Articles by " Nick Petrie"

THERE are many challenges facing us as a society over the next few years. The major parties are desperately jostling for influence and power, to be the party in control come the next general election. With this jostling comes promises, something the British electorate are more than used to by now. But if we look at the progress we have made as a society across the last ten years, many things are perhaps not quite where we expected. Technology has been developing and progressing at an ever-increasing rate; consumerisms’ expansion has been exponential, the desire bred into us to upgrade and invest. Yet what about the issues, and the problems that are addressed come election time - poverty, equality, access to education, social mobility and the economy?

IT has been over two years now since the 7/7 bombings in London and the Government has decided it is time for a review of our terror legislation. It was the 7/7 bombings that prompted the initial review two years ago, when the Government were pushing to be able to hold terror suspects for up to 90 days without charge (from the 14 days it was at the time). The announcement by Gordon Brown in the Queenís speech, to review the legislation, coincides with the rulings from the Jean Charles de Menezes case. Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead in Stockwell tube station in July 2005 following police operations in the wake of the 7/7 bombings.

WHEN walking down Oxford Street in London or heading into the Bullring in Birmingham, there is a fair chance you will be stopped by a ‘chugger’ - someone asking you to give money to some charity or other. They often open with a question; ‘Have you heard about the recent earthquake in Kashmir?’ Fifteen minutes later, you have agreed to fork over ten pounds a month, a kidney and your first- born.

IN the developed world technology is having a greater impact on our daily lives than ever before. The networks that exist and the devices that utilise them are helping to encourage change all over the world. Twenty years ago, the citizens of Burma staged a series of protests beginning in September 1987. These went largely unnoticed by the western world until March 1988, when approximately one hundred civilians were brutally killed during a demonstration when the Burmese military opened fire. This was later followed on 8th August by the massacre of an estimated 3,000 Burmese citizens, although some think it could be as high as 10,000. The victims included Burma’s Buddhist monks who were marching in support of the general population.