EU finally standing up for itself?

The European Court of Justice has annulled an EU-US agreement requiring airlines to transfer passenger data to the US authorities. Since 2004 when this started I had always questioned the use of the data. Data protection has become such an important requirement with the recent increases in identity theft that the last thing you wanted was your details being sent over to the US to be stored there for US hackers to break into. Examples of US storage include the Marriott affair or the Bank of America issue or the Citigroup failure or Ameritrade's blunder. After reviewing these would you still want your data sent to US? How does this help the war on terrorism? Oh wait I suppose the terrorist would be so dumb he or she would actually use a credit card to book flights to the US.
See Q & A for more on the agreement.

Fair and balanced?

The headlines this morning were about UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush making a public acknowledgement that they made mistakes in Iraq. Now this is something we had know all along and its taken them over 3 years to come to this conclusion. And what is the solution..more of the same.
What really threw me off was the coverage of this news conference. After watching the BBC which covered the two issues of the conference; the mistakes in Iraq and the Iran issue, I turned over to FOX news (US cable station) to see how the story was covered. Bear in mind that the mission statements for fox news is "fair and balanced news" and "we report you decide". There was absolutely no mention of the fact that the two leaders had admitted mistakes in Iraq. Instead the focus was on Iran and the fact that the letter from Iran's presidentt to President George W Bush offered no new solutions. Now correct me if Im wrong but is that fair and balanced reporting? Hell no. The worst thing is that 11% of americans believe that FOX news is the most trusted news source, and that's roughly about 30 million people in the US alone believing in this american conservative propaganda machine. I don't mind you being liberal or conservative in your news reporting just don't then claim to be fair and balanced. Then again reading up on the history of the channel one shouldn't be surprised.

Groping

Yesterday I read an article in there paper that claimed that a large percentage of girls under 14yrs old (I believe the percentage was around 44%) had been groped and grabbed. This article worries me for several reasons:
Firstly why did the article only take up only a post it note column in the news paper? Shouldn't we all be worried about these incident where young girls are being in appropriately fondled. Shouldn't we be trying to raise the profile of this issue?
Secondly what is it in our society that makes it now acceptable or more acceptable than before if you prefer that men or boys can go around folding girls or women? One quick search on google for incidents of groping and you get over 3 million hits. Surely it cant be just down to the fact that nowadays we are reporting more incidents. We need to highlight this issue in our schools that such behaviour is unacceptable and get parents to be more responsible. Then again if the parents are kids themselves.....
Thirdly we cant lay all the blame on men and boys. Yes they have a responsibility to keep their hands to themselves and not act on their animal instincts but girls and women also need to be responsible for their own actions. If you decide to wear a low cut top with half of your breasts hanging out then don't complain when you have all the men in a packed commuter train peering down you chest. A friend of mine once said to me "But I shouldn't have to watch what I wear, I wear what I want to wear and that makes me feel good". Yeah fine I look good in a hoodie but I wont wear on out at night to go jogging because I'll probably end up in jail fitting some description of an attacker.
It isn't only the Japanese that have a groping issue within their culture it is world wide. See example from US and an article from the kind bots at rotten.

So the lesson here is for us all boys, girls, men and women to be responsible for our actions. For us to weigh up the repercussions of our actions before we do them. And let us raise the issue to our children so that they can understand that groping is unacceptable even if celebrities and rich folk think it is okay.

Eurovision

Am I the only one who had a little bit of an issue with fashion sense of the finnish group Lordi that won the eurovision song contest?
I was watching the results and almost grabbed the remote to change channels thinking I had accidentally switched over to the sci-fi channel. Saying that though I managed to watch more of it than I did of the new series big brother. Where do they get these people from?

The Graveyard Shift

So after a year or so you find yourself once again on the night shift. Not that you particularity like or dislike the night shift but there are some things that just have to be done when there are the minimal amount of people like road works or burst water mains repairs or train repairs etc.

You leave work early to ensure that you adhere to the legislation on minimum hours between shifts and head home for some sleep. But you know you are not really going to sleep you are just going to find something to do that you have been putting off for a while. At 21:30 when everyone is heading off for bed, you head out for work. No commuter madness as everyone is heading in the opposite direction. Its just you, the driver and few others in the train. You get a choice of seats which totally confuses you. Usually you are scrambling for anything that is free.
The shift itself passes quickly. There are hardly any phone calls, no meetings apart from the site briefing at the start of the shift, no interruptions and so you get on with things. You get back home around six and you flop down on the bed and fall asleep. The thing about it is, the night shift isn't that bad. Its the aftermath that's the issue.

6:40am the alarm goes off because you forgot to turn it off. You hear the neighbours zooming off to the station to catch the 7:05. You rollover and fall back asleep.
08:13 you are rudely awaken by the dustbin men. Its a Friday you say to yourself and so you have to get up and put the bin out. You normally do this on your way out to work.
08:53 awaken once again by a lorry only this time is the recycling boys. You never knew bottle crushing could be so loud. You pull the curtains as the sun is shining right into your face.
09:46 you hear the post man trying to stuff your letters through the letter box. You roll over again.
10:16 your blackberry starts vibrating. People in the office have started working in earnest and all those emails are going to continue.
10:35 a knock on the door, you ignore it but it continues. You get to the door and it only the guy from parcel force wanting you to sign for something for your neighbour.
11:20 house phone goes. Someone trying to sell you home insurance. You could disconnect the phone but what if there was a family emergency.
12:30 you get up because you cant seem to sleep no more. There is so much background noise you are unsure where its coming from.
13:13 After a shower and some breakfast you still feel tired but try to watch some TV and realise that daytime TV is really boring so you head off back to sleep.
14:37 More nuisance phone calls, blackberry vibrating, text messages so you switch everything off and try to sleep.
14:57 You are still wide awake
15:21 You switch on the TV and watch some comedy on the paramount channel
16:30 You try to sleep again but the school kids are back and you can hear them screaming and shouting.
17:17 you are awaken by some argument happening in the street.
17:43 You head off to the shops to pick up something for dinner.
19:08 You get back after getting stuck in traffic and make some dinner.
20:00 You catch a few soaps
21:00 you start getting ready and feel really tired cos you haven't slept all day. You take a long swig of red bull and head for the station for another grave yard shift.

...Being about it

A while ago I spent some time the US and one phrase that stuck to me during that time was "Dont talk about it be about it". It took me a while to understand it and really get the message from the phrase but once I did, life became somewhat simpler. An english /british equivalent would be "actions speaks louder than words". Too many of us sit back and complain about life. Complain about things that are wrong, about life being unfair, about our boss, about the neighbour next door, about junk mail, about the local council, about transportation, about the police and so on. But what do we do about it? We just sit with our friends and family and talk about it. So as we all are about the start a new week, I want to throw a challenge to stop talking and start doing. Stop talking and start being a part of the solution. Start complaining to the right people such that we can get solutions. Its no use complaining about our boss' s attitude to our mates, be part of the solution and talk to him/her. Its no use complaining that we cannot recycle enough, be part of the solution by sending the council solutions to the problems and not just complaining. Its no use complaining about how thing are wrong if we don't suggest solutions to make it right.
So people lets not talk about it lets be about it. Dont get me wrong though, Im not suggesting we all go out an try to get solutions for all of our problems or issues. What Im saying is if we have the power to do something then let us use it rather than just complain.

Titbits

Yesterday I wrote about the fatigue Lost was suffering from only for me to read to day in the news that the cast of Lost have signed on to not 3 not 4 but 5 more seasons of Lost. Some may call this death wish by television
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The new trend these day is supposedly 'overheard' blogs. For those of you not in the know these are blogs dedicated to reporting on conversations overheard in the daily commute. Angela Gunn of the USAtoday fame had also noted that these blogs are arranged into cities such that each city may have its own characteristics; New York, DC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Ann Arbor, the UK, Utah and Stanford
A month ago I wrote an article about the demise of social interaction and I believe we are seeing the effects of this. The rise and rise of reality TV goes to prove my point. We prefer interaction from a distance (behind a computer or TV screen).
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote to George W. Bush this week offering solutions to the current impasse between the two nations. The International Herald tribune has excerpts from the letter. However this version strips away all the diplomatic language.
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I thought the first rule of war is to know who your enemy is and where they live. However the US do not seem to have grasped this concept. According to National Geographic report one-third of respondents to its survey [young americans (18-24)] could not pinpoint Louisiana on a map and 48 percent were unable to locate Mississippi and this is in their own country. I guess its thus not surprising that 6 in 10 could not find Iraq on a map of the Middle East. How can a country be at war or rather engaging in hostilities with another and the youth who are the next military drafts don't know where that is?
Other findings were

• Fewer than three in 10 think it important to know the locations of countries in the news and just 14 percent believe speaking another language is a necessary skill.
• While the outsourcing of jobs to India has been a major U.S. business story, 47 percent could not find the Indian subcontinent on a map of Asia.
• While Israeli-Palestinian strife has been in the news for the entire lives of the respondents, 75 percent were unable to locate Israel on a map of the Middle East.
• Nearly three-quarters incorrectly named English as the most widely spoken native language.
• Six in 10 did not know the border between North and South Korea is the most heavily fortified in the world. Thirty percent thought the most heavily fortified border was between the United States and Mexico.

Signs of fatigue?

After five seasons Im getting the feeling 24 is suffering from fatigue. I mean I must commend the writers for holding my attention for the past four seasons but last night as I watched 24 I noticed the dialogue was beginning to get somewhat familiar and the story unbelievable.

Jack Bauer: ...hundred and thousands of innocent civilians will die if you don't tell me what I need to know (hum I wonder where I've heard that one before)
CTU is down to 40% of it normal capacity yet Chloe single handedly located all the gas depots and checked all the pressures as well as running tactical operations including decoding those schematics while trying to get the link between Audrey and Walt as well as decode the files Henderson's computer while Jack and Curtis head off to the gas plant in the helicopter. Somehow I think even with IBM's blue gene super computer you cant do all of that in less than 20 minutes.

Lost is also loosing its steam. First we spend ages waiting to find out what is in the hatch only to find out its some dude call Desmond who has been living in luxury typing the same code every 108 minutes while the rest of the people have living in poverty. The problem with Lost is there are too many questions and very few answers. And rather than the subsequent episodes answering some of these questions they just add more to the mix. This is fine for a couple of episodes but after a whole series you just get bored and the interest wanes. I mean you also get all of these stupid suggestions like is Walt psychic? Does the island really read feelings? Is the island really an island? Are the others from the back of the plane or just people happen to be on the island?

I guess that is why I rather like surburban shootout. Its surreal and you know that from the start so you don't watch it with any sort of rationalisation.

A Question of Choice

As we all sit nervously awaiting the results of the local elections here in the UK, the question of choice comes to mind. Have we made the right choice with our votes? The ballot papers have a choice of candidates each with their own agendas and we have the choice. Do we go for the candidate that has an agenda we like or the one with the agenda that benefits us or the agenda that benefits the council as a whole or do we use our vote to vote for change even if the change doesn't benefit us? What if none of the candidates had what we thought were credible agendas? Do we just not vote? Surely that impedes our ability to speak up and demand change. There were debates in the papers this week with some opting not to vote because they don't see a choice or an option to vote for. Are they right not to vote or would it better to vote for something which you don't agree with?

The Oxford English dictionary defines choice as the 'act of choosing' and also the' power to choose'. So does that mean that if we have the power to choose we should use it or does it mean that if we have the power to choose we can do so if we want. It no secret that most people are disenfranchised with the present government. One only need look in the papers of the past couple of weeks to find a reason (NHS, Slease scandals, immigration issues to name a few) but do we have credible alternatives?

Some may point the Tories or the Liberal democrats as credible alternatives. Others the BNP. But they can only cite issues which the parties differ on. Each of us have things that matter to us and if non of the parties tackle those issues what do we do? What if you have two burning issues and they are tackled substantially (according to you) by different parties? Besides do you jump from a sinking ship or try to rescue it? Do you seek to change a party to reflect/tackle your issues or you just move to another that you feel does?

Thats the thing about choice it allows your or gives you the power to choose but if the range does not include what you want then power to choose becomes worthless.

Victims of our Pasts

Over the weekend I heard someone express the fact that we were all victims of our pasts. We spend our lives complaining about our past, how life had dealt us the wrong cards and how unfair things have been for us. Accordingly we spent most of our time dwelling on the past and thus we become stagnant and can't progress as we have no path or direction. On the surface it sounded plausable; we all need goals in life such that we can strive towards it whether its a new job or repaying our mortgage in 5 years (yeah right) or meeting someone special before we are 30. These goals helps us to shape our future such that we can get to where we are going and be pleased with our efforts. However deep down we can't forget our past, our mistakes, our happy times and not our so happy times. These are the things that define who we are, where we come from and help us to understand where we are going.
I guess this was what the Pope was wrestling with when he ordered a report on whether it might be acceptable for Catholics to use condoms all be it only for the 'protection of life within marriage when one partner is affected with the HIV virus or has AIDS'. We all know that condoms are not the best but one of the most effective ways of preventing the transmission of STDs and AIDS so it may seem odd for some to hold on to past beliefs that prevent the use condoms. This is especially a problem in Southern Africa and also for the rest of the world as 40.3 million people currently live with the virus. So it comes as a big surprise that the USAID given to help this crisis is channelled through Faith Based programs that hold on to past beliefs of 'abstinence is the best policy'.
How are going to tackle the problem of world poverty and AIDS as we cling on to past beliefs and promote outdated methods that are not compatible with modern day life. How can we progress anything if we stuck in the past? Lets break out from the chains of our pasts and only use the past as a reference for our future.
Here are a few interesting facts (From the indypedia, The Independent newpaper)

1. The average british adult has sex between 118 and 135 times a year.
2. Belguim is the happiest country sexually
3. 22% of adults claim to have had an extra marital affair
4. 47% of adults have had unprotected sex without knowing their partners history

P.S I wonder how easy it would be for us to forget about the past like Tony Blair, Charles Clarke and John Prescott only for it to hunt you later in life.