Is the world crazy or am I?

I notice there’s a lot of smash and grab charity campaigns out there today. It used to be that people would do meaningful things like run a marathon, do a long distance bike rides or cut all their hair off to raise awareness and money. In these cases there is at least a perceived feeling of sacrifice and were normally announced before the event giving people a chance to participate or not rather than forcing it in their faces after you've done it. Now since charity organisations have really taken the mantle of pointless “looky looky” “feely-feely” social media campaigning we see a much more direct and perhaps socially manipulative form of charity campaigning. The latest form is the Ice Bucket Challenge (replacing the outdated flavour of the month the No-Make-Up-Selfie, incidentally does anyone remember what that was for? Awareness is only so good when every good cause isn’t also competing for the same prize), which I think has something to do with Motor Neurone’s disease, but has

Do ISIS and the newly adorned Caliph Ibrahim (formerly Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) speak for you? If not you are probably feeling about one tenth of the horror and confusion that a British Muslim is probably feeling right now. What has been happening in Iraq these past few weeks is nothing short of a tragedy and goes to highlight just how much bloodlust, the thirst for revenge and religion make for a strange partnership. What’s strange is just how these discourses inspire such romance in people. Now Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS (the militia organisation fighting to create an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), has declared himself the new Caliph and has urged his fellow Muslims (Sunni Muslims mainly rather than the majority Shia in the region) to come and fight with him to establish a new Caliphate in the Middle East. To give a little context a Caliphate is a type of Islamic kingdom, with the head or Caliph (interpreted as ‘successor to Mohammed’) leading his people.  The la

Since I left England last year I noticed a lot of change in life, such as new friends, job, city, language, living spaces etc. However since I left and have been able to watch my own culture from the outside I’ve noticed that three things that keep coming up (based on my own experience checks). 1. Work This was one of the things that made me leave the UK in the first place. Now, whilst many of my friends rode out the recession with fairly good jobs (which have naturally progressed to better jobs) and the fact that my job isn't perfect; it isn't a subject I share much about on social media. Other people however seem to talk endlessly about how unhappy they are with their jobs, (especially in high pressure legal and financial careers which London has in droves) or how long they are putting in at the office. The worst thing about the latter case is there seems to almost be a Calvinist element of pride in that toil they put in. Perhaps it’s a way to justify the awful existence

Viral videos have always been a mixed blessing. After all, remember the bad old days of the Crazy Frog which was (sort-of) funny at first but was ruined by reposting and overhyping until it disappeared completely up it’s own arse. Not a tear was shed after the frog passed into ignoble oblivion with a feeble “rnng dngg croooak”. The same may one day be said of Social Networking beheamoth Facebook, which is rapidly approaching a similar fate due to the explosion of viral sharing videos, campaigns and articles. If I was to hazard a guess at Facebooks proximity to it’s own anus, I would say it’s precariously skirting around the sphincter.  Now, no one can take away the amazing achievements Facebook has achieved. Let’s look at stats such as over a billion subscribers (as of 1/1/2014 ) and a steady growth. No social network has ever achieved such highs and the rivals Facebook has seen off such as Twitter, Myspace, Bebo and Google+ is admirable. However such saturation doesn’t come wi