Marks and Spencers: Are they right to allow Muslim staff to opt out of selling certain products?

Upon recently hearing M&S were now implementing a new policy which would allow Muslim staff to refuse to sell alcoholic or pork products in order to accommodate to their religious beliefs, I simply just shook my head in disbelief. I've seen a lot of debate on twitter about this subject, but 140 character isn't quite enough for my to get my view across in the manner I would like so I decided to resurrect my old blog and express my view here (expect regular posts from now on by the way).

Anyway, back to the subject I think it is simply ludicrous that such a policy is being introduced and even though I respect the fact that M&S are simply trying to show that they are accepting of all religions, cultures and races this new policy will create much more problems than it will solve; not to mention that fact that it is completely impractical. Think of it like this; it's a busy Saturday afternoon and there are big queues everywhere and your child is getting very irritable and wants to go home. You wait in the line patiently, only to get to the front and be told by the Muslim check-out assistant that you'll have to go and join the back of another queue because you have bacon and a bottle of wine in your basket. Not only is it a big inconvenience on yourself, it'll also ensure that long queues are formed making the whole experience more stressful for everyone. The only way to solve such a problem would be to mark the tills where a Muslim person is working so you are aware not to queue there. However, I dread the day anything near to that is made reality as it is basically a form of underhanded segregation. All this will do is create divisions and a sense of resentment towards Muslims, which will bring the resurgence of bigoted and discriminatory statements you would only expect to be found in the comments section of the Daily Mail.

Jazzy's Verdict: I respect M&S for attempting to fully accommodate for all cultures and beliefs, however I think there is no need for them to take on this policy as it will only cause more problems and quite simply there is no need to fix what isn't broken.

GOOD OLD ENGLAND!

Another major tournament has come for England, and has now once again passed us by for the umpteenth time. In the next few days we can expect to see numerous newspaper headlines demanding for a upheaval of the current squad, Harry Redknapp to replace Roy Hodgson and for the two Ashley's to be denied back through immigration. But quite simply, the reason England are out is because compared to the other footballing nations, we are utterly rubbish.

Italy totally outplayed England in yesterdays
encounter

 This is something which has been the case for quite some time now but the FA have not really done much to fix, we have no players at all who have the technical ability and imagination to match the Xavi's, Ozil's and Ronaldo's of the game. Even Wayne Rooney, a player believed to be one of the best strikers in the world, looked out of his depth against Italy and was shown up by the bonkers Balotelli. The extent of this problem can be seen by the shocking fact that England only had nine attempts on goal in comparison to Italy's nine, imagine how much worse it would have been if England were up against Spain or Germany?

Although there are players such as Wilshere, Welbeck, Cleverly, The Ox and Sturridge emerging which hint at a not so gloomy future for the national team, in my opinion this just simply isn't enough. The team who played at the 2006 world cup were deemed to be the golden generation of English football consisting of stars such as Beckham, Joe Cole, Gerrard, Ferdinand, Terry and Rooney; but they were very much a failure and didn't look anywhere near dangerous on the international stage. So believing that these next crop of players are good enough is just foolish in my opinion, instead I believe that in order to one day have a national team that can actually put up a challenge in major tournaments, we have to improve our football academies and coaches, as well as picking out the talented players from a young age and turning them into stars. Most importantly of all, we need to find the players who possess great technical ability, because this is the last time I want to have to experience England looking boring and predictable which they have done for much of this tournament.

Wilshere and Chamberlain are regarded as being the future
of English football

In English football we have made the mistake of not learning from our past mistakes too many times, which can be seen by the fact the national team pretty much looks the same as it did 2 years ago in South Africa, so this time I feel we HAVE to look upon our past mistakes and correct them in order to create a national team that strikes fear into other nations, not one that they look forward to playing against.

Jazzy's Verdict: In order to create a top quality national team, it is a necessity that we find the technically gifted players in the country at a young age in order to create a team of Xavi's, instead of a team of Milner's.

Sir Alex Ferguson – The Greatest Ever

Seeing as I did a football post a few weeks ago I was going to resist doing one this week, however I am a die hard Manchester United fan and since it is the great Sir Alex Fergusons 25^th year in charge of the greatest football club in the world this week, I have to dedicate this weeks post to the great one Sir Alex Ferguson.

As a young man I myself see Sir Alex Ferguson as an inspiration, to not only people involved with sports, but to anyone in the world who has a dream and has the determination to pursue it. He is a prime example of the saying ‘hard work pays off’, and it is his hard work and determination that has led to Manchester United becoming one of the best sport clubs ever. The admiration his present and former players and colleagues show for him illustrates how highly he is regarded, not only as a manager, but also as a father figure, a friend and a human being.

Now in honour of everything he has achieved at Manchester United, I am now going to do a list of the five best players to ever have the honour of playing under him:

5.) Nemanja Vidic – The Serbian is often forgotten when it comes to Ballon d’or nominations every year, but in the minds of most Manchester United fans he is without doubt currently the best defender in the world, and may yet even go down as one of the best in history. His dominance and presence on the field make him an opponent that all strikers fear, and the fact he is on my top 5 list in front of the likes of Steve Bruce and Rio Ferdinand, highlights how highly I think of the beast from Serbia.

4.) Paul Scholes – He may be a quiet man off the pitch but on it, he is such an aggressive but intelligent player who will probably go down as one of the best midfielders in history. His pin point passing, intelligence and ability to dictate a game, would make you think he was Spanish and not English and the Spanish are probably angry at the fact he isn’t from Spain. The fact so many world class players such as Zidane and Xavi, have come out and revealed that he is their favourite player only goes to show how highly regarded the man is.

3.) Eric Cantona – Although I was very young when he was playing, I have heard so many great things about the man that it would have been impossible to leave him off this list. Captured from Leeds for an extremely low price, Eric Cantona went on to become a United legend in the short time he was at the club, and is probably one of the most iconic players to ever play the game.

2.) Ryan Giggs – The Welsh wizard will probably go down as the greatest ever to play for the club, not only for his ability on the ball, but for how long he’s been playing for it, and at an extremely high level as well. His best days may be behind him but he still has those flashes of brilliance which just leave you speechless. 

1.) Cristiano Ronaldo – When I heard Manchester United were signing Ronaldo in the summer of 2003, I was excited at the prospect of having the Brazilian phenomenon at the club, so imagine the disappointment when I heard that the Ronaldo we were signing was some skinny teenager from Portugal.  8 years later that skinny boy from Portugal has surpassed the level the old Ronaldo reached, and in my opinion is the best player in the world and one of the greatest ever to grace the game. Like Fergie, Ronaldo is someone who shows that if you work hard enough, you can be the best at whatever you do.  

Jazzy’s Verdict: The revelation of a stand in his honour yesterday at Manchester United’s game against Sunderland, highlights how great the man is. He has made supporting Manchester United such a pleasurable and fulfilling experience and on behalf of all Manchester United supporters, I say thank you.

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!'