Citizen Gale - Blog-On

Within the past 10 minutes Saddam Hussain has been sentenced to death for Crimes against Humanity for his part in the deaths of 48 people in the Dujail region of Iraq.

Not really a suprise, even before Saddam was captured the Iraqi courts and the American Government were discussing his method death once he was brought to trial, so it seem something of a forgone conclusion that this sentence would be passed.

Throughout the 40s and 50s the former USSR were decried for their show trials of rebels against the regime. So why is it to the wider world, the trial of Saddam is seen as just another show trial with an enevitable end?

There is no doubt for the families of those who died in the Dujail massacare that justice has been done, but do the thousands of families of those victims who died in the Anzia (spelling?) massacare feel the same, if Saddam wasn't given the death sentence for this first trial then he would have gone onto face charges on this wider crime. So have these families had their justice?

However the point in peoples minds has to be has the justice system been seen to work in a fair and impartial way or are we dealing with a country which will never know how to have a fair system of justice? For so long Saddam ruled in the manner he wished rather than to the rule of law and now the occupying forces are in control is justice actually being done or is it being done just for the conveniance the western world rather than the Iraqi people.

There is no doubt however this verdict will see an increase in the insurgencey in Iraq wether its a tempory blip or a more long term one. Iraq is a country in turmoil and true justice can never really be done when there is no precident for it being done in the first place.

To me these Saddam trial are up there with the Soviet Show Trials in their ludricacy and total lack of true justice. Saddam may be a guilty man, but even a guilty man deserves a full and fair trial.

AFTER years of promising myself I would take part, on Sunday I finally completed the Great North Run.

On my first year of asking I managed to get an entry and made the trip 'Op North' for the Run between Newcastle and South Shields.

Now when I say I ran it, that isn't strictly true, I actually walked it. Due to a few injuries over the past few months I was by no means fit enough to run it so I decided to walk it instead, and I have to say I don't think I did too badly for to complete 13.1 miles in 3 hours 46mins and 55 seconds.

And yes I was talking part on behalf of a charity, that of CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) and while I am not a catholic myself I still believe the cause if worthwhile in helping those in the developing world.

And yes I am still collecting sponsors, so if your interested no matter how much you can still sponsor me at http://www.justgiving.com/nicolagale

IT’S A simple question really yet nobody seems to know what art actually is. Some will say the paintings by Turner and Constable are art and yet others will say works created by Hurst and Hemming are art.
Regardless of which category you fall into most people would say that a picturesque view of the French countryside could be considered art in one form or another whether you actually liked it or not.
But would it cease to be art once you knew who the painter was? Would is cease to be art and become propaganda when you found out the artist was Adolf Hitler? And if you found yourself in possession of a work by Hitler what would you do with it?
This is a dilemma which has been raised this week as a series of works attributed to Hitler go in sale at an auction house in Cornwall.
Holocaust survivors have said the works should be destroyed because of the acts he authorised after the pictures were painted. But doesn’t destroying the pictures lower us to the levels of Hitler who ordered the mass burning of books and art which his regime didn’t agree with? Or are we just trying to forget a part of our history we need to remember in order to prevent it happening again.
It was telling yesterday when a interviewee in BBC Spotlight said: “We should just forget about him” Personally I would say no we shouldn’t forget about him, we need to remember everything he and his regime did in order to make sure it never happens again.
This is much of the problem we have in this world, we choose to forget and then in the process make the same mistakes as before and then wonder why it happened.
Remembering Hitler and the Nazis doesn’t need to be at the forefront of our minds 24/7, but it does need to be in mind when those times arise when we see atrocity happen once again, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Chile and the Sudan to name but a very few. History keeps repeating itself because we the human race turn a blind eye and forget about the last time. We have never learnt the lessons of the past.
So would you still buy a piece of art by Hitler? And would you even still consider it to be art regardless of who produced it in the first place?

IT WAS in 1986 that I first fell in love, I was nine years old and still at primary school, but I knew from that day that it would be my destiny to drive that car.

No it wasn’t someone in my class but the Porsche 911 a car that defined the 1980s, everything else about the decade could be easily detested if you came from a working class family, Thatcher preached greed while miners in Yorkshire and Wales were kicked out of their jobs in the name of progress, but the Porsche 911 was the car that made every man, woman and child want it, not need it just want it.

A few people would go onto own their own 911, the rest of us just had to sit back look at it with envious eyes and just dream about what could be.

It was partly because of the Porsche 911 that I wanted to become a journalist, I was asked to write a school report about the job I wanted to do when I grew up, I decided then and there I wanted to be a motoring journalist so I could drive my own 911. It kind of happened for a short while, I worked on a local newspaper in Devon before joining the prison service as an admin officer, but I have never really given up the dream and would still jump at the chance even now.

But one man in particular has been living the dream of the motoring journalist, someone I am truly envious of.

On Wednesday, Top Gear Presenter, Richard Hammond was involved in an accident which can only be described as horrendous, how he survived we will never know, however he did and he’s now recovering in Leeds General Infirmary. The Hamster as he has become known is the kind of motoring journalist who isn’t afraid to push the limits of what mankind can do in a car, in the past he has been zapped by millions of volts of lightening energy with only the safety of a VW to sit in, he has driven around race tracks at speeds which most of us would see that the colour of adrenalin is actually brown, this is a man who is living his dream and nearly paid with his life.

It’s people like The Hamster that push mankind forward, without people like him we would still be stuck in the stone age looking like Clarkson thinking ‘Ooooh it’s comfortable in here’, the Hamster on the other hand thought: ‘Hmmm I wonder what’s over that hill and how fast I can get there?’ he is willing to take the risks most of us would shrink from, me included.

But was the accident on Wednesday a step out of the cave too far? And have we as the human race gone as far as we can without pressing the self destruct button?
Questions which really only people like the Hamster can answer, the rest of us just have to continue living in our caves envious at people like Richard who dare to push the boundaries.

I’m still envious of the job Richard has, so if there is anyone there from the BBC who may just need a stand in presenter who like Richard is a bit on the short side then give me a call because I still have 12 days leave owing and I don’t think the Prison Service will mind!

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Remember if it hadn't have been for the emergency services and especially the North Yorkshire Air Ambulance on the day our Hamster wouldn't be here now so help make a diffrence and donate anything you can spare to the North Yorkshire Air Ambulance

...It would be McDonalds!

Yes today I saw a vision of hell, McDonalds.

A place full of screaming kids who wouldn't know what a carrot looked like if it jumped up and bit them. Accompanied by their fat parents who really should introduce themselves to a salad one day and all served up by disinterested spooty teenagers who have no sense of social responsiblity by working for a company which assists in the destruction of the Amazon rainforests and who's salads have more fat and salt than a Big Mac.

Yes hell is McDonalds and we're living with it and doing bugger all about it!

A Letter

You many not know me, and I certinally don't know you, however on the 24th August between 7:15 and 8:45pm you decided to break into my car and steal my rucksack.

I don't know why you did it and to be honest I don't really care, this isn't about you, it's about me and the hurt your criminality has caused this one victim.

As you now know you didn't get much, a Middlesbrough football shirt, a pair of trousers and a pink linen shirt. Not much you'll agree. But I guess you were a little more suprised when you found in the bag a Prison Service ID card and a key chain and tally, so in fact I guess you do know who I am.

However the contents of the bag weren't important, dispite the bag being given to me by family in Canada I can even cope with that, but what I can't cope with is the fact you decided to take it upon yourself to vandalise my car which I work hard to pay for and steal something which you had no right to take in the first place.

I am a forgiving person on the whole, but the one thing I cannot forgive is someone violating another persons rights to a peaceful and happy life. Last night you violated that my rights and you cannot be forgiven.

As of this moment you owe me, my rucksack and its contents and £300 for a new window to replace the one you decided to smash, it's a small price to pay for the damage you've done.

Your reasons for your theft are not important and you arn't important. The important ones are your victims, victims like me.

So when the police do finally catch up with you and you sent to serve your sentence at Her Majestys pleasure, just remember this....I could be the one locking you up.

This september 23rd, my boyfriend (yes I do have one!) will be taking part in a sponsored head shave, chest and leg wax in aid of the Bobby Moore Fund for Bowel Cancer Research.

Also the bonus will be the thought of a referee in pain

A simple question for today.

Why do so called colleagues like to stitch you up at every given oppertunity?

You know the thing that makes it worse, when it's so called 'management' who are doing it. They couldn't manage a piss up in a pub!

According to a 'study' being conducted by the Metropolitian Police and the Prison Service Professional Standards Unit, up to 1,000 members of prison staff are corrupt and helping get drugs, mobile phones and other contraband products into Prisons around England and Wales.

Well yes we would be wrong to think that an organisation of the Prison Service size didn't have a few bad apples in the barrel and yes they should be found out and dealt with.

But lets look at the life of a typical Prison Officer:

After siz weeks training an new prison officer (known as POELTS) will be pushed out onto the wings of their new establishment and expected to do the job of friend, father/mother, employer, councillor, jailer, and foe all in one day.

A prison officer can expect to bew verbally and physically abused, and depending on the type of prison you work in and the wing in which you work you can expect to be vomited upon and bled upon.

You're the first on the scene when a prisoner cuts the wrists, tries to hang themselves or even succeeds in hanging themselves, YOUR the one cutting them down from the window bars and trying to save a life.

You start work at 6am and some days don't finish until 9pm with only a lunch hour to keep you going.

Your expected to keep good order and disipline while gaining the trust of prisoners.

You're expected to meet key performance targets, keep up your paperwork and look after prisoners all at the same time.

You're expected to continue your training in every aspect of the Prison Service while looking after prisoners.

And your expected do to all this and more for just £17.500 per year...as the Police advertising says....'Could You?'

And when you tell the public what you do the reaction you will normally get is 'Oooh that must be interesting', 'Oh I couldn't do that' or 'Is it anything like Bad Girls'

The fact is people outside the Prison Service can never understand the conditions under which you work and the pressure under which you do it in.

Corruption is wrong, and will always be wrong and those involved need to be rooted out, but before you judge a Prison Officer and ask if he's on the take, ask yourself this. Would YOU do the job under the present conditions of overcrowding, underfunding and pressure? I doubt it.

So next time you meet a prison officer or even a civilian member of prison staff, have some respect for the job they do.

Banks...never trust a bank, once they have your money you'll never be able to get away from them.

I've been having problems with my bank over the past few months, on this occassion I won't name them but they are one of the big four banks on your everyday high street.

Anyway the problems started a few months ago when they decided to bounce a few of my direct debits...no problem there then eh? yes BIG problem, not only did they not uphold the direct debits they also charged me for bouncing them in the first place, charged me for sending a letter telling me of the charge for not honouring the direct debits and then charged me daily interest for the direct debits which they didn't honour!

And again this month the same has been done, leaving me over £400 in the red and the prospect of not being able to honour all of my bills once again meaning once again I will be in the red next month.

So I have come to the conclusion the banks are nothing more than thieves, the diffrence between them and many of those locked up every day by the magistrates courts is that these thieves get away with it time and again all in the name of profit.