Everything happens for a reason. Really?

It’s time for Justina’s night time reflections.

Whenever something happens, no matter whether it is a good or a bad thing (usually it is a bad thing) my parents always say ‘No worries, everything happens for a reason’, which lights up hope for oncoming things to get better in the future. It is nice to believe that whatever happens, life still holds in store some other, interesting opportunities. Is it true that everything has its reason to happen, though? It has never been proven, but at the same time I guess it feels like a great idea for a good, positive excuse for things that go wrong in life. I feel that it actually can be argued to be true; sometimes it seems like some situations have their own reason to be happening in our life.

Sometimes seeing a person for the first time in your life makes you feel like you are already ‘bonded’ with them. You don’t quite yet know who they are, but you know that you were meant to meet them, and you know that they will affect your life in some way. Maybe they will give you a little help? Teach you a lesson? Keep you going when everything turns against you? It definitely happened to me, at least once.

Of course, bad experiences are just as important as good ones. Making mistakes is the best way of gaining new experiences and even knowledge, which can be seen as an advantage. Well, maybe not in journalism. Making errors in journalism is bad! Bad, bad, bad! Let’s try not to make any of those. At the end of the day, the successes and downfalls create who you are and how you are seen.



How about war? What is the reason of war? So many people died and still die in the brutal Iraq war. I do disagree with the statement in this case. Very, very, very much! It would stupid to think that the reason for it could be that people will find a ‘real purpose of life’ when it finally finishes, if it ever will. People living there don’t even remember what peace means. All they get to see every day are men dressed in military uniforms, machine guns and some automatic weapons. All they feel is fear and all they have is hope which slowly wanes. War has no reason for giving so much pain to these innocent people. War has no reason to exist.

I am supposed to revise for my exams right now! Revising philosophy gives me too many thought in my head which then need to be typed down so they can stop playing on my mind, otherwise I will be getting distracted for the rest of the night.

I am relieved now. I shall go back to studying leaving you to express your thoughts :-)

Bye byee.

A Student Hero from Winchester University

A student has been hailed a hero after saving an 84 year old man from burning in a house fire that happened on Monday night.

A 20 year old Winchester University student- Edward Herbert, hurried to his neighbour's house across the road to get him out of the burning house after hearing a working smoke alarm.

The incident happened on Monday night, 7th December at 21:17, before Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service Control Room operators received a 999 emergency call.

Edward climbed the ladder to get to the top floor of the house, as the man was at the upstairs window.

The ladder wasn't long enough so Edward only managed to get an old man's head out of the window and decided to wait until firefighters and police arrived to rescue the man, who was then taken to hospital by South Central Ambulance suffering from smoke inhalation.

The hero declared: 'I just wanted to get him out of the house.' This is a very brave move, especially that he was risking his own life. He also said: 'He fainted on me twice, that was really scary, I thought the worst.'

Luckily, a member of the ambulance crew took care of him administering oxygen.

Winchester Fire Station Watch Manager Chris Roper, said:

'The alarm was raised by neighbours who heard a smoke alarm sounding. The fire, which was in the ground floor kitchen of the property, is thought to have started due to an electrical fault. The occupier was upstairs in his bedroom at the time. Fortunately neighbours heard the alarm sounding and dialled 999."

Edward Herbert, who saved an elderly man, said: I am definitely going to see him in hospital, bring some flowers and make sure he is alright.'

The police informed that the man is fine and with his family in hospital.

Qualified privilege

The Galloway case:

The Daily Telegraph lost the case after making serious defamatory allegations against George Galloway, including elements of malice with no Justification, comment or QP. The reason for losing the case was that journalists failed the ’10 point test’, mainly because the paper did not put all its allegations to Galloway for him to deny before the information was published.

Qualified Privilege is a type of defense again libel taken in defamation actions. It is also available in situations where it is considered important that the facts should be known in the public interests. There are two types of QP: Statutory qualified privilege and Common Law qualified privilege.

Statutory qualified privilege can be used in certain circumstances, such as court reporting, public and council meetings reporting and reports of police statements. The published report has to be accurate, fair and free of malice. There is also a requirement for Statutory qualified privilege which states that the matter published must be a matter of public concern, the publication of which is for the public benefit.

However, Privilege at common law can be applied in situations where the law protects defamatory statements that are untrue, for the convenience of the public. For example, it applies when a person makes a defamatory statement in the performance of legal, moral, or social duty to a person who has corresponding duty or interest in receiving it.

10 point test is another way of defence:

1.The case has to be serious- the more serious allegation, the more protection will be applied.
2.The nature of information
3.The source of information
4.The status of information
5.Evidence is essential
6.The urgency of the matter
7.A comment from the claimant is needed
8.The tone of the article- it has to be written in a balanced language
9.It has be to published immediately
10.A claimant has to have a chance to deny it.

Defamation

Law exists to protect the moral and professional reputation of the individual from unfair attack. My understanding of Defamation is legal declare for false statements of published facts about a person, which lover their reputation or make people think less of somebody without justification.

The following examples show how reputation can be lowered and therefore, when a statement becomes defamatory

•Exposes them to hatred, ridicule or contempt
•Causes them to be shunned or avoided
•Discredits them in their trade, business or profession
•Generally lowers them in the eyes of right-thinking members of society

The statement, however, can be protected by defence in libel law.

A statement to be Libel it has to include:
Defamatory,
An identified person who has been defamed
Publication to a third party.
It is quite similar to Slander, which is the type of defamation with no permanent record. Normally it's a spoken statement. It requires defamation and identification but NO publication to a third party. For example, it can be seen as a form of conversation.

The main defences:
•Justification- It must be true and it needs to be proved- then it can be seen as complete defence.
•Fair comment- it has to be an honest opinion based on fact. No malice should be included.
•Qualified Privilege- which is a specific protection against an action of defamation given in the first place to judges, lawyers, and witnesses in court cases.

Hospital Takes Action To Help Keep Viral Outbreak Contained

St Mary’s hospital has halted temporarily due to stomach flu outbreak affecting the hospital.

An increase in the number of cases of stomach flu being brought into the hospital from the community have made the hospital staff take the decision to postpone all planned non-urgent inpatient admissions for routine surgery, however clinically urgent surgery e.g. cancer and emergencies will continue as normal.

Due to trying to minimize the spread of infection, visiting times have been restricted and now essential visits can take place between the hours of 2-3pm and 7-8pm.

Therefore families and friends of patients are asked not to visit, if they have been unwell with either diarrhoea or vomiting in the past 48 hours due to the risk of passing an infection on to other people, until further notice.

Suspicious series of flashing incidents.

City dwellers in Sholing experienced a series of indecent exposures in the city, which took place between August 28 and November 11.

The police are still trying to investigate the suspicious cases that have been confirmed in at least four places and a man that has been seen by the public and who is also suspected to be involved in all of them.

The man who has been usually seen by mid aged women, was described as white in his late teens or early 20s of slim build and with brown hair.

All the cases happened during the daytime, when adults and children usually head off to get home after work and school, which suggests that the police don’t seem to be very responsive if the cases still happened after receiving 2 or 3 reports in different periods of time.

The first happened around 3.20pm on August 28 in Sholing valley off Anson Drive, when a 23-year old woman, who went for an afternoon walk to the park with her dog experienced a view of a man sat on a bench, exposing himself while staring at her for sometime.

Similar cases happened again in September 9 and October 31, when two mid-aged women saw a man mainly in the Sholing area, exposing himself.

The last reported incident happened on the Wednesday November 11 when a 14-year-old boy walking through Millers Pond saw a man naked from waist down committing an indecent act.

Police are now appealing for anyone with information about who the man maybe or who has been also flashed at to get in contact with them. They are asked to contact PC Rachel Gallimore at the Public Protection Unit at Shirley Police Station on 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY –COPYRIGHT

Copyright protects intellectual property, which is a residual right that everyone has not to have their work stolen and exploited by others. This right is protected in the same way as any other right. It can be seen as implemented to protect the creator of an original work. Copyright prevents plagiarism and unfair exploitation of a person’s work and allows the creator to commercially exploit his/her work. The owner of the copyright has the exclusive right in the UK to: make copies of the work; issue copies to the public; perform the work in public; broadcast the work on terrestrial and cable programmes; to adapt or translate the work.

Copyright states that everybody has a right to own their work; however, there is no copy right in ideas, news, facts, and information. It only applies to work that had been done.

If you write an article, or take a photograph you own the copyright to the work you have done. If someone buys a copy of your work, they can look at it or read it, but they cannot make copies of it. They can sell the copy they bought to another person, but they cannot legally sell copies they make.

Who owns the Copyright?

The very first owner of a copyright work created after 31 July 1989 is the author. However, in the case of work done in the course of employment- the employer is the owner.
The copy right can be assigned to the newspaper, or magazine but an assignment is not affective unless in writing signed in the copyright owner. The owner can license the publisher to use the work but if it is an exclusive licence this also must be in writing.

News Agenda for Daily Echo and BBC Radio 4

I have been extremely enjoying Practical Journalism sessions about News Agenda we have had for the last couple of weeks. Having in depth analysis of different types of newspapers was very interesting and gave me an idea of how they are really created and put together to attract readers’ attention. Our task for the last session was to make a presentation on News Agenda of given newspaper and radio station. My presentation was based on Daily Echo and BBC Radio 4. We were also asked to contact the marketing departments of the selected newspapers and radio stations obtain their advertising rates and the claims they make about the size and nature of their audiences. Luckily, Hana did the same thing as me, which was good enough as we could communicate and discuss both newspaper and radio station together. We decided to ring the advertising departments together (as we both had to do it anyway). I shall not talk about the most embarrassing thing that we did... Or shall I? I always knew that BBC advertise their own programmes to inform the audience about what’s coming next on the show, but thinking that, we didn’t realise that they didn’t carry any other adverts.. oops.. Silly geese we are- Or as I would say it- silly mooes, but it is just Justina’s Phrase- not commonly used by many people, but let’s not go into this now.

Anyway, I shall put my written analysis on News Agenda for BBC radio 4 and The Daily Echo

BANG



The Daily Echo is a local newspaper that covers the area of south-central Hampshire, including the city of Southampton. The newspaper's main offices are in the Redbridge area of Southampton, with district offices in Eastleigh, Winchester and Lymington. It is owned and published by Newsquest, which is the second largest publisher of local newspapers in the United Kingdom. They publish more than 300 newspapers, including 17 dailies.

The newspaper is politically neutral. It doesn’t really cover any political matters or Parliament issues and it doesn’t support any political party. The politicians are not the main aspects of news, in contrast to BBC Radio 4 news. An exception for this point is one of the sections of The Daily Echo’s news agenda called ‘Your views’, which contains reader’s stories and views. Gordon Brown is a very recent inspiration of public desire to write a short article for this local newspaper. Other than that- the newspaper doesn’t contain political global message. It, however, takes up affairs relative to the region they write about.

The Daily Echo’s major aspire is to bring an unbiased view of the latest, up-to-the minute news and sport from Southampton, Hampshire and The Saints. The main features covered in the newspaper are related to the local public, such as a story about five missing turkeys in Twyford or ‘a lucky Southampton hairdresser’ going off to Hollywood after winning tickets to see a movie. However, there are also more serious, worldwide features covered in news agenda, such as an educative story about the Polish death camp, Auschwitz. (Saturday, November 14, 2009, p.22) I believe it is extremely essential for everyone to know a little about the world’s history, especially this one, as it was probably the most horrific place of terror in the history of the world.

The target audience for the Daily Echo is very various. It includes both, men and women as well as children, teenagers and mostly families living in Southampton area, who are associated with the newspaper. It is conveyed through the variety of adverts on the front cover in a newspaper, such as on Friday 13th of November, the front cover included Wheels- motor section for men. An advert containing a chance of winning a trip to London for Christmas shopping tempts women audience to buy a copy. There is also an advert of fun, full of laugher pantomime called ‘Santa Clause and the return of Jack Frost’, which suggests an entertaining event for children and the whole family. The rate card shows that 51% of readers are men and 49% are women. The (almost) equality suggests that the reporters try to cover all different aspects of entertainment, including true, fascinating stories which will interest everybody.




BBC Radio Four is a UK radio station which broadcasts a large collection of spoken-word programmes. This includes news, drama, comedy, science and history features. Many of their slots are discussion based, centred around politics or arts.
One of the most significant things I noticed when analysing BBC Radio Four was the lack of music. This is probably the most influential factor on its target audience and demographics. Music is an important part of most people’s lives, as it a major way of entertaining and will tend to listen to the show playing their preferred style of music. BBC Radio Four hardly ever play music and when they do it is very specific to the particular topic being covered at the time. It is always old or classical. This suggests that you would only regularly listen for the discussions and topics they cover-a less educated person would have no need or desire to listen to the majority of topics covered on Radio Four.

The station has many topics geared towards a more mature audience. This is very apparent through all different time periods of BBC Radio Four. All the presenters possess that stereotypical accent of an educated person with the majority of their target audience being educated to certain standard. For example, on Saturday morning, the 14th of November, John McCarthy appears to talk to Jan Morris, who has been travelling and writing about her journeys for more than 50 years. John McCarthy talks to her about some of the individuals she has came across all over the world in that half century - rich and poor, renowned and obscure, friendly and unwelcoming. They reflected on the nature of travel and whether it is more about places or people. The conversation went on for 30 minutes.

The demographics of the radio are precise. My point about saying that is that regions with larger lower class communities and young people would not listen to BBC Radio Four. These sorts of areas tend to have people doing general industry jobs or not working at all. Statistics has shown these sorts of people listen to local radio stations, or stations which tend to play lots of music rather than discussion based more political stations.

All news is based around Politics, government, politicians and army. They tend to talk about The Guardian newspaper quite often, as well. I believe that having national and international in depth reporting, intelligent analysis and major breaking news from a global perspective is a fantastic business as it allows the target audience to enlarge. I would say this programme is good for immigrants as they can hear worldwide news rather than just the ones from the UK.

Code of Conduct

NUJ Code of Conduct is a set of relevant and useful guidelines and the main principles for journalists to follow during their reporting to make sure that they keep the profession and standards that are expected in the performance of their duties.

One common rule, or in fact, a matter of professional principle among journalists is to never reveal his/her sources of confidential information. If they do, they career will be tainted with mistrust. This journalistic ethical code secures a relationship with the public and provides protection.

Part of being a journalist is to face adversity and going against a law or code is sometimes the only way to tell the public the truth, but truth is what ultimately gains their trust and respect. Laws and codes are necessary to provide a benchmark for journalists to work from and maintain professionalism. Without them some journalists would lose sight of what fundamental principles they need to follow in order to behave responsibly. There are times when a journalist’s own instinct and ethical manner will maintain respect and trust of the public better than the codes. There are also instances when pressure, time and money prevent a journalist from maintaining those codes. Whatever the circumstances, the one rule that should be constant is that journalists are the eyes and ears of the public; their trust and respect should always take precedence.


Here is an up to date NUJ Code of Conduct from NUJ website:

A journalist:
1. At all times upholds and defends the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of expression and the right of the public to be informed
2. Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair
3. Does her/his utmost to correct harmful inaccuracies
4. Differentiates between fact and opinion
5. Obtains material by honest, straightforward and open means, with the exception of investigations that are both overwhelmingly in the public interest and which involve evidence that cannot be obtained by straightforward means
6. Does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest
7. Protects the identity of sources who supply information in confidence and material gathered in the course of her/his work
8. Resists threats or any other inducements to influence, distort or suppress information
9. Takes no unfair personal advantage of information gained in the course of her/his duties before the information is public knowledge
10. Produces no material likely to lead to hatred or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age, gender, race, colour, creed, legal status, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation
11. Does not by way of statement, voice or appearance endorse by advertisement any commercial product or service save for the promotion of her/his own work or of the medium by which she/he is employed
12. Avoids plagiarism.


I also found the Journalist’s Creed which I found quite interesting:

The Journalist's Creed is a code of ethics written around 1906 by Walter Williams (journalist)

1.I believe in the profession of Journalism.

2.I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are, to the full measure of responsibility, trustees for the public; that acceptance of lesser service than the public service is a betrayal of this trust.

3.I believe that clear thinking, clear statement, accuracy and fairness are fundamental to good journalism.

4.I believe that a journalist should write only what he holds in his heart to be true. I believe that suppression of the news, for any consideration other than the welfare of society, is indefensible

5.I believe that no one should write as a journalist what he would not say as a gentleman; that bribery by one's own pocket book is as much to be avoided as bribery by the pocketbook of another; that individual responsibility may not be escaped by pleading another's instructions or another's dividends.

6.I believe that advertising, news and editorial columns should alike serve the best interests of readers; that a single standard of helpful truth and cleanness should prevail for all; that supreme test of good journalism is the measure of its public service.

7.I believe that the journalism which succeeds the best-and best deserves success-fears God and honors man; is stoutly independent; unmoved by pride of opinion or greed of power; constructive, tolerant but never careless, self-controlled, patient, always respectful of its readers but always unafraid, is quickly indignant at injustice; is unswayed by the appeal of the privilege or the clamor of the mob; seeks to give every man a chance, and as far as law, an honest wage and recognition of human brotherhood can make it so, an equal chance; is profoundly patriotic while sincerely promoting international good will and cementing world-comradeship, is a journalism of humanity, of and for today's world.

The moral basics of democratic socialism

‘Man is born free, yet he is everywhere in chains’
‘To know one’s chains for what they are is better than to deck them with flowers.’

/Rousseau/

Romanticism has very little to do with things popularly thought of as "romantic," although love may occasionally be the subject of Romantic art and poetry. It is rather an international artistic and philosophical movement that redefined the fundamental ways in which people in Western cultures thought about themselves and about their world. The main aspects of Romantic age were freedom, equality and socialism. It states an idea of recreation against the Enlightenment where uniqueness of individual was established and beliefs in supremacy of emotions were very important.

Rousseau makes it explicitly clear in his writings, “The Social Contract and Discourses” that he believes strongly in personal freedom and autonomy. Rousseau believed that a truly free government is one where everyone votes, every citizen. Rousseau argues that by everyone surrendering his or her rights to the sovereign equally they maintain freedom. He believes man has the most freedom in the state of nature, but because man has the ability to rationalize and the desire to be social, he must enter a social contract with others in order to have a free and equal society.

Aristotle and Hobbs, believed that no men are by no means equal naturally, because some of them are born for slavery. This contrasts Rousseau’s views. He argues in a chapter ‘Slavery’ that all men are naturally free and nobody should be authorized to have power over another human being, he says ‘No man has a natural authority over his fellow’. This, however, matches up to John Lock’s Natural Rights, in some way.
I think the most interesting thing I observed in his book is that he views family as the most ancient and natural society. He argues that until children need their parents, the bond between them in strong. But nothing can be changed when children desire independence and they leave to find their own way. He says’ Even if he could alienate himself, he could not alienate his children’. His idea of freedom is expressed in a clear way. He explains that even if they are your children, they are still free and you can’t own their liberty.

Let’s be free.

Everything changes

As the time goes by, you and everything about the world you live in changes. You are not the same person as you were a couple of years ago. You grow, mature. Your outlook about life is different as you learn new things through the education, environment and significant others. The inventions around are changing, too. I believe that main aspect that helps everything change is growth of technology.

In terms of Journalism, it has been going through several major technological changes during the past few decades. The print revolution started with the invention of printing by Johann Gutenberg in the fifteenth century. In his workshop, he brought together the technologies of paper, oil-based ink and the wine-press to print books. The printing press is not a single invention. It is the aggregation in one place, of technologies known for centuries before Gutenberg. Journalism then differed to what it is like now.

Before the birth of the Internet, newsrooms largely consisted of reporters and editors who relied on the conversations they had with people and the pen and notebook in their hands. There was no such thing as cameras and recorders in the newsroom. The heart of the story came from within the writer based on the questions they asked and their style of prose. Computers were big and simple and so were the programs on them. Graphic design was only just starting to get off the ground and online publications were unheard of. Today, we can get all different types of Dictaphones and tiny cameras, which will fit in a pocket, just to make the interview and then article writing easier and quicker. Back in a day, there wasn’t such thing like Microsoft Word to check spelling mistakes and grammar, so Copy Editors had to spend ages checking the articles and making sure there were no mistakes in them. Today it can be done within a very short period of time.

The expectations are changing for readers and viewers. Print publications are expanding their viewer ship to the web. Along with the story that one could read in the paper, a short video is included with the story online. Young reporters are learning how to use handheld cameras to produce these videos and video editing software is being installed on the once archaic newsroom computers.

Technology makes it so much easier for journalists to go off and write a good story to sell. Travelling and communication aren’t an issue these days either like it used to be. Instead of walking or using a horse as a quick way of communication between villages, people can get all different sorts of travel sources, such as cars, buses, taxies, even hot air balloons.


I wonder what technology will do with the world in a dozen years.

Football Time

Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club due to not doing well in the Premiership last season decided to change their manager. We had an opportunity to have a chat with Keith Johnson- a new manager of the football team- about his future intensions to make the team succeed this season.

It has been a big move in Keith’s career, as he says ‘not many people are the Premiership managers’. Before he became a Wolverhampton Wanderers’ manager, he worked for Blackpool Football Team, which at the time wasn’t a very good football team. However, Keith’s intensive trainings and good tactics kept the team up, which was very impressive, giving Keith a better reputation that got him promoted. However, rather than being it a dream job, it is a big opportunity for him to became a manager for England team if he succeed- which is his dream. He is well-know from being a hard player for England team. Keith was a team leader in his previous football experiences, which clearly shows that back in the time he gained his management skills, which can help him, get the team up from the bottom of the Premiership. His hard attitudes towards football have changed and he expects his players to be more creative determined to success.

We asked Keith about the team’s strengths.
‘The biggest team’s strength is that they get on making a good atmosphere around them.’ Team cohesion is very important in terms of success. It is very important to have a common goal and determination to achieve it. The common goal in this case is to stay in the Premiership, which I don’t think will be difficult if everybody will keep to Keith’s plan, which indeed is intensive, but definitely will take them to the top. The main points of the plan are: ‘No drinking, no partying, hard work’

We hope Keith can satisfy the team’s needs and help the players keep their team in the Premiership for a long time.

Broadsheets-The case of The Guardian

The Guardian is a national broadsheet newspaper with a rich and colourful history. The paper is perceived as liberal, middle-class, regional, and metropolitan. The newspaper originated in Manchester, where it was founded by John Edward Taylor in 1821. The Manchester Guardian, the broadsheet’s name at the time, was highly influential during the great reform movements of the nineteenth century. Still today, The Guardian continues offering a crucial and independent forum for those in the country who enjoy debate. The Guardian Media Group, which owns the newspaper, boasts a level of continuity that no other national daily newspaper can equal.

The first edition was published on the 5th May 1821. At this time The Manchester Guardian was a weekly newspaper, which was published only on Saturdays. The Stamp Duty on newspapers forced the price up so high that it was uneconomic to publish more frequently. The newspaper was allowed to be published daily in 1855, when the abolition of Stamp Duty on newspapers permitted a consequent reduction in cover price.

The most famous editor- Charles Prestwick Scott- made the newspaper achieve national and international recognition. The editor held the post for 57 years starting from 1872. When Scott was in charge, the paper's moderate editorial line became more radical, supporting Gladstone when the Liberals split in 1886, and challenging the Second Boer War against popular opinion. Scott bought The Guardian in 1907- after the death of Taylor’s son.



The ownership of the paper was relocated to the Scott Trust (named after John Russell Scott) in June 1936. Scott was the first chairman of the Trust, the British organisation owning The Guardian Media Group and The Manchester Guardian newspaper. The relocation ensured the paper's independence and it developed an eccentric style. It was then well-known for its moralising and its detached attitude to its finances. Traditionally, The Guardian earned a national reputation and the respect of the Left during the Spanish Civil War by being affiliated with the centrist Liberal Party, and with a northern circulation base.

In 1959 the paper decided to remove "Manchester" from its title, becoming simply The Guardian. In 1964, the editor of the paper moved it to London. This occurrence caused the loss of some of the paper’s regional schedules. However, it continued to be heavily subsidised by sales of the less high-brow, however much more profitable, Manchester Evening News. Shortly afterwards financial problems came to a head.

Finance was one of the reasons for The Guardian’s move into London. The Guardian’s position dramatically improved due to the investment in printing and the completion of a move to improved offices in London in 1976. It was also supported by an expansion programme that included the revamping of the Guardian Weekly to include content from both the Washington Post and Le Monde. In 70s and early 80s the political climate became increasingly polarised and the Guardian's position as the voice of the left remained unchallenged.

Seize The Day

Carpe diem- two little words which are probably the most important aspects of the philosophy of Epicurus, but also the main idea of a poem written by a Roman poet Horce to express positive feelings about enjoying life and treating every single day as if tomorrow will never come, but never think about it in a negative way. It is probably the shortest and most popular motto used by many people to make them feel stronger and more independent. This is definitely my favourite motto which I tend to use often.

Epicurus was a Greek philosopher who left a great idea of optimism. His philosophy conveyed the ultimate conviction that individuals can live in a serene happiness, fortified by the continual experience of modest pleasures. His ultimate goal was to live easy, enjoyable and comfortable life, far from everyday troubles. He clearly wanted to explain that people can do whatever they would like to. They can get whatever they desire, if they appreciate every day and take every chance that life can provide to help make their dreams come true; therefore it means living one day at a time and not regretting anything. The ultimate goal for him is simple and short: go for fun and avoid bad sensations.

Why should we appreciate every day, making it the best day of our life, not regretting anything we do?

I think Horce tried to give us an idea of how short life is and that we should make the most of it when we can. Life isn't as easy as it used to be. Growth of technology has its positive and negative effects, indeed. However, war and technology have always been linked very closely. After all, without technology, except for the form of sticks and stones, man’s ability to kill his own kind is extremely limited. From the very first day that technology was introduced to war, its impact has helped shape the latter. Flint-made daggers and spears, and leather or wickerwork shields, did quite as much to shape the tactics adopted by ancient societies as horses did during the middle ages and as tanks, aircraft, and various combat ships do today. They determined, for example, whether formations would be close or open, deep or shallow, rigid or lose. Other technologies determined how far different units comprising a single force could get away from each other without losing touch; therefore playing a critical role in strategy. Technology also helped determine which kinds of formations were most suitable for fighting with enemies, in what kind of terrain, under what kind of circumstances, and so on. It's clever in some way, but I wish it hadn't happened.

Recently, in the newspapers, such as The Guardian and The Times, I have read about two car bombings in central Baghdad. It killed at least 90 people and 265 have been injured. This terrible occurrence took place yesterday morning and has officially been admitted as the biggest attack in the past two months. The target of terrorists was a government area which is north of the fortified Green Zone, hitting the Justice Ministry as well as the seat of the Baghdad provincial administration, which is 500 meters away. The Times said 'There were so many wounded that even civilian cars were pressed into service to bring the casualties to local hospitals.'

I can't believe how terrible it is. This definitely breaks John Locke's rules of natural rights to live, liberty and property, giving a feeling of hatred and disgust to the ones who hate and kill innocent people who weren't ready for death and didn't deserve to die. How can a human being take away somebody's, who is completely innocence, life? This should never be allowed in the modern world. The war has always been a 'dirty biological battle' which never ends, especially in places such as Iraq.

Therefore....

CARPE DIEM.

Poland in Enlightenment

Poland is one of the biggest country of Eastern Europe with established democratic administration, rich history and a great cultural and intellectual heritage but also wonderful countryside, fauna and flora.
The date of official establishment of the country is identifiable for 699 when the monarch Mieszko I adopted Christianity. Poland became a Kingdom in 1025. For the most part of its history The Republic of Poland was an independent, multi-ethnic and multi-confessional country.
However, the country lasted till 1795 when the land was divided between three countries: The Kingdom of Prussia, The Russian Empire and Austria. Poland became independent again in 1918 after the First World War.
This is a tiny bit of history of Poland for you.
The Enlightement
To understand the natural world and humankind's place in it solely on the basis of reason and without turning to religious belief was the goal of the wide-ranging intellectual movement called the Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment in Poland is very interesting. It's a period of reformation when Polish literature and culture mature and blossom, bringing many intellectualists, philosophers and artists who bring about new history and culture into the country. The period starts in 1740. It includes Regnal Years of the last king of Poland- Stanislaw August Poniatowski (1764-1795)
Many writers, poets, politicians and also people interested in science were mainly known as ‘enlightened’ clergymen. A very important intellectual horizon emphasises a fight to ‘fix’ the country and to re-establish the right dimension of patriotism which was weakened during the annexation. The artists’ culture-forming role was expressed in a way that by extract the thoughts of European rationalism and criticism which was coming to Poland from Germany. This helped them to find the way in creating work which was original AND polish.

A famous reformer of education and a brilliant political writer, Stanisław Konarski, who taught at the Collegium Resoviense in Rzeszów from 1736, in 1740 he founded the Collegium Nobilium- an elite Warsaw school for sons of the gentry. He founded the first public-reference library on the European mainland in 1747 in Warsaw. Thereafter, he reformed Piarist education in Poland, in accordance with his educational program, the Ordinationes Visitationis Apostolicae. His reforms became a landmark in the 18th-century struggle to modernize the Polish education system.
At the time a very important role in Polish culture had two brothers Andrzej Załuski and Józef Załuski, who established the first in Europe public liberary.

Ideas of that period led eventually to one of the greatest achievements of Poland, the Constitution of the 3rd May (1791) It was the second-oldest world constitution. There were also other reforms, like the creation of the Komisja Edukacji Narodowej- first ministry of education in the world, which attempted to transform the Commonwealth into a modern constitutional monarchy.
Although attempts of political reform were let down by the civil war- Targowica Confederation- and military intervention of the Commonwealth neighbour, ending in the partitions of Poland, the cultural impact of that period persevered Polish culture for many years.
The ideas of the Polish Enlightenment had also significant impact abroad. Poland experienced a large output of political, particularly constitutional writing. Thomas Jefferson put his attention upon some of this literature after it was widely and carefully discussed in France.


It seems like I've said a lot about Polish Enlightenment, but there is still a lot to say.

Hope you enjoy it!

Speak soon!

Philosophical Liberalism

Liberalism is not easy to describe, much less to define. There is no doubt that it is directly related to beliefs in the importance to individual freedom. In the period between the Reformation and French Revolution it was known as 'a new philosophy with an idea of social initiative and social control surrendered to the idea of an individual initiative and individual control.' It has a wide importance in the world history as the belief had been recognized and accepted by many philosophers. Early liberalism was optimistic, energetic and philosophic, because it represented growing forces which appeared likely to become victorious without great difficulty and to bring by their victory great benefits to mankind.

Liberalism had its origin in England and Holland. It stood for religous tolerantion and it was Protestant. Liberalism valued commerce and industry. Rather than making raise the monarchy and all the aristocracy it favoured the raising of middle class. There was a belief which put an emphasis upon the importance of education as opposed to congenital characteristics. This belief states that all men are born equal, and that their subsequent inequality is a product of circumances.

There was a bias against government because they were in hands of kings and aristocracies. They hoped that it would all change and the understanding and respect would be accepted.
In the 17th Century, liberal ideas began to influence governments in Europe. Countries such us The Netherlands, Switzerland, England in Poland were strongly opposed, often by armed might, by those who favoured absolute monarchy and established religion.

Is Liberalism Individualism?

Meanwhile individualism had penetrated into philosophy. Decrates' fundamental certainty 'I think therefore I am', made his basis of knowledge different for each person, since for each the world starts with his own existence, not that of other individuals or of the community.

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)is identified as the most important direct antecedent of modern individualist philosophy. In his Leviathan, Hobbes approved to all individuals natural liberty, as well as equality on the basis of which they are licensed to undertake whatever actions are necessary in order to preserve themselves from their fellow creatures. Hobbes believed that the exercise of such natural liberty logically leads to unceasing conflict and unremitting fear so long as no single sovereign ruler exists to maintain peace.

In contrast to Hobbes, Locke maintains that the natural condition of individual proprietorship can be maintained tranquilly because human beings are deemed sufficiently rational that they can and do generally constrain their free action under the terms of the laws of nature.

Court Reporting

The lecutre on Media Law was very interesting today. It gave me an idea of how The Court Reporters work. They play a critical role not only in judicial proceedings, but also at every meeting where the spoken lanugage word needs to be presrved as a written transcript

The Court Reporters can start reporting only if the case has been ACTIVE. The case is not active when the person gets arressted with no evidence. In this case the person can be kept by the police for 24 hours, unless the person becomes charged by the police which means that the case becomes ACTIVE. This is when the reporters can start writing about it. They can write anything that has been said in the Court but only if the judge is present. Sometimes written accounts of spoken language is necessary for correspondence, records, or legal proof, and court reporters provide those accounts

We focused on different types of crime. For anyone to be convicted of a criminal offence, guilt must be admitted or must be proven in court.
There are three main types of crime:

1. INDICTABLE-only offences, which are the most serious crimes, punishable by the longest prison terms. Examples for this type of crime would be murder, rape or robbery.

2. Either-way offences- such charges can be dealt with either at a Crown court or at a magistrates court. A magistrates can decide whether a particular case is a serious one which needs to be dealt with in Crown court, or if thr magistrates can deal with it

3. Summary offences are very minor ones comapre to the other two. Good examples for those are common assult, drunkenness. These are also relatively easy to deal with.

There are two types of magistrate- lay magistrates and district judges. Their main role is to deal with the majority of criminal court cases, however, because they have limited powers to sentence in the event of a convinction, the most serious cases go to the Crown courts.

It all seems to be pretty complicated, but once you get the main idea, it seems to be straightforward. We are supposed to go to a court in Winchester and sit there for an hour to see what it all looks like. It might be quite weird but I can't wait to see it! It will be so much easier to understand how it all works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOBs25_g23s

This look crazy!


Speak soon!