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.