You only live once...duhh

This YOLO thing has really got me feeling very unsure about whether our generation will go on to achieve anything remotely successful. Thanks to one rapper, Drake, an obscene amount of young people have literally gone mad and blame this "YOLO" motto for their outlandish behaviour. I mean we were definitely considered the "YOLO" generation prior to Drake's announcing it, so why everyone is suddenly just noticing and quoting it is beyond me. The Student Protests, The London Riots.. these are two examples of the "You only live once" attitude being adopted by our UK young people but there are plenty of other societies experiencing the same thing. Our generation already messed up by seriously compromising their individuality with everybody talking and dressing the same.. (Nike Blazers, Leopard print Creepers..even down to the uniform eyebrows every girl seems to have)..But nowww things seem to have taken a turn for the worse as this generation are now attempting to excuse all of their bad behaviour by saying.."ahhh you only live once ay"? Why can't people use this YOLO thing to their advantage? Why can't teenagers think, "You only live once, hey I better work harder on this piece of coursework" or I better start attending all my classes at Uni or College so I can eventually get good grades, a good job and have a wealthy later life? Why has YOLO got to be an excuse for serious unpleasantries? Like "Yolo I just slept with my best friend's boyfriend"...It's unacceptable. People need to get a grip. Sooner rather than later preferably. Let me try and be softer..that felt a bit harsh.. We have so many great things at our disposal young people... Sooo many opportunities and chances to take control of our lives and make them a success, so why don't we focus on that instead...

Rant About Tesco

I am so confused...for those of you who are not aware of the antics that Tesco are currently up to, I will briefly enlighten you. Tesco have decided to get rid of our beloved "Tesco value" range. Instead they are going to spend loads of money re-branding the range and making it healthier at the same time! I do not understand why Tesco are trying to "re vamp" their basic budget range. It makes absolutely nooo sense to spend thousands of pounds in production and advertising for products as basic as a pack of 3p cream crackers! Clearly Tesco have got too much money at their disposal...I mean who wants to spend money when you don't need to. The BBC reported that Tesco rake in a staggering £1billion a year just from their "Tesco value" range alone, which proves that there is no real reason for them to go changing the range as it is evidently selling very well just the way it is! See this is when greed starts to triumph common sense! Why change something that is already selling really well? Is the hope of it maybe doing slightly better next year of a greater interest then the possibility of the sales falling because of the unnecessary changes made to the brand. Clearly customers like the simplicity, the blandness and the "everyday-ness" of the "Tesco value" range which is why they continue to buy it. If people wanted to buy products of a higher quality, don't worry Tesco, they would. It is also like Tesco and all of these companies in fact are attempting to force health down my throat..like I can't even buy a cheap fat-drenched ready meal from Tesco anymore nor can I by a burger from Mac Donalds that's not 100% beef..Look if I want healthy, good quality food I'll spend the extra to get it but if I'm going somewhere cheap I expect to get the fat and the poor quality that I'm essentially paying for! Sometimes I just want a basic chicken korma, that costs like 2p in production and tastes like cardboard!!! I don't always want the frills!!!! Excuse the rant...

The "Kony" thing...

I am finding it more and more worrying that teenagers are being mocked for following the KONY 2012 campaign. There have been loads of strong arguments against the aims and the actions of the actual KONY 2012 campaign, with talk about the obscene amounts of money that the charity are spending on advertising and videos and also the huge threat Uganda could possibly be under with U.S.A intervention. However, this being said I still do not see why it is acceptable to patronise people who are sharing the video as they clearly only want to help. Teenagers can be so idle and lack any real grip on the world and the serious issues that countries are constantly faced with, but now something of substance has finally captured the attention of this generation and they are still being mocked. What do you want from people? Teenagers are self-centered and materialistic when they don't care about political issues, but then they are patronised and made to feel guilty when they do start to take an interest...it's like they can't win. I'm not saying that the KONY 2012 charity is infallible and that we should all blindly follow it but IF it is successful in saving the lives of these Ugandan children and their families, would this not be a good thing? American intervention is something feared by all less economically developed countries and campaigners are right for being concerned in this case for the Ugandan people if America do back this mission..however, as much as this is true it is also true that children are dying in Uganda, children are being raped in Uganda...and unless another charity is promising that they can stop all of this as quickly as the KONY campaign says they can, I don't see why we should dismiss the KONY campaign or why we should be ridiculed for supporting it.

The female endeavour for a man

Those who are unfortunately raised without a father figure within their household seem to inevitably grow to have "man issues". This isn't me just attempting to diagnose every women without a father figure as being seriously messed up... but I'm asserting they are merely hindered in the social department. The first way that a woman under these circumstances is at a social disadvantage is seen through their attitude towards men who want to date them. They are either too optimistic and feel totally capable of loving every single man who they are confronted with..almost like a walking love machine..relentless! OR they are the incredibly bitter women, who are so scarred by the actions of their father that they convince themselves that all men are the same and that they shouldn't trust a word that comes out of their perfectly poised mouths. NOW it is not just possible suitors that the absent-father syndrome effects..it is also able to effect friendships. When a women is without a positive male role model, like a father, they are forced to make their own in the male friends....in fact they can be said to make male friends purposely.. They "grow up with" a number of males or even just one male friend who they are ridiculously close to and expect to be there for them and advise them in every possible way.. just like a father would. They look at the mere possibility of dating one of these "fabricated fathers" almost as incest...even though these men would surely be perfect for them. Well that's if you want a boyfriend who you don't mind knowing everything about you..anyway these women need to stop making every man pay for the sins of their fathers (sounding real biblical there but it's true). Life is way too short for grudges as significant as those....

ADOLESENCE

Life as an adolescent has its perks (free accommodation, not much being expected of you, the drunken wild parties) but I’m pretty sure that the bad definitely outweighs the good of being a young and spicy teen! I mean let's look at the facts here…you live at home so really your parents are Hitler-style-dictators in your house. “That mean no boys upstairs”…. what ever happened to democracy!  You can’t party all weekend because you’ve got to be up bright and early on a Sunday for two tiresome hours at church.grrrrrr. THENN during the week you’ve got the hardest job of all which is forcing yourself to get up and out of the warmest bed in the world to endure the most mundane lessons at college ever, and you'll probably be practising for the most difficult examinations to date!..I mean how can teenagers be expected to pass exams when they can’t even keep their eyes open through the prep! It’s a crazy world!... Teenagers should not be trusted with the “key to their future”..The majority of teens are a wild and leery bunch of bursting indecency that could sleep for hours on end if given the chance. Interesting fact, the number of minutes per week that parents spend having a meaningful conversation with their children is: 38.5 minutes. That was taken from (American Family Research Council, "Parents Fight ‘Time Famine' as Economic Pressures Increase," 1990.) I mean that’s evidence enough isn’t it? Teenagers are strange human beings that are all remarkably idle and lack any real grip on reality. Harsh?  Hardly.

My "multi-cultural" society

When recounting on the society that we live in today, people like to think of things like diversity, culture, liberty and many other things of a simular calibre. BUT in actual fact these things are not things which should be associated with our society..especially not the society that we are a part of right here in the UK. Segregation, racism and sexism are still very prominent and I guess it's weird that I'm only noticing this now. People are just as reluctant to enter into inter-racial dating or have an array of multi-cultured friends as they were 20 years ago...there seems to actually have been no development in people's accepting such things into society which seems ludicrous. Everyone seems to somehow feel indebted to their culture and feel that they are obliged to cohere with the rules of that particular faction, which means things like inter-racial dating or even inter-religious dating are ruled out and these acts are casted off as misdemeanors which should not be copied. To think that two people who are extremely compatible but belong to two different stations within society must, as a result, fight their desires to be together all for the benefit of others (like the reputations of their family or friends for example) is not liberal at all. What happened to relationships being based on companionship and love? It seems like now everyone is going out into the world armed with a criterion of what it is they're looking for in a person...which undeniably takes the passion and the fun out of finding real love or meaningful friendships. The underlying problem with our society is not that we're conservative and unwilling to accept change, it's the fact that we try to ACT like we're liberal and ACT like we're spontaneous, grabbing the bull by the horns and living life to the absolute fullest but we're not. We're simultaneously stuck in these little boxes which all have rules that we follow religiously and when a person dares to violate one of these rules they are cast out of society and made to feel like an outsider. In actual fact you should idolise that person. The person who finally broke the mould.

worry about the tories...

How can the conservative government suggest that cutting thousands of jobs is an effective method of reducing the current deficit? Surely in cutting thousands of jobs the country then loses the money it would have gained through obtaining these people's taxes. Also by leaving these citizens unemployed the government then has to distribute money back to them in the form of benefits. Does this not then lead us straight back into the situation we were in prior to job cuts? How can the Tory government in any way justify this scheme?
The shear extent of the conservative motivation to reduce the deficit seems to be mostly affecting the poorer members of society.  After the richest, the poorest are being made to contribute the most to reducing this deficit, which is almost incomprehensible! Cutting benefits and pushing back the qualifying age for pensions seems almost unjust as the government appear to be taking money from those who need it most.
I am a direct beneficiary of The Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) and so are many of my college peers. I have grown accustomed to having this financial stability aid me through my studies but am now being made to part with it.  As a full time college student we are told that we are not required to pay taxes within this country. However in taking away our rights to EMA we are, of course, being taxed. The money we should be receiving through EMA is instead being given to the country and we are therefore almost forced to contribute to paying off this deficit just like those who are twice our age and have full time jobs!
When discovering that the cap on university fees was soon to be lifted, I was outraged! Students have been considered amongst the financially inferior for years and as a result receive discounted costs on various everyday essentials (such as travel). In order to afford the very expensive university fees many students have to take out a loan. These student loans are a stress to pay back and have in the past been between £15, 000 and £25, 000.  These are huge amounts to require struggling students to pay back even when these figures are based on fees that were around £3000 per year. If the fees were then to rise to expectedly just over £7000, the effect of this would be catastrophic for us students.
I do not feel that we are to blame for the economic decline within this country. Our generation are clearly too young to be held accountable for this economic downfall, however it seems that we nevertheless will be the ones cleaning up this mess for years to come.
How unfair is that?