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| I am not amused. |
I wouldn't be that bothered about it. But the news is flooded with nothing else. Why? We know it's been happening for ages. A hundred people died in a plane crash in Cuba. WHAT? Now that's interesting, tell me about that! What was that? I can't hear you over the talk of her dress!
People say to me that the Royal Family has no real powers anymore, its a novelty, and that she brings in more wealth from tourism and the land that she owns than the money the taxpayer gives her. But at what cost?
The news gets flooded. Refugees and foreign wars don't matter, only the wedding is of such importance which needs to be constantly televised. If you want a reminder of how the news doesn't reflect the nation's interests, I think it would be how it ignores the large amount of people who are apathetic to the wedding, as if we all love them. As if we are weird for not doing so. Propaganda comes in many forms for a variety of reasons.
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| The Google logo for today. Oh, we live in an enchanted land in Britain don't we? |
Don't you want some happy news for once?
I get happiness from my very fortunate life. Unfortunately, with government NHS cuts and benefits cuts, more and more people are getting less fortunate lives. More people are dying from various issues which could have been prevented if places were better funded. More people are sleeping rough, including young kids now that under 25 housing benefits have been cut. The wedding might be a happy occasion for every healthy individual able to join in the festivities, but there is a larger element of exclusion from society now as a 'harmless' show of wealth is broadcast to everyone in the nation.
The UK is the most socially unequal society in Europe. The wedding is a microcosm of the nation - the rich get to live a fairytale wedding while being adored, whilst the poor are forgotten about.
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Meanwhile, across the border (no, its not the will-they wont-they wedding drama at a possible border in Ireland) is another Royal Wedding - Jamie Oliver and Nicole Sturgeon. Come on Nicola, I thought you were better than that!
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| It's not the first time a union between the English and Scottish has worked out badly |
To be fair, Nicola wants to cut childhood obesity in half by 2030. She just took advice from the wrong guy.
Jamie Oliver MBE (that's Member of the British Empire to go with our royal theme) has his own empire of recipe books and TV shows to rule over. He earns more in a year than Gordon Ramsaym Jay-Z and Beyonce do combined.
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| Yas queen? |
I'm unsure how exactly this is possible when I much preferred watching any other celebrity chefs. I mean, look how friendly and huggable the Hairy Bikers are compared to Jamie in this episode of his 'American Road Trip'. He's meant to be travelling around America sampling and cooking American dishes, but keeps bringing up guns and race to the people he's just meant to be cooking with. Stop making dinnertime awkward, you're a chef not a journalist.
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| Ah, now that's better. |
But yes, Jamie seeks to ban 2 for 1 pizzas in an effort to curb 'childhood obesity'. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't see children roaming the streets with Domino's pizza boxes as shields, eating anyone who dares get in the way of their second pizza. Maybe I live a different life to Jamie, but my pocket money didn't stretch to a large Meateor pizza with dough balls for lunch as a kid.
Childhood obesity is a problem. But I think its due to multiple reasons. Kids feeling excluded from exercise as they don't want to P.E. playing football with the lads who are cocky and really good at it. A lack of healthy snacks, varied food at home, and food/cooking education. Basically, there needs to be wider understanding of how to get healthier foods cheaply, because obesity hits the poorest the most. And if they don't know this, they aren't gonna go "blimey, Domino's is expensive, lets get the Chickpea and Aubergine Tagine out" (I made that the other day and it was very nice and cheap, but to those who haven't heard of it, it sounds undeniably middle class). They'll say instead"Let's just get the frozen pizza. Sorry kids".
I think that Jamie believes that if Domino's are too expensive, then people will have no choice but to watch his shows and buy his recipe books and learn allll the healthy meals. Well guess what Jamie, most people think you're a twat now, so I'm afraid not. If instead of working with governments to ban turkey twizzlers he worked with the government and schools to educate not only children but families about food, money and exercise, that'd be good wouldn't it? You aren't belittling people by taking choice away from them, but rather giving them a far more educated choice.
What is needed is a lesson like Food Tech, but one where you give kids money to buy the ingredients themselves to see who can get more for a cheaper price, cook it, and see the nutritional value. Maybe seed how they feel exercising after. Maybe somehow get the family involved too. But school doesn't teach us anything about financing does it? And a Tory government and entitled multi-millionaire wouldn't want to spend that much money educating people. We'll just take pizzas away from them and they'll learn the hard way....oh wait....they're still fat. Best take away all chocolate and crisps. Still fat? Jesus. Jamie, just cook them and make us some food.
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Oooh, you read this far and unlocked a secret post. "Shouldn't you have named the title 3 for 1?"
This is my first blog post in about a year. You may wonder why. Well, I'm not getting paid for it, it does take hours to write and edit, and it often takes a lot to motivate me if it's not uni work, even though this is a labour of love. I'd like to type up some more travelling stories from last year, but I often feel a bit self-indulgent doing that. If people are interested I might as I do have some spare time on my hands for a few weeks.
I have tried to, and mostly completed, some posts on big topics where I try to take a mediated approach and make it humorous. I try to tackle all points of view which makes it a full on essay when you consider the time put into it. This piece was slightly easier as they were two shorter pieces, but its ended up being the same amount of work. Maybe people would prefer to see my views/me talk about a few issues in the news rather than exhaustively analyse a single topic. If so do tell.
But it's hard to assess how relevant they are to people and if people will know what I'm on about. I've wrote something on the Harvey Weinstein-esque scandals in Hollywood (which might prove controversial) and one on Trump, but I'm maybe waiting for something in the news to pop up until its more relevant. Plus where do you even start with Trump. Maybe if people message me with things they'd like to see me talk about? I'd be happy to give my thoughts on topics if people were interested. I suppose I want to ensure people at least smirk or learn something from this, but with a lack of motivation or input that's hard to do. I could maybe set myself a schedule which includes blog work but I dunno.
If you're this interested in me that you've read this far with a lack of images which break it up, and you haven't seen me for a while, you may be wondering where I've been. Well, I had an operation this year to remove a benign brain tumour.
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| "Wanna know how I got these scars?" |
That's maybe a sudden thing to drop in. But I'm fine now and I can't be arsed to go into it because I've explained it so many times, I don't want pity, and this is long enough as it is. I do want everyone relevant to me to know though so I'm not asked "How are your exams going?" and either lie to avoid the explanation or have to explain it. Its not that its a harrowing story, it's just tedious to tell the story again. I'd much rather talk about something interesting or an event rather than myself. But it's hard to keep everyone on the same page without a Facebook post which gets pity. When you realise how lucky you are to not be receiving dozens of seizures a year, and that you're lucky enough to be sent to an 'Excellent' rated hospital (which is incredibly rare with all the cuts) you don't really want that much pity.
The only thing I am bothered about is resitting third year again next year. I don't mind stretching the university experience another year, but it'll be a shame not to be having the final exam experience that everyone else is having right now. And while there will still be a lot of people I know staying in Sheffield next year, it will also be a shame not regularly seeing the faces of friends who move away to the No Man's Land of The South. I suppose that's just what happens at university, just bar not actually attending it during my final year. But as Frank Sinatra sings, "That's Life". I have Parklife Festival to look forward to (anyone attending?) and I'm planning on travelling Southeast Asia next year with a friend. Any tips, or invitations to meet up if I haven't seen you in a while, are highly appreciated.
Happy Ramadan!
