Sonic Wall Blocks Bing

The building management where our office is located recently installed some nanny software after the server was attacked by various viruses. They have used Sonic Wall which is set to ban a large range of categories which unfortunately means that we are forever having to request reclassification of web sites, especially those supportoing Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Trans people.

It is interesting to see that Sonicwall views most LGBT sites as pornographic, despite having a classification for gay issues. To their credit thay have reclassified most of the sites we have requested - Fit Lads and Gaydar being unfortunately exceptions.

However today whilst looking at Bing, microsofts latest tool in it's fight against the young pretenders to their thone, I was amused to discover that clicking on the "Try Bing Now" button, to receive the following message.:-

This site has been blocked by the network administrator.

URL: http://view.atdmt.com/action/search_rebrand_try_ki...

Block reason: Forbidden Category "Advertisement"

If you believe the below web site is rated incorrectly click here

I have written to Sonicwall congratulating them in banning Bing - though I am sure it was not their intention. Having looked at and tried bing I am not impressed. I am sure it is efficient, however I have become a real fan of Chrome, Google's new web brower, in the past few months, and the search facilities in Chome are excellent.

I seldom have any problems finding exactly what I want with Google on the web or on my PC and as the google search engine is now an integral part of the browser I cannot see the necessity to add in another unnecessary step to use a search engine that seems to offer nothing extra.

After the merger with Yahoo's search engine they will have about 20% of the market - it will be interesting to see if it can grow that.

Want to help "Save the Planet?" Stop Eating Meat!

I stopped eating meat in 1988 because I objected to the factory farming methods and use of hormones and chemicals to accelerate growth. I also believe that we are not naturally meat eaters. We simply do not have the right teeth and intestines to process meat. It is only because humans learnt to use weapons and fire that we became meat eaters.

Today I have read a couple of articles that have rekindled my passion for convincing others to also stop eating meat because stopping eating meat is the single most important action we can all take to slow global warming and damage to the environment.

UN Secretary General warns business on looming water crisis

Right now there is a looming water crisis that will eclipse the oil shortages. Now this is not an easy thing to understand where I live in Hull where our water crisis is about too much not too little, but we are using clean drinkable water faster than it is being replenished so we are depleting the underground reserves.

World Water Crisis

Where does meat eating come into this? 70 % of water consumption is for agriculture and most of this is for meat production. Producing one kilo of potatoes requires 100 litres of water. Producing one kilo of beef requires between up to 13,000 litres of water. In addition there is a significant consumption of oil in heating the huge sheds where the animals are kept and in producing the fertilizers for feed production, hormones and other chemicals to keep the animals alive and in processing waste. (Cattle produce 130 time more waste them humans now)

Most of the merciless destruction of rain forests is to provide farmland either to graze cattle or to produce animal feed. If you eat beans you get the same food energy as beef producing only 4% of the carbon dioxide. Cattle produce one fifth of the global methane emissions. Methane is 24 times as potent as carbon dioxide in contributing to global warming.

Finally there are frightening consequence of meat eating we really are not able to measure. Natural wildlife is relentlessly destroyed by shooting, poison or burning because it is seen as a threat to meat production. Add to this the impact of animal waste and destruction of habitat and we have 25% of mammalian species now in danger of extinction not to mention the plants, plankton, fungi, bacteria and insects that are an essential part of our delicate eco system.

How food choices can help save the environment

Meat eating is simply no longer sustainable and the sooner everyone realises that - the sooner we will start to make a real impact on environment damage.

How the Media Spins Stories to Promote Political Agendas.

I wrote back before Christmas that my TV broke - and I still have not replaced it. However I have now become a great fan of StumbleVideo. Check it out.

Just follow the link (it will open in a new window) click on "Stumble" and it will serve up a random video. Click on "Channels" and you can select what broad topic areas you are interested in. When you watch a video you can click on the "Thumbs up" or "Thumbs Down" sign to indicate whether you like it or not - that information will then impact future videos - After a couple of weeks of this I now find that I like 70% of the video served and it is still getting better.

As a result I have started to pick up on stuff that we simply don't get to see in the UK and I suspect that if you are in the US it will also introduce you to stuff that you are not seeing there.

Why is this important? Because the more I use the internet to select the information I want to see - the more I realise how much the media is now controlling what we think. For example - Fox News - Owned by Rupert Murdock this news Channel is so biased that it is painful - but it true Orwellian style their strap line is "The network America trusts for fair and balanced news"

Fair and Balanced - Take a look at this short video clip of one of Fox's top anchors Bill O'Reilly - this man exudes right wing christian views - look at how he treat people on his show who in any way start to present a view or opinion he does not like or agree with.

Bill O'Reilly at his best



OK so now you know the kind of "Fair and Balanced" reporting O'Reilly is capable of, you will not be surprised to learn that a man like this is a target for political attack. Incidentally despite the huge controversy over his and other clearly biased reporting on Fox News, it continues and is openly supported and defended by Fox News executives which implies also, Rupert Murdock.

In November 2006 "The Bastard Fairies" (a band) produced a video using a very talented young actress playing a fictional role in a short promotional video that was posted on YouTube. This is a video (less than 3 minutes) that you will love or hate, depending upon your political perspective. It is important to watch the video before you see how O'Reilly responded.

The Coolest 8 Year Old In The World Talks About O'Reilly



The statement that the video was fiction was posted with the video on YouTube at the same time, yet despite that in December Bill O'Reilly responded on his show. You will now see how Fox News spun this promo video to make it into an example of "Child Abuse" (claiming that the girl was the daughter of nuts and Fox knows who they are) by bringing onto the show an "expert Lawyer" on Child abuse, Wendy Murphy:

Bill O'Reilly responds to the Fairies



It is interesting to note some of the things Fox news did with this video to spin it and promote their Christian/Republican agenda. If Fox will do this with a verifiable source - what will they do to other news stories?

• Fox showed very carefully selected and edited highlights to present messages not intended with the original video.
• O'Reilly presented this as "Child Abuse" illustrated by a young child being used as a propaganda tool by her parents, who are nuts and should be prevented from being parents - she is a child actress - it is fictitious.
• Fox beeped out the word "Ass," then O'Reilly claimed that the video contained more profanity - which it did not.
• Murphy, a child abuse lawyer, claimed that "this is the ultimate inhumane treatment of a child." Really! This woman prosecutes child abusers and sex offenders for a living - she is an expert and must know that is not true, so she openly lied to position this story - that is not the first time she has lied in this way.
• Murphy claimed that the girl accused Republicans of mass murder - she did not.

Sanitised Wliberforce Museum promotes Anti Gay campaign.

Today is the 200th anniversary of the abolition of Slave Trading in 1807 - and I have had the pleasure of listening to the Wilberforce Lecture given The Prime Minister of Barbados, the Right Hon. Owen Arthur. I am hoping that the speech will be made available in text form because unfortunately, I only managed to understand about half of it due to his strong Caribbean accent.

However there was some good stuff there, including a few references to the role of multinational corporations in perpetuating slavery by supporting slave labour in the production of goods they sell at extortionate mark ups in the west some of the worst culprits being Wal-Mart and Nike.

One of the important messages coming out of the current anti slavery campaigns is that slave trading is not just a white crime as was stressed by John Prescott MP who opened the speaking today. Black chieftens were often guilty of supporting slave trading just as today they are prepared to accept billions from the USA and other western governments and corporations in exchange for resources or even unimpeded access to slave labour.

Following the Wilberforce lecture I walked round to the newly opened Wilberforce Museum to see how it had been refurbished. I had been involved in a couple of consultation exercises during last year which had not gone well - and I had real doubts about what they were planning. Those doubts were, I regret to say well founded. The museum has totally sanitised slavery.

In the previous exhibit there was a wonderful construction of what it was like in the Middle passage. It was as if for a brief moment you were taken below deck to where the slaves were packed into racks barely large enough to take a human body, where the smell from the lack of any sanitation was so great it could be smelt 10 miles away. This exhibit was so realistic that I am told many children left very upset and as a result suffered some sleepless nights. So now the middle passage is a combination of wall panels and audio visual presentations. All the images are etchings and drawings from the 18th century - but none convey the horror of what this much have been like.

I noticed parents having to explain everything to children because the entire museum, is made up of wall panels and display cabinets with occasional audio visual presentations. In a city where 20% of children leave school unable to read I can see that this will struggle to get the message across.

But worse was to come for me as I entered the section on Slavery today - OK the message about use of slave labour was there- but I did not see any name of villains. It was close to closing time so I will return and have a second look when it is not so busy. But the panel that angered me was one displaying a huge banner saying Homosexuality is a SIN.

This was picture of a religious demonstration in Northern Ireland against civil partnerships beside it was a picture of a gay couple in York following their civil partnership. There was an interactive exercise for kids regarding rights. One of the messages was encouraging people to respect the beliefs of religious groups. Coupling those two messages and the lack of any comment endorsing gay rights - it is clear that this exhibit is promoting a negative attitude towards homosexuality.

I have no idea what this exhibit has to do with slavery, but I do know that it is one of the strongest messages in the entire museum - no baggers on display opposing slave trading - no images of white slave trafficking for prostitution in the UK - in all a very sanitised display - with a huge anti gay banner in the middle of it.

Amazing Grace - Inspiring Political Activism?

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a preview of Amazing Grace, the film about the political struggle by William Wilberforce to abolish slavery. I live in Hull the home 200 years ago of William Wilberforce MP, so this is of special significance here and we were honoured with the presence of actor Ioan Gruffudd who plays Wilberforce, Director Michael Apted and screenwriter Steven Knight.

Although this is a film about Wilberforce's particular struggle 200 years ago, I found it had strong connections with modern times because it is more a film about the struggle against powerful, political and commercial self interests and greed. The wealth of the British empire had been build on slavery and following the abolition of slavery, the plantations in the West Indies failed to produce the huge profits of the past.



As an activist I came away very inspired. Although there were some minor historical inaccuracies, the story remained fairly true to fact and it showed that with persistence we can stop the extreme excesses of the the rich and powerful, but as is increasingly being seen today, unless we do something they will continue to chase profits with total disregard for human life - which is why I want to encourage you to view this short trailer for The Corporation - a documentary that highlights why we need to remember the legacy of Wilberforce - not the abolition of slavery - but the passion to keep on fighting against the unbridled greed that has driven powerful men throughout history, and today is embodied in The Corporation.



You might also like this short interview with Director Mark Achbar



"Just because you can't fix everything doesn't mean you shouldn't do anything" - Mark Achbar

Why are we still spending money on more nuclear weapons?

Yesterday 409 of Britain's MPs voted to spend £20 Billion (that nearly $40 Billion) to start replacing nuclear submarines to carry Trident Missiles - we currently have 160 nuclear missiles, the smallest arsenal of the arrogant group of western countries who feel they need to hold "total world destruction" as a "deterrent" over other countries. What the bloody hell are we going to do with 160 nuclear warheads. We have never used one in anger thank God - only one country in the world has ever done that - and the USA has 10,000 nuclear weapons. Watch this very short video from Ben of Ben and Jerry to see the total futility of this.



USA has the equivalent of 150,000 Hiroshima type bombs - Now at the same time as we are building and maintaining these weapons of total destruction, we pressure Iran to not be able to produce them - Hypocrisy? Do as I say not as I do - Thankfully 165 MPs voted against the Trident decision including 87 labour MPs who rebelled and plan to keep on opposing it. Note that the conservative party mostly supported the Trident Vote.

Time to Call Time on Nuclear weapons I think.

If you want to be taken seriously does the language have to be inaccessible?

Gosh - its been a while since I posted here - mostly because I have been completing a Masters dissertation which I am please do say was submitted today - It has been very stressful and not something I particularly want to repeat. It's not the topic - I loved doing the research into the coping strategies of trans women and it has really taught me a great deal about the issues being faced by anyone whose gender it not typically male or female - no the problem has been the style of writing required for an academic project.

One of the books I needed to read for this project was Judith Butler's Gender Trouble. I do not know how this book has become a seminal text. OK she has challenged the gender binary and some of the foundations of feminism and is credited as on of the originators of Queer Theory - but no matter how many times I read this - or should I say try to read it - I cannot understand what she is talking about. Feminism probably more than any subject I know seems to have acquired a virtually impenetrable language that must exclude people - I think it was all part of the need for early feminists to be taken seriously - I on the other hand have been schooled in the belief that as the average reading ability of adults in the UK is age 12 - that the level that we need to write if we want to reach people.

It is interesting that most blog posts I read use accessible language, good basic creative English - even where it is clear that the writer is from an academic background - so why is it necessary to switch to heavy going language as soon as the writing needs to be considered academic rather than personal. My research was based on ethnographic research amongst trans people - who spoke and wrote in good clear English - so it did not make sense that my analysis of that material should be in a complex inaccessible language.

I have noticed this same problem when I run public speaking courses - I get people accessing their passion and telling stories which engage the audience and are really interesting - then we switch to a business or academic topic and they go back to serious and boring again. It's no wonder that business and academic conferences are so arduous when the speakers and writers cannot simply be themselves and speak and write from the heart.

European Year of Equal Opportunities and other Related Issues

I was invited to speak on a panel at Warwick University on Thursday for a One World Week event organised by students there. I have spoken at Warwick in the past and have quite a growing fan club there and this was a well attended event with some very interesting other panelists.

Gay and Human Rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who I have be a big fan of for a while but never met was there and asked some challenging questions around the limits of freedom of speech and freedom of expression. This year has been designated European year of Equal Opportunities and across the UK public bodies are busy developing plans to implement the Gender Duty that will bring about the biggest change in sex discrimination legislation for 30 years. But what of the voices of dissent - are they entitled to an equal opportunity to argue for their position.

One primary issue in the news this week has been around the campaign by religious groups for exemption fro the legislation to outlaw discrimination against lesbian women and gay men in the deliver of goods and services. Is it acceptable to allow a religious group to claim that because their belief systems determines that homosexuality is sinful, followers of their faith should be entitled to discriminate especially in refusing to allow a gay couple to adopt a child?

Both Tony Blair and Ruth Kelly appear to have been sympathetic to the lobbying by the Catholic Church but there has been significant cabinet opposition to support the law as it was passed in parliament. Catholic adoption agencies are threatening to shut their doors if they are not given exemption which would be a shame - but if the alternative is state sponsored discrimination then I have to say - let them close.

One of the other panalists there was Brenda Harrison from the European Forum of Lesbian and Gay Christian Groups who spoke of her campaign to change attitudes of religious organisations from within the Christian movement. Both Peter and I spoke last year at a Quaker Summer School for children where they have long reconciled their beliefs with a modern attitude to gender identity and sexual orientation. The other speaker was Juris Lavrikova from the International Lesbian and Gay Association of Europe who showed a short documentary of the life threatening opposition to a gay group in Latvia holding a Pride service in a local church.

It seems that despite the fact that most Abrahamic religious groups have abandoned the practice of dragging adulterous women to the city gates to stone them to death - the Latvian people would be more than happy to reintroduce the practice for gay people. This brings me back to another of Peter Tatchell's points when he discussed whether it was acceptable for the Mayor of London to welcome Muslim cleric and Islamic fundamentalist Dr Al-Qaradawiwho who openly supports the execution and stoning of gay Muslims whilst excluding liberal and progressive Muslims, especially Muslim feminists who reject the hijab.

Interestingly I also received today an email from GenderPac the gender civil rights group promoting a new report called 50 under 30 detailing the growing trend for young people who do not conform to gender norms to be attacked and murdered - a very disturbing read. I have spent some time today looking for statistics on this topic in the UK to discover that whilst Gender and Gender Identity are specifically identified as hate crime categories - there appear to be no statics recorded.

From my own experience I suspect that when a youth is attacked this is never considered as a cause despite the fact that we know that gender identity, ie not confirming to a macho masculine identity is a primary cause of young males being bullied at school and attacked - In fact I suspect that it is looking gay rather than being gay that is the cause of most homophobic attacks.

So why is the government failing to record the statistics - and why do UK schools still refuse to address gender identity or sexual orientation in schools and most LGBT teachers are firmly in the closet due to fear of the consequences of coming out. The Gender Duty imposes a strong legal responsibility on public authorities to seek out and prevent the causes of harassment and discrimination - so perhaps now we can use the government's own legislation against them to bring this issue to the fore.

My TV Blew Up - I Think the Universe is Telling me Something

There I was on Christmas Eve - surfing around on the internet with my TV on in the background when suddenly without warning - Poof! it went off. For a second I thought it was a power failure until I realised my PC was still OK. There was a strange beeping sound from the back - but all efforts at revival proved in vain - the TV is dead, deceased, defunct, kaput, gone to meet its maker, shuffled off this mortal coil, etc.

In a funny way though I realise that this is probably a really good thing - and I am wondering if it might have been caused by some software I have been playing with. The software products are designed to get me the things I life I really want by reprogramming my brain - it's all along the lines of the great little book called The Cosmic Ordering Service that I am also about to read following rave reviews from my friend Michelle. However it's the software that has been in action longest.

The first is a product called Subliminal Power which flashes positive affirmations around a select number of personal goals on screen every 5 seconds. You barely see them, but it is claimed that the subconscious mind can see them and takes these affirmations on board. I spend a lot of time in front of my PC, especially now my TV is bust, so seemed a good plan.

The second was a gift from a friend called Dream Manifestation Wizard - Also linked to affirmations but this time you write your affirmation, select a picture to represent it, record the affirmation and then every so often, in my case 30 minutes, there is a Ping and a small pop up appears with my affirmation and recording reminding me where I want to be (worded as if I am already there.)

Now you might be asking "Why would positive affirmation software cause the TV to blow up." Well it goes like this - If you ask the universe for something - cosmic order or positive affirmation etc - the Universe says "Sure, no problem - however you need to make a few changes in your life to be able to accept this change." So you ask for a new job and next thing you know you are fired. The idea is that at least now you are free to take up the new job when it arrives and you are much more motivated about getting it - i.e. you get off your ass and start really looking for a job.

Well I have been asking for a few things like getting better organised, making more money, getting fitter and losing weight - all of which cannot be achieved lying on the sofa watching TV! It's funny how in the past few days, even over Christmas, I have got so much more done because there is no TV - So I have resolved not to replace the TV and tomorrow I cancel the Sky (satellite) contract. Perhaps 2007 is going to be a really successful year at last.

Time to return to the Ancient Origins of Christmas?

If you check into the history of Christmas, you will find that the Winter Solstice is where it has its origins. Here in the Britain our religion is deeply rooted in Pagan origins and like most of the truly ancient religions the focus was on the seasons and natural phenomena - most important of all being the Sun - without which there is no life. The Sun deities were the most important in all ancient religions in China and Egypt - and the alignment of Stonehenge is towared the rising sun non both the Summer and Winter Solstices. In Ireland Newgrange a beautiful huge circular stone structure estimated to be 5,000 years old - that is older than Stonehenge and possibly older than the Pyramids, is perfectly aligned to receive the light of the Rising Solstice Sun (and possibly the light of the morning star - Venus)

The connections with Christianity are really just part of the assimilation process that Christian leaders have been used for centuries. In order to convert cultures to their beliefs. they aligned key Christian events with the important dates in the more ancient religions. It is also believed that the halo associated with Jesus is actually the sun behind his head, first appearing in images after Constantine forced the merger of Christianity with Sol Invictus (The Undefeated Sun) in 325 AD. It is not by accident that the Christian day of worship is SUNday.

The winter solstice feast on 25th December was the last feat of the year, celebrating the return on the sun from the darkness of the Solstice but also the coming winter was often a period of famine and starvation - like many animals humans would fatten up during the harvest time in the autumn. In British churches the full moon after the September Autumn Equinox is called the Harvest Moon - and the beginning of the feasts - eg Thanksgiving in the USA and Canada - The Autumn (Fall) is a time of plenty before the time of famine in the coming winter and a time to fatten up.

The other Pagan connection is with the Spring equinox in March - the time of fertility - this is the beginning of the agricultural calender when seeds are sown and the fertility festivals were a time of human impregnation - Any child conceived at this time would be born at the time of the Winter Solstice - thus our of death (the end of the harvest and the darkest time of the year came birth) The Newgrange cavern is fashioned in the form of a womb and the light of the winter solstice sun falls on a wall of crystal illuminating the cavern with it a pink glow.

So as you celebrate Christmas this year, perhaps its a time to remember that this is not a Christian festival but a much older religion founded on the The Sun, the Winter Solstice and our connection with the Mother Earth - and that perhaps by returning to that more ancient root we can begin to connect with our need to respect the Mother Earth if we wish Her to continue to support human life as we know it.

Some Success in Tackling Hate Crime

I seem to be finally getting a few readers to my blogs and I will be writing about how on my Small Business Marketing Strategies blog later. But I thought it might be a good idea to give you an update today on my Hate Crime experiences - which I am glad to say seem to be coming under control.

Like all stories, the hate crime incidents I wrote about on 3rd December got worse before they got better - in fact Monday 4th December was so bad that I called 999 (911) three time that evening and suffered more broken windows and mud spots covered the front of my house. I also started having problem with the emergency call centre who seemed not to be able to grasp that a systematic night after night attack on my home by kids was more than an annoyance. Messages to the police were being relayed by email and not picked up for a couple of days, the CCTV centre was either not being notified or failed to understand the seriousness of the situation.

At the same time the kids were beginning to think there were untouchable and as well as other trans abuse, were standing 25 yards away taunting with "Why don't you call the police then?" When the police did attend, it was often two or three hours after the event. By 7:30 pm the kids has all dispersed leaving me stressed, upset and frustrated at not being able to do anything.

In the UK we have pretty much banned guns, thankfully. I have a small hunting bow and I was getting tempted to use it, if we had a gun culture here I am sure I would have fired off a few rounds and in all likelyhood have triggered a far more serious problem. If I lived in the US as a trans women there is a 1:12 chance of me being murdered for being trans - so in some ways I can count my blessings.

On Wednesday 5th however I had a meeting with the beat officer from the neighbourhood policing team and started to see a glimmer of hope that things would be done to stop this. In Hull the city is split into 7 areas, and each has a local policing team - the Local Beat Officer (a Police Constable or PC) who now manages a team of Police Community Support Officers. (PCSO) They have not had the full rigorous training of a PC, and many of them were traffic wardens who became PCSO's when the parking system was privatised. The reality is that they are what we in the UK all used to know as the "Bobby on the Beat." Their role is to patrol on foot in the community (at least 80% of their time) assisted by Special Constables who are part time police officers.

I have nothing but praise for this new approach to community policing because it is this that seems to have brought the campaign of hate against me to an end. Unfortunately the PCSOs are not on duty all the time and at weekends many get pulled into the city centre to help manage the binge drinking problems and weekend revelry .

Monday 11th everything reached a climax. A gang of about 12 boys and girls were throwing abuse, mud and stones and the only way to stop them was to stand outside of my house and face them. I reported the attack eventually after the 999 centre refused to take the call and then a breakthrough. Somehow a conversation started with one of the kids and the rest came forward to join in and I spent about 20 minutes doing the education about gender difference that our schools not just fail to do but refuse to do. "Oh the parents don't like it" they claim - Of course they don't - they had the same bigoted Christian based education their children are getting.

Suddenly the kids started to disperse and I realised that the policing team had arrived - Some kids vanished, others got their names taken and the problems were over for the night. The next two nights 4 officers were on patrol all evening which seemed to discourage any further action that week. Saturday and the officers were back in force on the beat and suddenly there is a real sense of a police presence, something many of the other neighbours are pleased to see and the gangs of kids have moved on or dispersed.

What a relief last night - the first Monday for a month when I have not had a window broken. I am now on first name terms with all the PCSOs and have heard lots of positive comments from shopkeepers and neighbours, pleased to see the impact of the police (all except the owner of the untaxed car opposite who has just picked up a big fine).

The recruitment of PCSOs is new - so this is the first time we have really experienced the impact of community policing and I must say I like it. It's a return to a time of good friendly relationships with the police with a "bobby on the beat", even if they are all dressed in flack jackets with a huge array of equipment but which thankfully in the UK does not include any guns.

I would not wish to go though this experience again - but I can say that as a result there is now a growing sense of achievement and because I have connections with the entire system, we will now all be working hard to learn from this and find a way to make sure that other people do not have to go through this because they are disabled, gay, black, old or in any other way different.

Abbey National concedes on Excessive Charges

I have been in a legal battle with my bank, Abbey National, for some months now and was scheduled to attend a meeting at the Hull County Court next Tuesday, but was very pleased to receive a somewhat scrappy photocopied and fairly anonymous letter from them this weekend to say that in view of the potential costs of defending my claim they had decided, without any admission of liability, to refund the entire £500 I had claimed. (actually the letter said $500 so I will need to watch this carefully - might actually call them before I contact the court to withdraw the claim)

I am extremely grateful to www.penaltycharges.co.uk for their invaluable advice in helping me to both complete the claim and not yield to the various steadily increasing offers to settle - Holding out was definitely the right course of action. What annoys me however is that this claim should not have had to take place in the first place.

Everything started back in February when a standing order payment was honoured for an amount £30 more than my available credit. For this transgression Abbey charged me £50, £20 for an unauthorised overdraft and £30 for making a payment when there were insufficient funds. They claim this is a realistic charge for their administrative costs, however I know from having worked for a financial services software house that all the charges are automated. The only manual intervention (if any happens) is a quick look at a computer screen to decide if the payment is going to be bounced - in which case the charge is then increased to £35 for the five minutes of clerical work.

Later that month I paid a cheque in and paid another out a smaller amount on the same day. The payment in cleared a day after the payment out and my cleared account balance was just short of payment out - Another £30 charge. I didn't check my next statement when it came in so was unaware I had been charged £80 and as a result of those charges being deducted the following month my account became overdrawn by £10 for a couple of days - another £50 charge. However before my payment in had cleared two direct debits for about £5 each were paid and another £60 in charges was incurred - Total £110 -

Being now almost £200 short my account became overdrawn again and in the two of weeks it took me discover what had happened and get cleared funds into my account another £310 in charges racked up. Total in three months £500 an all as a direct result of he first £50 charge.

Abbey National claims that these charges are to encourage account holders to stay in credit - yet it is the very changes they imposed that caused me to get into arrears. More importantly all the charges I incurred were essentially due to timing. If any of the charges or the direct debits applied when there was no credit in the account were deferred for a few days, none of the charges would have occurred - but the bank will not allow charges or direct debits to be deferred. Furthermore unlike all other creditors the bank insist on us giving them to right to deduct charges when they choose to.

The Office of Fair Trading has made it clear that they feel the level of bank charges to be penal - the banks don't agree, though the credit card companies have already reduced theirs. I suspect that in addition to the cost of defending my claim beginning to exceed the amount I was claiming, they are also concerned not to have any court find against them because in total the banking industry has made over £26 billion in penalty changes over the past 6 years which they would face having to refund.

If you have been unfairly charged by a bank - its worth checking out www.penaltyclaims.co.uk and follow their advice to reclaim the charges. It's certainly made my Christmas a happier occasion.

The Reality of Hate Crime

I "came out" on December 14th 2001 and declared to the world that I was transgender. I took that action because in the dying days of a relationship my ex threatened to tell the world and I decided that I would be better able to handle it if I told people. I had expected to be targeted by bigots but it didn't happen - until last week that is and suddenly I am under a level of sustained hate attack that frankly is beyond belief.

The bigots - no let me give them their correct name the "terrorists" are a bunch of young boys all about 12 to 15 years old. For the past three years I have had occasional problems from these and other boys when they discovered there was a "tranny" living on the street and occasionally they threw small stones at the window to get my attention. Then slowly the size of the stones increased and the force they hit the windows changed. Where once they had hung around to wave and "look at the Tranny" now they hit an run.

Last week this escalated - suddenly windows were broken and there was a clear intent to break windows. Instead of calling out "tranny" it was "Fucking Tranny" - their actions had changed from anti social behaviour to a hate crime. In addition the number of kids involved increased from half a dozen to about 20 in a series of hit and run attacks on my house. So instead of talking about hate crime I for the first time experienced being a victim of it and the stress of being under siege and feeling powerless to prevent it.

Interestingly I am actively involved with the hate crime teams in Hull and Humberside police in helping to encourage people to report incidents yet had never reported the issue I had. Big mistake. Had I reported this over the past few years it is probable that the kids initially involved would have been identified and because I don't think they had any "hate" intent, would probably have been scared off. Instead I effectively allowed them to tell the real troublemakers, the urban terrorists who travel around the city like a pack of wild dogs looking for trouble and playing a game of "catch me of you can" with the police.

Hate Crime is all about intolerance and seems to me to be grounded in ignorance. A high level of bullying at school is similarly motivated - it is people who are different who are targeted yet schools are not just reluctant but almost fearful of addressing most of the issues in the education curriculum. In Hull we have been trying for a while now to get schools include sexual orientation and gender in their education programme but they refuse claiming that parents don't want it - a vicious circle maintaining the bigotry.

Despite how I feel about being attacked, there is a very positive outcome to all this. In trying to find a solution to my problem I am working with the the neighbourhood policing team, Humberside and Hull City Council hate crime team, the anti social behaviour team, the wardens, my local councillor and other members of the local community. It is likely that as well as specific solutions related to my issue, a number of wider initiatives will happen because I am very actively involved. My experience in hate crime is being significantly increased which will benefit all hate crime initiatives throughout the city.

Terror Storm - Alex Jones Controversial Video on Government Sponsored Terrorism.

This is another important video addressing what is happening in global politics right now. This video is produced by US news reporter and radio show host Alex Jones and looks at the history of government sponsored terrorism and seriously challenges the official stories on the London bombings and 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

Most importantly this documentary highlights many of the changes in legislation and abuses of human rights that have taken place since these events. It is difficult after watching this video not to have doubts about the official stories but even more alarming in my view are the comments by ordinary people such the woman who runs a fruit and veg stall outside Stockwell Tube station who said, "I think people should give up their liberty for freedom."

This documentary lasts about 2 hours - but could change your life. We are being subjected to government campaigns to manage and maintain power through fear. Check out the crime statistics and you will see that whilst actual crime in the UK has fallen over the past decade, fear of crime is increasing, and if you watched the Power of Nightmares documentaries (scroll down to see them) you will see that in the main that fear is of a fantasy threat.

The Power of Nightmares

First broadcast in 2004 this series of three powerful documentaries seeks to help us understand the motivation behind the creation of a global politics of fear. If you have not seen the documentaries, do take some time to watch - they helped me to make sense of the inexplicable actions of our global political leaders but more importantly, understanding the politics of fear also helps us to free ourselves from its grip and take back control of our lives.

Because they were broadcast on three separate nights, each of these documentaries starts with same introduction - so don't think you are about to watch the same episode again - I have checked and made sure that they are the three separate episodes - each lasting about one hour.


The Power of Nightmares - The Rise of the Politics of Fear


Part 1 - Baby It's Cold Outside




Part 2 - The Phantom Victory



Part 3 - Shadows in the Cave

Finally evidence that people are facing the truth.

I have never been able to understand why apparently rational and intelligent beings have been so taken in by the outrageous official story promoted by the US and British governments following the 9/11 event. The evidence against the official story is so overwhelming that just reviewing it must raise doubts, yet so many people seem unprepared to look at any alternative. Perhaps the problem is that any alternative to the official story means "thinking the unthinkable," that the Bush administration and the neo conservatives were were complicit in the attack and were prepared to sacrifice 3000 mainly American lives in order to further their corporate aims of greed and power.

Today Jennifer Clowes, one of my network contacts on the Ecademy, pointed me to a speech by Lt. Col. Bob Bowman, the Democratic Party candidate for Congress in Florida, that has inspired me. If you have time do watch the video below because this is the first time I have heard someone of such stature condeming the Bush administration for Treason and arguing for and end to the corporate corruption that is threatening the future of this planet. It give me hope when people like this speak our so boldly and has inspired me to start this blog.