Do You Think Lady Gaga is Changing the Face of Celebrity Culture?



Can Lady Gaga make a difference and change the world for a better place when celebrities of our times from Lady Diana to Whitney Houston have been down the road, without much success? Perhaps, with the power of the social web behind them, Lady Gaga and other young celebrities can make a difference.


First sign that they may be able to make any positive change, is in this recognition by the establishment that it is time the enormous clout of social web, supported by modern technology, is reckoned with.

There is no other plausible reason to explain the acceptance of the top most educational institution of the world to act as the spring board for the Born This Way Foundation of Lady Gaga, named after her 2011 album and hit song, which promotes self-empowerment and has become an anthem for gay pride.

With 20 million followers on Twitter and sophisticated web technology enabling her to feel the pulse of her followers, Lady Gaga who had her own bitter experience and the support of other celebrities like Oprah Winery, could persuade Harvard to lent its name and backing to her cause and thereby gaining strong conviction among her millions of followers

Lady Gaga's new foundation is aimed at empowering young people to fight bullying

by promoting tolerance and acceptance and will be working with a new media agency to create a social media environment that fosters the foundation's goals.

Gaga spoke to more than 1,100 students from several states, faculty and invited guests at Harvard, urging the young audience to "challenge meanness and cruelty."

"I believe that if you have revolutionary potential, you must make the world a better place and use it," she said.

She reminded them that there is no law to make people be kind to one another and added: "I wish there was because, you know, I'd be chained naked to a fence somewhere trying to pass it."

Not surprisingly, the ideas of Lady Gaga resonate with more mature thinking and trends elsewhere like the acceptance of vulnerability in addressing the social issues, giving much hope that they are likely to strike a chord with the youth of the world.

For instance, Brené Brown, a research professor at the University Of Houston Graduate College Of Social Work, who spent years studies vulnerability, courage, authenticity, and shame addresses empowerment by posing the questions:

How do we learn to embrace our vulnerabilities and imperfections so that we can engage in our lives from a place of authenticity and worthiness? How do we cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection that we need to recognize that we are enough - that we are worthy of love, belonging, and joy?

For the Harvard University, the ultimate custodian of propriety, the enormous popularity alone is no reason to recognise and welcome a pop singer like Lady Gaga; the event has attracted criticism as a marriage of strangest of bed fellows.

But the willingness of the prestigious university to get involved with Lady Gaga has to with being in line with a new trend of including the phenomenon of the social web in to the knowledge base and accepting its social engineering clout, more than the brownie points it can add to its collection by associating with a very noble cause.



The invitation of another young artist to share his viral marketing success on the web with its faculty and students of another top notch business school, the IIM of Ahmedabad, where leading corporations of the world queue up to recruit the best business brains, is indicative of the trend and an example of the new found clout celebrities are acquiring from the social web.

With such active interest being taken by such leading institutions on the social engineering potentials of the social web and the support they are willing to lent to a new generation of coconscious achievers in the arts and sports, who are willing to extend a helping hand, there is hope that the celebrity culture, which revels in narcissistic and destructive escapades, will have a newer and kinder face.

There is evidence that as the notion and adulation of celebrities and the celebrity culture spread beyond the Oscars, Grammys and Hollywood in to the world outside, so do the new trends and values.

This has been demonstrated by Vidya Balan, a film actor from Bollywood who won the National award for the best actress of the year but chose to celebrate her success by visiting and addressing an unfortunate group of women who are victims of human trafficking.

Lady Gaga deserves to be applauded to be the one to show the way by putting her clout on the social web to promote her profession and a good cause.

Follow Sreedhar Pillai on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lastingrose
Monday, March 12, 2012
Posted by Unknown

Why Election 2012 Make Vladimir Putin Cry In Victory And Rahul Gandhi Smile In Defeat?


Putin's tears, which appeared as he announced hiselection victory as the new president of Russia, have become the but of several jokes. They have not certainly softened the cobble stones of the red square though they must have made his long gone mentor Lenin turn in his nearby mausoleum.
Honestly, Putin shouldn't have cried like a baby. Ex KGB agents do not shed tears after winning an election especially when it was rigged. The result of the Russian Presidential election was a foregone conclusion, and didn't matter for the rest of theworld, as evident from the reaction of world leaders and the poor coverage and attention it received as a non event. Around the world, Putin's tears are seen as nothing but crocodile tears.


Quick Poll

Do you think Putin's Tears Were For Real?

 
 
 
No one really knows why Putin burst in to tears and chocked for his words. There are several theories in circulation. But if they were indeed tears of national pride of the self appointed President of Russia, the fact that free and fair elections were held in a third world country should have brought a few drops of shame in the eyes of every patriotic and freedom loving Russian.
Well, if it is no longer politically correct to call India a third world country, it is all the more shameful for Russia to be democratically compared to another BRIC nation and placed in poor esteem.
Putin and other leaders who hate a free and fair democratic process have something to learn from Rahul Gandhi, the young leader of India, who has constantly shunned away from power his 160 year Congress party, which ruled India for most of the time after its Independence, wants him to take on.
If the election 2012 in Russia made Putin weep, despite his lack of intention to give up his iron grip on the lives of millions of Russians, the recent democratic elections in the largest state of India, Uttar Pradesh with a population of over 200 Million, brought smiles on the faces of millions of Indians proud about their democracy, especially of Rahul Gandhi, as he addressed a press conference to concede defeat and accept his share of responsibility.
In fact it should be Rahul Gandhi, who must be crying for the 'apparent' defeat and loss to his party in the recent elections! Though no one has a plausible explanation to the tears of Vladimir Putin, other than perhaps psychiatric explanations, there are plenty of reasons why Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party shouldn't be depressed at the outcome of the elections.
The hype and expectations built up around his campaign by the Indian media gave the impression that he is to be "blamed" for a loss he hasn't caused because in absolute terms he has managed to increase his party's vote share by 40%.

Though many observers agree that the hard work and efforts of Rahul Gandhi exposed and ousted the corrupt and inefficient government of Chief Minister Mayavati, the hard political reality on ground failed to turn the voter's discontent in to votes for his party.
Rahul Gandhi has been criticised, as an outsider campaigning in the state of UP couldn't effectively relate to the voters and couldn't be seen as one who is there to deliver on the promises.
Most of all, the Congress party, like its opponent BJP, failed to present a viable leadership and party structure to form a new state government the electorate could vote for, while a well established and regional Party, despite several corrupt and failed stints before, attracted a mass of negative votes.
However the main take away from the elections indicate that the conclusions from the electoral verdict were all logical, proving that the Indian electorate certainly has a mind and can apply it in casting its franchise.

- The dynamics of elections to the national parliament and the state assemblies are no longer the same and need to be played up on separately to gain election success.
- Much like the European Union, India is in fact a union of "federal" states, each with its own sense of independence, issues and politics of casts, religion and other factors of electoral balances.
- Diminished external threats and higher economic growth of the recent past has made "national" parties and their leadership less relevant to the state politics. 
- The "national" parties have failed to build the party structure and leadership to substitutes for the prominent leaders who migrated to a national leadership.
- Measures of the central government imposing quota for women in local governance has increased the active participation of women in politics and their influence in elections over issues which matter to them like corruption.

All of the above are indeed lessons, the largest democracy can be proud of and learn from and certainly make young leaders like Rahul Gandhi to deliberate on for evolving new strategies.
If Putin indeed believes he has the support he claims which brought tears to his eyes, he should be willing to hold a re-election free and fair for all to see. He can take a few lessons in real democracy from his BRIC partner.

Article first published as Why Did Election 2012 Make Vladimir Putin Cry In Victory and Rahul Gandhi Smile In Defeat? on Technorati.
Friday, March 09, 2012
Posted by Unknown

Please, For God’s Sake Don’t Call Engelbert Humperdinck Engelbert Hyperlink!




Mobile phones may have a problem in predicatively suggesting the name of Engelbert Humperdinck in text messages, but for millions who will miss Whitney Houston and her music, the name Engelbert spells magic and nostalgia.








The BBC has announced this morning that 75 year old Engelbert Humperdinck, once the heart throb of women around the world, will represent the United Kingdom in the Eurovision song contest, to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 26 May. Engelbert has stated that


"It's an absolute honour to be representing my country for this year's Eurovision Song Contest." "When the BBC approached me, it just felt right for me to be a part of an institution like Eurovision. I'm excited and raring to go and want the nation to get behind me!"




Engelbert Humperdinck, dubbed the "King of Romance", is best known for his 1967 hit Release Me, which kept The Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever off the number one spot.


For those who haven’t herd of this legendary singer who became famous for his crooning, Engelbert Humperdinck has received four Grammy nominations, a Golden Globe for Entertainer of the Year and is one of only a handful of artists with a star on both the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Las Vegas Walk of Fame.


"Release Me", his 1967 smash hit version of the 1950s country song was the one that started it all for Engelbert. "Release Me" was succeeded by two more hit ballads, "There Goes My Everything" and "The Last Waltz," earning him a reputation as a crooner.


As per the BBC, the song Humperdinck will perform for the Eurovision contest is yet to be announced but will be recorded in London, Los Angeles and Nashville.


It will be written by Grammy award-winning producer Martin Terefe and Ivor Novello winner Sacha Skarbek, who co-wrote James Blunt hit You’re Beautiful.


Arnold Dorsey who was born in Chennai, India to a British army officer, took his stage name Engelbert Humperdinck from a German composer best known for his opera Hansel and Gretel.


"I have such wonderful childhood memories of Madras. I like the sun, and my 10 siblings and I went from a big home in India to relatively modest surroundings in England, which can be so cold and grey. Life in England was tough initially, but then we settled down."


Engelbert is equally popular in India and a generation of Indians have reciprocal feelings about him. Engelbert was worshipped to the extent that the Konkani singers, Alfred and Rita Rose, named an offspring after him.


No Goan and Parsi event was complete without Engelbert's music. It was perfectly in sync for our weddings, dances, village socials and Sunday morning hops for the waltz, fox trot or dancing.


There is no doubt that even the “digital” generation around the world, especially in India will be thrilled to hear the “King of Romance” croon again even if they can’t get his name right!

Article first published as Please, For God̢۪s Sake Don̢۪t Call Engelbert Humperdinck Engelbert Hyperlink! on Technorati.

Why Are Italian Captains, Like Costa Cruise, Not The Flavour Of The Month?


The New Year so far had not been a lucky one for the Italian sea faring lot, especially the captains of the Italian vessels. First there was the Costa Concordia disaster, resulting in the death of several people which, many believe, could have been avoided by timely action of its captain Francesco Schettino and the Costa Cruise Company. In fact the scandalous behavior of the captain has gone in to the history books with his arrest on charges of his having caused the shipwreck
"owing to ... imprudence, negligence and incompetence" resulting in deaths, having abandoned about 300 people "unable to fend for themselves", and "not having been the last to leave" a shipwreck”
Even before the dust from the biggest disaster of the year so far has settled and the agony and pain from the disaster, with seven people still unaccounted, lingering for several families and their relatives, another Italian vessel, its captain and marines employed for its protection are embroiled in a International row on account of two unarmed fishermen from Kerala, a southern Indian State, who were shot dead on the high seas.
If the circumstances which lead to the Costa Concordia disaster were unbelievably insane, given the safety standard one would take for granted in the 21st century maritime life, the events which lead to the death of the two fishermen and the arrest of the Italian marines by the local police of an Indian state are right out of an exotic thriller.
Apparently the unbelievable incidence of shooting from a bobbing ship, killing precisely two unarmed persons in a bobbing and approaching boat, took place in broad daylight, in Indian waters at the orders of its captain!
The Italians claim that the ship and the pirates they shot at with warning shots away from targets, eventually thwarting the pirates and their boat from approaching the ship, were different from the boat and the fishermen who were killed.
Once again, an Italian Captain is in the centre of a controversy for lack of clarity and straight forward explanation of an in incident which has blown out of all proportions and grown in to a major international and diplomatic row between India and Italy.
So far, Italian ministers who have flown to India were unable to dissolve the issue which has become a maddeningly sensitive enough to upset the results of a local election, vital for the ruling congress party with stakes in the state and central government.
The incidence has also brought up severe lack of clarity as to the onus among the ship owners, the Italian navy and the Italian government regarding culpability of shooting and murdering innocent unarmed foreign nationals from Italian owned vessels in international waters.
To add further to the pain and lack of trust of the people of coastal Kerala , which look at the whole incidence with suspicion, another boat has been sunk in a collision with a ship, which has gone without reporting the incidence, killing two fishermen with three others missing.
When you consider the fate of the latest Costa Cruise vessel Costa Allegra, which went out of power supply and had to be towed from high seas, leaving its passengers with out food and other necessities for three days, it looks like the maritime diversions from life are certainly jinxed, at least for the Italian sea men!
Article first published as Why Are Italian Captains, Like Costa Cruise, Not The Flavour Of The Month? on Technorati.
Friday, March 02, 2012
Posted by Unknown

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