Friday, June 15, 2012

Food for Thought

Well, the world of blogging has hit the headlines today. I shouldn't think anyone is now unaware of NeverSeconds, a blog by a 9 year old girl reviewing her school lunches. It looks like she will now be allowed to carry on with her blog as the council appears to have come to it's senses.

Two points I would like to make though.

1) The council were very quick to attack a nine year old who hadn't really done anything, (the problem coming from a national newspaper who used the blog to make a point), in order to protect it's employees, the "dinner ladies". Yet, when a councils' other employees, teachers and TA's, are attacked by students online, they seem somewhat reticent to get involved as those students have the right to self-expression. It seems it'd easier to deal with a 9 year old than a group of bolshie teenagers.

2) Amongst the many directives that the government has sent down to schools are to get children engaged with the online world in a responsible way, to encourage children to be involved in activities that widen their horizons and for a school to have links with a school in another part of the world. If you read her blog whe appears to be very intelligent in the way she approaches her blogging, is talking to people all over the world and engaging with children around the world and encouraging them to join in with her idea. In addition she is raising money for feeding kids in Africa. Still, at least she is learning early that in Britain for all the talk of encouraging success nobody likes someone who is. And that girl is a real success.

Monday, June 04, 2012

Credit Where Credit's Due

Firstly, I seem to have completely lost the art of posting. Without the discipline of having to post every day I never seem to get round to it. Anyway......

I had a phone call from "3" today. Following up their calls of the last few days when the leave a message but not saying who they are. It's actually their collections department because I owe them two rental for my online dongle which I asked them to cancel as I no longer need it. The person who rang obviously reckons themselves as a credit controller. They know how to get money out of people - you threaten them that their credit rating will be damaged if they don't pay up. A great tactic if the person you are threatening actually gives a toss about their credit rating. I don't. Mine's so destroyed that a debt of £39.00 probably isn't going to bring me to my knees.

He spent a great deal of time telling me that they would have to put a black mark against my name and I spent a lot of time replying that he was welcome to do that but I wasn't going to be paying him any money today. So we spent 15 minutes in a repetitive argument where he became more agitated that his one weapon was failing miserably. So we left it there, with a promise from the nice young gentleman that he will be ringing again. No doubt to tell me that they are still considering putting a black mark against my name.