Peace! Unity! Love! and Having Fun!

The use of urban dance as a way to keep youths out of trouble is by no means a new idea and is in keeping with the long tradition of the nicer side of hip hop.
Far away from the media frenzy of the drug and gun culture surrounding some of today’s more celebrated urban acts, the arts of breakdancing and in many respects hip hop grew out of a desire to keep kids away from gang culture.

Is it somewhat distressing that an art which grew out of a desire for good is now seen by many to epitomise, even celebrate, the very culture that it grew to oppose?
Breakdance, b-boying or b-girling is one of the most renowned styles of street dance and evolved as part and parcel of the hip hop movement in the US. It was, if not developed, seen as an alternative to the violent gang culture which sprang up in the US at the time of hip hop’s inception.

Seen by many as the godfather of his art, Afrika Bambaataa Aasim (pictured) has stood as a beacon against the darkness of the problems surrounding hip hop. When urban music began to be seen as an artform embroiled within drug and gun culture, Bambaataa was the man who began holding peace conferences. It is widely, if not oficially, noted that the quelling of violence between gangs in New York credited to New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani was the result of work done by Bambaataa.

Originally a member of the notorious New York street gang The Black Spades in the 1970s, Bambaataa’s route in life later took a much more peaceful route.
As gang culture died down around 1973 and hip hop began to take over, from the ashes of the Black Spades, Bambaataa formed what was simply known as The Organisation, now the internationally distinguished Universal Zulu Nation. The group organises cultural events and youth activities all over the world and now has numerous autonomous branches in countries as diverse as France, the UK and Japan. Spreading the word of peace love and unity, Bambaataa used his influence and leadership to inject something more positive into the community. Now the Nation, in its own words is focussed of ‘raising hip hop awareness’ on a world wide scale.

Now, along with other pioneers such as Grandmaster Flash, has become what Rolling Stone unfortunately calls a ‘forgotten elder statesman’. This doesn’t mean that his message of peace, love and unity is going unheard.

In an interview with Streetgangs.com in September 2005, Bambaataa spoke out about gang violence in New York and LA and the image of hip hop across around the world. He sees a “misconception of what Bloods and Cribs were”.
“We have to come up with some kind of plan to get them out of the situation they’re in”, he stresses the need to talk and that, “people and not money is what people should be respecting”.

Advice that reflects both the image of hip hop across the world and potentially the image the more impressionable among us draw for themselves when bombarded with the imagery and gun-culture, homophobia and misogyny which seems to prevail in so much modern urban music.

This is culture which has led to a host of cries against its international image and its effect on youth, including this article on David Cameron’s views on knife crime.
Although around two years old, it epitomises the view of hip hop held by many, quotes from the Snoop Dogg song ’20 Dollars to My Name’ follow the lines of, “Nothing left to do, but buy some shells for my Glock / Why? so I can rob every known dope spot / I got 19 dollars and 50 cents up in my pocket with what? / With this automatic rocket / Gotta have it to pop it, unlock it, and take me up a hostage.”

Not something we can all relate to, not something especially David Cameron can relate to. Interestingly, and amusingly, the article references Cameron’s edition of Radio Four’s Desert Island discs where he chose Bennie Hill’s Ernie (the fastest milkman in the west).
Although the image painted in the Snoop Dogg song mentioned is, arguably, a reality for a lot of people and it is hard to question what is unmistakably someone’s art when it comes from their own life and personal experiences.

The question becomes where many artists draw the line between celebrating and gloryfying this lifestyle and just singing about it.

Preston kids bring the funk to Thursday night!

Thursday night saw the cream of Preston’s most talented youngsters take to the stage and strut their stuff in a bonanza of music and dance.
A packed house saw the Preston Minister Church on Church Street hand over its stage to more than 100 children between the ages of eight and 16 and was treated to a night of live urban music and contemporary dance, all in the name of charity.

The joint venture by Preston City Council and Groundwork Lancashire West and Wigan allowed kids from all over the city and its surrounding areas take part in dance classes and workshops for the last three months. The scheme, Streetfeet, is part of the Council’s latest campaign to tackle anti-social behaviour and began giving out free lessons in December. All the hard work had been leading up to this one night.

Event co-ordinator, Iain Mackie was overjoyed with how well the night went and was hopeful that they may have uncovered some hidden talent in the process. He still remained much focussed on what the main purpose behind the night was: “Although it isn’t just for girls, Streetwise schemes have allowed us to look to getting young girls away from violent crime. The number of girls involved in police incidents in the last year has doubled; hopefully these schemes will go some way to stopping that.”

Niamh Green, 13, from Brookfield was taking part in the dance said that it was nice to have something to do in the evenings: “There’s not a lot to do anywhere, I think that’s why people get in trouble.”

This is the second time Streetfeet has graced a Preston stage, the first taking place at the Charter Theatre all the way back in August.
It is not the first time that these two organisations have come together in an attempt to tackle youth behaviour. Streetfeet has been part of the larger Streetwise scheme which has been established for a number of years in Preston. Other schemes established have included the Streetwise Soccer League and a 3on3 Basketball competition. The soccer league was a particular success for the scheme. Held in September it welcomed over 300 budding football heroes to take part in a day-long tournament.

Executive member for leisure, Councillor Kate Calder has hailed the success of the schemes: “the Streetwise schemes have grown significantly over the past few years, this event is a great way to mark the end of the Streetfeet scheme and showcase some local talent.”

You can see some of the fun from Thursday night in the slide show and video below.

Petrol prices

Lo and behold, petrol prices in the US are set to rise on Wednesday as stated on the Rand Today. No doubt the UK prices are continuously following suit. There is no shortage of blogs of people complaining about this, i.e. here.

From my own research and conversations with my dear old Grandparents this is hardly a new phenomenon.
In the 1950s the average weekly wage was £7.08 (equivalent of £499 p/w today) and the average price for a litre of fuel was roughly 10.5p. Today, the average weekly wage is £549.80 per week and the average price for a litre of petrol is hovering somewhere around the 104.76p mark and 109.57p mark for diesel.
This means that in 1950, the average cost of a litre accounted for 1.3% of a week’s wages, today we forfeit merely 0.19% of our weekly budget for a litre of the Middle East’s finest.
It is true that there were not nearly as many cars on the road back then and not as many people drove but my Grandparents were by no means well off and they still found the funds to keep a car on the road.

Les Grandpéres ont toujours tort? Not really, people want as much as they can get for as little as they can get it for and the lost British art of not grumbling should really apply.

We’re a lot better off than we ever have been.

A stroll through Preston

I hope you have as much fun watching this as I did making it

...didn't think so.

Do you know who's listening?.. Should you care?

Are you being bugged? right now?.. Probably not, but as more and more shock and scandal comes out of the woodwork it's genuinely suprising that people are shocked that this form of monitoring goes on.



News which begain with the bugging of the meeting between Sadiq Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting, and his friend and constituent, Babar Ahmad, at Woodhill prison, Buckinghamshire, highlighted the shadowy area of covert intelligence gathering in jails



It is revealed now that prisoners are routinely bugged and today, even Her Majesty isn't safe. The nation's dearest is the latest to hit headlines as her offices were routinely checked for bugs in the 1990s.



Dominic Lawson of the Independent has stated should we still be surprised that this his happeneing?

"Just for example, does anyone really believe that Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness were suddenly made exempt from bugging during the period in which they were Members of the House of Commons? It would be inconceivable – and yet that is what MPs seem to want to believe, in their strange parallel universe. "



Strong words ring true. This kind of monitoring is almost imperative in a society which has to be monitored. If we lived in a world where the only policing needed was a simple; "now, make sure you be nice and don't commit any crimes and/or terrorism, please", maybe it would not be needed. Privacy is something from time to time that has to be sacrificed for public safety, if you have nothing to hide, should it really be such a big deal?

The society we live in is hardly as Orwelian as many pessimists will have you believe, it's incredibly free. Arguably, the idea of a 'Big Brother' state can exist in forms such as the smoking ban etc and can in places go to far, I don't feel though that in situations where public safety is an issue it should be a problem.