Being an intern is ... (great)

 

My Summer ‘ 14 in less than 300 words

After a long time without blogging, it’s time to get back to business. But I do really have a solid reason why I didn’t post a single word in the past months: I was for two and a half months working as an intern at LaVoz de Galicia – the fourth most read daily in Spain.

After this experience, as I feel the fears of approaching my final year of university, I could confidently say that I would like to become a journalist. An industry that continues decreasing sales and many researches argue it is dead. That was the most important thing I’ve learnt so far: realising I am right way.

My very first article published on its website

However, not everything is as easy as it looks when you pick a copy of printed press. There is a lot of hard work and rush behind it. My routine was simple and complicated at the same time. My mission was to go to the streets and find a good story. Sometimes worked well, but sometimes your sources let you down or there nothing really going on, especially in August.  So then is when you have to the editor and provide solutions. It was pretty hard to being able to find interesting news every single day.

Overall, I think there were ten incredible weeks. And as I talked with my fellows at the newsroom all of them agree that in order to build a successful future in this industry is essential to get some work experience. For personal and career reasons I would definitely recommend it to everyone.

Interview: Jay Lynchehaun

“They gave 6-9 months to live and I’m still here”

Carpe Diem, which translated to English would be similar to “seize the day”, is an antique way of life. People, who follow this mentality, seem, to me, slightly arrogant and hypocrite. One more time, Jay Lynchehaun, cancer fighter, charity founder and motor-racing devotee, proves that I was mistaken

Precise as a Swiss Cuckoo-clock, Jay Lynchehaun arrives on time. No minute earlier or later. 11:00am, as it was previously arranged.  As wedding-photographer, part-time graphic designer, ex-mechanic, motor-racing fanatic, charity founder and hopeful fighter, squeezing each second of his life is crucial.

Rigorously on time, the interview takes place on the spacious living room of his country house outside Blackburn.  We urgently need Jay’s advice.  How you manage your time? Is it possible? Does your day have 24 hours like mine? Do hours have 60 minutes for you?  Do the fighter, photographer and graphic designer fit in one person?  How do you plan yourself?

‘Take every day as it comes, I don’t know what I’m going to do in the future’, he gently reveals.

Jay Lynchehaun

Couple years ago, he was working as a mechanic in a local store after specialising in college in vehicle and motoring engineer. As car-addict, he often makes visible his passion.  With a navy jacket, Nurburgring circuit printed on the back, working jeans and stop-sign red Ferrari shoes, he welcomed me to his house.

When, on October 2011, he was enforced to quit his job and lifestyle; he become an unconditional fighter and cancer charity founder. Since then, Jay had to change his habits and mentality.
 The 28-year-old ex-mechanic was diagnosed brain cancer. 

He fortunately realized that he was having some symptoms he couldn't explain. 

At that moment, his tumour was so urgent that he needed immediate surgery.  He naturally explains how they have de-bulked 30% of his brain due to the malicious tumour.                                                                                                                                                             
‘I’m terminal. But they gave 6-9 months to live and I’m still here, two and a half years later’, he declares.

 Life completely changed for Jay. He describes the treatment as an eternal rollercoaster. ‘You are going up and down day after day’. Dealing with drugs is not painless. ‘The food replete of steroids and the strength of the drugs made me more sensible.’                                                                                                    

It is admirable his ambitious for life.  He is a natural fighter. Every minute, second, even split second, it is a continuous battle against cancer. ‘Some days you just don’t want to fight. But there is something inside that keeps you going.’

Jay has never pushed the brakes. He always kept accelerating until he achieved a ‘normal’ life. 

As he was going through cancer-treatment, permanently on bed, he decided to give a radical change to his life. He started exercising with the help of a neck charity.  That was the turning point. Two years later, in January 2013 he started this project: InBetweenEars. It is brain tumour cancer charity which aims to provide personal help and support for patients and to supply the funds for research.

‘I founded the charity mainly for two reasons: Firstly there was no support for young people like me. I didn’t want to attend to support meetings for older generations.’

Lynchehaun confidently believes that cancer, as any other disease, has a cure. This is why a great part of the money raised is destined to cancer research at the University Central of Lancashire.

InBetweenEars ,a North West based  brain tumour charity that organises, through Social Media, family events and days-out with the only purpose of raising money. Managed by his mom Sharon and himself, they were able to connect and aware the local community with this wide disease. 

He describes the ceaseless support of his family as ‘a rock’. ‘Without them I wouldn’t have passed through treatment’.  Due to social media, he is also able to communicate and interact with other people around the world suffering brain cancer.

After 16 months of life, InBetweenEars has claimed for success. Last year, they were able to raise over £5,500, extremely helpful for researches and patients. However, Jay hasn’t crossed the finish line yet.   

‘The best about life is living every day’ he says as he reminded us his Carpe Diem mentality.  ‘I want to live on this earth for a really long time’, he sentences my arguments.

The Winter Olympics: Sochi 2014

The Sochi Olympics: Do politics prevail over sport?

 “This isn’t about politics. This is about sport.”  A presenter at the Russian state owned continuous news channel, (RT) pointed out in response to the absence of politicians such as Obama to the Winter Olympics, celebrated in Russia during February.

This is not quite right. The Olympics Games, nowadays, are (un)fortunately political biased.  

 

Holding the Games it is a huge investment; however this could be worthy when your country is in the world’s eyes for two entire weeks. Sochi 2014 is just an opportunity to show Russia as great country, and Putin as a great leader. This is what Russia might have thought. As it happened in 1992, Spain was set to be just the legacy of an endless dictatorship. Nevertheless, holding the Olympics, Barcelona ‘ 92, was like a face wash for the country. Spain opened its doors to the world, which was the key point of the subsequently enormously increasing of tourism.

 The Winter Olympics, held in Sochi has been tainted by the political problems, particularly corruption scandals. These could be the most polemical and expensive Olympics in the history.

According to International Business Times, Russia has spent over £31bn in order to be ‘great’ enough to hold the Olympics. The record amount of costs was due to the unexpected expenses on Sochi’s flagship projects.  Laura Biathlon and Ski Complex were originally estimated to cost over £ 300m but its actual cost was nearly a billion pounds.

Moreover, Bloomberg Businessweek programme reported that 14% of the total expenses were managed by Putin’s close friends. Previously, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation alleged that two contractors, responsible of the construction of the Fisht Olympic stadium, were submitting false costs. Putin denied that this case could be possible related to corruption.

However, what has caused more reaction within the western society is the new anti-homosexual law, imposed by Russian government last summer.                                                     On June 30, 2013 The Guardian reported “Putin has signed into a law that stigmatises gay people and bans giving children information about homosexuality.” This law states that fines can be imposed to anyone who provides information about gay, lesbian or transgender to children, or anyone who attends to a homosexuality raid.

President Putin in his interview for the BBC stated that Anti-gay law does not harm anyone. He added: “There is no social or professional discrimination against gays in the country.”  Al Jazeera reported that at least 14 gay activists have been arrested on the opening day of the Olympics. The activists were demonstrated with rainbow flags – a symbol of the gay rights movement at the Red Square, Moscow.

The western society didn’t stay immobile to this anti-gay law and society has showed its discord through social media.  Hashtags such as #gay #cheerssochi have invaded the internet as a way of protest.  The media has also joined this protest. Google created a doodle, homepage icon, which showed illustrations of different winter sports with the rainbow flag as background.  In the print media, The Guardian or The Huffington Post showed their disagreement.

US had a serious response to Russia’s anti-gay law. Multinationals denied the support to Russia by ceasing its sponsorship to the Games. Moreover, US President Barack Obama confirmed he was not going to attend to the Winter Olympics, even though he admitted that Russia is safe place to stay for Americans.  Instead Obama sent two gay athletes to represent US.

The tangible tension between the two powers, faced In the Cold War, has dropped thanks to the Olympic Spirit, which requires friendship,  solidarity and fair play.

 

Inside a Charity Shop: A day in life of Diane Wright

A day in the life of Diane Wright, aged 49, is an unique opportunity to penetrate inside
a charity organisation. She is an excellent mother, animal lover and Ebay seller;and
she finds the time of helping the commnunity by managing a local charity shop in Preston.

Timeline:

Please feel free to click the right side of the timeline

Diane Wright, aged 49, at her charity shop

I get up about 6:45 am and the first thing I do is to take my little dog, Bobby, for a walk.

 He is a Cocker Spaniel and I do love him. We walk for about for 15 minutes, we both exercise. I come back, have a shower and get ready. 

 Some days I put the TV on, to watch the news in the morning, it tends to be ITV but if the commercials are one I flip to BBC.



I usually have cereal, especially Cheerios, for breakfast and then I leave the house at 8:30 am. 

I drive to work; it takes me about 15 minutes to get to the Salvation Army charity shop in Plungington Road, Preston. The first thing I do is to take the float out of the safe and put it in the till, put the lights on and vacuum. It’s just giving the shop a quick tidy before we open at nine.

I generally go through the donations, all the stuff is given, people walked through the door with. Some of the things come from the Salvation Army Centre, at Harrington Street.  




Ver Monday morning routine en un mapa más grande 

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Salvation Army Centre at Harrington Street, Preston

So on Monday mornings, I drop the paperwork off and pick up the donations and bring them into the shop. 

If I know the person I will go in my car to pick stuff up, especially if they are elderly and they can’t carry bags. 

We keep the donations in the changing room because we do not have a lot of space in the shop. I go through all the stock we have and put it out on the shop floor. Sometimes, I change the shop floor around it, depends what the priorities are.

I used to think at Christmas, by being a charity shop, it would boost the sales but it doesn't. It just tends to be the same all year around. However, we do get a lot of gifts and decorations at Christmas. 
People who buy a new Christmas tree will often bring their old Christmas tree in here. We don’t get much Halloween stuff in here, because we are a Christian charity we don’t celebrate Halloween. 

I am not part of the Salvation Army, but I enjoy working with them. They have certain rules: you can’t smoke, drink or gamble. They also go to Church every Sunday, but I don’t. 

About 12 I have lunch. I make my own sandwiches, mostly ham, to save some money. If you start eating out every day, it is two or three pounds so it can work out expensive. After lunch, I label the clothes and put them in the shop. 

Salvation Army Charity Shop at Plungington Road

I really love running this charity shop. Before I came here, I used to be a manager of a big retail store. It is completely different; personally, I prefer this store because you get much nicer people than you do in a high street store.
In a high street store, you do not get the same regular customers. We have some antique dealers who come in looking for the odd bargains. We also get a lot of women in buying clothes.

When I was store manager, the staff was horrendous. They would often phone in sick, they would do anything to try get out of work and they were getting paid. 
Here, everyone is volunteer and not one person has ever phone sick, not one person has complained about working.

I cannot believe the difference, and all of them are volunteering.

About two, I vacuum and clean up again, to make sure that the shop is tidy before I leave. After the shop closes at three, I go to the bank the money in town. It is not always the same day but I will do it today. 

I also do a bit of shopping what I do need for myself and then go home. 
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I've got a second job. I help my brother to sell things on ‘Ebay’ for a couple hours.

At the moment, my son is at home. He is in the army, but he is on leave so I will make him tea and dinner today. Then I’ll take my dog for a walk again. 

If I’m going out, I’ll just have a bath, watch TV and maybe a glass of red wine. I tend to play on my laptop a lot when I’m in bed and watching TV at the same time.
Sometimes I read a book, it all depends.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire- Review

The Hunger Games: Catching fire. Duration: 146 minutes. Broadcast on: Odeon Cinemas, Preston. 22/11/2013 at 20:45.Dir: Francis Lawrence. Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh and Donald Sutherland.

            Star Rating: 3.5/5

Catching Fire is the second movie of the Hunger Games trilogy, based on Suzanne Collins’ best sellers for young adult readers, the film is set in the futuristic world of Panem. Governed by President Snow (Donald Sutherland), Panem holds the Hunger Games every year. 

Inspired in ancient Greece and described as ‘a distraction to forget the real problems’, the Hunger Games is a competition to the death in the arena between the youngsters from different districts.

The successful trilogy shows a hypothetical world full of contrasts between the districts. The first district, settled in the city centre, are richer and more futuristic than the other districts settled in the country, which looked like they have been regressed back in time. 

The film seems to be as opposition to today’s society, full of anti-capitalism messages, however it is perfectly merged with a teenage theme, as a romance story.

After the agonizing ending of the first movie, when the couple from district 12 formed by Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), decided to risk their lives for their love.

 The story starts a year after, showing the young ‘couple’, Katniss and Peeta go on tour to celebrate their victory. However, these teenagers have become idols for the social class people and they are also the icons of a sparkling revolution, which threatens the tyranny of President Snow.

Government’s fear caused them to take part in the 75^th Hunger Games, which includes special celebrations. Katniss and Peeta are forced to compete alongside old victors.  The 75^th edition is tougher to survive in the arena; competitors will have to face aggressive monkeys and a cloud of poisonous fog. 

More on Hunger Games:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10441635/The-Hunger-Games-Catching-Fire-review.html

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/nov/12/hunger-games-catching-fire-review

Alternative Journalism

Few weeks ago, I had to write a university assignment. I should connect a journalism theory with a real life example. It seemed quite hard, because most of theories appear to be really inspirational and none seemed to happen in this world. However, when I did a bit I research I found a special case.

In June 2013, Brazil experienced a wave of protests, people demonstrated against the expenses in Olympic Games, which are going to be held in Brazil and the less effort that government puts to improve public education or health.

Millions of people took the streets, but they didn’t get all the attention from Brazilian mainstream media. However, there was an alternative journalistic online platform that covered the facts from the protesters’ view. 

Ninja media, the alternative online platform, had a great impact in the social media. With more than 200,000 likes in Facebook they were able to encourage people towards social changes.

Ninja has fulfilled its function as alternative media, because they provoke a social movement and they promote people to demonstrate against these government’s expenses. Government has stepped back with its costs and raising prices.

This media is worthy of admiration, but my question is: Could this alternative journalism become a precedent for futures social movements?

It is know that Mediterranean countries, as Spain or Greece, have been protesting for the last two years against the cuts in public education, health services... However, they were not capable to change any governments’ decision. So, can this Brazilian case be used as an example of encouragement of social movements? Can journalism play a greater role in futures protests?

Portfolio

Local News:

Shoplifter from a local supermarket was charged with 18 months of conditional discharge plus more than £100 fine.

Mr Steele, from Bolton Street, Preston was caught by the security guard trying to leave the shop, without paying ,with a trolley full of items.

The accident happened Monday 31, December, 2012 when Mr Steele, aged 45, who is living with his aunt, tried to leave Asda Fullwood Superstore, East Way, Preston with the trolley.

As soon he was caught, he said: “Sorry about this. I´m really sorry”, he kept apologising, the court heard.

The trial was held in Preston Magistrates Court in March 8, 2013. The offence which was tried in the magistrates court was considered an either way offence.

Miss Aksha Shahid, for the prosecution, said that the trolley had a total value of £150.86; inside he carried alcohol items, groceries and meat.

District Judge, Mr Peter Ward, sentenced that as he has no money he will receive 18 months conditional discharge plus £15 victim charge and £85 for costs.

When the police came this morning to arrest him, Mr Steele said:” I´ve heard from a friend”.

In his defence, Mr Nottingham said: “I just think he thought he´d get some money by selling the items.

 “He thought it was a good idea, clearly it wasn’t. He is very sorry for his actions”, Mr Nottingham said.