There's more to life than books you know...

As wrong as the riots are, this is the disaffected youth who have been completely screwed by the government fighting back. For Cameron and Johnson to only speak out today shows how out of touch they are with these people who are so angry. Don’t get me wrong, I think the behaviour of these rioters is completely unjustified, reckless and disgraceful, but Clegg did forewarn us during the elections (and when he wasn’t such a traitor) that there would be riots this summer if the Tories were elected. The last time riots like this happened was in 1981 under a Tory government - surely that speaks in volumes, no?

These events are just so saddening on so many levels. 

politics

london riots

cameron

clegg

johnson

tories

thoughts

Last night on facebook, prompted by the shocking news that one of the men responsible for the death and abuse of Baby P is being released from prison after only serving 3 years of a 6 year sentence, a few of my ‘friends’ were debating the pros of bringing back capital punishment. 

Now not only is facebook not the forum to have such a discussion, but I think you should only make comments if you actually have an argument behind it other than ‘these people are scum’. I’m not saying that Jason Owen’s release is justified - it’s not. Having a six year sentence for the torture and eventual death of a baby is disgusting and a disrespect to the memory of that poor little boy. That does not mean the answer therefore is to reintroduce the death penalty. I do think there are massive problems in the legal system…surely such an AWFUL crime should mean a life sentence and by life, not 10 years for good behaviour, but actual life. I think whether people like Owen are ‘good’ when inside shouldn’t matter because clearly he is someone who is a threat to those who have no voice with which to raise the happenings of these horrid crimes. I think the prisons themselves are too ‘welcoming’ with luxuries such as television, pool tables, cigarettes etc. I do think that when these people commit these crimes they lose their right for such things. Prison should be somewhere for people to realise and live with what they have done. 

I have such a huge problem with the idea of capital punishment. Not only does it justify the killing of people by those who are meant to show us that such behaviour at the end of the day is wrong (the government etc) but whose right it is to take that life? Yes in the case of Owen he took the life of a little boy which is anyone’s mind is horrendous but should it really be an ‘eye for an eye’ in this case? This means that the person who pushes the button or releases the gas should therefore be killed - just because it’s in a professional capacity does that make the murder (for that’s what it is) any less ethical? I do think that people like Owen need to be analysed by psychiatrists and professionals in order to understand why people commit these crimes in order to prevent such awful things happening in the future. Simply getting rid of someone by killing them doesn’t rid the world of these problems, we need to understand (not agree with) the mind sets of these people in order to help prevent such crimes. 

It just makes me so angry that so many people think capital punishment is the answer simply because they think ridding the world of known criminals will stop crime. What about those who are sentenced to death wrongly? That’s just as bad as an innocent murder out in society surely. It will cause MORE problems. The government endorsing and supporting the idea of the death penalty means that people will take it upon themselves to get rid of people they deem ‘scum’. I think it’s an uneducated choice and those people on facebook should stop broadcasting their pig ignorant, ridiculously right wing, fascist views because it’s uneducated thoughts like this that damage the world. 

personal

rant

death penalty

capital punishment

debate

morals

I’m currently watching the pop video channel for the first time in ages. What the HELL has happened to pop music? Baring in mind most of this stuff is aimed at kids I am actually appalled. The Wanted’s number 1 single ‘Glad You Came’ is currently on. Not only is the title a bit sexually ambiguous but in my mind it endorses a date rape scenario with lyrics such as ‘hand you another drink, drink it if you can’  - so young boys, get your girl SO drunk that you can take her to ‘somewhere no one else can see’ because you’ve decided she looks ‘well on you’. Not only does the latter lyric make NO sense but it’s vile. Women are just sexual objects yes?

And then there’s Pixie Lott’s new video who seemingly thinks that closing your legs is a sure sign of becoming a failed pop star. Put some bloody trousers on girl, you look like a baby prostitue. Pitbull is a poor excuse for a ‘musician’ in any event but every single video I’ve seen him in he is leching over some half naked woman as if that’s a really suitable and appropriate thing to do. J.Lo bloody shakes her arse like she’s begging to be seen as a serious musician (clearly bum shaking is the way to do this) and lyrically all these songs are either highly sexed (Katy Perry, Rihanna’s whole back catalogue pretty much, Nicole Scherzinger’s ‘Right There’ which when googling the lyrics seems to be an ode to oral sex) or just plain shit (LMFAO, Jason Derulo etc). 

I know I’m highly opinionated about this because I’m a music student (call me a snob if you will) and you know what? I love a good pop song as much as the next person but it’s no wonder that girls, including myself, have huge body image problems when almost every single female in these videos is at least half naked. That’s why Adele is such a huge success - she doesn’t get naked, she doesn’t do gimmicks and she is actually about her music. Whether or not you like her, there’s no denying she’s the most successful female artist around at the moment. Surely that proves that actually people PREFER someone who won’t sell their sexuality to sell their records? Half of these people can’t sing (prime example being Cher Lloyd who in a great case of perfect timing just came on) and have nothing to offer other than their physical appearance. 

Bit of an impromptu rant there, sorry!

pop music

rant

The Space Between by Elena Georgiou

stuck in an unnamed place
half way between love and in love,
you call me late at night and ask
if i’m sleeping. i tell you, i’m writing.
you ask about what? love, i say.

when i write about us, i stop myself
from saying we make love or we have sex.
i search for a euphemism that won’t bind me,
won’t define us. i arrive at the phrase
move together. and only now, in writing
this poem, do i see how fitting it is.

the way we moved together vertically
is what made me want to move with you
horizontally. music joined us,
but even in the joining, i didn’t know
how to behave, how much or how little
to say, how to choose to be me.

an old friend told me if i feel
smaller than myself with a lover
this is the wrong lover for me.

yes, i make myself smaller; i shrink
my politics, my conversation. i shrink
in mind, but i grow in body.

and don’t think i don’t know
when the movements are fluid
we look for ways to draw each other
nearer, name each other soulmates.

i have been a two-time witness
to how easily the soul-thread can be
cut, leaving the so-called soulmate
dangling in an empty world of one.

the same old friend comes back
to say a lover should love
in me what i love in myself.

trouble is, we don’t know what we love
in each other. we exchange tapes of songs
to hint at the possibility of a feeling,
admitting nothing, partially exposed
in lyrics so, if pushed, we can deny
we meant the words that way.

we skirt around edges hoping
the space between will stop closeness
because close is where we are
fighting ourselves not to be.

i preach distance to you. i inflict it
on myself. i invent barriers like age-gaps
and bad-timing. but only now, in writing
this poem, do i learn how the word
distance can magnetize lovers.

you obey my demands. you don’t
call. we don’t speak, but you find
a strand of my hair in your freezer
and i still write with the taste of
you in my mouth.

poetry

poem

elena georgiou

the space between

love

sex

truth

A Sexual Revolution: From Punk Rock to Soul by Elena Georgiou

I was 16 in 1977

when the young, British working class

opened their legs wide

under the guidance on Malcolm McClaren

and gave birth to Punk Rock

giving me the excuse to disrobe

from a flower power purple theory of peace

and re/dress myself in the bright red

political theories of a revolution

I didn’t fully understand

except I knew my socialist tendencies

and being able to quote the Clash lyrics

would always get a smile

and a proverbial pat on my back from the other 16-year-old pothead, wannabe radicals

disguised by the ripped jeans, guitars and U.B. 40’s

they wore like badges of working-class honor

and when we sang

beat the drum tonight, alfonso

spread the news all over the world

the big meeting has decided on total war

instead of wondering where I was gonna find a machete

and how was I gonna run with the dog pack to survive I was still back on the first line

wondering who the hell Alfonso was

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poetry

poem

a sexual revolution

from punk rock to soul

elena georgiou

soul

love

sex

revolution