My Secret Addiction

My name is A. C. R. and I'm a Daily Mail addict. It's taken me a while to admit it but I'm finally at that point in my life where I can say that yes, I am addicted to reading the Daily Mail. It started gradually, first I would just open their website occasionally when I was bored of studying and I wanted to enter the intelligence free zone that is their 'femail' section. But then I graduated to their general 'news' section where I was riveted by horror stories of benefit cheats, Muslim pedophiles and immigrant invasions. I hid my addiction well and no one knew of my secret shame. That was until one of my friends asked to use my computer and he noticed that when he typed the letter 'd' into the url bar the www.dailymail.co.uk was the first website to appear! Oh the shame!

But seriously, I cannot stop reading this scum of the earth newspaper/website. Journalism is my dream career but even if the Daily Mail offered me my very own highly lucrative starring column a la Samantha Brick or that even worse excuse for a writer, Liz Jones, I would say thank you very much but no fucking way. Not that I will ever be in the position to reject a job offer from the Daily Mail but I can quietly dream. Why do I hate the Daily Mail you ask? I will tell you why.

They are a pathetic excuse for journalism. They only write sensationalist hate-filled garbage in order to grab attention and make money. Their writers are professional trolls being paid to rile up the sheltered middle classes and the ignorant masses into a flaming orgy of rage and indignity. They are hypocrites at best and inciters of hate at worst. They decry the sexualisation of young girls, yet regularly post images of underage celebrities along side titillating headlines including over-used phrases such as 'growing up fast' and 'all grown up' (just search for 'chloe moretz' or 'elle fanning' on their site to see what I mean). They are unashamedly racist and bigoted towards Muslims and Eastern Europeans and use the term immigrant as if it's a dirty word. Ever since they found out that Romanians and Bulgarians will be allowed to enter the UK without restrictions, they have been running regular columns about the impending migrant invasion that will surely flood our shores with thieving gypsies and swarthy benefit cheats. Here's a few recent choice headlines on that particular topic:

"Romania says British ministers have agreed secret deal to ensure migrants receive benefits despite coalition claims of a crackdown"

"Romanians and Bulgarians snap up 175,000 jobs in the UK already... and that's before the borders have even opened"

"'They leave rubbish mountains taller than I am': Left-wing mayor of German town warns Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants have sent crime soaring (and they're heading for Britain)" - THIS IS THE WORST ONE! If you looked up the definition of 'fear mongering' in the dictionary it would read 'The Daily Mail'.

The Daily Mail hates immigrants in general but they reserve a particular kind of bigotry for Muslims. Here's a few fun headlines that I found after searching their site for the keyword 'Muslim':

"Muslim sex offenders could opt out of treatment because it's against their faith" - This fits in with their usual theme of 'Muslims get special treatment according to the law' which goes against all common sense. If Muslims get such special treatment, then why are they the only ones beings stripped of their citizenship by Theresa May??

"Proportion of young Muslim men in youth jails rises by more than a quarter as one in five offenders say they follow faith" - i.e. Muslims are criminals!

"Threat of up to two million Muslim terrorists, warns community leader" - i.e. they're coming for you!

"Shame of Britain's Muslim schools: Secret filming shows pupils being beaten and 'taught Hindus drink cow p***'" - This one is probably true, but in light of all the other sucky anti-Muslimness that the Daily Mail pedals, it's sort of like rubbing salt in the wound.


"Tory MP Kris Hopkins claims 'gangs of Muslim men are going round and raping white kids'" -  The Daily Mail absolutely loves the Muslim rape gangs story. This is like all their dream stories rolled into one. It involves sex, rape, pedophilia and evil Muslims so it's an absolute goldmine for them. These stories really do make me sick and there is no denying that there is an issue here, but I would like to note that rather than the Daily Mail (and general media) defining these gangs as 'British-Pakistani Rape Gangs' which would be a far more accurate description, they have instead decided to term them 'Muslim Rape Gangs'. Let's get real here, there are over a billion Muslims in the world today. A large proportion of Britain's Muslim population come from a massively diverse range of nations such as India, Malaysia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Bangladesh etc etc. But these 'rape gangs' are predominantly configured of men of Pakistani origin. So why did the Daily Mail decide to focus on their religion (which they are clearly not practicing even remotely correctly if they are having extra-marital sex, drinking alcohol and raping girls) rather than their much more specific country of origin? Hmm...

"How almost one in four people in the world are Muslim... and 1,647,000 live in Britain"- And what? Why is this news? How many Hindus are living in Britain? What about Scientologists? Eh? What are they trying to get at here? That we should be scared?

"One third of British Muslim students say it's acceptable to kill for Islam" - i.e. they're coming to kill you!

"All homosexuals should be stoned to death, says Muslim preacher of hate" - Ugh this guy again! They are talking about none other than Anjem Fucking Choudhary. Why is this guy constantly being quoted and interviewed? Imagine if every time they wanted the opinion of a white person, they were to interview the leader of the KKK. He's such a cliche. In fact, he is such a perfectly awful representation of a Muslim that I am convinced he was planted by MI5 in order to gain support for their anti-terrorist activities or some other evil scheme. Who knows!

"Guilty? It's a badge of honour say Muslim hate mob (and because we're on benefits, the state will pay our costs)" - This article is talking again about Anjem Choudhary's gang of pathetic antagonizers. It nicely combines the Daily Mail's two favourite scare tactics (people are stealing your benefits and Muslims).

"Muslim husbands with more than one wife to get extra benefits as ministers recognise polygamy" - see above!

"Mosque's plan to broadcast call to prayer from loudspeaker 'will create Muslim ghetto'" - Also see 'Muslim no-go areas'. This is the theory (and I use the term loosely) that there now exists these ghettos across Britain which are off-limits to good upstanding white British folk. I used to live in one of these so-called 'no-go areas' and I can assure you that I was never accosted for being white. I used to stroll past the local mosque on a regular basis and I never had a burqa thrust upon my head.

Oh Daily Mail, why all the hate? I would be here all day if I were to list all their favourite hate topics so let me just give you a quick overview. The Daily Mail hates all the following:
Single Mums
Fat Women
Black People
People Who Have Too Many Kids
Poor People
People Who Claim Disability Benefits But Can Really Walk Just Fine
Health and Safety Regulations
Public Workers
PC Gone Mad
The Labour Party
The Tories
The Lib Dems
Most Politicians These Days Except UKIP
People Who Sue Other People
Ugly Women
Wind Turbines
People Who Insult The Queen
Minorities in General
Women in General

But what really, really gets to me is that every time I visit this site and click on one of their god-awful articles I am paying them MONEY. I am inadvertently paying them to spew more hate. Must. Stop. Reading. Daily Mail!

How can you hate Bush yet love Obama?

This is something which has been bothering me for some time. Former US President George W. Bush has a terrible reputation in Europe ever since he initiated the Iraq war and began the 'War on Terror' which resulted in the unlawful extradition and torture of many foreign prisoners in American bases and Guantanamo Bay. From a purely anecdotal perspective, it would appear that amongst the 'liberal' or 'left wing' community in Europe and farther afield Bush is reviled and ridiculed. In contrast, current President Barack Obama was met with the Nobel Peace Prize upon his election and has been greeted by rapturous crowds of supporters during his state visits to various European nations (just check for a video of his visit to Ireland in 2011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp9wj22mZNg).

I understand that Obama is a Democrat and Bush was a Republican, but are people so blinded by those labels that they cannot see the real actions of Obama in the past couple of years since his election and subsequent re-election? If you are not aware of what I am talking about, let me show you a quick overview of Obama's 'accomplishments' since he took over the 'War on Terror' from Bush:

• When Bush left Office in January 2009 the US government had carried out just 45 drone attacks within Pakistan. Since Obama was first elected, the US has carried out 292+ attacks (see http://livingunderdrones.org/background-and-context/#_ftn33)

• This includes the 'double tap' method of striking the same spot twice after first responders and family members rush to the scene in order to retrieve bodies or tend to the injured (see http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/outrage-at-cias-deadly-double-tap-drone-attacks-8174771.html)

• Only 2 per cent of drone victims are known militants. Some of them are just people who might happen to 'look like terrorists' and any male casualty over the age of 16 is automatically considered a militant by CIA records (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/25/study-obama-drone-deaths)

• As of July 2012, there were 168 prisoners still in Guantanamo Bay (see http://www.reprieve.org.uk/publiceducation/guantanamostats/)

• There are still 66,000 US troops in Afghanistan to date (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11371138)

• Obama has personally ordered the execution of a US citizen and his 16 year old son without trial. Although I do not see personally much difference between the two crimes of executing Pakistani civilians without trial and executing an American civilian without trial, I am sure that this will strike a cord with those who still view Obama as a man of principle (see http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/a/anwar_al_awlaki/index.html)

• Although Obama promised to end the use of extreme rendition, there have been some recent notable exceptions to this promise. Examine the case of Mahdi Hashi, a British man of Somali descent who went missing in East Africa and somehow turned up at a US court facing charges of  engaging in terrorist activity with Al-Shabaab (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20833555).

This is just a short overview of some of Obama major failing in the years since he promised change. At the time of his first election, I was highly optimistic and over-joyed that the United States had finally elected a person of African-American descent. I would go so far as to say that Obama has created a cult of personality amongst his foreign fans which has shielded them from the facts. People should not assume that just because a leader carries the banner of a particular label such as 'liberal' or 'democrat' that they actually personally adhere to these principles. It may be disappointing or saddening to see a public figure whom you respect or admire, fail to live up to your expectations, but this does not mean that you should ignore the obvious. When it comes to the actions of his military abroad, Obama has blood on his hands.

Adventures in Islamabad

I wanted to make this mostly a 'news and politics' themed blog, but I thought it might be interesting for any discerning travellers out there if I included a piece on my recent trip to Pakistan. First, let me give you some context to my trip. I'm a white female in my early twenties and I travelled alone to Islamabad in the hottest part of the year in order to spend a few months with my in-laws. It was a little daunting to make the journey solo, but I had prior experience of this when I went alone to the Middle East so I was not too concerned with going through immigration control alone.

Before my trip, I was only slightly paranoid about the security concern of travelling to a place like Pakistan. My family were probably considerably more alarmed! My in-laws assured me that Islamabad had not experienced a suicide attack since 2008 and that once I am dressed in the local clothes, I blend in quite easily. I was doubtful of the latter, but nonetheless I bought a shalwar kameez (the tunic and loose pants style favoured in Pakistan) before my trip at one of the local markets near my house. The stall owner assured me this was the 'latest fashion', however I was to later discover that black shalwar kameez does not go down well in the extreme heat of a Pakistani Summer.

Security

The first thing I noticed about Islamabad was the heat and the smell. Everywhere smelled like vegetation and plants, which was surprising and lovely. The 45 degrees heat was not surprising and not lovely. It also became quickly obvious that Islamabad is a city on high alert when I had to pass through several armed checkpoints just to leave the airport. There were checkpoints all over the city, especially in the wealthy districts. Outside many of the bigger restaurants and shops I saw rather haggard looking security guards holding automated weapons. Even the street that I stayed in had it's own local security guard who would patrol at night and blow a whistle periodically, supposedly to reassure you he was still there and not kidnapped by the Taliban? It's funny how this can all seem quite normal very quickly.

Rawalpindi: The Yin to Islamabad's Yang

Islamabad is a planned city which makes it stand apart from most other Pakistani cities which are haphazard mazes consisting of unregulated buildings, markets, old and new structures, slums and compounds. Right beside Islamabad, is the twin city of Rawalpindi which is more like the latter kind of Pakistani city. I stayed in Islamabad but I spent a lot of time in the markets of Rawalpindi which was an adventure in itself. The streets are packed with cars and motorbikes trying to navigate through the chaos which often brings everything to a standstill. The markets are filled with people and motorbikes who often come flying down the narrow streets with little regard for people walking. There are beggars and transexuals hustling for money from the locals and many people who seem to be suffering from illnesses like polio and microcephalic birth defects. The beggars walk in the middle of the roads, often children, and attempt to persuade drivers to give them a few rupees before the lights change. Locals are obliging and seem to often give them money.

Rawalpindi is without a doubt, a city of poverty, in contrast to the city of nearby Islamabad. However, I never experienced any problems with crime or harassment while visiting the markets with my family. I dressed appropriately and to my surprise most people assumed I was either Pakistani or Afghani. In fact, the people I saw in Pakistan seemed far more diverse in appearance than the ones I see back home in the UK. I saw whole families with natural auburn hair, which although I had heard about before, I was still surprised to see red heads so far from home.

Here's a few shots I got of Pindi:

'Delhi Belly' Or Rather 'Islamabad Belly'

I was warned by everyone that I would probably get sick. However, I don't think I was psychologically prepared for the fact that I would be sick for the majority of my trip. My first tip for any potential travellers is NEVER drink water that did not come from a sealed bottle. My second tip is shower with your mouth closed. I made the mistake of following neither of these rules in the beginning, much to my regret. I mistakenly drank water that had come from a local filtration plant (supposedly clean) which gave me an upset stomach for most of my trip. It was explained to me that although the water is technically purified, it probably contained minerals that my body was not used to. I also showered and brushed my teeth unaware that I was probably consuming a delightful array of microbes and unusual bacteria. Right after I left Pakistan, I read a story about a water-borne 'brain eating amoebia' that went up your nose and killed you within 24 hours with no prospect of a cure. This made me realise the IMPORTANCE of avoiding any water source (and not forgetting the water used in cooking and ice served in drinks) that is not from a shop, in a bottle and sealed. Anti-biotics are available without prescription in most chemists so I could quite easily get my hands on them, although often the side effects of the medicine were as bad as the sickness itself. Flagyl gets a special mention there!

Food

Everyone asked me before I left, how will you handle the food? And I told them joyfully, I LOVE Asian food! Well let me tell you, 'Asian' food as you know it is not the same as the food you get in Pakistan. I'm not saying the food is bad, it can be amazing and delicious, but it can also be very spicy, very oily and difficult to tolerate if you are already suffering from a stomach bug. After a couple of weeks, I started to crave the bland carbohydrate rich food of home. I wanted fresh bread, pizza, chips and pasta so badly. I forced my very hospitable family to take me to every Western food chain in Islamabad -  KFC, Pizza Hut, Nando's... etc. But every time was disappointing. When I went to KFC they had run out of chips. I almost cried. When I went the Pizza Hut, the dough was made out of some sugary ingredients that only proved to be make me more sick than before. Nando's was actually okay. Not quite the same as back home but enough to stop me from going crazy. I used to be proud and slightly smug about my love of food from all around the world, but my experience in Pakistan has silenced me and I no longer brag about how much I love spicy food. After coming back home, it took me several months before I could even look at a curry again.

Electricity or Lack-There-Of

Usually the first thing I think of when someone asks me about my trip to Pakistan, is the electricity problem. Most people are actually surprised when I tell them that electricity is even a problem. After all, I was staying in the capital city, not a remote village. During the night time, the electricity switches off every second hour. This might not seem like a big deal if you are sleeping, but if you are depending on an air conditioner then it is actually quite a big deal. Most air conditioners do not switch back on automatically once the electricity is switched off. This means often waking up in the middle of the night drenched in your own sweat, desperately trying to find the remote control for the AC in the dark. During the day, the electricity also switches off periodically often for an hour at a time. This means that most shops have to rely on a petrol generator if they can afford it. I cannot imagine the havoc and expenses this must cause for businesses like restaurants which cannot interrupt their service during the day. I also wonder about families that are trying to store food in their home and do not have a generator.   And what about universities and colleges that rely on an internet service for hundreds of pupils throughout the day? I realised how much I took a reliable electricity supply for granted back home. It cut off my access to the two things I relied on most during my trip - the AC and the internet.

Cockroaches

I once had a cockroach problem back home in England. These little things would live inside the stereo system in my kitchen and periodically crawl out to eat crumbs off my counter. I thought this was the most disgusting thing possible. I was wrong. The cockroaches in Pakistan are about ten times bigger and they seem to be absolutely fearless. During my stay in Islamabad I went on a trip for a couple of weeks outside of the city. On returning back to the house, I discovered that the roaches had crawled up the unused drains in my absence and made my bathroom their home. There was about 12 of the creatures having a party in my shower, my sink and my floor. When I went to grab my towel so that I could take a shower in another bathroom, I discovered two of them living happily on my towel. I took a bug spray and I went rambo on the creatures, spraying them each until the can ran out. Some of them seemed to be impervious to the spray and worse yet, some of them would even come running towards me in defiance. These things were huge. On my last day in the country one of my family members said they saw a cockroach sitting on top of the alarm clock beside my bed. I spent several hours looking for the thing with no luck. I spent the night lying awake with my mouth closed, too afraid to sleep in case the cockroach would appear and try to crawl into my mouth. I think I may have contracted cockroach-madness at this point.

Just so you get an idea, here's a little one I met outside the house:

Over all, my stay in Pakistan was fascinating and enlightening. The people were very friendly and welcoming and I never feared for my safety, except maybe from cockroaches crawling into my mouth. While it might not be very culturally acceptable for a woman to walk alone in the city, I spent a lot of time with sisters in law in the markets and we never encountered any problems or restrictions. If you are going to travel to Pakistan it is important to make yourself aware of the local culture and respectfully adhere to the dress code. This does not mean that you MUST cover your head as a female, but it might be preferable to do so. In some places women do wear jeans and tight clothing, but this is usually confined to the more up-market wealthy districts. Although sickness is a problem, if you are prepared for the likelihood that you will get ill at some point and you are otherwise fit and healthy, then you will be okay. I would not recommend Pakistan as a holiday destination but for an experienced and open-minded traveller it would be one hell of an interesting trip. You definitely need to be prepared to cope with the heat and lack of electricity but if you are ready for these issues then it can be a very eye-opening experience.

Do you really live in a democracy?

Democracy is like capitalism - it might not work very well, but it’s the best idea we have at the moment. 

At first glance, it would seem that democracy represents at the very least, an attempt at freedom and equality. It is a greater step towards equality than an inherited monarchy represented by the descendants of a rich warlord who lived hundreds of years ago. And if you live in the west, you probably accept that you live in a country with a government that may not function as well as you would like it to at times, but at the very least it is a democracy.

Or maybe not? Ever since I was resident in the UK during their last general election, I started to have serious doubts about their method of selecting their future government.  I was a student at the time and I was concerned about a potential rise in fees and a change in the immigration rules. I had just completed an essay on ‘New Labour’ after which I had come to the conclusion that Labour were basically a watered-down version of the Conservative Party. I was against the privatization of state services, spending cuts and ineffective tax rates for the wealthy. I told my husband I would vote for the Liberal Democrats because ‘they seemed good’ (I was not very politically aware at this point) plus there was no other viable party in the (almost) two-party system at the time. My husband gave me a prophetic warning ‘a vote for the Lib Dems is a vote for the Tories!’ Unfortunately he was right – Labour lost, the Conservatives couldn’t get a majority and in the end they became buddies with the Lib Dems, creating the current coalition government. Shortly afterwards, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg recanted his vow to prevent a fee hike and lo and behold, student fees rose to 10,000 a year and I had to admit to my husband that I was so very wrong!

Some time later the coalition held the ‘Alternative Vote’ referendum. This might have changed everything. With a change in the voting system, it might have been possible for other parties to get a chance. I could have my pick of the Greens, the Socialist Workers Party or maybe if hell froze over, the UK Independence Party?! But this democratic utopia was not to be – the Tories successfully scared the voter away from AV with horror stories of the BNP winning future elections. I was not scared of AV. Without a change in the voting system, all I could see was a continuous line of Labour/Tory governments taking turns every couple of years. And now that the Lib Dems are thoroughly disgraced, this would seem to be the future. So is this really a democracy? Two parties with minor points of disagreement taking turns to win or lose every election?  An episode of South Park summed this up perfectly – it’s like trying to choose between a giant douche and a turd sandwich.

Britain is not the only Western ‘Democracy’ to suffer from giant douche/turd sandwich disorder. When the creators of South Park wrote that episode they were of course referring to their own United States of America. I might even argue that the situation in the US is slightly worse. There has never been a viable alternative to the two leading parties, unlike the Lib Dem situation in the UK.  And to make matters worse, their Republican Party currently looks more outlandish than Britain’s Monster Raving Loony Party. Throughout the US election last year, I spend a lot of time playing the ‘if I was actually an American and I had a vote’ game which is quite frustrating when you are not an American and you don’t have a vote. This seems quite unfair when you consider that almost everything the American government says and does affects the whole world. When an American votes, they are basically deciding which of their future presidents should bomb my friends and their relatives in far off places they probably cannot locate on a map. If they had voted for Romney, he probably would have started another war with Iran and continued drone strikes. They voted for Obama and he is probably going to start another war with Iran and is continuing drone strikes. The problem with American style democracy lies within its structure and method of election, in the same way that British democracy has also restricted its voters to a two party system.

But there is a second problem with both these systems. Today I was just reading a list of the world’s richest leaders according to their net worth. There were some unsurprising ones at the top i.e. the King of Thailand, the Sultan of Brunei and the King of Saudi Arabia. But then I noticed that David Cameron was on the list worth $47.9 million and Barack Obama at $10.1 million. I’m not sure why I was so surprised at Cameron’s riches, I knew he came from a rich family and like most of the Tory MP’s, he attended the prestigious school of Eton in his youth. Attending Eton seems to guarantee its students a life of wealth and power. Yet, in order to attend Eton, your parents must be able to pay the £32,076 fee per year.  This has created a direct route from wealth to power, through the connections formed at such prestigious schools and colleges. In the US, it is undeniable that in order to stand for election, you must be able to command vast amount of money. This money often comes from big donors who are willing to part with their cash in order to hold sway over the next leader. These countries may no longer be under the control of a monarchy, yet wealth still equals power. And this wealth is quite often (as is the case with David Cameron and America’s almost-president Mitt Romney) hereditary.

When you consider all these problems, it doesn't seem so outlandish to ask yourself, am I really living in a democracy? And if it's not a democracy then what is it? Monarchies and dictatorships seem like remnants of the past confined to 'developing' countries still struggling to gain control of their own governments. Maybe we need a new word for this current malignancy afflicting some Western governments. Pseudo-democracy? Democracy-lite?