Too fat...too young

Those of you who watched Gok Wan' s 'too fat too young' on Wednesday will know as a teenager Gok was 21 stone. It seems that childhood obesity has always existed, but in the last 10 years figures have shown it has become a serious problem with 1 in 5 teens clinically obese.

As a child, I remember there were always the 'chubby' kids whose parents knocked off cruel fat comments with the it's 'just puppy fat' reason. As the years have gone on, parents have continued adopting that attitude, now there is an epidemic of obese kids.

In my opinion, it's a little to late to be whinging about fat kids. I think parents are solely to blame for how their children turn out. A lack of discipline and knowledge on good parenting has led to a breakout of fat and unfit kids, who know no other than eating Frosties for breakfast and chocolate and crisps for lunch.

I'm not hear to preach, because I'm far from perfect when it comes to healthy eating and exercising. However, I know when I need to get fit not only will my mum nag me to go along with her to the gym but also the weighing scales are cruel too. I'm fortunate to have healthy parents who regularly exercise and cook me healthy dinners. But for some, it has become a way of life to follow in the foot steps of their parents and become over weight.

Whatever happened to playing outdoors? Now it is apparent kids spend more time entertaining themselves on the computer or watching TV. If this is the case, then why don't parents encourage kids to walk with them to town or take them swimming at weekends? I remember as a kid, it was the norm in my neighbourhood to play outside if it was dry. My parents were strict that no friends could come into the house unless it was raining, seems harsh but I spent many happy Winter and Summer days outside in the park or in the garden.

As many will know, the 'nanny state' that we live in has acted as a barrier from living the life of how our parents and grandparents did when they were growing up. I'm fully aware times have changed, that it's not safe for kids to play in the woods and come back home as and when they feel hungry. But nevertheless it's not a reason to allow our kids to become twice the size they should be for their age or let media entertainment dominate their lives.

It's an ongoing debate that I think parents can really argue in defence.

Big Brother analysed..

I like to think that I am an academic who over the last couple of years has successfully learnt to broaden and challenge the way in which I think and look at things in life. Before I started college in 2006, I would have been categorised as a passive citizen who didn't question anything. Not so long ago I considered auditioning for the reality TV show like Big Brother...now i'm glad I didn't. I believe as an academic you would be 'dumbing yourself down' if you were to bow down to the demands of big brother producers.

As stated on my law teacher's coffee cup, "Celebrity culture: I'm an academic...get me out of here." One might think this means celebrities are dumb and fake or that celebrities are missing a certain 'something' that an academic has. Either way I think it's a funny and fair comment because as my Media A Level textbook says 'there is a celebrity cult within society'.

You only have to see this in Celebrity Big Brother at the moment. As an avid fan, I can see that the dynamics in the house changes constantly mainly to the celebrities favour. In comparison to the ordinary big brother whereby producers portrays and edits footage to their satisfaction, it seems in this edition celebrities have the power. Late evictee La Toya mentioned she would only appear on the show if she were to receive £100,000 (more than other housemates) and footage showed her wearing makeup. Talk about a diva attitude.

Which brings me to say 'why do people like myself watch and enjoy the show? And more importantly vote to keep such people like La Toya in the show? The metaphor 'cult' cleverly illustrates how celebrities have the power to make people hate them, yet aspire to be like them.

It's one thing that I will be debating in Monday's lecture.

The bloody war between Gaza and Israel...

One thing my knowledge doesn't stretch to is politics (shame on me). However, in the three weeks I have been closely following the war between Gaza and Israel. There is a reason for this, one being I'm off to the Middle East in the summer and secondly, the war is helping me develop my knowledge and judgement of the political actions of foreign ministers.

As like many others, I don't condone violence: whether it being a punch-up in the street or countries bombing the hell out of one another. However, from what I have learnt i'm not going to generalise that statement across all acts of violence. Hammas, the president of Gaza has been, for quite sometime, dropping bombs into Israel and so far has got away with no response from the israelis.

Now, the Israelis quite rightly are fighting back, which in my opinion states 'if it's good for the one it's good for the other.' The terror on hundreds of children is terrible, but israel are attacking these areas because missiles are coming from places where children are situated i.e. schools. In my opinion, middle east leaders are 'crooks', surely Hammas should realise that over a 1000 of his 'people' have died due to his determination to continue bombing Israel.

In the light of it, it appears there is no hope for a resolution yet. Iran has become involved with support for Gaza, yesterday iranian protesters burned the American flag in hatred towards president elect Barack Obama as he chose to not get involved in the war. Unsurprisingly, iranians have threatened Britain and categorised us alongside the Americans for ignorance towards the war.

It will be interesting to see where this war takes us as a nation who are watching the news everyday and in time might be targeted as Hammas's next victims. One things is for sure though that the blood bath in Gaza will not only leave people angry but it will not solve any of the problems that originally triggered the war.

'From kidulthood to adulthood'

Over the weekend, I watched the gritty urban film Kidulthood (2006), which to my surprise depicted 21st century urban teenage life really accurately. I am a big fan of urban gangster films and so this film certainly lived up to my expectations.

For those of you who haven't watched the film, the film narrowly focusses on following several 15 yr old teenagers whom of which engage in sex, drugs and violence. The film is extremely violent in places, but it highlights the growing trend for teens to stab and use fire arms to kill people. Ultimately, the hot and loveable guy Trife is killed by his enemy Sam...which okay I admit I cried at.

For me the film 'kicks the door off its hinges'. I thought I knew what it meant to be a teenager growing up in the 21st century, clearly I was wrong. I guess the film illustrated to me how lucky I have been not to have sex for drugs, witness a stabbing or felt suicidal by the actions of school bullies. Although the film explicitly shows that this isn't the case for all teenagers.

The follow up to the film: Adulthood was released last year and supposedly is better than kidulthood. The film shows the teenagers 2 years later and how Sam who was sent to jail for the murder of Trife is now being targeted to 'settle the score.'

A must see film!! *****