Friday 12 August 2011

Riot Review

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone is safe and sound after the recent craziness. Fingers crossed that looting, rioting and general ridiculousness has now stopped.

I think the media has pretty much covered all angles including but not limited to, shock, terror, hope and retribution.

The political posturing is now in full flow with key figures putting in face time on the streets, blaming each other, trying to sound united but not too united as then it lessens all the sniping and childish bickering that usually takes place. E-petitions are slightly flawed at this point as it is a knee-jerk reaction as opposed to a considered opinion.

For us at Originals HQ we were gutted to see so many of the things we are involved in being attacked and I don’t just mean the opticians, music stores and clothes shops that were trashed but also the scapegoating of certain demographics. The reasons for the trouble are a little bit beyond our analysis at Originals HQ but as the first wave of convictions are processed we see that it’s not quite as simple as the media points out. A teacher, the daughter of a millionaire, a chef and a postman have all been arrested which paints a slightly different picture to the one painted at certain points during the media coverage. The media is always quick to gain ‘expert’ opinion (for example Paul Gambaccini was wheeled out to discuss the death of Amy Winehouse. Whaaaat!) but until the facts are known then it is wrong to make sweeping statements about demographics.

It is impressive to see the willingness for communities and others to gather and support each other whether through the Riot Cleanup website or donations of money, clothing and other items to local centres.

Let’s hope that all remains calm and amongst all the drama here are some lighter notes

Poor journalism:

Umbrella fail:

Boris getting heckled:

And genuine hostility between two rivals on Newsnight:

I don’t think we will be tackling the economic crisis so hopefully things will be a bit lighter next week.

O

x

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