14th JULY 1790

Heureux La Fete Nationale!! Or for those who don't speak French (or who don't have access to google translate like myself) today is French National Day, which celebrates the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on the 14th July 1789 every year.

The anniversary was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern nation, and of the reconciliation of all the French following the French Revolution. Commonly referred to as Le quatorze juillet, or the fourteenth of the July.

One of the most important ceremonies held is a military parade held on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris in front of the President of the Republic, French officials and other important guests.

Celebrations for today don't just occur in France. Indeed many other countries have celebrations for la fete nationale including Belgium, Hungary, South Africa, the UK, the U.S.A and even New Zealand. And this year I had planned to go the French Festival that was being held in Brisbane, but other things clashed so I didn't get to.

I guess I could just eat a French baguette instead.

Image available: http://www.infohostels.com/notizia.php?chiave=703

13th JULY 1977

On this day in 1977, in New York City, two lightening strikes resulted in a 25 hour blackout, that rendered the city at somewhat of a standstill.

The first lightening strike hit a substation on the Hudson River, tripping two circuit breakers in Westchester County. The second lightening strike resulted in the loss of two 345, 000 volt transmission lines. Of course, when the lights all went out and everybody panicked, people started looting and vandalising, with the worst areas hit including the suburb of Crown Heights. People even started intentionally setting fire to houses and small businesses. The subway services were halted and both the LaGuardia and Kennedy airports were closed.

Nowadays, NYC is known as "the city that never sleeps". It's always lit up with thousands and thousands of lights. You see all the hipster photos of the city centre lit up, all the high-rises with all their windows lit up. Can you imagine if as large a blackout occurred nowadays? Not just in NYC but also in the other large capital cities? I mean, what if Tokyo had a large blackout? Or even cities like Sydney or Melbourne? What would happen then? And the fact that people started stealing and setting fire to things doesn't really bode well for humanity, that we would lose our heads so quickly and kind of go into a headless panic.

I bet that it's all because of some lingering fear of the dark like when we were kids. Probably.


Image available: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2007/07/summer_of_sam_revisited_the_19.html 

12th JULY 1967

On this day in 1967 in Newark, New Jersey, a series of riots begin, lasting a total of six days, following the arrest and intense beating of an African American cab driver, John Weerd Smith by police officials John DeSimone and Vito Pontrelli. Preceding the riots, young African American community members felt that they were not being accepted by the city of Newark, despite the fact that Newark was among one of the first black majority cities within America, alongside the likes of Washington, D.C. Following his arrest, Smith was taken to the nearby 4th Police Precint, which was across the street from the large public housing complex Hayes Homes, the residents of which believed that an incapacitated Smith had been killed by the police officers. This rumour ultimately sparked the beginning of the rioting, looting and destruction of Newark.

At the conclusion of the riot rampage there were a total 26 dead, 1100 wounded and 1300 arrested, with a total property loss of just over ten million dollars.

Despite all this, Newark was one of the first U.S cities to hire black police officers. Whilst this was the case, the members of the force, and indeed the city's population, did not see eye to eye such that the relations between those of African American descent and the white members of the police force were poor. At the time only 145 of the 1322 police officers were black, a mere 11%, whilst a similar statistic was paralleled in the city's population, with more than 50% of the population being black.

In 2000, the Newark Police Department consisted of 37% black, 27% Hispanic and 36% white force members. However the city's population remains at majority black, with 53% black, 30% Hispanic and 17% white.

I guess we really don't think about stuff like this any more. I mean, sure we look at race as being a highly dominated factor in most things. We try to ignore it but we still consider it to be influential in the decisions that we make. I was talking about this the other day to a friend. I asked her whether or not people from Asia would ever go home at the end of the day and make Italian for dinner. To ask her this question I began by saying, "I don't mean to be racist...". Is that being racist though? In saying that I don't want to be racist, have I just been racist? It's a seriously tricky area to get into and I don't think that we will ever be fully able to not look at it from a racial perspective.

As hard as we try.



Image available: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/nyregion/08riots.html?_r=1 

11th JULY 1978

I thought that this event ironically matched the day that I had in some ways.

On this day in 1978 in Spain a truck carrying liquid gas crashed into a campsite at San Carlos de la Rapita. As the campsite was crowded with holiday goers, the ensuing explosion killed more than 200 people. Which is not only upsetting to read about but also a little disturbing to know that that was what made for interesting news.

Now you might be a bit shocked what with me saying that there was some irony between the event and my life. Don't worry, no truck exploded and no body died. It's just that, as I mentioned previously, one of my very good friends is staying with me for a week and today we decided to drive to the Gold Coast for a day of excitement. Because we needed to leave early to miss traffic and make sure that we had a full day of activity and adventure at the Gold Coast, we left with breakfast to go, also known as a "truckie breakfast" (you see the link now? Truck/truckie breakfast? Okay, so the irony wasn't that great but still, it was something!). The truckie breakfast that we decided on was bagels, which I have never eaten before.

I am now in love. Bagels are the single most excellent breakfast snack food that I have had in a long time. I think that they may have trumped my preceding love of eggs and hash browns. Seriously, if you haven't tried bagels, you need to get some of them. Now! Eat with cream cheese, avocado and lemon juice and you'll understand what I'm talking about.



Image available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagel 

10th JULY 2012

Okay, so today's post is devoted entirely to me and what went on in my life today. Yay for that.

One of my greatest friends in the whole world is staying with me for a week and I had decided that during this week I was going to do all the touristy things in the city that I haven't been able to do whilst studying at Uni. So, naturally, the first thing on my long and incredibly cultural list was to visit Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art. I love the art gallery and basically everything in that part of Brisbane city because it just makes me feel like I am some how involving myself in other people's cultures and experiencing something great in that.

More than anything in this world (okay, maybe a slight exaggeration, but still a really strong dream nonetheless) I want to travel the world and see all of it. My top three places that I want to visit are Africa, Canada and Europe. So going to the art gallery today was really cool. One of the displays that we saw was called 'Propaganda' and featured a number of really spectacular pieces based around political movements of China, North Korea and Vietnam. It was really interesting how the artists had used various mediums to express their political annoyance, defiance or acceptance to an audience whose own political understanding they did not know and who could yet make a connection with that artist and their piece.

This was my favourite piece from that particular display. It consists of two separate images in the medium of ink on mulberry paper and was created by a North Korean artist to demonstrate the country's beautiful side during the very picturesque winter.

I love this piece. It's amazingly beautiful. I seriously recommend going to the gallery if ever you are in the city or you live in the city and want to see something beautiful. Do it! I dare you. And also if you go and get asked to fill out a survey form, they give you free coffee vouchers. And when you're a uni student, free stuff is the best!

Check out the galleries website for times and exhibitions that need a ticket for entry.

9th JULY 1982

On this day in 1982 in the United kingdom, a 30-year-old Irish man named Michael Fagan broke into Buckingham Palace, more specifically Queen Elizabeth II's bedroom at around 3am, spending more than 10 minutes talking to her majesty before being arrested.

Believe it or not, this was actually Fagan's second time breaking into the palace. The first time Fagan climbed a drainpipe, entering through an unlocked window in the roof. Security was called but decided not to act believing that the alarm systems which were tripped to be faulty. This part is possibly my favourite. Fagan spent the next half an hour eating cheddar cheese and crackers before entering the post room and drinking half a bottle of white wine. He then decided he was tired and left, probably out the same he had come in. I just love that he wandered around eating cheese. Kind of like saying, "Yep, I'm in Buckingham Palace bitches!"

The second time, his presence was only detected by the Queen when he disturbed a curtain. While that is a little hard to believe the best is yet to come. The only way that Fagan could enter the bedroom without being undetected at that time was because the armed guard who usually stands outside the royal bed chambers was out walking the Queen's dogs.

Even if that information is wrong and Fagan just happened to be incredibly sneaky, I think that the notion of the Queen's pet dogs allowing a somewhat mental ill man to enter the palace is just a little bit funny, in a black humour sort of way.

Fagan was not charged with trespassing into the Queen's bedroom because at the time it wasn't a criminal offence, rather a civil wrong. Instead, he was charged with theft for the cheese and wine, which were then dropped on account of a psychiatric evaluation that placed him in a mental hospital for six months. The law was changed to respond to Fagan's break-in.

I don't think that anyone would ever try to do something like what Fagan did again, just because the security would have been doubled, no, maybe tripled in response.

So, even though I think what Michael Fagan did was an amazing achievement, to get past all those guards and to then walk around like he owned the place, I do not in anyway condone what he did. I think that Queen Elizabeth is a very cool person, to be one of the last remaining monarchs who actually has a little bit of admiration for her people and country, and who in return is adored by those people.

Gosh, look at me getting all sentimental!

Image available: http://thequirkyglobe.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/14-year-old-boy-who-broke-into.html

8th JULY 1996

On this day in 1996, in Wolverhampton, England, a man wielding a machete attacked 3 young children and 4 adults at a kindergarten's 'Teddy Bear's Picnic" at St. Luke's Church of England school.

The man, Horrett Campbell, apparently jumped over a two foot fence into the kindergarten area and started to randomly attack people. It was later determined that Campbell suffered from severe paranoid schizophrenia and was sent to a secure mental hospital indefinitely, remaining there today.

One of the adults attacked, a nurse named Lisa Potts, was presented by Queen Elizabeth II with the George Medal for defending the children despite her own injuries, which include an almost completely severed arm.

Image available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/8/newsid_2496000/2496685.stm