Madonna Adopts A Baby - Like A Virgin

This week it was Dave and Tim's turn to present something from the news to the group, and they had the Madonna adoption story in store for us.

It is quite a controversial subject for many reasons. Some feel it's a publicity stunt, some feel that with her lifestyle, can she offer the child a decent family life? some think she is treating it like a 'fashion accessory', others argue that there are plenty of children in this country who need a family.

What was interesting was the way that Tim and Dave decided to present the article from the perspective of the Independant, which, in contrast to last week's article from The Sun, tries to keep a neutral tone. This really left the topic open for everyone to make up their own mind.

In my personal opinion, I don't feel Madonna deserves the criticism that she has come under. I don't someone like Madonna really needs to try and pull a publicity stunt, it's not exactly a Big Brother contestant adopting a child is it?! She is giving a child in an orphanage a new life, one he could never have dreamed of in a million years, and she is donating a hell of a lot of money to help others in the same scenario. She isn't doing anything wrong!

I do, however, agree that there are plenty of children in this country who need a family, and that is important people do not over look this fact. Such a high profile celebrity could inspire others to adopt children from African orphanages, and give the British children in need of help less of a chance of finding a family.

Madonna has also managed to raise awareness of the conditions in which people live in some areas of Africa, which are simply unacceptable. This is another positive factor in the whole 'is it right, is it wrong' debate. Hopefully it will make people more thoughful of the people in Africa, and that more will be done to help them out.

yid army

I just recieved a great picture from my brother of the west ham end of white hart lane completely empty as the Spurs went marching on to another win against one of my most hated teams.

haha, brilliant. and this win capped off a good week.

the only thing i am missing from home (except obvious things like family, sunday roast etc) is white hart lane, i wish i could have been there to be joining in with the gesture making!

anyway, had a great night on thursday, went out with nick for a 6 and a half hour football marathon. we started at 3.45 and watched blackburn beat polish side wisla krakow. Then witnessed the mighty tottenham hotspur sweep besiktas aside 2-0, then nick's toon army grabbed a late winner against fenerbahce to win 1-0. A great week for the english sides in all competitions! oh, all except arsenal who couldnt beat moscow. Perfect!

after a rubbish start to the season, spurs are starting to hit form and long may it continue. and long may west hams dismal form continue as we sent them to their 5th straight league defeat. couldnt happen to a nicer bunch. oh well, im sure they'll have more luck in the championship next year.

come on you spurs! looking forward to match of the day tonight.

Hamer Time

Thursday afternoon, time for another debating session to end the weeks work. This is starting to become my favourite part of the course, it's interesting to see others people's views and opinions on things.

Today's topic was an article picked out by Kit and Sam about a murder that had taken place in Manchester. The murderer was a teenage boy named Michael Hamer, on an 11 year old systic fibrosis sufferer, described as a 'little angel'. The title read 'Teenage Pyscho', and as stated in the session, seemed like a title from a film. Upon reading the article, it did seem like a movie script!

The argument that was made was that the article was not taking a fair viewpoint, and was biased towards the victim. It was portraying the murderer as a 'monster', and, as Kit put it, 'was describing it as a battle of good vs evil', and was treating him as if he was not a human being.

In my personal opinion, when I read accounts on murders, I feel no sympathy for the murderer at all. When they commit such a horrendous crime, they give up their right to be treated like a human being. These people are scumbags, so who cares if they are being treated 'unfairly'?!

Try to put yourself in the position of the family who has lost their son. I would feel outraged if someone in the newspaper was trying to be 'fair' and finding reasons/excuses as to why this person could have done such a thing. If it were a member of my family, I wouldn't give a toss whether this person had mental health problems, was bullied at school etc, I would personally want to smash their face in! And I would want them to rot away in jail for as long as possible.

The way the article was written was, in my view, the right way. The Sun is the people's paper, and was written in away that people would feel towards the subject.

P.S
Come on you Spurs in Turkey tonight.
P.P.S
Well done to CSKA Moscow for their victory against Arsenal on Wednesday.

saturday

apparently we are meant to use these blogs to talk about non-journalism related things aswell, so thats exactly what im going to do.

today was my favourite kind of day. a day revolving around football. After a pretty intense thursday night birthday celebration, i spent friday sort of recovering and taking it easy, an also getting some much needed rest. Had a footy game today playing for CSM, and we are looking as if we are the team to beat in the league this season. Lucky because before joining i didnt know anything about them (or anyone else for that matter) they were a football side asking me to play for them which i was happy about.

I earned myself a starting place up front, which i was quite surprised about as i am not really a familiar face around the team yet, having previously played only 45 minutes for the team. Also the team we were playing against today were meant to be quite a decent side, one of the league challengers.

Again, i was pleased about that, because there is nothing i hate more than an easy football game, in which i dont feel as if i have contributed anything.

This lot was quite a rough bunch, giving you the odd kick here and there off the ball, leaving their foot in after a challenge, calling my mother all sorts of things (even though she is 500 miles away, im sure if they got to know her they would see what a nice person she actually is!) not a pleasant bunch. But i was loving it, the more attention i was getting from their players obviously showed they were not enjoying themselves out there. In the second half i had someone following me around trying to kick me out of the game, he was the unlucky one given that job, because lets face it, i mugged him off every time. lol.

We won the game 4-0, and are on course for a good league run. Although i didnt manage to get a goal, i feel as if my first goal is just around the corner. I do love to give a bunch of rough thugs like this lot a good battering, their manager was full of compliments to us after the match.

So far the day was going great with a good win for us, but no time to hang around and smile patronisingly at the other team, had to quickly run to the club house and check out the spurs.
1-0 up, they've just missed a penalty, come on you spurs! are we going to finally win away from home?! surely not?! no, surely not. within 5 mins they had equaliser, with a goal from gareth barry which, as quoted on the tv, 'he will never score a goal like that again'. bloody typical. aparently we were much better than them even though. Oh well, we will have to give West Spam a good hiding next week.

Veils Never Fails

today with jason we discussed the issue of muslim women wearing veils, and the many sub-topics that came with it. the perfect way to enjoy my birthday!

the debate, as usual, got quite heated, as some people were starting to take offense to some of the comments being made. What started out as a discussion about how Jack Straw felt uncomfortable about talking to someone who he couldn't see (a woman wearing a veil) turned into to a debate over some controversial racial issues.

I am agreeing with the fact that when you are talking to someone, you like to be able to see who you are talking to, and that part of communication is reading someone's facial expressions. It is uncomfortable talking to a pair of eyes. It must be like talking to someone in a post box!

I can understand how it can make some people feel quite threatened, as you have no idea who is behind the veil, it could be anyone at all. This debate was obviously going to end up discussing a few racial and cultural issues. People soon started to debate whether or not people should be allowed to wear them in public areas, which was then countered with the arguement of 'who are we, or anyone else for the matter, should be able to tell some else what to wear?' surely people should be able to wear what they like.

I feel they should have to be removed in certain circumstances, e.g for security reasons. I have in no way got anything against anyone's religious beliefs and traditions, but when people's safety can be put at risk then I feel someone has to step in. This country has become so rediculously 'politcally correct' that you cant even ask someone, even for a few seconds, to remove their veil to check their photo on a passport!

I knew it was going to be an interesting seminar today as soon as i saw what we were going to discuss. As soon as anything to do with race or religion comes you have to be very careful what you say, it's like walking on egg shells when it comes to this sort of thing. You could even tell today in our small group, if someone mis-used a word by accident when trying to explain something, people would pick up on it straight away. As soon as the word 'threat' came up, some people took offense to it. I personally love it when you are involved in discussions where people get so involved, it is very entertaining!

On the racial subject, if ever I go to other cultures with different codes of ethics, clothing, beliefs etc etc etc... I will show it respect, and in turn I expect the same to be shown towards me when other people are within my culture. This is not always the case however, for example, during the world cup i was told i was not allowed to fly my St Georges flag out the window or on my car, because it could offend people of different ethnic background. What a load of bollocks.

There is so much to say on this subject, we could have sat in that room for another 4 hours and people would still be giving their views with the same enthusiam, and people would still be taking offense with the same enthusiam!

That's all for now on this subject, im going to read through all this to make sure i havnt said anything accidently that someone could get me put away for.

Other than that, im glad ive written all this down because as it is my birthday, im going to get so bamboozled tonight i wont remember this tomorrow!