Quality of Life

The quality of life as a student is affected and will be affected by a number of factors. Positively, one factor with a positive effect on quality of life at the university of Glamorgan is the sense of security. Unlike the university experience in west-Africa, Glamorgan offers a secure, quiet and conducive environment for learning. Although the the town of Trefforest where it is located may possess some racist tendencies, the town remains a relatively safe environment for students to live both on and off campus.

Also, the university facilities provide basic social amenities as well as a large pool of information resources. Particularly, the university's wireless internet network can be accessed anywhere on campus as well as an internet-based school network. This makes information easily accessible and the school network allows each student to keep track of academic work and relevant schedules as well as stay abreast of current university affairs.

In contrast, one negative aspect that may affect quality of of life at the university of Glamorgan is the stress of coursework and academic life. Students studying more complicated courses such as engineering and law-related courses may encounter large volumes of assignments and research which may result in sleepless nights and long hours of studying without rest and this can be deemed unhealthy.
 

The London Riot

  In various countries and at different time periods, riots have taken place and continue to take place. The only thing that separates one riot from the other is its general effect on the society. This can be seen in the level of casualties in each riot and the radius of the land area covered by the riot and resulting violence. In particular, the London riot of 2011 which affected the area of Tottenham, in North London has had many reasons for its evaluation.

Brief History
According to CBC (2011), the London riots started on the 6th of August 2011 in the areas of Tottenham, North London. It began when an estimated 300 people gathered to protest the shooting of 29-year old Mark Duggan by the Police. It is said that Mark Duggan was shot dead by a Police officer unjustly .This resulted in a general outrage in the community which is a combination of different cultures. In addition to that, there had been claims of recent harassment by Police on younger members of society and although it all began as a peaceful protest outside the Tottenham police station, the protesters saw no progress in their quest to know the truth and decided to resort to violence. Later on, before the situation could be bought to order, many people started destroying vehicles, breaking into shops and generally there was a breakdown in law and order which led to chaos in the community. Sooner or later, this outbreak of chaos spread first to some other parts of London like Croydon and Brixton, then onto other cities in the UK such as Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham.

 Facts and Figures
-According to Lewis (2011), 42 people had been arrested as at the 7th of August 2011
-Also, about 26 Police officers were injured as at this date
-Later on, about 100 more Police officers were injured as at 12th of August

Speculated Causes and General Reaction 
    The major cause of this protest which led to a riot was believed to be the unjust killing of Mark Duggan by a Police officer. However the outburst of chaos in Tottenham was discouraged by the family as they said they were not 'condoning the violence that erupted' as it would bring no solution to discovering the circumstances behind his death, (BBC, 2011).
    Another cause, as suggested by a recent research (Lewis et al, 2011) involving around 270 people who rioted in London, is that the rioters may have exhibited acts of antagonism and a lack of trust towards the Police. In other cases, rioters narrowed down the reason for their actions simply to opportunity. Although the riots were initially thought to be pre-empted attacks by gang members, it was later discovered that gang members had little effect on the attacks, rather with ages of rioters mostly within the ages of 16-24, a large number of them were found to be unemployed. (CBC, 2011)
   Finally, as explained by Lammy (cited in Walters, 2012) MP of Tottenham, one other major reason for the outbreak of chaos was the proper discipline that children lack which makes it difficult for parents to bring their teenage children under control. Although, he had earlier stated that ' this was attack on Tottenham, on people, shopkeepers, women, children, now standing homeless'; he attached some blame to the ban on smacking children and confessed that children need smacking when necessary to instil discipline in them.


Conclusion
  In summary, the illegal killing of Mark Duggan can be said to have sparked up the embers that went from a peaceful protest to a  town-wide outspread of chaos mostly triggered by the unclarity of the Police concerning the issue. The London riots of 2011 have given an example of how many people decided to use violence to support illegal acts for a cause that had no proper depth.  In some of the other rioting cities in the UK, some rioters had no clue about why this was going on but as stated earlier that many of the rioters were unemployed people, they took it as an opportunity to breakdown law and order.



References:

BBC (2011). London riots: Dozens injured after Tottenham violence. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14435251 (Accessed: 10 March 2012) 

CBC (2011) Getting to the root of the U.K. riots. Available at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/08/09/f-uk-riots-faq.html (Accessed: 10March 2012)

Lewis, P. (2011) 'Tottenham riots: 26 police officers injured and 42 people arrested', The Guardian, 7 August [Online]. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-eight-police-injured (Accessed: 10 March 2012) 

Ball, J. Lewis, P. Newburn, T. Taylor, M. (2011) 'Rioters say anger with police fuelled summer unrest', The Guardian, 5 December [Online]. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/05/anger-police-fuelled-riots-study (Accessed: 10  March 2012)

Walters, S. (2012) 'Labour MP: Smacking ban led to riots because parents fear children will be taken away if they discipline them', Mail, 29 January [Online]. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093223/Labour-MP-David-Lammy-Smacking-ban-led-riots.html (Accessed date: 10 March 2012)

 

MEDIA

Types of Newspapers being compared Broadsheets and Tabloids
Newspapers being compared:  The Guardian and The Sun 
Item of News: Cardinal Keith O'Brien's comments concerning gay marriages
  
Similarities:

• Both newspapers state the author of the article and the times they were last updated.
• Both newspapers also placed some information concerning the author in the case of there being a need to make contact or just know more about the author
• Both newspapers post the same picture in their stories

Differences:

Area of Focus	The Sun	The Guardian
Picture	Here there are more pictures and they are much bigger.	Here there is only one picture and it is much smaller.
	Pictures are not very well described.	Pictures are properly described.
Text	Much more shorter  because of the big pictures and not very detailed concerning the story.	Much more longer because of the smaller picture and contains more details.
Style	Use of non-academic language such as “Storm as cardinal raps gay marriage” in the headlines.	Use of proper academic language such as “cardinal O’Brien’s gay marriage comments decried as scaremongering” in the headlines.
	Biased and tends to paint the story badly.	Cautious language is used.
Organisation	Not very well organised.	Well organised story  with paragraphing.

References:

Jowitt, J. (2012) 'Cardinal Keith O'Brien's gay marriage comments decried as scaremongering', The Guardian, March 2012 [Online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/04/cardinal-kieth-obrien-gay-marriage (Accessed: 5 March 2012)

Wilson, G. (2012) 'Storm as Cardinal raps gay marriage', The Sun, March 2012 [Online] Available at: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/4171188/Storm-as-cardinal-raps-gay-marriage.html (Accessed: 5 March 2012)

Language

         The language of French is officially the language of France and French people. According to Edwards (2007), the language of French is spoken by an estimated 128 million people worldwide. These include France, a part of Canada and 24 other countries  which were colonized by the French or originated from the French. Particularly in the UK, the larger population of the French-speaking population is situated in London; areas such as Croydon and Lewisham.

• The entrance of French into the UK in the year 1687 was signalled with the arrival of the Huguenot French people. These were members of the French protestant church who fled France with mass killing of anyone who did not worship in the catholic church. (Gwynn, 2012)
• According to Scarborough(2012), the ascension of king Louis XIVin 1661 brought the removal of the Edict of Nantes which was created by king Henry IV in 1598. This edict gave the Huguenots freedom of worship and religion but with its removal came their forced conversion to Catholicism or their mass massacre. 
• With the mass killing of Huguenots, many of them began to flee France but soon emigration was outlawed and those that were caught were sent to the galleys. However, an estimated 50,000 Huguenots arrived in England in between 1687 and 1714 (Gwynn, 2012) by means of the sea and for more years many of them still came to settle in england although a large number of them is said to have died at sea. 
• The settling of the Huguenots in England was not generally accepted by the english people but with growing interest in French fashion and style combined with the fact that they were hard workers, the French people became a gradual part of the English society. The evidence of their loyalty to England was proven in the Anglo-French wars and the Napoleonic wars. 
• Therefore, by the end of the 17th century the Huguenots has proven their willingness to become english and today, in the UK, French is the most commonly taught language in secondary schools across the UK (Edwards, 2007)

 

 Huguenot exiles from France (2005) 

References:

Edwards, V. (2007) French in the British Isles. Available at:http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/multilingual/french.shtml (Accessed: 6 March 2012)

Gwynn, R. (2012) 'England's First Refugees', History Today, 35(5) [Online]. Available at: http://www.historytoday.com/robin-gwynn/englands-first-refugees (Accessed: 9 March 2012) 

Scarborough, S. (2012) Huguenots- Their Faith, History and Impact. Available at: http://www.reformationsa.org/articles/The_huguenots.htm (Accessed: 9 March 2012)

Google Images (2005) Huguenot Exiles from France [Online]. Available at:http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=664&tbm=isch&tbnid=5dkRfAuntJdKlM:&imgrefurl=http://faculty.unlv.edu/gbrown/Hist103/index.html&docid=lJf0Y9nNF_GvyM/ (Accessed 9 March 2012)

The Welsh Assembly

       The Welsh Assembly is the law-making body of Wales. It consists 60 elected members; 40 of them are chosen to represent individual constituencies and 5 of them are chosen to represent the 5 regions of Wales. It can be suggested that because Cardiff city is the capital of Wales, the government building where the Assembly hold its plenary meeting is also located in Cardiff. This building is called the Senedd which was opened in 2006. It has public spaces where the people of Wales can watch Assembly meetings.
 
    History of Welsh Assembly Devolution  

• First of all, according to the Cambridge advanced learners dictionary[online] devolution is the moving of power or responsibility from a main organization to a lower level, or from a central government to a regional government. In the case of Wales, it was the movement of some powers from the UK government to the Welsh one.
• The commencement of this devolution was in 1997 when the people of Wales voted 'yes' in a referendum which led to the 1998 creation of the National Assembly for Wales. (Welsh Assembly Government, 2011) 
• Later on, in the 2006 Government of Wales Act, the National Assembly for Wales was given power to ask for allowance to create laws on issues re-assigned to the National Assembly.
• Recently, the 2011 referendum on law-making powers for the National Assembly for Wales resulted in a 'yes' vote. This does not mean that the National Assembly for Wales can make laws on more areas than before but that it no longer requires the assertion of the UK parliament in making laws on 20 devolved areas of economy. Some of these areas are agriculture, education, the environment, health, housing and local government.(National Assembly for Wales, 2012)  

     Summarily, this latest referendum has brough about a number of differences in welsh law-makin such as: "Assembly laws will no longer be called Assembly Measures;Proposed laws will now be called Bills" and many more     .

                                                            GoogleImages(2011)

References:

Welsh Assembly Government (2011) History of Devolved Government in Wales. Available at: http://wales.gov.uk/about/history/devolved/?lang=en (Accessed: 24 February 2012)

National Assembly for Wales (2012) The Referendum. Available at: http://www.assemblywales.org/gethome/vote2011/get_involved-referendum.htm    

GoogleImages (2011) [Online]. Welsh Referendum 2011 Available at: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=welsh+referendum+2011&hl=en&safe=off&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm/ 
 (Accessed: 24 February 2012).

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A New Government

       A new government has emerged from the latest general election led by David Cameron,  leader of the Coalition of Conservatives and Liberal democrats. For years, only either the Conservatives or Labour parties have partaken in government, while Lib Dems have been in between. This coalition was the product of a hung parliament. However, the negotiations that happened demanded a higher proportional system for future elections.

Reference:
InsideOut (2010) A New Government. Available at: http://www.insideout.net