Sexism at the airport

On mashable today I stumbled across this article. It outlines a new idea put forward by Heathrow Airport that passengers in the terminals will be 'trackable' as "passengers who are running late for flights can cause delays." 

The idea is as follows: "To address this problem, Heathrow Airport has pioneered a new technology through its boarding card system that is designed to track the locations of passengers in the airport as well as direct the passengers where to go or what to do to catch their flight on time. With the new system, which the airport is calling "positive boarding," passengers simply present their boarding cards at an automated gate where the boarding card barcodes are scanned. The gate's computer cross-references information from the barcode with flight details and, once verified, the passengers may enter the departure area. Information about their flights also pop up on a screen, so passengers will know if they are in the right terminal or if they have to go somewhere else."

I didn't really have any strong feelings on the matter, positive or negative. When I carried on reading however, what did jump out at me was the following:

"If a passenger arrives at the gate less than 30 minutes before the plane is set to depart, she will not receive access to the terminal and will need to visit the check-in counter for more information."

Sorry what? she will not receive access to the terminal? Is the suggestion here that the women cause the delays due to their excessive duty free shopping? I'm hoping that a simple / was missed out here (which would make it a far more acceptable s/he).

Over the hills & far away, Teletubbies come to play..

The Metro (London) on Tuesday May 14^th: “Without a doubt, the UK is leading the world in pre-school programming with shows from Teletubbies to Peppa Pig.”

Pardon?

Now I have yet to experience the delights of Peppa Pig for myself, but I have indeed seen the Teletubbies. And world leading they are not… “eh-oh”

I think I was about 6 or 7 when they first appeared on the small screen and yes, I did have a brief but deep love for them. I even saved up my pocket money for a couple of weeks in order to be able to buy my very own version of Lala. Sadly my mama dear was not a big fan of the Teletubbies and was far from keen on my delight in their antics. She simply explained that such a program would lead to “verblödung” (like ‘schadenfreude’, this is one of those amazing words, which captures an entire English expression in one word. It simply means that ‘watching this program will make you dumb’)

So why is the Metro implying that programs like the Teletubbies are world leading? Perhaps because otherwise, we’d have to admit to ourselves that if our kiddiwinks weren’t watching the Teletubbies, then they would probably be playing on Dad’s/Mum’s/Granny’s/(god forbid) their own iPads.

Go and play in the dirt girls and boys!

Goodbye Maggie

Monday 8th April 2013 was a sad day. My sister's horse got diagnosed with fatal kidney failure, a family friend's dog fell off a balcony and will probably be paralysed and Margaret Thatcher died. While the larger percentage of the world won't be bothered in the slightest about the tragic fate of the horse or the dog, Maggie's death has had a somewhat bigger effect on the general public.

In all honesty I don't know nearly as much about her policies and changes as I'd like to.. (even after watching The Iron Lady..) For me personally, she's interesting because her era was announced by Saatchi + Saatchi's iconic ad 'Labour isn't working.' An ad straight to the point that met the country's emotional needs. (Or "a truth, well told" according to a competing agency). In terms of PR, she was definitely a major media mortal whose image was honed and toned by some of the brilliantly best in the business; her PM public image was definitely different from the earlier Minister of Education Margaret! A true media madam.

But that's not the point.

I am such a spring chicken, that I wasn't even born when she finished her run as Britain's Iron Lady. Therefore I feel that I am in no great position to judge whether she was good or bad. Of course with my astute graduate level analytical skills, I can analyse whether her policies and decisions benefitted Britain in the long run.. paha. However I really cannot comment on her affect on Britain at the time. Let alone judge her as a person!

And sadly that is exactly what people are doing... The Tab Nottingham reported that there was cheering at the NUS (National Union of Students) delegate meeting on the news of her death, on Saturday night there was a 'Thatcher's Dead' party on Trafalgar Square in London and The Wizard of Oz's 'Ding Dong the witch is dead' song threatened to make it to Number 1 in the official UK charts.

Literally, say whaaa? This simply is not ok! Regardless of who she is, she was a wife / mother etc etc ie. she has family and they've just lost someone they love. When did it ever become acceptable to cheer a death?? Sadly I think that this situation is pretty much the same as the August Riots in 2011.. Oh look, a situation has arisen that allows us to behave like morons.

I really really do hope that people will pull themselves together at her funeral tomorrow and pay the  deceased Marmite Maggie (people seem to either hate or love her..) the respect she deserves.