Are our dreams worth pursuing?

After finding out this past week that UCAS applications are down by around 9-12% this year, me and my two good friends had a long and heated discussion about whether it was even worth going to University anymore, considering how hard is to even make anything of yourself nowadays. Now whilst I was very persistent about wanting to go to university and make something of myself, they were quite skeptical about it, and were insistent that it's just not worth it anymore. Now whilst I was shocked at hearing this, I can't help to agree that at the moment, it just seems as if any dreams we have simply turn to dust. So this begs the question..... Are our dreams worth pursuing?

Well I can only answer this from a personal view, and so my opinion might differ to yours, but this past week I've felt both ways about this. For half of the week I was as determined as ever to make something out of myself, and the other half I just simply couldn't be bothered anymore.



However, yesterday I had a epiphany listening to a song called 'Successful' by Drake and realized that we don't have to be a billionaire to be successful, we just simply have to be doing the thing that we love, with the people that we love. In the song the lyrics "I just wanna be successful" are repeated over and over again and whats so beautiful about those lyrics is that, that is exactly what we all just want... To be successful. We all wish to be successful in order to please our families, to please ourselves, and to feel that we have a legacy to leave behind when its time to leave this earth. So i actually disagree with this idea that reaching our dreams is rare nowadays, it is in fact the belief in ourselves that has become nonexistent.

Jazzy's Verdict: Of course our dreams are worth pursuing, and you shouldn't let anybody tell you differently. Things are much harder, especially for young people, but those of us that are brave enough to pursue our dreams, I believe will soon enough see the benefits of it. As the rapper Drake says, "I'll take the life of sleepless nights if we can all die happy" and I know i'm definitely planning on dying with a smile on my face.

Football and racism: will it ever stop?

Last week Saturday during the highly anticipated showdown between Manchester United and Liverpool, which ended in a 2-2 draw, a altercation happened on film between United'd Patrice Evra and Liverpool's Luis Suarez that has pretty much overshadowed a brilliant game. Evra, often regarded as the best left back in the world, has claimed that during the match the two had a disagreement in which Suarez responded by calling him a N***a, something Suarez has protested his innocence against and has claimed to be untrue. Now even though I am a big United fan and therefore hate Liverpool, I am not going to take sides in this debate and turn it into a who said what article, what I am most intrigued about though is the topic of racism in football in general, and whether we will ever see a stop to it.

Now in such a modern and equal society, racism is something in which many people naively think just doesn't exist anymore, and although i'll agree that there is a lot more racial tolerance in the world today, it still doesn't change the fact that racism is still live and kicking in today's society. I myself have even been subject to racist abuse before when I was on holiday, and from personal experience I can tell you it is not a nice feeling being marginalized because of where you're from, or because of the colour of your skin.



However in a sport like football, the worlds favorite sport, racism shouldn't at all be tolerated as I feel it sets a bad example for the younger generation. Look at it this way, if a child from a young age see's people of all races collectively playing a sport together they're much more likely to adopt the sort of mentality that supports and lives all races due to their love for football. From this we can then say that football doesn't only provide entertainment, it can also provide education due to its massive influence on the lives of so many people. Nevertheless, racism in football is kind of like a stubborn spot that just won't go away, which begs the question, will it ever?

I mean cast your minds back a few years ago when England came up against Spain in a friendly match, in which many of the black English players were subject to monkey whistles from the Spanish fans, I was only young at the time but was still very confused and sickened as to why people would act in such a manner. Another example of this can be seen through Italian bad boy Mario Balotelli, who until recently, was disliked by Italian fans not only because of his attitude, but also because of the fact he was a black Italian which for some reason shocked many Italians. Now whilst England is way more racially tolerant compared to places like Spain, Italy and Russia, we have to take it into consideration that football is a worldwide sport and so although racism doesn't affect the English game as much as it does other countries, we still need to realize that if it is affecting one league, then it is affecting all of them.



This is the reason why I was so happy to see the world cup in South Africa last year, I feel it represented what the majority of people want football to reflect now. That being racial tolerance, equality, unity and for us all to embrace our differences through the sport that we love, and damn do I love football.


Jazzy's Verdict: Will it ever stop? The simple answer to that is no because I don't believe racism can be eradicated from the minds of everyone, and for some people racial hate is rooted so deep inside of them that they find it difficult to ever change. However, I feel that whilst we as a society and football as a beautiful game moves on and improves, racial equality not only football but in society also will, and although their is still some ignorant enough to hate because of our differences, I know there are much more willing to love to embrace it, and all through the game I love called football.

Amanda Knox: The Big Confusion

Unless you've been living under a very large and round rock, you would've heard that American Amanda Knox has recently been released from prison and cleared of all murder charges after she was wrongly convicted of murdering roommate Meredith Kertcher in Italy a four years ago, and although i'm pleased for her and can't think to imagine how she must feel after being thought of as a murderer for all those years, i'm not only feeling very sorry for the family of Meredith Kertcher, I'm also very confused.

I mean I may be only 17 but I still remember first hearing about this and being shocked, and its been drilled into my head so much that Amanda Knox was guilty that its now hard for me to straight away believe that she's not, and if she really is innocent then we need to have a long look at the Italian authorities who wrongly convicted her and ruined not only one, but two families lives. Its actually situations like this which kind of makes me want to one day go into politics, I mean politicians and those in authority are suppose to be protecting the rights of the people and this highlights that there seems to be a lack of that in society. I mean not only was Amanda Knox wrongly accused, this also means that Meredith's real killer is still somewhere out there which means we're pretty much back to square one in this investigation which is most likely only going to bring along even more confusion and drama, when really we just all want this case to be resolved and justice to be served.

Jazzy's Verdict: I'm so confused about all of this that I don't think I actually have a clear verdict. All i'm going to say is that these so called authorities and people in higher power need to start getting better at their job, or just simply stop doing it.

Carlos Tevez: Was his outburst justified or ot?

In the space of one year Carlos Tevez has managed to go from Manchester City's hero to probably the most hated man in Manchester, and that's from the blue and red half of Manchester.
But where did it all go wrong for the join top scorer in the league last season?

Problems start to appear between Tevez and Mancini

Well we'll have to travel back to the future to December 2010 for that. A time where Carlos should have been praying for a premier league and FA Cup trophy for Christmas, Carlitos was instead hoping for a move away from Manchester City in which he claimed was because he missed his family. Although this wasn't all revealed until the following month its strongly believed that he had voiced his concerns about this at the start of the season but was convinced to stay by manager Roberto Mancini. Whether it was the Christmas feast he had back home in Argentina that changed his mind i don't know, but what I do know is that this hinted at obvious problems in the Manchester City camp regarding their best player Carlos Tevez.

Tevez ends a perfect season with FA Cup glory

Months had passed and it seemed as if Carlos Tevez leaving Manchester City was a thing of the past as he was well and truly banging in the goals for them with complete ease, his contributions earning Manchester City their first trophy in 33 years in the form of the FA Cup, a coveted 3rd place spot in the league which meant automatic qualification into next years Champions League and earning himself (along with Dimitar Berbatov) the golden boot award. Whilst everything seemed all rosy in the Manchester City camp in Carlos Tevez's mind it was the complete opposite, the striker still wanted out of the club and in a interview remarked that he hated Manchester, wanted to leave and wouldn't even return their on holiday. Comments as you would guess was not well received back in Manchester and after Tevez's awful performances at the Copa America for Argentina and City's signing of his compatriot Sergio Aguero it seemed as if Carlos Tevez was finally going to get his wish. HOWEVER....... It was not to be as no club could afford to sign the talisman.

Sergio Aguero's introduction means there's no longer room for Tevez in City's starting line up

So Tevez reluctantly had no choice but to return to Manchester and play it out for another year, however with the excellent performances of Aguero and Dzeko, Tevez could only find himself a seat on the City bench , something which as seen a few years ago at Manchester United was never going to go down well with the Argentinian. So a month into the season in City's biggest game to date against Bayern Munich what does Tevez do? Well he pretty much does nothing, refusing to go on the pitch when called upon by his manager to help his team out who were losing at the team. Even in the aftermath of the game whilst Mancini fumes and is insistent that Tevez is "finished" at City, Tevez professes his innocence calling it a "misunderstanding". However the question I want to ask is whether his outburst was justified or not?

Jazzy's Verdict: Right now its hard to have a complete idea of what went on between Mancini and Tevez on Tuesday night but nevertheless if the reports are true that Tevez refused to go on when asked, well you can't possibly justify his actions. He's got a job and that's to play football, he's payed rather handsomely to do it as well so what reason could he possibly have not to go on to the pitch? I mean even if he doesn't want to play for City he should still do what he's paid to do and stop acting like a selfish brat. So in no possible way was his outburst justified and if I was in Roberto Mancini's position I would say the exact same thing, 'Carlos, YOU'RE FINISHED!'

London Riots: Who's to blame?

Last week 29 year old Mark Duggan's death in Tottenham at the hands of the police raised many questions from not only his family but also many residents of the Tottenham area. Many people questioned, and still question, whether his death was justified or not. A answer which the police and government failed to answer immediately and instead seemed to wait until things got worse to give some information into his death. And get worse they certainly did! Two days after his death shocking scenes of rioting and looting in Tottenham was the result of growing frustration in Tottenham and resulted in many shops being destroyed and looted, a bus and two police cars being set on fire and many shocking displays of violence against the police. In the following days to this particular riot, riots spread firstly across many parts of London and then many parts of England. I'm going to spare you of the details of all of the riots though as i'm sure you're quite aware about all of it by now, but the one question I want to ask is simply 'who's to blame?'

The Government: Well you raise tuition fees, cut EMA and cut most councils spending budget and what do you expect to happen? The government claim it is 'senseless thuggery' which yes part of it is but the government have certainly not made things easier. We already saw from the student protests at the end of last year that tensions between young people and the government was very high and the government have not done anything to address that problem since. All these cuts have pretty much ensured that the majority of young people living in deprived areas have nothing to look forward to in the future which is only going to make the amount of young people turning to crime increase. In addition to that, the government were extremely slow to react to the riots with the Prime minister and Mayor of London choosing to wait two full days to return back to the country and address a country in crisis. Its actually hard to believe that the conservatives only got into power last year with the amount of problems their government has faced already and in my opinion unless they can make significant improvements they won't be so lucky when the next election comes around.

Parents/ careers: It is seen as the responsibility of parents/ careers to raise their children correctly and teach them the wrongs and rights of life.... something which obviously a lot of parents have failed to do looking back on the past weeks violence around England. It is often said that children are the product of their parents and whilst this is true I think it is too easy to put the blame on to the parents for the actions of their children. Some people are simply uncontrollable no matter how strict of a parent you are with them, especially when from a bad area it takes much more than a parents influence and teaching to help out a child surrounded by so much deprivation. I've seen this firsthand when a mother has done her best to provide a good living for her son/ daughter but has just been unable to get through to them so I think it is very unfair to blame the parents for their child's actions.

Young People: Of course it would be much more simple to put the blame on the majority of the people committing the crimes and yes I do feel that a lot of young people acted in a disgusting manner which shouldn't ever be repeated. But I also feel that we are all only products of the system that we live in, so if anything  has made young people so aggressive and violent then it is all the above points.

Inequality in society: if you're a bit confused about what I mean what i'm trying to point out is; the inequality between young people and adults; the inequality between the poor and the rich and the inequality between black people and white people. As i pointed out earlier a lot of young people feel as if the government does not care about their needs and have not made any decisions to benefit us young people in any sort of way. Their has been absolutely nothing for young people to do this summer, education has become expensive and it is almost impossible for young people to even get jobs these days which has caused this unwanted feeling felt by young people. Also many people feel as if this conservative government have only made changes to benefit those people who are rich and haven't done anything to consolidate those living in deprived areas or people who come from poor households which many people think has caused a even bigger divide between the rich and the poor. The last point is of course about racism in society. Now whilst I son't think this was at all a race riot and the only reason I believe the majority of the rioters where black is because the majority of the people living in these deprived areas are black, I do think race is still something which is not at all equal yet in society. Just the fact that the majority of people living in deprived areas are black or Asian highlights the inequality still obvious in terms of race.

Jazzy's Verdict: Whilst I believe the riots were unneeded and if anything has only made the situation worse, I feel that all the above have something to do with why the riots actually occurred in the first place. The government need to work hard on trying to make life better for everyone without leaving out a particular group of people as they have seen from this what neglection can cause. Parents need to make sure they are aware of their own child's problems no matter what problems they are going through themselves because their own problems are very likely to effect their child's. Young people need to take control of their own lives and start taking responsibility for their actions instead of simply blaming it on someone else. And lastly, inequality is not something that will ever be completely wiped out of society but the government and society themselves can do their best to try and bring a better balance to it all.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2: My Verdict!

After meaning to watch this film various times throughout the past week (even cinema hopping to try and get available times) yesterday I was finally able to see the final Harry Potter movie 10 years after I had watched the first when I was only about 7 years old. But did this Harry potter movie live up to the expectation of its predecessors? Or did it end the series of tales about the boy wizard with a whimper? In my opinion it didn't do any because it by FAR surpassed the expectations of its predecessors and it certainly did not end with a whimper.

Rather than being a adventure movie it was pretty much a action movie from start to finish (excluding those first 5 very boring bits on that island) but overall it had everything you would want from such a heavily anticipated film and i'm gonna list exactly what I mean by that right now.

A back story: well obviously a 8 serious film franchise is always going to have a back story because if it didn't it just wouldn't make sense. But what i'm talking about here is because the movie (deathly hallows) was two parts i'm asking whether the second part linked into the first part nicely. Something which it certainly did, when I watched the first part I was a little disappointed with it as I felt it was just too much plot stacked into one film. But watching the second I can totally understand why the director David Yates done that as it set us up for a excellent non-stop action sequel which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Comedy: Harry Potters known for the occasional chuckle throughout the film and this one had it in abundance..... unfortunately just in the wrong places. For me, the parts I found most hilarious was the parts involving Voldemort just because of the fact he seriously did not give a f*ck. When he dissed Neville Longbottom towards the end of the film I was actually in stitches. Even when he carelessly through the troll off the bridge as it was in his way I had to laugh. Maybe that was just for me though as it seemed everyone else laughed at the bits i felt was unfunny whilst I laughed my head off at the bits everyone else didn't seem to think was funny. So its all depends on what you deem to be funny I guess.

Romance: This is something I had a serious problem with. I mean the romance between Ron and Hermoine seemed fine and was even very believable, but the one between Harry and Ginny was just absolutely terrible. First of all that kiss they shared was just a joke, secondly there was no chemistry between them all which I think unfortunately goes down to weak acting on their behalf. Also I would like to point out the chemistry between Voldemort and his snake, they seemed genuinely in love and its unfortunate they were not able to share their love for each other for a longer period of time.

Action: Where do i even start? There was a humongous dragon breaking out of Gringrots, huge giants and trolls, escaping from a cursed fire on broomsticks, A LOT of death and blood, Mrs. Weasley killing Bellatrix, Harry dying and coming back to life, a duel to death between Voldemort and Harry and plus most of the castle managed to get burnt and destroyed. Need I say more?

Climax: there was definitely a feeling of finality throughout the movie. You could just tell it was eventually going to end and as it got closer and closer to the end I was wishing it could just carry on. It was nice seeing it end how it pretty much all started as well, back at Kings Cross station boarding for the Hogwarts express (it was also hilarious seeing a older looking Draco Malfoy). I wouldn't say the ending was sad, but it was definitely sad to see it end.





Jazzy's Verdict: Even if you haven't followed the serious too closely make you see this film as it is truly very special. Its very sad to see it ending as I read all the books and have pretty much like the actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have grown up with the franchise. Nothing will ever compare or have the success these films have had (although I have high hopes for Anthony Horowitz 'Power of Five' series if he decides to make them into films) and I am just grateful that I was able to grow up in the same era that these films were made.

Unlucky Murray

"Unlucky Murray" - that was the trending topic on twitter earlier today as once again Andy Murray went tumbling out of Wimbledon taking a nations hopes with him. But though I feel sorry for him as I genuinely believed he had a chance in this years competition, I am slightly annoyed at the hypocrisy of my fellow English people. Not too long there was a huge debate on whether the GB football team for next years Olympics should consist of only English players or instead a mix of all the home nations. At the time most English people I spoke to laughed at the prospect of, for example, the Scottish and English national teams mixing with each other and only wanted English players in the team, a view which many people agreed with. However in that case you have to wonder how around June every year Andy Murray manages to transform from being known as Scottish to being recognized as British instead. I mean is the English sporting system so bad that we're having to take recognition for something/ someone that isn't even really ours? What we're doing is like saying we have the best basketball players in the world because all Americans are originally from England and are therefore British and yes it sounds stupid but that's only because the sporting system in England is pretty stupid.

If you think back to last year at the world cup we saw what England's supposed 'world class' sporting system really produces.... a bunch of over paid slobs who seem to have no technical ability at all and only know how to run about like headless chickens. Now this isn't the same with tennis but you would have to go way back to find the last successful English tennis player (and please do not say Tim Henman). It is quite obvious sport in England is going through a dark period and I can only hope that it is over soon.

Jazzy's Verdict: We need to stop taking recognition for achievements that aren't even ours and also need to stop thinking up new excuses every time we fail (as we usually do). What we should do is improve all of our sport academy's and schools (especially in football) and ensure that all children from all backgrounds are getting a chance to showcase their abilities and are being allowed to express themselves freely instead of being molded into some robot. If these changes do not happen soon then I may just change my nationality to Spanish so I can experience the feeling of being a winner