Crazy Celebrity Names

If you are keeping up with the Kardashians - on the news, and on the TV series of the same name – you would have known this, by now.

That the controversial celebrity couple Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have had a brand new baby, this week. And that they have named him ‘Saint’.

Saint? I thought they would call him ‘South.’

It seemed like a logical progression because they had named their daughter, the firstborn, as ‘North.’

Now, Saint West and North West, the newest siblings in the celebrity world, made me think about the crazy names that celebrities often give to their babies.

Actually, I should move the word ‘crazy’ in the above sentence - and keep it in front of the word  ‘celebrities’.

Who can forget the boy named ‘Brooklyn’?

This poor boy, the firstborn of David and Victoria Beckham (or Posh Spice, of Spice Girls fame) must be frustrated, I know, explaining his name to his friends at school.

The innovation of this celebrity couple did not end there. They named their fourth born as ‘Harper Seven’.

Some reporters surmised that it could be a blending of ‘Harper Bazaar’ magazine, the cover of which Victoria Beckham had once adorned, and of number “7”, the shirt number of David Beckham when he used to play for Manchester United.

However, refuting the inference, the couple said that ‘Harper’ was chosen as a tribute to 'Harper Lee' the writer of Posh Spice’s favourite book, ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’, and that “Seven” was chosen because it was an interesting ‘whole’ number -- related to seven days, seven wonders, seven colours etc.

That the mother of Harper Seven was actually reading a book - any book - is highly suspect, say some reporters who follow her activities closely.

In the old country music song “A Boy named Sue”, the father had had a clear and definite purpose in naming his son that way. Or that's what Johnny Cash told us.

But the purpose of celebrities naming children, in strange ways, is still unclear to all of us.

And I really feel sad for all those poor kids who are named, ‘Pilot Inspektor’ (yes. with a ‘k’), ‘Baby Blue Ivy’, ‘Sparrow James Midnight’ and ‘Coco Riley’ by their respective, over-enthusiastic, parents - Jason Lee and Carmen Llywelyn, Beyonce and Jay-Z, Joel Madden and Nicole Richie, and Courtney Cox and David Arquette.

‘Moon Unit’ is the daughter of the legendary musician Frank Zappa. And – hold your breath - “Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily” is the daughter of the television presenter and writer Paula Yates and Michael Hutchence.

'Fifi Trixibelle', 'Peaches Honeyblossom' and 'Little Pixie' are Paula Yates’ other daughters, through that famous musician and Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof.

Don’t all these step-sisters remind us of the names of Power Puff Girls?

“I never work on a Sunday” was one of my favourite songs, some 15 years ago. But I didn’t know that its singer loved Sunday so much that he named his daughter Sunday.

Yes. Singer Keith Urban and Actress Nicole Kidman named their daughter ‘Sunday Rose’.

And Johnny Depp and  Vanessa Paradis went a flower further, and named their daughter 'Lily Rose'.

Very confusing, I think. Lily? Or Rose? Maybe they just thought that a rose by any other name, like Lily, would still smell as sweet.

A couple of years ago, our second daughter, who has a somewhat rare name, was upset with me and my wife when she found out that, at a famous tourist-place souvenir-shop, there were key-chains with hundreds of different names, but not of hers.

I didn’t know how to explain to her.

Maybe I should ask these celebrities how they manage to explain why they named their son as “Pilot Inspektor” or their daughter as “Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily”.

The Taming of the Playboy

No more nudity. 

The notorious magazine Playboy made this announcement on 13 October.

For a United States magazine which had made millions, since 1953, by the sheer exploitation of the female form, this change of policy – of shunning its own core competency - must have been a weighty decision.

But we know this is not a moral decision. This is a business decision.

After all, when maintaining a good bottom-line becomes a bare necessity – pun unintended - what else can you expect?

Playboy’s founder hedonist Hugh Hefner had, for decades, cashed in on the pictures of naked women in various media and had started many allied businesses. But, evidently, in this day and age, nudity does not sell anymore.  At least, not in the conventional way.

Even though, time and again, Hefner used to remind people that his magazine, which he founded with 1000 dollars borrowed from his mother, is a men’s lifestyle magazine, people always felt they knew him, and his magazine, better.

Even though writings of Arthur C. Clarke, Ian Fleming, Vladimir Nabokov, Truman Capote, Saul Bellow, P. G. Wodehouse, Haruki Murakami, Ray Bradbury, John Updike and Margaret Atwood have all appeared in Playboy, many readers keep talking only about the pictures of Marilyn Monroe, Bo Derek, Kim Bassinger, Madonna, Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy.

Even though interviews with Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Jimmy Carter, John Lennon and Yoko Ono had featured in it, people are still unable to remove the sleaze-tag attached to this publication. And that is because, as we can see, he had always wanted to overplay the sleaze part.

Now 89, the old man Hugh Hefner, when he was young, had written in his first editor’s letter, in 1953, that the magazine is for men fond of quiet discussions “on Picasso, Nietzche, jazz, [and] sex.” But, was it?

Over twenty five years ago, an average young man in the western world would have been willing to pay for a sleazy magazine to get his thrills. But today - from his laptop, tablet and mobile phone - he can access much more varied content in high definition, on the web; sometimes without paying a cent.  

If video had killed the radio star, the Internet has been ruthlessly slaying the print media giants, for quite a while now. In fact, it is a wonder that some print mags are still surviving.

Playboy, I understand, used to sell 7 million copies in its hay days. Today, its circulation is barely 800,000.

With changing times, tastes and technologies, it is foolish to hang on to your product offerings without innovating and adapting to times.  Just look at Kodak. It had stuck to photo film and photo paper, and has become completely bankrupt now. Their entry into digital cameras came in too late, and too slow.

We see Hefner’s kingdom being finally brought to its knees not by preachers of morality, but the augurs of inevitability and the tides of technology.

What Hefner’s ilk really wants now is to sustain the Playboy brand and logo of "the stylized bowtie’d bunny".

Playboy Enterprises makes more money on licensing deals today than on the magazine. Like on low-end luxury apparel and beauty products, as well as branded cocktail lounges.

In 2014, License! Global magazine ranked Playboy at 42nd on a list of the top 150 global licensors. All this business is based on the lifestyle associated with brand.

Therein lies the rationale for this new decision. A decision to sustain brand bunny that's being badly battered. 

Bodyline. That's not Cricket.

England regained the ‘Ashes’ this week, on 24 August, after their fifth cricket test match against Australia, played at The Oval in London. 

By winning this five-match ‘Ashes 2015’ series, 3-2, they got the trophy back from the touring Australians.

But, as I watched the news, somehow, my mind went back to the traditional over-a-century-old England-Australia cricket rivalry.

It had, actually, given rise to the very term ‘Ashes’ since 1882, when an English newspaper had written a mock obituary stating that English cricket had died, and that "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia"!

My mind particularly went back to England’s role in Ashes 1932-1933 series. A series about which I had read much, and I had watched much. And I now thought it might worth a revisit by us.

Almost a century has passed since that controversial tour of Australia by English cricketers, but the 1932-1933 series, which had caused a huge diplomatic upheaval, will always be remembered for the revisions of the laws of Cricket it had soon evoked.  

I remember watching ‘Bodyline’, a wonderfully-made BBC mini-series on television that showed the controversy surrounding the strategy of England’s Captain Douglas Jardine of having his bowlers use some completely ungentlemanly tactics to get the great batsman Don Bradman out.

Jardine’s attack was a revenge-seeking one because, earlier in 1930, England had lost the series to the touring Australians.

And the Australian Don Bradman, during that time, was riding high on the crest of his career. 

In fact, Australia had, in 1930, won the five-Test series 2–1, with Don Bradman scoring 974 runs at a batting average of an astounding 139.14, an aggregate record that still stands, even today.

By 1932-33, Bradman's average had hovered around 100, approximately twice that of all other world-class batsmen of that time.  Then aged 24, Bradman clearly was not going to retire anytime soon.

Therefore, he became the prime target of the English bowlers.

Apparently, as soon as Jardine was named captain for the 1932–33 English tour of Australia, Jardine met up with his two fast bowlers Harold Larwood and Bill Voce at London's Piccadilly Hotel to discuss a plan to combat Bradman's extraordinary skills.

They knew that Bradman gets uncomfortable facing deliveries which bounced higher than usual at a faster pace, and that he would step back out of the line of the ball.

And thus was born a new form of bowling delivery called “Bodyline” created by them.  The ball was bowled close to, or at, the batsman.

It was bowled towards the body of the batsman on the line of the leg stump, in the hope of creating leg-side deflections that could be caught by one of the several fielders in the quadrant of the field behind square leg.

The English wanted to reduce Bradman’s scoring, or get him out, but this dangerous bowling had actually led to a large number of serious injuries on the Australian team.

England won the series 3-1. But it made Australians bitter. And what followed was a huge protest that strained England-Australia relations. Soon cricket laws were revised and Bodyline bowling tactics were banned soon after the series.

An occasional short-pitched ball aimed at the batsman (called a bouncer) has never been illegal and is still in widespread use as a tactic. 

But a direct bodyline delivery is just not cricket, which is, after all, a gentleman’s game.

Big Data - Problem or Solution?

Information Indigestion.

One of my university professors who taught us Business Management used this term twenty-two years ago.

He was quoting from ‘Megatrends 2000’, a book by John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene, originally published in 1990.

Very soon - the professor had said - all of us will be suffering from ‘information indigestion’. 

And we students just thought of the enormous amount of information that we were then being bombarded with -- from the growing channels on Television and the growing number of books and magazines.

Sadly, that professor died in just three or four years from then.  He never got to see the growth of the Internet.  Or of the new ailment he mentioned.

I wonder what he would have thought of Google. A search engine which generates web-links pointing to so much data – on anything I ask for - that my entire life-span will not be enough to read, even, one-hundredth of what it offers.

For instance, now, I searched for the term ‘Information indigestion’ on Google. It tells me there are 8,820,000 results.

Imagine! That’s almost 9 million web pages! And, of course, it also proudly proclaims that it only took 0.28 seconds -- to tell me this.

Now, I must just trust Google’s algorithm, of listing the order of all those pages in the way I had wanted; with the most important ones, at the top. And so, I click on the first few links.

Keener researchers, I am sure, would spend hours and hours – clicking on many other links - collecting, comparing and contrasting the information obtained.  Eventually, I am sure, very often, they get confused.

It was Alvin Toffler who first coined the phrase ‘information overload’ in his celebrated work, ‘Future Shock’, published in 1970.  And everyone knows that Toffler had an amazing insight into the future. I remember reading about some bizarre predictions in that book which have all become real now.

According to IBM’s website, “Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data (that is 2.3 trillion Gigabytes) — so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone”!

“This data comes from everywhere: sensors used to gather climate information, posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos, purchase transaction records, and cell phone GPS signals to name a few. This data is ‘big data’”.

And IBM’s data scientists are working, like those of many other organizations, on the gigantic storage of files on database servers and knowledge base servers and are categorizing it for effective usage; and developing models to enable us to have faster access to user relevant data, information and knowledge.

Challenges include analysis, capture, data curation, search, sharing, storage, transfer, visualization, and information privacy.

Currently, volume, velocity, variety and veracity are the four Vs on the basis of which IBM’s ‘big data’ scientists are categorizing big data, and working on it.

We know, we are living now in critical times, and are told to generate less garbage, and to not pollute the earth.

I am sure the day is not very far when we will be told to generate less data, and to not pollute the cyber space.

Every picture we take, every status update we make, and every tweet we tweet, is just adding more and more junk to cyber space!

Even, this article. It just added 17 kilobytes.

Listening to Music. Changing forms

On June 8, when Apple announced it would launch its own streaming music service, it immediately shook up the big players of the music industry.

On June 30, Apple’s service will go live. And music lovers – especially the younger ones – are already agog with excitement.

Unlike streaming music from service providers like Pandora, Spotify, and Google Play Music - which is mostly available only within USA – Apple’s 24 x 7 streaming music will reach some 100 countries.

I am really not sure if Bahrain is one of them. But, if it is, people can register for a 3-month free-trial, and listen to the service on all Apple devices and personal computers. And pay $9.99 monthly after that.

Apple promises the same service to those with Android devices, by fall, this year.

Singer Taylor Swift created a storm this week by complaining that Apple – which had said it won’t pay artists during the trial-period – should pay. Apple relented, quickly.

In fact, a bit too quickly. Because, now, rumours are rife that Taylor Swift and Apple may have actually played a huge Public Relations gimmick.

That aside, personally, after having worked part-time on a radio station, playing western music for almost 8 years, during my twenties, I cannot resist giving my two-cents worth, on the changes I see.

When I passed the radio audition test, some 25 years ago, the radio station had put me, and the others with me, on a week-long training -- on how to correctly play the records from turn-tables, and how to cue those huge spools on the audio tape-decks.

On those – now, ancient – huge machines, we were also taught how to connect tape recorders, and other tape-decks, and how to dub dialogues and music, ensuring that music fades in and fades out without muffling the vocals - for our radio features and plays.

We had to manually use the knobs on sound-meters to ensure that decibel-levels are within normal hearing range.  And those huge transmission consoles with faders had no ‘pre-sets’.

They all seem primitive when I look at today’s studios with cutting-edge gadgetry for digital mixing.

Most importantly, however, after playing music records on our live shows, we had to write down, all the song titles, album names, and record-labels of companies, in a register.

This helped in the payment of royalties, by the radio station, to record companies, every time a song was aired.

By the time I left my part-time job at the radio station, things had changed. CD players had come in. And radio stations paid huge amounts to music companies for ‘complete broadcasting rights’; which meant no more payment for each song, every time it was aired.

Then came the ‘mp3 file’. And those tiny portable music players which made Sony Walkman look like Tyrannosaurus Rex.

And with mp3 files came  online peer-to-peer sharing of music; throwing intellectually property rights into a tizzy!

Napster, LimeWire, and Kazza are just a few names that were lambasted by music-makers for robbing their creativity.

If video killed the radio star, the new music and radio apps, now, killed the audio file-sharing websites.

CDs are almost gone. Downloading music is also passé. It is now the age of streaming music through apps now.

And whatever way we listen to music, I believe, the artists and music producers must get their due.

What Caused the Malaysian Earthquake?

Picture from BBC Website with thanks
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33090576

An earthquake occurred, on June 5, in Malaysia.  That is an undisputed fact.

It occurred because of ‘naked’ tourists.

This, however, is a debatable inference.

An inference which, I think, one must make, or take, with a pinch of salt.

Ten trekkers who stripped and posed nude on Mount Kinabalu - Malaysia’s highest peak - on May 30, are now being accused of angering sacred spirits up there.

Because, in less than a week after their stripping incident, a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck the region where the mountain stands.

The police identified five of the accused - and arrested at least two of them - to prevent them from leaving the country, after pictures spread on social media.

The arrests are made on grounds of obscenity and public nudity and, presumably, also to protect the tourists from some furious Malaysians.

The epicentre of this earthquake, which took 18 lives, is just 54 kilometres from Mt. Kinabalu. So, the anger of the tribal people who live around there, I believe, is somewhat justified.

Even though, I might agree, the logic and rationale for deducing the cause of the earthquake is somewhat out-of-place.

When one considers the fact that the tribes around there believe that their ancestors’ spirits inhabit Mount Kinabalu, one cannot easily rubbish their indignation.

When one considers the fact that this tourist group  - of six men and four women who took clothes off, for photos - was told by a tour-guide to stop stripping, and that the group's response was “Go to hell”, one cannot simply ridicule the Malaysian resentment.

Going starkers  on mountain top - stripping off from even their bare necessities - may seem unusually liberating and powerfully exhilarating to certain passionate mountain climbers.

But it reeks of completely irreverence, and utter insolence. Especially to those who’ve grown accustomed to honouring that mountain-place.

Connecting the stripping of clothes to the occurrence of the earthquake may seem completely weird and absolutely unscientific.

But so does the bizarre obsession of some -- to take off their clothes, click a few nude-pictures and share them online!

Serves them right, is what some people are saying. They should know how to respect the Malaysian culture, some others are saying.

Angering ancient spirits evokes dangerous phenomena, like these earthquakes, say some spiritists who still thrive among us.

It took my thoughts to an old 1969 western ‘MacKenna’s Gold’, which I had recently watched again.

In that movie, the Apache believe that hidden in "Canyon del Oro" is a fortune in gold, guarded by Apache spirits which should not be angered.

The greed of the white men, and of the younger generation of Apache, eventually makes the Apache spirits to cause an earthquake. Or that is what we are led to assume.

But let us come back to the topic in the news. Of those Malaysian courts deliberating now on the fate of the arrested ‘nudists’.

And while we are at it, it may be a good time for us to revisit the old wisdom -- of respecting others’ cultures and belief systems. Even if they are not in line with ours.

Today, we have begun to embrace freedom and welcome individuality to such extremes that, sometimes, accommodating to conservative sentiments has become intolerable.

We have grown to mock traditionalism to such extremes that we are overlooking the dangers of irresponsible liberalism.

Despite globalization, and widespread knowledge and wisdom, it must be understood that cultures are significantly different.

And what is good for the geese need not always be good for the gander.

...

Vacation Unplugged

“The US is the only advanced economy that does not require employers to offer paid holidays or time off.”

“Not even a single US state has a paid-vacation law on the books."

The above lines are from an article by Jack Dickey  in the latest issue of TIME (1 June 2015) ,  titled “Save the Vacation.”

So, is the ‘lack of paid-leave’ in USA a thing that people of US need to be proud of? Or guilty of?

That's a question only they can answer.

But ‘being overworked is the main reason Americans say they skip vacation’ – or at least for what they put money aside for - according to Dickey’s well researched article.

Being overworked, to skip vacation? Is it not like saying you are too tired to sleep?

The article, however, has such an overwhelming backup of statistical analyses and inferences, that you will be, well, overwhelmed.

Now, here in Bahrain, as the mercury rises, undoubtedly, there are plans made by many – especially the expatriates – to run off to cooler climes.

With schools and universities closed during July and August, it is usually a huge rigmarole for many us, to try and convince our bosses, particularly those of us in private establishments, to let us match our vacation with our children’s.

And our bosses hem and haw, shrug their shoulders, roll their eyes, look towards heaven, and make all such gestures that would delight a body language analyst, but ultimately, grudgingly, reluctantly, they concede to our requests.

They have to. They must. They can’t say no. After all, it is the law. Annual vacation, I mean. Not its matching with children’s.

Most foreigners, here are on contracts, have guaranteed paid-leave after every two years, if not after every year. And most Bahrainis have one month paid-leave that is statutory.

So, in a way, those of us working here, enjoy a slightly better vacation situation than those in the USA.

But the real question, I think, is not whether you are lawfully privileged to enjoy a vacation but whether you are happily engaged, in enjoying one.

In these days of constant connectivity, are you really switched off? Away from your office mail, and away from that office interaction, while on vacation? That is the question.

According to TIME’s article, 61 per cent of employed vacationers in America say they plan to do minor work-related tasks during their vacation. 38 per cent will be emailing, 32 per cent accessing office files, 30 per cent receiving and making calls and at least 24 per cent texting.

But will that not kill the very purpose of a vacation? Is not the “break” a time to go and come back, refreshed and rejuvenated?

That is why some companies in US – which can afford it – are telling their employees to go on a vacation; and even giving them incentives.

While we may not get incentives, we must be glad that we can go, and make the best of what we get when we go.

While we cannot completely unplug ourselves from work,  I think, we must try to disconnect from work-related tasks when we can.  By effective planning, and bold delegation.

“A six month vacation, twice a year,” is a mere fantasy.

But “a one month vacation, once a year,” is a real luxury to some.

The Three Queens

One of the most spectacular things I have seen this week – on television, and then on YouTube – was the turning of the Three Queens.

On 24 May, three huge ships of the renowned Cunard cruise line, ‘Queen Mary 2’, ‘Queen Victoria’ and ‘Queen Elizabeth’, sailed into Liverpool, one behind the other, and then made an amazing  synchronized 180 degree turn. Bow to Stern.

Thousands of onlookers watched the event, live, standing there, on either sides of River Mersey in Liverpool, United Kingdom.

But people like me had to be content watching the pictures and videos available online.

For three of the world’s largest cruise vessels to sail in a majestic array, to stop mid-river in a straight line,  and then to slowly turn around - all three ships at the same - it must have required a tremendous amount of planning and coordination.

The humongous size of the ships makes  the turning very slow and very hard to coordinate.

But if you watch a time lapse video of the same, in fast motion, available on YouTube, you would definitely deem it a daunting display. A splendid  spectacle.

The fleet commodore and his teams showed the world a marvellous  marine manoeuvre.

It is a fitting feat, I think, to mark the 175th anniversary of the Cunard Cruise Line. A company which, for almost two centuries gave each of its sea traveller, an experience of their life time.

When Samuel Cunard the founder was awarded the first British trans-Atlantic steamship mail contract, and founded the company in 1840, he probably never thought how shipping will change.

His first ships were built to mainly transport mail and cargo, apart from a few passengers.  But today, Cunard’s pleasure cruises are among world’s most sought after.

Apparently, in 1840, when the company's first steamship, the ‘Britannia’, sailed from Liverpool in Britain  to Halifax in Nova Scotia and then, on to Boston, Massachusetts, there was Cunard and just 63 other passengers on board.

Today, ‘Queen Mary 2’ alone can take in 2,620 passengers.  ‘Queen Elizabeth’ has a capacity of 2,058 and ‘Queen Victoria’, 2,014.

At the time of her construction, ‘Queen Mary 2’ was the longest passenger ship ever built, but she lost the distinction to Royal Caribbean's ‘Freedom of the Seas’ in April 2006; which too was soon overtaken by yet another other ship.

Today, ‘Oasis of the Seas’ of Royal Caribbean, is the world’s largest cruise ship, which can accommodate  – hold your breath – 5,400 passengers!

But coming back to Cunard Line,  we must know that it is now a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc.

And Carnival – which has about 9 different cruise line brands, including  Cunard – currently commands a  market share of 48 per cent of world cruise passengers, and 42 per cent of cruise market revenue.

“Cruise Market Watch” website says that, worldwide, the cruise industry has an annual passenger compound annual growth rate of 6.55% from 1990 - 2019.

But, did you know this? All the cruise ships in the entire world filled at capacity all year long still only amount to ‘less than half’ of the total number of visitors to Las Vegas, annually.

These Three Queens, today, may be great. But I still think, the world owes a lot to three other ships, which changed history.

They are ‘Pinta’, ‘Nina’ and ‘Santa Maria’, in which Christopher Columbus and his crew made the first notable trans-Atlantic journey.

Dear Jeans, Happy Birthday!

“Don’t wear skinny jeans, if you don’t have skinny genes.”

This axiom, you will agree, contains a good deal of truth.  Especially because, very often, our desire to wear something might be in direct contrast to the bodies we possess to carry that ‘something’ off.

Millions will admit looking into their wardrobes and wondering why they can’t fit into those jeans again; in which they had once looked good.

The blame rests not necessarily on the genes acquired, but also on the calories consumed.

“It's a recipe for disaster when your country has an obesity epidemic and a ‘skinny jean’ fad”, said an amusing e-card I stumbled across on Internet.

Immediately, the country that came to my mind was the country where ‘jeans’ was first patented; and from where, this wear, spread everywhere.

Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis were granted the United States official patent for copper-riveted jeans on May 20, 1873.

So, “Wish Your Blue Jeans a Happy 142nd Birthday”, says a latest TIME magazine article.

If you do that today, I think, you would be two days late. But you might still be interested to know that by the 100th anniversary of the patenting of ‘Blue Jeans’, USA was already producing 450 million yards of denim annually.

And the global denim fabric production, in 2006 alone, was over 2.7 billion metres.

About blue denim, Fortune magazine has this to say: “the garment has fit the thighs of miners, farmhands, cowboys, rebels, hippies, rockers, hip-hop artists, fashionistas and businesspeople alike. Even Apple founder Steve Jobs adopted them.”

When President Barack Obama threw the opening pitch at a Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 2009,  the commentators spent more time discussing his jeans, than the game.

Of course, I exaggerate.  But Obama went on record then, saying, “The truth is, generally I look very sharp in jeans.”

That is why songs of praises, of jeans, abound in pop culture. “Forever in Blue Jeans” by Neil Diamond, and “Jeans On” by Keith Urban are my personal favourites.

I remember how I pestered my parents for blue jeans, when I was in High School; and got that grand ‘Wrangler’ pair which had thrilled me no end.

Later, at college, it was my third pair of jeans, I think, which still brings back a painful memory.

In Chemistry Lab, one day, I was holding a beaker with some concentrated sulphuric acid, when a friend knocked me over, accidentally.

The beaker broke, the acid spilled, the desk burnt, my legs burnt, and my new blue jeans was completely ‘hole’d.

Thanks to the thickness of the denim, my thighs did not get burnt a lot. For me, then, the pain of my damaged-jeans was actually more, than that of my singeing skin.

When they realized what could have happened if my pants had been of normal fabric, my parents were, obviously,  glad they had given-in to my demands for jeans.

But, that aside, what is true is this.

Whether you wear a boot cut or a flare leg, a slim fit or a low rise,  a dirty wash or a stone wash,  a skinny one or a stretch one, these jeans are here to stay.

The thick blue denim has weathered time, for over 142 years now.

And, I am sure, it will not ride into the sunset – on the thighs of some guy, with a girl - any time soon.

Women and US Presidency

The New York Times carried an article this week, titled “Who Is Running for President (and Who’s Not)?”

And among the six Republicans and two Democrats that it mentions, as ‘definitely running’ for their parties’ 2016 US presidential nomination, are two women.

Only two. But that could be a record in itself.

Hillary Clinton the Democrat, and Carly Fiorina the Republican, will now be vying for a nomination as presidential candidate, from within their respective parties.

But of course they must, first, battle it out with mighty men inside, in order to win their party’s favour and nomination.

Hillary Clinton, we have seen, was unable to win her party’s ticket for Presidency in 2008, losing to her party colleague Obama.  But  she is now bravely going at it again.

Her legal background, and her role as the former Secretary of State could play in her favour, but Obama’s questionable policies and controversial performance could work against the whole Democratic party itself.

Eight years ago, when I briefly taught a management course, for a Canadian distance education university, I used to give as example, the leadership style of the then world’s highest paid female business executive.

She had become well-known for a huge HP-Compaq merger, during a time when PC and printer industries were riding on the crests. Her name? Carly Fiorina.

During her tenure as CEO of Hewlett Packard, from 1999 to early 2005, HP's revenue nearly doubled, rising to $87 billion, from $44 billion.

Of course, it may be the HP-Compaq merger that made the numbers grow, and not necessarily her skill. But she should be credited for brokering the deal.

The deal was aimed at beating IBM, then the world’s largest PC maker. And then, predictably, IBM saw where its business was going, and sold its PC division in 2004 to Lenovo. And focused on its more lucrative services and consulting units. But that’s another story.

Now, Carly Fiorina is saying, “I think I’m the best person for the job because I understand how the economy actually works.”  Maybe, her confidence reflects her 'learnings' from life.

But will the major parties think it is finally time for a woman to become their nominee for Presidency? That is the big question now.

No woman has ever won the nomination of ‘a major party’ in the history of U.S. presidential elections.

I remember, in 1984, how the world went gaga over Geraldine Ferraro becoming the first female vice presidential candidate ever to represent a major US political party.

A woman wanting to be, even,  a Vice President of USA was unthinkable then.

Much water has flown under the bridge in the last 30 years, since Geraldine Ferraro  and her running mate, the presidential candidate Walter Mondale, had lost the elections to Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush.

But did any other woman become a Vice Presidential nominee, from either of the two major parties, since then? No.

Did any woman become a major party’s  Presidential Nominee? No.

We must acknowledge, however, that in 1872,  Victoria Woodhull becoming the first female candidate for President of the United States.

But  her People's (Equal Rights) Party was not a major party, and as she did not get enough votes. And she is hardly recognized, even though she was the first woman to open a bank on Wall Street.

Now, it would be a extremely shocking and very interesting if both women become their respective party’s nominees. And make it clear for us that 2016 will see a female as POTUS.

Emoji - World's New Expressions

The expressions of a human heart, sometimes, need more than mere words.

Which is why, when texting, we add a smiley,  a frowny, a winky, a heart, a kiss, or a thumbs-up sign.  

And, of course, flower-bouquets, birthday-cakes, applauding hands, wine-glasses and party-confetti. 

Thanks to ‘emoji’, the wonderful pictograms now available on our mobile phone keyboards, we can now express and impress better.

So, how is the world using these emoji? That is what, SwiftKey, a British App developer company, thought, and conducted a strange new research.

After analysing over 1 billion pieces of emoji data taken from communications made in 16 different languages, they found out some silly, some not-so-silly, and some very startling, facts.

For instance, Australians love to use emoji related to alcohol and drugs. It looks like there, down under, lies a strange fascination among jumping joeys, to be under the influence!  Of emoji, I mean.

Canadians scored highest in categories associated with violence and money, loving the gun and cash! They probably hope that dollars - and not just maple leaves - grow on trees.

Russians, interestingly, used three times as much romantic emoji than the average!  It shows that even if their President doesn’t, well, ‘put in’ much emotion, they still do.

And guess what Arabic speakers used, four times the average? 

Flowers and plants! Yes. Perhaps, living in dry desert areas, the yearning for the flora is probably understandable. 

French, however, is the only language where the famous ‘smiley’ is not number one! They used ‘heart’ four times more than in other languages.

I am not surprised. After all, French hearts are known to beat faster when it comes to love, beauty and relationships. 

Which, brings me to my point; that these emoji, help in strengthening relationships.

Our relationships, I believe, are more online and more virtual now than in all the years that have gone by. And we will be, inevitably, unavoidably, more and more connected, in days ahead.

And the best thing is, we have conquered Distance! And, in a way, even Time.

And though our families and friends are dispersed, all over the world, much more than our earlier generations, we can still communicate with them almost instantly. And these emoji help a lot.

We can say “yes, I like it and I am fine with it”, with just one piece of emoji - a thumbs up sign. 

We can say “I love it a lot” with a heart. If we love it more, we can add more hearts. If we love it even more, we can add, even more hearts in many different colours.

We can send a kiss, we can send a hug, we can send a frown, and well, we can even send a big round of applause without typing a single word! And, a picture, we know, is worth a thousand of them.

I am sure some love stories, in history - like that of  Napoleon and Josephine or of  Queen Victoria and Prince Albert - missed out on the text-romance that current youth have access to. 

If those people, then, had drawn flowers on paper, and put crushed rose petals in envelopes, we can, now, just click on the emoji key, and send the same. 

Anyway, good care must still be taken! Because, if people winked in real life as much as they do while texting, the world would be a pretty creepy place. ;-)

No Job? Pay a Penalty!

Do you have a job?

 

No?

 

Then, get ready to pay a penalty.

 

That is exactly what a new decree, by President Alexander Lukashenko of the country of Belarus, wants from Belorusian citizens.

 

I found it interesting and amusing that, with this decree signed on April 2, this European country – which was once a soviet socialist republic – is imposing fines for being unemployed. 

 

Apparently, this is done to reduce ‘social parasites’ living on the state budget, without contributing to the economy.

 

This decree makes two assumptions.

 

One, that the country has full employment, and anybody seeking gainful employment will definitely get a job.

 

Two, that by penalizing those who are not actively working, the government can get everyone to work.

 

But let me tell you what came to my mind, first, when I heard the news.

 

I thought of many people who are actually ‘employed’, but do not do any real work.

 

I thought of many government employees who go to work, but only to twiddle their thumbs.

 

Of course, I know I am guilty of making a sweeping generalization here. But you will agree that this phenomenon is not endemic to any particular country.

 

Across the globe, government employees are known to have jobs that are more secure, pay-packets that are more thicker, and bank statements that are more credit-worthy, than those of the average citizens. And yet, they are known to put in much lesser work. 

Anyway, back to Belarus. This country is confident, I thought. In fact, so confident that it is ready to penalize the lazy, freeloaders, who are greedily munching into the state’s treasury.

 

I found out later, however, that this could be just a small part of a huge political game-plan.

 

According to a report in Belarus Digest published on 8 April, “The pre-election campaign programme of Alexander Lukashenka in 2010 claimed that by 2015 “everyone will be guaranteed a job”.

 

And according to official statistics, the Belorussian authorities have gotten pretty close to reaching their prescribed goal over the past two years. 

Officially, as of 1 March 2015, “Only 0.8% of Belorussians are officially registered as being unemployed”.

 

However, a study - published by the IPM (Institute for Privatization and Management) Research Centre, Minsk, Belarus - predicts that “Unemployment in Belarus of 8-9% may be just around the corner”.

 

So why did the President come out with this strange decree? 

You don’t need to be a political analyst to know that the decree hopes to give an impression that the president delivered what he promised. Jobs for all. And also that, by not taking up jobs, it is the lazy, freeloaders who are among the causes for bad economy.

 

Very clever. But I suspect that this soviet-style attempt, as it is being touted, to crack down on tax evaders, and people working in sectors of the economy outside of state control, will not work.

 

I agree that, in many countries, unemployment benefits could be a huge strain on the economy. But if ‘the state’ does not help the jobless, who will?

 

Despite budgetary constraints, and despite the fact that some lazy, ‘social parasites’ might take advantage of the benefits, I strongly believe, that it is the state’s role to not only provide jobs, but also to protect those who do not have jobs.

 

And, I believe, in many countries, it is in fact the huge budgets allocated for government employees that cause more damage. 

Typhoons. Names and Categories.

The images and videos of Typhoon Maysak, taken from the International Space Station, on Tuesday, were simply breath-taking.

Posted on Twitter by Sam Cristoforetti, the Italian woman-astronaut living on ISS from November 2014 - and who will probably be living there till May 2015 – the images of the typhoon show us an enormous area of a swirling mass over Western Pacific; And, thereby, also the astonishing power of nature.

Ready to wreck Easter festivities, Typhoon Maysak’s eye is expected to make a landfall in Philippines, on the island of Luzon, late Saturday or Sunday morning.

Interestingly, the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center which had given Maysak the prefix of ‘super’ on Tuesday afternoon, lowered its status on Thursday.

‘Super Typhoon Maysak’, is now downgraded to ‘Typhoon Maysak’ because the wind-speeds have lessened, and the storm has grown weaker. Which is a good thing. But it is still a Category 4 Hurricane.

A Category 4 hurricane, by the way, has wind-speeds of 209-251 km per hour (or 130-156 miles per hour). This, you will notice, is more than double the speed allowed, even for vehicles, in Bahrain.

The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale is, actually, a 1 to 5 rating based on a hurricane's sustained wind-speed. And hurricanes rated Category 3 and higher, can cause extensive damage to property and life.

Of course, hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are all the same. Storms.

If in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, it is a “hurricane”, in Northwest Pacific, it is a “typhoon”, and the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, a “cyclone”.

As different oceanic regions experience different ‘storm seasons’ in any given year, it is in fact convenient for us that the title and the name, can help us understand them faster.

Is it not interesting that the names of storms are, actually, already decided for the next few years?

And that in some oceanic regions, the countries in the region, contribute to the naming of storms?

For Atlantic storms, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) uses, six lists of names in the alphabetical order as they occur in a calendar year.  The lists are used in rotation. They are re-cycled every six years. Which means the 2014 list of names will be used again in 2020.

Male and female names are now alternately used. But only from 1978.

Earlier, originally, from 1953, the US weather service used only women's names from A to W, leaving out Q, U, X, Y and  Z. But following protests by women's liberation bodies in 60's and 70's, male names began to be used from 1978, alternately with female names.

The only time that there is a change in these lists is when a storm is so deadly or so costly that the future use of its name would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity. The names would be retired.

Names such as Katrina (USA, 2005), Mitch (Honduras, 1998), Tracy (Darwin, 1974) and Haiyan (Philippines, 2013) are all retired.

Super Typhoon Haiyan, in November 2013, had killed more than 6,000 people and injured more than 27,000 others, when it hit Tacloban in Philippines.

Now, as Typhoon Maysak is getting ready to wreak havoc on another part of Phillipines,  officials are evacuating coastal areas where tsunami-like storm can surge 10 feet high.

Frankly speaking, except heeding to early warning systems and leaving the places on which nature’s fury might soon be unleashed, as humans, often, we really cannot do much.

One Direction Goes in Two Directions

The top trending phrase on twitter, worldwide, on Thursday afternoon was this: #AlwaysInOurHeartsZaynMalik.

Also trending were other hash-tag words  #ByeZayn and #TwoDirections, with millions of posts on Twitter and Facebook; all about that shocking news that hit the world of tweens.

Twenty-two year old Zayn Malik’s departure from One Direction, the boy band that rocked the first half of 2010s, caused enormous, almost seismic, upheavals in the social media world yesterday.

If asked about 1D’s band members, the only member’s name I would remember – and, I am sure, any average adult would remember - is the name of Zayn Malik.

And when this central piece on the board goes away, how can the game go on? That is the question many devastated young girls, tweens and teens, around the world are asking.

His statement to media on Wednesday, however, was this: “I am leaving because I want to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight”.

Three or four years years ago, I still remember how excitedly my daughter, who had just turned eleven then,  said to me that she and her friends are now ‘Directioners’.

I had corrected her and said it should be “Directors” because there is no such word as “Directioners”.
She had quickly retorted, “You don’t know anything! My friends and I love the band One Direction, and its fans are called ‘Directioners’”.

I was introduced thus, to this boy band, which in 2010, after finishing third on ‘The X Factor’, signed-up with Simon Cowell's record label Syco Records.

The band’s four albums saw incredible international success, thanks to social media which accelerated their rise to stardom.

And it is the same social media, I suspect, that eventually broke them up.

Even before he tweeted, seven days ago, 'I'm 22 years old... I love a girl named Perrie Edwards”, rumours were rife about his relationship which had had many of his female fans angry.

On social media, where  fans have access to everything that their idol says, and vice versa - in real time - it could be dangerous.

When you can see instant reactions, and when your friends, family and colleagues tell you what to share and what not to share, you could become highly stressed.

Now, there’s hate stuff on that girl too. Perrie Edwards is being compared to Yoko Ono, the love-interest of late John Lennon, who is still blamed for the break-up of The Beatles.

Anyway, from Beach Boys and Beatles of the 1960s to Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync, of the 1990s, we know that boy-bands, like many other bands do break up. But some individuals go on to become even more successful.

Even girl-bands like Spice Girls broke up, and members went on to make hugely successful solo careers.

But what is clear is this. In this age of social media where instant two-way communication between idols and their fans is possible, the pressures can be too much for young celebrities.

It can even push them over the edge evoking eccentric behaviour, like what we see from Miley Cyrus and Justin Beiber.

Zayn Malik has an incredible voice and a vast fandom to reign on. And he’s probably done the right thing by calling it quits when the pressure became too much.

One Direction now has gone in two directions.

But, I believe, Zayn Malik’s solo career – if he handles social media effectively - can go in just one direction. Upwards.

Need for New Capitalism

Currently, just 80 richest people in the world have wealth equal to that of 50% of the global population.

By next year, 1% of the world’s population will own more wealth than the other 99%.

These startling statistics are from a research by Oxfam, published in January 2015.

1,826 Global Billionaires are worth $7.05 trillion (Forbes, 3 Feb 2015), which is just a little less than the combined 2013 GDP of Japan ($4.9 trillion) and Germany ($3.7 trillion)!

So, we can just gape at the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots, and start debating about the world’s free market economies, and if they are really working towards reducing income inequalities.

On Monday, I stumbled on a funny news item. Apparently, in London, in the heart of St. James, a group of hippies occupied a building to protest against the evils of capitalism.

You will ask, what is funny about it? Well, it was the wrong building. The office they went to, to hoist their banners, had shifted to a new location many months ago.

And anyway, ‘hippies’? In these days?

They seem to be living in a wrong age, too! But I think they are right - at least partly - in protesting against capitalism.

We have come to accept that if the means of production is largely, or entirely, privately-owned and operated for profit, then it is a boon.

But it turns out to be a bane. We see that private property, capital accumulation, and competitive markets are making the rich richer, leaving the poor behind.

Is that a problem?

Well, look at this. An article I read (The Economist, 3 Jan 2015) starts this way: “In the next 40 years, humans will need to produce more food than they did in the previous 10,000 put together.

“But with sprawling cities gobbling up arable land, agricultural productivity gains decreasing, and demand for biofuels increasing, supply is not keeping up with demand. Clever farmers, scientists and entrepreneurs are bursting with ideas. But they need money to make this jump”.

Who has that kind of money to invest?

Of course, we know who has the money. But we also know that they may not see a good return on investment here. And if they do see, how much will they take, or make?

Is 'Wealth maximization' from the perspective of Capitalism really going on that well? 

Communism, which has fallen in most of Europe, with the end of the cold war and Soviet Union’s  disintegration, still thrives in countries like China and North Korea. But in a new capitalistic form.

Despite trumpeting itself as the bastion of capitalism, we have seen USA bailing out private enterprises like American Insurance Group and General Motors, in billions. State intervention in a free market economy!

Obamacare, and his new promises to fund college education, show us how that  sometimes market economies will be forced to play the role of welfare states in a socialistic form.

‘Neo-Capitalism’ which had risen in 1960s  as a social theory blending both capitalistic and socialistic ideologies, saw some growth with many governments choosing to privatize public institutions in a phased manner, but did not catch up.

But, frankly, with no good alternative economic system in sight, our answer could be in ‘Creative Capitalism’ for now.

Bill Gates who is once again the richest man on the planet in 2015 says in a Harvard Business School article: "Creative Capitalism” is an approach where governments, businesses, and non-profits work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or gain recognition, doing work that eases the world’s inequities. 

A Memorable Musical

When the musical that taught us “Do-Re-Mi…” turned 50 this week, there was much celebration in the world of entertainment.

We know that good music featured in most Hollywood productions of the 50s and 60s, but the success that ‘The Sound of Music’ saw, remains unmatched. Very few movies have made as lasting an impact as this one did.

Among the last two generations, I am sure, at some point of their lives, many parents would have beamed with pride – or recall their parents beaming with pride – as they watched their children shyly perform ‘Do-Re-Me’ to some living room audiences.

We don’t know if Salzburg’s hills are alive with the sound of music now, but in our minds, the movie will remain among a few of our favourite things.

We may not know how to solve a problem like Maria, but we know that this guitar-wielding, music-loving postulant at the Nonnberg Abbey had had that confidence in confidence alone.

The film - based on the true story of Maria Von Trapp – not only gave us a beautiful tour of the green vales and hills of Austria and Swiss Alps, but also showed us the struggles of a wannabe nun caught in a moral dilemma – whether to choose the love of this world, or the glory of the other.  

To choose between the widowed Captain - with seven children - and her long-time decision to become a nun, must have been very tough.

Interestingly, however, in her memoir called ‘The Story of the Trapp Family Singers’ the real Maria Von Trapp whose role Julie Andrews played, said this: "I really and truly was not in love. I liked him but didn't love him. However, I loved the children, so in a way I really married the children. I learned to love him more than I have ever loved before or after."

Released on March 2, 1965 – and shot for a little over $8 million – the film is today third on the list of Hollywood blockbusters, with a staggering $1.2 billion in ticket sales, when adjusted for inflation. That is an estimate from Fortune Magazine.

I believe, however, that the real worth of this movie can never ever be effectively quantified.  

For example, the city of Salzburg in the last fifty years has grown into a major tourist destination in Austria, mainly due to ‘The Sound of Music’. Can we estimate the employment it must have generated in the tourism industry there?

Also, millions of long-playing records, cassette tapes, VHS tapes, CDs and DVDs of this movie and its music must have been sold in the last half-century. Can we estimate the collective worth?

Those spirit-uplifting melodies and those eye-soothing locales – not to mention the powerful historical backdrop of the Third Reich – have definitely contributed to increased knowledge and mental well-being of those who watched and listened? Can we ever estimate that special feel-good factor?

This fifty year old movie still delights and excites children and families in ways that current movies cannot.

No wonder, a restored version of ‘The Sound of Music’ is being planned for a re-release in more than 500 U.S. theatres in April.

So, the movie-makers should know. The movie’s time is not done yet.  And they cannot say: “So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye! 

Losses at Oscars

Bradley Cooper did not win an Oscar.

Even, this year. Though he’s had four Academy Award nominations so far.

But let us forget Bradley Cooper’s bad luck. What about Kevin O’Connell’s?

What? You don’t know him?

Well, this poor bloke is the "unluckiest nominee in the history of Academy Awards".

Despite 20 Oscar nominations, for sound-mixing, Kevin O’Connell never won a single Oscar.

Just imagine his expectations as he goes on to that red carpet, year after year. Imagine his heartbeats increasing when they announce the nominees for best sound mixing. And then imagine how he feels when they say, “And the Oscar goes to….” and announce one of his contenders’ names.

Yes. Imagine your work getting snubbed by the jury, twenty times, even though you worked on some of the best films ever, including those that went on to win ‘Best Picture’ Oscars.

Just look at his nominations. Terms of Endearment (1983), Top Gun (1986) A Few Good Men (1992),  Twister (1996), The Rock (1996), Con Air (1997), The Mask of Zorro (1998), Armageddon (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001),  Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Apocalypto (2006), and Transformers (2007). Phew!

The Academy Awards jury had always attracted criticism. It always had a reputation for leaving out not only some great technical people, but also some great actors and films.

Richard Burton, for instance, went to his grave without ever getting to hold that little statuette on stage.

In fact, his much-acclaimed, career-best performance  in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" was completely overlooked by the jury. But two of his co-stars in the same film, Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis won the Best Actress and the Best Supporting Actress awards respectively.

Burton actually received seven nominations for the Best Actor award. And never won.

Nor did Leonardo DiCaprio. Or Liam Neeson, Samuel L Jackson, Bruce Willis or Ian McKellen.

Now, take movies. When we put great ones against one another for the ‘Best Picture’ award, heartaches are imminent. Some win. Some lose.

'Citizen Kane' lost to 'How Green Was My Valley'. 'A Streetcar Named Desire' lost to 'An American in Paris'. ‘E.T.’ lost to ‘Gandhi’. "Midnight in Paris" lost to “The Artist”. An "Avatar" lost to "The Hurt Locker."  

Obviously, what people see and what the jury sees in the movies seem to be completely different.

James Cameron's "Avatar," is the highest-grossing film of all time, grossing over 2.8 billion dollars. But it had lost to "The Hurt Locker," which grossed only $49 million worldwide. Is that good judgement?

Even this year’s winner, “Birdman”, made only about $37 million in US ticket sales, but its competitor ‘American Sniper’ grossed a whopping $300 million in US ticket sales. Is that good judgement?

We don't know. The jury, we assume, considers a host of complex film production activities, in a much broader way that how you and I do.

The fact remains, therefore, that the Oscar awards will always make some people happy and some people very unhappy. But getting nominated will make everyone happy, according to Kevin O'Connell. 

Here is what he said when he received his twentieth Academy Award nomination - in 2007 for his work on “Transformers”: "If you could bottle up the way that I felt this morning when I found out I was nominated, people wouldn't buy drugs anymore because this is just the best thing on the planet."