Tuesday 30 July 2013

A town devided, for the sake of what?

I've made it no secret to say that i live in a town called Skelmersdale. A breif history would tell you that the town was majorly built up in the 60's / 70's as extra housing was needed because of an overflow problem in Liverpool.

These days, the town might aswel sit abandoned for all is has to offer the majority of people in the area. A shopping centre that's half closed, a supermarket shop which is fastly out-pricing itself from what the locals can afford and.... no wait, that's it.

Unless you like to drink petrol or go and walk for miles looking at the same tree's day and in and day out, then this town has little to offer you, so of course people will try new things, including drugs.

As i've also said before, i'm pro choice when it comes to drugs. I would like to see nothing more than all drugs made legal, leaving people to try them if they wanted to.

Recently, this town has been turned upside down and the police operate one of their new missions to try and tackle people growing drugs and supplying them. While the police can rub their hands together with glee that their new mission has been sucsessful and how they'll do the same again in future, they neglect to give a shit about what the rest of the town think.

Firsty, i'd like to ask what i think is a simple question here.... when on earth do you need a helicopter to do a drugs raid on a house? That's what alot of the town were left asking when for 30 mins to an hour, the town was woken up to the sound of police helicopters in the sky, at about 1am.

This, after a day of seeing police crawling all over the town in riot vans, cars and on horse back. Again, later that night my friend told me of how she'd seen more riot vans pulled up on a local car park and thought it was an odd sight. When she leaves she text's to say about the amount of police she's seen on her way home and then.... well then we got the helicopter out and facebook starts to fill up with reports of roads being closed off and police breaking into houses, waking up local residents etc.

This of course is not like me you may be asking, normally i'm supportive of the police and don't get me wrong, i still am, i just feel that if you're going to do a drugs raid around houses where small children are trying to sleep, then probably, 1am isn't your best time to strike. Yes i understand there's got to be the element of suprise, but really, 1am? and you want residents to be fine with this?

Since then of course, there's been more drama where the police have gone and i cant expain my joy about having to walk around big piles of horse shit thats left all over the path ways.... did i say joy? I meant utter disgust.

See, usually, be it that i don't live in the best area of the town, i do still feel fine when walking around at night, but yet now, i don't, funnily enough. Sure there's riot vans and police cars driving around and during the day theres all these horses and such, but it seems alot of people are on edge about the recent action.... why?

There's a company called dial-a-crate which operates in the area, so if you're having a drink at home and you run of out vodka or wine, you can call up dial-a-crate and they'll bring you what you need. They a few times have had problems with the police recently, police are stopping random cars and wanting to carry out searches etc, to the point that dial-a-crate actually stopped operating one night because it was happening that often.

This town isn't great at the best of times, but with the actions carried out by the police recently, it's felt worse. I personally wouldn't have minded if one of my neighbours were growing drugs, what harm would it have been doing to neighbours?

Only problem is now though, is that because several canabis farms have closed... more will open in their place....

Monday 29 July 2013

Were we right about the pope after all?

In what is basically some magical type of news, the pope, pope francis has said "who am i to judge gay people".

Quite honestly, i'm in shock. Really, i am, and i don't even follow the faith.

I'm shocked because for as long back as i can remember, the pope and the vatican have shown no love to gay people, they've called us fit to burn over the years.... then this happens.

I'm happy about it of course i am, i mean, it's the pope after all, surely it'll now shut up his little people who around the world come to condem us publicly as gay people.

See, in calling the gays fit to burn over the years, the church has lost ALOT of followers, i still know people who reserve judgement on this pope because they don't want to fall into the trap of thinking "he'll be the one to bring about change" and then be let down, as has happend with alot of pope's before francis.

I knew something was different about this pope as soon as i first saw him. I knew he was from a rather different background to other popes and seemed to be more on a level with people. Within a few weeks of him being in power, something had changed aswel, that was noticeable.....


See, gone are the days of the red carpet and big golden chairs along with all the bling. This pope is more down to earth in alot of ways.... then he comes out with todays comment of "who am i to judge the gays" and i get to being stunned like i am.

Now, don't be getting fooled at all. Just because the pope has said it, it doesn't mean that the faith has completely changed, it doesn't mean that everyone in the faith is all of a sudden going to ask themselves "well, who am i to judge".... BUT, it does mean the change LGBT people need from the church is on it's way, but as we've seen, change takes a while to come through.

People i've seen on social media question this move and say "why the gays". Let us not forget, the vatican and previous popes have supported black segregation, the slave trade, diss-allowing people to marry based on the colour of their skin.... yet has changed. While religions can be slow to catch up, change does happen in all of them eventually. My only question i'm left with now is.... how much can this pope change the vatican's stance on the modern day world?

Friday 26 July 2013

The LGBT problems in Russia.

Firstly with this post, i'm more than aware it can be seen world-wide, including Russia itself. If you are LGBT and living in russia, then please remember, it WILL get better. What Putin is doing is wrong, we all know it, as do the political figures around the world. Eventually they will apply pressure and long story short... it WILL get better.

For some of you, i presume you will not have seen what has been happening in Russia, since western media seems ok to let these incidents slip by without comment or report. For the rest of us on social media who feel sickend and want to create change, we have a slightly harder battle, but one that will be won either way, when it comes to not only bringing about awareness of this to people, but bringing enough people together on this topic to create change.

Some of you may well have read the following story. If you don't wish to read it, then please skip through it, it doesn't make for a pleasent read, yet this is the reality for LGBT people now living in Russia.

"President Putin’s crusade against LGBT community in Russia took a new disturbing turn.
Russian Neo Nazis have been advised by a top-ranking supremacist to create fake profiles on a popular Russian social network, VK.com, and lure in gay male teenagers in order to torture and humiliate them for being gay.
 
Spectrum Human Rights Alliance reports:
Infamous Russian ultra-nationalist and former skin head, Maxim Martsinkevich, known under the nickname “Cleaver” (or “Tesak” in Russian) spearheaded a country wide campaign against LGBT teens using a popular social network VK.com to lure unsuspected victims through personal ads. Mr. Martsinkevich’s numerous and enthusiastic followers started two projects: “Occupy Pedophilyaj” and “Occupy Gerontilyaj”. Allegedly they are trying to identify and report pedophiles using these “movements”. In reality, over 500 online groups have been created inside VK.com social network in order to organize illegal militant groups in every Russian city. Oddly enough their idea of fighting pedophiles targets exclusively male teenagers who respond to the same-sex personal ads and show up for a date. Captured victims are bullied and often tortured while being recorded on video.

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These self-proclaimed “crime fighters” perform their actions under the broad day light, often outside and clearly visible to general public that indifferently passes by or even commend them. Video recordings of bullying and tortures are freely distributed on the Internet in order to out LGBT teens to their respective schools, parents and friends. Many victims were driven to suicides, the rest are deeply traumatized. So far Russian police took no action against these “movements” even though Russian criminal code was clearly violated and despite numerous complaints from parents, victims and LGBT activists. Social network VK.com intermittently shuts down selected groups and profiles only to allow them to be re-open on the next day. Currently, the founder of VK.com, Pavel Durov, resides in the US and so far has not released any comments."
 
Sickening right?
 
Keep in mind, this is only what we have found out, there IS much worse than this happening in Russia. Now do you see why i started off this post with a positive message?
 
Politically speaking, President Putin has rolled his country's laws back many a year, infact, he probably wouldn't suprise many people if he rolled them back abit futher to include actions like this to black people, and nobody would think twice.
 
Yet, we do.
 
We are LGBT and as much as not everybody would like to admit it, we are a community, or family, to use an older phraze. It is time that we stood up and made our voices heard, which is why later this afternoon, i'll be recording abit on youtube about this topic. *Update, it got recorded....*

 
 
It does also raise the question, is putin gay? I mean lets face it, some people do go to incredable lengths to try and cover their sexuality up, including starting hate groups of their own, or conversion groups, where they believe they can convert gay people to being straight. Anybody remember Alan Chambers? He was the leader of Exodus International (which has since been closed) which claimed to be able to change people's sexuality. Alan claimed to have a "change of heart" in his closing statement, in which, he basically came out the closet, and to this day, i don't think is welcomed into the gay community. So, what about putin? Is it possible that he is creating these laws in order to hide his own sexuality?
 
So, can anything be done?
 
Signitures are being collected by Allout.org. You can find details of that by clicking here. If you make content for youtube, make a video about it, if you blog, blog about it, if you have a facebook, spread the news....
 
Let's not sit by and let this carry on happening. As MLK once said, it is not the words of our enemies we remember, but the silence of our friends.
 
Are you silent?

Thursday 25 July 2013

The just-eat video

Ok well, i presume by now, probably a few readers of this will have already seen the video that me and Ian did, if not, have a look....


So i'd like to tell you all the little story behind it....

See, a few weeks ago, the Bev & Ian official page was opend up on Facebook and we managed to get a few likes (to tell the truth, we got more likes than we expected at first). I knew this was a step in the right direction as it gives us an area to post our own matereal and help us to carry on entertaining the people who like us when we weren't on a video.

Of course, Bev & Ian works as any other blog on youtube would, we need views so as we can expand our audience.

I decided one night to post on the wall of online take away company Just-eat.co.uk. I asked if me and Ian could get some freebies if we mentioned just-eat in a video. Their staff commented back that they didn't just give stuff away, that we'd have to do more in order to get some.... So my reply? "What about if we do it naked, wearing chef hats".... the challange was on!

2 weeks later and the chef hats had arrived and so filming began.

We arranged the living room how we wanted to have it set up for the video and got ready. The idea at first was just to have ian saying the first line or two, then we would film an extra part to cut away to, so he'd say "we've all had hunger problems at some point, i know i have" then i would be edited in, holding a knife close to ian's face and say "give us all your food" and he'd scream.. We filmed it, but something just wasn't right with it.

We watched a longer version of the orig advert we were doing a parody of and re-wrote the script. Here's what the orig advert was like....


We moved the camera over to the chair and Ian began filming his segment again with the new script, we then moved the camera back a little bit and did the part where ian gets up and walks towards the camera.

Next was where i was in.... and my god, i couldn't remember any of my lines, it was awful!!!

So the camera moved around to me and i began filming away for my two lines (which alone, took about 5 minutes to film). We moved the camera to it's final scene and began to film that part, of course getting our words mixed up too!

Now not alot of people know this, but as soon as we finished filming that video, we got changed back into our normal clothes and filmed another video straight away! When both video's were filmed we then began to edit the just-eat video. We literally couldn't stop laughing at it all the way through editing and i knew we were onto something good here.

As soon as it was all edited, we uploaded it to youtube and for our view count, it exploded.

Not as in, millions of views, but when the adverage video view count currently stands at about 50 views, it's a big deal when one overnight gets 166 views.

I can't begin to explain to you just how much fun we really do have filming these video's and to see how much they're enjoyed by others just add's to the fun of it all. :)

Tuesday 23 July 2013

Are you ready for it?

Although we've spoken many a time on this blog about things like cancer, this summer will see ITV killing off one of it's big charicters on Corronation Street and already it's brought a tear to my eye.

The charicter is called Hailey Cropper (yes, the transexual one) and up until this post goes live, she's only just been diagnosed with the cancer. The story will run for a while as the treatment fails and of course leading to her death in the soap.

It got me to thinking though, how ready are you for the news?

Like how would you react if someone close to you told you they had cancer, what would you do? what would you say?

I was always brought up to "be ready for the worst to happen, anything else is a bonus".


Ok, so lets do a little role play....

Imagine that someone you love or have a soft spot for you comes to you and tells you that they have cancer. Without knowing what sort or the odd's of them getting through it alive.... what is your reaction?

Sad?

Being sad would be expected i think and of course at some point either right then or at a later time (maybe away from that person) you're bound to feel sad.

Angry?

Suprisingly, anger is quite a common emotion to feel when finding out that somebody has cancer. Not angry with the person of course, but for those who are religious, its common to be angry with any god that you follow.... Anger can work in a good way too. We tend to do things when were angry and getting angry with cancer can sometimes be enough to spare a person on in getting the treatment they need.

Happy?

Again, you wouldn't be jumping for joy, but some people are known to be happy when they are told by somebody that they love that said person has cancer. Sometimes it's because a person at such a mentally challanging stage in their life has chosen to confide in you. It can be happy because after months of scans and tests, there's finally an answer, so treatment can begin.


The truth of the matter is, there's no right or wrong way to react to cancer. With how far science has come it's more and more likely that the person who's told you would be a cancer beater and would go on to live a healthy life after beating it.

But you don't have to go through it alone you know. If somebody you know has cancer, don't feel that you shouldn't be getting help if you need it, because that person is worse off than you. There's helplines world over and websites galore full of advice for people like friends and family of those who have been diagnosed with cancer.

Corronation street runs in the UK via ITV on a monday at 7:30pm + 8:30pm, wednesday 7:30pm and fridays 7:30pm and 8:30pm.

Thursday 18 July 2013

Today was our day


Well, it's sooner than i thought it would have been that i'm able to say this, if slightly choked up when i type this, but same-sex marriage is now legal in the UK.

I always remember years ago when i first started looking up gay family's. I of course saw a few youtube video's, but it's also around the same time i started looking into what the UK was like, when it came to equality laws. I saw that some people were pushing for a bill to go up infront of parliament which would allow (if passed) for same-sex couples to marry. At this point i was kind of un-knowing of what the public opinion was. As i became more vocal on my support for the bill, i wasn't apposed.

Infact, i saw quite abit of support for it, but that wouldn't be enough to get it up infront of parliament would it? would IT????

Years went by and the bill was on the list of things to be debated, yet for one reason or another, it faced delay after delay, until suddenly, we were told "early 2013" and something in my heart thought "this is it".

When the bill came forward i was very impressed, almost cried when i saw how much support it had when the first results came in and over 400 mp's voted in favour of the bill, even if my local mp (Mrs Cooper) voted against it. To view how i felt when that happend and i was told of it, read the post by clicking here.

I always remember on the day of that vote, my facebook was crazy, but my friend's Jay & Bryan were getting message after message off me telling them what was happening as it was happening, i explained about the process afterwards, they were as sure as i was that this bill would pass and that we'd get marriage equality. Infact, they made a video about it (and i think as they were making it, i was still sending messages about the votes after the first one...)


Of course then we finished off in the house of commons and the next step was the house of lords. Here, we DID face some possible changes that would have defeated the bill. A certain member of the house of lords (Lord dear) was calling for many changes which were pathetic, but i think his own homophobic was of trying to get something in the bill for the people who didn't support the bill.

Anyway, a matter of days ago and at the 3rd reading (the veeeery final copy) we passed in the house of lords and things were set to get better in the next stage... or where they?

See, after the house of lords for 99.9% of all bills, the next step is the queen.... now some people still argue the point over why we still have a queen or king, but im here to tell you, they do still have ALOT to do with our politics. The queen could have easily refused the bill and we'd be back to square one.

The queen IS church of england faith, the church of england is still legally banned from carrying out same sex marriage because of the church's stance on the topic. This of course can be changed and i assume as per history, when the numbers start to twindle at church on a sunday and the fnd raising is less, then the church will appeal the decision and start carrying out same-sex marriage.... but whatever, the main point here is, the queen is head of the church, so would she refuse the bill, if even on personal grounds?

The royal family these days does seem quite accepting of all people, well, minus prince phillip, but to be completely honest some of the comments he comes out with shock me, but do have me crying laughing. Like the time he met a london steel drum band and asked them when they were "going home". Part of me always wanted to believe that when the bill went up infront of the queen, she'd have a little smile on her face as she signed the dotted line, crossed the T's and dotted the I's and all would go well for the gays for once.

After the bill had finished in the house of lords, i noticed some of the amendments called for time limits on certain things, but the way the bill is wrote, i wouldn't have a clue what half of it said, but anyway, off it went to the queen. Now i didn't know how long this would take but it seems the queen was as eager to pass this bill as i was for her to do so.... it got signed into law on 17/07/2013 and became legal for same sex couples to marry.


We did it and i couldn't be happier... or could i?

You should know me well by now to know i'm never fully happy with much and this bill isn't something i'm over the moon about.

I shall leave it for a seperate post, but have a little look into the laws in and around divorce, see if it's the same for everyone....

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Back in my day....

This blog post is going to contain the story of what happend to a 13 year old boy. Some of the content in this might not be suitable for those of a younger age.

This morning i wake up and read a story that was in the news yesterday, dated 16/07/13. I'm sat here disturbed by what i've just read and feeling that it can only be a reflection of society and what we have changed into, not only that, but it has left me wondering exactly what is our future going to be. Let me give you abit of history on this one....

When my nana was growing up and even when she had her own house, she remembers of a day and age where you could leave your front door open for people to come and go as they please.

When my mum was growing up, kids would play out in the street. She can remember teacher's being allowed to hit children if they miss-behaved in class.

When i was growing up, we were alwas told to go and "play out" while it was light, then come home and do our home work.

Though i'm aware society has changed, it's worrying exactly what it has turned into. Rape itself has been around since time began, although how it's delt with and the "reasons" behind it may well have changed. Over the past couple of years i've heard more and more about cases of rape involving children, infact only a few weeks ago i read a story of how a father was attracted to his 4 month old child and had made advances.

Today's news story though is simply awful, in every sense. Here's the headline....

Peckham teen raped boy, 13, for 'having a poor phone'
 
 
The title of this story did leave me a tad on the confused side.... surely not...
 
"A teenager raped a 13-year-old boy he had intended to rob and then told him he deserved it for not having a phone worth stealing, a court heard yesterday.
The 15-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sentenced to four years detention after previously pleading guilty to two counts of rape at Inner London Crown Court.
The would-be robber took his victim to the top floor of a block of flats in Peckham, south London, raped him and then slapped him in the face.
During the attack, the complainant repeatedly begged for his attacker to stop because it hurt, the court heard.
He replied: "Good, that's what you get for not having a good phone. I'm going to scar you for life."
The attack took place on the Yellow Brick Estate on 14 January, prosecutor William Eaglestone told the court.
It began when the 15-year-old, who was 14 at the time, approached the boy at a bus stop while he was on his way back from school.
He asked where he lived, where he went to school, whether he was in a gang and if he had a phone.
When the boy replied he did not have a phone, he was told to go into the block of flats so he could be searched.
After taking him up stairs to the top floor, his attacker began saying "weird stuff" and grabbing him.
Telling him to "do it like a girl", the defendant ordered his victim to remove his boxer shorts and raped him.
Before letting him go, he hit the younger boy in the face and said he would come after him, ordering: "Don't watch who I am".
Asked later by police how scared he had been on a scale of one to 10, the victim replied 10.
When he got home, the boy was crying and got in the bath.
His brother asked what was wrong but got no response.
"His mother came home and saw him in the bath," Mr Eaglestone said.
"She kept asking what was wrong and the victim finally said 'Don't tell anyone, I have been raped'."
In a statement read out to court, the boy's mother said that the rape had changed not only her son's life but that of the whole family.
"My son has changed from being bubbly and lively into a shy and withdrawn young boy - it breaks my heart," she said.
"I don't understand that this could happen because our family believes in peace - we are God fearing people."
Explaining that she had "lost faith in society", she explained that the boy had since been bullied and changed school.
She also said he had stopped washing in a bid to make himself "unattractive".
Judge Roger Chapple, sentencing, told the defendant that his offences had been "dreadful" and the effects on his victim "profound".
"You were apparently punishing him (the victim) for not having a mobile phone you could steal from him," the judge said.
"A quite sad and disquieting theme that has run through this case is the power, control and domination you sought to exercise over your victim and your apparent wish to degrade him.
"When he told you how much you had hurt him you expressed satisfaction and threatened to scar him for life."
A decision on whether to lift an order granting anonymity to the defendant was postponed to tomorrow morning.
The defendant has a previous conviction for possession of cannabis and had been reprimanded for carrying a knife.
Jeannie Mackie, for the defence, said that her client was "buzzing" when the offences happened.
Speaking outside court, Detective Inspector Jackie Wakeford-Smith said justice had been served.
"For someone so innocent and pure, it is just the most inhumane thing to do to another human being," she said.
"It is important for anyone who has been the victim of such a crime to come forward to make sure that these things do not go unreported.
"There are agencies that work with us to support victims of sexual attacks.
"Support networks are in place to help you - please don't suffer in silence, come forward."."

.... Oh.


The song above is called "Ribbon of highway" and tells the story of a person after rape.

The news story itself leaves for some pretty shocking reading, worse than reading is when the realisation comes that this isn't some random persons' dream, this actually happend to somebody. Not that rape is ever acceptable, no matter the "reason" behind it, but for it to be happening at this age? Even worse. More on from this, how could a 14 year old ever think that rape was acceptable? When i was 14, i didn't even know what rape was!!!

And for what? The reason behind this is apparently to do with the boy's mobile phone.... Now ok, when i was 13, i got my first ever mobile phone. It was by sony and it was blue, with some scroller thing on the side. It wasn't great, but it did everything that other people's phones could do at the time. I didn't exactly flaunt it, but i didn't keep my mobile hidden, neither did i ever feel there was a time that i had to, even at school (minus in class, when it had to be kept on silent). The "reason" given to this rape is because of the boy's phone, but is that a valid reason or would this have still happend, but it was the 14 year old boy's way of trying to reason out his actions?

We live in a world where it's now frowned upon to hit your children in public, parents are expected to use things like "the naughty step" and come down to the child's level to explain to them what they have done wrong. How was it back in my day? If you were doing something wrong, you got a slap, either on the bum or back of the legs.

A quick slap and the lesson was usually learned that you'd done wrong and to stop doing it. Would being explained to have worked for me as a child? Not a chance. Infact often when my mum used to say "don't go past that lamp post", i'd go past that lamp post.

Is a lack of parental disaplin having an effect on society as i know it? It could very well be having a damaging effect on how children are being brought up these days. They're being surrounded by all these "latest" and "got to have" gadgets and expected to not want them until they're old enough? Who are we kidding?

It's infact not too long ago i heard of the case where a 10 year old had been robbed because she had the iphone 5. I'm 25 and i don't have a good phone!!!! WTF????

To sum up, we need to sit up and listen to what's going on in our society. We need to make changes because i really don't like what our society has changed into.

- Thank you to The independant for the story. To fully read it, click here.


Tuesday 16 July 2013

End of Obama?

As the world now knows, only a matter of day's ago and George Zimmerman was set free by a jury of his peers as he was cleared of any wrong doing in the murder trial. This alone has managed to cause massive tention through the world helped even more by social media.

It has also drawn people into the case who didn't know what was happening, so have a read of how wikipedia explains it all....

"The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman took place on the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States. Martin was a 17-year-old African American high school student. George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old mixed-race Hispanic American, was the neighborhood watch coordinator for the gated community where Martin was temporarily staying and where the shooting took place. Following an earlier call from Zimmerman, police arrived within two minutes of a gunshot during a scuffle. Zimmerman was taken into custody, treated for head injuries, then questioned for five hours, but eventually released under the supposition the shooting was in self-defense. However, six weeks later, amidst a "media circus" atmosphere involving accusations of racism, Zimmerman was charged with murder by a new prosecutor.
Zimmerman's trial began on June 10, 2013, in Sanford, Florida. On Saturday, July 13, 2013, the jury found Zimmerman not guilty of second-degree murder and of manslaughter. The six women in the jury delivered their verdict after more than 16 hours of deliberations.
Statements given by Zimmerman have indicated that on the night of the shooting Zimmerman was in his vehicle on a personal errand when he noticed Martin walking beyond the gated fence inside the community. Statements read that Zimmerman then called the Sanford Police Department to report Martin's actions as suspicious, saying "This guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about" and "looking at all the houses", although according to a police report, there was "no indication that Trayvon Martin was involved in any criminal activity at the time of the encounter". While still on the phone with the police dispatcher, Zimmerman exited his vehicle, and after concluding his telephone call with police, was involved in a violent encounter with Martin. The encounter ended with Zimmerman fatally shooting Martin with one shot to the chest.
When police arrived on the scene, Zimmerman stated that Martin had attacked him and that he had shot Martin in self-defense using a weapon Zimmerman had on him. Zimmerman was bleeding from the nose and from two vertical lacerations on the back of his head. EMTs treated Zimmerman at the scene, after which he was taken to the Sanford Police Department. Zimmerman was detained and questioned for approximately five hours. He was then released without being charged. At the time, police said they found no evidence to contradict Zimmerman's claim of self-defense.
The circumstances of Martin's death, including the fact that he was unarmed, and the initial decision not to charge Zimmerman received national and international attention and scrutiny. Allegations of racist motivation for both the shooting and police conduct, along with intense media reporting, contributed to public demands for Zimmerman's arrest. Questions were also raised about Florida's stand-your-ground law. On March 22, 2012, a Special Prosecutor, Angela Corey, was appointed to take over the investigation. On April 11, 2012, the Special Prosecutor filed a charge of murder in the second-degree against Zimmerman, who then turned himself in and was placed in custody. The prosecution's account of what they allege happened on the night of the shooting is largely contained in the probable cause affidavit."

Now for me this case does reffer to race, heavily. In my opinion, zimmerman saw a black kid hanging around an area and he didn't like it, he was afraid of robbery, violence etc, so took matters into his own hand. As i've explained on my blog's before, i don't believe america should have guns readily available, i think their laws should be as ours are in the uk, but thats a seperate debate right there.

So why don't i agree with what the jury's decision was. Even though we are in the 21st century and we have gained some sort of equality for black people, we're not quite there. There's still large parts of area's world over, where people are still racist. Florida is no exeption to this (Ok, maybe the bits owned by disney are an exeption, but still...). It is possible that the jury were racist.


As sad as it is to say, it's possible that the jury wasn't quite his peers.... But how does this come to have an affect on Obama?

Obama has already called for calm over america, understanding that tension's are running slighty high on this one. He's not exactly put his opinion out... but in my opinion, he should have. As much as some of us may not wish to admit it, alot of his peformance is being judged by others on his skin colour. In my eyes, he needs to do a speech and call for more action to be taken on this, get the people who are out at these protests on his side.... but i don't see that happening.

Infact, i'll be honest here. I'm shocked by the way some people are over this. When news first broke of this i was already on twitter, so of course i made a tweet about the case which got a few retweets etc, but generated a response.

One response was from a black girl who lives in florida who said.... "@DanielleOsemene
It has nothing to do with race it's 2013 get the fuck over it" to which i'm left completely dumbfounded.
 
Firstly, there's more reason's to say that this was racially motivated, than there is against. A majority of people out of the court systems are shocked by this result, on the understanding of the case and because it's 2013 were to think that this can't be down to race? Racism is still a big deal, it still happens.
 
So... what is next in this case?
 
Ok, this is where i get abit confused because the american justice system is a little different to that of the UK, but, i do believe that this case, despite the verdict, can be passed onto another court. Now i could be wrong here, but if that is an option that can be taken by Trayvon's family, then i do believe it's an option they should consider.
 
As far as racial equality goes, what does this mean?
 
Racial equality still has a long way to go, this case in my eyes, shows how far we are to come yet.
 
And Obama?
 
He's a black president who faces the challange of people being pissed off over possibly a racism case. If he does to little over this, he will be seen to not care about racism issues, he will lose votes. If he does too much, he will be accused of not doing enough for other cases where skin colour could be a factor and will lose votes. It's a risky time for him, but it's time for us to see what he does.

Tuesday 9 July 2013

I don't want Europe.

The title kinda say's it all.

Recently there's been talk all over the place about a possible vote on wether the UK should have any involvement in Europe or not. I'm putting my thoughts out there on this one and saying, no, the UK should back away from europe, sit back, pull out the popcorn and enjoy the political freakshow that is Euope.

Reasons?

1. Since we joined the EEC in 1973, we have been in surplus with every continent in the world except Europe. Over those 27 years, we have run a trade deficit with the other member states that averages out at £30 million per day.

2. In 2010 our gross contribution to the EU budget will be £14 billion. To put this figure in context, all the reductions announced by George Osborne at the Conservative Party Conference would, collectively, save £7 billion a year across the whole of government spending.

3. On the European Commission's own figures, the annual costs of EU regulation outweigh the advantages of the single market by €600 to €180 billion.

4. The Common Agricultural Policy costs every family £1200 a year in higher food bills.

5. Outside the Common Fisheries Policy, Britain could reassert control over its waters out to 200 miles or the median line, which would take in around 65 per cent of North Sea stocks.

6. Successive British governments have refused to say what proportion of domestic laws come from Brussels, but a thorough analysis by the German Federal Justice Ministry showed that 84 per cent of the legislation in that country came from the EU.

7. Outside the EU, Britain would be free to negotiate much more liberal trade agreements with third countries than is possible under the Common External Tariff.

8. The countries with the highest GDP per capita in Europe are Norway and Switzerland. Both export more, proportionately, to the EU, than Britain does.

9. Outside the EU, Britain could be a deregulated, competitive, offshore haven.

10. We would no longer have our benefits system paying out to people that do not even live in the UK!

11. Our NHS would no longer have to pay to treat people from other EU countries!

Any more reason's needed?

Look, these are only the political reasons why we shouldn't be in europe.... there's more than that....


He was a bastard that eventually the UK managed to get rid of, but only just, because of the Euro court of human rights. Wanna know what they've said today?

"The European Court of Human Rights has ruled the whole life tariff given to Peter Moore, the man who murdered four gay men for his sexual gratification in 1995, breaches his human rights.
Moore is one of three killers who have won an appeal in the Court on the basis that their sentences amount to inhuman and degrading treatment.
The judges ruled by 16 to 1 on Tuesday that there had to be a possibility of release and review of the sentence in order for it to remain compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Reacting to the decision Prime Minister David Cameron said he “profoundly disagrees with the Court’s ruling”, adding he is a “strong supporter of whole life tariffs”.
The UK Government will now consider how it will respond to the ruling."

Now firstly, well done for David Cameron for saying basically "no" to this already. The man shouldn't be allowed to stay here at HM's pleasure, but that's the prison system for you. The ideal uk government's response should be a huge finger put up in the air, maybe, the middle finger, facing europe.

Yet again i cannot explain how much i'm fed up of this country because of our involvement with Europe. Not many of our political parties are wanting a public vote on this, yet if they listen to the british public, we're not all so keen on staying in, or having got in, in the first place. Yet all these political parties here, that claim to be listening to what the public want.... where's your call for a vote on this?

Friday 5 July 2013

Behind the scene's of your local pub / club.

Having worked in and around pub's and club's for many a year now, it's clear to see why we are still losing these venue's at the high rate we are.

For this, i'll be using where i currently entertain at, which is the Skelmersdale Comrades club (AKA, the commies).

See, this is a venue with ALOT of history behind it, it's been open since before i was born. It was your typical friday / saturday night, bingo and a band type of venue. Over the years the people stopped going and they now operate their main room as a "hire only" kind of a deal, which works for them.

Before we entered into recession, things were not too bad for the business, when they had a booking in the main room, it did well, people would turn up, spend money and go home at the end of the night. It made money and let's face it, that's the main thing. In 2009 we all went into recession and thing's went down for the club.

When i came onboard it was under a manager who had the lease and had spent abit of time giving the place a lick of paint and they tried to fix it up. They with 3rd party companies were able to offer a package deal, whereby a customer hiring the venue could pay 1 amount and that would cover the cost of the room hire, dj, buffet and room decoration. This was a popular concept and when it was managed right, the venue managed to beat off the recession and stay open.

Over time and management fall-outs, the deals stopped being produced, so after new year in 2012, the business almost dried up.

New management came in, in the form of the current manager. He managed to get the old contacts back in and set the offer up again, where to this day, it still proves to be a very popular option with people. So what is this manager doing in order to fight off the recession?

The current manager looks at what the customer will and decides if HE likes it. If he doesn't like it, he'll change it until he does. Basic things like broken light-bulbs, toilet seat's, how the toilets flush.... the minute details are looked at and fixed until they're right.

Then he looks at the staff and 3rd party involvement. I remember doing one event in the sports bar and having problems where the plug sockets where and which ones worked. What did this manager do? He fixed up all the plug socket, had new light switches installed aswel as new plug sockets for us dj's and entertainers to use.

Any idea's that the staff or customer's have, he will listen to and do what he can to act upon if he can.

For me, i think this is where some venue's are going wrong. Customer's want more for their money these days, you cant escape that fact. If a customer enjoy's their time in a venue, they're more likely to come back to it. Toilet's clean, lights working, pleasent smell and they're not having to pay through the nose for a drink, then you can be quite sure of repeat business.

See, social clubs are team work and there's ALOT of team work that goes into it. Customer's only see a VERY small amount of this. Like last week, when one of the functions had finished at about quater past 11, the owner couldn't get out until around 2am, because of counting the till's, the cleaning needing to be done etc.... yet this side is forgotten about when a customer goes home.

Thing's will improve as the economy get's better, that's a fact, but for now, is your venue doing enough to stay open?

Thursday 4 July 2013

What's happening with modern life?

For years upon years now we've all seen everywhere about these uprising's that are happening, governments being over thrown, lives lost etc, but what i'm left to ponder is, what's next?

Today, on the 4th of july, as per usual, america will celebrate it's independance day, which don't get me wrong is a great thing, only, the celebrations come from a country which in it's history and to this day, takes peoples independence away from them.

North korea, detention camps, war's... yup, you name it and america is involved and doing it already.

America isn't on it's own here though, these countries where these uprisings are taking place, they're taking peoples independence away from the people too, in a slight way. Take your adverage person in Syria right now, are they going to feel safe enough going out to their local shop? Are they going to feel independent enough to walk out alone to go somewhere they need to go?

My question lies mainly at the feel of the people who are behind these uprisings. Be it that they are fighting for a better quality of life for themselves, their people, their country. Their effects are being felt through the world and it's not exactly a great thing. I have to also wonder when, not if but when, the uprising fever wll spread to the UK.

People have protested against governments before, infact not too long ago we all saw the sit in's that went under the name "occupy". Now, occupy never gained much, it was never going to tbh, it's failure was set in with it's logic. "Let's sit here and we'll call for change by sitting here in mass" isn't the best protest idea ever and as seen, didn't do much.

The UK life day to day has changed, our cost of living is just stupidly high at the moment and it's set to get worse as we continue on this path of austerety. While we fight to make our economy better for the future, i personally believe in certain ways this government have gone about it the wrong way. Mix that with the daily news of governments being overthrown by the people and i'm left wondering how long before some serious action is taken here, to get someone into power that the people want.

Of course life these days isn't all about war and who's in charge of the country, but how can you escape these days what is happening in other places, places we never thought we would see such action being taken. Me personally i didn't think that we would have seen such action in Turkey, but we have. Now Turkey as a country i love to bits, it's very cultured, a different way of life totally and to look at... turkey is a stunning country.Yet i wasn't aware of the law changes that the people living in the country were facing. I wasn't aware of the freedom of speech being taken away from people, yet because of their action o nthe streets, i've seen it first hand. When one of the country's leaders came out and said abotu how people protesting on the street was damaging people's freedom of speech.... a protest is a huge mark of freedom of speech and rarely will it, in itself, impact on peoples freedoms, least of all, when alot of people support the action being taken.

So now my question leads to this.... is all of this action a bad thing?

I don't think we fully have a democratic society, or the society we are lead to believe, certainly not here in the UK. I mean look in america, people get to vote on issues like gay marriage, when did the people get to vote in the UK?

A small while ago now and the UK's job centre was up in court over their work programme. The programme was up infront of 3 judges... IT WAS CALLED ILLEGAL ACTION by these 3 different judges, yet the night after and overnight new laws were put into place, so it could no longer be called illegal. How is that a democratic society in action?

Yet these countries with the uprisings seem to be working their way over to how we work in these contries, where religion is basically dead when it comes to law, which i agree, it should be. We're finding out alot about how these contries operate and how they treat their people, sometimes with shocking images being fed to us... but are their actions going to change our lives?

I don't know what my future holds, i don't know what the way of life is going to be like in 5 years. All's i can say is that with the way things are at the moment, i don't like this world. I'd love to be able to go to somewhere like egypt and enjoy my time there, yet i don't feel as if i could go there at the moment, since last night alot of embassy's were calling for their people to leave the country.

Where will all of this end? Are we on the verge of world war 3?

Monday 1 July 2013

Do i know myself enough to cry?

Yeah, bit of a strange title isn't it, but yet still a question i asked myself at silly o'clock this morning.

Bascially, i think i could count on 2 hands the amount of people that have seen me actually cry, like, full on cry. Be it alchol induced or not, if i let my thoughts out and get caught up in a moment, then you'll know about it.

Usually what happens for me (and it's like i've got this down to a fine art) when i get upset is i'll show the classic sign's, lump in the throat, not talking and usually, i tend to look upwards too... i think thats when my eyes start to fill up more though. People who know me by this point, after seeing these sign's, know just to give me a hug. I'll usually nessle my head in someones neck and shoulder and let it all out, not for long though, i've learned over the years when im upset, the way to calm me down is to hug me.... odd ain't it.

I tend not to get upset too often these days, i could literally list the things that have been going on in my life that are upsetting here (and trust me, google would run out of storage space if i did write it all down) but i tend to just take things on the chin and work on moving on, yet time to time, things will get me abit down. For a day or two i might go quiet, turn my phone off and have some "me" time. During this time, i'll try to make myself cry... yup, i activly will make myself cry. It's just one of those feelings i get, when i know that things are bottled up enough and it's time to let them all out in a good old sob fest.

So how do i make myself cry?

Well, over the past few years, i've kind of taken note as to what makes me cry and what doesn't. Seeing soldier's coming home is always something that gets me going, especially the one of the marine and he suprises his son in school.... it's just the sweetest thing and the tissues are always needed on standby for when that video comes on.... are you ready for it?


Teary eyed yet? My god i am and im only putting this post together!!!

Don't get me wrong, sometimes thing's happen in my life which do get me upset and from time to time with that i'll have a little sob and a chat with a friend but me being the thinker that i am, i tend more often than not to just deal with that myself.

But why would i want to make myself cry?

I think we all know the feeling of "that feels so much better" after a good cry. For me, it's almost as close to the feeling i got when i first came out about being gay. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders and thats almost how i feel after a good cry, it's just taking time out from everything to have a few moments to myself and then get back to a sort of focus on dealing with the problem(s) at hand if i can.

The alternative to getting myself upset is to just take my mind on a journey, let it wonder, go into a sort of day dream if you please. I sometimes go into a sort of meditative state where i can let my mind go where it wants to, if it even wants to, but you'd be amazed at how much you can feel better after letting your mind go loose.

For me, i usually go for what i call a blank song (no lyrics or very few). Where it's got a catchy sort of tune that can keep me entertained. Recently for me it's been "Skrillex - Summit". I've enjoyed just sitting back and letting my brain wonder to this song and i don't know of many other's that do, but hey, it works for me, so that can't be a bad thing right?


There's time where i do have to sit here though and ponder a question like the title. I have to know myself well enough to know what makes me tick and what makes me cry. Speaking of which, it's just gone past 6am, it's time for me to paint on today's smile and head out to the big wide world, remembering at another time i can let my emotion's go free....