Sorry, this blog has been gone a while. The server it was on died a death shortly before life got slightly more complicated. Might explain more in the coming days.
Its nice to have the blog back though. I’ve missed writing for it more than I thought I would.
9/11 is my generation’s Kennedy assassination. Everyone remembers where they were the day it happens, and I think everyone remembers certain details about that day.
Mine aren’t in any way interesting but I figured I write it anyway.
I was working at Wickes at the time. That morning a colleague I was working with had that day found out she was pregnant, and someone from IT (a department I badly wanted to work for) was in to fix a till.
I was serving a chipper old man – the kind that can make serving customers enjoyable – when he said to me in a jokey way “Did you hear about the plane that’s hit the World Trade Center?”.
“No”, I said, anticipating a punchline. “Yeah” he replied.
It was no joke.
Although I wasn’t a breaking news junkie back then like I am today (something 9/11 turned me into), I asked most customers had they heard and did they have any information.
Every now and then a customer would have some fresh information. I was never able to truly grasp the scale of what was happening, but I got a fair idea.
My colleague obviously had her own things to worry about (being up the duff n all), and the chap from IT seemed strangely nonplussed by it all.
During any breaks I had, I’d run across to Curry’s to watch the events on TV.
I remember going into the ‘cash office’ and mentioned the events to my then manager. On a couple of occasions since then he’d pointed out he’d never forget the moment I told him. Like I say, everyone remembers certain details about that day.
I headed home still not totally grasping the scale of it. I expected to get home and say to whoever was home (either my Mum, Dad or one of my brothers) “Did you hear about what happened in America?!” expecting that they hadn’t heard yet – or at perhaps only heard in passing. But when I walked in not only was it on the TV (I didn’t realise it had become compulsive viewing for those that could) but I was shocked to see my mum crying. She really isn’t the crying type. It turns out a daughter of an old friend of hers was presumed dead as a result the attacks on the WTC.
My final memory of that day was being up late watching CNN as fighting had broke out in Afghanistan. With all the chaos of the day I thought perhaps America was already fighting back which struck me as madness to retaliate so soon. Turns out it was simply in-fighting not involving America. America would fight back later.
Andy Carvin insists that the introduction on his Google Plus profile – “I tweet revolutions” – is a joke, but nevertheless that’s what he’s famous for. Armed with TweetDeck – the power Twitter user’s app of choice – and a thoroughly curated group of reliable, enthusiastic and well-informed Twitter users, the social media strategist for US public service radio broadcaster NPR has become known for his mastery of aggregated and verified real-time news through Twitter. And that’s no mean feat on a platform still dismissed by many as a gimmick that trivialises information into uselessly short sound bites.
via Andy Carvin: the man who tweets revolutions | Media | The Guardian.
Whenever I mention to someone that I’ve started to follow breaking news on Twitter as well as the rolling news channels, I recommend they at least follow this chap if they want to do the same.
The article above focusses on the Arab Spring, but I’ve followed him for the London Riots and the Japan Earthquake also.
That night I would see a rapid series of incidents that was almost impossible to compute. On Kingsland Road, groups of shopkeepers, many of them Turkish Kurds, sprinted past our car as they chased looters away.
An hour later, and further west, I was in Chalk Farm to see men armed with scaffold poles attack passing motorists and smash their way into shops.
When the windows were broken, people of all backgrounds surged in to help themselves to the free goods.
Khalili and I were pretending to be part of the crowd, with hoodies pulled tight over our heads.
via UK riots: Paul Lewis’s five-day journey | UK news | guardian.co.uk.
A good first-hand report of the riots by Guardian reporter Paul Lewis.
I was following Paul Lewis on Twitter on the Monday night. Thanks to him and others I thought Twitter really came into its own that night. Combined with the rolling news channels it gave you a sense of the scale of what was taking place along with the general disbelief of it all felt by the public.
When the fire engines had finished the crowds started to cheer and some raised their brooms. All of a sudden everyone was raising their brooms and I managed to get the photo on my iPhone.
via BBC News – How the broom army photo swept the web.
What I didn’t realise about the photo (see below) was that it was spontanious. I figured someone shouted out “Everyone raise their brooms for the camera!”.
It makes it an all the more impressive photo knowing it’s spontanious.
When people are asked on the news “Why do you think this has happened?”, I wish they wouldn’t respond “there aren’t any excuses for this!”.
They weren’t asking for excuses. They were after reasons. I think there is a difference.
Even if the reason is “because they did it for the crack”. That’s a reason. At least then you can start to get to the bottom of why it happened and how to prevent it from happening in the future without simply resorting to punishment as a deterrent (which to be fair in the short term is realistically the only option).
Why have members of this generation of the youth done this and not previous generations? We’re all born into this world as babies. Kinda obviously really. But there is no reason to suggest that this generation of babies were more evil than the generations before that. So there is a cause for what’s happening. There is a cause for this generation to consider crime to be a good crack, and not the previous.
I wonder what long term effects this will have on the youth of London? I wonder how many of the kids in the riots at the moment are first time offenders who might now get a taste for crime?
It will be interesting to see a graph of crime rates in London before and after this event.
I wonder how big a part the 24 hour news channels are playing in the London Riots? Would the riots have got to the scale they’re at now if it didn’t become headline news quite as it has. I would have thought that the idea of taking part in a news event would have an appeal to people who crave such a thing and are of a criminal nature.
It’s been a fairly big year for news, with the Arab Spring, NotW scandal, the Japan earthquake (etc) – I’ve watched a lot of it. The media can whip up a shit-storm. They escalate things. They project great importance on ‘sub-events’ that if taken out of the context of the larger event really aren’t important events at all.
I think that’s probably happening here too.
My son turned 13 today and I didn’t write a post called “13” because I was blocked. I still am. But here’s the thing. Writer’s block always contains the seeds of its own demise. It can block you from what you want to write about but it can’t block you from writing about writer’s block itself. When writer’s block blocks your subject, it becomes the subject. So fuck you, writer’s block. I win.
via - B. HOCKEY J. – 13.
A well written “my son has turned x years old” post. You could say it’s kinda meta in that it discusses more the writing of the “my son has turned x years old” post.
I’m part way through writing the ‘Stan Turning 2′ post. I’m not sure whether I’ll finish it or not. I’m already a few weeks late, and not as happy with it as I was the
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People believe that being a business owner is risky, but I believe that having only ONE source of income – ONE source that can be terminated at any time (typically by ONE person) – is the real risk. via Why Entrepreneurs Rule the World – Professional development. Nicely turned on it’s head. However, my bigger fear (I realised this after someone else pointed this out to me) would be the livelyhood of my employees. I think I’d struggle to sleep at night if their families were depending on how I’d run a business.Why Entrepreneurs Rule the World