Southampton Solent Food & Dining Society

One of my house mate's, Kaylee, is setting up a new food society at University this year, she's been busy making arrangements the past couple of weeks and now plans are coming together. I'm excited to be involved with the plans and over the next few weeks in the run up to freshers we will be launching a food society blog which is going to be my responsibility. At Southampton Solent University there is a range of different societies available for it's students to join ranging from cheerleading to photography to football. However the biggest range of societies are naturally sports societies but what happens if you aren't in to sports and you just want to learn some new things whilst meeting people and enjoying your self? Well what happens is, you join the new food society.

Everyone loves eating and drinking right? The food society is going to hold cooking classes held by professionals for it's member to attend, linking with healthy eating and organic growing. There will be various exciting trips (details of the first trip are being looked in to) and every month the group will meet for a meal at different restaurants around Southampton and will review their experience and the food during their visit, the review will then be written up and published on the societies blog. As well as this the society will have a partnership with one of the local bars where they will hold a social every week and receive discounted drinks and food and enjoy a great night out!

The society is still in it's early days of planning and arrangements are being sorted for our stall at the freshers sports and societies fair where we will be recruiting new members on September 29th in the Quad at Solent University. If you think you might be interested then take a look at the facebook group and the event page for the fair and keep checking for any updates. It's going to be very exciting and we hope to get involved with loads of different things so make sure you get to the sports and society fair during freshers.

London Riots

"There are people in 3rd world countries starving to death & our youth are nonsensically destroying local businesses and homes without reason."

Paloma Faith tweeted this during the absolutely disgusting behavior that was going on in areas of the UK last night. To me she voiced exactly how I felt, there are so many people in other countries suffering because of the conditions they are forced to live in when Britain's youth of today are causing suffering in our country for no real reason. What is wrong with them?  Areas of London and Birmingham were affected last night and I woke up to news this morning that there were even disturbances reported in Bristol, Nottingham and Liverpool and where I am in Southampton, Hampshire police were on stand by for any disturbances which had been rumored through social networking such as facebook, twitter and blackberry messenger.

This map shows the areas of London that have seen disturbances over the last few days, mainly last night however:

                       To view this map in full Click Here

Yesterday evening, I sat with my flat mates watching the havoc unveil on the BBC, one of my house mates was watching his home town go up in flames, Croydon was one of the areas of London which was badly attacked. We sat and watched in absolute shock, I couldn't understand what the hell was wrong with people. We felt anger rise and we shouted at the television, at the footage of the mindless violence coming from the youths of today. Cars were set on fire, buildings went up in flames, windows smashed and the looters were taking all they could from businesses. We watched these people in gangs attacking shops and running away with armfuls of clothes, electrics, anything they could get their hands on. A clip even showed a women try on some trainers to check they fitted - before she stole them. What also shocked me was the disregard towards the police, things were thrown towards police officers, yobs attacked them verbally and physically. It's disgusting, the police are their to protect us why fight them?

Do they think they are cool? Do they think they are achieving something? Will they look back when they are older and think, damn we did good? The fact is, the young people involved are thugs, they are horrible little people that have absolutely nothing going for them. They will grow up with criminal records, they will gain no respect, they will have nothing to live for and why is that? Because people that have no regard for other people on such a scale of this deserve nothing from society. In my opinion people like that need to be drowned or hit by large vehicle or something similar. Can you imagine setting alight someones house, just because you can? Just think of all of the lives that these young yobs have destroyed. I can't quite describe the anger that builds inside of me when I think of all the people that thought it was just a bit of fun, what is wrong with these people?

  

Street in Hackney (Image: The Sun)

                    A women jumping to avoid fire in Croyden (Image: The Sun)
                 
Think about all of the old people, they must be terrified. All of this going on, on the streets and what can they do to keep themselves safe? What if a brick flies through their window? What if a gang raids their house? What are they going to do? They must have been so scared. Similarly what about all the families with young children, what can you do when all of this is going on, on your doorstep? It scares me and I'm not even there. My heart goes out to all of the people that are just trying to live their lives but are getting caught up in they mayhem across London and other major cities.

Of course their was a reason that all of this begun. Last week police shot dead suspected gangster and father of 4 Mark Duggan, in Tottenham. The bullet went right through him and although the police shot at him twice only one shot hit him. It was thought that he had fired at them first but it is now unclear as to what happened. Family and friends of the 29 year old took part in a peaceful protest in Tottenham which very quickly grew out of hand and before police knew it they had a full blown riot on their hands which as we all know as escalated ever further and last night was totally out of control. It may have started with people standing up for what they believe in and defending the man that police correctly or incorrectly shot but I think it's obvious now that those involved don't really care, they are opportunists and the idea of creating mayhem and stealing from smashed up and burning shops seems like an excellent night of fun. They have no reason to take part other than the fact that they can, and I think that says a lot about the sort of people they are.

                Smashing in a jewelery store window in Birmingham (Image: The Sun)

         Cars set on fire in Ealing (Image: The Sun)

It has been suggested that social networking such as facebook, twitter and BBM have played their part in the organisation of the riots. Today's technology allows communication within an instance and messages become viral within seconds, providing the medium to organise gangs to meet and to take part in the mindless violence that plagued London last night. People like myself however, used it to keep up to date with what was going on, to post messages of support, anger, disgust and to keep an eye on disturbances a little closer to home. Last night Hants Police were tweeting about rumored disturbances in Southampton which thankfully mounted to nothing but they were so informative that at least we knew they were there and they were keeping an eye on what was going on. I wonder though, what would have happened if Southampton broke out in riots, how would the Hampshire Police of coped because I'm pretty sure that every where else that was affected, the police struggled.

I was glued to twitter last night, reading all the tweets of support, especially from celebrities that of course live in London and are probably being affected by the mayhem.

T4 Presenter Jameela Jamil tweeted: "Its all so very sad. What have we become? Riot has reached my road... Door bolted. Fingers crossed."

and later: "Let's just pray there's a city left when we all wake up tomorrow. My heart goes out to those who have lost their homes tonight."

Jessie J: "This is NOT how to gain respect. This is NOT how to get justice. This is NOT how to gain peace."

Holly Willoughby: "This is one of the most frightening things I've ever seen, can't believe what is happening in London tonight."

This morning Fearne Cotton tweeted: "Sending love and peace to all the poor innocent people who have been affected. This beautiful city needs to get back on its feet."

Across twitter this morning, people are following hashtag #riotcleanup and local people are going out in to the community to help clean up this horrible mess and to get businesses, homes and lives on the way to recovery. If your from one of the areas that was affected get on twitter and see what you can do to help but make sure you stay safe. It really is a horrible mess and I wish all those affected all the best. As for those that have caused this I hope justice is found and that they suffer in the future, they don't deserve anything else. 

So, I've joined the world of Twitter

It's happened, I have succumbed and entered the word of twitter.
I never really understood the concept of it, and facebook had been satisfying my social networking needs since I left school, therefore I had no desire for Twitter. I have come to realised that in this day and age, Twitter is a journalists best friend and I am an aspiring journalist. It's something I have known for a while but it has taken until now to allow myself to give in to Twitter. Besides, it is pretty cool that you can keep track of what celebrities are up to. Within half an hour of signing up, I was already following over 60 people, I was hooked pretty quite to tell you the truth.

I do wonder however, where did Twitter come from? One minute everyone is all over facebook and the next it's all about tweeting. Social networking is a fast paced and quick to change little world though isn't it. We have seen this before, when everyone went from MySpace to Bebo and then on to facebook. Personally MySpace never appealed but through secondary school I was one of millions obsessed with Bebo and it's comments, photo sharing and the little cyber world that it creates away from the real world. I do think social networking is excellent but doesn't it distract young people away from the real world a little bit?

This is where I become incredibly hypocritical but if you could just forget that I have a obsession with facebook and a developing obsession with twitter, I would be most grateful. Social networking distracts people from the real world, instead of phoning someone or meeting someone to catch ip we think that a brief chat on facebook or a couple of comments here and there will do the job. Maybe it does in this day and age but when our parents were younger social networking was done in person not through a computer screen. Having an online profile in theory can allow you to make yourself who ever you want to be, it's almost like recreating yourself, through just a few lines of text you can tell the world what you want them to think of you. Doesn't sound like a negative point but surely you want someone to get to know you as a person, not your facebook profile?

All this being said, in the 21st century social networking sites have in actual fact become a link to the rest of the world. Facebook and twitter don't just reach out to young people wanting to keep in touch with friends but to businesses, shops, newspapers and magazine and celebrities. They entertain and inform you. Twitter in particular has updates from magazines and newspapers continuously, bringing you the latest headlines, breaking news, competitions and gossip. It's all there with just a click of a button, and when you've read your magazine from cover to cover but you want more Twitters there waiting for you.

Yes, I think social networking sites have their negatives but the world is changing and young people adapt easily to these changes and for the media and journalism they can only be benefits.