Terrorism and a Critical Threat Level

Pretty much everyone will remember the events on Monday 22nd May 2017 at the Manchester Arena at the end of an Ariana Grande concert. A suicide bomber setting off an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), killing himself and at least 22 innocent victims, many of whom were children, and that's not including the many injured.

These kind of attacks seem to be a theme over the last few years, mainly thanks to radicalised extremists from groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIS. It's hard to get away from the fact that these groups claim to be Muslim and follow the teachings of the Quran. I'll openly admit, I don't know too much about Islam or the Quran, as an Atheist, I've never been interested in becoming a Muslim or joining any other religion. But from what I've been told by Muslims who I have worked with in the past, these people can never be considered true Muslim's despite their claims, explaining about how killing others and themselves is against what the Quran text says. I think I'm correct in saying that the same could be said about any other religion.

I spent the whole of yesterday pretty numb to what happened. These terrorist attacks are so regular, they are almost becoming a way of life, something that should be expected and not shocked or surprised about. This morning I genuinely felt angry with myself for feeling like that. But I'm not the only person I'm angry at, I'm angry at the attackers for committing these atrocities, I'm angry that they are using religion to justify what they are doing, and I'm angry at people who are getting drawn into those justifications and having a go at all Muslims because a small minority people are using their religion to justify attacking and killing innocent people.

Another admission that I want to make is that I hate organised religion, whether it be Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or any other religion, something which has led me to being an Atheist. But despite my hatred of religion I choose not to hate individuals who are religious, because many of them are genuinely nice people, or at least most of the ones I've met are. I'll also respect other people's beliefs as everyone has the right to choose to believe whatever they want to believe.

What I won't respect though, is people who believe an entire religion or group of people are to blame for the actions of a small group of people claiming to be members of that religion or group of people, because whatever these people claim, they do NOT belong to that religion or group of people! I've seen loads of people on Facebook yesterday having a go about Muslims as a whole, when true Muslims openly condemn the terrorist attacks done in their religion's name. On Monday night there were Muslims (among people with other religious beliefs) who helped the victims out, from by-standers to paramedics, and from taxi drivers offering free rides away from the scene to doctors and nurses at local hospitals. With this in mind I am angry at people who condemn everyone from one religion because of the acts of terrorists, who don't truly belong to any religion could come from any walk of life.

This has happened, but it's how we react that defines us as a people. The UK government has decided to upgrade the terror threat to it's highest level - CRITICAL. Critical basically means that a terror threat is imminent, and it's hard to argue with the government's reasoning behind putting the terror threat to this level, with all the terrorist attacks that have happened over the last few years, not only in the UK, but across the globe. It means that the Army will be helping the UK's police forces and more armed police will be visible on the streets until the terror threat level is downgraded again.

Even as an ordinary civilian be more vigilant, be aware when you're in public, don't panic if you seen the Army or armed police on the streets. If you see anything suspicious, that you think might be to do with a terrorist threat, then don't hesitate, please contact the police straight away on 0800 789 321. 

RIP to all those who have lost their lives on Monday and every other terrorist attack, my sincere condolences to your families. Hope for a speedy recovery to all injured people.

Open Letter to Mobile Phone Operators and Shopping Centre Owners

I want to write a blog or an open letter directed at mobile phone operators and shopping centre owners with regards to mobile phone reception in shopping centres. This blog or open letter isn't directed at any one particular company or mobile phone operator, but relates to a common problem in regards to lack of mobile phone reception within the buildings and what could be done to remedy the situation.

These days, I live near Coventry, so quite often go into Coventry City Centre and go into their West Orchards Shopping Centre. While inside the shopping centre my mobile phone reception isn't very good and quite often non-existent, having to rely on WiFi within the centre to gain Internet access is the least of my worries sometimes. I've never needed to make or receive a phone call or important text message while in there, it's a concern of mine if in an emergency, I needed to.

My latest annoyance with the lack of reception in West Orchards was on Saturday afternoon when my girlfriend and I were attempting to pay for some food we were buying from the Jacket Potato & Pie outlet in the Food Court. This annoyance wasn't with my lack of reception, but with the lack of reception encountered by the vendor, who was using a Chip n Pin terminal which connected to the bank via a mobile phone connection. You could argue, "why weren't they using a wired Chip n Pin terminal?" I would assume it was because of their IT set up wasn't advanced enough to do so, I would guess the vendor of the unit isn't part of a chain or big company, so rely on getting equipment as financially efficient as they can.

Ordinarily, having a wireless Chip n Pin terminal wouldn't be a problem, as the outlet would be located somewhere that had a reliable mobile phone signal, so could connect every time someone pays by card. I don't know what mobile phone network the terminals use, maybe it's a different operator depending on who the shop/restaurant/food outlet goes to.

On Saturday, I Tweeted all of the main mobile phone operators in the UK, Vodafone, O2, EE and Three, to see if I could get some sort of explanation as to why, in this day and age, we still have problems with mobile phone reception in shopping centres. I didn't tweet any of the others, as they piggyback on the aforementioned networks, so should get as good (or bad) reception as the network they piggyback on. West Orchards isn't the only shopping centre to have issues, Lakeside in Thurrock is also bad for the issue too.

From my understanding on how mobile phones work, they use forms of radio signal between masts and the mobile devices. Masts are generally outdoors, either on top of buildings or at the top of pylon style stands. Using this method, steel used in structures can interfere with radio signals getting into the structure. I would imagine that most shopping centres being multi-storey (West Orchards, being 4 or 5 storeys to allow access to its shops and multi-story car park and Lakeside being 3 storey) would use a lot of steel to support the building. That would probably pretty much explain why the issue exists in most shopping centres.

However, I am also aware of technology that exists that could provide better signal within shopping centres. Internal antennas. Vodafone uses them at the building where I work and they are wall mounted and not much bigger than two full size tower PC units. So why don't mobile phone operators deploy these in shopping centres? Yes, I know it would cost them money, but they get enough money from their customers to cover this and I'm pretty sure they could get agreement from the shopping centre owners if it temps a higher footfall into the shopping centre, more people using their shops and keeping the shops in business and therefore continued rent payments and shops not closing because they don't get enough custom to warrant staying open.

So come on people, please get it sorted! Would help a lot of people, and vendors using mobile Chip n Pin terminals.