Negative and positive articles

On the 25th of August, the annual video music awards (VMA) was aired on the music channel, MTV. The award show had a number of attention grabbing performances. However there was one performance which seems to be spoken about up until this day which is the Miley Cyrus performance. Cyrus who has been a child star on Disney had a whole new different performance singing her latest hit single 'We can't stop' and a Robin Thicke song 'Blurred lines' for the award show which some have criticized time and time again both praising it and dissing it.

The Guardian newspaper had a somewhat positive view about the performance and tried to make Cyrus appear as just another pop artist performer that was just doing what she felt was expressive. The article made it seem as though Miley was not to blame for her actions, because what she did was not something that has not been done time and time again on the VMA stage. The writer also referred to Lady gaga’s performance and said that what Cyrus has done is not so different from what Gaga did on the same day.

An article from the Independent on the other hand was not so appealed by the VMA performance of the pop star, calling the performance all sorts of names such as racist, disturbing, inappropriate. The article also outlines the views of the Parents Television Council (PTC) and how they reacted by issuing a complaint against MTV for airing the pop star’s performance stating that it should have not been rated suitable for 14 year olds. The article also draws attention to Robin Thicke who performed alongside with Cyrus and stated that he should not have reacted the way he did.  

 References

Walshe. S (2013) 'so Lady Gaga's thong is art, while Miley Cyrus twerking is art?' The Guardian 27th August [online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/27/miley-cyrus-twerking-double-standard (accessed at: 13th December 2013)

Wyatt. D (2013) 'the tongue, the twerking the outfit: should someone have stopped Miley Cyrus's performance?' The Independent, 28th August [online] Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/the-tongue-the-twerking-the-teddy-outfit-should-someone-have-stopped-miley-cyrus-vma-performance-8785494.html (accessed at: 13th December, 2013)  

The 2011 England Riot and its effects

On the summer (August) of 2011 the United Kingdom experienced a devastating riot in England which spread across different places in England. This riot was also referred to as the “BlackBerry riot” because, a lot of information was conveyed using mobile devices and the help of the social media to plan.

The cause of the riot was not fully established because different people had their different reasons, but ultimately the major reason that was provided was the fact that the people (rioters) were not comfortable and happy with the power of the police force and how they were behaving towards them.

Some people however saw the riot as a “ticking bomb” that was just waiting for the right moment to explode and this eventually happened when a member of the police force shot and killed a local in Tottenham, London called Mark Duggan. This act is what was said to be the trigger to the riot and was what caused thousands of people to move to the streets to protest on the 6th of August 2011. However, the protest turned from a simple protest to a riot when a sixteen year old girl was arrested for alleged disorderly conduct. Others, seem to blame the riot on the problem of inequality, social strata and lack of morals.

The riot lead to the looting of various items, the destruction of important properties and buildings. The riot also had numerous amount of people put into jail due to disorderly behaviour (over 2.000 people), because some people stole items such as electronics and clothing items from stores while some participated in burning different items. This event also lead some people to live in fear during the riot. 


References
Cooper. C (2011) 'what caused England's riot' The Guardian 5th October [online] available at: http://www.theguardian.com/society/joepublic/2011/oct/12/what-caused-england-riots (accessed at: 12th December, 2013)
Lewis. P (2011) 'Rioters say anger with police fuelled summer unrest' The Guardian 5th December [online] available at: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/dec/05/anger-police-fuelled-riots-study (accessed at: 12th December, 2013)
Rogers. S (2011) 'UK riots: the key facts and figures' The Guardian 19th August [online] available at: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/aug/09/uk-riots-data-figures (accessed at: 12th December, 2013)

The history of Yoruba language in the UK

A Yoruba band playing their traditional instruments

Yoruba is a language which originated from Nigeria and is commonly spoken in Nigeria, it is spoken by about 22 million people around the world. Although it is not very clear as to who the first person to start speaking the language was or when the language was first spoken. It has been suggested that the language started from Nigerians who went to the UK for a number of reasons a long time ago and they began to speak it there.

Since both the language and the culture has found its way into the United Kingdom and is commonly spoken in the UK, a large number of Yoruba speakers come into the UK more and more both to visit and to stay. A survey conducted in 2000 in London indicated that the language is more spoken amongst school children in the UK in places such as Greenwich, Hackney, Lambeth and Southwark. Yoruba is also one of the most researched sub-Saharan languages and culture

References

BBC (2007) 'Yoruba' Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/multilingual/yoruba.shtml#A (accessed at: 12th December, 2013)

SOAS (2013) 'languages of Africa at SOAS: Yoruba' Available at: http://www.soas.ac.uk/africa/languages/languages-of-africa-at-soas-yorb.html (accessed at: 12th December, 2013)