“Photography is truth, not terrorism”, “I’m a photographer, not a terrorist”. Protesters flooded the Trafalgar square, holding the big slogan, sticking small flags in their hair and wearing the clothes written with such words.

Protester holding a slogan "Photography is Truth, not Terrorism", pic taken by Yinming

Today, photographers from different different cities even different parts of the world notified through Facebook and twitter gathered in the square to protest Section 44 Terrorism Act after a series detentions.

Many of the protesters here have experienced being stopped and searched by police more than once when they were taking photos in the public.

Megumi, a Japanese photography student was followed and stopped by police officers when she was taking some historical architecture photographs built-in 1930s. The police officer kept asking her personal details even she showed her student press card. She was asked to submit the anti-terrorism application forms showing her personal detail to database.

It does not only happen to foreigners, native British photographers have more feelings about it. Alex said “such things happen more and more. Community services and police just simply stop you from taking pictures. Photographers get lots of pressures here. They are stopping us recording our history, social history about country. You cant photograph legally in shopping centres, Canary Wharf “.

What a surveillance society we are living in! From innumerable CCTV cameras to national database, biometric, now we are even not allowed to take pictures in the public. What Can we do? Are we really free in the so-called to used-to-be the free society? It seems every person is under suspicion.

Yes, after the failed attempt of bombing airplane, people do feel scared. We do need anti-terrorism law, but the use of such laws are crossing the boundaries. Everything happened should has a reason. Now the power is misused to stop and search people without a proper reason. Suspicious? Isnt it too simple?

Photographers gathered in Trafalgar square, pic taken by Yinming

Section 44 Terrorism Act

Section 44 is a stop and search power which can be used by virtue of a person being in a designated area.

Where an authority is in place, police officers in uniform, or PCSOs IF ACCOMPANIED by a police officer can:

- Stop and search any person; reasonable grounds to suspect an individual
is a terrorist are not required. (PCSOs cannot search the person themselves, only their property.)

- View digital images contained in mobile telephones or cameras carried by a person searched, provided that the viewing is to determine whether the images contained in the camera or mobile telephone are connected with terrorism.

- Seize and retain any article found during the search which the officer reasonably suspects is intended to be used in connection with terrorism.

As UK terrorist level raised to “severe”, I don’t know what gonna happen next….

72 hour, the prime time for rescue is slipping away. International aid team is racing against time to rescue the survivors.

Top Ten Deadliest Earthquakes from Times

I am just feeling so frustrated now. Man’s worship and respect for the mysterious and mighty nature suddenly are suddenly insignificant and weakened before the nature.

Yes, human beings can decorate the earth, the nature with creative ideas and compete to build the tallest building in the world. While if the nature wants to destroy them, it’s just a moment.

It is not just the earthquake, even the recent heavy snow in Britain that could make people felt helpless.

Schools are closed and transports are cancelled or delayed, making London, one of the greatest cities of the world  trapped in the chaos. It could cost Britain 1.2 bn pounds.

Everything happened in recent days just made me feel desperate….

The Capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince, is destroyed by the disastrous earthquake, from Reuters

The capital of Haiti  suddenly collapsed by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in a minute. Although there is no way of knowing the number of deaths, a senior senator said it could be up to 500,000.

I have never felt so involved in this earth quake. Disaster is always far away from me both in distance and psychology. But this time is different. Even though it is still far from where I am, my heart is deeply affected.

In the earlier morning today, my sister sent me a message and said her boyfriend might be buried under the collapsed building in Haiti. I just suddenly felt numbed and kept questioning myself how come this could happen to family!

I called her immediately and asked her if there was any latest news. Holding the phone, although it is 8,000 miles away, I can still felt the helpless on the other end of the phone. She told me with sobs and trembling voice that the signal was interrupted and she lost contact with him and any of this colleagues.

I really understand how it feels. A person who was alive yesterday is now unknown about his fate. It is even tougher for his beloved ones to wait for his news with their hearts hanging in the midair.

He is an official of Chinese peacekeeping force, garrisoning all the dangerous places of the world to safeguard peace.  They are armed with best equipment, dressed with military uniform. yes, they are cool, but do you know how many efforts they will make and how much they will sacrifice to keep the world peaceful.

I do hope those missing people can be rescued as soon as possible, and let them reunite with their families.

I have never really felt the danger that a journalist face until I read the news. A war reporter, a father of three, left on New Year Eve, killed just in a flash.

When you watch the news everyday, you might not think too much about where these sources come from. You might not even care about how much a journalist have to sacrifice behind the scene.

As a father, a breadwinner, he has the responsibility to take care the family. As a professional journalism, he has the duty to inform the public of what is happening in the war.

Since the U.S. led invasion in 2001, according to CBS,  18 reporters have been killed in Afghanistan. the rest correspondent are still facing death risk as long as the war continues.

From the lectures given by foreign correspondent last semester, I understand the dilemmas they face, the frustrations they confronts and the homesickness they suffer.

• The objectivity and emotional detachment

Humans are human after all, they are emotional and have feeling about things. It is difficult not to bring their emotions to the report especially in war zone with death occurring everyday.

• The danger of death

There are definitely fewer people now willing to go to Iraq…The turning point was the level and unpredictability of the insurgency… Marcus Wilford, ABC’ London Bureau chief, from Independent

• multiple roles they are carrying

As a child of aging parent, as children’s parent, as a husband/wife, they have to give up all of them to go to the front line in which they are not only journalist, but also a soldier.

Journalism is a really tough job. I have to redouble my efforts and prepare for those challenges!

It is quite interesting today to see friends studying in different parts of the world  upload the pictures of themselves in the snow at the same time and very rare to see that so many people today shown on my MSN with status online. Not only Britain, countries like  China and Korea are also the worst-hit area in the world.

Taken by Sarah at University of Westminster

If we call they are “suffering”, it seems inappropriate here since not everyone are disappointed by the blizzard.

Snowfall causes chaos

Thousands of schools has closed and traffic has plunged into chaos because of the disruption and delayed caused by the snow fall.

It took ages for me to get to university today. Sitting in the Metropolitan tube, I even had the impulse to get off the train and walk to the uni although it was quite far away. The train just moved so slow, even slower than my walking speed.

Along the way,  the  snow was becoming thicker and thicker as the trains headed to the uni,while in central london, the snow melted as soon as they fell to the ground. When I finally got there and got off the train, I was surprised that it seemed the whole world was covered by snow. It is beautiful!! But… At this time, I received the email from the uni and it said the Harrow site was closed… I have never feel annoyed by my Blackberry but this time it was just so fast..why the snow did not block its signal. It took me more than one hour to get here and get this message just after I got off the train. Is it joking?  Anyway, I had to set out to the return journey.

Other people are not better off. Rail firms have reduced their services, some airports are closed and people in certain parts of  Britain have been left without power.

Delightful Snow

There is an old saying in China:

A snow year, a rich year!

which means a timely snow in the new year promises a harvest year. Well, it might be true.

Supermarkets triumph in the “panic” buying.

we know shoppers’ buying habits change according to the weather-a temperature change of three degrees from the seasonal average can result in sales in some products going up by as much as 50%

Students are delighted by the snow as well. Rather than seeing them studying in the lecture room, they are out and play snowball now, enjoying their snow winter.

Source: CNN full body scanner from YouTube

From beltless and laptopless to shoeless and liquid restrictions, now passengers are presenting their “naked” bodies to the new full body scanners.

The video above shows how officers are enabled to check the objects beneath the clothes through X rays by using new scanners. It seems that we have been stripped to naked slowly as defensive measures against terrorism has tightened.

Debates on privacy and health concerns are heated around the installation of the new scanners. Privacy advocates said those naked images had breached child protection laws and passengers has raised their health fears over the radiation when they are exposed to the scanner.

I don’t want to join any of these debates at this moment. Nothing could be more important than life. If new full body scanners do work effectively to protect our      lives, I will give up my privacy then. Besides, the news scanner has been proved by expert no health threat. The point is “do these new machines actually work”?

The effectiveness of full body scanners

• What the scanners can reveal?

Explosive devices: liquids, chemicals or plastic explosive,  which the

traditional metal detectors cannot reveal.

• What the scanners cannot reveal?

Low-density materials, the items concealed in the body or resembled into the skin .

Worth or not?

Machines are machine after all. They are not almighty, but the humans are. Countermeasures can always be worked out by creative human beings in order to achieve their purposes, needless to say the scanner’s inefficiency of detecting certain objects.

The solution is to acknowledge that there isnt a single technology out there that is an answer to the whole problem Mr. Murphy, from The Independent.

“We cannot be convinced of the absolute proof of the working at 100 percent level of any technology, that is absolutely true” Gordon Brown, Yahoo News

It seems to me that the government and bombers are beating around bush. The governments tighten security check after being threatened. Then terrorists might figure out new ways to get round them. Then security checks are upgraded again. When will the game end?

Also, the most important thing is to learn from the past. as Sarah Ludford, a British member of the European Parliament told Time.com, the common mistake made by 9/11, 7/7 and Christmas day was not join the “dots of available information”.

Now the governments spend around 150,000 dollars on each ineffective scanner to check “naked bodies” rather than using those money to train security personnels and improve information system to prevent the terrorist acts beforehand. Everything has been late.

I cannot even imagine what will happen to our bodies if next creative terrorist turns up. What else people can scarify to save the country from ?  Do the privacy and health sacrifices worth?

Music of The Night: The Phantom of the Opera from YouTube

I had heard a lot about this well-known opera before I actually went there to watch it. Almost every friend of mine and the reviews on the web are highly recommending this opera. Now I have to say, I really love it. The plot is simple but profound. It takes time for viewers to digest the philosophy of love behind the stage.

As I said, the story is easy to understand. Christine, a new in the chorus of the Paris Opera House, made amazing progress with her singing  these dasy, giving credits to the ghost (the phantom of the opera) who had been abandoned by his parents because of his ugly looking and living in the basement of the House with his mask on. Everynight, the phantom taught her heaven’s music and fallen in love with Christine.With his help, Christine triumped in the gala. Her childhood friend Raoul recognized her and two of them soon fallen in love. The phantom’s heart was broken and began his revenge.

After the opera, Iwas trying to figure out what the true love is on my way home. Is phantom really love Christine? I remembered the lyrics (shown below), it seems to me that what the phantom really loved is his “mask” -the appearance of Christine, the one can bring his songs and voices to the stage. He devote a lot to explore her talent, to train her and lead her to success. What he loved was all his devotation to Christine.

(Christine): Those who have seen your face draw back in fear–I am the mask you wear

(Phantom): Its me they hear

(Together): you spirt and my voice in one combined

Love seeks no reward, love is its own reward. Loving someone and all your efforts is not to expect the one to love you back or they do the same thing to you but because you love he/she on its own rights. While phantom thought all his efforts to make Christine success deserved her love, which drove him crazy when he saw Christine and Raoul falling in love.

Post from Official website

Well, there is another version of love expressed in the opera. What if Christine did not take off phantom’s mask? What if she did not see the his real face?  Before that, Christine so admired phantom’s voice and kinda falled in love with him till the moment she took off his mask. I am not sure if she’s still leave him if phantom is person with handsome looking like Raoul.

The last scene made me cry when phantom leted Christine go and marry Raoul after forcing her to kiss him. Weeks later, he was found died and only left his mask in the chair….The phantom was eventually abandoned by the world, by love….. everyone in the theatre stood up and applaued for the performers and the moving plot.

I will give 5 stars for this opera. The stage effects is amazing. The only flaw could be the singing of the performers, which not as good as what I had expected.

The new anti-smoking advert depicts children singing “I can do anything for you”, followed by the slogan ” if they’s do that, why won’t you give up smoking?”

Anti-smoking advertisement from YouTube

The use of children in the advert has been highly criticized. Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ lobby group Forest said

Trying to make smokers feel guilty about their habit is a form of moral blackmail and it is quite wrong to use children in this way (From BBC)

Using children’s image is a not new phenomenon in NHS’s anti-smoking adverts. The one in 2008 also used children to convince smokers to stop smoking for the sake of their children under the theme of “I like what you like” indicating that children would imitate what parent do. The research manager of ASH charity pleaded against this criticism by saying:

I don’t think this argument really stands up. The research shows that of children whose parent smoke , 94 percent of them say they are not happy with their parents smoking and they would be much much happier if their parents quit…it is an effective tool of persuading parents to quit smoking.

hum…yeah, it could be an effective tool, but is it the only tool? Jason, a 7 years smoker holds a more moderate view about this argument and said:

Anti-smoking

Yes and no, because i think it is important for people understand that it does affect children as much as the person smoking as well. But, at the same time, there is no need to a sort of have that in front of your faces, , on the packaging, the images and messages on the packaging itself is enough to get people to stop really”.

I kinda agree with Jason’s view, using children in the adverts makes me feel that it is forcing people to quit smoking. Smoking, although is not good for health, it is still a personal choice. Government could suggest smokers to quit rather than force. Also, if smokers do not want to quit, any kind of advert will not work actually, even the ones with children. It does give them a message that smoking affect children, but they can choose not to smoke in front of children. So, is the advert going to far? Does it actually work?

In today’s BBC news, Harriet Harman, Equality minister has criticised BBC of age discrimination on women. She said in the newsroom, women have to be 10 years younger than their male counterparts.That is a saying widely shared in the society that the older, the more valuable a man is. By contrast,for women,  aging brings nothing good but problems.

The discrimination still exists under the pseudo-gender equality. Yes, women do have more chances working in the public, but the traditional gender stereotypes still persists  in the wider social culture. Women are judged by their appearance, their age and sexuality. If you google “perfume” , almost every dispictions in advertisement portray female body. The old rules are also internalized in women’s minds. For example, in The Pussycat Doll’s I DON’T NEED A MAN MV below, Singers wearing bustier top do sexy postures to attract male audience, which does not accord with its lyrics. Thus, women have not liberated themselves from the traditional stereotypes.

These old stereotypes also marginalize women from participating in senior management.  The invisible “glass ceiling” obstruct their promising futures. According to the Annual Report 2006, women took up only 24 percent of the senior positions in journalism. The gender traits for women such as intellectual inferior, emotional are employed to suppress women’s progress and the chance to be promoted. Even women takes charge in the senior position,  male language assault and rumors are used to undermine their confidence. Kate Adies, news reporter for the BBC said:

not only that television constrains a talented woman from reaching senior positions, but also the scarcity of women at the top invites male innuendo”

Therefore, there are loads of work need to be done to truly achieve the gender equality. The primitive task is to rectify the social culture to make sure the positive perception towards gender difference.