worth, not the ridiculous sums they get paid, which results in apathy when playing for their national team.

Kids now want everything for nothing - no hard work, no responsibility, no perseverance. Well I’m sorry, but it’s time for this to stop. They need to take some responsibility for their own situation, take advantage of their opportunities to socially mobilise themselves, and get themselves into a position where they can earn and pay for the things they want, rather than steal them from people that have worked all their lives to get themselves into a fortunate position.

Riots in Birmingham and my thoughts on these

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:33:00 -0400

So today is my second wedding anniversary..but instead of leisurely mooching around town and having a lovely brunch, a trip to the theatre/cinema and a relaxing dinner, I have been frustratedly and disappointedly been debating with normally enlightened, educated and articulate individuals, the perceptions of, and response to the rioters currently holding my beautiful, cultured, cosmpolitan and liberal city, hostage.

Yes, there is social inequality - there always has been, but how does attempting to vandalise the Childrens’ Hospital or charity shops; designed to help, and diminish this inequality, help anyone? It doesn’t. Damage such as this is just collateral to individuals in pursuit of electronic goods, so one can continue to mindlessly ‘communicate’ with others in an almost illegible fashion - and I speak now not of those that abbreviate, but those that are incapable of communicating in any other fashion.

If you went out last night, and spoke to these hooded thugs, I doubt more than a handful would be able to even give you Mark Duggan’s name..

Why should a kid who has decided to leave school at 16 after being a constant source of frustration and annoyance for teachers and peers alike, roll around getting drunk or stoned in parks and then participate in acts of mindless vandalism and walk out of my local Jessops, clutching a camera that I had to save up for, for several months because I was busying scraping together funds to pay my council tax to fund the policeman that I have seen standing around, watching looters?

Yes, I appreciate many of the individuals involved yesterday were Somalis, and Jon Snow’s piece on Somalian athletes and the horrors they are faced with on a daily basis the other month was poignant and insightful, and yes, many of the individuals that escape to Britain come from war-torn areas and would have faced persecution had they not absconded. I am also aware, however, that for just as many individuals, this is not the case.

There needs to be an effort at integration, there needs to be an awareness and understanding of British culture, and if people want to share in the benefits and opportunities living here provides, civilities and open-mindedness need to be embraced also.

As for the homegrown hooded thugs, they are just using any excuse for undeserved material gain. You can’t buy integrity, a sense of self worth, identity or dignity - that is what’s missing from their lives.

Why do so many Jamaican individuals despise and speak in a deregotary fashion about East Africans? They did not have all of these stripped from them in the years of slavery and although when it comes to materialism and affluence now, they have much less - in terms of anything that matters - they have much more.

It’s time for those hang-ups to conclude. Look at the anger and misguidedness that fuels the belief of the Israel and Palestine conflict - just because one group of individuals was horribly persecuted, does not mean it is okay for them in turn to inflict horrors on another.

So is it a coincidence that the last time there was all this civil unrest, the Tories were in power? Probably not. Cameron - not so willing to hug a hoodie in Harlem now are we? Not all of this stems from government, however. So we are the teenage pregnancy capital in Europe - self-gratifiying, selfish, indulgent children making the same ill-advised decisions regarding sexual practices that often their parents of the same ilk have made. A complete dearth of parenting skills, generation on generation. Rioting because you are ‘bored’. It’s called a library? Free - go and use it. It’s not accidental that most of the bookshops remain untouched in the wake of these meaningless, despicable destructive actions.

It’s not about teachers and schools either - so easy to blame us. Sometimes I work 70 hours a week - above and beyond, neglecting my own home and family to ensure I provide a holistic and rewarding educational experience for the students in my care - but it is a losing battle.

There is a culture of lack of culpability out there - someone needs to take a firm hand, and a decent work ethic and sense of work and reward needs to be established. There have to be consequences and rules at home, from the outset. It’s not my job to instil your child with some semblance of decency, an awareness of what is right or wrong.

Give them a book, take them to theatre, or a film that has some sort of sub-text other than a voyeuristic journey of sexual and violent gratification. Heavens forbid, have something other than a microwave meal - and it’s not about money - a jacket potato with cheese and a mini salad isn’t going to take hours to prepare and would cost the same as a microwave meal.

Stop going on your plastic, generic package holiday to a Ryanair destination and go to local places of interest - engender some sense of pride for the country that we live in, the different cultures that exist within it, and demonstrate how others have worked tirelessly and fought heroically to bring about the opportunities we have today - so that we can lead comfortable and privileged lives - not so that we can exploit others through purchases in Primark.

Having an under-privileged background should make your desire to improve your lot keener - through education, enterprise and hard bloody work. Getting up in cold and mould and going to a primary school with 36 to a class and leaks in the ceiling, not to mention rife with vandalism and theft, didn’t spur me to do the same, or think it was ever right to smash in shops and just take what I then, couldn’t afford.

I didn’t complain about tuition fees and lack of job prospects - I did the most mundane, dirty, soul destroying jobs and studied at the same time. But perhaps getting up at 5am and trekking to another city for a slightly better hourly wage is too much for the students of this generation, tired out from playing Black Ops and their arduous study of Mexican and Golf Course Management..

Got a great substitute for EMA- a paper round/flyering/washing cars/mowing lawns/window cleaning ..

Dripping from head to toe in chavvy jewellery and hanging your blackberry round your neck with it’s aesthetically bereft skin doesn’t make you cool - it makes you an idiot.

Stay inside and leave decent, law-abiding, hardworking, innocent individuals to go about their daily business - and that strange phenomenon little known to you as work. Stop undermining economic confidence in this country, devastating our high streets, and making our country a disreputable place. What kind of idiot defecates its’ own backyard? Why should shopkeepers lose their livelihoods and quite possibly their lives? My advice - stay *in* your shop and arm yourself with a supersoaker of petrol, spray these b*stards and set them alight - it’s what they deserve - rid us of this scourge of illiterate, uncouth, villainous, cowardly b*stards - as for their parents, these kids were probably unplanned, conceived behind a bus stop or a Biffa bin, and they have given up parenting long ago (if they ever attempted it in the first place) - the only thing they’d miss is the child benefit.

Yes, I’m angry. Yes, I’m probably saying things I shouldn’t - but it’s because we put up with this bs with polite smiles and turn the other cheek, that things have been allowed to escalate.

lickypickysticky: Cards in my possession now.

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 02:56:02 -0400

lickypickysticky:

Cards in my possession now.

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Sat, 23 Jul 2011 04:27:56 -0400

"It’s all on record. We told motherfuckers not to lump us in with nu metal because when those bands..."

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 04:26:20 -0400

“It’s all on record. We told motherfuckers not to lump us in with nu metal because when those bands go down we aren’t going to be with them.”

- Chino Moreno (via defhead)

lickypickysticky: Stories of my cleaning life.

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 02:42:02 -0400

lickypickysticky:

Stories of my cleaning life.

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Sun, 10 Jul 2011 02:40:45 -0400

hamadryads: Greenwich vintage bookstore (by Asen Todorov)

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 02:39:56 -0400

hamadryads:

Greenwich vintage bookstore (by Asen Todorov)

The Genius of Senna

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 02:34:38 -0400

The Genius of Senna

Stop Murdoch World Domination!

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 12:11:35 -0400

Stop Murdoch World Domination!:

Pls spend 30 secs to add your name to this official petition if you think Murdoch should be prohibited from wielding even more power @ BSkyB - he can’t handle what he currently has : his journalists think it’s acceptable to vicariously hack into dead girls’ phones..

Love this big time.

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 12:04:36 -0400

Love this big time.

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Tue, 05 Jul 2011 12:03:04 -0400

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Tue, 05 Jul 2011 12:02:07 -0400

lickypickysticky: this picture gives me butterflies in my...

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 05:10:56 -0400

lickypickysticky:

this picture gives me butterflies in my belly.

Carpe Diem

When Metal and Poetry collide - Love it

Photo

Save the awesomeness that is BBC4 in its *current* guise!

Photo

What should be done with the rioters now?

Response to the suggestion that society has excluded the 'impoverished'

More thoughts on our social situation

Riots in Birmingham and my thoughts on these

lickypickysticky: Cards in my possession now.

Photo

"It’s all on record. We told motherfuckers not to lump us in with nu metal because when those bands..."

lickypickysticky: Stories of my cleaning life.

Photo

hamadryads: Greenwich vintage bookstore (by Asen Todorov)

The Genius of Senna

Stop Murdoch World Domination!

Love this big time.

Photo

Photo

lickypickysticky: this picture gives me butterflies in my...

Save the awesomeness that is BBC4 in its current guise!