Scribbling, ranting and good ol' blogs

‘Black and Arab’ rail workers banned during Israeli President visit to France

2013-04-13T11:47:00.000+01:00

In a statement issued on April 10 and made public by French investigative news outlet Mediapart, railroad workers union SUD-Rail union revealed that the SNCF [French national rail company] excluded its black and Muslim workers from working at the Gare du Nord station on March 8, as Israeli President, Shimon Peres arrived in Paris by train from Brussels.

The SUD-Rail accused RailStation Manager of Gare de Nord station of excluding “black people and Arabs” from being present for “security” reasons.

The head of SNCF subsidiary ITIREMIA later confirmed that workers had been removed based on their race as a “precautionary principle” to “protect employees from the humiliation they might encounter” at the hands of security personnel.

In a press release from trade union SUD-Rail, the Station Manager is reported to have said the night before the visit that “No Muslim employees must welcome the Israeli Head of State.”

According to the press release, when the workers demanded an explanation, the Manager justified it by saying it was because of “security reasons” and initially suggested it was protocol at the station as well as saying they were instructed to do so by the Israeli Ambassador to France and the Ministry of the Interior.

SNFC denied giving any such instructions.

Written with Abdul Adil for The Muslim News.

Kid President Meeting Barack Obama Will Make You Smile

2013-04-04T18:23:00.003+01:00

This is my favourite video of the year. Here's my post on BuzzFeed.

Breaking News becomes an advertiser's dream

2013-02-04T17:11:00.003+00:00

Last night the power went out during the biggest calendar night in the NHL, the Super Bowl. The San Francisco 49ers took advantage of the change in momentum and nearly overturned a massive deficit in the match. But, honestly, a lot of us were watching the adverts.

The team behind Oreo's marketing campaign on the night, 360i, did an incredible job. Not long after the lights went out - after Oreo's advert had already been aired - the official Oreo Twitter page released this advert:

This is the age when brands have to start interacting with their users - and by interacting with those who were watching the Super Bowl, they garnered a huge amount of interest. When I retweeted it last night, it had 46 retweets. 15 hours later, it has nearly 15,000 retweets.

People were amused, impressed and engaged with the brand - and this is precisely what companies need to be doing to stay relevant and to interact with their customers. Rachel Sanders, over at BuzzFeed, spoke to 360i's agency president, explained that they were able to release the advert so quickly because the brand team was there:

"You need a brave brand to approve content that quickly. When all of the stakeholders come together so quickly, you've got magic."

This is not the first time that a social media team has reacted surprisingly well to a situation. Last year the UK network O2 were in the middle of a PR disaster when their services stopped working for a huge number of their clients. Their social media team acted remarkably, making jokes, engaging with customers (even those who were extremely disrespectful and used profane language) and they attempted to alleviate concerns all at the same time. Not only did they manage to get customers feeling cared about, their follower count increased dramatically. Last night's performance - that by 360i, of course - just confirmed that brands must be ready to change the rules of the game, and sometimes take a risk.

That's enough from me on that, I think. I'm off to Tesco's now. I have a desperate craving for a pack of Oreo cookies...

Originally published in my blog on media.

Catch up with all the adverts from Super Bowl 2013

2013-02-04T10:44:00.004+00:00

Last night's main event wasn't the Baltimore Ravens beating the San Francisco 49ers. It wasn't the powercut at the Superdome or Flacco's incredible throws. It was Beyoncé's performance, and the brief return of Destiny's Child.

Yet the constant flow of adverts - over 60 during the entire event - have become a tradition of the Super Bowl event. Indeed, advertising spots during the Super Bowl are hugely expensive, simply because of the incredibly large audience. Perhaps Beyoncé's own performance is deemed an advertisement for herself, especially since no artist gets paid for performing at the Super Bowl.

This year's crop of companies advertising at the Super Bowl range from the more typical Pepsi, Coca Cola, Subway and Budweiser to Soda Stream, which allows you to make your own fizzy drinks, Taco Bell, whose advert was particularly good, Got Milk, where Dwayne Johnson ran after a milk truck and ... well, I'll stop ruining the surprise for you now. I was particularly impressed with Oreo's marketing team, who released this advert on Twitter when the floodlights went out.

Here are all the best adverts from last night's Super Bowl. Enjoy:

Preparing for Facebook Graph Search

2013-01-21T14:57:00.000+00:00

When looking for quotes for articles, publications have traditionally either sent reporters to the streets or have picked up the phone to call an expert. Recently, when writing about specific topics, the hashtag #journorequest has become very popular, with journalists looking for people to speak to through Twitter.

Facebook has been somewhat lagging in that aspect. First they allowed profiles to be publicly visible so that users could follow their favourite journalists/celebrities etc. This gave journalists a wider network and you'll often see some, especially Al Jazeera's Riyaad Minty asking questions to his followers. In return, he often gets between 20-100ish responses. Facebook's Graph Search goes a long way in allowing the social network to become a stronger, and more useful, force for reporters.

So what does it mean and how does it work?

Finding sources

Let's say that you're doing a series on The Future of the Left (a project that The Student Journals is currently undertaking right now). Finding MPs from specific parties is easy, your can find their email addresses on Parliament's website. Finding journalists is a little trickier and a number of columnists will likely not have publication-specific email addresses. So the easiest way to do that right now would be search one particular columnist and you'll often find that they are friends with many journalists with similar values. Yet what if you want to find members of the Young Labour, for example. Facebook currently doesn't really give you that capacity. With Graph Search, you'll be able to search this information.

This should, technically, work for more complicated searches too. For example, you might search: "People who went on a year abroad in the 2011/2012 academic year". This should search for students who spent a year away from their host university for a year.

Finding photos

Student media publications might find this very useful. Often they won't have a lot of many and paying for photos is not possible. Instead, they'll refer to Flickr for Creative Commons images and attribute an image to the photographer. Using Facebook's Graph Search would allow you to search for photos taken at a specific location at a specific time. Let's say, for example, you were looking for pictures of the UK riots taken in Lewisham.

You can put all that information into the search boxes, with specific dates and find images. A short message would then need to be sent, requesting permission to use the picture, but it's worth it if you can get a better picture, or a picture that tells a better story.

***

If you're a journalist, or going into journalism, here are your next steps:

Go to the bottom of this page, and click 'sign up'. You want to be one of the first it's available to.
If you're open on Twitter, you should be open on Facebook. Look at Nick Kristof's and Zach Seward's profiles for examples of journalists who use Facebook particularly well. So go ahead and let people subscribe to you. A huge number of people prefer Facebook to Twitter and the publications you write for will be happy that you're good at promoting your own work. If you are doing this, however, make sure that you check and double check your privacy settings so subscribers can't see anything you don't them to.

Subscribe to receive my latest articles on new media etc. directly to your inbox.

Originally published in Save the Media, Save the World.

Instagram is learning

2013-01-18T14:55:00.000+00:00

After last month's debacle, when Instagram tried to shortcut its users and introduce new terms and conditions, a huge number of users displayed outrage. Even worse for the social network, news reports towards the end of last year suggested that the number of active users had dropped by half. In fact, the social network today revealed its own analytics for the first time today and the statistics are phenomenal; there are 90 million monthly active users and 40 million photos are uploaded each today.

The main problem they faced when they introduced their new terms of service was that their users felt betrayed. With their ToS coming into action from 19 January, Instagram is learning. This morning I received a very short email reminding me about the new introduction and the last sentence was a strong reminder that I do indeed own my images:

"And remember, these updates don't change the fact that you own your photos that you post on Instagram, and our privacy controls work just as they did before."

The email also included a link to a blog post, hosted on Tumblr, which essentially states that the new terms help the company to become better integrated with Facebook, especially as far as sharing data is concerned. And there was yet another reminder that the users own their own images.

So let's have a look at the terms. Shuffling through the first half, there's not much to say. Then comes the interesting section: 'Rights'.

"1. Instagram does not claim ownership of any Content that you post on or through the Service. Instead, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service, subject to the Service's Privacy Policy, available here http://instagram.com/legal/privacy/, including but not limited to sections 3 ("Sharing of Your Information"), 4 ("How We Store Your Information"), and 5 ("Your Choices About Your Information"). You can choose who can view your Content and activities, including your photos, as described in the Privacy Policy."

Just in case you didn't get it yet, Instagram does not own your images. However, users do give them a right to use the content. What it likely means, behind the legal jargon is that Instagram can use your images on the social network, as you publish them onto your account.

"2. Some of the Service is supported by advertising revenue and may display advertisements and promotions, and you hereby agree that Instagram may place such advertising and promotions on the Service or on, about, or in conjunction with your Content. The manner, mode and extent of such advertising and promotions are subject to change without specific notice to you."

Beware the introduction of advertising on and around the social network. Whether that be advertised profiles running through the feed or recommended profiles to follow, it will be coming.

The other point that users kicked up a fuss about was a section in the Terms of Service that said:

"To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you."

They've now scrapped that and gone back to the original conditions in that respect.

Instagram has learnt now to play around with its users and it is certainly being more cautious. Yet they still need to improve further. They already wrote a blog post, but next time they must be clear and transparent from the start. They should just tell users that adverts are coming and be open. That's the way to win the hearts of the social network users.

Originally published in Save the Media, Save the World.

Instagram aren't going to sell your pictures!

2012-12-19T00:25:00.003+00:00

Instagrammed cup of (Costa) coffee

Anyone else have their Facebook feed clogged up today with friends absolutely horrified that Instagram were going to sell their pictures? Throughout the day, this same story came up time and again and it appears as though Instagram clocked on.

Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram published a blog post about an hour ago to "eliminate the confusion". So what's the real story behind the new terms? No, Instagram aren't planning on selling your pictures. Systrom's wrote it quite clearly:

"From the start, Instagram was created to become a business. Advertising is one of many ways that Instagram can become a self-sustaining business, but not the only one. Our intention in updating the terms was to communicate that we’d like to experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate on Instagram. Instead it was interpreted by many that we were going to sell your photos to others without any compensation. This is not true and it is our mistake that this language is confusing. To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos. We are working on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear."

First: "it is not our intention to sell your photos." Right, glad that's cleared up and now we can move on. Their initial terms and conditions stated (and as of publishing still state): "you hereby grant to Instagram a royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide licence to use the content you post on or through the Service...". Essentially, they realised their audience was not happy and decided to "remove the language that raised the question" and the controversy. Good move.

He starts by saying that "Instagram was created to become a business". There should be no shock there. Zuckerberg's not an idiot and he'll have seen a business plan with a decent strategy before he brokered the $1bn deal. Such a platform was always going to eventually succumb to advertising, and this should have been made evident after Facebook bought the company.

What's all this about advertising then - are they going to use our pictures to advertise the service? Well, yes and no. If we go further down the blog post, it explains further. Like what currently happens on Facebook, if you follow a brand, or a business, your profile picture may appear in some kind of advert for them on the service detailing that you follow them and so, since we're friends, I should follow them too.

So your photos still belong to you, and the main difference is that you should expect some form of advertising to be weaning its way into Instagram. But weren't you expecting that sooner or later, anyway?

Originally published on my blog on journalism.

Using Kerouapp: Live Blogging the student protests

2012-12-18T08:00:00.000+00:00

ave you heard of Kerouapp? It's not been used on many occasions but it's definitely a very useful tool. It first came to my attention during the Guardian's coverage of the French elections. Kerouapp makes the most of the combination of geotagging and Twitter and allows the user to connect a Twitter account to the platform. Every time you tweet (or tweet with a specific hashtag), the platform updates an embeddable Google map with the details of the tweet (and image if you include one). You can also cycle through all the messages, and the map will change depending on the location of the device when the tweet was sent.

The Guardian's use was quite neat - Henley travelled around the country interviewing people about their thoughts on the candidates and the elections, with the map taking you from Paris to Marseille to Toulouse and more.

When I found out that one of the founders of Kerouapp was Benji Lanyado, I quickly got in touch. I'd worked with Benji during my stint at Guardian Travel and thought I might be able to use it for The Student Journals. During an editorial meeting though, we realised that you needed a very specific occasion to use the platform, especially since you can only connect one Twitter account to it.

Some weeks ago, we found the perfect opportunity during the National Union of Students' demonstration in London as students protested against fees and also cuts that the government were making. Fionna McLauchlan, our photography editor, took control of the official @studentjournals account and tweeted updates and images from the protest.

Have a look below to see what the outcome was (note that it looks far better on a page with large space for text):

Other ideas for when you could use it:

Personal use when travelling.
In a review column (theatre/restaurant etc.). Not only would the reviewer have to summarise their view in 140 characters, readers would be able to easily follow their favourite critics.

Don't forget to subscribe if you want to receive updates by email. Published on my blog on media and journalism.

Interactive Image // Obama vs. Romney: Round 2

2012-10-17T03:11:00.001+01:00

Enjoy this interactive image that I created for the Second Presidential Debate:

Who am I?

2012-09-15T21:56:00.002+01:00

10 years ago, the most important person in my life passed away. I've never written about this, or really put this down in words. There's always been a reason. I mean, it was my mother. The person who brought me up, worked hard so that she could provide me with the best education she could give me, helped me with my homework (I still remember her helping me write my first creative writing piece in Year 3. I had to write about one person in my family and inevitably I wrote about (and as far as I can remember, I also drew) my mum. For the writing part of it, she told me to write something along the lines of "She looks so young, you would barely believe that she's my mum!" I think the poor humour runs in the family if I'm honest!), and so many more things that a mother does and sacrifices for their son. It's difficult to describe just how much she did for me, and how much she meant - and continues to mean - to me.

So writing about it has always escaped me. I think perhaps it is a natural reaction, but sympathy is an emotion that I have always struggled with. In the weeks following my mother's death, we received flowers, hundreds of emails, and a lot of support from friends and family (my appreciation to whom I can never truly repay). That support base was critical in helping me move through life and the question I would often pose myself is, "What would my mum want?", and then I would go about and select a certain option. Reasonably quickly, however, I realised that all she would want of me is to create my own path, for me to be my own person and keeping myself grounded in my values.

So although I fully understand, and really do appreciate it, sympathy is one I generally try and avoid. After all, it's seen as the decent thing to tell someone, "I'm really sorry to hear that.", after they lose someone close to them. Humans are an empathetical being and we can share and understand pain. Yet we're also a being that tends to judge others and we also associate people with certain events and actions; "He's the guy that's really fat" or "he studied at Oxford", "he's the son of ..."or "his mother died in 2002". And this is a problem I have, and I guess for that I apologise since often people will want to give condolences because my mother's death affected them too, or they just want to offer support, but I tend not to give people the opportunity to do so.

Often I'll work a little bit harder at something "to make my mum proud" because I know that she would have wanted that. But I also feel that she would have wanted me to be my own person. Would she, for example, have wanted me to choose a certain career because she had wanted it? Definitely not. She would have wanted me to do something I enjoy - and that's exactly what I do. So I work harder to make my mum - and also my dad (who's also shown me love, care, support, fed me, housed me, and really, given me anything I've ever asked for) - proud. Doesn't everyone do that?

Where am I heading with this post, I guess you're now thinking? This is a slight ramble through my thoughts, a true blog post as it was originally laid out to be. This post is meant as both an explanation and also to show my gratitude to those who have given me support. I'm sometimes a little bit difficult, and often I'm not too open about my mother. Ironically, it's because I love her, and try to instil what she would want for me.

She wouldn't want for me to be defined by actions that have affected me. I wrestle with the idea that I should be defined by something I have no control over.

Instead, I am my own person. I am Siraj Datoo - the guy who's on far too many social networks for it to be healthy, the guy who writes (and hopefully has something interesting to say), the guy who founded The Student Journals, the guy who owns a huge collection of books (the majority of which he still needs to get through), the guy whose birthday it is soon (yep, that's a hint), the guy who studies at Warwick, the guy who studies French with International Studies, the guy who loves technology (and his Mac), or just the guy who's called Siraj.

This post is dedicated to the memory of Nasreen J. Versi.

So I was wrong: Marine Le Pen got 20%

2012-04-22T22:05:00.000+01:00

Marine Le Pen: Smiles All Round. Photography: Remi Noyon

Here are the most recent results of the first round (they are still being fully released as I write):
Hollande: 28.8%
Sarkozy: 26.1%
Marine Le Pen: 18.5%
Mélenchon: 11.7%
Bayrou: 8.8%
Joly: 2.3%
Others: the rest...

Would you know it? As I predicted, my predictions were wrong. And how wrong they were.

After all the support that Mélenchon appeared to have, and all the noise being made about him in the media, he must be disappointed with his result. I truly thought that he may catch the protest vote but even then, there was an abstention rate of nearly 20%, particularly shocking when you consider the wide depth of thought within the different candidates.

And then Marine Le Pen received nearly 20% of the vote. Nearly 1 in 5 French people voted for the National Front, a xenophobic and Islamophobic party, entirely against immigration, and a party that claims that it is the "only opposition to the left". Marine Le Pen's new approach has certainly brought in more youth and it is certainly worrying. No wonder there are immigr
ants (like those in my previous blog) who want to get out of the country.

And the top two; it's the first time since 1958 that a non-incumbent has won the most votes in the first round so it's certainly a little shocking, even if Hollande was expected to win. Where does this leave the two?

Hollande has already reached out to the voters of Mélanchon, from the Left Front, and the Green candidate Éva Joly in his victory speech. Sarkozy's reaction is clear, and he will be making even further moves on the right to try and seduce Le Pen's voters. However, a poll from TNS Sofres show that only 40% of Le Pen's voters will vote Sarkozy in the second round and 33% will abstain.

In a rather strange 'victory' speech, Sarkozy challenged Hollande to three debates; Sarkozy still believes that he can show off Hollande's lack of government experience in these debates. Yet polls for the second round are putting Hollande far ahead at 56% and Sarkozy at 44%. Hollande needs to continue to work hard, but it's certainly his to lose.

Update: Hollande has rejected the three debate challenge, insisting that the traditional one debate is sufficient.

Predictions for the first round of the 2012 French Elections

2012-04-21T13:49:00.001+01:00

I thought that I would make things a little more interesting by putting some predictions out there. I will mention that my predictions are often wrong so do not expect too much from them.

1st: Nicolas Sarkozy
2nd: François Hollande
3rd: Jean-Luc Mélenchon
4th: Marine Le Pen

As you can see, I do believe that the Left Front candidate Mélenchon will have done enough to take some support away from both Hollande from left-wing supporters and also from Marine Le Pen, in terms of supporters who are fed up of the mainstream parties.

For now, all there is to do is wait. You can also read my analysis of the French elections so far here: http://www.sirajdatoo.com/2012/04/france-2012-road-to-elysee.html

France 2012: The road to Élysée

2012-04-21T11:51:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow, France will decide its representatives from a list of 10 candidates. The majority will receive a combined vote of less than 10%. Two weeks ago, Jean-Luc Mélenchon was part of that majority and yesterday night I went to Place de la Republique, the central area in Le Mans, to see a large screen displaying a live speech by the Left Front candidate. A few weeks ago, Mélenchon was barely mentioned; he wasn’t making enough noise to capture the attention of the French public. Yet, yesterday, there was a larger crowd than I have ever seen gathered in the little square.

Mélenchon has managed to garner support from around the country, while taking somewhat radical positions. One of his major arguments is that there needs to be greater wealth redistribution in France; as President, he would place a 100% tax on earnings over £300,000. He also speaks about the failure of neo-liberalism, and lambasts European leaders for their inability to deal with the economic downturn - a sentiment which Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has endorsed (though I'm not entirely sure he would agree with all that Mélenchon has to say!). This, coupled with claims that Sarkozy is a candidate of the rich, ensures that Mélenchon is providing a distinct voice; incidentally, Sarkozy did not help to refute this claim when he put away his €55,000 watch before shaking hands with supporters, inspiring rumours that he feared it might be stolen).

What’s more, although Mélenchon may appear to be a fringe candidate, with no real chance of victory, he has certainly caused a stir. While many citizens had previously planned to abstain, and submit blank votes, Mélenchon has given them an outlet for their anger. He may not become President in 2012 but he will have left his mark; in 2017 he will reappear with a stronger campaign and with a population that has had five more years to think about his ideas.

On the opposite end of the political spectrum, the far-right National Front (FN) candidate Marine Le Pen competes in her first presidential elections. Her father Jean-Marie, rather worryingly, found himself in the second round of the presidential elections in 2002 after a large number of the electorate voted for the FN as a protest vote. He fought his final elections in 2007, when he received under 11% in the first round.

Marine Le Pen brings a different approach from that of her father; an Economist blog refers to her as “[embodying] a modern sort of French woman: Catholic, divorced, living with a new partner” without the “homophobic overtones of her father”. Indeed, a CSA poll said that she is the most popular candidate amongst 18 to 24 year old voters. But why has a far-right party, with proposals against immigration, with Islamophobic values, and with policies that Mélenchon has showed on a television debate to be regressive towards women, garnering this support?

According to the leader of the National Front youth group, Julien Rochedy, a vote for Le Pen is a "young and rebellious vote". In a blog post, he writes why he believes that young people are voting for Le Pen, pointing towards the unemployment rate for under 25s (a staggering 25%), the fact that young people apparently feel that there is an erosion of French culture and want a stronger national identity, and, finally, the notion that young people just don’t want to vote like their parents.

While Le Pen’s vote amongst youth appears high, polls currently put her in third place at around 16%. She should not be underestimated however and the events of 2002 remind us to be wary of the polls. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that she will cause too much disturbance on Sunday and President Sarkozy’s far-right policies will have done enough to appease her voters.

Certainly, current President and UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has been reaching out to supporters of the National Front since the last elections and has continued this in office. In May 2010, the Green MP Nöel Mamère criticised the banning of the niqab (which Interior minister Claude Guéant called “a walking coffin”), declaring that the UMP were pushing the issue for the wrong reasons, and were instead making the “rallying of FN voters a priority”. When he pushed for the law, Sarkozy insisted that it was to protect women who were forced to wear it by husbands. One year later, of the 300 women fined, two-thirds have been single or divorced and they appear to have been wearing the garment by choice.

Mamère was definitely onto something; following the niqab ban, Sarkozy banned Muslims from praying on the streets, but not after Marine Le Pen had already brought up horrific memories of the Nazi occupation and referred to the Muslims in the streets as “an occupation”. Sarkozy’s latest move has been to provoke irritation amongst European leaders by announcing that France will suspend its participation in the Schengen Area if illegal immigration does not drop. Nicolas Le Pen indeed.

While it seems he has appeased many far-right voters, his record in power is still rather grim. Unemployment rose from 7.9% in December 2007 to 10% in February of this year and the Tepa law, which meant that France’s richest would never pay more than 50% in tax, has lead to a redistribution of €84bn in tax cuts since he was elected.

With François Hollande still above him in the polls, Sarkozy is now resorting to distressed tactics; on 12 April, journalists were invited to photograph and video the first few minutes of a meeting with the US President Barack Obama. During these two minutes, Sarkozy could be heard telling Obama: “We will win”. Hollande’s camp responded quickly, proclaiming it a “desperate move”.

So what of Hollande? The somewhat witty leader of the Socialist Party has been leading the polls for months, still claims a few percentage points over Sarkozy in the first round and is leading at about 55% in the second round. But why are people voting for him? Hollande blames the incumbent Sarkozy for the large public deficit and high unemployment and, unlike Sarkozy, he wants the government to work more closely with trade unions.

Yet, truthfully, these are side issues. Unfortunately, a large amount of Hollande’s support has not been due to his policies but rather the failure of Sarkozy. I have had similar conversations with a number of teaching colleagues and they always say the same thing: “I’ll probably vote for Hollande. Not because I like him, God no! He’s just the best of the candidates.” A retired statistician speaking to the Economist puts it more succinctly: a vote for Hollande is “more a rejection of Sarkozy”.

Come Sunday, it is almost certain that Hollande will be among the two frontrunners heading to the second round. Can Hollande really win an election based on the “rejection” of his opponent? Hollande is fully aware of this and has already started his preparations. While barely heard at the beginning of his campaign, he now talks about the I-word; Hollande has promised an annual parliamentary debate on how many immigrants are needed for each industry and has assured the electorate that there will be an “unrelenting fight” against illegal immigration. With public finances a major issue among voters, he will most certainly push his manifesto promise to reduce the deficit to 0% of the GDP by 2017.

If Sarkozy is his opponent, the battle will be fierce. Sarkozy came out very strongly after the attacks in Toulouse, demonstrating a tough stance on law-and-order and displaying admirable statesmanship, unifying the country in a difficult time. He is also adamant that Hollande’s lack of government experience (a fear expressed by many) will be telling in the live national television debate. Meanwhile, Hollande, the affable nice-guy, will continue to play the role of the ordinary Frenchman, a position Sarkozy has tried, unsuccessfully, to fill.

It’s worth noting that the last time Hollande debated against a French President, even if Chirac hadn’t yet become President, Hollande’s humour lead to him being sprawled across the front pages of newspapers. He also had time to learn under the wing of former President Francois Mitterrand, himself described as a politicial genius. Perhaps the tipping point will be that Jacques Chirac has not said he will support his protégé, Nicolas Sarkozy, but instead that he strongly supports François Hollande and will be voting for him.

These elections have provoked much discussion and debate; France has not seen a left-wing President in nearly two decades and Hollande is in prime position to be that man. Mélenchon has also brought more radical ideas into the fray, and while he may not make it to the second round, his supporters – the supporters Hollande wants to attract – will demand that Hollande listen to them.

Originally written for The Student Journals.

Spontaneity at TEDx Warwick 2012

2012-03-22T23:03:00.001+00:00

Photography: TEDxWarwick

On 10th March, I attended TEDxWarwick 2012 for two reasons. The first was in my capacity as part of the speakers team and the second at part of the TSJ team covering the event (TSJ were the official media partners for the event). I joined TEDxWarwick in my first year at Warwick; I wanted to get involved in various activities and it was one of the first that caught my eye - and I am so glad I did. After the first event, I was hooked - I heard some fantastic speakers and the team environment was fantastic. So I re-applied and joined the team for the next event. And I did the very same a year later.

Yet the event this year was different - TEDxWarwick 2012 was taken to the next level and its new venue (the Butterworth Hall) could hold 1800 people. It still sold out. The event was once again brilliant and I can't imagine any of of the attendees having left the event feeling at least a little bit inspired or more knowledgable. I'm not here to talk about the event though - we will be publishing an article summarising the event in the next few days.

I want to talk about the moment when over 1000 people stood up and started dancing.

I want to talk about the moment that Jon Sterckx started his performance. He began with a few words, reminding us of a TED talk we saw earlier in the day. In that video, we see a man, described as a 'lone nut' dancing by himself. Yet soon he finds himself with one 'follower', becoming a leader - and many more then join. You can watch that three-minute talk, entitled 'How to Start a Movement' here:

Jon Sterckx invited the crowd to be that one 'lone nut' and start dancing and then started performing. Using a mixture of percussion instruments and modern technology, he created a beautiful sound. That's when Sylvester Vijay, a TEDxWarwick team member, spontaneously took to the stage and started dancing; he didn't just shuffle either - in the words of one of the speakers: "He really put himself out there!"

Soon afterwards the majority of the crowd stood up and started clapping in unison to a beat. Sylvester meanwhile went off the stage and started to collect 'followers' who joined him in a congo line. As he returned back to the stage he was joined by at least 50 attendees who danced alongside him - and many more later joined the group. The energy in the room was incredible; attendees dancing on stage, the entire crowd standing up and dancing along, all to a sound being created by one man. You can watch the entire video here:

And that's how a 'lone nut' becomes a leader.

Originally published in The Student Journals.

Kony2012 – Share intelligently, donate wisely

2012-03-08T12:20:00.001+00:00

Screenshot from YouTube

Fact: In 2003, Jan Egeland, then UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said, “The conflict in northern Uganda is the biggest forgotten, neglected humanitarian emergency in the world today”.

Fact: 300,000 children are presently involved in over 30 conflicts around the globe, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Fact: Joseph Rao Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been abducting children and using them as sex slaves or child soldiers for over 20 years.

Fact: Invisible Children (IC) have made millions of people aware of the situation in Central Africa through their Kony2012 campaign and should be commended for their admirable work.

Fact: IC have deceived millions of people into believing that by donating money, they will join an “army of peace”; in fact, the organisation is in favour of military intervention and supports the Ugandan military.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, allow me to briefly explain. In their words, Kony2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that “aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.” The video is about 30 minutes long and is well worth a watch.

The filmmaker is Jason Russell and his job, according to his rather adorable son, is to “stop the bad guys from being mean”. If we combine this with the campaign description (above), we gain a good understanding of the documentary: they want enough people to be concerned about the situation to pressure our political institutions to act.

The video calls for everyone to get involved on 20 April, in plastering the corner of every road of their city with posters in order to “make Kony famous”. While the posters bring more attention to the video rather than Kony’s crimes – the predominant words are ‘Kony2012’ – it is nonetheless a very creative idea. The problem begins however, when you learn that you can’t simply go off and print your own posters. You have to either buy an action pack for $30 or donate $15 to the organisation. You can alternatively buy a set of 25 posters for $5.

One would normally argue that it is a non-issue to try and raise funds. After all, they spend millions of dollars on their humanitarian efforts abroad, which appear – on screen – to be extremely commendable. According to their video, they have built schools, organised mentorship programmes, created jobs and have developed a radio service which warns locals of a possible attack. I would have no concerns donating money to such causes.

Yet it is what does not appear that is cause for concern. The first major example of deception is given when talking about how the campaign has been running over the past decade. Russell says that it was “funded by an army of young people who put their money toward the belief in the value of all human life” and that by giving a few dollars a month, “the unseen became visible”. Moreover, in the last few seconds of the movie, it is written, “Sign up to Tri to donate a few dollars a month and join our army for peace.”

The language used gives off a vibe of pacifism, and the idea of canvassing cities contributes to this. The video even includes a short song sung by dozens of youth, which one can only assume IC has written. The lyrics are as follows: “We've seen these kids/We've heard their cries/This war must end/We will not stop/We will not fear/We will fight war.”

Supporting organisations that use child soldiers

You would never then guess that this very same organisation supported an organisation that used child soldiers would you? In 2008, Invisible Children filmmakers posed for a photo with officers of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), a group accused of accused of rape and looting, while peace talks between the LRA and the Ugandan government were at a standstill. In trying to make a change in the world and indeed, bring Joseph Kony to justice, it appears that Russell has forgotten his cause.

Not only have the SPLA been accused of rape and looting, but the Sudanese National Council for Child Welfare (NCCW) was also reported in the Sudan Vision Daily, yesterday, as saying that the SPLA recently kidnapped 900 children.

It was as recent as last month that it was reported on the USAID-funded Sudan Radio Service that53 child soldiers were demobilised from the SPLA. Last month. 4 years after the image was taken. While the SPLA have apparently been demobilising their child soldiers since 2010 (still after the image was taken), the fact that they are still in the process of doing so suggests that they have reduced their numbers not because they no longer believe in the practice but because the conflict is smaller, especially since South Sudan’s independence last year.

Supporting military intervention

It has been reported in a number of outlets that IC is in favour of military intervention. Yet, as Russell rightly pointed out yesterday, the original Tumblr, Visible Children, does not back up all of its information with sources. So I attempted to track them down.

What became clear is that IC are very careful in the way they operate and the words they use. In aletter to President Obama dated yesterday, co-signed by the founder of IC, it does not explicitly ask Obama to send in troops. Instead, they express their “fear that unless existing U.S. efforts are further expanded, [Obama’s] strategy may not succeed”. Immediately following this, they make the point that regional militaries are facing challenges, including troop withdrawal.

Interestingly, in the blog post responding to criticism, they failed to refute the notion that they are not in favour of intervention, even though that has been a major point. While I understand the sentiment for intervention, they have to be more explicit if they are asking for money and public support. Would you support them if you know they are in favour of intervention?

Furthermore, the last time a military operation was conducted against the LRA, there were brutal consequences. Operation Lightning Thunder brought together the Ugandan, Congolese and South Sudanese armies in 2008 and failed due to poor coordination and “leaky intelligence”, according to the Center for Strategic & International Studies. In response, the LRA killed 1,000 people in a matter of weeks. Do we trust our governments to wipe out the LRA the first time they try?

Supporting the Ugandan army

In the same blog post, IC say that they “do not defend any of the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Ugandan government or the Ugandan army (UPDF). None of the money donated through Invisible Children ever goes to the government of Uganda.” However they do admit to working with the UPDF, this very same organisation, as they are “more organized and better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”.

Is supporting an army that commits horrible atrocities against its people acceptable if the aim is to bring a man who has committed horrible atrocities to justice? It is not my decision to make – but surely those who are donating should be made aware of this knowledge before they part with their cash.

Fact: According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there are currently 440,000 displaced civilians in Central Africa because of LRA activities.

That there is so much publicity about child soldiers is only a good thing. That there is so much publicity about Joseph Kony’s atrocities is only a good thing. The need to act is great and the filmmakers should be applauded for carrying out some incredible work in making this happen. Nobody doubts that Joseph Kony is an evil man and deserves to be found and tried at the International Criminal Court.

Yet what should our next step be? After everything that I have read and researched, I cannot, in good conscience, donate to the organisation. Military intervention always has severe consequences and I cannot possibly give my support to such a cause. The Ugandan army is equally terrifying and while cooperation is clearly a great route to find a solution to peace, working with an organisation that is accused of running a prostitution ring is not something that I endorse.

Worst of all, they work alongside the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, an organisation that has been known to use large numbers of child soldiers.

Since Invisible Children have been rather secretive about a number of issues, I can only ask that you continue to speak to people about the issue. Debate what can be done. Let people know about the organisation and what they support. Share intelligently. Donate wisely.

Written for The Student Journals

Why David Thomas is so utterly wrong about why English students need not learn a foreign language

2012-02-06T12:17:00.000+00:00

I was recently directed to a segment of the MailOnline’s website, RightMinds, and let’s just say that I was pretty disappointed by what I read. David Thomas, a journalist and author with a multi-lingual background argues that the 380,000 students in England who chose not to learn a foreign language are being sensible (it gets worse) because English is the second language of 85 per cent of Europeans.

This argument practically gives way to the idea that students in this country should be lazy; ‘Well they’re already doing it so we don’t have to.’ But the joke is not on them, it is on us. It is on those who truly believe that simply because others are learning our language that we should make no effort to learn another.

I struggle to understand the argument in any sense, especially as the journalist essentially nullifies his argument further on in his article by saying that due to writing books set in Germany, he now has “a tiny smattering of German, too”. When writing a book, you conduct detailed research on the area it will be set in, but learning any part of the language is, arguably, unnecessary especially if nearly everyone you’re working with speaks English anyway.

Regardless, Thomas continues to argue that learning a language is handy for proving on holiday “that you’re more sophisticated than the rest of the tourist herd.” What’s more, Thomas claims, “there’s absolutely no need to learn any one particular language unless you’ve got a specific professional use for it.”

Both of these arguments, however, have tremendous problems attached to them, the main one resting on the presumption that people learn languages for the sole purpose of furthering their careers. This cannot be blamed on Thomas, though, but rather an increasing sentiment in society. Whoever has seen Avenue Q may recall a song entitled ‘What do you Do with a B.A. in English?’, a question often asked by parents to students wanting to partake in degrees in the arts and humanities. The concern is that such degrees do not give skills required to specific jobs but, rather, are simply chosen out of intellectual curiosity. Yet rather than descrying students for reading such degrees, the smaller issue is that we need to recognise that all degrees have value and equip students with transferrable skills.

The bigger, and far more important issue, is that we should not be criticising intellectual curiosity but instead encouraging it. Students who learn languages (if you can tell, I am included in this bracket) seldom in my opinion do so to appear more sophisticated. Rather, we generally learn languages because they gauge our interest.

The other major reason people learn languages is to be able to speak to more people and learn more about them. The point Thomas makes in his article is that there are so many different languages that it is not worth the effort. That languages are plentiful, however, does not mean that we should place no effort in attempting to learn any. Instead, we should learn those that take our fancy, and the fact that we can use languages in a professional environment works as a bonus.

So why do I think that learning a language is just so important? On a personal level, since childhood, I was introduced to the idea of learning new languages; I learnt basic Arabic at my Sunday School, and prior to this, having lived in Tanzania for two years, the residue of very basic Swahili resides within. I have also always spoken to my grandmother in Kutchi, a language that originated in the relatively small Indian region of Kutch, and started learning French at school from the age of eight.

What I have always been interested in is talking to people in different countries in their language. This is not for the ridiculous idea of wanting to appear more sophisticated, but more about increasing my knowledge base. I have always sought to learn more about different people and their respective cultures. People have a compelling story to tell and for me to be able to learn about theirs is deeply fascinating.

To give but one example of learning about a culture, during a trip to Syria, a friend and I decided to take a two-day trip to Beirut. Once in the city, we took a taxi trip to the hotel and having realised how short our distance was – and how expensive the trip was relative to taxi fares in Syria – we asked the taxi driver why. His answer was proud, defiant and a little bit arrogant. But, most of all, it was in a language we could connect with and appreciate thanks to our learning. “Beirut is the most expensive city in the Middle East, don’t you know?” he declared in Arabic.

While this may be a small example, there is a lot of knowledge to be taken from it. The number of captivating conversations I have been able to have with people because I can partially speak their language, and they can’t speak English, is remarkable. You can learn so much from simply taking the time to speak to an individual. My only regret is not learning more languages when I was younger.

Written for The Platform.

Muslim Writers Awards & The Guardian Student Media Awards

2011-11-27T19:22:00.001+00:00

This past week has been a rather big one for me, personally. On Tuesday, I attended the Muslim Writers Awards as I was shortlisted for the Young Journalist of the Year award. I was delighted to have just been shortlisted and it is safe to say that I was shocked when I was named the winner! All in all, it was a really great night; I met some very interesting people, in a fantastic venue (Shakespeare's Globe Theatre) and received some very nice (and kind) feedback from the BBC presenter, Asad Ahmad, who presented me with my award. Some people have asked if they can read the pieces that I submitted for the award (you have to submit 3 articles) so here's a list of the articles and brief descriptions.

Ethnic Profiling as a Policy of Counter-Terrorism is Not Working - This article was written shortly after the attack by Anders Behring Breivik and I wrote about how racial profiling should not be the main focus of our counter-terrorism policies, giving Norway as a primary example. I also write about how Muslims were asked to spy on their communities and mosques (resonant to the times of Vichy) when returning to the UK after a holiday.
Unveiling the 'burqa ban' - This article focusses on Sarkozy's wrongly-named burqa ban (the main object being banned is the niqab) and how he is simply continued the trend of Islamophobia in France in order to try and get the right-wing vote.
Kettled in Parliament Square - This is a very long, detailed report of what I saw, heard, felt and the views of other students on the day that tuition fees were raised to up to £9000. I was in Parliament Square and was reporting live on the day and so experienced the kettling by police and was on of thousands to be without access to basic sanitation as we were not allowed to leave.

On Wednesday night, the next night, I attended the Guardian Student Media Awards as The Student Journals was shortlisted for the Website of the Year category, which was very enthusing mainly because the judging took place before TSJ had even been publishing for a year. We didn't win on the night unfortunately but we did end up being runners up, which I feel is a fantastic achievement for what we have done so far. Hopefully, our continued growth and development will help us do even better next year.

What I'm reading (France's burqa ban: women are 'effectively under house arrest')

2011-09-20T01:22:00.001+01:00

From time to time, I may update this blog with articles that I find are particularly good.
While writing a piece for The Muslim News about the fact that Muslims have been banned from praying in the streets (I'll post the article on this site once it is published), I did a fair bit of research and read a number of articles. However, a fantastic feature article by Angelique Chrisafis in the Guardian caught my eye and I feel that it is definitely worth sharing. I found it particularly interesting because I've written about the niqab ban in the past and I have not yet read a piece with such a detailed update.

In her article, entitled 'France's burqa ban: women are 'effectively under house arrest'', Chrisafis answers some burning questions that I had, such as why the European Court of human rights had not yet overturned the law:

Gilles Devers, a lawyer acting for Ahmas and several other women in niqab, argued punishments were not being handed out because the niqab law contravenes European human rights legislation on personal liberties and freedom of religion.

Chrisafis explains the real implications of the ban for Muslim women:

In April, France introduced a law against covering your face in public. Muslim women in full-face veils, or niqab, are now banned from any public activity including walking down the street, taking a bus, going to the shops or collecting their children from school. French politicians in favour of the ban said they were acting to protect the "gender equality" and "dignity" of women. But five months after the law was introduced, the result is a mixture of confusion and apathy. Muslim groups report a worrying increase in discrimination and verbal and physical violence against women in veils. There have been instances of people in the street taking the law into their hands and trying to rip off full-face veils, of bus drivers refusing to carry women in niqab or of shop-owners trying to bar entry. A few women have taken to wearing bird-flu-style medical masks to keep their face covered; some describe a climate of divisiveness, mistrust and fear. One politician who backed the law said that women still going out in niqab were simply being "provocative".

Ahmas, 32, French, a divorced single mother of a three-year-old daughter, puts her handbag on the table and takes out a pepper spray and attack alarm. She doesn't live on the high-rise estates but on a quiet street of semi-detached houses. The last time she was attacked in the street a man and woman punched her in front of her daughter, called her a whore and told her to go back to Afghanistan. "My quality of life has seriously deteriorated since the ban. In my head, I have to prepare for war every time I step outside, prepare to come up against people who want to put a bullet in my head. The politicians claimed they were liberating us; what they've done is to exclude us from the social sphere. Before this law, I never asked myself whether I'd be able to make it to a cafe or collect documents from a town hall. One politician in favour of the ban said niqabs were 'walking prisons'. Well, that's exactly where we've been stuck by this law."...

Before the law, Stephanie would often be called names like "Batman, Zorro, or Ninja" in the street – often by pensioners. Now people favour swear words or sexual insults. She wants to work with children, but despite having a degree in theology, she can't find a job.

She also enlightens us as to some very interesting news:

Rachid Nekkaz, a French property developer, explains why his association, Don't Touch my Constitution, was the only group to stage high-profile protests when the law came into force – he backed Ahmas's birthday-cake stunt and has set up a ¤1m fund to pay any fines over the niqab. His next, and most radical, protest action will be this Thursday, when his association announces its plans to field a woman in niqab for president in 2012.

This really is simply a brief glimpse into the article and I would urge you to read the full piece when you get the time: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/19/battle-for-the-burqa?

Universities should refuse to spy on their Muslim students (Guardian)

2011-09-12T11:52:00.000+01:00

I've written against the government's counter-terrorism 'Prevent' strategy in the past but their latest development on British campuses is too far. Here's my piece for the Guardian:

Students go to university with various ideas in mind: enjoy the student life, meet new people and perhaps even get a good degree. Yet the government have decided to give their own input and bring fear into the equation. One of the government's counter-terrorism strategies,Prevent, has started to once again home in on British universities with a particular emphasis on Muslims. Officials from Prevent have asked university professors to give them details of any Muslim who might be a "threat", especially those who are isolated or depressed.

Apparently, if a Muslim is depressed, he or she is vulnerable to radicalisation. University staff are also asked to report students that have poor relationships with their families, are disgrunted by the government, and access extremist websites. Fortunately, most of us reserve better judgment than the masterminds of the Prevent strategy, and some student unions, such as the one at the University of Warwick, should be praised for their reaction; they have rejected any communication with officials from Prevent.

But what are the problems with this strategy? There are two major issues: the first is that it applies upon all Muslim students at university a slogan of "innocent-but-actually-probably-guilty", and second, that it ignores the fact that university should be a safe haven for students. Universities that accept Prevent officials in their campus have forgotten their purpose: to allow free thought and debate in an open environment. Debates about terrorism, security and human rights – and discussions about government failures – should all be encouraged at university.

Under Prevent rulings, it appears that if there were 100 students at a debate and one of them – a Muslim – spoke of how the incumbent party was adopting miscalculated policies, such as declaring the rise in tuition fees an abomination, university officials should report him as a danger to our country. The rest of the attendees at the debate, however, who may be equally or even more displeased would face no such difficulty since, well, only Muslims can be terrorists right?

There is one other extremely important point to note: university is also somewhere to obtain a higher education – even if that comes as a bit of a shock to some students – and professors exist not only to teach but also to ensure that each student is maximising the opportunity. Therefore, they and the counsellors have a responsibilty to any student seen to be struggling. They should help these students to get back on track, whether they are in a state of depression or are simply finding it hard getting through all the reading.

We should hear more universities condemning the horrendous Prevent strategy. Rather than making Muslim students fear for their privacy and forcing them to shy away and even hide their depression, all students should be given support to deal with these issues.

The Prevent strategy affects every university community, and instead of counter-terrorism strategies hampering the efforts of students who want to learn, universities need to group together and firmly reject the strategy – they should protect their students who need to be able to have faith in their leadership.

I have reason to believe that because of my opposition to the Prevent strategy, and the fact that I've written about the Israel-Palestine conflict, I am being monitored. And if you're Muslim and sitting in your university while reading this, you may have just joined the list.

Originally published in the Guardian; visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2011/sep/12/university-spy-on-students

Saturnine faces as astronomers query moon sighting over Saudi Arabia

2011-09-06T00:26:00.000+01:00

It is a pivotal point in the Islamic calendar, the moment when a month of fasting and contemplation finally comes to an end. But the celebration of Eid this year has been marred by controversy after claims that Saudi religious officials announced the festival on the wrong day.

Traditionally Ramadan comes to an end when the new moon is visible with the naked eye.

This year, officials in Saudi Arabia announced a sighting on Monday 29 August. Since then, however, astronomers have presented evidence to show that the moon was not visible at the time, and suggested that the Saudi officials may have actually been looking at Saturn.

Maged Abou Zahra, president of the Jeddah Astronomical Society, told the Egyptian paper al-Shorouk: "The sighting of a new moon would have simply been impossible."

If true, the mistake would mean that millions of Muslims around the world stopped fasting a day too early. The new moon occurs when it is between the earth and the sun. At this time, it is not visible to the earth because the entire illuminated side is facing the sun.

But in Saudi Arabia barely five hours passed before authorities announced the first "moonsighting" had been made by the requisite credible and pious person.

Middle Eastern analyst Issandr El Amrani, author of the Arabist blog, said the confusion suggested that Muslims should start using more scientific methods to determine the start of the Islamic month.

"The need for a naked eye sighting is a literal interpretation of Islamic tradition that should be adapted to technological realities," he said.

Many claim that the Saudis, in fact, already use astronomical calculations to pinpoint the start of the next Islamic month, but present the information as a traditional moonsighting to please conservative Muslims. There has been no official comment from Saudi religious authorities.

The confusion has prompted some commentators to question whether the world's estimated 1.6 billion Muslims should follow rulings from Saudi clerics simply because the site of the holy pilgrimage, the Ka'aba, is located in the country.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, a religious scholar in Mecca said in a recent speech that "there are no grounds for Muslims in the UK to follow Saudi Arabia".

Iqbal Sacranie, former general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that he wanted to unite the Muslim community to celebrate the occasion at the same time: "It is extremely sad that the Muslim community in the UK are divided on this very important issue of celebrating Eid. I believe it is now time for key scholars from different schools of thought to come together with Muslim organisations like the MCB and address this issue once and for all."

Ahmed Versi, editor of the Muslim News said that it was not uncommon for Muslim communities to celebrate Eid on different dates – mosques in the UK marked the festival on at least three different days.

Websites such as Moonsighting.com have existed for a number of years, giving the precise details of where it is possible for the moon to be seen.

But the majority of Muslims still use more traditional methods, only celebrating Eid when the moon is seen with the naked eye. This year's embarrassing error may lead more people to use astronomical calculations to decide about the new Islamic month instead of relying on the Saudi methodology.

This article was originally published in The Guardian

Osama Bin Laden killed: reaction

2011-05-02T08:30:00.001+01:00

Stories from the Concrete Jungle

2011-03-31T10:34:00.002+01:00

View from the Empire State Building. Photograph: Mike Lee

'These streets will make you feel brand new'..sings Alicia Keys in the over-played Empire State of Mind. This is the first time revisiting my birth state as an adult, fully aware of my surroundings. I took everything in.

Coming from Britain, one thing is evident from the off, although it related to the entire country. Everything is bigger. Cans of soda (350ml instead of 333ml), bottles (591ml instead of 500ml), although these I believe are probably due to Americans measuring in ounces rather than litres. But it expands to food portions and so on. To give an example, it took me 40 minutes to eat one pretzel.

What must also be mentioned is that it is New York City being sung about, rather than the entire state (for the most part at least). Taking a train from Long Island to the City makes this clear, moving from an area of low-level construction, you start to see large buildings in the background, and as you start moving closer, you need to look up. No, seriously up.

The New York (City) skyline is famous; the Empire State building, the Chrysler building, the Rockefeller Center [sic!] are just the start. Banks and other offices compete for the largest office blocks also. This was made clear to me when I embarrassed by cousin by going into a building that looked architecturally brilliant to ask what it was to simply find out it was a bunch of offices.

In the few days I was there, however, I managed to see a lot. I visited the United Nations Headquarters and listened to a school orchestra (a nice touch I thought) perform in what appeared to be a beautiful interior in need of a clean and a new splash of paint. A short-ish walk brought me to the Rockefeller Center, where they place the famous Christmas Tree (if you watched Home Alone, you'll know the place) and it also holds an ice-skating rink in the Winter seasons.

Inside the building, my cousin (Sarah if you were wondering) and I went on a tour of the NBC Studio, which allowed us to see three of the studios that they use for filming. With the snow, rain and hail we felt on the Wednesday, we called it a day.

The next day I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art (a wonderful building) and saw the Picasso's, Monet's and Van Gogh's and a lot of other beautiful art. There was also a Dyson (yes, the vacuum cleaner) in the contemporary art.

Downtown was my next stop and my first stop was Wall Street. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the Kairos Global Summit 2011 last month (was held in the New York Stock Exchange) so it was nice to be able to see everything, at least from the outside.

Not too far from Wall Street was Ground Zero. I wasn't in the United States when the Twin Towers fell crashing to the earth, making a symbolic dent to our daily lives. In fact I was in a Geography lesson. I remember some scrambling and we managed to get the television in turned on in time to be utterly shocked. I still remember being the only one to stay inside and watch the coverage during the break period; perhaps my American roots did not allow me to stop watching the flickering images.

Gazing at the construction was an emotional moment. It shouldn't have been. After all, I barely remember living in New York. Leaning against a wall, I simply watched the workers carry out their daily work and memories flooded back. Closing my eyes lead to my seeing people jumping from the immense buildings and people rushing around and I could hear the screams. On the same spot nine and a half years ago, this is what happened. I could not imagine exactly what happened but everything felt distinctly vivid. The memorial had some stories from the day itself and is worth a quick visit also if you around the area. The reconstruction looks like it will end up looking pretty amazing but it seems like it will take a while.

Since I was there, I felt compelled to visit something I had written about but not yet seen: the 'Ground Zero mosque'. I strolled off towards 51 Park Place, timing myself (4 minutes by the way). Park51 was quite tatty (compared to the rest of the place) and it would definitely be helped by some renovation. I went inside to see the building and was greeted by a kind man who lead me inside to the mosque area.

Since nothing has yet been changed, there is no real community centre right now, simply a mosque. Yet it was clear that an effort was being made. At the front was information about the place and in the praying-area were boards giving information about the pillars of Islam and also sheets containing the translations of the Islamic daily prayers. I wanted more information and found out that 500 people turned up for Friday papers. It definitely needs expansion.

On my final day I visited Times Square, the most luminescent part of New York. What I liked most about it was the space. In the rest of New York City you feel as if you are constrained between large buildings on either side of you whereas in Times Square, the aura given off is not the same. You feel that you have space to breathe, buildings are further apart and don't feel so tall. One of the large screens showed passers-by in the street and occasionally it would zoom in on a few people who, in turn, were taking pictures of themselves.

Times Square at night was another picture entirely. The huge number of lights, advertisements and news bulletins lit up the Square and the people underneath. The lights in Piccadilly Circus are quite cool, this is worth visiting. What did shock me however is that the US Armed Forced Recruiting Agency is in the middle of Times Square. It was an interesting selection for this small box-shaped hut.

Finally, my trip came to an end with a trip to Broadway, where I saw Avenue Q, .a.k.a. 'the adult version of muppets'. If you haven't yet, you should definitely watch it. To give a little bit more information, here are the names of some of the songs: 'Everyone's a little big racist', 'Schadenfreude' (about happiness from the misfortune of others), 'I wish I Could go Back to College' and 'If you were Gay'.

New York City was definitely an experience. It seemed that I compared everything there to London. The problem here is that I find London beautiful and sometimes NYC paled in comparison. I love London's buildings, architecturally wonderful without a necessary emphasis on being tall. Iconic structures such as the Empire State Building lack a certain flair that the Gherkin or even the Big Ben provide. The large buildings seemed to impose upon me whereas perhaps I'm simply used to smaller buildings around London. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time in New York and it's a marvellous city. But whether I would pick it over London, well that's a decision I would have to make over a whole new blog post…

[P.s. I realise I didn't mention the Statue of Liberty and that's because I've seen it so many times before that I remember it pretty well and so didn't visit it on this trip.]

Re-capping the Fabian Conference

2011-01-16T23:00:00.006+00:00

Essentially, the Fabian Society's New Year Conference is the first political conference I have attended. Unsure what to expect, I only knew that Ed Miliband would be the keynote speaker and that I would meet other familiar faces in the world of the centre-left, including journalists Laurie Penny and Mehdi Hasan.

The website of the Fabians say that "It is affiliated to the Labour Party but is editorially and organisationally independent" and thus, having seen members of the Conservative party on the agenda, was expecting to see and hear a wide range of opinions. Yet the difference rested on the speakers alone.

Ed Miliband started the day, responding with an almost childlike grin and regal wave to the enormous applause that greeted him on arrival. Giving the keynote speech at just after 10AM, he re-iterated that Labour winning the Oldham by-election showed there was a sense of frustration at the Coalition but that was not enough. Labour must learn "the mistakes of our past", he said. He argued that Labour needed to extend their arm out to Liberal Democrats. "I want them to find a welcome home in our party – not just making up the numbers, but contributing actively to the strengthening of our values and the renewal of our policies."

The important message for 2011 was that "there is a progressive majority in this country...The prize is not simply a Labour government, it is about changing the common sense of the age. Labour has to shape a country and a world based on our ideals"

The most impressive of all, however, was Miliband's (over)enthusiastic hand gestures, some even being liked to casting a spell with a magic wand. However, that was not necessarily a bad thing as his speech received massive approval with some even giving him a standing ovation.

Other sessions I attended through the day were about what the left could "learn about movement politics from the right" and one about the Alternate Vote. In the former, Laurie Penny, a journalist from the New Statesman, and Tim Montgomerie, Editor of Conservative Home, exchanged the most heated words in the debate when Penny started to "counter the rather patronising idea [from Montgomerie] that I haven't read anything that the Conservative have published. I've read everything about social policy". Penny was then quick to combat Montgomerie as he interrupted her: "If you'll let me finish".

Penny also said that the left had to learn from the student movement and UK Uncut, who are "light years ahead of the Labour Party". Labour must show a "willingness to engage with people's needs". Montgomerie's main point was that Labour had to make effective use of the web.

Chuka Umanna MP picked up on Miliband's speech and talked about a theorist who claimed that there is a tendency in all of us to have difference political opinions and it is up to those who have a vision of the world to "activate the progressive parts of people". The most shocking part of the talk was when Jon Cruddas, Labour MP spoke of David Cameron's 'big society' as a "good way of colonising values on a local level", touching on Miliband's earlier point of Labour building an alternative to it.

During the lunchtime talk, specifically designed for 'Young Fabians' i.e. those under-31, was a session called 'Squeezed Youth: how does Labour reconnect?' The only problem was that the talk showed a video and then had a panel talking. The point made by recently ennobled Lord Maurice Glasman echoed through the hall. "This is not the right way to engage with youth."

In the plenary about the Alternate Vote, Jessica Asato (Director of the Labour Yes to AV campaign) made the fundamentally important point and John Denham MP backed it; with a change in the voting system, politicians would be forced to campaign across the country and tactical voting would come to an end. Citizens would finally be able to vote for the party that they support. Asato also claimed "AV can spell the end of fascist parties [such as the BNP]."

Towards the end of the day, there was a Dragon's Den competition where members of the Fabian Society had voted for the top 5 "radical ideas for a progressive majority", which was actually the most interesting part of the conference and showed who the Fabian Society was catered for. This last session was for all conference-attendees and it was clear to all that while the society is 'organisationally independent', it is catered towards Labour members and not others.

Indeed, Laurie Penny had earlier started her talk by saying, "Let me start by saying that I'm not a member of the Labour party and when I say we, I mean the broad left". Speakers had been varied and had different political affiliations yet attendees were pre-dominantly all avid supporters of Labour and if your thoughts were - what seemed, shockingly - not aligned with that of Labour, you were greeted with looks of amazement. If the Fabian Society wants to claim that it is a 'centre-left' think tank, it must act that way.

What is perhaps worse is that many conference attendees seemed to have pre-judgements about exactly what they were going to hear and for the most part, there was nothing different said. I feel at this point that I need to add that in no way do I mean to discredit the society. Rather, I would argue that there were some very interesting issues raised but it was in the minority. It may be the case that there are a larger variety of opinions at other events the society holds but not at this one.

Miliband's speech was important, especially after the by-election win, and the conference was fascinating to go to. I did hear some interesting views from panellists. Now the Fabians need to take further steps in improving. Students were in attendance but not in large numbers and it was obvious that students did not have much of a say in the running of the plenary for youth. Lecturing students is not the way to reach students - that's why lecture halls at university are so empty. Engage the crowd; get them involved.

Next, the conference should try to attract wider audiences, those on the left who do not support Labour. Even during the Dragon's Den-competition, the 'Dragons' said, "Would this win voters for Labour?" Yes, stay affiliated to Labour but allow Labour to learn from the events rather than catering it only towards their supporters. Or maybe I've got the Society all wrong…

Random note on illegal immigrants

2010-07-30T23:10:00.002+01:00

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In a random thought, I was wondering about the plight of illegal immigrants (II). If found in Britain, what should the authorities do?

During the elections, the Liberal Democrats offered that all IIs (that had lived in the UK for a certain amount of time) should be given an amnesty, but the Coalition has recently denied any possibility of this happening. Obviously, the problem with simply giving all IIs an amnesty will lead to a larger number (attempting to) enter the country in the future with the hope of a similar amnesty. But should they simply be deported if found?

At my school a couple of years ago, two school children, Zoe and Moses, were on the verge of being deported with the mother to Zimbabwe. This was after having lived in the UK for 7 years. Petitions were swiftly organised, and the school came together as a community, as did a large number of people who felt that they should not be deported; the fact that Zimbabwe is not by any means a safe state, as well as their father being abusive led to many hassling their MPs and the Home Secretary to stop this. Eventually, they were not deported and are still studying in the UK. I'm sure there must be many similar cases where children and parents alike are sent back to destructive countries as their cases are unknown.

How about families who, say, moved here 10 years ago? Let's add to the equation that they had a boy who was 11 years old at the time. Going back to the present day, the boy would now be 21 years old (perhaps having gone through the university system) and without any passport (he would not have been able to leave the country or renew it within the UK). Thus, he would not be able to get National Insurance or get a work permit - companies would not hire him. Further to this, the government may find out that he is living in the country illegally. Should he be deported? If he is, he would in essence be charged for the crimes that his parents committed. Is this just or fair?

Although not really in the news at the moment, I still felt it's an issue worth bringing up. Please leave comments: what do you think?