Blue Chi’s

This is a very straight forward topic, probably the first tutorial that I actually go to properly prepared this year. Workers had not been properly protected in the UK under national legislation in the past. The EU required the enforcement of some Health and Safety Regs that granted workers some protection in several aspects including working time.

First of all, the regs apply to ‘workers’. The term ‘worker’ is widely defined to exceed the regular definition of ‘employee’ as it is intended to include self-employed and sub-contractors. The definition of Reg 2 of the Working Time Regulations includes any person who has entered into or works under any kind of contract,t whether express or implied, oral or written, whereby ‘the individual undertakes to do or perform personally any work or services for another party to the contract whose status is not by virtue of the contract that of a client or customer of an profession or business undertaking carried on by the individual.’

Excluded from this are training doctors, and mobile workers in air, rail, road and marine industries. The regs related to working time do not also apply to workers of unmeasured work such as executive managers, family workers and church workers.

The main prohibition in the regs is that a worker should not work more than an average of 48 hours in a week in a reference period. A reference period is a period of 17 weeks of which the average time of weekly hours is calculated.

A worker can opt-out of this protection if he agrees with his employer in writing. (Reg 5)

Working time in all of these cases means (Reg 2)

• any period during which a worker is working at his employer’s disposal carrying out his activities or duties. Or
• Any period during which he is receiving relevant training, Or
• Any additional period which is to be treated as working time for the purpose of these regulations under a relevant agreement.

There is a problem with ‘on-call’ working hours, where the worker is not doing work. If the worker is required to stay at the working place during the on-call period, this will be considered as working time, as happened in the case of SiMAP.

TBC..

Helpful link.

Toni’s album was released late in September, many people thought that the album was short cause it only had 12 tracks, but Toni has actually been pumping up all these international releases of the album each with one or two different bonus tracks that were not included in the original release, and the funny part is that those bonus tracks are much better than most of the tracks on the original release. Until now, there are 6 bonus tracks that can’t be found on the original album:

1. Suddenly
2. Long Way Home
3. I Hate You
4. Happily Unhappy
5. Places
6. Shake and Move

This is not including the track “I Like it Like That” which leaked long time before the album came out and never got released on any international edition that I heard of. She seriously should have put these on a single album, I really can’t understand why she chose to give each country one different track at the end of the album. Stupid Toni. Anyway, it is nice to hear that her album sold some copies, she was certified Gold by the RIAA early this November.

People, help spread the word, the awards are starting!
http://oba2005.blogspot.com

Defamation is the law providing means of preventing unjustifiable attacks upon reputation and one of compensation for those that have been defamed. This is usually a civil law mater, but it could also bring prosecution under criminal libel.

The required elements of the initiation of a defamation claim is that the complainant must prove that a statement referred to him, that it was defamatory and that it was communicated to a 3rd party.

The reference must reasonable refer to C, this is an object test of strict liability, D’s state of mind does not matter, he does not even need to know about the existence of C. Case Hulton v Jones, wrote an article about a fictional character that came out to be a real person, that person sued and won. Newstead v Londond Express Newspapers, accused person of bigamy and there was another person with the same name, that person sued and won. However, there is an exception to the strict liability rule in the case of look-alike photos, can’t sue these for defamation.

A guilty statement could be untrue or could be something that upsets C, however, it has to be defamatory, this means that it has to either lower C in the estimation of right thinking members of the society, or that it exposes him to hatred, contempt or ridicule, makes him shunned or avoided, or one that claims the lack of qualification, knowledge, skill, capacity, judgment, or efficiency. A company may sue if the material is injurious to its trading reputation.

If D innocently defamed C, he can use s4 of the DA 1996 to make an offer of amends, offering C a compensation and apology. D must do this in writing and must make it clear that this is made in an offer of amends and must, he can do it anytime before issuing a defence and cannot use it in conjunction with any other defence. (It is a sole defence which admits guilt). The actual offer must include a compensation, an appropriate apology, must be published in an appropriate manner and must make a qualified or an unconditional offer.

If C and D cannot agree on some parts of terms of the Offer of Amends they could be taken to a single judge who can decide on disputed conditions. If D acts promptly and generously he may be awarded a discount by the judge!

If C rejects the OoA he can take legal action, but the onus will be on him to show that the statement was defamatory, that it referred to him intrinsically and that D acted maliciously. It would not be sufficient to show negligence, the minimum level of mens rea required is recklessness.

* What about the summary procedure and conditional fee agreements?

I’ve been really looking forward to listen to this album. Madonna’s previous album, though a relative commercial flop, is in fact one of my all time favourites. I am glad to declare that I was not let down by Madonna’s confessions on the dance floor. There is a smooth flow along the whole album, Madonna’s music is very inspirational to me, it is something that I don’t only listen to, but it constantly casts visual images in my head, the religious blend of synthetic beats and the tunes of violins is embracing, this one of those albums in which all songs connect to create a linear amazing experience. Madonna has done it once again.

1. Hung Up
2. Get Together
3. Sorry
4. Future Lovers
5. I Love New York
6. Let It Will Be
7. Forbidden Love
8. Jump
9. How High
10. Isaac
11. Push
12. Like It Or Not

I had a relatively good day today, I got up early, about 8, but I decided not to go to pray Eid because I called up my friend and he didn’t pick up, so I just couldn’t bother going on my own, I never prayed Eid in this country, so I might as well just continue my… legacy(?) Anyway, we went to town at noon, chilled at a coffee shop, we walked around a couple of shops and then had lunch at an Italian restaurant, it was really great.

We went back home afterwards, it wasn’t long until I had to go to the societies’ council meeting, which was b-o-r-i-n-g (add to that the fact that I was on my own), but thankfully it was short. Right after that I went to the Japanese culture event, which was really cool. I felt so bad that I didn’t have my camera with me, I took some shots with my phone to blog it properly.

Sumizare
The first feature was about Japanese calligraphy, I don’t understand why they called calligraphy when it was actually about Japanese abstract art. This feature was quite poetic rather than factual, an interesting point is that the colour black in this context is considered to be the most meaningful as it contains all the colours one can imagine. It is a weird concept, but interesting nonetheless. An example of Japanese calligraphy is what you see in the wallpapers hung up the wall in the image above.

Tea Ceremony
This was cool, and actually even a little bit scary, the way the Japanese guy just did it, but before we go there, the culture of Japanese tea was imported from China I don’t know how many thousands of years ago along with architecture and something else (I can’t remember). This was first a religious drink consumed by monks, theory says that because this was the first caffeine containing drink in Japan, monks drank it so that they don’t fall asleep during the boring long periods of meditation. (I did NOT make that up!) The ceremony of making the Japanese tea is a bit too professional, obviously the thing we saw was clearly over stressed, but it was cool. I cannot describe it, it was essentially just mixing the herbs with water, but the way he did seemed to be very (maybe too) systematic, and the face he showed was really serious, it really looked like a religious ceremony rather than making tea.

Tatami
This is the square Japanese cushion that people sit on at home. It actually covers the whole floor of the Japanese house currently. It was first creating from wires and something else, and was a luxurious piece of furniture that only the wealthy managed to own. Nowadays it is created from more hygienic and safe products. I touched it and it felt very hard, it is not like a mattress but more like a very hard sofa. The thing I saw was about 10 cm thick.

Origami and Kimono
They didn’t say much about the history about these, but just showed some origami and how this culture goes for thousands of years ago. For those that don’t know, origami is the art of folding papers into various shapes and objects, the lady at the event was saying that you can create anything from a single piece of paper without using any scissors or glue. After the show there was an origami workshop where you can take a paper and they’ll teach you how to make something, I acted as if I didn’t know anything and joined in, I made a swan.

Kimono is the Japanese dress, it is a one piece clothing that comes only in one size, the same cloth could be wrapped around the person as much as needed to fit his/her size. The belt worn around the Kimono is about 2 meters long and 50 cm in width, I don’t know if what I saw was folded or something. Two girls stood showing us their clothes, they were seriously colourful and very good looking. They did not have a dress up session, that would’ve been cool. (These people should learn from the Omani Society!)

Flower Arrangement
This session was really short, they only had one sample, the three components of a flower arrangement is the creator, the base, and materials. The atmosphere contributes to the creation of a distinct new arranged flower scene. (or that is what they said, ok?)

Shamisen
This is a Japanese string instrument combined with a drum. It shares the same origins as European violins and guitars: India. The Shamisen has only three strings and the lower part of it could be used as a drum. It could be played using one’s nails or a comb-like tool in a “Y” shape. A Japanese woman played three musical pieces on it, the playing on the instrument itself was very nominal as she made those ‘Ooo, Woo’ traditional Japanese sounds orally. She read the musical notes for this from a music book as she ‘sang’.

They had a reception after these offering Japanese tea, snacks, wine, and orange juice. Their tea tasted weird, they gave us some in regular plastic cups, it was only like 5 mm in depth. It tasted weird, salty, a maybe a little bit like sea food… I don’t know. The snakes they gave were all like biscuits and cunchies, quite salty. I got this weird combination of nut-like crunchies, that were packed with tiny dried fish, those were like real fish, tiny ones, you see the eyes and everything, they were real and dried. It is disgusting when you look at it, but they just taste like the rest of the crunchies. Actually, those remind of Omani Qashi3, I haven’t had this for years, so I can;t remember if it looks like that actually.

We received a raffle ticket when we entered and they were supposed to have a draw at the end, they were giving some Japanese goodies including some Sake (Japanese wine), but I couldn’t just bother waiting for half an hour doing nothing but wait as I was on my own, plus I don’t drink anyway…. MAYBE I WOULD’VE WON SOMETHING ELSE GOOD. I didn’t stay anyway… and this concluded the Japanese culture event! Arigatoo.

I really liked the debut album of Teairra, it the usual hip hop + RnB + pop formula with seriously good production. I was gladly surprised to find out that the album packed a Rodney Jerkins song! The album has an edgy feel to it, it is more as hip-hop RnB than soul RnB, I am not sure if I am going to remember this album in a months time, but right now I am really enjoying it.

1. Make Her Feel Good
2. No Daddy
3. New Shit
4. Stay In Ya Lane (Darkchild song!)
5. Act Right
6. M.V.P.
7. La La
8. Get Down Tonight
9. Phone Booth
10. Confidential **
11. Get Up On Ya Gangsta
12. No Daddy (Remix)

I can’t lie and say that I enjoyed this month because I did not, I cannot lie and say that I will miss Ramadhan because I won’t. I don’t know what is wrong with me, but I am not enjoying myself as much as I think I should, and I think that this is my dilemma. I am supposed to be here to get a degree and go back home, but can I be asking for too much to simply ask for some fun? The problem is that I am not having a problem with school, my schedule is too good to be true, I like almost all of the modules that I do, I am not having any difficulties, and it is not like I am expected to, all I need is a pass and I should be okay. In the virtual universe, my google rankings are increasing, my traffic is increasing, and everything is perfect. The Omani society involvement could get on my nerve, but yet again, it is nothing serious. The problem is that I feel alone, a lot. I am not sure if it is Ramadhan, but I am in my third year, and I’ve been in this place for four years, and yet, I can’t think of a single person to call.. to see.. to talk to?! What does that tell you about me? Okay, I can say that all the friends that I had left this place, I mean, from the group that I had the first year I came, I am the only survivor, people dropped out, changed courses, left to other places. It is not like I don’t know anyone, but yet again I’m picky, and so much of a perfectionist. I know people that I cannot hang around with, I know people that I don’t want to get involved with, I know people that I don’t want to take control of, and I just don’t want to throw myself on some group. I hate the Omani people, I hate the Omani people, I hate the Omani people. I do see some new friends about two days a week, but yet again, I’m used to seeing people every single day of the week, I need to talk, I mean, what is the point of having a story that you have nobody to tell, philosophical shit says that there is no point of having an experience that you can’t share with somebody else.

I hope that this is just Ramadhan, I am glad that only two days are left, I mean, DAYS pass without me having any live interaction with a single person, I only speak Arabic on the phone, and it would be only stuff to do with the Society. The thing is that each module is taken by a different group of people, so I do have a lot of classes in which I don’t know a single person, and even in classes where I know people, the people I know would not show up to class, I would go to the library just to gossip, and nobody I know would be there, how crazy is that? Only two days are left, I think I can make it, barely.

I talked about games in the previous wrap up, so I think I should continue the same way. I lost interest in Shin Megami Tensie: Nocturne, it just got boring, the battle system sucks, the character never talks, the atmosphere was great at the start, but it just got all dull at the end. I decided to play Stella Deus instead simultaneously with Final Fantasy Tactics (Link to Gamespots Greatest Games of All Time Feature), I bought the greatest hits NTSC version (this game was never released in Europe). Tactics was released in 1997, and it is still the best SRPG I’ve ever played, I can’t believe how much of a rip off Stella Deus is, still enjoyable, but come one people, be a little bit original, however, the voice acting of that game STINKS. I’m a bit more than 5 hours into each of these games. Final Fantasy is hot, I’m starting to think that it is the best game I played in my entire life.

I didn’t buy a single music track this month, just downloaded some. Here are links to the reviews of October

• Ashlee Simpson – I Am Me
• Sugababes – Taller In More Ways
• Nasha – My Story

Hey, I forgot to mention that I went to a Japanese Society movie show the other day, they screened “Nobody Knows”, it was a melodrama based on a true story of mother that abandoned her illegitimate children. It was such a heartbreaking movie, I really enjoyed it. It is available on DVD and I heard that it was high praised by the critics when it came out in 2004. You can read more info about the movie at this link.

The big event of this month was the purchase of my keychain. Check it out people:

I hated this album the first time I heard it, this was mainly because of the lead track “My Story”, it was too ghetto for my personal liking, basically, I aint got no hood to relate to, it instantly hit me that those lyrics are not accessible to the non-black American listener. I listened to the whole thing in one go and just never played it once again until last night, I felt like listening to something fresh and I remembered that I actually liked the track “Distance” the first time I heard it, I listened to the album once again and this time I didn’t feel too left out, actually, this is just a regular RnB album, the lyrics are not really inaccessable or anything, I have no idea of what I was thinking of the other day. I am not sure of this is going to grow on me to be an all time favourite, but I’ve been listening to nothing else today. My favourite tracks are “Baby Luv”, “No Good” and “Fire”. The album is very well produced, her music is the usual hot RnB and Soul.

1. Get To Go Home
2. It’s Not Worth It
3. My Story
4. Distance
5. Baby Luv
6. Mama
7. No Good feat. BG
8. Saturday
9. Sexy On
10. Go Slow
11. Strung Out
12. Fire
13. Gotta Move
14. What U Waitin’For
15. More Than A Million

I can’t believe I had this tutorial this morning, it seems as if I had it ages ago, Monday is my busiest day of the week, I start at 10 and finish at 4 with only one hour break half way through, this is crazy for someone doing Law. I was really tired by 3pm, so I just decided not to go to the last lecture, even though I was right there in front of the door before it started, I gave it a though and decided to go back home.

However, I had a Labour Law tutorial this morning, I wasn’t really prepared well, it is still Ramadhan, or that’s the excuse that I make. The tutorial was about the contract of employment, terms could be incorporated into the contract either expressly or impliedly. Collective Agreements between the employer and a trade union could be incorporated using an express bridging term, or possible by custom, using the official bystander test, or possible on the basis of business efficacy.

Other general terms could be applied the same way collective agreements are incorporated, however, implied terms cannot take over express terms when in conflict.

The topic also involves a collection of implied duties of employees such as cooperation, care and safety, competence, obedience to instruction, fidelity, and confidence.

Hmmm.. clearly I didn’t prepare so well for this tutorial, I can’t remember anything else and I didn’t even write good notes while I studied.