Coroner's Winehouse Verdict

As a follow-up to the post that I wrote when Amy Winehouse passed away, I've been keeping an eye out for the post-mortem report being released by the coroner. It was reported today and the conclusion of it was that she died from drinking too much alcohol. It's apparently called misadventure which I think is a little crass considering it is relation to someone's death. I would never call it an 'adventure' when I decide to have a drink so maybe a little rethink on that phraseology might be on the cards I think. The reason for me deciding to make a note of this report today was that, in the period of time between her death and now, so many people have been saying that it must have been an illegal substance that killed her; it was apparently inevitable that she has taken too much of something. I think it's sad that people jumped to conclusions, even if those conclusions were founded in the hard facts of her life.My view is that she was, and still is, treated far too negatively in the press and I feel that today's news should draw a line in the sand.

Apologies for this being a short post tonight but I'm completely knackered and it's the best I've got for you this evening.

Thanks for reading anyway,

Martin 

Wounds That Might Not Heal

The sad reality of life is that you have to witness or suffer loss before you can truly appreciate what you have. I wrote in my last post about 'reality' and the pitfalls of ignoring it but I suppose when it's sad and negative it's often very tempting to turn a blind eye to it. The inspiration for today's post (even though it's a bit crass to be inspired by this) is the fact that the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is in a few days time. There have been lots of programmes on the TV this week and the newspapers have been packed with pictures and stories which are as harrowing as they are important. I've read a few of the stories of survivors, people that lost family and friends in the attacks and of course the rescue personnel and each of them pulled at my heart strings. Some of the pictures that have been brought back into the media is recent weeks speak a thousand words and then some more - still images that will be burned into the memories of victims and onlookers alike. If there is one thing that I've learned in the past week from all of the coverage of the anniversary is that the wounds from 9/11 will take many year to heal.

My Favourite Day of the Year

For people that are not fond of football or just don't follow it as much as most people, today will be like any other day of summer to them. Depending on where you are reading this the sun might well be shining and whatever you had planned for today will invariably have been pretty common - it's only a Wednesday after all. The thing is however, that for football fans across the globe and particularly in Britain, this day carries a lot of significance: it is (of course) transfer deadline day. I'm writing this post at about 5pm on the 31st August 2011 and it's killing me that I'm away from the TV at the moment. There are very few days like this that will capture the imagination of so many people and I, unashamedly, can admit that it is my favourite day of the year.

London Riots: Who Picks up the Bill?

I felt like a ghoul when I stayed up until the early hours of Monday morning watching the live news coverage of the riots in London. It was almost addictive watching it as streams of breaking news rolled slowly along the bottom of the screen to reveal where the violence had spread to. The urge I had to avoid sleep to keep up to date was fueled by the hope that the next update from the terrified and bewildered reporters on the streets would be a positive one - they never were. Monday night produced pictures that will be burned into the memories of millions of people, especially the ones that were there and (more specifically) the ones that have been affected so terribly by the criminality of mindless youths. The harrowing stories that have emerged over the last few days have hit home harder than any of those pictures ever could. They provide a background to the smoldering buildings and ransacked shops and tell of the prevalent fear that London is currently awash with. Those pictures and stories, however, are not able to explain to us how things are going to be fixed. Will insurance policies provide the necessary payouts to get home and shop owners back on their feet? Do the police have a duty to compensate those who have lost so much? Can those people's lives ever be the same again?

The Weekend the World Turned Blue

I find it funny when someone is asked if they watch the news and they say no because it's all depressing and there is never anything uplifting about it. I'm sorry but that wasn't in the mission statement when Sir Trevor MacDonald tapped his first pile of news on the desk all those years ago. Surely nobody can think that the world is a perfect place where only good things happen but to be able to accept that that is not true yet still not watch the news is simply a crime. News is what drives our days: it gives us things to talk about and debate, it provides us with a view of what the world is really like and for this reason it keeps us firmly in reality. The news should be watched, listened to, read and digested by everyone in the world because we learn from it as much as we create it. That 'reality' that I mentioned before was firmly bolted onto everyone's conscious at the weekend with the terrible news of the tragic murders in Norway and then with the sad news that Amy Winehouse lost her life. People should watch the news even if these kinds of thing are prevalent - there is no point in ignoring it because things are always going to be like that.

Red-Top Ruckus on the Newspaper Stands

It feels like the privacy of the public has been hacked off at the knees. And the elbows. And the neck. Recent revelations about the dealings of the News of the World newspaper has shocked the nation and the fine people that reside here. Heck, the whole world has been shocked by what vile atrocities have been glooping out of the news as of late - the News of the World has, for all of the wrong reasons, become world news.  Personally I've never been a bit fan of the red-tops anyway and have only even bought a single copy of one of them - and only for a laugh too. I can almost see where the appeal comes from and where the high sales are achieved but I'll never be converted. I'm more of a Guardian/Observer man myself and you can call me a snob but when it comes to journalism and newspaper production, quality always beats page 3 for me. I like to be able to read a paper where I know that I can trust and believe 99% of what is written - something that I don't believe ever has been the case with tabloid newspapers and has been diminished further in my eyes due to recent, shocking reports. 

A Society Slip or Just a Good System?

I'm at a great age where nothing ever seems to surprise me. I've not seen enough to be able to call myself 'experienced' but at the same time, I've got my senses switched to 'alert' permanently so I'm always aware of change. The reason why I say this is that I had lost faith in kids. I may well be young but (legally - yes it was only a matter of time before I started to do that) I'm an adult and certainly mature enough to look upon minors with a critical eye. I probably started to do this in the last couple of years of high school when I went from 4th year to being grown up in the space of a summer (the same of which can't be said for all of my peers though). You return to school with your shirt and tie on and (especially in 6th year) you feel so much older than all of the younger students. I can only vaguely remember being in 1st year, no recollection of 2nd year and then 3rd and 4th just melted into one big multiple choice exam. The last two years of high school are the ones that mean something to me and one of the reasons is that I was able to 'look down' as it were, on the lower year groups. I flag this because of a news report I saw on the TV last week about the number of modern language assistants in Scotland being reduced to save money. A few students were asked their views on the matter and one of them made me sit up in my seat. He said that his language assistant actually taught him the subject instead of showing him just how to pass the exam - faith restored in a single 10 second clip. In general, we are taught how to pass exams and nothing beyond that: I give you my first 'World on Wednesday' post.

What Does Egypt Tell us About Social Networking?

How many 'event' invitations do you get every week on Facebook? I get about 2 or 3 that I could actually attend and then countless more that are inventions of the Facebook junkies which have thousands of people attending (but not really). I'm not going to start to harp on about the wonders of Facebook because I think that we are all fairly well versed in that particular area but the 'event' function has become a huge part of our lives. So when I heard that a large majority of the political protestors in Egypt were informed about the protests by such an 'invitation', I wasn't far from surprised - not that it doesn't worry me.