Witnessing History

Every so often something will happen in your life time that in years to come the next generation will ask a whole host of cliques questions about such as "Where were you?", "How did it feel?" and "Did you know you were witnessing history?" The answer to the first one of course will always be "In front of the telly, where else would I be?"
Anyway seriously today's events was one of those moments in our lives, whether you watched it or didn't even know it was happening because Obama was sworn in as American President today. For the first time in their history, America will not have a white man in charge. Now this has made me look back at my life and think about the times I have witnessed history happen, these are the events that will be taught as turning points in the classrooms in about 15 years time, these are, in my opinion, our generations fell of the Berlin wall or end of the Second World War.

Obama's sworn in as President

Well I might as well start with the one that happened today. America has come along way since Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech" and today they have an African-American president for the first time in their history. Today, for one of the first times in about 8 years, we can look across the Atlantic and say well done on doing the right thing. While watching this on television, it was clear to see that the American people are caught up in a wave of excitement and hope, this can be witnessed by the fact so many people turned out to witness the event.
That all said though, lets hope this doesn't just become an historical event because of his race and it is the start of a new era in American and world politics in these "dark" times.

9/11

From one of the brightest days in America's history to one of it's darkest. Probably the defining moment in the last 10 years, it was the start of the events (in the general public's eyes) that led us into Iraq and Afghanistan and all the troubles that plague the world today. It was also the start of the War on Terror and everything that means or doesn't mean.
It is also an the first event in my memory that deserved wall to wall coverage from all the channels ( we had similar coverage for the death of Princess Diana) and I can clearly remember getting home from school and just sitting down in front of the television and watching what had happened over in New York thinking how can this happen? and Why?
The imagines that were shown that day won't be forgotten by anybody who saw from or has seen them since.

7/7 Aftermath

I could say similar things about the imagines that came from the attack on London but instead I'm going to talk about the aftermath and in particular the fact that the people who carried out the attacks were British and whats more, they were from my city.
These weren't the same type of terrorist that flew the planes into the side of World Trade Center Towers, they were from another country, no these were kids that were born and raised in our own country. It opened up alot of questions for us and many still haven't been answered. It also showed that our country isn't as forward in ethnic integration as many thought we were, sure in recent years we had seen the rise of the BNP but they were only small gains and in working class towns like Burnley. How could a city, that has many different nationalities and integration rise a group of terrorist?
For me it was a shock, I know the part of the city they came from is mainly muslim but there was never anything to suggest that they were radicals, plotting terrible deeds hiding in this part of the city. Leeds is a city that has changed alot in my life time, from a stereotypical northern city to one of the fastest growing and forward thinking cities in the U.K outside of London and in just a few weeks that was all swept aside and we became the home of British based muslim radicalism. It woke many of us up to the problems we have internally and not just externally. Hopefully it will have proved to be a watershed, where we start turning things around for a brighter future, who knows, some day there could be 2 million people on the streets of London to greet a muslim Prime Minister.


How have things changed in how we witness history?

Now for a general look at how we witness history has changed due to the new technologies available. The fact that many people in the street now have mobile phones that are equipped with cameras (both still and video) means that we are exposed to more angles of events than we have ever had access to before. Even just comparing to the 9/11 attacks to the 7/7 ones show how much accessible technology has advanced, with 9/11 we had a few shots of the planes crashing into the towers and I think only one of the first plane hitting (and that was due to a French film maker, making a film of about firefighters at the time) where as with 7/7 we had many amateur videos and photos from the tunnels and streets of London. All this new material is great for the historians of the future, as primary sources will be first hand, on the spot accounts (well photos and videos) instead of mainly diaries and newspaper reports sometimes written days after the events.
We also have instant news, if something happens in any developed country, it will be on the internet or if it is really big, on the t.v within minutes. We can be overwhelmed with news sometimes, the news reporters don't always have to time to report the facts after the smoke has settled so to speak. Instead we get portions of news on the telly instead of reports in the newspapers the next morning, meaning misinformation often happens and not because of government censorship but because they don't have the time to process all the information available to them.
As this technology spreads, historic world events are going to be seen by more people than ever live, offer more viewpoints, give us more information, and surely this can only be a good thing.

A Tale of Two Forums:

Or how online communities can actually rock.
Online communities often get a lot of stick from people who don't know any better, they are either places for sad geeks or perverts or griefers and although this is true in some sense (I'm looking at you 4chan) there are places where this couldn't be further from the truth. So to highlight this fact I'm going to talk about two forums/communities that go against the stereotype. One is the GamesTM forum and the other is Simply Syndicated. To illustrate my point I'm going to write about why these forums are important to me starting with Gamestm.

GamesTM
Growing out of the magazine of the same name, this is a forum based around the issue of games and everything game related. According to my profile I joined way back in 2006, however I wouldn't really class myself as a regular until this year.
A forum whose average user is 15-25 year old males should be your typical forum, full of swearing immature twats and 2/3rds of that is true, swearing and immature but there are hardly any twats. It's like been on a forum full of your mates, if you are into gaming, which for me is a brilliant thing because many of my "real life" friends really aren't into their gaming any more.
They also make up the vast majority of my friends list on XBL so when I used to work the unsociable hours of 5-10 on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings these guys were my social life. Without them I wouldn't have had human contact with anybody but my parents and people at work from roughly October to April apart from the odd day or two. They were my replacement mates, who I blow up bad guys. It was something to look forward to in the days when I couldn't go to the pub with my friends because I was at work when they were out and they were at work while I was asleep.
The people from GamesTM maybe not the people you would choose to turn to in a personal crisis (no offence guys) but they are the people who will entertain you into the wee hours of the night with swearing and immature and abit of light harmless ribbing. They are the type of people you would go on the piss with after a break up to get over it and have a brilliant time with.
Team VAG? for the win.

Simply Syndicated

The people on these forums are you're best mates and respected elders all concentrated in one easy to access place. It really is the best online community that I'm part of, sure the fact that everybody on there is a fan of either films, tv or games helps but it's more than just that. Unlike the guys on GamesTM, these are the people you can turn to in a personal crisis, recent events have proven such for a couple of the members, there is as much support as you need on there.
This is partly due to the fact there is wide range of ages, backgrounds and experience on there so it is more than likely that someone on there has gone through what you are going through. This is the strength of this forum.
Also the debates on there are all carried out in a mature manner and rarely descend into name calling and if they do the mods step in and sort you out. They operate a fair system on banning and you will get plenty of warning if are you stepping out of line and have opportunity to change your ways however carry on down that path and you will be out.
However it isn't all serious stuff, people are will to have a laugh too maybe not in the banter you get on a forum full of young males.
Also it is a good way to find out new films, games or music you might like as the variety of people there means there is going to be someone who has similar tastes as you and will recommend something that you may not have heard of. All in all it is a great forum that feels more like a close group of friends that just happens to be spread around the world. It's places like this that make the internet a great place.