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Showing posts from August, 2011

Lawless Britain and the Crime Industry

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  Update (2 April 2012) from the official Report " 5 Days in August " Following the riots that occurred in towns and cities across England between 6 and 10 August 2011, the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Official Opposition established the Riots Communities and Victims Panel and asked it to consider: what may have motivated this small minority of people to take part in the riots; why the riots happened in some areas and not others; how key public services engaged with communities before, during and after the riots; what motivated local people to come together to resist riots in their area or to clean up after riots had taken place; how communities can be made more socially and economically resilient in the future, in order to prevent future problems; and what could have been done differently to prevent or manage the riots. What this blog said at the time : As the police announce that arrests and convictions in the recent rio

Cobralingus

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It's lamentable that London's violent looters are more interested in phones and brand new trainers than in the creative use of revolutionary collage. If only we could bring dada to the ghetto we would have a happier outcome. Surely, increasing and more effective policing is not the most cost-effective answer. As the government's emergency COBRA committee meets to discuss its response to riots and looting we turn to more creative solutions to the ennui of modern youth. Cobralingus offers a radical new remix which is far better suited to modern times. Jeff Noon, author of Cobralingus explains "Cobralingus comes completely from my love of electronic music, attempting to give language a little of the freedom that music enjoys. How can language refer to itself? Can it be bent, mutated, made liquid? Sometimes this will bring on certain poetic effects. I wouldn’t myself label it as poetry, because I think that should refer to a more heightened sense of lan

Reflections on social media and 'anarchy' in Birmingham

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The dark forces of Anarchy? A silhouette of revolution? A nation of shopkeepers (and their looters)? (Above) Winson Green Murder Scene. Update (2 April 2012) from the official Report " 5 Days in August " Following the riots that occurred in towns and cities across England between 6 and 10 August 2011, the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Official Opposition established the Riots Communities and Victims Panel and asked it to consider: what may have motivated this small minority of people to take part in the riots; why the riots happened in some areas and not others; how key public services engaged with communities before, during and after the riots; what motivated local people to come together to resist riots in their area or to clean up after riots had taken place; how communities can be made more socially and economically resilient in the future, in order to prevent future problems; and what could have been don

If the World were a Global Village ...

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    If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, there would be 57 Asians 21 Europeans 14 from the Western Hemisphere , both north and south 8 Africans 52 would be female 48 would be male 70 would be non-white 30 would be white 70 would be non-Christian 30 would be Christian 89 would be heterosexual 11 would be homosexual 6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States . 80 would live in substandard housing 70 would be unable to read 50 would suffer from malnutrition 1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth 1   would have a college education 1 would own a computer So much for the march of technology, science, globalization and progress.