I haven’t written for a LONG time. An article in today’s MediaGuardian has changed that. Sir Ian Blair has criticised the media for being institutionally racist in their reporting of crimes. Naming several high profile case as support for his statement he said:

We do devote the same level of resources to murders in relation to their difficulty. What the difference is, is how these are reported. I actually believe the media is guilty of institutional racism in the way they report deaths.

I don’t always agree with Sir Ian Blair, but on this, he is spot on. Aside from Damilola Talyor, and more recently Anthony Walker, the mainstream media devotes less time to ethnic victims of crime. Those two cases were ironically viewed as important by the national press, because the media associated them with Stephen Lawrence’s death which, following a police bungle of the investigation led to the McPherson Report, led to the police being defined as institutionally racist.

31-year-old lawyer Tom ap Rhys Price was murdered on Jan 12 near Kensal Green station, NW London recently and recieved media focus. Balbir Matharu in contrast did not. He was killed on the same day in north-west London - dragged to his death behind his car by thieves who had tried to steal his £70 car stereo. No-one has even been arrested for this latter crime against the 54-year-old Asian father of two, while Rhys Price continues to dominate coverage following the charging of 2 people.

The tabloids paint the starkest picture of the racial bias - Rhys Price was mentioned in 98 articles, while Matharu was covered in just 14. The Media as the fourth estate, is well aware of how their coverage motivates people to approach the police with intelligence on crimes. Their silence is unacceptable.

Referring to the lawyers murder, their was a media outcry, with several articles and shows dominated with white middle-class commentators sanctioning the carrying of weapons to protect themselves. They believed that Rhys Price’s murder was the turning point, and signified that it may be better to risk being stopped by the police that to be caught unarmed by a hoodie mugger. Several years ago, my friend’s 15-year-old brother was stabbed to death outside his school, after just finishing his last GCSE exam, by a fellow 11-year-old pupil. Do the commentators, who suggest the carrying of weapons from comfortable studios across the country, sympathise then with many other boys at the same school, who feeling unprotected and unrecognised may choose to protect themselves? How about 23-year-old men who actually reside within no-go-areas they refer to? The answer no, but the immediate question is: why?

Because they see themselves as distinct from the black working-class? Because they react only to their majority audience? In either case, minorities have zero hope of representation.

The present situation is a case of the pot calling the kettle racist. Both the media and the police have an impartial job to do. The police seem to have rectified some of their institutional failings. While numbers of black police officers are growing, i wonder whether the same is true of ethnic minorities in news media.

Sir Ian Blair is right. The media are racist, but like the pre-McPherson Met, may not even realise fully or even accept the charge. That must change.

My hosting company’s server was brought down mid-week, due to a barrage of spam comments. If that wasn’t bad enough, when i upgraded to Wordpress 1.5, my customised templates broke under the pressure (and are proving tricky to sort out), meaning that the redesign i was ‘going to get around to’ has been bumped up my to-do list. So, for a while - and for the first time - i’ma use a off-the-shelf theme.

There will be a very cramped, very hot space in hell reserved for all of these spamming mal-advertisers. I have decreed it…

An alternative take on Genesis 3 (via 1 | 2)

A woman bakes a batch of cookies for a party. She warns her twins, aged 3, to not eat any. Read the entire entry …

What an ingenious way to piss off Mugabe! (and any other government for that matter)

An as yet unidentified group is scrawling protest slogans on Zimbabwe’s banknotes. I’m wondering what message i would write on the crisp Bank of England notes temporarily nestling in my wallet:

“Previously used by a large, naked terrorist/freedom-fighter to purchase munitions”

“Used to snort 5 lines in a gay bar” - 99% of all notes in London have traces of coke on them.

“Stolen from an unsuspecting granny. Violently”

“Indirectly made from the blood of small-scale, unknown Chilean farmers”

“LOST. If found return to nosa for a reward”

“You could use this note to purchase a sexual favour. I did!”

“Shouldn’t you be giving this to the Tsunami fund?”

“Is it worth it?”

“Bill Gates has billions of these. If you laid them all end to end, they’d stretch 1 1/2 times around the Earth”

“Gift of the BNP”

What would you (risking imprisonment if found) write?

wow. Wow. WOW. WOW. What a period.

Total Fatalism. Total Altruism. Fear. Hope. Despair. Faith. Belief mixed with explicable but unimaginable sights. What a period!

This Christmas for - me at least - has been nice and pleasant, in a way. Speaking to many people though before the 25th, their main concern was Jan 1st and what was to follow.

I’ve heard many stories of hope and belief on our final descent into 2005 interspersed with fears and unsurety. Meanwhile, i guess my personal hopes for positive changes to my life have to an extent consumed my thinking. So, although i have been determined to live out 04 in a quite nihilistic, hedonistic manner - culminating in a huge binge on New Year’s Eve - my spirit hasn’t completely followed my mind. As always i swing between ‘there must be more’ and ‘this is it’.
Read the entire entry …

Saturday TV is usually crap. However, this morning due to a rather strange dream - in which i left a backstreet in Lagos by dilapidated cruise ship, and had an altercation with a passenger over my digital camera somewhere between an allotment boundary line and the centre of the Atlantic (don’t ask) - i woke up clammily, deciding that it was unlikely that i could squeeze out any more useful slumber before my football cup-game this afternoon.

Straight away on BBC1 there were the vivid colours, shaky camera, quirky noises and overexcited sketches that can only be associated wth children’s TV. But instead of my usual “this is crap compared to when i was a kid, with Philip Schofield and Gordon the Gopher and the 01 811 8055 jingle” i watched and proceeded to wet myself with laughter. The guys who present the “Dick and Dom in da Bungalow” show have screws loose in all areas of their brain, resulting in the quirkiest, most hyper, nonsense i have seen since C4’s “Metrosexuality”.

Oh, to be a kid! I’d have been awake since 6 this morning. Kneeling, or sitting cross-legged in front of the ‘idiot box’ in my jim-jams soaking up the cartoons. It seems, my only ambition at the time was to stay awake for as long as possible. Ignorance of the adult reality that beckoned me was so blissful.

You preferred Kerry’s statements 67% of the time You preferred Bush’s statements 33% of the time Voting purely on the issues you should vote Kerry Who would you vote for if you voted on the issues? Find out now!

HELP ME! I’m 33% Bush! Also, the fact that i’m 67% Kerry, means that i am 100% owned by the America business community. I just thought of the worst ‘joke’ of all time: What do you get when you cross a chimp and a flip-flop? Actually, do you know what…i’m not even going to give it its horrendous punchline…it just isn’t right/funny/big/clever.

Walking through Harlesden today, i saw a lady preaching God’s word with all the force that her middle-aged lungs could muster. Observing the traffic swirling around the pedestrian island she was standing on, she looked like a nutter let loose for lunch in rush hour - spitting out her phrases to an unseen audience as though there was an invisible race underway. Very few people paid any attention to the echoey ramblings pouring out of her loudspeaker, but she continued anyway, slowing down occasionally, but never completely stopping.
Read the entire entry …

As Mr. Haile Gebrselassie loses his Olympic title - and probably a large amount of morale - scraping in at fifth in his 24-lap, 10,000-meter finale, i wonder what it must feel like to know you are on the way out. At 31, the greatest distance runner ever, isn’t exactly over the hill. But the flame of his life’s work was finally eclipsed by the youthful, outstanding brilliance of Bekele; the 22-year-old Ethiopian who upgraded Gebrselassie’s World record by over 2-seconds a few weeks back.

From this moment onwards, Haile can only talk of his achievements in past tense. Moreover, like an old champion boxer, enduring a grimacing, pained conclusion to his final bout, a flailing fifth was not the ideal way to go out. Style - although not everything - counts for something.
Read the entire entry …

One day i might be this honest. But for now i’ll keep reciting IF and hope for the best.

For a while now, i’ve been treading that thin line between self-critique and mentally kicking myself in the balls to disable whatever scrap of motivation i have had left. I’m aware that words are weapons and do make a difference, but being a cynic converts most of the positive phrases into a highly efficient form of friendly-fire. Ask me what i’m doing at any time of the day, and it’s likely - like Jim Carrey in Liar, Liar - i’ll look at you with an annoyed and frustrated look, shouting “I’m kicking my ass!” Time’ll tell whether i win or not.