Mike Southby

So at long last it would seem that Facebook have opened up their chat service to allow you to use the feature ‘off site’ by adding your account to one of many popular chat clients.  Facebook are using the Jabber (XMPP) open source technology which is supported by most popular instant messaging clients including Pidgin, iChat, Adium and Miranda.  It will also work with the latest release of AIM.

Further information can be found here where you’ll also be able to find specific instructions for setting up YOUR username on your chosen client.

Firstly I’d like to say that I’m not much for politics; sure I watch the news as often as I can and try to keep up on current affairs but when it comes to individual parties, policies or politicians themselves, in my experience they are all as bad as one another.  There are pros and cons for all of them.  Gordon Brown has faced his fair share of criticism since becoming Prime Minister, some justified, some not so.  I think anyone who becomes Prime Minster is open to criticism, whether we like the person or not I think we would all agree that it is a tough job in more ways than one.

My problem with Gordon Brown has nothing to do with politics; it has nothing to do with his parties policies.  My problem is with the way in which he continues to fumble his way through life, seemingly blasé of his responsibilities and the way he should be acting, all the while receiving an extremely large pay check, paid by us the taxpayers.

I was reading through the papers this morning and came across the latest articles, featuring yet more stories documenting his trail of let downs.

The leading story is of a letter which he sent to a mother whose son recently died in Afghanistan.  The conflict requires no introduction; it seems not a day goes by that we do not hear of another tragic loss, the loss of another son, another father or another husband.  War is nasty business, I don’t blame Gordon Brown for us (the British Armed Forces) being in Afghanistan, the whys and what for’s are I think the responsibility of more than one man; though we may not like to admit to the fact, sometimes war in inevitable and necessary to preserve our way of life.  However, Gordon Brown in his position of Prime Minister has a responsibility to represent the government, the country and in a roundabout kind of way us the public in expressing his gratitude and condolences to the family and friends of the fallen.  It comes with the territory as they say and if he cannot be ‘bothered’ to do it properly then it’s time to step down.  As well as wrongly-spelt names, the letter to the dead soldier’s mother contained four other mistakes.  He wrote ‘greatst’ for greatest, ‘condolencs’ for condolences, ‘you’ instead of your and ‘colleagus’ instead of colleagues.  He also spelt security as ‘securiity’.  To show how personal the letter was and how much effort he had put into writing it, he ended the letter with repetition by writing ‘my sincere condolences’ and ‘yours sincerely’.  In total the letter had more than 20 mistakes in it, not bad for a single sheet of paper.  Now I do understand mistakes happen, I often make mistakes when writing letters but I always check back afterwards, especially if the letter is important.  This soldier gave his life serving his country, and this is the best he can do?  I think it’s a disgrace.  Gordon Brown has since phoned and apologised but personally I think he could have done a lot more, perhaps a personal visit to apologise in person; surely that would have been the least he could have done given the circumstances.

Here’s the letter:

I then read about the way in which he laid his reef of poppies during Sunday’s Remembrance Day service.  I have no doubt that he did not mean any offence but yet again, it is another public show of his lacklustre attitude towards his responsibilities.  Unlike every other government representative, even the Queen; after laying his reef he simply stood upright and did not bow his head as a gesture of respect.  I’m sure it was a genuine mistake just as I’m sure personally in his own mind he was reflecting on the sacrifices of those being remembered but he was not just there as an individual, he was there representing us.  He had a responsibility which yet again, he seems to have neglected very publicly.

I go back to my opening statement; my thoughts have nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with government policies on war or any domestic issue.  However I wonder about the suitability of Gordon Brown for the role of Prime Minster, a role which carries so much responsibility not only for our country, but for us as its people.

Gordon, you MUST do better otherwise please, step aside.

Rant over.

It seems that I have nothing to talk about in a technical stance these past few days, I’ve been very busy churning out some pretty intense reports which have taken up a lot of my time and reduced my brain to mush, but I still find the old news story which catches my eye in the press.

In Australia, I came across this video footage of a mother who accidentally lost control of her buggy with small child in whilst stood on a platform waiting for a train.  Now of course, I do understand that accidents happen but really, could she have picked any better moment to let go of the buggy and tuck herself in when she could see the train approaching?  It beggars belief.  I’m utterly amazed and thankful that the little chap came away relatively unscathed.

Amazing.

I switched on Sky News this morning when I got up to see coverage of the story of little Zachary Christy, a 6 year old in an American school who has been suspended for 45 days after bringing a knife into school.   At this stage, assuming you have not seen the story, you’ll be visualising I’m sure the numerous knife attacks that have happened in American schools over the past few years that have been plastered all over world media, and rightly so.  Knife crime is a serious concern, not only in America but around the globe and it is something which needs to be addressed.

The story focuses on Zachary taking a pocket multi tool into school (which, for the record has what appears to be a 3 inch blade being proudly displayed from it…) and not understanding why he has caused such upset.  His mother is quoted as saying “it’s a tool with eating utensils, not a weapon”, not understanding that on the flip side “it’s a weapon which just happens to have eating utensils too”.

Not a weapon?  urm, I think it is actually.

Listening to Zachary speak, which of course would have been scripted and rehearsed, he comes across as a very switched on and intelligent 6 year old, questionably more intelligent than his parents if they really thought it was OK to take such a thing into school.  I’d go as far as to say even Zachary himself appears intelligent enough to understand that this is not something which should be bought into school.   Period.

Perhaps the initial punishment is too harsh, and indeed the story goes on to say that the school board has re-evaluated it and is lessening the punishment but really, what do parents like this expect?   You allow your child to take a weapon into school – because that is what it is – and wonder why they are sent home and it develops into a media frenzy.  I think personally the parents should be punished for being so fundamentally stupid.  If nothing else, they should think of the distress a story like this brings to the families of those victims who have been tragically killed in schools at the hand of knife wielding peers.

I’m sure that Zachary meant no harm and I’m sure on this occasion their was no danger but parents have to think and take responsibility for their children.  The story seems to simply focus on Zachary being a sweet little boy who would not harm anyone, which I’m sure is true.  But nowhere does it pose the question of someone talking the knife off of him and using it against other children in the school, I’m sure not all children as as nice as he is, doesn’t experience teach us anything?

Come on parents, stop being stupid, take responsibility.  Rant over, I’m off for a cup of tea..!