The Public Service Broadcasting Album IS OUT!!

I am so excited! The new Public Service Broadcasting album, The Race for Space, was released yesterday and it sounds like it's going to be amazing. Their single Gagarin was a great success and this album is looking to follow in it's glorious wake. 

The band take samples from public information films and propaganda and creates instrumental songs around the samples. Spitfire is a great song from their first album Inform-Educate-Entertain and is an example of the flawless way that they combine their music and the samples.

One song from their first album that gave me goosebumps is London Can Take It. It is a chilling, masterful reminder of the war, the beginning being the haunting sound of a wailing siren followed by the words "Now it's eight o clock, Gerry is a little late tonight". It never fails to get me every time. The sound that they created for this song is so fitting it almost seems bizarre that the original information film didn't have the music accompanying it. 

Needless to say The Race for Space is going to be well worth a listen, I don't care how tight my student loan is I'm getting down to the nearest music shop and buying this little gem as soon as possible. 

The Signs That Tell You That You Really Are A Student

So yesterday evening, as I was getting ready for bed in my sexy flannel dressing gown, I noticed a glass on the bathroom radiator. As I inspected the glass further I recoiled in horror when I noticed the state of the bottom of this poor object. It looked like it hadn't been washed in about 10 years. The mildew/mould/whatever it was was crusted to the bottom like a gross gremlin, clinging on and staring up at me cackling evilly. After the shock subsided and I realised that I wasn't going to die, I had to laugh. It is only in a student house that you would find a glass glued to the radiator with grime, in the one room in the house that's supposed to be clean. I took a picture and posted an obligatory hashtag to Instagram (obviously, I mean who wouldn't?!). To add to this display of disgrace I went into my room and saw a glass of what I can only assume used to be milk, but is now (because I still haven't moved it) turned into yoghurt. It actually smelled quite appetising, like Aldi's own brand Greek style pseudo-natural yoghurt. 

This is what inspired me to write this post. It is true that there are some things that only students will do and understand - other normal people just don't quite get it. 

Food. Let us begin here. There is no combination nor recipe that a student will reject or question. A packet of boil-in-the-bag rice smothered in olive oil, mixed with uncooked curry paste (not even sauce) and a sprinkling of herbs (possibly gravy if you're in the North) won't even receive the batting of an eyelid. This is actually a true story. My Italian roommate last year created this bizarre concoction. To be fair he didn't enjoy it, but he ate it anyway. That's another thing, food never goes to waste. Even if it falls on the kitchen floor that's a breeding ground for Salmonella, punctuated by the remnants of last weeks chicken noodle soup and a rainbow of different types of crumb, you still gobble it up like it was Gordon Ramsay's own creation.

"Smoke weed everyday"... Yes, that's right, everybody knows it. It's one of your five a day (it's green), helps you relax and can make all your troubles go away. It is a student's best friend and ally when that Philosophy essay just isn't flowing right and you need that little push in the right direction. It's not an addiction, it's just that every night someone suggests watching a film and before you know it you're watching The Matrix wondering if you'll ever see the sun again, and then a spliff/joint/doobie/biff/biffter is in your hand and everything is alright again. One thing that you do learn is that a spliff is not just a spliff, it can be all manner of different things depending on where you grew up. Fascinating.

Cuddling. I don't know what happened between first year (when I was honestly allergic to cuddling) and second year, but seriously I think aliens beamed me up whilst I was asleep and did something to my brain because I can't go a day without snuggling up to someone. Every student has experienced the following situation: you're sitting on the sofa, doing work, one of your housemates comes in after a shitty day and sits down next to you, leans on your shoulder. Your other housemate sees through a crack in the door and comes in and joins the head leaning. Before you know it, your work is flying all over the place, someone has belly flopped on top of you all and there's ten people tangled together under a quilt watching a cat compilation on YouTube. It happens, it's just a fact of life.

These are my typical student experiences, what are yours?

The Reasons Why I Am Privileged

I have privilege. 

From what I have read in papers and on blogs it seems that a lot of people take offence when told they have privilege. 

"I work in a factory, for less than minimum wage and I have a family to feed - how the fuck do I have privilege?"

I would like to say that the point that I am making is in no relation a judgment of anyone else. There are many people in this world who aren't particularly lucky and who don't necessarily have the same opportunities and privileges as the majority. I am saying, however, that as a white, middle class person I have privileges and I have a lot of them. 

These are the reasons why I am privileged:

• When I apply for a job and succeed, I will know for a fact that I have gained the post because of my skill and my CV. I will not be given a job because I fit the "ethnic minority quota".
• I know that when I walk into a new workplace people will not have the question, lurking at the back of their minds, as to whether I got the job because of the colour of my skin.
• I have privilege because during primary school I didn't experience teachers telling me "your name is too complicated, can I call you X?" because they couldn't be bothered to work their mouths around my identity. They couldn't be bothered to step outside of their comfort zone and fit my totally valid "complicated" name into their vocabulary.
• I know that when I walk into the supermarket I will find the food of my culture everywhere with little variation, without having to try and without having to search, despite the fact that I live in a "culturally diverse" country.
• I have enough money and social security that I can take a gap year, volunteer in a country such as South Africa, and afterwards walk out of there and carry on with my life without thinking twice about anything other than my future (if I were to choose to).
• I am privileged because I know that I will get a job.
• I am privileged because the history that I was taught at school was my own. I also had the opportunity to learn about a whole host of other histories as well.
• When people look at me they do not immediately wonder at the back of their minds whether I might be a terrorist because of my skin or my religion.
• I am privileged because I know that if I have children I will be able to secure them some sort of education and secure financial environment because where I was born and what I look like gives me a free pass to a relatively easy life.

There are a whole host of other reasons why I think I am privileged. I do not feel bad for being privileged, it is not my personal doing that some races/religions/ethnic groups have more privilege than others.

What I am responsible for, however, is how I act on it. I refuse to stand by and allow myself to float through life having little cares because I can. This, for me, is the difference. When people rise up in an outcry of "how dare you think I'm privileged" it isn't helpful because it halts social progress. If people came to terms with their privileges, however begrudgingly, it would open doorways for more people to see the inequalities in our system and try to act against them.

I am privileged because I can safely live my life without people making decisions, judgments and accusations about me because of my religion, ethnicity or race.   

I am someone's daughter, should I be scared?

For my Mum and my Dad, I am their daughter and I always will be.

So should I be scared?

After 21 years it seems like I should be. Daughters everywhere are constantly reminded, throughout their whole lives, about how dangerous and unsavoury the world is. 

"Don't go out at night on your own" - this is a classic parent to daughter warning. Don't go out on your own child, there are nasty men out there who will want to hurt you if you're on your own.

"Don't wear that short skirt, it gives off the wrong message". This is another classic, because everything that a girl wears gives off a "message". It isn't the interpretation of the message that is important people, it's the implied message.

"If you go out drinking, don't get separated from the group, it's dangerous if you're drunk!" Again, another snippet of advice given to daughters that further pushes them into a deep realm of fear.

Why is the world out to get women everywhere?

Well, for starters, blame is (for the majority of the time) placed upon women and their actions. Why are parents not telling these things to their sons? It is overwhelmingly true that daughters are treated a hell of a lot differently than sons. 

Instead of telling men and boys everywhere that when a woman is too drunk to say yes she is saying no, women are told not to go home with strange men if they've been drinking.

Young men are not told that because a woman is wearing a short skirt she is not making unspoken sexual advancements upon them. Instead, women are told to fit their clothes and their dress sense around the presumptions of the oppressive society that controls them.

It is hard being a girl because the world is presented as dangerous. The thing is, when I went to Cape Town in South Africa (and it's quite dangerous there for everybody) I went out on my own a couple of times and instead of feeling fear all around me I instead forced myself to be confident. Nothing happened to me, I was never attacked or harassed and it is then that I realised something: women's own inferiority is ingrained into them in the way that they are told to live their lives, in fear of men/people. 

Now I'm not saying that attacks on women don't happen at night or whatever, because that would just be ridiculous. What I am saying is that if I ever have a son I will be teaching him about how to treat women in the right way and if I ever have a daughter I will be telling her that what people try to drill into her about her inferiority is bullshit. I will tell her and any of her friends (male or female) about why telling a girl that her skirt is too short and attention seeking is halting to social progress that I am so desperately reaching for.

I HAVE A BLOCKAGE

I have a block on my brain. I have so many writings backed up as drafts but can I finish them?! NO. 

There will be more writings to come. I just have a blockage... in my brain...