The miracle of New York

It appears that the remarkable reversal in New York cities crime rates at the beginning of the 1990’s has become something of a political tennis ball, battered back and forth between various politicians and professors at an impressive tempo. Any social theorist worth his salt in the last decade has attempted to squeeze this vastly complicated phenomena into the cramped confides of their life work. I remember myself thinking it bizarre when I visited the city a few years ago to be told by my friend that the bright and busy street we were then walking through had until recently been an area in which even the police hadn't dared to enter.

I forgot about all this until the theme came about in Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘The Tipping Point’, and I was smitten with his idea that it owed a lot to the theory of ‘broken window’ crime prevention that was adopted by the new police chief in the 1980’s. This idea assumes that by cracking down hard on things like petty vandalism and fare dodging an aura of social ‘respect’ (sound familiar?) begins to prevail which eventually brings even the most hardened criminals into line. The underlying notion being that it is ones immediate environment that causes one to sin, not necessarily ones upbringing. I don’t think this was Gladwell’s idea in the first place but it was certainly the first place that I read about it.

So I was totally convinced by this until I read ‘Freakonomics’ in which Steven Levitt attributes the reversal in crime rates to a law passed nearly twenty years earlier in the landmark ‘Roe vs Wade’ supreme court ruling. This was the law that made abortion legal throughout the United States. Levitt’s attractive argument, put simply, was that this ruling prevented criminals being born. Statistically it is children from young, single parent families that are more likely to turn to crime. Roe vs Wade dramatically reduced this social category and hence, twenty years later when the children of the 70’s were reaching the peak of their crime committing capacity – not a lot happened. Once again I was smitten.

So today when I saw the Edinburgh Evening News running with the shocking headline that on average ‘One City Teenage Girl A Day Has Abortion’, I cracked a morbid smile. While this probably represents more a lack of education and/or access to contraception I still think it’s encouraging to see young girls exercising their right to commit murder in the name of convenience (and future social harmony).

Now if we can just clear away some of the litter and patch up a few buildings here and there, utopia is finally within reach – right?

I am slowly catching up with my lost university years. sit com by sit com.
After storming my way through 'black books' I have at (long last) embarked upon the delight that is 'spaced'.

God bless you alluc.org

Webcameron

Whilst Labour has been handling its inevitable transfer of power the Tory leader has spent the last month or so being a first rate video blogger. Or is that vlogger?

True to form Cameron’s marketing master plan has stuck to its guns, stuck to its plodding pace and in my opinion continues to gather momentum. In a series of photo op’s Cameron has spent four days with a Muslim family in Birmingham, two days as a teaching assistant in Hull and has just finished two days with the Welsh police. Now I know you’re all thinking that this is merely a shameless display of political positioning – and you’d be right. But say what you like about him he is so genuine in his shamelessness that it is very hard, if not to like him outright, then at least to appreciate what he's doing. There is something perversely satisfying in watching someone move around the country saying all the right things, shaking the right hands and ticking all the right boxes (especially when they have an Eton accent). Once you accept that politics is nothing but a dishonest game, then it becomes a matter of who can play that game with the most skill. Cameron scores highly on that count.


Regardless of what you think of the man, his webcameron site has to be visited and a few minutes have to be spent browsing through his video dairies. Politics aside they still make for good viewing, simply from a human interest stand point. Few other people can blog on such a wide variety of things or blog on such a regular basis. Given my addiction to anything with an rss feed webcameron has become a predominant character in my blogosphere. Sad as it is to admit.

This is the first time that I have read book, enjoyed it, and then seriously considered burning it. I’m not sure how I really feel about it. I mean, it was a good read, but my mind is now all over the place. I don’t really feel anything about it, but that’s not to say I’m neutral. I’m just more numb. The content of the book represents such a nasty theoretical shape that my mind simply doesn’t know where to begin in digesting it. It is sort of floating around the top of my mind like oil on water. I hope it never settles.

My first task for this morning is to get rid of it. I don’t want it on my bookshelf. I don’t want to remind myself that I have read it. I would not recommend this book to anyone that I actually liked.

I’m now going to read another one of his novels. Hopefully it will not be so … disturbing. Having robbed me of my faith in humanity, it is now only Iain Banks who can restore it.

I’m not so sure that he will.

Saw it in a second hand store.
Time to grow my hair long and start chain smoking.

do you ever whistle, just for the fun of it?

Whilst browsing around online a few days ago I happened to stumble across the BBC Panorama special on Scientology – with the now almost infamous scene of John Sweeny, after days of harassment by the group, finally losing his rag. From there I naturally went in search of the fantastic South Park episode ‘in the closet’ which led to the departure of ‘Chef’ from the program. Then a You-tube search gave me the official Scientology version of events depicted in Panorama. Interestingly the rest of the You-tube community in response went on to expose how the Scientologists ‘doctored’ the audio track at one part to make it appear that Sweeny injected some national rivalry into his investigations. Truly bizarre that they should do such a thing, although I suspect that by making Sweeny subtly make a comparison between the US and Europe they won over a large proportion of the hyper-nationalist American audience.

Documentary or no documentary it has been clear for a long time that the Scientology craze has been a little bit – strange. I’d love to do some sort of cultural analysis and trace its roots to an American society built upon ancient European superstitions. But I wont.

Anyway, the point is that yesterday whilst meandering back towards home I stumbled across the Edinburgh office of Scientology – which were offering free personality tests that day! – Ha.

Cont…

nostalgia payments

I just got an email from the Development and Alumni Relationships department of the University of Essex. They were asking alumni if they would be willing to make a monthly donation to an ‘opportunities fund’ for current and future students. I never really got on with the University administration or the Students Union whilst I was there, both being exercises in how to lose independent initiative in endless corridors of bureaucracy.

Yet a few weekends ago I was invited back to a alumni weekend at Essex. If you successfully navigated your way through the ridiculously complicated check they had in place to ensure you were indeed a former student (and make you pay handsomely for each and every step of this check), then the end product was actually a reasonably good weekend. SX burgers, the stifling heat and smells of the Underground (or Sub-Zero if you prefer), and an abysmal display of 5 a side football all brought back fond memories. So I guess it wasn’t all bad.

So rather than being disgusted at the organised begging of my former university I am actually rather impressed with it. I remember that the University of Arkansas was almost entirely paid for by rich individuals and companies that had some sort of connection with the institution. And despite getting peanuts from the federal authorities the University was lavish with new buildings and facilities which put the drab concrete buildings and worn out classrooms of Essex to shame. So perhaps it is about time we started putting our money where our mouth is and started caring for our former institutions. The money they want will go directly into providing bursaries and scholarships for poorer students – both of which will become more important as our universities continue to hike up tuition prices to compete with the United States.

When I can afford it, I think i'll sign up.

Possibly.

Tony Blair félicite Nicolas Sarkozy

Blair used youtube to send his regards to the new French President
Show off
Now I have to ask Cat what his saying

tyranny of choice

I have to begin work on my dissertation now, which for those of you who are interested, is to be on that fascinating topic of Liberator Bombers in the Battle of the Atlantic. I know, I’m an anorak. But really – it is so interesting – did you know that with the introduction of only 40 of these bombers into the Atlantic theatre at the end of 1942 the whole balance of the campaign swung in the Allies favour. Which allowed them to seriously consider landings in France. Which led to the downfall of Hitler (or at least prevented the Soviets from doing it by themselves).

Thousands of ships, Tens of thousands of deaths, and millions of tons in supplies lost, a lethal war of attrition fought for nearly three years with little hope that it would change - and then - hey presto!. Forty planes reallocated from a to b. Problem solved. War won.

A ‘tipping point’ if ever I saw one. Malcolm Gladwell would be proud of me. Possibly.

Cont...

Another hero of mine.
He talks the talk.
But does he walk the walk?

my hero

Innovative Ipswich

I have just bowed down before the closest thing I have to a religion, namely Ipswich Town Football Club, and have pledged to forever abide by the following:

a) Thou shall not boil more water in the kettle than one needs.

b) Thou shall not leave ones appliances on standby.

c) Thou shall always unplug ones mobile phone charger when not in use (because the dastardly things still drain 90% of their operating power even when not in use).

Strange thing to pledge to a sports team hey? But apparently by going to www.saveyourenergyfortheblues.com and making these, and other more hefty commitments, I can help my team become the UK’s first carbon neutral football club. And in doing so also earning the team a healthy addition to its transfer budget. Cont...