I hesitate to admit this, but I haven’t paid much attention to the huge (or what I perceive from across the pond as huge) Occupy Wall Street movement. I have read a few tweets about it and a few articles, but I am not fully aware of the impact it is having, if any. But one thing that has come to my attention is that some celebrities have supported the movement and some have profited from the movement.
Jay-Z’s Rocawear clothing line has started to produce “Occupy All Streets” shirts which is clearly based on the title of what some are referring to as the largest social justice movement of our generation. The only hitch here is that the company has no intention to share profits with the movement. Jay-Z earned $63 million last year, a grotesque amount of money considering the current economic state of the world, but I digress, yet still refuses to share profits. As a result of his “Scrooge” like tendencies, sculptor, Daniel Edwards, who supports the Occupy movement sculptured a totem pole which represents Jay-Z as the base topped by Mr. Burns from the Simpsons, Scrooge McDuck from Disney’s “A Christmas Carol” and Richie Rich.
The only remaining question now is should Jay-Z’s company share the profits from the shirt with the organizers of the movement?
Great news that Gavi (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation), revelling in the windfall it received at its funding conference in London earlier this year ($4.3bn, which is $600m more than it asked for)
I took this quote from a Guardian article, which focused on GAVI’s upcoming attempt to vaccinate girls in poor countries against cervical cancer. But my question is, in a global economy that is in distress, should we truly be excited that GAVI was given US$ 600 million more than they asked for? That is nearly $1 billion that they have been given but not planned for. With the upcoming Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, I think we need to ask how effective is this? Is there no other place this money could be channeled?
A few months ago I read an article in the NY Times about squid that engages in same-sex sex. The discovery of this squid with homosexual tendencies adds it to an ever growing list of hundreds of species that engage in same-sex sex, including bottlenose dolphins, albatrosses and giraffes. So I guess that means homosexuality is nature as opposed to nurture!
In general, I think that HDI is a great indicator for various social and economic aspects of individuals within countries and for comparison across countries. The unit of measure, conceptualized by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, takes into account life expectancy at birth, mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling, and GNI per capita. While I find HDI to be much more useful than GDP per capita, when looking at the indices, I was struck by the fact that the measurement does not take inequality into account by using GINI coefficients or another calculation with which to measure inequality. Without accounting for inequality, HDI simply offers a glimpse of what is possible in a country as opposed to what the reality is. While this may useful for a globetrotter looking for a country to settle down in, is this useful for policymakers?
In the 2011 ranking by HDI, I was most struck by the fact that the US was ranked number 4, beating out Sweden, Switzerland, and Denmark and many other highly developed countries. This ranking is what made me think about the uselessness of HDI indexes for policymakers. As an avid traveler and having visited Sweden and Switzerland and having lived in the US most of my life, I know for a fact that a poor person in the US is much much worse off than a poor person in Sweden. So I wondered how the US managed this ranking, thus realizing that it is a reflection of the potential within countries.
After a bit of research I found that in 2010, following criticism for a lack of inclusion of inequality measures, the Human Development Report began to include “inequality-adjusted HDI”. The IHDI takes inequality into account by using the Atkinson index. When taking into account inequality, the US falls to number 23 on the ranking of countries by IHDI. Seeing the Scandinavian countries all move in front of the US made me feel a lot more comfortable and confident in the fact that the IHDI is one of the better measures that we have to measure social and economic progress for people within and between countries.
For the last 36 hours the internet has been abuzz and at the top of the trending topics and google searches is one man, Kanye West. During Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards, Mr. West went on stage after they announced Taylor Swift’s name for the Female Video of the year. Now I will be the first to admit that when they announced Taylor’s name as opposed to Beyonce, Pink, or even Lady Gaga, I was twittering away about my surprise at the choice but none of us could have prepared for Kanye’s stunt. He climbed on stage during her speech and snatched the microphone away from her. He then proclaimed that Beyonce should have won. (please see the video clip below). While he was doing it I kicked out about five tweets, and about 20 minutes later, he was a trending topic.
Kanye’s Beyonce outburst mimicked everyone’s thoughts when they read Taylor swift’s name, fortunately or unfortunately, he was in the position and obviously inebriated enough to jump on stage and say it. I read some of the public tweets and there was talk of racism, with the n word being tossed around, lots of douche bags (The AntiPopBlog called him the Doucher of the Day), and a slew of other negative things that I thought were a bit over the top, but were all a reflection of how people felt nonetheless. While I thought what Kanye did was mean, I never felt like he was the devil or evil, or stealing candy from a baby as some tweets pointed out. Maybe I am heartless or maybe I just didn’t see it as a big deal. West later took to his website to issue an apology and did the same today as well.
Today proved to be one of Kanye’s worst days as a celebrity, sure but lucky for him he had a chance to redeem himself, in the form of Jay Leno’s premiere on which he was slated to perform with Jay-Z and Rhianna. Prior to the performance, Jay Leno brought out Kanye who requested a chance to speak. He was apologetic and based on his appearance, it was clear that he was sincere. Jay asked him how his mother would feel about it and his 20 second pause and struggle to hold back tears showed his sincerity.
I must say that I am kinda on Kanye’s side. As far as what he did to Taylor, it was rude, but in his defense, we were all thinking the same thing, he just had the balls to voice his opinion. And while its not an excuse, he had been sipping on Hennessey the whole night, starting from the red carpet.
I think when he sobered up and realized it didn’t go over as well as his drunk mind may have thought it would’ve, he sincerely apologized. So I suppose now the question becomes do we forgive this man who continues to act out? A man who lost his mother, who was one of his closest friends, and never took time to mourn. A man who is fed up with not being able to lead a private life when he wants to, as he is constantly hounded by paparazzi. A man who is egotistical and also emotionally unstable. How do we deal with him when he acts out? I honestly think we expect too much of celebrities. They are still people. They can be mean, they can be rude, they can be nice, then can be anything that someone in your everyday life is. We expect them to be perfect, but why? If we look at all of the deaths that have happened as of late, we can see what happens when celebrities are pushed to the limits, while they don’t deal with financial issues, such as job loss, and healthcare, they deal with things that most regular people cannot imagine. They end up addicted to drugs, they party too hard, and they act out in egotistical ways. Imagine not being able to do something as simple as going to Target. That is something Kanye can’t do and something Michael Jackson couldn’t do. Imagine how that could effect someone. When my ex put me on a pedestal I couldn’t stand it, imagine the whole world putting you on a pedestal. So while I feel bad for what happened to Taylor Swift during her special moment, nothing in me wanted to jump on the I Hate Kanye band wagon.
2 Days in Paris, is a movie that came highly recommended by many different friends. The movie is set in Paris and Adam Goldberg stars as Jack, the American boyfriend to Julie Delpy, who plays Marion, a French photographer, who was transplanted in NYC. After spending time in Venice, the couple head to Paris for two days on their way back to New York City.
Throughout the movie, there were various awkward moments and so much sarcasm it would make any cynic puke. While the infighting was charming at times, I couldn’t comb through it enough to find the love story. Jack is obsessed with the idea that Marion is a whore and Marion is obviously emotionally unstable and acts out at various random moments in the film. Her family, mom, dad, and younger sister are also a bit awkward. The four argue a bit too much and her father is a quirky artist who is a bit too obsessed with sex.
I usually can look at a movie objectively enough to see why someone would love and hate it, but this movie really just doesn’t do it for me. Perhaps its because the cynical love story taints Paris’ romantic backdrop. In fact, somehow the movie actually makes Paris less desirable. It makes it a drab city. One more akin to its gloomy neighbor, London as oppose to its romantic twin, Barcelona.
The most interesting part to me was their fight at the end, during which Marion’s monologue over their visual fighting, she proclaims, “And here it is, one more one less. Another wasted love story.” In this moment, I related to the movie and while I didn’t enjoy it, that line made the 96 minutes less of a waste of time.
Last month, South Africa’s Caster Semenya, who won the World Championship in Berlin, became the center of controversy when her gender came into question. The IAAF required her to undergo gender testing, after winning the race by a huge margin. I’m sure her deep voice and strong features didn’t help either. When I heard about the controversy I was very taken aback, because i never knew that athletic organizations did gender testing. How embarrassing. A number of specialists were called in and following testing, she returned to her native South Africa where she was well received as “our girl”.
Today reports show that Semenya is biologically a hermaphrodite. She has no womb or ovaries and has internal testes. So now the question becomes, does her win still stand? The IAAF is forwarding the results to experts for further testing, but I wonder if that is even necessary. Being a hermaphrodite is a medical condition that automatically sets you apart from the rest of society and I’m sure it comes with loads of psychological and emotional baggage and a lifelong feeling to fit in. When you find something you enjoy, such as track and field and you excel at that, who are we, as a society and the IAAF as an organization to take away from her happiness? She should be considered what she identifies as. If she does not identify as a man, surely you cannot expect her to run against men, and to disqualify her because of a medical condition that she cannot change seems illogical. So in a world that caters to a sort of normalcy, where does Ms. Semenya fit in?
Well that’s what Hillary Clinton would’ve said if she could’ve. During a recent press conference in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mrs. Clinton got a little upset when a Congolese student in the crowd asked for her husband’s opinion. It was later found out the the translator mixed things up and they actually wanted to know Obama’s thoughts. Hillary’s camp blamed her attitude on jet lag, riiiiiggghhttt.
Vicky Christina Barcelona is a charming and fanciful tale. A fantasy for all of those that dream of a romantic Europe. The story takes place against the backdrop of one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, Barcelona. The two main characters, Vicky and Christina decide to spend a summer in Barcelona. A summer that is going pleasantly well, becomes much more exciting and sexual when Juan Antonio Gonzales, an artist who paints as well as he charms, enters the scene. He convinces the girls to runaway with him for a weekend and from there the sexually, romantic, artsy tale takes flight. Constant wine drinking, bike riding, kisses, art, conversations about love, painting, and photography left me glued to the screen, swooning all the while imagining myself as a character.
About halfway through the movie, Penelope Cruz reemerges in yet another successfully romantic role. I am a fan of all of the roles that she plays and as Juan Antonio’s suicidal ex lover, she does not disappoint. She brings a gorgeous and deeply romantic touch to the movie. As a hopeless lover and obvious tortured soul, she adds drama.
With quotes such as “Love is transient” and “Only unfulfilled loved, can be romantic”, this movie left me fantasizing about my upcoming European travels, and even left me missing a certain someone who represented Juan Antonio in my life. The movie serves as a great influence of artistic creations, as I was left writing poetry immediately after.
Woody Allen, of whose films I am not an aficionado, does an excellent job making a believable story out of this girl’s European fantasy. Vicky Christina Barcelona is not only a must see, but it is a movie that all lovers of great films should own.
I talked to my mother on Monday, and one of the first things out of her mouth is “Be careful, the swine flu is going around. You and Keondra make sure you wash your hands.” We were dying laughing because it sounded pretty ridiculous. I have been reading headlines about the swine flu since I left the country, but I haven’t actually read any of the articles but the headlines have been enough and apparently the panic is increasing.
While the swine flu is spreading, I do think that we have to acknowledge the amount of sensationalism that is going on through the US media. While the swine flu is real it is only affecting a very small percentage of the population and it is very unlikely to be fatal. Headlines like yahoo news’ “Is swine flu the ‘big one’?” just seem a bit unnecessary. So people, wash your hands but no need to start counting down the days until swine flu causes the extinction of the human race.
Jay-Z’s Rocawear clothing line has started to produce “Occupy All Streets” shirts which is clearly based on the title of what some are referring to as the largest social justice movement of our generation. The only hitch here is that the company has no intention to share profits with the movement. Jay-Z earned $63 million last year, a grotesque amount of money considering the current economic state of the world, but I digress, yet still refuses to share profits. As a result of his “Scrooge” like tendencies, sculptor, Daniel Edwards, who supports the Occupy movement sculptured a totem pole which represents Jay-Z as the base topped by Mr. Burns from the Simpsons, Scrooge McDuck from Disney’s “A Christmas Carol” and Richie Rich. 
diJESSt this 
