Gone Too Soon

And so, the musical genius that was Michael Jackson is with us no more.

On the afternoon of Thursday 25 June – two months away from his fifty-first birthday, and only three weeks before he was due to start a record-breaking 50-date residency at London’s O2 Arena - he gave up the ghost, and is survived by three children, parents and siblings.

I think his untimely demise is captured best in the words of one of his own songs, “Gone Too Soon”. I don’t know if you were a Michael Jackson fan, but I certainly was. A big one. I grew up listening to his music, and as well as appreciating his natural talent for music and dance (he never had any formal training!), I always thought he was a pioneer whose genius would never be fully appreciated in his lifetime.

Unfortunately, his increasingly bizarre lifestyle in the last twenty-odd years guaranteed this, as the press and people around the world focused on his eccentricities rather than his music and creativity. For the majority of his fifty years on earth – forty-five of which were spent in the entertainment industry- he was in the public eye for one reason or the other.

It is this aspect of Michael’s life that I want to reflect on: the never-ending press intrusion, the life that was always under scrutiny. what I call the ‘celebrity factor’. Because more than anything, I think this contributed immensely to his stranger-than-fiction life and eventually, his untimely death.

Crunch Time Lessons

2009 is here and already the days are flying by. I don’t know about you but I’m hoping for better things, one of which is an end to the uncertainty that characterised the economic landscape last year.

For a number of reasons.

First, I happen to work in the financial services industry, and it is disconcerting when one hears of thousands in similar and related occupations who lose their sources of livelihood on an almost-daily basis.

And before you scoff, maybe even swear and mutter “Serves the fat cats right” self-righteously under your breath, consider this: a significant proportion of those affected are people like you and me, people who strive to make a living for themselves and their families. Now, their bosses may be fat cats, but they are not the ones whose lives could suffer a major disruption if they happen to find themselves out of a job.

The second reason is down to a recurring annual resolution of mine, which is to maintain control of my finances and plan for the future. I think this is key because far too many of us focus on short-term gratification instead of long-term investment. Having had my fingers burnt years ago (I’m pleading youthful exuberance!) I am far past the stage of succumbing to the temptation to purchase on impulse by flashing red signs in shop windows that say “75% Off”. Plus, I am no longer into the concept of acquiring debts today which will need to be paid off tomorrow.

True Wealth

I have been meaning to put this up for a while.

It links to a profound article written at the end of October by award-winning writer Ben Okri:

Our false oracles have failed. We need a new vision to live by

To be continued.

It’s Because I’m Black, Isn’t It?

I love this picture of the Obamas!

I know the word “historic” has been bandied about a lot in the past few weeks, but there really is no other word that adequately captures the unique and unprecedented times in which we live.

Citizens of the United States have voted in a Black man as their forty-fourth president and, by so doing, have cast aside everything we thought to be true about racial stereotypes in that part of the world, how campaigns are funded and essentially, who Americans are.

Which is great! I admire the Obamas for even embarking on the long road which finally led them to the White House, for sticking to their guns and staying true to their ideals when most people thought they as much chance of success as the concept of flying pigs.

His overwhelming and undeniable success on the 4th of November – compared to the electoral debacle which took place in Florida eight years ago – means that, not only will Barack Obama’s name go down in the annals of history, but people in America and the world over are filled with genuine hope and enthusiasm, as opposed to the cynicism and apathy that usually attends politics.

Not that it matters now, or ever did in terms of me being able to cast my vote, but I must confess that I was not one of Obama’s awestruck supporters, or - as I like to call them - Obamaniacs.

The advent of misery porn

Though I love the cinema, I don’t go as often as I’d like because I must confess there really isn’t very much that I can watch…

…or read, for that matter. I’m extremely sensitive when it comes to such things which is odd, because I am the farthest thing from a delicate little flower you can imagine. A damsel in distress I certainly am not!

I think it could be down to my vivid and hyperactive imagination. The contents of horror movies can stay with me for weeks, and even simple sad endings suck the joy outta me for hours, days even…

…crazy I know, but that’s how I am. Since I’ve figured that out – trust me, nothing beats self-awareness – I find that I generally end up watching films in one of the following genres:

• rom coms (I’m sure I have watched Pretty Woman scores of times, and still won’t hesitate to watch it if it came on the box right now!)
• comic book remakes like Batman and Spiderman (the superhero always overcomes evil you see, guaranteeing me my obligatory happy ending)
• action movies without a lot of action or gore (I love the James Bond franchise, but note to the Broccoli family – Daniel Craig is not Bond!)

Another point of view…

I came across this piece on the whole youth crime issue by Jenni Russell on the Times Online website.

She has a slightly different perspective to mine - as detailed in my article Our Youth and Knife Crime: what’s to blame? - which I find intriguing.

Click on the link below to have a read, and see what you think.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4493224.ece

Our Youth and Knife Crime: what’s to blame?

These days, the scourge of knife crime and the devastation it leaves in its wake is never out of the news.

As I write, about 20 people have been fatal victims of knife-inflicted wounds in London so far this year, with the perpetrators in the majority of cases being male teenagers. Needless to say, many more people have lost their lives across the United Kingdom, with Glasgow and Manchester also being trouble hotspots.

The government’s response has been weak and disappointing. As with most issues opportunities to come up with solutions are overwhelmed by a nonsensical requirement to be politically correct, and are therefore rendered impotent.

So, the rise in knife crime has been attributed to the following factors in no particular order: absent fathers and the consequent lack of male role models in homes, boredom, lack of adequate facilities for sports and extracurricular activities, lack of engagement in schools, poverty, and single parent households.

While I do not deny the potential for any combination of these factors to negatively impact individual characters in their formative years, it does infuriate me that the government and, by extension the rest of us, are now at the stage where we find it easier to point the finger of blame than to take a good hard look at ourselves and admit that we have a duty to our youth and the rest of society, one which we have shirked and failed.

Today’s Church: The Challenge of Remaining Relevant

A report commissioned for the Church of England by the Bishop of Hulme, the Right Reverend Stephen Lowe – with support from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Drs. Rowan Williams and John Sentamu – was published on 9 June 2008, and it stated that the New Labour government of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown has facilitated the onset of a spiritual, civic and economic crisis in Britain.

In the report titled Moral, Without a Compass, the government was challenged for its policy of favouring other faiths at the expense of Christian churches which are discriminated against, and was described as ‘lacking any convincing moral direction’.

According to the authors, in spite of the fact that the Church has led the way for centuries on such topical issues as health care, education and welfare by pioneering hospitals, schools and institutions of higher learning - many of which are now commonplace in the United Kingdom today - Christian charities and communities are consistently excluded from crucial discussions and consultations which occur prior to policy making.

As a result of this ‘positive exclusion of people of faith’, the report says that the government is failing society and leaving it bereft of a national identity, with the Church of England being consistently and relentlessly marginalised, excluded and neglected.

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised to hear of this report, for two reasons.

Is It Alright to Cause Offence?

On the 27th of March, Dutch parliamentarian and leader of the Party for Freedom Geert Wilders premiered his film ’Fitna’, intending to use it as a vehicle to explore verses in the Koran he believes could easily be misconstrued as incitements for violence and terrorism.

Though innocuously titled – the title comes from the Arabic word meaning ‘disagreement among people’ or ‘test of faith in times of trial’ - in the film Wilders explores the rise of Islamic militancy and extremism, and the threats they pose to democracy, free speech and civil liberties in the Netherlands as a whole.

There have been protests across the Muslim world which, fair enough, is to be expected: any person or group in a democratic society who feel hard done by are free to make their grievances known by peaceful means.

And it was a given that that this work would raise eyebrows, since objections to Wilders’ political views, his stance on Islam and its relevance in the Netherlands, as well as his intention to make this controversial film had long been in existence and were really nothing new.

What seems to have gradually become the norm in situations where the Muslim faith is involved is the use of violence or the threat of it as a means of suppressing critics. Sadly, that has been no different in this case.

Are We All Guilty?

They are everywhere.

They sell millions of newspapers and countless magazines, ranging from well-known monthly publications to some downright obscure - and not to mention, trashy - weekly glossies.

They blaze fashion trails, which society blindly follows.

They inadvertently dictate how we should dress and look, and as a result, the fashion and cosmetic surgery industries continue to see growth in double digits on both sides of the Atlantic as societal aspirations to conform to the standards of beauty they set increase.

Welcome to the age of celebrity, where everyone wants to be famous and a fortnight of inappropriate behaviour with strangers on a reality show beamed into millions of living rooms across the nation is guaranteed to make you a ’star’.