Social Issues

Knife Crime – The UK Street Epidemic

The UK has seen a massive increase in publicised knife crimes in 2008, with so many newspaper front pages covered in stories about the latest victim of another vicious attack. On Sunday 13th July, a 22 year old man was stabbed at Scotland’s T in the Park music festival in yet another high-profile case of British knife crime. As knife crime continues to attract more publicity in the UK, the public are looking to the government for answers and solutions.

While media attention has increased dramatically in the last couple of years, the actual figures show that knife crime has remained reasonably constant at around 7-8 per cent of all UK crime. However, these figures will do little to appease the victims of stabbings and knife attacks that regularly make the news headlines. So, what are the government’s plans to reduce knife crime and what punishments will these offenders face?

In 2006, the Home Office introduced a number of measures in an attempt to reduce crime including an amnesty where nearly 100,000 knives were surrendered. Doubling the maximum penalty for knife possession, increasing the age limit for knife purchasing and a ban on owning samurai swords has done little to bring knife crime down. With a large number of front-page knife attacks including five fatalities in one weekend, it seems that the Home Office’s efforts need to be revisited.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has put together a dossier of the government’s proposals that attempt to address the problems of youth crime, and particularly knife crime. One of the more controversial solutions that the government will propose is that youths caught carrying knives will be forced to meet knife crime victims in an attempt to deter them. It is doubtful how effective these tactics will be on a youth that is intending to use a knife, however shocking the victim’s injuries.

As well as this punishment, Gordon Brown’s government plans to increase police visibility, community service orders and targetting ‘problem families’. Brown appears to believe that young people need to be made aware of what is deemed unacceptable behaviour in an attempt to make the British streets safer for the majority. With increasing notoriety surrounding knife crimes, the media attention could be having a negative effect on both the general public and the youths in question.

Newspaper headlines emphasise the imminent danger that we face every day as we leave our houses, while young wannabe gang members try to ‘fit in’ by getting the latest fashion accessory – a knife. So where does reality end and paranoid hysteria begin? Knife crime is a serious issue in the UK, but it is not increasing as much as the media may have you believe. However, the problem is rife amongst the youth of today and this trend mayb continue to flourish with the suggested solutions of the current Labour government.

Patrick is an expert Research and Travel consultant. His current interest include Heathrow Parking, the Hilton Heathrow and a travel blog site.

2nd Of 7 Tips From Gandhi On How To Free You

It was American antiques personality Henry David Thoreau who was the inspiration to Mahatma Gandhi in his fight to resist English rule. It was the destiny of Gandhi to remove the Jewel from the English Crown.

Make your own was fundamental to Gandhi and his followers, who began to make their own clothing, from home made spinning wheels, effort and raw cotton. To be seen in an English made shirt on raw cotton shipped cheap from India, factory made and sold in India, was to show you still felt beholden to the system and your mind was not free.

In contrast, to be seen in a cheap cotton shirt badly made on a rickety spinning wheel was to feel free. The many ways each person could make their own was up to the imagination. A shirt, a pair of pants, a pair of shoes, could all be made from the products of the fields and their common efforts. Communal cooperation was a means by which others could join in, learn, begin the process in their own lives. And gradually at first and then with a gradually building momentum, the make up of dress wear began to show, and increase the fears of the British masters.

By the time of the outbreak of World War Two and Pearl Harbor the Japanese conquests down through China and Indo China found Singapore at the south tip of Asia fall to the Japanese who then surged into Burma. Indian loyalty was critical to maintain a common front against Japan. And the vast teeming masses of India went on with their meagre lives during this all. And into this mix came the angry lawyer from South African experience with apartheid Gandhi. His refusal to bow as lesser in Africa had him soon worrying the British back in his homeland of India.

The scholars clothes of the Oxford educated Gandhi soon had him dresssing down to his audience. In the steaming tropical heat of the Indian sun, Gandhi could prayerfully wrap himself in a cloth robe made by himself at a spinning wheel of his making. And this non violent avoidance of things British other than the common base of the English language by which Gandhi soon recognized with its many many sects and languages could speak and understand all as one. Yet always the reality of complex faiths and their clashes came to the way to harmony and peace.

So always were the major clashes of religious ethos between ancient Hindu, Buddhist faiths with the invasive armies of Islam from Afghanistan and Persia. Gandhi tried all his life to keep these two faiths within the umbrella of a mighty proud free peoples of India. But Pakistan would be created in the predominently Muslim sections, and for years millions of Muslim and Hindu faith passed each other crossing into their new forced homeland.

We are forced to recall this now only up in the mid mountain kingdoms of Kashmir. Here in 1947 the Hindu maharaja placed by Britain to rule in this Muslim region decided his mother India should be home for these red ants, as Thoreau might have suggested, in a black ant land. Thoreau would observe ants bump into each and not back off. Soon all would fight to the death; bodies without a head still snapping their pincers into eternity. But during the lifetime of Gandhi the means by which to sooner see a free land came from making your own.

How that applies to you in your life only you can determine. But to make your own can incorporate new ideas on how to re make your own out of that which had once worked fine but no longer does. Can it be repaired. Can you repair it. Is it worth the cost in your time and effort and in parts or replacements. Often times now it is cheaper to replace your own with a hot new toaster from China with streamlined looks and a more up to date feel about it. It makes you feel rich. Ignore it. Hold a stick with a slice of thick European black rye bread to the fire. Just kidding.

But you knew this and for you, how to get the flow if free inner behavior is where you are willing to go. How you make your own way into your old patterns and review how your comfort zone ways and means to create security in your life depends ultimately on you. Perhaps it is soon time to find new ways to make your own. He or she who rows their own boat merrily down the stream gets to make their own in ways that only occur during the journey. But on your way, notice the lovely flowers on the embankment. You could make your own daisy chain.

Make your own relationship work better by investing more of yourself. Make your own time to be with your family; a neice, child or grand child who needs a new pair of runners for gym because the feet will keep outgrowing. If you cannot make your own shoes for them, you can both make your own joy and harmony while you select what your budget can afford and that brand may not have the name you will spend so much more for. Become acquainted with those publications that shop compare for you and rate the value to the price and performance. Are you paying Mercedes prices for Volkswagon quality?

How you can be sure is by non purchase practice shopping before you touch the puppy. Make your own most perfect fit in your life for each new or retained article from your socks to your food. You can make your own food if you have your own garden or in urban areas, roof or community gardens. How we shrink down our lives to more basic is in the cards and we may as well enjoy that journey which God or the fortunes of history are blowing our way. How you make your own can set you apart in ways you might not yet envision.

And it is good that challenges blast into our lives we may as well say. For if we have, and we have not, lived in peaceful harmony like ancient Egyptians for thousands of years, to have mad Assyrians on horses with new sharper swords ride out of theSinai desert and ruin our lives forever. Egyptians ran in fear as this new creature it seemed to them, a horse-man with a sword, cut them down. Like them, we must make our own recovery even while our Assyrian hordes charge at us from the vast other side of Asia into our lives.

This time, they make our own and sell it to us and thus pull themselves up from our boot straps. And so as these vast sources of human labor sweep all in its path we do need to take less car trips to megamall to buy more lead lined replicas of something antique looking but a real bargain. Do we make our own destiny when we have lost the ability to actually any more to make our own? Yes we do. And stay home and let the lead head in Ned allow him to line up to spend that he has not yet earned to feel a bit more rich while he just became a bit less rich.

And some where across the sea he who made our own just had a little salary increase. And when you start to move up into the heady dollar an hour range you will have more status and the ability to make your own voice heard, quietly, at the next union meeting. Ah so. Size of crumpet muffin not enough. Want more. Sir. No great issue, we just tell megamart price went up three pennies for your raise. Very difficult to make your own now, unless you quietly contemplate how. But no time for that now? Well yes there is or there should be.

And how you see your own way to make your own way will be determined each step you take along the way. American antiques history from Henry David Thoreau did so influence Gandhi in how to free his people. Martin Luther King would follow these same steps to divine fortune with similiar results; death by violent guns. You need not pursue your destiny any which way but loving and wise. And that is how Gandhi would suggest we look at how can we get by with less and find more joy. As we make our own: shirt, shoes, or simply our divine destiny. Good fortune to you.

Derek Dashwood enjoys noticing positive ways we progress, the combining of science into the humanities to measure politics, wise use and mis use of power and protective love at
American Antiques

Residual Income – Why It Is Necessary

Does your definition of abundance include provision for earning some sort of residual income?

Residual income is income earned as a result of past exertion and will continue indefinitely with very little or no further exertion on your part.

Some examples include rental income from investment properties, dividends on shares, interest on money invested in banks, royalties from past creative efforts, business franchises and so the list goes on.

Unfortunately many rely solely on income earned from their jobs with absolutely no thought about how they’d maintain their standard of living should their job suddenly finish. OK, maybe the skills you possess will allow you to find another job quickly, but what if your job suddenly ended because of health problems?

Sadly, this is exactly the situation one of my friends is now facing. A single mother with a 13 year old son and her immediate family living 2000kms away is lying in a hospital bed receiving plasma, kidney dialysis and blood transfusions. There is some hope that she will make a full recovery but the reality is that she may not.

Only a few short weeks ago she was a successful sales rep with a large international company and had been there for over 20 years. There was no reason for her to think that this could not continue for the forseeable future. Until her kidneys failed that is….

How would you and your family cope financially in a similar situation? Without a doubt, the emotional trauma is enormous and no amount of money will compensate for loss of health. However, life still goes on. In my girlfriends case she still has a son to bring up and she has to do that regardless of the prognosis for her long term health.

How much easier will it be for her with some residual income coming in compared to none? She could still provide for her son despite the fact she’s not working. Depending on the amount of residual income her own future could be a bit brighter perhaps allowing some choices in treatment options or allowing her more independence than she would otherwise have.

There are many opportunities available for absolutely anyone to begin making money from sources other than their regular jobs. Many of them require very little start up capital while others require a substantial investment to begin.

What they all have in common is that they require hard work when starting out and require an absolute, unshakeable belief that you deserve and are capable of acquiring the riches you want.

Sadly, there is no such thing as a get rich quick scheme. Fortunately there are many, many ways to get rich slowly. In any case your level of wealth will never exceed your level of personal development.

Sharon Reid is creating a self improvement website for those wanting to create abundance in their lives. She has a free membership called The Sandpit where those with little or no experience are empowered to create a residual income for themselves.

Visit her website here.

Amsterdam Smoking Cannabis But Not Tobacco

The new law enforces a smoking tobacco ban in public spaces such as restaurants, bars, and, yes, coffee shops: Those who smoke the reefer may continue to do so on licensed premises – providing they’ve not got cigarette in their marijuana.

The latest ban has spurred fresh claims Amsterdam’s cannabis cafe culture is under threat. It follows on from April 2007 legislation forcing coffee shops to choose between serving alcohol or cannabis. While most coffee shops prefer to serve cannabis, the restriction has helped curb the presence of the cannabis coffee shop in the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands, the consumption and possession of cannabis is illegal but not punishable. And licensed coffee shops can sell up to five grams of marijuana to punters aged over 18 years. Half the Netherlands’ cannabis-peddling coffee shops are concentrated in the capital.

Each municipality has its own coffee shop policy, but mostly licences are non-transferable with the number of licenses frozen. Certainly the municipality of Terneuzen is alone in obliging coffee shop patrons with road signs.

Still others are trying to work out how many inspectors it takes to monitor the makeup of joints up-and-down the capital and beyond. The authority responsible for enforcing the ban claims to have 200 inspectors checking compliance on the ground. Each inspector, they say, is trained in identifying impure states of imbibing from fifty paces, by smell and sight.

But the problem with the notion of rigorous control doesn’t end with quality control and the ability to spot a tobacco-rolled joint. To say coffee shops aren’t above the law would be something of a fib: By government policy they’re tolerated, not legal. The various restrictions seem contrived to make the continued existence of coffee shops more difficult, while the government seems unable to issue a total ban.

It has been said the Netherlands is happy enough with its drug policy but is leant on by foreign governments. In fact the Dutch distinction between soft and hard drugs in law seems to produce relatively good results in terms of public health.

Rates of drug use in the Netherlands are similar to the European average, but drug related deaths tend to be fewer and addicts tend to be older. Rates of drug use across all categories but notably of cannabis use among school students in North America are significantly higher than rates of use in the Netherlands. Across all drug and violence indicators North America outperforms the Netherlands, being much more stoned and far more violent.

For the coffee shops of Amsterdam, times may be harder. But it’s not over until the fat man stops rolling.

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Are Security Uniforms Necessary?

More and more companies are relying on security guards for protection and safety. A security guard acts as the eyes and ears of the owner of the property. This helps to ensure the vandalism, theft, and problems are kept to a minimum. There are times when it is not practical to ask for police monitoring when a security guard can do the same thing. It is, however, important for the security guard to be dressed for the duties he or she performs.

The security uniforms the security guards wear can be as formal or as casual as the company wants. The finance companies prefer to have security guards in uniforms that look more like a police officer. This helps to deter any person who thinks about robbing the bank. However, certain department stores require their security guards to dress as normal shoppers. This allows them to walk around undetected to look out for shop lifters.

At times the security uniforms need to be informal. Certain schools and other public places prefer their security guards to wear knit shirts with collars and sleeve bands. The bands and collars are clearly marked so people know who the security guards are. Bars and nightclubs sometimes ask their security guards to dress in this manner so patrons know who is there to keep things in order.

Certain insurance companies require the security uniforms to be recognizable upon inspection. This is for liability purposes. The security guard who approaches a person should be easily identified. This way the person can not later say they did not know they were being approached by a security guard. A person who sues for injuries sustained in a confrontation has been known to state they were defending themselves because they did not know it was a security guard they were dealing with. By keeping the security uniforms easily identifiable this argument will not hold up.

Security uniforms can be professional uniforms with dress pants and matching dress shirts. The colors can vary according to preference. The security guard can choose a more relaxed look with t-shirts and ball caps. Outer wear is also available from trench coats and rain coats to sweaters and down vests. Other pieces of the security guard uniform is safety equipment like reflective vests and jackets. This allows the security guard to work in safety while on traffic detail or public assemblies.

While a security uniform may not be a requirement of your business, the benefits to having the security team in uniform are tremendous. Many people are intimidated by a person in uniform. Theft and vandalism is less prevalent in areas where uniformed security is in place. Gated and other residential communities benefit from a security guard in professional uniforms because it makes the properties seem more secure. The residents also feel safer knowing they can look out and see a uniformed guard on duty keeping watch.

Groups and organizations which sponsor events also benefit with the security team dressed in security uniforms. Even if the uniform consists of a knit shirt marked as security the people in attendance will know there is protection in place. If an emergency occurs the people will know where to turn for help.

Steve Lott is manager of the product education team at Security Wearhouse – where you can find a durable, high quality police shirt or security guard uniform made of the finest materials.