Archive - The Awful Truth

Wake me up, when September ends ...

Well, actually don't. I'd like May, or June, please =]
I promised a post about work experience, and thus you shall have a post about work experience, but only after this:
I hate Year 11 Too much to do, and it's not even the schoolwork, it's the combination of school work and my job, which seems to have gotten even more hectic. Anyway, apart from that, I had a strange moment the other night. I was reading through a blog, a very very good one, at that, written by a guy who works for the London Ambulance Service, as a call taker/dispatcher. This guy, was the person who took the very first call back on the 7th of July, 2005, when 4 bombs exploded on the London transport network, killing a total of 56 people, and injuring around 700. Having read this blog post, and been suitably touched by it, I went link-surfing, and stumlbed across a wikipedia article about the bombings. Right at the bottom of this article, was a list of all 52 victims, and a short description of where they were going, and what they had just done. Within minutes, I found I was crying. That's not something that happens to me very often. Normally I can seperate myself from emotion, especially when it concerns something that didn't really affect me, and chirst, it was over 3 years ago... but seeing the names, and the little bit after them such as "she had just called her parents to tell them she was okay, after being evacuated from Kings Cross station, when she boarded the number 30 bus..." seemed to add a human value to everything. It was .. moving, to say the least. As for that blog, www.neenaw.co.uk, really funny guy (who I have worked out must live quite near me), really well written, give it a read when you get bored of me!
Secondly, last weekend, a bunch of do-gooders decided to go on an Anti-Knife march through London. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7620719.stm) All very well, but, excuse me, what exactly is that going to achieve? To be honest, I can vaguely understand, and forgive, having my transport network messed up for a day (Almost all of the Central London bus routes were diverted or cancelled) if it's actually going to achieve something. But, reality check
1) We're all very very aware of the 27 teenage murders in London this year, and we all know knifes and guns are dangerous, we don't need you to tell us
2) The government aren't exactly going to do much, are they? D'you expect Gordon Brown to start marching around South London confiscating knifes? The police have already tried countless knife amnesty's, but guess what? THEY DON'T WORK. It's only ever the people who are little or no danger, who hand in their (inevitable) butter knife, or surrender their bread knife. Even if people were handing in possible weapons, it's doesn't make a difference! If people need a knife, but, Oh no, they handed theirs in, they will simply delve into their kitchen draw, and take one!
3)If you want a nice chat about knifes, and about how your son/daughter/dog/cat was a "good person" and "wouldn't harm a fly" then sure, go for it, but you don't need to march to it with signs saying "Down with knifes!" and chants like "What do we want?" "No more knifes" "When do we want it?" "NOW!".