A Festive Thought..

I have always loved Christmas. Without a doubt, it is my favourite time of year. But after a month of beating family and friends into submission of at least a little festive cheer, it would seem that I am in the minority. And the more I think about it, the more I understand. 


For Christians, it's pretty obvious what Christmas is all about, so why is it so important for us non-religious folk? 


For the cynics and the business men and women, the festive period is a time to take advantage of good will and generosity, to encourage shoppers to dig deep and buy things that are essential to anyone's Christmas. Actually, it may come as some surprise that no, I do not need yet another dressing gown or miniature figurine of a safari animal. This capitalist, materialistic aspect to December makes it easy to understand why most despair as the festive adverts flood our screens, screaming at you to buy the latest fad or your son or daughter will be the laughing stock of the playground.


For others, it's kindness and thoughtful acts that define the festive period. A friend of mine commutes into Waterloo and buys an espresso from a coffee stall near the exit. One day during the run up to Christmas, a woman in front of him bought two hot chocolates, walked down the steps and gave one of them to a homeless person outside the station, wished him a 'merry Christmas', and went on her way.


(Now for the soppy bit. If the previous day's drinking has left you feeling queezy, I would be cautious about reading on..) For me, Christmas is about much more than presents and the birth of a religious icon. It gives us a chance to remember who and what is important in life. For some, getting the latest game for the Xbox is important, but for me, it's being surrounded by family and friends, eating cracking food, and watching heartwarming films by the fire (find your nearest puke points now). Merry Christmas to all!

The Look

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.


Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! - Am ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.


In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.


If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, -
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.


Wilfred Owen

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

Plato.

Shuffle

The Genius of Everyday Things

A new exhibition opened this week at one of my favourite places when I was a child - the Science Museum in London. It focuses on the 'hidden heroes' in our culture, the forgotten achievements in engineering and development that we take for granted today. Revealing clever design behind mundane objects such as the paperclip, or the tea bag (for which I am forever grateful), for me this exhibition acts as a reminder of what we as a race can and have achieved, with even the smaller breakthroughs contributing to everyday life.

Visitors have the opportunity to look at original drawings by the inventors, and random facts and tales that are behind some of the products. (Did you know that Napoleon played a part in the development of the tin can? No, me neither.)


'At a time when celebrity is king, it gives all of us at the Science Museum enormous satisfaction to celebrate the truly uncelebrated and shine a light on a group of outstanding inventions and inventors, revealing the supposedly mundane to be nothing short of remarkable.' (Dr Susan Mossman, materials science specialist at the Science Museum.)


I couldn't have put it better myself (which is probably why they've put it on their website). The exhibition is open till the beginning of June (you can book tickets here), and £6 entry is a bargain to have a rare opportunity to celebrate human success. For those unable to get themselves down to the best museum in town, the Hidden Heroes website has most of the exhibition material and products for all to browse.

Latest Report from Occupy London..

Juicy

So as you can probably tell, I'm finding it difficult to be inspired by much these days. I'm going through a phase of being unphased. There is a lot to think about- Gaddafi's kicked the bucket, Obama's declared an end to the war in Iraq, Greece has just had yet another financial bail out, and there are global protests to tackle 'corporate greed'. But instead, I have chosen to throw myself into the big bad worlds of reggae and disco.

There are a couple of things I would like to bring to everyone's attention on this fine, chilly october night. The first is a tasty reggae treat I found on Mixcloud with some cracking song choices and music to aid the soul.

Iron & D-Purpose - Funkin For Jamaica by Laid Back on Mixcloud

The second is a mix I was shown by a good friend of mine, and it never fails to put a smile on my face. Countless classics, from Isley Brothers to Fleetwood Mac to Craig David to Grandmaster Flash... The list is endless. You'd be a fool not to have a listen.

The DJ at my wedding will play this.... by B-Ill on Mixcloud

Enjoy.

Hello Stranger...

A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him. 

George Orwell

Alton Ellis

Shake your money maker

Late last night, a friend of mine posted a video on his Facebook profile of a BBC News interview with a trader. It was called 'BBC speechless as trader tells truth the collapse is coming' (see video below). I'm not normally one for watching posted videos, most of them are boring self-indulgent attempts at an ego boost from their friends, but it takes a good title or intriguing freeze frame of said video to draw me in.

Now, I am still undecided about how thankful I am that I watched the footage this evening. I was left feeling... well, speechless. And then quite a few things hit me at once.

The first thing that surprised me was how candid and honest this man was about traders and his own dishonest intentions. In such uncertain times, one would assume that nobody would admit to dreaming of making money from other people's misfortune, and I was not the only one (see BBC news article link below).  But those people are out there, and I certainly needed to be reminded that actually, everything may not work out.

Then I thought about why it was so unbelievable for someone to be honest on the news. I've always thought audiences were used to the bad and negative news, so I was surprised why people were questioning how genuine this guy was. Then I realised that we are not used to being told bad news in a simple, straight-talking format.
If this collapse is unavoidable as suggested by Allessio Rastani, and people will lose their savings by the end of the year, then I'm sort of relieved that actually, I do not have any significant finance to my name.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15078419

Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.


Albert Einstein.

Big History

I was shown this video the other day and I found it a very thought-provoking lecture.


I was only made aware of this 'TED: Ideas for sharing' website recently, a place full of fascinating and enlightening conferences about various ways of life that we take for granted.


This particular talk has stuck in my mind for days. There's so much in it that I feel is forgotten or unknown to many but important to all. I've often thought that history is essential to any successful progression as a race. History provides us with that double-edged sword: hindsight. I always think its important to know how we, as a race, have got this far. It's easy to forget how much we have achieved on this planet and even the most intricate of systems are taken for granted, like the national grid or our sewage system. Where would we be without electricity in the age of the internet, or sanitation in an era of health and safety mania? Our success is down to human nature, the thirst to know, and the ability to carry this learning into the future, thus, accumulating knowledge.


However, abuse of these integral systems jeopardise the 'goldilocks conditions' that David Christian speaks about in this video. Just as it is easy to forget the achievements of the human race, it is also easy to forget how fragile our planet is, and how minor changes in environment and chemical make-up have led to the planet we are able to inhabit.


This leads me to believe that it can't be just luck that has created this intricate eco-system out of nothing. It is difficult to comprehend that each of us are a result of a chemical reaction gone wrong, that there really is no meaning to life. But if this is true, why has a chemical reaction led to us searching for it?


After all, life is surely more than just exotic chemistry.

(Video taken from youtube, but you can watch the original on the TED website here http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/david_christian_big_history.html )

For more information on Big History, visit their website http://www.bighistoryproject.com/ .

The Beginning

I feel that there are a few things I would like to point out before I get myself lost in the blogging bubble.

I find it very difficult to ever admit that anything I write is worthy of an audience, so the idea of publishing my thoughts on a page accessible by an entire wireless community is, to put it simply, terrifying. But I have reached a crossroad in my thoughts, and I hope blogging will help. 

I have always been vocal about my beliefs and have often been told that I am articulate with my views. However, getting this across on a web page is an entirely different matter. But I am at a point where I cannot keep up with my thoughts and I'm hoping that the process of writing and editing them on a page will help me to come to conclusions that accurately reflect my attitudes in life.

So, herein I lay my mind, heart and soul on the line to you, whoever, wherever you may be. I don't want this page to be viewed as the ramblings of a 22 year old female student, who has had the luck and privilege to have been educated well and to come from a loving family, who makes swooping statements and idealistic points that bear no reflection to real life and that only a small minority of people can relate to. 

I want to create a page that makes people stop and think about what is happening to the world around us, be it our immediate, intimate worlds or the wider, troubled societies that have been so vehemently publicised by the media. The London riots were the first acts of social disorder that provoked a strong reaction from myself, watching them from my student house in Cowley, Oxford. The images of the destruction of my beloved home city were more upsetting to me than I ever anticipated, and I want to feel that I am at least doing something to try and come to terms with what has happened to our society for such behaviour to occur. 

So essentially, as is true of all bloggers, I am hoping to achieve something through this medium, and I will not deny that it is most likely the only person this process will benefit is myself. But if I get even just one person thinking about or questioning what went wrong, how we can help, or asking for a way to channel all this negative energy into a much more productive movement, then I hope that I can go away fulfilled and clear-minded.