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.

Holocaust Memorials

Earlier in the year I spent 2 months traveling around Europe and in that time, once we got into Eastern Europe and then Germany, there is one thing that each town had at least one of and that's a Holocaust Memorial.
I don't know why but I find it interesting to compare all the different ways that people come up with to remember, mark or commemorate all sorts of historical events, from the basic blue plaque on the wall to a huge, such as this World War One memorial in Nice.
This tiny picture really doesn't do it justice, this memorial is huge and craved into the side of a cliff. It's rather impressive.

Now on to the subject of the post and that is Holocaust Memorials. These are some of the most interesting because of the total rarity that you get in them. Memorials to wars, in particular the First and Second World Wars almost all tend to follow the same pattern and the only thing that varies is the statue on top of the cenotaph and its size. Where as Holocaust Memorials are all different and I think really tell us about the communities/people that built them and how they think it should be best remembered.

This is because it is an event that nobody really knows best how to represent, for a town to represent its losses in a war is pretty straight forward, you need a list of names, dates ect. and a focus point to remember those people for their sacrifice. However with the holocaust, the memorials are not reflecting those who gave their lives for a greater good but instead about those who lost their lives to one of the darkest moments in history. So what's the best way to represent it? Some have gone for a the big in your face approach while others went for a more subtle approach. I'm going to go through some examples that we came across now to show you this difference.

Budapest

The shoes by the river.



This is a brilliant example of one of the approaches to a Holocaust Memorial, that is by representing one single event in the Holocaust. These shoes represent the victims of a shootings by Arrow Cross Party Militia in Budapest. It gets people interested because at first, if you don't know why it is there, you have no idea what it is there for but further investigation of the area will reveal a plaque informing you of its purpose.
This in turn leads to more discussion and research (well if you are a history geek like me) into the people behind the shootings and Hungary's role in the Second World War.


Raoul Wallenberg Holocaust Memorial Garden

This tree is the central focus of the garden. On every leaf is a name of someone who died during the Holocaust. The weeping willow tree, I feel, represents the sadness of the event extremely well. Even in this photo, I find it moving but maybe that is because it brings back the memory of seeing it in person. In a simple way they were able to represent the sadness and the scale of the Holocaust (there are alot of leaves)

Auschwitz

Now the whole camp is one big memorial to the Holocaust so before I go on to talk about the individual memorials there I'm going to take the time to discuss the place as a whole. Auschwitz I is basically Eden Camp for the Holocaust, it even sells rather inappropriate items at it's gift shop such as posters and postcards! The first part of the site is informative but never really moves over to moving apart from one part (I will discuss that part in a minute) This maybe because a percentage of the visitors seemed to be treating it as just another visit to a historical site, like a castle and not the representation of one of the greatest evils the world has ever known.
One the other hand Birkenau, is really moving, the site is huge and, partly due to the weather while I was there, it was almost empty of visitors. The two sites compliment each other well. I don't have any photos of these sites though as I didn't find it appropriate to take my camera with me. So the following photos are ones that I have nicked from google image search.

The Death Wall

This is truly moving, not even the happy snapping tourists could ruin the emotion that this site has. The wall where prisoners were shot for their crimes in the camp, for me represents the fact that even when people are at their lowest, there will always be those that resists and their resistance was for all those that couldn't. I will admit I was close to tears in front of this wall.


The International Memorial
I don't have a picture of this, as I couldn't find one on the internet that was small enough after a quick search. However you wouldn't want to see it anyway because it's rather ugly. It's like a Henry Moore sculpture on acid and then there is the stones that have a message written message on them in many different languages that talks about how this should be a lesson to humanity. This shows up how the international community has failed because genocides have continued, maybe not on the industrialised scale of the Holocaust but they have gone on never the less. It is just a reminder of how we have failed so many people.

Prague

Pinkas Synagogue
Once again no photos because you were not allowed to take photos inside the synagogue, however if you wish to see it a quick google imagine search will reveal it. However this is one of those places you really have to visit to understand the impact. This the names of the Jews of Prague and the surrendering areas are written on the wall of the synagogue, in every single room. Really there isn't much to say about it apart from the general feeling of shock you get when you see all these names, without memorials like this, the estimated 10 million people that died during the Holocaust would just be an unimaginable number, a statistic.
Munich
Once again I have to say sorry for not having any photos of these but I felt I had to mention them for their approach to the issue of Holocaust Memorials. They have a series of small memorials, many of which have no inscription and if they do, then it is only in German. The effect of this is that they may go missed by the average tourist, we only found out about a couple of them because we had a guided tour around Munich. They also represent events that happened in the city, from dodgers' alley to the two memorials to Sophie Scholl and the White Rose movement. They encourage discovery and learning and all have a very relative theme. They also represent how maybe it is time to put the Holocaust and the Second World War behind the country of Germany yet at the same time just have subtle reminders of these events which have scarred the country and its wonderful people.

Dresden

I don't know what it says but I imagine it is something to do with the train station been used to ship people to the concentration camps. Once again I feel it tells us something about the German feelings towards the remembrance of the Holocaust. By making it inaccessible to people who cannot read German, they are keeping the Holocaust as a solely German event reflecting their need to try and deal with their own history.

Berlin
Now for the complete opposite of the memorials in Munich. This thing is huge and right next to the Reichstag (although it so has no markers on it to tell you what it is apart from the museum that is under it) Walking through it gives the experience of disorientation and confusion reflecting the issues that surround memorials to the Holocaust. In this sense it is interactive that is certainly unique yet at the same time it fits in with Berlin. Although I prefer Munich's style, I can see how this works and why some people prefer this style.Here is a news story from the BBC when it was opened, explaining some of the problems that people have with it.



Hamburg
And finally we have my favorite memorial to the Holocaust that I came across. It shows the despair of the Holocaust in such a simple way and is surrounded by other memorials to war all of which are situated in the ruins of a church that was destroyed in the Second World War by the Allied bombing of Hamburg. There is emotion in this statue that is so pure and just sums everything up.

It's like the other one but with less zombies

I decided that I needed a second blog to write about the more serious issues because they don't really sit well along side the zombies, rugby and reviews of the other blog so here it is.
Not sure what will be going here and it won't be as fun as the other one because it won't feature zombies.